MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 214, 7 March 1872, Page 7

MISCELLANEOUS.

New York women are said to surpass in folly and extravagance the "women of every other city in the world. They are now supplying themselves with handkerchiefs which cost their fathers and husbands- from 200 ! dols. to 600 dols. apiece.

This is the description of a terrible infant which is said to be in F'entrees county, Tennessee : — " The prodigy is only three years old, and weighs 75 pounds firm flesh ; has as much beard as a twenty year older ; his feet are eight inches long, though small for one of his build. Of course he is fond of the society of girls, but the boys he detests. His voice is coarse, and his fits of passion are terrific.. He expects to marry next year and go to Congress the year after, with the Presidency in the near perspective." The largest number of men employed iby one firm in England is 56,000. The employers are John Taylor and sons, and the men are engaged at mining.

The " Ballarat Star " gives the following information respecting his Celestial Majesty the Emperor of China : — " The Chinese New Tear's Day that has passed 13, we are told by one who got his information from a Chinese source, the eleventh anniversary of the accession of the present Emperor of China, Xi Tsiaug. The Emperor- is eighteen years of age, and entered into

the holy bonds of wedlock at the early age of sixteen. Since" then he has been married ' considerably,' a^ Artemus Ward would say, for his subjects in Victoria assert that he has US wives. With respect to his children, all we can learn is that he has two sons, the first-born being two years old. This almond-eyed babe has been proclaimed thi'ough the empire as the future ruler. We are further informed that the 118 wives were all presents to Emperor Xi Tsiang, and it is as much as a subject's head is worth to present him with a wife under fourteen years of age."

The " Roman Times," the first newspaper in the English language ever published in Rome, has made its appearance.

A native Indian literary society at Agra has brought to light a Hindoo book on Astrology, in which is found a predieti6n that England will in 1573 become possessed of a large empire in addition to those she already possesses ; and one of the native papers, commenting on this, observes that, as Russia and Prussia are the only two great empires in the world, the question \vill be which of these England is to annex. If this prediction should come true, the Empire of China is about the likeliest to be annexed,

Air as a motive power has been successfully applied at Brunswick, Maine. The air is compressed by a waterwheel, and connected through a two-and-a-half inch pipe under the ground three-quarters of a mile, and furnishes the motive agent for an engine at the railway station, used for sawing wood.

Mr. W. S. Lockhart, in a letter to the " West Coast Times " on the subject of a new propeller about to be patented in New Zealand, says that it is certain to effect great improvement iv the speed of vessels, and it is more than probable that the pascage between Liverpool and New York may be reduced to six days, and that between Melbourne and our little port, with our class of vessels, fitted up on the principle, three days and a half will be the maximum, without an increase of consumption of fuel, and that the invention will all but annihilate the unpleasant vibration experienced in vessels fitted up with paddle or screw.

Several writers have been attempting to account for the existence of the excessive drought and heat on the eastern part of New Zealand as compared with the floods and cold of this summer on the West Coast. Mr. Martin, F.R.S., gives in the " Nelson Mail " his explanation of the causes of such heat and dryness after crossing the •mountains. The Australian hot wind, he says, on reaching the sea instantly evaporates moisture until saturated. In that process of evaporation a vast amount of heat is absorbed and rendei'ed " latent." On striking the Southern Alps the accumulated moisture is suddenly condensed in rain, and, conversely, in that process of condensation, the heat by evaporation rendered latent, is liberated, and the air thus again becomes not only dry, but hot also, as before it employed its heat in evaporation. Hence the " nor'-wester " of Christchurch, Otago, and Southland.