MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 88, 16 October 1869, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS.

The remains of John "Wilkes Booth, the murderer of President Lincoln, received final sepulture on the 26th of June, at G-reenmount Cemetery, Baltimore. The remains of all the deceased members of his family in America are now gathered there, and repose beside the aahea of his father, Junius Brutus Booth, who died 17 years ago, and his ! grandfather, Eichard Booth, who died in 1839, aged 7Q. The monument to Junius Brutus Booth has been erected over the remains, and bears the inscription, " Kicjacet matchless Booth; born May 1, 1796, died November 30, 1852," under which are the words, "To the memory of the children of Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Booth — John Wilkes, Frederick, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Henry Byron." At the re-interment of the remains of John "Wilkes on the 26th of June they were quietly conveyed to the ground by pall-bearers selected from the theatrical profession, who knew the deceased, one of them having been a pall-bearer for his father, 17 years before. Some -10 of the relatives and friends of the family assembled at the grave. The Church qf England service for the burial of the dead, was read by the Rev. Fleming James, of New York, the aged mother of the deceased, his sister Eosalie, and his brothers Edwin and Junius Brutus standing in a group beside the clergyman. CoinrissiojrEßaiiip op Asm uixrEg. — The " Nelson Examiner " remarks :. — " No oue has ever accused our Colonial Treasurer of failing to have an eye to the main chance, and the occurrences of the past session of the Assembly have induced no change of opinion on this subject. Among the Acts of the session was one brought forward by Mr. Vogel, to provide for the purchase of Government annuities, and for which the Colonial Treasurer received great crodit. The Act is to be worked by a Commissioner, to be appointed for life, and whose remuneration is ! fixed by the Act (a most unusual circumstance) at £800 a year. Mr. Vogel has undertaken to perform the duties of this office gratuitously so long as he remains Colonial Treasurer, but of course this means so soon as he ceases to be Colonial Treasurer he will become Commissioner of Annuities, with £800 a year for the rest of his days, whether the business of the department be much or little. The story goea, but we cannot vouch for its truth, that Mr. Vogel, who had a lucrative engagement in Auckland, on the " Southern Cross," made this little arrangement a stipulation with his colleagues on consenting to take oQlos. Mr. Vogel is very likely the best man in the Colony for the appointment, and no one would grudge it him and an adequato salary; but managed as the matter has been, with £800 a year settled on the office, it looks vastly like a job, which always gives offence, and particularly when coming from a professedly eeonomy-lovmg G-overn-ment, which experience generally proves means one that will he extravagant." Some very curious old paintings were removed from the old Bull Inn, Bishopsgate, in the year 1803, and are now in the possession of Mr. Clark, No. 7, Sfc. Swithin's-lane. They conBiafc of a view of St. Mark's, Venice, by Can.iletti; a pair, by Salvator Eosa, l representing Tobias and the Angel, i and Jonah at Nineveh ; and a portrait, !by Hymore, of Mr. Van Horn, a I Hamburgh merchant, which, from a somewhat strange history attached to i it, on a parchment, is the most curious, though not the most valuable. This history is as follows : — " Portrait of Mr. Van Horn, Hambro' merchant. Belonged to a club called " The Amicable Society," held at the Bull Inn, Bishopsgate-street, for a period of 22 'years. During the above period he drank 35,680 bottles of wine, which makes 2973 dozen and four bottles, averaging at nearly four bottles and a half par day ; and did not miss drink, ing the above quantity but two days — the one of which was the burial of his wife and the other the marriage of his daughter, and lived till he was 90 years of age. Painted by Mr, Hymore, in the year 1743." The AccrDEyT to the G-reat BEiTAnjr. — A letter in the " Argus " says : — Tour general summary of late English news states that the fire by which the Great Britain was nearly destroyed by fire on her voyage home, was caused by the explosion of a cask.' It might have been more correctly stated that the fire was caused by the careless drawing of spirits, and the improper use of a light by the storekeeper or. steward employed for that purpose. A letter from an intelligent passenger states that a storekeeper, in drawing off rum from a cask spilt some of it, which came in contact with his lamp placed upon the floor or deck, and that in a moment the cask was a blaze, and burst. He states also that there were many similar casks and a quantity of lamp cotton stowed in the same compartment, and that it is difficult to say what might have been the result of the explosion, but for the use of a machine on board called an " Bxtincteur," containing a liquid charged with carbonic acid gaa. Ho states also that a few days afterwards there was an alarm of fire in one of the iron coal bunkera, but that it was soon extinguished. An American paper tells U3 that "grasshoppers are at their old tricks at Utah— roosting on tlie rail-road tracks and Htoppingtrainß." ','"'.'