MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 302, 18 April 1874, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

A strange cnse hctwoen two cler^Tmen lias been beard it the Dobbo Pol iff Court Tin* Kfv 0 R. Qreig, Presbyterian minister, w.u cliai^fil wtfli publishing some false and defatiiatory libels com . nuii^ tlie Rev E Browne, clergyman of the Church of Ki.nlund It §eeins that the two reverend gentlemen h ivu lor some time been on bud terms, and a civil action lor libel wns now pending between them. Tho ) libels now complained oi were published in letters addres-ed by the defendant to the prosecutor whom lie thu-utened with criminal proceeding* Ilie defence .leemed to be that the prosecutor was as bad as the defendant. One witness described a meeting ol the local school board, at which both paruea were present. " Heard Mr Browne nay, ' You are a liar and a wretch : if I had you in the next room I would hammer you right and left,' and at the samo time he threw himself into a fighting attitude. Mr Greig was explaining something to tho board in reference to his daughter when Mr Brown interrupted him and said, 'Oh tho little beast! ' Believed Mr Browne was drunk on the occasion, judging from his appearance and conduct. He could scarcely stand ' up." The Bench committed the rev gentleman to take his trial. Mr Frank Buckland writes to Land ami Water: — "During my atay North last week, I saw, when inspecting a salmon river, a remarkably strong, active, intelligent little boy, between four and five years old, playing about a weir. Tho father told me a very curious story about the child. Last Christmas, he was taken to see a pantomime in which monkeys performed a great part. The scene so impressed the child's mind that the next morning he imagined himself to be a monkey. He would not apeak, and no kindness nor tin eats would make him speak a single word ; he would not sit at table with his brothers and sisters at meals, but would only eat out ot a plate placed on the ground, out t>£ whicli he ate his food, being on all fours. If anything to eat was presented to him, he always put it to his noso and smelt it, just as a monkey does before eating it. He was contniuilly climbing up tiees and throwing down boughs, and grinning at the peop'e below like the monkeys in the pantomime. When his father tried to correct him, the little fellow, still on all-fours, ran after him and bit him on the leg. He would serve his brothers and sisters the same if they teased liiin. This cuiious monkey tit lasted until a few weeks ago ; the idea has now quite passed out of his head. I wonder if this story may possibly bo of use to Mr Darwin." 'Jhe manufacture of intelligence in times of stagnation it an important industry in the Western States of America, ■where the newspaper editors are often at their wits' end to iind anilicieut food of a stimulating nature to satisfy the \oiaoions appetite* of their readers, Some interesting details are given by the Cincinnati Gazette of the ingenuity displayed in this|iine by a Mr Bennett, now dead, but once editor of the Cincinnati inquirer. It was Mr Bennetts practice, when news was scarce, to make small imaginary children tumble from the Newport ferry-boat mto the Ohio river, where they would have certainly perished but for the gallantry of * gentleman who happened to witness the occurrence, and who plunged into the water and rescued them- this gentleman being always some personal friend ot Mr Bennetts whom he delighted to honour. Some of these heroes, however, at last became wearied of the distinction thus thrust upon them, and a certain Mr Kellum, who had several times figured in the columns of the Jiuqutrer as the saviour of perishing innocents, preferred a request that his name might be no longer used for this purpose. He was assured that his request, although it was a proof of a curiously sensitive disposition, should be complied with ; and this promise was faithfully kept, for the next day Mr Kellum read that a beautiful litllo girl, the child ot a prominent citizen of Newport, had fallen from the Newport ferry-boat in the river, and Mr Kellum, who was standing close by and could have rescued the child from a watery grave, refused to render any assistance. Boding with indignation, Mr Kellum hurried to tho office ot the Enquirer, und uttered fearful threats of what he would do to Mr Bennett if thu pleasantry continued. That gentleman, however, calray pulling ofl' his coat, said, ' See, here, Kellum, you art not a bad fellow in your way, but I cannot stand any interference with my department. If I make any statement in the Enquirer you mustn't come round heie contradicting it. That isn't journalism.' Mr Kclluin retired abashed and thenceforward submitted caln 1/ to his fate. Hops in Tasmania, says the Hop Journal, are planted generally six feet apart ; some seven feet ; one large giowcr intends to plant them in future eight feet apart, behtTing that they require more air and space in the noh, vugin soil. They are ploughed or dug, diessed, poled with from 13 feefto '23 feet polos, nidge! ted or scanned, picked, and managed in the kiln much the same as in England. The quality is as yet not quite so good as could be wished, which ,seems to be always the case in fresh or recently reclaimed land, and time will, theie is no doubt, alter this. The Poverty Mai/ Herald observes : — Poverty Bay was aflheted towards the end of last week with u plague of flying ants, to which the Egyptian plague of flies was not a ciicumsstauce. In lome quarters they came down in showere. One result was singular, and worth recording. The cocks and hens appeared to think they were in for a good thing, and went for them Next day there was considerable mortality among poultry. A minister of the Secession Church thus recently accosted a clerical brother detected of plagiarism. — "I hear you have btcome a Sabbatarian." "Ila\e I not always been so?" responded the per*on addressed, "Oh, you have got beyond us all," was the reply; "ior 1 hear you neither think jour own thou^h'-s nor speak your own words on that holiday." Judge (to prisoner convicted of larceny): "Have you anything'to offer t<> the court before sentence is passed on you:" Prisoner : " No, Judge, I'm broke. I had ten dollars when I came in here, but my lawyer's got that ten dollars now." In the London clay, at Sheppy, Professor Owen h«» just discovered a bird with teeth, soinewhut resembling those in the Australian hooded lizard. He concludes it to have been webtooted, und a nsh-eater. No evidence of true teeth had pre\ioukly been known in any bird. The free men of the South have a peculiarity of adding " er" to the end ot all their words. For instance, a colored parson, •who held up one of his flock for popular remark exclaimed, " Look at that old man er, with one loot in the gravc-er, and the other all but-er. "