MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 310, 9 May 1874, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The following' remarks are extracted from the Satrdauy Review of August 12th, 1565 : — "The evidence which hat been accumulated respecting the antiquity of the human race is in the highest degree interesting, but it is still too obicure to indicate satisfactory conclusions. It is important to remember that we do not yet really know enough to generalise with anything like good grounds about 'ages' of stone and metals, and to conclude that they might nctually have succeeded one another in time, in an order of diminishing rudeness. It appears to be beyond » doubt, that certain communities, those for instance of the Danish shell mounds, and of certain of the Swiss Lake Villages used only stone nnd not metal. It is probable, in a high degrea, that atona in general, as a material, preceded metal, but bejond this all eeems still open to question. We know that great varieties of civilization may long subsist together if divided by sufficient barriers of biood, of religion, of interests, of traditional habils, not only contemporaneously but in close neighbourhood, nnd it is not more safe to conclude that villages in the Swiss lakes which used bronze, must have been more recent than neighbouring ones which used stone, than it would be to conclude from traces of social lifethat the English of the Pule, and the Irish outside it, could not have been contemporaries in the sixteenth century. Again, the relation in point of time of bronze to iron is iar too uncertain to warrant us in making an age of iron after an oge of bronze. We are in absolute ignoronce of everything connected with I lie first use of the metals. Bronze presupposes two remarkable things, the supply of a raremetal — tin, and the knowledge how to use it in an alloy with copper. We, at present, know of one only adequate source ot tin in Europe, viz. Comma]], and that implies a commerce amongst nations, and with that commerce a civiliza* tion which takes away all improbabilities connected with the full use of iron. People who could have invented bronze and procured the mutenalsforit, could surely have procured a wrought iron and something besides rudeness and chronological priority, must be supposed to account for the preference of one metal to the other. It seems a mtlter of regret that this subj ct should be mainly studied with reference to the mere question uf the antiquity of the bnmnn race. Whereas, in this cafe, we c/in be said to lnow so little, it would be better to leave the question of ago till we havebetter means of determining it than we possess. In the account of the mrivnl of H.M S. Challenger at Melbourne which appears in the Aigus, it is staled t>ba# trailing was carried on by those on boaid the Challenger and fish got at a depth of 3,8?5 fnthome (23,250 feet"). A general peculiarity of the fish found at great depths was that they were black, and tint their eyes were projecting or 6torU ing out of their head. Seen through n microscope, some of the specimen! of the marine animalcule brought up on thesounding line were wondrously quaint and beautiful- The Admiralty worm, so nnmed from the display of well' defined representations of anchors on its skin, was one of these. Tlio Manilla glass rope sponge also hud a singular appearance when viewed through the microscopic. There was an. excellent collection of photographs on board of all the plnces andobjectsof interest met during the cruise- The Challenger intended to remain at Melbourne until the 28th March, ant) then proceed to Sydney, between which port and New Zealand she was to strike n line for scientific obsenation. A horse bred at the Cape of Good Hrpe has been sent to England ond entered for the Ascot Cup of this ycar^ Thi» t ns far as we ore aware, will be the first occasion on which a colonial-bred horse lrtis raced in England. A hurdle racer was sent Lome from Melbourne two yeura ngo, but won not allowed to stnrt through some queer pi act ices of bis colonial owner. Sir Hercules, when two years old, bad a passage taken for him by his bieedor, Mr C. Smith, of Sjdney, but the sudden death of that jentlemun saved the liorte to the colonies, whpre heproxelth tnost valuable sire they ever possessed. There was a talk ot one t:n«e of sending homeTheßarb, the flying son of Sir Hercules, but it was not done. It would be exceedingly interesting to see whut a colonial-bred hone could do against the ciacki in England, for however well a horse has run in England, when brought and raced in the colonies, the roßull has been invariably a disanpomtuieut. — Telegraph.

Tio Tralee Cirunicle tli<- L'lhihl urjim hi L'i.ili'c, « is pr nterl wir.i )i b'a k bml-i-on T uns l.iv, "lh > nth Fed, in order to s'unv its »riel at the return of The o'Di>iio.rhue An ajrii ullural gcniti* Ims invented 11 torpoilo in theslnpc of a kei nel or corn, winch m deM^n vl for tin* bt'sjinlonipnt of crows. As soon as that offensive brd tik's hold of it, it explodes and blows the top of his head off Thii affords a cheap nnd innocent recreation for the crow, and at the same time cbes away w ith a gre*."ous evil. Biitiop Moran, in the course of a recent •ennon on education, made the following remarks : — They had heard him •peak against secular education before, and say that one of its objects was the destruction of Christianity. He would read lor their information an extract from the National Secular Almanac for 1874, in which secularism is defined Tho extract wmld speak for itself ; nothins more horrible or diabolicil could be conceived A 9 he had told them again and again, the object of secularism «a< the destruction of Christianity and to make infidels. Secularists had now grown sufficiently nunerous to make their declaration in clear nnd distinct terms. He would r<>a'l theextrnct without further comment : — Secularism n ay be briefly defined ns the icience of tins life— -the philosophy of the present existenc\ Secularism is a religion without n superstition — 1 theology — the divinity of which is hum-inity. It teaches a man how to live without a dependence on a God ; and how to die without fear of a devil. It instructs him how to prosper without a Providence; how to be happy without a priest ; how to be moral without a Bible ; how to be useful without theological belief It asserts the possibility of a paradise without the necessity of an ascension, and thinks salvation attainable without the blood of the Limb. 113 object was to destroy the belief in God, and to root out of man all dependence in Hun ; and to cause man to repudiate Christ and his redemption. Its object was to destroy Christianity and to nine u • a heathen and Godle's society. The following appeared in the celumns of the N Z. Herald of Thursday. We thoroughly endorse the opinions of our contemporary :— " A draft bill has been laid on the table of the Provincial Council, which seeks to do a gi eat wrong Any person exercising the functions of a public auctioneer in this province has to pay an annual licence fee of £40 for the privilege of following his calling. Wo need only say that this fee is only a very small item in an auctioneer's business Clerks, storemen, and labourers have to be permanently retained, with other large outgoings, to enable this kind of business to be carried on. Altogether an auctioneer's business is anything but or profitable, excepting in ▼cry rare cases. The bill befoie us provides that " Tho Provincial Treasurer of the Province of Auckland or some person appointed by the Superintennent, shall issue a license in the form in the schedule hereunto annexed, to be called a thirty-six hours' licence, to any person who shall apply for the same, on payment of the mm of one pound. Provided always thnt such license shall not entitle such person to sell by virtue of such licence at anyplace south of the boundaries of the Wainui and Matawhero bloels, or north of Hen-ling's line from the Wairoa to the Pahurehure Creek, in the County of Eden.' We oppose such a measure beimg made law, as an act of great injustice to those who follow the legitimate calling of an auctioneer. Either abolish the licence fee or make it uniform. Should the bill pass, anyone for tho turn of twenty shillings may employ another to effect a public •a'e on his account, to the injury of the auctioneer who has been compelled to pay the annual sum of £50. We have always understood that auctioneers were subject to an annual licence as a guarantee of respectability, and as some sort of security that good faith will be kept with their constituents A twenty shilling licence will in many cases mean the disposing of stolen goods, hows, cattle, am) the like. A horse •tealer may bring a mob of horses from a distance, and for the sum of one piund he will bo allowed to dispose of them them and then decamp, leaving buyers with an illegal purchase on their hands, which owners can com| c' them to restore. The bili is bad, unfair, and ought not to be entertained." The Hindoo women, says a writer in Frasers Magazine, attracted me most by their graceful cirnage, their pic-ture-que drapery, consisting of a full skirt and a sort of burnous, which panes orer his head, almost completely veiling his face. These Tary in colour, being sometimes bright blue and pink and yellow, the sk rt often bordered with a hem of some other colour, often very gaudy, but the dark skin harmonises it all. The most artistic to the mind is the deep indigo blue, but it is more raro in the Northwest than in Southern India, where almost all the lower classes wear it. It is pleasant to watch the easy grace with which they walk, bearing round red earthenware or bright copper water-jars on their heads, steadying their burden with one well-shaped, small-wristed, dusky arm stretched up to its full length, and covered almost to the elbow, and sometimes above it, with numbers of bracelets. These are sometimes silver, and often plated metal or red and green luce. I once heard of a school, the pupils of which were trained to walk about with tumblers of cold water on their heads; and when I saw the firm-footed easy grace of these burden-bearing women, I regretted that tho practice was not univeisal. The pale-faced race may perhaps pride itself on its supeuority in the use of the contents of its head, but these dusky daughters of the sun certainly outdo their more, favoured sisters in the use they make of the outside of theirs. They carry everything on their heads ; jars of water, pieces of cloth, baskets of vegetables, huge bundles of sugarcane, fuel, anything a.ul everything, leaving their hands free for any additional burden. They do not even carry their little black babies in their arms, but either balance them astri le on their shoulden with their little hands on their mother s head, or else astride on one hip, encircled with a strong arm. I hare seen a woman with four water-jars towering on her head, and her little baby on her hip, walking along with springy grace, jingling her silvery anklets and toe bells as she went. A country paper contain! an account of a machine for plugging teeth, which reminds us of the indention patented many jeais ago by Dr Slugg. It was a t oth-puller. Slug? had an enormous business, and he concluded to economize his strength by pulling teeth by machinery. He constructed a series ot cranks and levers, fixed to a moveable stand and operating a pair of forceps, by means of a leathern belt which was connect! d with an engine. The doctor experimented with it several times on nails firmly inserted in a board, nnd it worked splendidly. The first patient he tried it on was a judge who called in to have an aching molar removed. When the forceps had been clamped upon the judge's tooth. Dr Slugg geared the mach.ne and opened th.2 >alve. We believe u was never known with any degree of f x lctnc-s at what rate of power the steam engine was working. But, in the twinkling of an eye, the judge was twisted out of the chair, and the movable stand began to execute the most surprising manoeuvres around the room. It would jerk the judge high into the air, and souse him down in an appalling manner. Then it would jeik him up against the chandelier three or four times, and across the room; it dro\c the judge's head through the oil portrait of Sluga's father o\er th>- mantelpiece. After bumping him against all the a.< cestors it flung the ju'lge around among the crockery on the wash-stand, and danced him up and down in an exciting manner; finally, the machine dashed violently against DrSiugg, who seized the judge's leg with the forceps, and out came the tooth. When they carried the judge home, he seemed inordinately glad his tooth was out.