MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 323, 9 June 1874, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Anew steamship, the largest which has yet been con sfructed for the Cunard Line, was launched from th Clyde Shipbuilding yard of Messrs. J. and G-. Thomson The ceremony of naming the vessel the Bothnia was gracefully performed by Miss Arthuthnot. The Bothnia is upwards of 4,500 tons burden, and of the following dimensions :— Length over all, 455ft j breadth of beam, 42ft 6in ; depth, 30ft. Accommodation is provided for 300 firstclass passengers, and 800 third-class passengers. She is bark rigged and has four deck3— namely, the upper or promenade deck, the spar deck, the main deck, and the lower or orlop deck. The vessel is fitted with compound engines of 600 horse power. There are two jacketed cylinder engines, the small cylinder being 62in, and the large one 1C6 Inches, and 8 bailers, with 24 furnaces in all. The ship's cti.il bunkers are capable of holding 1200 tons, a quantity more than sufficient to carry her acro3S to America and back again. The steam steering gear is amidships, besides which she has powerful sciew gearing; and iu further supplement of the guiding resources of the vessel, it may be directed from a wheelhouse aft in the event of the steam gearing getting out of order while at sea. The Bothnia is built in the most substantial manner. The iron scantlings are exceedingly strong, the ship being doubleplated for a considerable distance round the bilge, and having nine intercostal keelsons, while the spar deck which is all of teak, is plated with iron. She is also strengthened fore and aft, the better to resist the action of the sea. There are 12 small boats on board, all fitted as life boats. On the upper or promenade deck separate cooking ranges, with pantries, &.c, are provided for th? first and third class passengers, the food, when ready for the table, being lowered to the dinning rooms through a hoist. The saloon for first-class passengers, situated nearly amidships, is about 41ft square, and in it 300 persons may sit down to dinner at one time. The furnishing and decorations are of the most superb description. First-class passengers are accommodated for the most part on the spar deck, and here also aie the confectioner's shops, <X-c, while the third-class passengers are below on the lower deck. On the promenade deck is a large smoking room for gentlemen, and a handsomely fitted cabin for ladies. The Bothnia, it may be mentioned, was launched with all her boilers in, her funnel and masts in position, and all the deck work finished. In short, she was complete in every detail, with the exception of the main engine, tL tputting in cf which is only a work of some three or four weeks. The Scythia, sister ship t > the Bothuh, and the^Saiagossa and Cherbourg, are being built in the same yard, and will shortly form an important addition to the already colossal squadron of steamers belonging to the Cunard Company. Iu noticing the retiring address of the President, Rev II. W. Crosskey, F-G-S., delivered at the annual meeting, 1S73 tho Spectator says :— This is a very interesting paper of eautions as to the true methods and true limits of the science of geology — a paper which not only geologists, but almost all men who take any interest in the methods of the modern sciences may read with pleasure and profit. As an illustration ef its scientific warnings, and of the lucidity of its illustrations, we extract a short passage : — " For the correctness of observation itself, the scientific method must be just. Mr Mill remarks, what every microscopist should take to heart, when he writes, ' In almost every act of our perceiving faculties, observations and inference are intimately blended. What we arc said to observe is usually a compound result, of winch one-tenth may be observation and the remaining nine-tenths inference.' When, for example, a number of fossils are discovered in situ, tho first inference is that they represent animals which flourished, not meiely contemporaneously, but over the area of the aamo bed, and under the same climatic conditions. Yet the simple observation of the co-existence of fossils will not always sustain even that inference. I have seen at Loch Gdp, in the AYest Highlands, arctic shells in the bed of a fresh-water stream. The arctic variety of mi/a truncata, imbedded in the mud, with its head uplifted in tho position in which it lived and died, was surrounded with fiv«hwater shells. When the bed of this stream is uplifted, as in tho course of coming changes it may be, there will br a mixture of fresh water shells of the nineteenth century w Mli arctic shells of an epoch long past, so associated as to present no evidence of the vast stretch of ages intervening between them. At many points in the West Highlands, fields 100 feet above the sea arc 'o\ered witli shells. In the Isle of Ciunbrac, for example, the summit of tho highest land is crowded with them. The first inference is that these shells prove a recent submergence. But (1) they aro of few kinds and full grown; (2) (ho young are absent; (3) the species found are the special food of sea birds. In any true raised bench the opposite conditions must prevail. (1) the shells must be of all ages and sizes ; (2) they must be, if few in species, of species which dwell together in the proportions in which they are found ; (3) those not edible by birds must bo mixed with the edible." Mrs Fawcett, the wife of Professor Fawcett, dolivering a lecture at the Institute Kooras, Royston, on 'Women as Educators,' said : — " It is rather difficult to define what we mean by the social surroundings of women's lives It may, perhaps, be said that it implies all that society, by the general voice of public opinion, expects that a woman ought to be, to do, to suffer ; and if this bo accepted as a tolerably fair definition, I make a charge against the general voice of public opinion that it encourages frivolity. In tho first place, this public opinion raises into a position of first- rate importance, as far as women are concerned, all matters of dress, manners, and personal appearance. How often have I beard a woman's excellence in these points discussed as if, in comparison w ith them, other things were of little importance. It is almost the first question that is asked about a new-comer into any society, ' ]*s|she nice-looking ?' Or, if one happens to ask, • What sort of a girl is Miss A ?'you probably have some answer of this kind : ' She is rather nice looking, but she hasn't at oil a pretty voice.' If this reply is followed up by some descriptive details of the young lady's style and dress and manners, your informant thinks a most exhaustive answer lias been given to your question. If a woman happens to be in any way before the public, at a School Board election or what not, her dress, voice, manners, and appearance are described as if they were matters of the most profound interest. What would be thought if the [same treatment were accorded to a gentleman* and a newspaper paragraph running thus, described his appearance on the platform ? ' Mr Jonea next proceeded to expound his views on public matters to the electors. He vros quietly but richly dressed in a coat of dark blue cloth, with trousers of a lighter colour. He is aboiit tho middle height. It may interest our readers to learn that his hair is raven black, aud that he wears a beard and moustache. His voice is clear and musical, and although he spoko with considerable self-possession and fluency ,'there is nothing unmasculine in his appearance.' " The Pall Mall Gazette congratulates Mr Disraeli upon the removal of Irish difficulties, and the ease with which he can deal with the Home Eulers. It says — Ireland has not the shadow of a shade of grievance ; all that can be said upon the subject is that the Irish Catholics form a minority in a community of which the vast majority is Protestant, and they must submit to that inconvemenco unless the nation is to be cut in two, a hostile country being interposed between England and America, and England being placed between two fires in case of a Continental war. Mr Disraeli is thus in a position to say to the disaffected part of Ireland, ' We havo given you all you are going to get, and very probably more than you had any sort of right to have, and you have now simply got to obey tho laws and live quietly like the rest of the nation, of which you will most assuredly continue to form an integral part, whether you like it. or like it not ' In holding this language to the Irish Catholics, we believe that the Conservatives would be enthusiastically supported by the whole of Great Britain and by the Irish Protestants. The most bitter Radical would like to see an independent Ultramontane nation under the lee of Great Britain as little as the stoutest Conservative. As it this was not enough good fortune in regard of Ireland, the nature of tho majority is such as to deprive the Homo Bulers of all importance whatever. Mr Disraeli is completely independent of them, and is able to treat them and their claims according to their true demerits. This in itself U apiece of good fortuno which can hardly be over-valued. Tho following story is told by a French jour ial : — A plnsician, officially connected with tho prison of La Force, and much beloved bj his light-fingered patients, perceived, on leaving the Varieties one evening, that his pockets had been picked, and that his opera-g'ass was gone. Next day, meeting the denizens of La Force, lie expressed his displeasure at the occurrence. ' It'i all vary well,' said he, ' for 3 ou to say I am popular among you, but I am treated just as others are. Some ofryour friends contrived to relievo me of my opera-glass last night at the Varieties.' ' That was bnruuso they did not know you, doctor,' replied a prisoner. Who w as on duty at the Varieties last night ? ' he inquired, turning to a comrade. The answer was given in a whisper. ' You hhall have your glass to-morrow.' he added. Next day a person called on the physician's wife. ' Here,' said he, ' are all tho opera-glosses stolen two nighti ago at tho Varieties ; please to point out the doctor's.' The lady having done so, the obliging pickpocket handed it to her, restored the others to their enses, and disappeared. If ' cremation* (observes the Pall Mall Gazette) iliould ever be substituted for interment, there will at least be no more ' burial scandals" such as that which, according to tho Bradford Observer, has just occurred at Barnoldswiek, near Skipson. It seems that the row bi-gan on a Saturday, when the vicar refused to bury a parishioner in a grave dug by tho sexton in a portion of the ground in Gill churchyard, which had, through long use, become too full, and for interments in which a prohibitory fee had been imposed, which the relatives of the deceased could not or would not pay. Tho coffin containing the bedy was therefore deposited in the church, where it still remains, and on Sunday morning, when the vicar was returning homo after conducting divine service as usual, he was mobbed by a crowd of several j thousand people, who hooted him and pelted him with mud. Tho rev. gentleman was, however, evidently prepared for emergencies, for he suddenly produced a six-chambered revolver, tho sight of which produced a calmer spirit in his iiiitliiul (lock, and it is stated, ' probably presented iurllior victims.'

The Fall Mall Gazette says: — The present relations between servants and employers are universally admitted to be unsatisfactory. There is an uneasy feeling in both classes that some modification of existing arrangements is at hand. What this may be is not easy to conjecture. Perhaps in nccordanco witfi the dictates of tho Zed Qeial, winch is supposed to depress the employer and elevate tho employed, reciprocity in the matter of testimonials as to character will be required. This would not, after all, seriously utfoct the comfort of employers. They could always, like tho hitherto subordinate class, get the reference to ■uppress unpleasant facts on the ground of the cruelty of preventing them, not, indeed, in this case, lrom earning their bread, but from getting it toasted to their liking. Meantime the sorrants' agencies at Liege keep a register of the characters of many of tho householders in tho town, from one of which the follow ing extracts have been made : — ' Madame has a light hand. Monsieur is too familiar. The bread and butter are locked up, and the servant must spend her wages to get a full meal. No presonts are given. There is a perambulator to wheel. Tho parents always think the children in tho right. One is sent on curious errands. There is but a thin cotton counterpane on the servant's bod k One is not always to get out, &c'