PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 202, 14 December 1871, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL

A men no ewe m-G&K forma has produced a fleece weighing 401 b. Sixty-five percent, qf the members of Congress are lawye/rs. .

The census .shows.. that half the Mormons in the Utah Territory come from- Englaud.

Some idea of the cost to leading journals of telegrams on a liberal scale may- be gathered from the expenditure of the " New York Tribune " during the Franco-Prussian war. Within the period extending from 28th July to sth October of last year both dates inclusive, the "Tribune" paid to its correspondents at the seat of war, and to the Cable Companies, the large sum of £11,000, the principal portion beiug for the telegrams. "By an arrange. *ent with three of ifcscontempo a "ea it received ha 1 k about £4<.Q'Td, leavia^ its own disbursement at £7,000 for a little over two months' work in one field. One day's charge for telegraphing alone reached the large sum of £818 10s."

It is stated- that forty-three new pnpt offices were opened throughout the Colony during the past year.

A lively competition has set in amongst bankers in Victoria for the accounts of Chinamen since it was ascertained that they were in the habit of burning bank notes over the graves of t'leir relatives in order to provide them wit'i a little money in the »ext world. Hitherto the paper of the Commercial B:uik has been preferred in consequence of its be.iring Chinese cl'aracters ; but we hear that in hopes of getting a portion of the business the other banks are to follow suit. The disciples of Confucius are looking up,

The following -account of the female labour-market in Ballarat appears in one of the local papers :—: — "G-irte from "about fifteen years up to womanhood-can occasionally get places as servants at 3? and 4s per week and found ; but even these places are like autrels* visits — few and far between. I am aware that more is paid to some servants, but their number is small compared with those setting the sum I have named and those getting none at all. Young wompn working as hiiloresse.B get from 3s up to lOa per week, working ten hours and a half \)ov <lay, to prepare themselves for which they have to serve as apprentices for one or two years, receiving no reward at all for their labor. Girls wishing to learn trades at "any of our larger establishments- must serve three venrc with little or no remuneration, and when their time is out other apprentices are taken on in their places, nnd unless some of the regular hands are discharged to make room for them, they have to walk about idle, or or rake out a miserable suhpisfcenee some other way — often by <?iau;racin<» themselves and all connected with them. Girls with sewing machines, creditable- workers, may walk Ballarat from one end to the other, inquiring at every shop every day for weeks at a stretch, and not get enough work to buy a single meal ; and they may sit in their homes with large bills in tbeir windows, announcing the fact that ' machine-sewing is done here,' until their hearts ache, without their doors being darkened by the presence of patrons. The fact is plain. There is not sufficient work, even if the girls would do it for nothing. The consequence, is, they luve. to live in comparative idleness ; while the fathers are often driven to their wit's ends to know where to find bread to put in their mouths.'*

A tale of a hat is reported in the Bristol papers. The wearer was a ]/idy, nnt\ it is unnecessary to say that \ she wore -it not-on-her head so much as on the giy;antic pile of hair elaborately constructed on her head. The hat cost '£s~nn(\~ was "sucH'sT'clu'cltl'' 1 "" vVeli, a lady thief took a faucy to ifc ; and, as the owner ..was standing jn front of a music shop, dexterously cut the elastic which held the hat, and carried it off. The owner- of -the hat did not Vnow that anything bad been removed from her head until she accidentally paused before a window which reflected Irer.fignre.

At Maury, Tennessee, recently; a youno; man wen fe. _to _ bed leaving a burning candle and a pistol on his table. - The dripping sperm .ignited the table, the. table ignited the pistol, the barrels began to explode, and when the young man awoke he was nearly bu~ned, Rnixxthecad, and shot to death. His pillow received the balls and saved hif* heart.

Wright's Charity is, the title of a parochial gift which falls to be given " toariy one'mafe* "resident -within the district-panish of St, Alban-tbe- Martyr, Holborn, of soher life and conversa-^ tion, in needy cireu-nistances, and not iji the^reeeipt of^ pamh relief." .A, 4pral~r7aper\vi^ 'T'^. 'Bmc^-flindOft'ol^ Horn Journal," snp<_t:int the churchwardens cannot find anybody on whom 4 tp*hestoKv. theTc-haritvi - ." : .: _ " f 'One* Sunday evening an Irishman, r acher th& yo^ee yfor 'liqvTov, .1 ifre.xham,. and-,.,as is . the_ .custom . with 1 iouiair Catlrblrcs^ lre- fell HipW' l bis* 1 mees before^K.haf»^b.£>:.eii.p.psse.d was t if cross. r Whilsfc be f was thus en- £ aged, the pfe'aeher to "I ray in .what was- to. the .devout, worRipper an unknown tongue, so he .j f- once gatherect-.tisjß^lfCuj) and male 1 is exit, rather 1 orror-strnek ,nt the ( iv> cr mistake into which beer had led iiva. <n\ l tt -W V * : |

Business appears to be conducted on queer "principles in Blenheim. The local paper says ; — " In consequence of one of the bakers of Blenheim having retired for a few weeks to the seaside, the rest • of the trade have determined to raise the price of the 41bloaf again to lGd."

The " Wellington Independent " says : — Tlie contract for the erection of the telegraph line from Kati Kati to the -Thames- has been taken, all obstacles to the execution of this, the last link in the" chain of telegraphic communication with Auckland having been removed.

A learne.d American counsel, in the middle of an affecting appeal in Court in a Bladder suit, gave the following burst of genius :—": — " Slander, gentlemen, like a boa-constrictor of gigantic size and immeasurable proportionSj wraps the coils of its unwieldy body about its unfortunate victim, and, heedless of the shrieks of agony that come from 'the inmost depths of the victim's soul, loud and reverberating as the mighty thunder that rolls in the heavens, it finally breaks his unlucky neck against the iron wheel of public opinion, forcing him to desperation, then to madness, and finally crushing him in the hideous jaws of moral death."

One man in a hundred reads a book ; ninety-nine in a hundred read a newspaper. Nearly a century ago, when the American press, which is \w\y a spreading oak, ."was in its green twiu. Thomas Jefferson said he would rather live in a country with a newspaper and without a Groverntnent than in a country with a Government, but without a newspaper. The press instead of being the fourth, is the first estate of the realm. — " (xolden Age."

A man has started a paper in Maine to be issued occasionally, which is a great deal oftener, the editor thinks, than he will be able to get his pay for it. The " Nelson Examiner" is in favour of a tax of sixpence per aero on all land in private hands. It asks very pertinently :— " What ' cockatoo ' would grumble at a land tax of sixpence per acre on his small holding, if all important necessaries could thereby come to him and his children untaxed ? Which of the lordly capitalists would not be starved out by smeh a tax ? The poor man makes his acre bring in so much, that by him the tax would be unfelt. The capitalist lets his square mile produce so little, that to huu ifc would be sheer ruin."

An editor, who tried working m,his garden for health, suggests that a castiron back with a hiriije in it would be preferable, for gardeners, to the spiuiCl column now in use.

Among the novelties in the International Exhibition of: I^7l, is the sheep shearing machine, exhibited by Messrs. Grreynose. It consists of an iron standard with a fly-wheel and strap, or bevel wheel gearing, which actuates a chopper applied freely by the hand. The cutter is protected by a comb, which acts as a guard to prevent any injury to the skin of the animal operated upou: it has two blades, which make about 2500 cuts per minute. The whole apparatus weighs about SOlbs., and is in reality a modification of the American horseclipping machine.

In Queensland, in 1 8(33, .arrowroot was scarcely cultivated. In 1869, the quantity grown was 2G.000 lbs. In the following, year 30,000 lbs. " were exported; and it is reported that in the present year about 100.000 lbs. will be prepared for the market. This is a remarkable example of the perseverance the farmers and planters of that colony are exhibiting.

One of the most useful patents recently £ot out is one taken- out by Messrs. Chas. O'Neill and Daniel Simpson, civil engiueers, for wire tramways, double or single lines, with .pass loops. By means of the wire tramway heavy material cm be conveyed over otherwise impassable places, and it is only necessary to see one in ; operation to appreciate its value. Its importance on tie goldfields cannot be over-estimated, and at the Thames it is already largely employed. Licenses for the use of the invention can he obtained from A . 8. Brailitwaite, Nelson, or Daniel Simpson, one of the patentees, at; the Thames.

In an amusing work lately published, " Travels of a pioneer of commerce in pigtail and yetticoats, or an overland journey from China towards India," Mr. Cooper, the author and traveller, relates the following adventure : —He was just halting for break- . fast,- after leaving the Thibetan town of "B.athang, when a group of young girls, -gaily dressed and decked with garlands jof flowers, eaine out o£ & grove and • surrounded him, some of them holding his umle, while others assisted -hjim to- alight.- He was then led into the f*roye, where hje found a feast being prepared, and after lie had eaien and spioked his pipe, the girls, came up tb him again-,, " pulling along in their liidst a' pretty girl of sixteen, attired -in!a silk dresi^ and adorned with gar-

ujds.of flowers." . "I had already oticed," Mr.. Cooper continues, "this irt sitting afiart from the others dur-

i!ig the meal, and was very much astMlished when, she was reluctantly dragged up to me, and made to seat Herself by my side ; and my astonishment- was < considerably heightened when. the. rest of the girls began ,to dance round us in' a circle, singing ajnd throwing. their garlands over my-

self and my companion." The meaning of this performance was, however, soon made clear to Mr Cooper. He had been married without knowing it' At first, he tried to escape the liability entailed upon him ; .but such, an outcry was made by all the people round that he was forced to carry off his bride. He managed to get rid of her before very long by transferring her to one of her relations, but even that was not treated as a dissolution of the marriage. On his way back he was joined one day by a Thibetan dame, of about thirty-five years old, who announced herself as his wife's mother, and said she had come, with the consent of her husband, to supply her daughter's place. We can well imagine Mr. Cooper's surprise at meeting with this novel proposal on the part of the part of his mother-in-law.

A New York contemporary announces that "parental opinion is divided as to the' best method of disposing of little children. There are those who think that letting them play with loaded puns is the most effectual, though sliding them down stair-banisters in a six storey hotel has its advocates ; in fact, three instances have been reported within a few days in various parts of the country, where this latter method worked with complete success."

The Greymouth "Evening Star" relates a " moving incident " which oeouviW last Thuratlav in o ruin 2f, when the Kate Conley took her departure from the Grey mouth wharf : — " Some miners at the Stoney Lead had come into the town on the previous evening, and had disposed 01' some' twenty ounces of aold. Tho custodian of the proceeds unknown to li is mates, took his passage for Melbourne by the schooner. Early next morning, when tbe schooner was about to sail, he betook himself to the wharf, and was .about to proceed on board the vessel, when a male of his, who either suspected or was informed of his intention, interfered materially with the peacefulness of his departure. The two men were seen walking together, when suddenly, and just as the Kate Conlev's lines were being cast off,

one levelled his fist with painful accuracy and force at the right optic of the other. The operation was repeated in t!.e direction of the left; eye, and the united result was that, almost in the twinkling of one, both the man's eves were what is vulgarly described as ' bunged up.' The two men elopod, struggled, fell, and in the fall the levanter, whose .personal appearance had been so rapidly altered, was uppermost, lie took advantage of this circumstance to spring to his foot, find, just in time to secure his passage, he made a long leap from the wharf right on to the deck of the Kate Conley. It was too late and too risky for his assailant to follow him, and the •latter had only leisure, mid curses loud and deep, to assure him that, whatever their mutual mates might feel, he at least felt satisfied with the extent to which, at such short notice and with so little ceremony, they had been able to square accounts. He hoped' his departing friend would carry with him to Melbourne the receipt stamps which he bore upon his cheekbones, and, from appearance, there was every probability of the m<w doing so."