MISCELLANEOUS

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 237, 15 November 1873, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS

On Wednesday, the Maidstone Farmers' Club paid a visit' to the farm of Mr Hallett, of Eemp Town, Brighton, (»aj» . the Mark Lane Express), in response to an inritation to - vritneis the result of hit application of the pedigree system to the growth and propagation of cereals. The,- party pioneered! by Mr Hallett, inspected the farm adjoining the - house, and then proceeded to the Downs, where hit system of raising crops had beea applied upon u. extensive scale. The fields lie upon each side of the racecourse, from which - a fine view of the surrounding property. is obtainable ; and as there are no hedges or trees to intercept' the. view, it was an easy matter to mentally contrast the different crops in the - neighbourhood. A full explanation was given. of 'the mode - of sowing which had been adopted in order to* secure these results, and also of the careful selection of wedt from crops ■ which had proved particularly fruitful. I hin and early sowing are points which Mr HalleU strongly urges, and a ■> field of chevalier barley, sown in April, at a proportion of » seven and a half gallons to the acre, which the clubinspeotad, . ■erred to indicate the great advantage of< the system. The crop bore a very even and regular appearance. ' The portions - of tho furm sown with Hunter's white wheat, and raised* from seven gallons of seed to the acrt, which were sown in * September lasf , after a fallow, also presenting encouraging features the ears being of extraordinary size. The land T upon which this is raised is upon the slope of a chalk hill, and by no means farburable to the grower, but the careful , mauiring of the soil, and the addition of a- percentage of nitrate of soda of liewt. to the acre, at the end of April or tho beginning of May, coupled with thin-sowing and a care* ful selection of scod would, it is estimated, ensure a crop of " six quarters to the acre. The excur*ioni«ts returned to - Brighton, awd. proceeded, to the Royal Pavillion, the use of ' which had been secured to them through the courtesy of Mr E. Keeves, a member of the Corporation, and brother of theMessrs Keeves, of Staplehurst, at whose request the Mayor - kindly granted the use of one of the halls. Here dinner awaited them, the chair being taken by tho president of the club, Mr T. Bridgeland, jun., the rice-chairmen beirg Messrs . R. Fine and T. Reeves. Mr H. btonham, in proposing the health of Mr Hallett, said they must all* have been mnoh delighted with their day's visit; If they had not witnessed very extraordinary results, they had teen the application of * a great principle ; .for in the. pedigree system there was sound philosophy, and such as contained the very essence andspirit of Darwinism. Mr Hallett did no* profess to have the best variety, but to get the best result! from what be • had. The surroundings of a place had to be considered, for good seed would on some soil* be entirely thrown away, Let them all seek to get some practical good- from the instruction they had received, and endeavour to bring to perfection what Mr Hallett had so well begun-. Mr Hallett hoped a thoroughly good feeling had been established between* them. Mr Stoncham. did not appear to think, that the results of his system were very encouraging, but he. maintained as a simple assertion, and not in any spirit of egotism, that what they had just seen could be seen nowhere else. He did not think that in the whole of Europe fifty acres of' barley could be met with which were superior to that growing on the Manor Farm. He admitted that there was still room for improvement, but feared Mr Stoneham's remarks might leave a false impression. Mr Stoneham, in^plana- - tion, said what he intended to convey was that i\^n use* less to take high pedigree "ereals to a bad farm ; if equal intelligence were exercised in selecting and finding a proper - place for the seed, the result must be success. His only idea, was Mr Hallett laboured under some disadvantage in this respect. The following is from an article entitled. "The Old Lady of Threadnecdle street," published in, the Oity Press : — Another of the wonders of the place is the cellar in which the bank notes are kept, seven years after they have don*>~ their duty, and have returned from circulation. Die signature is torn up, they are all tied up together, and stowed away down here at the rate of 46,000 « day. At. first they were kept for 20 years, then the number was reduced, to '0, and then to 7. So great has been the increase in tkit department, wherens forty years ago 20,000 notes were deemed a heavy day'a work, now twice that number is considered a. light one. In the rooms above, the system of registering these bank notes is most admirable. A blunder seem* impossible. Each note can be identified. By reference tathe* registers, the clerks can at once tell on what day in whttiyear it was paid in, and from whom it was received. To do>this a great number of books are kept, and a great number of clerks are required, who are all day long entering the - career of the various notes which come under their care. Amongst her curiosities in the cellar in which these notes ■ are stored away, is ono for a million of money, with the signature of Abraham Nowland. It i* a very simple affair, and, apparently, very e«isy to be forged. It is a promise, on a plain bit of note paper, to pay on demand a million. The modern bank-note by the side of it is a very finished work of art. Indeed, here also they show you a warrant for £26, \\ liich had been stored away, and never presented for payment till at compound interest, it presented as much as £600. The bank-notes as they come in are burnt, but at different times, and as many are burnt as correspond with the new notes that are issued. As regards the issue, the notes are sent out into the world generally in bundles containing GOO each. The paper on which they are printed is manufactured at MVs»rs Portal's mills at Laverstock, Hants. 19,785 reams arc usually supplied to the bank yearly at a cost of 19s 6d per ream of 500 pieces of paper, which it generally kept for six months before, being taken into use. The dies from which the water-mark is made, as well as the plates used in printing tho notes, are all manufactured at the bank, and the printing and machinery — all of the highest character— are placed under the joint care A the chief printer, Mr Coe, and the engineer, Mr Hensinan. It is the chief cashier who regulates the quantity of notes required to be printed. A correspondent says :— I have recently heard two stories about Israelites, which I know will be amusing, and which I hope will be new to your readers. The first is Sir Moses Montefiore. When negotiating a loan on the Bourse, on which be was very keen, a small lot of capitalists approached him. *Oh dear, 'says one,' heia. going to swallow us nil. 1 'No, my dear air,' aaid Sir Moses witb a caustic smile, ' my religion forbids me that.' The second is of a Geiman Israelite, who was eating a pork chop in a thundti storm. On Leaving an ununily loud clap, he laid down his knife and fork^tum observed, ' Veil, did any por.y eter bear such % fuss about a little pid of pork ?' .„„

A contnbut >r of the Australasian Sketcher writes as folows : — Will the Atlantic branch of the English -speaking race ever develope a di lect of its own, or are our descendants all ovei island c<ntinenfc to be the only people in the world who will speak the mother tongue without a brogue, ldioi a, or pi o\ mciahsm of any kind ? Unlikely things, of couise, take place, bub the growth of an Australian brogue in these da^s of fiee anJ compulsory education seema almost impossible. On our hospitable shores we welcome the Cockney colonist without Ins h, the Somersetshire ploughboy with his abounding z, and the Yorkshhe jockey with his burr and broad a; and -with these we mix rollicking Paddy from Cork, sanctified Sawney frae Glaisco, and our hard-swearing, nasal-voiced cousin Jonathan, in such proportions that the peculiarities of none prevail, and in the second or third generation at furthest all will totally disappear. Tasmania, certainly, has a chance of raising a brogue of her own, and will very likely succeed if »he continues her present policy of frightening away visitors by putting a heavy import tax on their luggilge Through being severely let alone by the educited woild for five or six generations, the Yankees managed to cieate the ugliest dialect of the English language that the human tougue or nose is capable of utteiing, It would be to the interest of experimental philosophy — however much against their own- that the Tasmuiiaus should continue to isolate themselves for, say, another 100 years, so that it might be seen what duection their corruption of the language vdyld take. Of one thing we may be certain they will not beat the Yankees in ugliness. After a glorious session the Parliament of Westminster is coming to a closo, and that new institution the Parliament of Hvdo Park is about to open. The Park is engaged on Sunday next by the fiepubl.cin* for a demonstration against the proponed increase of the Duke of Edinburgh's allowance, and on Monday by the journeymen bakers for a demonstration in favour of the Smoke Nuisauce Abatement Acts. This is a good beginning of the -cssion, and there can be little doubt that before the old Westminster Parliament meets again the Hyde Park Parliament will have proved that for energy, if not for power, it is more than the equal of its venerable brother. Last week it showed that if it could not actually make laws it had no difficulty in breaking them, and the fact that Mr Ayrton's pillar is conspicuous this season by its ab-enca is sufficient proof that Hyde Park has only to issue its commands and they are instantly obeyed. Hyde Park has, moreover, an immense advantage over Westminster — namely, that iti language is easy to understand. If it does not like a thing it says so, and everybody knows what it means ; whereas not all the Judges and lawyers in England oan make out exactly what Westminster wants. Indeed, its utterances has ot late become so confused that it is often quite impossible to construe its Acts, and this is perhaps the reason why it cannot, like Hyde Park, enforce obedience to iti wishes. Altogether, of the two Parliaments, that of Hyde Park is probably for the momdnl^tjie more powerful and popular, and if it avoids the m makes of the Westminster Parliament, such a fussing over trifles while neglecting weightier matters and allowing Govertmeni to keep everybody m a fidget by outside meddling nnd internal muddling, it may make itself a name in history as a deliberate assembly. — Pall Mall Gazette. While the English Admiralty is forsaking — perhaps prematurely - the type of the Devastation and Fury — to revert to an older form of vessel in the Inflexible, the Russians are 1 constructing war ships on a model which has at least the merit of novelty. Those who are conversant with the progress of marine architecture may remember that to Mr E. J. Reed, C 8., is due the shortening of ironclads by at least one hundred feet. This principle has been pushed to its extreme limits by his more enthusiastic disciples. By the courtesy of the lale Chief Constructor of the Navy, we (Iron) bare been favoured with a view of protographs of the remarkable circular ironclad now at Nicholaieff. Admiral Popoff is responsible for the design of, perhaps, the most remarkable vessel that has floated since Noah's Ark. The ship is perfectly circular, and is driven through the water by six screw propellers. So far as handineas is concerned, nothing could ba more perfect. The propellers disposed around the ship — it would be useless to talk of stein, or stern, or beam — afford unlimited power of locomotion. Ahead, astern, or spinning round like a top, the vessel is equally at home. In a seaway the behaviour of circular ships is said to be peculiar, but for buoyancy they are difficult to surpass. On the passage from Cadiz the Lord Warden picked up the crew, 23 in number, of the. British steamer Beanchie, Captain Fendie, of Aberdeen, which foundered, head first, in sight of the squadron, oft' Tarifa, having suddenly opened forward, and sank so rapidly that the crew had only time to ' save their lives by taking to the boats, the compressed air oausing an explosion in the after part aa she went down. She hud sprung a leak six hours before, but the crew were in hopes of overcoming it with the pumps, so as to reacli Gibraltar, when the accident occurred. She was of 1,150 tons hurt ion, anl had on board 1,300 tons of coal, from Newcastle for Leghorn. The crevr being totally destitute of everything but what they stood up in, the officers and men of the English flag-ship made a subscription for the shipwrecked seamen which gave them about £3 15s each. Besides this they were treated with the greatest kindness by all on board, and granted a passage in the Helicon to Gibraltar. It has been remarked upon that the late Lord West bury entered college at fourteen years of age. 1 lie late Chief Justice Lefroy is another example of early matriculation. In fact, early matriculation at fourteen seems to have been not uncommon until lately. Dean Swift's is a case in point, and Cardinal Wolsey's is another. The report of the Annual Moveable Committee of the Man* Chester Unity of the Independent Order of O ldfelloirs states that the number of members in January, 1873, were 470,043, i the ad mi sons during the yenr 1872 having bean 34,699. The capital amounted (in January, 1873) to over £3,326,520 In the five tyears 1868 to 1872, the admissions amounted to 158 728 ; the net increase after deducting loss by death, withdrawals, and removals, having bsen near 45.0C0 members. The increase of capital in the same period of five years was over £872,000.