MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 235, 1 August 1872, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

Six months' leave of absence has been granted to his Honor Judge Cope, who has been suffering from ill-health for some short time past. Tli3 greater portion of the village of Gerringong, near Kiama, was burned from a fire lighted to consume dead timber. . The English church and [school, Perkins's store, Hines's hotel, and Scott's boot store, were all destroyed, besides other buildings. - The turret ship Cerberus, together with the Nelson and Victoria, mounted floral wreaths the other day in honor of the marriage of Captain W. H. Panter, the gallant commander of the Cerberus, with Miss Manifold, an heiress in the Western district. A letter from a Government doctor in Palmerston (Manawatu, Province of Wellington) has been placed under our notice. The Medical Officer thus describes the burial of a person who had died from fever, at Palmerston, on the 16bh inst. : "He was buried on Saturday, and when they lowered the coffin into the grave it floated about in two feet of water, and had to be held'down with sticks while they were tilling in the earth but it could not be helped, the ground is so flat and saturated with water. 1 '- A nice place Palmerston must be from this description. f From various quarters' in England complaints are received that the Australian preserved meats are over-cooked; ' - Twenty-four telegrams for Europe and the East were received at the Victorian telegfaph offices on the 1 Ith inst., for transmission via Adelaide and Port Darwin. The total amount received on account of the message was L 251 17s 9d.

The, manner in which the late Victorian .Ministry provided for their friends, after their virtual expulsion from oflice, continues to be exposed. On the 4th of June, after Mr Duffy bad tendered his resignation of bjjnself and his. co leagues, a lease of an ares at la lr 14p was granted for seven years on the south side of the Yarra, to the Langlands Foundry Company. The company in this transaction was represented by the Hon. C. J. Jenner.

As an instance of the strict probity which characterises witnesses in Wardens' Courts, a correspondent of the Charleston Herald reports a conversation occurring at the door of the Courthouse there :— Claimholder :—: — " Why did you not swear so and so ?" Wagesman (with up-turned eyes and pitiful look): "Swear. Why, I thank Heaven that I got out without getting two years for what I did say." Claimholder : " I've lost my claim through you, and have a mind to Mekyou." O temporal O mores!

We understand that a son of Mr Gould, farmer, near Pleasant Point, in the Timaru district, whilst employed digjging in the garden, which is swampy soil, turned up a very large and perfect moa's egg, but unfortunately, from an ignorance of its value, broke it. The egg was the largest ever found, and quite perfect, and the loss to science is very great, as may be gathered from the fact that there is only one real egg known to be in existence, and that is in a European museum, for which, although partly broken, it was purchased at a cost of Llls. Dr Haast has written to Mr Gould with a view to procuring the pieces of the broken egg aid re-uniting them. It is to be hoped that he will be successful. — Lyttelton Times, June 28.

By the last mail Mr Tomkinson, manager of the Bank of Australasia, received a draft for L3O as conscience money from some anonymous person.