MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 357, 27 August 1874, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

If the account of a,' Marj/sinlle Appeal is true, they have large orchards as well as'larce farms in some parts ot the United States ot America. The n We authority states that "Mr Briggs, of Yuba City, California, has a solid block of fruit trees covering 210 acres. The soil is a light sandy bam, and is constantly cultivated wit!) ploughs through the whole season; itcont»ns SOOO pearh trees of 16 vaneties (4000 being of dne variety, the Red May) ; 3000 apricot trees of 12 varieties; 4000 cherry trees of 12 vnrietie*; 7000 plum trees of 15 sorts ; 2000 apple trees of only eight varieties ; 1000 pear trees, mostly Bartletts ; 1500 'Cherry Plum' P.mirobolana tree?, and 150 June Jaune Hditive plnm trees. There are also 1500 walnut trees Juglans rec/ia of three sorts. The cost of the land was about $17,000, (£3400) j total cost for orchards, land and all, is less than $30,000, (£6000) ; and the estimated value- i 3 $50,000, (£10,000) -Argus. A case of great importance, especially to bankers, as to guarantee*, has just been decided by 'the Court of Queen's Bench. The defendant had guaranteed payment to the plaintiffs (the Chartered Bank of China) of thfl bills of a mercantile firm at Singapore to the extent of £5000. After the guarantee had been acted upon for some time, the firm became largely indebted to the bank, and the manager of the bank suspected that the firm was insolvent. On the 4th of October, 1872, the bank discounted a bill drawn by tho firm, and five days afterwards the firm stopped payment. The defendant disputed his liability as guarantor on the ground that the bank ought to have communicated their •uspicions to him, and so have enabled him to withdraw his guarantee. When the action was tried before Mr Justice Blackburn, he ruled that there, was no defence, unless it was proved that the bank knew or believed that the firm was •bout to stop payment. The jury found that the bank had no such knowledge, and returned a verdict for them. The defendant moved to set this verdict aside, but tho full court upheld the verdict, and said that in such a case the only defence would be that the person to whom the guarantee wot given had such a knowledge or belief of the impending insolvency of the person guaranteed as would render it improper to" give any further credit under the guarantee, but the knowledge referred to must be knowledge that the in•olvency was certain and about to occur. Tea a la Russc is becoming quite fashionable in London. For this novelty society is indebted to the Duchess of Edinburgh. It consists in the substitution of slices of lemon for cream, and no tea trny is now sent into a fashionable drawing-room without a small glass dish containing slices of lemon cut with the rind on. Care must be taken to mix the beverago with a due observance of the northern custom, which is thus described. The sugar dropped into the cup must be of the smallest lize, lest the flavor of the lemon •houlcl be destroyed. A ilice of lemon is then to be placed on the sugar, and the tea poured in. -Sglei writes in the Australarian .— " That," said a friend of a passer by, "is the blue-blanket magistrate." I had never heard of that kind of magistrate before, and sought an explanation. It appears that when the geutleman enjoyiDg this titular distinction first sat upon the Bench, a man was brought before them charged wilh stealing a pair of blue blankets. The evidence was clear against the accused, and he uneasily awaited the decision of the Bonch. The magistrate leant over and obtained from the clerk of the court a copy of Plunket, and devoted some time to a careful examination of the volume. " Prisoner at the bar," he said at length, -l you are a very lucky fellow ; I can find no mention of a penalty for stealing blue blanketi in the law books. You are discharged without a stain upon your character." According te the Siaiu Weekly Advertiser, there resides on the island of Borneo a. race of wild creatures who, when perfectly «rect (« very unusual occurrence), measure some four feet in height. These people erect no habitation, form no families, hardly associate at all together, sleep in the trees, and sometimes iv caves, and feed on snakes, ants' eggs, and even on each other. They cannot be induced to do any labour, and appear untameable. They are frequently shot down as they jump from tree to tree, like stunted gorillas. When captured alive, one findi with surprise that their jabbering sounds we like articulate language, and that a human face is turned up to the captors— these sadly low specimens of humanity being in reality men and women. Tho San Francisco Chronicle states that a lady of that city has invented a new needle, the improvement consisting in its being without an eye for the thread, but with, instead, a hole bored longitudinally into the head or larger end, to the depth of a quarter of an inch or thereabouts, which hole is arranged with a screw thread. The needle, it is claimed, will carry any kind of thread, and can be nsed for every purpose. It is thought, that it will be valuable, also, as a surgical needle, as it will require but one thread, the advantage of which will be that a smaller hole will be made in passing the needle through any Bubstanco than would have to be made by the partially doubled thread of the ordinary-eyed needle.