MISCELLANEOUS.

Wairoa Bell, Volume IV, Issue 155, 22 July 1892, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The finest West Australian peal ever found was got by a beach-comber. He sold it for £lO, but its worth was £IO,OOO. Which reminds one of the most famous diamonds, worth a million, but usad for years, by an Indian peasant, to sharpen i»j> tools in his liut.

The otOer day a man was found dead in a French railway carriage. It was discovered that lie wore under his clothes a belt containing 30,000 francs in gold, and the cause of death was the excessive pressure of hard cash upon the stomach. The order with respect to the members of the Legislative Council shows that the surviving members were nominated by various Premiers as follows :—Stafford, 5 ; Domett, 1 ; Weld, 2 ; Fox, 3 ; Vogel, 1 ; Atkinson, 6 ; Grey, 4 ; Hall, 4 ; Whitaker, 2 ; Stout, 5. Mr O'Hara Smith, Inspector of the Audit Department, who unearthed the scrip transactions at Auckland and Wellington, has been appointed Inspecting Accountant to the Lands and Survey Departments, which is a decided advancement. Japanese auctions are conducted on a plan which gives rise to none of the noise and confusion which attend such sales in English speaking countries. Each bidder writes his name and bid on a slip of paper, which he places in a box. When the bidding is oyer, the box is opened by the auctioneer, and the goods declared the property of the highest bidder. History repeats itself in every dircetioD. Any captain who brings Chinese to Australia is responsible for the £IOO a head poll-tax in the event of their landing unauthorisedly. u The other day a couple of Chinese firemen escaped from a French vessel at Newcastle, and it is alleged that the captain, who went in pursuit and ostensibly recovered them, merely caught a couple of other Chinamen and induced them to temporarily fill the places of the deserters. This retails the story of the N. Q. policeman whose two Chinese prisoners escaped him, and who calmly went and handcuffed a couple of other yellow men and brought them along to the lock up. According to the annual report of the Government Resident of Thursday Island (Q.) just to hand the number of vessels licensed under the Bearlshell and Beche-de-mer Fisheries Act during the year was 183, as compared with 157 during 18‘JO and 144 the previous year - The shipping returns show that during the period under review 275 vessels have arrived at Thursday Island, having a tonnage of 266,242 tons, while 227 have been cleared outward representing 2 64, 524 tons, The total value of imports for the year just ended was £4I,SSS, and exports £llß, 222, as against £35,529 and £79,863 respectively for the year 1890.