ODDS AND ENDS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 78, 7 August 1869, Page 5

ODDS AND ENDS.

Something like a Wife.— Very recently the ship Chieftain reached this port from Calcutta, having been safely piloted across two stormy oceans by a woman. Captain Maguire was prostrated with fever at Calcutta, and was unable to assume command, and the mates were inexperienced and incompetent ; but his wife, who accompanied him, took his post, and filled it bravely. She made all the observations herself. She kept the log-book. She was on deck at all hours of the day and night. She watched the barometer. She noted ' the shifting clouds and varying breezes. But in the midst of her multiform duties she was unremitting in her attention to her husband. In the sick chamber she was soft, soothing and tender ; on deck she was stern, unyielding, and peremptory. The sailors were well disciplined and obedient, the weather favorable, the voyage short and prosperous. That was being strong-minded to some purpose. I —"New York Round Table. " Lord Palmerston on Marrying a Deceased Wife's Sister. — Mr T Chambers is resolved to challenge the House of Commons once more to a decision on the question of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. The best ground on which to settle that question with which we are acquainted is suggested by an anecdote told of the late Lord Palmerston. The noble lord was appealed to for an opinion on the subject ; and in reply, with liis wellknown chuckle, he said : "If a man who has married once, and had the good fortune to bury his wife, is fool euough to marry again, by all means let him marry his deceased wife's sister, a3 then at any rate lie will only be afflicted with one mother-in law. -"Globe." Cost of Royalty. — Some of the expenses charged in the English Civil Service Estimates are of rather a strange character. It is a very good thing, no doubt, that Princes of the blood should see the world ; and as the Duke of Edinburgh is a captain in the Navy, we make no great objection to his making the modern tour — all around the world — in a frigate. But if he feels inclined to make presents, as a generous young man of high station would wish to do, it seems a pity to deprive him of the pleasure he would otherwise- derive, by charging his gratitude to the national account. He is allowed £15,000 a-year, and it must be very painful to him not to be permitted to behave like a gentleman at his own expense, but to see in the Estimates an item of £3,374 14s. for " costs of presents and gratuities by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh at the Cape and Australia and during his present voyage in H.M.S. Galatea." At any rate he might be permitted to pay the odd fourteen shillings out of his own pocket. Prince Christian is such a favourite of the British people that, of course, no one can object to his passage from Dover to Calais, when he went to see his father, being charged to the public account. His wife, the Princess Helena, has only £6,000 a-year, and nobody knows exactly what the Prince's private means are, so we are disposed to act liberally, and trust that if ever the Prince takes a cab" or rides in an omnibus he will carefully transmit a voucher for his fare to the Lords of the Treasury. — " English Paper."

Wigs for Ladies. — Amongst the eccentricities of female adornment which will shortly startle the frequenters of the Bois is a head-dress destined to eclipse the false hair monstrosities of the present day, although we know many ladies who pile masses of other people's hair on their heads with incomparable effrontery. The coming head-dress is a wig — an out and outer — and not a diluted attempt at hypocrisy like the chignon, to make the ! uninitiated believe that the efforts of the hairdresser are natural. A real jpemtgne, disdaining all attempts at deception, is about to make its appearance on the brain of woman ; the curls of which, falling on the shoulders, are retained by ribbons. On the summit of this work of art reposes a small three-cornered hat, similar to that worn by the petits abbes in the eighteenth century, and the whole of this marvellous wig is lightly powdered with poitdre a la marechale. — " Continental Gazette." Paper Petticoats for the Ladies. — We; have most of us seen or heard of paper (or I rather paper-faced) collars, but it is not generally known that the use of the same material has now been extended to less prominent but more important garments. It must be premised that the paper used for these is of great strength and flexibility, and can be sewn with a machine giving seams almost' as strong as a woven fabric. For this reason the inventor has particularly applied it to the production of petticoats, which are either prented in imitation of the fashtonable skiris of che day, or stamped out with oepn work of such beauty aud delicacy as no amount of labour and scissors and needle could imitate. The marvel is that these really beautiful productions can be sold retail at sixpence each. — "Globe." Romance in South Durham. — About twelve years ago, a pitman was desirous of pushing his fortune in another land, and hearing of the marvellous auriferous discoveries in Australia, determined to proceed thither He set sail, leaving be- I hind him a wife and two* children, at Thornley, near Durham, and arrived in due co\u*se in that distant Colony, and forthwith went to the goldfields and commenced "digging for nuggets." Variable for some time, at last fortune smiled upon him, and at the expiration of about j eleven years, he found himself in possession of the handsome fortune of £15,000, honestly and industriously obtained. During this long period of his absence from England he communicated with his wife, desiring that she and her family (two girls) should join him, and sent the necessary tickets for their transit to the newworld. She, however, never went. The successful miner discovered the cause on his arrival at his native village last week. His faithless partner had become enamoured of an itinerant rag merchant, the owner of a wooden leg, to whom she had two children. Like Enoch Arden, he at once discarded her, not, however, before making himself known to his two daughters, who were children when he left them for Australia. These he took from their mother, and afterwards equipped them in a manner suitable to his altered position. How to Treat a Wife.— Treat her to a new dress,