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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2040, 13 July 1885, Page 2

The "Yolks Zeitung" ot Berlin gives some statistics which show that for the seventeen states of Europo the total of the armies on a peace footing 132,529,422 men who cost £94,820,575 per annum. Adding to this, the total, of the seventeen war budgets, which is £101,672,782, the total loss suffered by European States annually on account of her armies is £196,514,852. A gentleman stopped at the house of a pious old woman at Walton, and observing her fondness for a pet dog, ventured to ask the name of tho animal, The good woman answered by saying .'Call him ' Moreover,' l ls not that a strange name?' enquired the gentleman. 'Yes,' said the pious old lady, ' but I thought it must be a good one, as I found it in the Bible.' 'Found it in the Bible?' quoth the gentleman. 1 Pray, in what part of the Bible did you fiud it?' The old lady turned down her Bible with the utmost reverence, and turning to the text, read as follows: ' Moreover, the dog came and lieked his sores.' ' There, said she triumphantly, 'have I not tho highest authority for the name ?' Trees have been found in Africa which wore computed to be 5,150 years old, and a cypress in Mexico is said to have reached a still greater age. The oldest individual specimens of any species—in fact, the oldest living thing on the globe—is probably the cypress of Santa Mariadel'l'ule, 111 the Mexican State of Oaxaca. If estimates of trees, ages are to be relied npon, the life of this venerable forest monarch may have spanned the whole period of written history, At last account it was still Crowing, and in 1815, when Humbolt saw it, it measured 42ft in diamater, 140 ft in circumference, and 282 ft between the extremities of two opposite branches. Tho application of torture is still tolerated in tho so-called Mixed Court of Shanghai, notwithstanding ono of 'the Judges is an Englishman, The Shanghai Mercury relates that last month a Chinese girl about 20Jycars of age was kidnapped, and a man and a woman were arrested by the Mixed Court runners for being concerned in the girl's disappearance. The parties were examined at the Mixed Court one afternoon recently, and upon the man refusing to say where the girl.was, ho was ordered to be looked up, The woman either did not know, or would not tell .where the girl was, The magistrate was under the impression that she was stubborn, and, after, warning.her, ordered her to receive twenty blows on the left cheek with a three-ply shoe Bold. The blows having been administered, and tho woman not-giving tho necessary information, Bhe received twenty blows on the right cheek. This not having tlie desired effect, the magistrates sentenced her to twenty more, making sixty in all, Still there was no confession, and the magistrate directed twenty more to be given. The woman still protested that she knew nothing about the girl, and the magistrate, probably thinkingthatshe had received enough, did not desire his last order to be carried out. Considering the numbor of blows the woman had received, the marks on her cheeks were slight, but the punishment is, nevertheless, a barbarous one.

Tho custom of givingaomcthing to "the boot" to retail purchasers exists te a greater extent in Berlin than in any other city, and is fostered, no doubt, by the constantly increasing competition. In many branches of trade it has grown to bo a pretty heavy tax. The large confection houses give Chinese shawls, hats, straw baskets, pompadour satchels, etc., and actually exhibit tlieso gift varieties in one of their windows, in ordor to attract customers, whom seem that these enticing additions have t'g be paid for somehow. Grocers bribe the custom of the cooks by weekly offerings of fine soap, that of the children by drops of endless variety. The bakers make up in an extra bread or cake; the' butchers offer daiptios in the Bliape of marrowbones, kidneyß, ends of sausages, and ; slices of ham. Pastry cooks make a rebate of one shilling on'a purchase of three shillings worth of honey cake; tho purchaser of a pound of b scuit is allowed one-fifth of the value in cake, of his,or. her choosing.,- At the penny bazaars whoever' buys a dozen articles. . receives a thirteenth gratis. Lampists offer chimneys or wicks to | " boot fruiterers, apples, pears, or oranges. The trade flourishes best among the dealers of books and stationery for schools, whose shops are a perfect ■ El Dorado for the youngsters of both sexes, there being large tables covered with everything that can attract a juvenile buyer, such ss pictures,

stoiy and fairy books, dolls, pencils, pupfcj holders, games, notions, etc.; some. being generous enough th allow a "choice" even to purchasers of throe-halfpenco worth, Of late the police had even to be called in at the requestof theschool-board, the pupils having disturbed the morals of the classeß by exhibiting the questionable throwings-in of cigarettes, fire-crackers, and the like.

Another aristocratic scandal lias just been revealed at Home in connection with . • a titled family, The Earl of Ayleaford, whose death occurred in Texas last i- > ' ary, "rah through" "his England, and generally got his affairs™!) such a bad state that at last there was no • resource left for him but to endeavor to make a fresh start in the New World! He~ was only thirty-six years of age wheu hist death was announced, A scandal has now* arisen in connection with the legitimacy of. the supposed infant heir, with the .result that the latter has been set aside, and the . title goes to the brother of the deceased earl, the Hon. Charles Wiglitwich'Finch;.. bom in 1851, The late Earl, its may -be. mentioned, married Edith, third daughter. of Lieut.-Colonel Peel's William, M.P., ot 'Temple House, Great Marton, and. there - were two daughters issue of the marriago. The new Eari has been twice marriedfirst to the Hon. Georgiana, Agnes Bagot (who died in 1874), eldest daufrhtet«g[ • Baron Bagot, and secondly, to Ella toria, eldest daughter of the late Mr John Ross, of Benena, County Cork, and,widow of Mr Charles Linton, of Hemmingford, Hunts,