MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 291, 28 August 1873, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS.

The author of "The Last of the Waikatos" has commenced another New Zealand story in the " Auckland Weekly News." He discourses upon the half-casts of this colony as follows :—": — " It has been said, and with a great deal of truth, that most frequently the half-castes of New Zealand possess all the vices and none of tbe virtues of their European sires. This is of course open to a charge of exaggeration ; for I have seen beautiful haU-castep, of the softer sex, it is true, gentle and virtuous as their liquid dark eyes, and lady-like in manner, with as grand and graceful movements as the highest-bred dames of an ancient aristocracy. Nay, there are many paVfaced ladies of rank who would give much to possess the graceful lissom forms and queen-like walk /that characterise numerous half-caste women — or at least did so ere yet boots with heels a couple of inches high produced the Grecian bend, and pushed the body forward on the crushed and too-imprisoned toes." The late Mr. J. Stuart Mill has left a full autobiography, with directions that it shall be published without delay. He bas also left treatises on " Nature," "Theism," and the "Utility of Religion," the first of which was to have been published in the present year. Arrangements will now be made for their speedy appearance. .At Olerkenwell Police Court, London, recently, a young man residing at 48, Margaret-street, Clerkenwell, was charged with assaulting a young woman residing at 13, William-street, Clerkenwell. The complainant said the defendant had formerly lived in her mother's house. Last Saturday night he came up and said that ii she and her mother were two men be would break their jaws. She told him to mind what he was about, or he would "catch a Tartar," on which he struck her on the face. The only reason she could give for/ his conduct was that he was " spooney " on her, and that she refused to walk with him, as "she preferred his betters." The defendant said that all he did was to ask for his clothes. He had given the complainant an engaged ring, which she had pawned. The Complainant — " Oh, how can you say so, Bob? for I have got it on. (A laugh.) Ido not want you nor your ring." (A laugh.) ( Mr, 'Cooke (the. Magistrate) aspect the

complainant if she had been in the habit of walking out with the defendant. The Complainant — " Well, sometimes, I did make a < stick ' of him, but not often. I walked out with him for a convenience, for I never liked him. I only did ao once or twice, and then he acted more like a bore than a lover. The sooner he leaves off talking or thinking about me the better." (A laugh.) Mr Cooke thought the complainant should give back the engaged ring. The complainant hastily pulled off the ring, and, amidst much laughter, put it down, saying she was glad to get rid of it. Mr. Cooke adjourned the case, saving he hoped that was the last lie should t hear of it.—" Globe." It is not always that a theory can be most clearly elucidated by a practical demonstration. A few days since a party of gentlemen in a Troy (N. X.) saloon were disputing over tbe question whether the American system of treating, or the European system of not treating, was preferable. A prolonged argument only proved that the matter could not be settled by talking, and so a practical test was resorted to. First, eacb man took a drink by himself. Then each man invited a single friend to drink. After that each single friend returned the compliment. And, finally, each man in the party — there were Six of them — asked all the rest to drink Singularly enough, says a local journal, the result of this apparently fair and impartial test was that no one of the party could tell where the discussion originated, or what it was about. Paris has just lost another celebrity, one Femorus, whose skill in the manufacture of monstrosities must have often made Barnum envious. Femorus first tried bis apprentice hand on beasts, and succeeded in concocting no end of two-headed cows, five legged biil^ t horned rats, and such harmless wondera?^ which went the rounds of all the fairs •- ' for many years. These, however, at length got stale and unprofitable. Modern civilisation demanded something more attractive, so Femorus turned his cunning to the human race itself. In 1854 he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for trying to implant the wings of a swan in the back of a child two years old, with the object of making a second cupid ! Oa leaving tbe prison he recommenced business by mannfacturiug all sorts of " natural curiosities," too ugly to specify, in anatomical museums, but the demand not being equal to the snpdly, he was forced to brush up his ingenuity once more. This time he at once resolved to operate on himself, and he attempted to engraft tbe combe of a cock — a Gallic one, of course — on bis own head. It was doomed to be his last wonder. The engrafting resulted in abscess, from which he never recovered. The following gratifying letter was received by the vice-president of the School of Mines, Ballarat :— " Walhalla Gold Mining Company, 16th July, 1873.— The directors of this company fully acknowledge the importance of the experiments that are about to be made in the Ballarat School of Mines, with the view of finding out the best process to be adopted in extracting gold from iron and arsenical pyrites. I now beg to enclose cheque for £10 10s., as their subscription towards furthering the object you have in view, and to state that they will be glad if at some future time you will be good enough i to favor them by communicating the re- j suit obtained. — I am, etc., Henry Rosalgs, Manager." Calcraft, the hangman, has announced his intention to shortly retire from official life, and seek the repose of cultivating roses, dahlias, and tulips, for which he has a great taste. His successor is said to be one Robert Richard Evans, a well-to-do farmer of his own land near Carmarthen, South Wales, and who has assisted at executions for the last fourteen years, out of pure devotion to the " noble art." The Corporation of London will pension Calcraft on his full honorarium of £1 per week, and the Home Offices are asked to supplement this. The "Auckland Weekly Herald* says : — Because we live in an age of railways, are we to have no more metalled roads ? — and because the iron horse is in the ascendant, are mere flesh and blood horses tv be dispensed with altogether? The new tariff would almost lead to this conclusion, — at any rate the Government seems determined that if people will be so stupid as to use horses, they must not have them shod, for under the new tariff shoeing will be a luxury in which few people can afford to indulge their hoses. In fact, the cost of a set of shoes will soon, iv many cases, exceed the value of the animal to be shod. Horseshoes, hitherto charged Is per cwt., ■will now liave to pay 2s 3d, while horsenails, hitherto admitted at the same rate of Is per cwt., will now have to pay 20s — an advance respectively of 125 and 1900 per cent. As an instance of the increase of the tariff since tb& alteration made by the Government, we might mention that & firm in this city cleared, yesterday, a parcel of axe handles, the duty on which formerly amounted to £10, whereas they now had to pay £50 ; and a ca3e of cutlery, which formerly coat four shillings duty, under the new regulations amounted to £4 12s. The only conveyance between Abenh with and Aberayron is said to be a two-, horse waggonete. Fiat, second, and third fares are booked by this primitive convey-, ance, and the following curious distinction is made between the passengers: — > First-class passengers are allowed to retain their seats throughout the journey ; second-class have to get out and walk up the hills, which are both numerous and steep, after the fashion of Welsh hills; the third-class have not only to get out at the steep places, bnt have to assist in pushing the vehicle up them. A Utioa paper says, " A cow on Com Hill kicked the pump over yesterday and broke, her leg. The cow must die, but the milk-» man hopes to able to be continue in b.asLne££t He things he. can repair the P,™np,"