MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 294, 28 May 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

The Hongkong Daily Press gives the following information concerning the manner in which some Philippine insurgent prisoners were treated by the Spaniards :—" A gentleman who recently paid a vis t to Bolinao reports that the Spanish troops have been guilty of terrible cruelty towards many rcbe's who were injured and fell into their hands. The wounded were thrown into a wooden hut in which were a number of rebels who hud been killed. The hut was then set fire to, and the dead and living were burnt almost to ashes. A photograph taken of the hut while it was iu flames shows, it is said, human remains being consumed by the fire."

A trio of unprincipled geniuses who conceived a notion of making capital out of the anxiety of the public for news of the Spanish-American war got into trouble in Melbourne the other day. They secured a horse and cart, bought up a large stock of Saturday evening's papers, and went out on Sunday selling them, at from threepence to ninepence each, as " extraordmaries " containing the latest news received that day (Sunday). Some ot the victims pursued the men on bicycles later in the afternoon, and one man was caught. He was charged next day with imposition, and sentenced to two months' imprisonment without the option of a fine.

A late bishop, during his annual confirmation visit to a country church, was surprised and annoyed to find oue half of the churchyard under a seemingly flourishing crop of potatoes. Upon coming out of the church after the confinmtion ceremony was over, he turned to the clergyman and said : ■• Mr Vicir, I see that you have potatoes planted in Cod's acre." " Yes, my lord," replied the vicar, "and an excellent crop I expect too. " Well, sir,'' rejoined the bishop, " I trust that when I come here next year I shall not find a crop of potatoes in the churchyard." "Oh, no, my lord, T hope I am not such a fool as that. I propose to rotate the crops—cabbages next year, my lord ! "

Apropos of the Druce mystery, which is at present causing so much interest, a story illustrative of the mistakes which sometimes happen in funeral arrangements is told of a certain Yorkshireman. His aunt had died in Russia, and the body was placed in a coffin and sent to England for burial. On the arrival of the coffin in Yorkshire it was opened by the nephew, who found to his horror and astonishment that it contained the body of a Russian geueral in full uniform, the breast covered with medals. In great distress he telegraphed to St. Petersburg to obtain an explanation of the mistake,'and asking for instructions with regard to the deceased officer. A wire speedily arrived in answer from the Russian capital : ' You may keep general. Aunt buried to-day with full military honours.'

In the Goiiath, launched yesterday at Chatham, says the Daily News of March iJ4th, we have certainly a tremendous engine of war. She is of the Renown class, and she carries a central " citadel," armoured on both sides and fore and aft, to protect her against fire from any quarter. The citadel has, moreover, a protective decK of steel. Her heavier guns fi r e shot of 8501 b weight, with a charge of 1661 b of cordite for each gun. Taking all her larger guns together, and including the 12 quick-firers, she might deliver in two minutes about 31,0001 b of shot, or at the rate of seven tons a minute. And this leaves out of accouut the fire from the fifteen machine guns. Her speed under natural draught is 18f knots, as against the 17|- of the Majestic under forced draught. Nothing is said as to her coal consumption, a most important point. Iu this respect the Powerful, with its much-lauded Belleville boilers, seems to have been a bit of a failure. She was designed to run at 22 knots, but it has been shown that if she attempted to do anything of the sort she would exhaust her coal bunkers in less than forty-eight hours. Even at 11 knots she could not keep the sea very long without renewing her supplies.

There are no prisons in Iceland. There are no police in that country. The Icelanders are so honest that there is no need for such guardians of peace and property. A traveller recently returned to America from Reikiavik says in the Churchman that in that city it is not e\en considered necessary to have bolts or locks on the houses. " The history of Iceland for 1000 years records no more than two thefts. Of these two cases, one was chat of a native who was detected after stealing several sheep ; but as he had done so to supply his family, who were suffering for want of food, when he had broken his arm, provisions were furnished to them and work was found for him when able to do it, and mean* while he was placed under medical care ; but the s'igma attached to his crime was considered sufficient punishment. The other theft wis by a German, who stole 17 sheep. But as he was in comfortable circumstances, and the robbery was malicious, the sentence passed upon him was that he should sell all his property, restore the value of what he had stohn, and then leave the country or be executed, and he left at once." Of course, however, there is provision for the administration of justice. There are sheriffs' courts, province courts at the capital, and, fioally, the Supreme Court at Copenhagen, Denmark, the island being a dependency of the Danish kingdom.

Discussing the modern battleship inaction, an American writer says: What is known of battleships in action is not enough to settle the question. No action is recorded between vessels of the type wc are considering. The nearest was probably the battle of the Yalu, in the war between China and Japan, which was fought in September. 1894 The finest ship of the Chinese fleet was the Chen-Yuen, popularly rated as a battle ship, but better described as a barbette ironclad cruiser of under 3000 tons. The details of that fight suggest that the modern battleship may be as terrible a meuace to its friends as to its foes. The gunners were deafened, dazed, and blinded. The commander, Philo M'Giffin, American, had the membranes of both ears split by the concussion of his own guns, and received many other injuries. Although a brave officer, he succumbed to acute nervous disease, and died insane about a year ago. Old navy officers, who smelled powder in the terrific fights of our-Civil War, say that no crew cau fight the modern battleship without being disabled. The ship itself is an elaborate plexus o f powerful and delicate machinery. The crew must be a corps of skilled mechanics to navigate the vessel in time of peace. The hud i? a network of marvellous engines, dynamos, electric firing, lighting, hydraulic, and steering apparatus, the slightest disarrangement of which means disablement. Ihe shocks of the ship's own big guns are liable to affect it. Their discharge, even at target practice, has shown that they are dangerous to their operators. Broken ear-drums and ruptmed blood vessels in the lungs and head arc the results of neglecting precautions which there is bo time to observe in battle,

The iate illustrious physician, Sir R. Quain, Coroner of Middlesex, was entrusted with a difficult post mortem examination. A man suffering from melancholia came home one day to his wife, showed her a bottle labelled " arsenic," and informed her he had swallowed what was in it, and that it was all "up " with him. He was removed to a hospital where, in fact, lie died shortly afterwards, in spite of treatment. At the inquest the chemist swore most positively that, suspecting something wrong with his customer, he had simply filled a bottle boring a delusive label with an innocent drug. This assertion was rendered doubtful by medical certificates to the effect that a quantity of arsenic had been found in the man's stomach. Dr. Quain was called in at this juncture, and undertook a more minute investigation. He discovered that no irseuic had passed out of the stomach into the intestinal canal and concluded that it must have been introduced afterwards by means of a stomach pump, and it came out that the resident medical officers of the hospital had resorted to this expedient in order to hide the blunder they had committed in judging the case as one of arsenical poisouing. Dr. Quain was in the difficulty of either allowing a poor chemist to bear the blame and penalty of selliug arsenic illegally, or "giving away" influential members of his profession. He did not hesitate between the claims of truth and justice and a mistaken " esprit de corps."—Newcastle Chronicle.

A curious incident occurred lately at an inquest at the St. John's Mortuary, London, where a jury of working men was summoned for three iuquests. On the return of the jury from viewing the body it was discovered that two of the number were missing, and the Coroner's officer went in search of them. At the end of about halt au hour the officer returned with the two jurors, and in explanation informed the Corouer that he had found them in a neighbouring puhlichouse actually discussing the deaths of the three persons and the general absurdity of inquests. The Coroner (to the Jurors) —Why did you not return with the other Jurors ? The Jurors (together)—We thought it was all over (laughter). The Coroner—But you've heard no evidence and returned no verdict. The first Juror—l .don't understand that. The other Juro'r—ln the dead-house I 'eared a bloke say as 'ow they 'ad bof died sudden like, and another chap, him over there (pointing to the officer), said they was nateral deaths, and I says " Yus," cos I thought so too, and I went away. (Loud laughter). The Coroner—But you heard the words of the oath ? The first juror— Do you mean wdiat you said before we went out ? The Coroner—Yes, when you were sworn. The Juror—l ain't no scholar, and didn't understand what you meant by what you said. The other Juror—l thought when we kis3ed the book and saw the bodies in the deadhouse it was all over, and I was just asaying to 'im what rot it seemed dragging of a working man wiv four kids away from his work, which that chap came and told us to come back. The Coroner—Well, sit down ; we had to start without you though. The second Juror—We're very sorry, your Worship, but it was the first time we'd ever had to do this kind of job, and didn't tumble to the what - do - you - call it, " moders operander." (Loud laughter). The Coroner—l will excuse you this time, sit down. The Juror—Thank yer, yer Worship.

In making his statement to the House of Commons early last month on the Eastern situation, Mr Balfour, in the course ot his speech, said:—[ do not believe that in the history of the world such a spectacle has ever been presented as that which the Empire of China presents at this moment History, indeed, is full of accounts of the weakness and decay of great empires, but I do not think that history shows a siugle case in which an empire numbering its inhabitants by hundreds of millions, which has never received any blow directed against a vital part, whose inhabitants have mauy of the qualities which go to make great nations, being thrifty, industrious, enterprising, courageous—l do not think that history shows a single case where an empire of tint kind has been apparently wholly unable to act against the feeblest form of attack. It is a spectacle which up to this time the world has never yet seen. You may ransack and study the pathology of empire, and you will study it. I believe in vain if you stek to find any example of so complete a paralysis. The difficulty that we, the British nation, are placed in is this. Tlu> Empire whose preseot condition I have thus briefly described is one iu which we have great interest?, great in their magnitude and important to us from the mere bulk of commerce which they represent ; but important also because we were the pioneers in the Far East, and we, who still possess by far the greater share of Chinese commerce, were those who first opened that commerce, so far as it is as yet open, to the world, and that before France had any colonies in the Far East, before Germany had a colonial policy at all, and whilst Russia was still divided by interminable tracts of waste territory from the Chinese Empire. la those days we had already taken that course of opening up China to foreign trade and commerce which has given us the position which we now occupy there and which has created for us those great iuterests which it is our duty to preserve. (Cheers). The strained relations of foreign affairs, and the anxiety that broods over the British Treasury Bench, recall (writes a London correspondent) a dramatic incident that occurred in the memorable session of 1885. Iu addition to trouble with Russia.our relations fvith France were at the time in perilous ten sion One day the City was alar.-ned by news that France, resenting British occupation in Egypt, had withdrawn her Consul from Cairo, obviously as a preliminary to a declaration of war. When the House met Sir Stafford Northcote, then leading the Opposition, asked if there was any truth in the report. Mr Gladstone replied that no such information had reached the Foreign Office. Ten minutes later a letter was passed along the Treasury Bench till it reached the Premier's hand. The watchful, crowded House observed him start, a cloud of profound anxiety resting on his face as he re read it. H<i remained for a while sunk in troubled thought. Then he slowly rose, and, amid solemnly hushed silence.stood at the table. Speaking in low, grave tones, he said, when Sir Stafford Northcote had put the questiou to him, he had truly replied that he had no information on the subject. "lam sorry to say," he added, " that within the few miuutes that have since elapsed a despatch ha 3 been received at the Foreign Office, stating that the French Charge d'Affaires left Cairo this morning." The sensation created was profound. War with Russia was an idea with which the public mind had grown familiar. Now it seemed the country would at the same time be engaged in war with France. But it wa3 all a mistake, one of the oddest in the history of s cable messages. In view of the critical state of affairs, the Premier had suggested that any telegrams reaching the

Foreign Office from Cairo should be communicated to him in the House of Commons without a moment's delay. A message arriving at 4 o'clock from Sir Evelyn Baring, the Permanent UnderSecretary, in his zeal, sent it off in batches, as he completed the deciphering. The first message ran:—"This morning the French Charge d'Affaires left." Five minutes later arrived another heated Foreign Office messenger with the conclusion of the message—"some papers for my consideration."