MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 282, 26 June 1873, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Panama " Star and Herald* refers to the bushes and trees growing ' in the ruins of the great Aspinwall Hotel at Panama, as an illustration of the vigor and rapidity of vegetation in the tropics, and says : — " It is scaacely more than two years since this conflagration occurred, and yet there are now growing within the walls trees at least 30 feet ia height. They belong to what are called trumpet trees ('genus Cecropi') and the branches are said to be crowding out the highest doors and windows, so as to render it probable that in their further growth they will throw down the wall with which they are interlaced." The "Independence Beige" publishes a significant letter, addressed from the Vatican by Cardinal Antonelli to the Spanish bishops. The epistle runs as follows :—": — " In the political revolutions of Spain the mission of the clergy is determined by law and justice. The predestined of Providence is Don Carlos, who has resolved, since the fall of the Monarchy, courageously to consecrate his reign to the restoration of civil and religious order. It is necessary to make a last effort to succeed. The King by right Divine has need of our support, and of that of all the clergy, to whom you will give such orders as are necessary to make them act in favor of the just cause. A few days of struggle will suffice for success. Let the clergy rise, and with them all the Catholic party ; and Don Carlos will then tafee his seat upon a throne yesterdaw usurped by a stranger, and to-da^ \ disgraced by demagogues. Eeligion expects still from us an act of energy and obedience." A very singular tragedy was enacted on board the barque Hannah Nicholson, which arrived at Portland Bay, from Mauritius, on the 7th May. She was bound for Adelaide, and was short of provisions. The first mate reported that, on the 2nd May, Captain Leask said the crew had a design on his life, and, complaining of his head, had shut himself up in his cabin. In the afternoon he met the second officer, and threatened to kill any person who should come across him. He next commenced firing with a revolver at the mau at the wheel, and dived down in the cabin, where all the ammunition was stored. He remained below until the evening of the sth, when he battered at the companion ladder, and called out^for some water. ! Some was passed down to him, and he i subsequently aent up a chart. All the sailors but one, a man named Iteeve, were afraid to enter the cabin, and this one having volunteered to do so, received a ball in the cheekbone . from the captain's revolver. This was just before they entered Portland Bay, when a warrant was issued for the apprehension of the captain, who was. found quite dead, in a sitting position at his table. A coroner's jury exonerated the crew from all blame. A middle-aged man, calling himself W. I\ Khaynnes, M.D., cf intelligent physiognomy but seedy apparel, and wearing spectacles, was cahrged (says the " Beaufort Chronicle ") with unlawfully representing himself to be a doctor of medicine. The defendant/% on being informed by the bench of the >^ nature of the charge, at once admitted his guilt, but insisted that he was a properly qualified M.D. and had a diploma, but not one of the ordinary parchment kind, for it was inscribed on the skin of his breast, the tatooing operation having bezn done at Ketley Hospital, in 186^, when he qualified. He was willing that any gentleman nominated by the court should inspect these queerly-situated credentials, but the court did not avail itself of the offer, and told him that all the diplomas in the world would not save him from a penalty if his name was not on the - Victorian register. He was fined £5, bnt accepted the alternative of fourteen days in the Ararat gaol. A London paper says :—": — " A peach orchard in Maryland contains 1,013 acres. At the height of the past season 600 hands were employed ia picking, paring, and canning the fruit, ! and the daily work was about 4000 baskets, or 30,000 cans. How is it we do not in England get a cheaper i supply of the preserved article, when they must be dirt-cheap where an orchard is over 1000 acres ? "We also may say : — How is it that in Auckland, which is so favorable to the growth ofthe peach, and where so much of the fruit is valueless from want of a mar- . ket, we have no one here to follow theexample set by American enterprise ? — " Weekly News." The report of thp Veterinary Department of the Privy Council for 1872, just issued, contains a table allowing the number of animals in Great Britain the fluctuations in the price of meat, number of imported animals, the meat supply, and foreign statistics. The importation of Australian preserved meat, though it has recentl) greatly increased, only now equals one-eighth, of the total importation of dead meat.. The average price of live stock was about one farthing per pound more than in 1871, but this is attributed to increase cost of labor. There is nothing in the report which gives any hope of a induction of the price of butcher's meat; ' on the contrary, the statistics show that not only in Great Britain but in most European countries, there has been during the last fifty years a, steady rise i in the price of meat.