MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 342, 17 September 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Many persons ur the phrase "in :i trice " who have no conception of its meaning. A trice is the sixtieth part of a second time. The hour.is divided into sixty minutes the minutes into sixty seconds, and the seconds into sixty trices or thirds. According to the opinion of Messrs Bell, Gully and Izard, which was asked by the Wellington Educational Institute", the School Attendance Act of 1884 is clearly mandatory, and school committees who do not carry it out are liable to proceedings in the Supreme Court to compel them to do so. A Primitive Methodist circuit steward in New Plymouth recently lent a publican £I3OO, partly at 7 per cent. and partly at 6 per cent., the transaction being made public through the medium of the Financial Press, which deals with such matters. The church took immediate action and called upon him to resign all church offices. He has done so. The query "Is life worth living ?" might well be asked of a judgment debtor who, says the Post, -appeared on summons in the Wellington Magistrate's Court recently to explaiu why he did not pay a debt £l7 odd. The man said he was earning 24s a week, and had a wife and six children to support ! And he had come all the way from Carterton to supply this information. Tho case was dismissed. On Sunday morning (says the Dannevirke "Advocate") while nine cyclists were riding on the Weber road near the Manawatu bridge, a bull got on the road and trotted along in front of them. It was funny to watch the animal coing at the double and making pace for'the cyclists, but it was ever so much funnier a few moments later, for the bull did a right about turn and made straight for the wheelmen. Some left their machines on the road and fled to the woods, while others carried their wheels with them. All got safely away. A very interesting discovery has just been made in Jerusalem by Prolessor Brusselbach, of Waldbrocl (Germany). It refers to the register of the keeper of the principal gate to Jerusalem, which is the first contemporary writing showing the name of—- • Jesus, the Man God"—in the year 780 of Jerusalem, 27th year of the Christian era. On the front pigc of this papyrus, written in antique Hebraic language of the Aramic dialect, a short notice " Jesus, the Man of God, came and went to-day." This is at present the only contemporary document attesting officially the movements of Christ by an eye-wUness. In the scripture, or in profane history, them lias never been found a fixed date of the presence of Christ in Palestine—l'ltalic. Mr T. Taylor in the House referred to the dismissal of Mr Jackman, a Customs official who had exposed fraud after fraud upon the revenue in which the brewers were concerned. That official, he said, had saved his salary time after time. Nearly every town he touched he smote the brewers for revenue which they were defrauding the colony out of. Well, then, Mr Jackman went—(laughter)—and there was peace, perfect peace. (Laughter.) The peace thatpasseth understanding. (Laughter.) He would like to see the records regarding that dismissal, but they could not get on the track tt these things, because the departments destroyed private correspondence. It was a pity they had not a real full power phonograph in every Ministerial room, and then they might hear the details of some extraordinary interviews. But at present they were baulked at every turn in their desire to get information. Three days after the ship Eulomene left Newcastle for San Francisco a stow-away made bis appearance on board. He was hardly able to stand for hunger, having- eaten nothing for three days. Questioned by the captain, he said, " I'm a professional deadbeat. I've beaten my way over every railroad line in America ; I've beaten my way on every steamship line that runs to and from Europe; I've beaten my way to the Southern seas, and from there to the Arctic ; and I beat ray way to Australia ; but I'll never do it again. No chance back there for a dead.beat to make an honest living." " What are you going to do when you get to 'Frisco?" asked the captain ; and the ana wer came trippingly, " Beat my way to Klondyke." Soon after the Eulomeno anchored at San Francisco the stowaway was reported missing. He had stolen a boat belonging to one of the port officials and made his escape. The boat was subsequently found adrift in the harbour. Referring to the influence certain sports have on trade (writes "Philibuster" in tho Australasian a mass remarked the other day that 20,000 people might play football, yet the fact of their doing so would not confer great benefits on trade. Let 20,000 people, however, ride bicycles, and the cost of the machines alone would account for a circulation of considerably more £300,000. Presuming that cycling causes each of these 20,000 to spend £2 10s per annum, we have a still further circulation of £50,000. Figures like these show plainly what a vast effect cycling as a money circulating influence, must exercise on the affairs of the world, and the time must surely come when the interests of the pastime in the matter of roads, etc., will receive far more attention from Governments and municipalities than they do at present. Apait from these figures altogether are the immense sums of money invested in tie manufactures of cycles and their various parts. Napoleon 1., in his rude way, told Madame de Stacl that the greatest woman was she who gave mos 1; sons to the State. They seem to have somewhat similar notions in the Transvaal, where a draft law has just been introduced providing a bonus of £IOO to ever burgher who is the father of twelve boys. It is (says the "St. James's Gazette") a rude task for a small guerdon, but the South African Boer comes of a prolific race, and, no doubt, a good number of twelve-times parented burghers can be found. But the bonus is intended to be something more than a reward for the domestic virtues. The Boers are in imminent danger of being outnumbered by the European population, and if they are not careful there will presently not be enough of them to fight and vote. However, the new law, when it is passed, cannot produce any tangible effect for twenty years, and by that time no one knows what may have happened to the Transvaal Free State ? It is reported that a couple of enterprising individuals from Kansas recently arrived at Freeport with the object of acquiring a piece of land for the purpose of breeding black cats on a largo scale. Thoy proposed to commence with 1,000 cats and 5,000 rats, tho latter to serve as food for the former. According to calculations, the cats would increase in number to 15,C00 in the first twolve months, and to 225,000 during the second year. Tho economy of the design is ingenious, it being intended to devote the carcases of the cats killed for their skins to feeding the rats, and, as the letter increase five times as fast as the former, a perfect cycle—of small limit, it ie true—of cat-rat-cat and rat again would go on till doomsday, As no mention is made of providing other food for either of the animals involved, it would appear that the entablishment is intended to be self-supporting, and that not only have the formulators of this scheme discovered the secret of perpetual motion, but also solvtd the equally difficult problem of how to create something out of nothing. The South Sea lt-landers, who make a living by taking in each other's washing, must now hide their diminished heads ! Hatter's Gazette