MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 362, 8 September 1874, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

One of onr correspondents in Paris, says the Pall Mall Gazette, -writes: — Ahne*e Deeclee was buried on Tuesday, and it is needless to say that most of the dramatic authors in P.iris and the fiist actors and actresses followed her remains to the grave. Alexander Dumas pronounced a touching orition over her tomb, taking on himself much of the guilt of her death. He had persuaded Aim6e Desclee to renounce Ihe provinces and to come to Paris. She expressed the fear that she would be unable to stand acting the same piece night after night in the presence of a critical audience. In the country she never played the same piece more than four or five consecutive nights, and the people put up with her eccentricities. She yielded, however, came to Paris, and played for a year ; then she ■wrote to Alexander Dumas + hat she was worn out, aud that she would only return if he declared she was indispensible. " She had just played Piou-Frou for a hundred nights— that pretty little Parisian soul, bora in a pe^l of laughter, ev.iporated in a tear." Alexander Dumas soon wrote to Aimee Desclee that blkj was iwlispensihle, and she returned to the Gymnase and played in " La Visite de Noces" and La Prinuease Georges." The first comedy was only one act, and yet she thiew so much of her being into that on leaving the stage, she had invariably to throw herself on a sofa and remain there for half an hour, just as Eachel used to do after a tragedy. Again she wished to make her escape. The manager , came with a new engagement, and she wrote to Dumas, " I shall only sign if you positively order me ; in fact, you must hold my hand. I shall finish by entering a convent.' 1 And she went on to complain of her life as an actress. She seemed, .as Dmnns sine), to cry to the public — "You wish to see how one si t uggh's for life ? Well, look at me. lam culled sometimes one name, sometimes another, and yet it is always I, I the woman who hopes, who loves, who suffers, who complain*, who combats, and who exhausts herself between the ideal she wishes to gra3p and the reality which enlaces her." In alluding to the effort of creating a rdle, Alexander Dumas said tins was not to be done "without leaving behind a portion of oneselt." "Do you remember Talmn," he added, " uttering n piercing shriek on suddenly hearing the death of his father, and murmuring a few instants afterwards, ' Ah ! if I could find that cry, on the stage.' And when he found himself iace to face with death, and looked in a glass, after examining his haggard features, he said, 'How unfortunate not to be able to play Tiberius with such x face as this !' It may bo said that this was frightful, thnt it was monstrous, hut it is thus. Genius is a fatality liko anything else, and (ininot bo eluded." According to the tenth report of the Aborigines Protection Board, presented to Parliament on Wednesday night tlu> condition of the aborigines were never so prosperous as j lit the present time. " Useful employments have been found for the adn!ts of both s\xcs ; the children ore educated and trnini d by competent teachers, and the material interest of both the aged and the young are carefully guarded." The mo«r intestmg portion of the report is that relnting to the hup-giounds at Coranderrk. It is as follows : — ' For many year? t lie brnrd has conductod experiments at the several station^, with the object of producing crops that •would I necessitate neither heavy nor sustained labours — labours llint the nborigmes as a rule are not fitted to undertake — and which would yield a return sufficient at least to pay for the support of the natives. At Coranderrk a great many different crops have been grown; at one time it was expected thnt tobacco Mould yield largely ; gram has been grown ; fruits of various sorts have been cultivated; and nt some expense an attempt was made to establish a dairy — n'l these, however, failed to give such results as wero satisfnetoiv to Die board. It was not until the assistance of Mr luoderick Search was obtained that any fair prospects presented themselves. He examined the lands at Cor.indcnk, and recommended that a hop plantation should bo established under the care of a competent hopjrrnwer. Owing to his skill and knowledge, and with the n«-Htonceof Mr Burgess — whohas proved himself thoroughly competent to manage hop-grounds and prepare the produce for in-ii ket — success has at last been achieved. The crop sent *n market during the season just passed, 15,2441b in weiglit, has realised good prices. The first lot was sold at auction for Is 10} d per lb, and the condition in which it was presented to buyers elicited the highest praise from experts. The <jross sum derived from the season's crop was £1,140 6s 3d. From this has to be deducted commission, discount, &,c, and the wages of the hop-pickers, leaving a net sum of £983 5s lOd. The cost of the experiment has been small. Next year the results will, it is anticipated, be f-ir more satisfactory. The plantation has been extended ; and arrangements will bo made for drying the hops rapidly, and for sending them earlier to marker. Other steps will be taken which, it is hoped, will lead to still greater profits being derived from the labours of the aborigines. As a rule the natives labour cheerfully in the hop-ground* ; the work i* light, and they are paid reasonable sums in proportion to the time they give." — Australasian. Mr John-3 m, the miaaioimry of whose peaceful mid across the Punjab frontier and subsequent recapture we heard some months ago, lias lately published an account of his adventures. Stalling from Peshawur in disguise, with a caravan bound for X ibul, he had several narrow escapes from discovery and consequent death on his way througli the border tribes. Spies dogged his steps, and scowling villagers made him feel very uncomfortable A Pethan whom he met called him a Faran«i, but a friendly fellow-traveller disarmed the man's suspicion* by saying that ho bad come from Kasligar. The spies were heavily bribed to hold their tongues. Ouce safe in the Imeer's own dominions, Mr Johnson avowed himself a Cnnstian Fakir. "No sooner had I uttered the words, ' I inn not a Mussulman, 1 than they all shrank from me as from an unclean animal. The Afghan said to me, ' I know you b\ your eyes, you Feringee Kaffir.' An old and respecfable n-an, evidently the chief of the village, said to me very kimlh, 'You need not fear : no one will kill you here in Sheie Ali Khan's territory.' The corporal also said, ' All are allowed to pass here, Kaffirs, every one.' The people of the caravan were in a great state of excitement, and said, 'If this hnd been known in tho hills we should have been cut to pieces.' They joked much with my guide on his cleverness in bringing me thvougfi", and said, ' Wo must watch him closely at night, or the Pathans from the hills will kill him ' " Tho village people Seemed friendly, but some of the Pathans used threatening language. At Jellalabud one of them made as if he would plunge his dagger into the Christian's breast. The Khan of Jellalabad asked him many questions at a publio audience, and bado him sing some of his Christian hymns. An Afghan guard wns placed over him, and after fivo days' detention at Jellalabad he was sent back under escort to Lalpurah, the Khan of which, after allowing him to preach to the assembled court and soldiers, conducted him to tho Kabul river, whence he was safely cscoited buck to Pesbawur. No sooner had he reached the British frontier than he took off his turban and shoes, and tlmnked Crod for bringing him back in safety. He certainly had good cause for thankfulness, and bo may even bo right in thinking that Afghanistan is "less firmly closed to the Christian in particular than to the European as such." But his notion that the British Government should demand protection for missionaries alone is onu which only a missionary could entertnin. — Allens Indian Mail. The oxpression "blnzhig with diamonds," wan realised nt a ball at Now York by the attire of tho wife of a millionaire. All tho points at which diamond ornaments are usually worn were decorated. Her hair seemed " a flame" with precious «tones. She hud diamond car-rings, bracelets, and a diamond necklace of magnificent proporlion ; but the hdy was not content with these, and displayed her ingenuity by novel decorations. On each shoulder she had placed four ttars, iho size of a half-crown, of large stones, and a bandeau on her brow. Upon ench sido of her chest were t.wo circles of diamonds nboub thp sizo of tho palm of a band, and from them depended lines find curves reaching to tho waist, and merging into n broad and diamond girdle. On the skirt of her dress in front were two largo peacocks wrought in lines, also of Iho same precious tfenn, and there were two lvi go rosettes of them on her slippers, and olhers, large and small, wherever they eouM be crowded in. It uas calculated that as she stood hor attire wna worth over a million dollars.

Accustomed as we are to hail immigration as an indication of growing prospeii.y, we look to our population returns a-A one of the points to be most senlously noted in ehroniclin™ tlie, signs of our progress. If wo were to apply to France the saute principles that we apply to ouraelTes we should have to confess that that groat country is on the decline. The last census, which wan tnken in 1872, showed a decroase in the population of 1,964,173 since I lie year 1866. Of course the losi of the two provinces Alsace and Larraine accounts for the greater part of this diminution, seeing that in 1866 { those two provinces contained 1,597,238; this leaves a difference of 386,935 to be accounted for. Of course the war was responsible for the loss of many lives, but the outside calculation does not place that loss at more than 100,000. Moreover, it is to be remombered that no fower than 126,243 Alaaceans and Lorrameans abandoned their nttivo provinces and settled in France rather than become subjects of the German Emperor, and many others are supposed to have done so who did not register themselves. Moreover, in 1866, there were fevrer foreigners in France than in 1872 by 85,0u0. M. Raudod, who has gone into thoso figures, estimates that the diminution in the population of France is not less than 400,000. The recorded deaths in the five yeart between the two censuses having been 368,580 more in number than the births. Prior to the war, it must be remembered that France was increasing very rapidly in wealth,— -how great its wealth, in fact, has been demonstrated by the comparative ease with which it has paid off cho indemnity ; yet there is no increase of population corresponding to this increase of wealth, but, on the contrary, u diminution. It may be said that this only proves that there was moro money to be divided amongst fewer hands, and that, therefore, tliero was n general rise iijd prosperity. It may have been so, but at the Name time it ■ quite certain that France with a diminishing population* must abandon the idea of playing a leading part in tha progress of civilization, and above all mutt surrender the long cherished ambition of being the greatest military power on the continent. A country which deliberately stints its population cannot provide in superabundance the raw material of war. Germany is not only more populous by several millions but multiplies it« people. France with a population worse than stationary cannot possibly competo with such an adversary It appears from M. Raudod's figures that only fourteen departments increase their population, and in only six of These is the increase, worthy of notice, and ns the city and suburban populations are amongst those which receive this increase, it follows that the rural districts are becoming more and more thinly populated. It is reraarkablo, too, that th»j decrease of population is greater in the departments that were not visited by the ravages of war than in those that were, — a proof that war alone is not to be made responsible for tin- present state of things. The agricultural labour is by no means in excess, on the contrary M. Raudod says that in some parts it is insufficient, and the earth consequently does not yield her full produce, and that in more than one province Frauce needs colonisation. Recently a donkey-driver of Jerusalem, carrying stones into the city for building purposes, found amongst tbe fallen blocks of a dry-stone wall, a marble head (bunion) of natural size and in a tolerably perfect state. This interestiug fragment is believed to be the head of the statue of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, set up by that prince (after hia decisivd victory over the Jew Barcochebas) when Jerusalem was re* built and transformed into a Roman colony (circiter A.D. 136) under the name of MUa Capitolina. This fragment of a celebrated statue — mentioned successively by Psusanias, St Jerome, and tbe " Bordeaux Pilgrim " — was found (according to a learned correspondent of the Athenaum) on the end of the Nablous Road, thirty metres north of the " Tombs of the Kings," some few minutes' walk from the Demascus Gate. The head is described by'Mr C. C. Genneau as " short and curly, the hair abundant » ith thick locks which cover a poi tion of the forehead. He bears a crown of laurels, tbe two branches of which are attached to a medallion, on which is engraved very distinctly in cameo, an eagle, symbol of sovereign power. The expression of the face from some points of view has a certain harshness ; tht eyes, tbe pupils of which are indicated by tbe sculptor, are looking upwards ; tbe end of the nose is broken, and lorn* portions of the face, especially the right eyebrow, have suf« fcred. The whole back part of the head has been long since broken. The style is entirely Roman j the workmanship is far from being faultless ; but tbe effect of the whole is striking and imposing." The head has been carefully examined by tbe learned Archimandrite of the Russian mission at Jerusalem, and he had declared it to be his opinion that it is that of tbe Emperor Hadrian. It is thought that the inscription found in the Double Gate of the south wall of the city is that which was once placed at the base of this very statue. " Down to tlie end of the 4th century the statue of Hadrian," sajs Mr Conneau, " remained intact ; but it is evident, admitting even that tbe^ra/agreof the Imperial name was not able to protect it from the hands of the Christians, thnt it could not esuape the Vandalism of the Persians, and the vengeance of the Jews, their allies. And, at all events, it disappeared inevitably on tbe arrival oi Omar with his arabs ; its fragments, which defiled the sacred rock, were probably carried away from the purified, sanctuary and thrown out of the city witli tbe filth and mbbish which Omar cleared away. Strange irony of fate ! .Thrown face downwaids on the old highway, this triumphant head of the Conqueror of Barcoebebas — (the re-builder of Jerusalem, the Divine Hadrian, with the laurel wreath and the eagle oi empire— has been trodden under foot for twelve centuries by everybody, great and small, who has entered the Holy City. And after this long ipnominy, for a last outrage, the mutilated head, still with the same pride in its look, has been picked up by n poor peasant and thrown among his common . building stones." This historical relic is now in tbe possession of a Turkish resident at Jerusalem. , The Sydney Morning Herald of the 9th ultimo, contains a report that will be read with interest by all persons who wish to see the South Sea Island trade brought to the ports , of New Zealand. From this it appears that a number of influential merchants and shipowners m Sydney had held a meeting to consider the desirability of presenting a petition to the Imperial Government for t lie repeal of certain clause* in the Kidnapping Act that had the effect of closing what had been a valuable trade to Sydney for the last forty years. The clauses complained of only allow natives, who are necessary as divers in pearl-fishing, to be carried otfier than as , passengers, although they bad been hired at their own wish. They, it was explained, were also indispensable in a beche-de-nier trade. " The Act," said the merchants, had been framed in ignorance, to prevent an illegitimate trade, but it had also closed one that was desirable to both parties to the contracts," Five or six vessels wero instanced as having been seized, condemned and sold, to the loss of tbe owners and of the natives on board, to whom wages were due. Of the trade, Mr A. Stewart said it had of " late years risen to very expansive proportions, and it was of very great importance to the port of Sydney. It employed a large number of vessels, a large amount of capital, and many of- their seafaring men ; and beyond all that, it gave employment to manT hundreds and ncn thousands of natives of the South Sea Islands. It was a trade that had been fairly remunerative to those engaged in it, and it had added very much to the revenue of the port of Sydney, both directly and indirectly. This was a trade that it way well worth tbe while of any Government culth sting, and certainly one that ought not to be recklessly destroyed." He said also, that "he had been told by a gentleman who had recently arrived from Honolulu that this branch of trade had now become a very large part of the trade in that port — the traders there are now carrying on that very trade which Sjdney had carried out for moro than forty years. We thought everybody knew that we were deaf, but once in a while we find one is not aware of the fact. A female book-pedlar came to the office tho other day. She wished to dispose of a book. She was alone in the world, and had no one to to whom she could turn for sympathy or assistance ; hence we should buy her book. She was unmarried, and had no manly heart into which she could pour her sufferings, therefore we ought to invest in a book. She had received a liberal education, and could talk French like a native ; wo could not, in consequence, pay her less than two dollars for a book. We had listened attentively, and here broke in with : " What did you say, we're deaf." She started with a loud voice, and went through her rigmarole. When she had finished we went and got and a roll of paper and made it into a speaking trumpet, placed one end to our ear, and told her to proceed. She nearly broke a blood vessel in her effort to make herself heard. She commenced :—"I: — "I am alone in tho world " "It doesn't make th slightest difference to us. Bigamy is not allowed in this State. We are a husband and a father, and are not eligible, to proposals." " Oh, what a fool the mvi it," she said in a low toco; then at the top of her voice, " I don't want to marry you ; I wanl to sell a b-o-o-k." This last sontence was howled. "We don't want a cook," wo remarked blandly ; our wife does tho cooking, and she wouldn't allow as good-looking a woman as you to stay in the house five minutes." She looked at us in despair. Gathering her robes about her, giving us a glance of contempt, she ra-lfiimed, "I do believe that, if a 300-pounder were let off alongside that deaf fool's head he'd think somebody was knocking at the door." You should have heard her slam the door when she went out. — American paper. Tho earth is inhabited by 1,381,000,000 hnman beings. Tbeso are divided, according to race, as follows : — Caucasian race, 380,000,090; Mongolian race, 580,000; Ethiopian race, 200,000 ; Malay rnee, 220,ODO,000 ; Redskins, 1,000,000; total, 1,151,000,000. The rate of mortality is 33,333,333 every year, 91,954 every day, 3730 every hour, 60 every minute, 1 evory second. The average duration of life is 33 yoais. One-fourth part of the population dies before the 7th year, one half before the lOih. Only one in 10,000 rencii the 100 t h; only lin 500 tho 65th jear ; Married people live longer than unmarried ones, tall persons longer than short ones. Only 65 in 1000 contract marriage. Only the eighth pait of tbe male populalion is fit to bear arms. One hundred years ago Franco was the most populou* empire in Europe At that time Russia had 17 millions of inhabitants ; Anstria, IS milh >ns ; Germany, 15 millions ; France, 2t millions. Now tho population of Russia is 74 millions ; of Germany, 41 millions; of Austria and Hungary, 36millions ; of Fiance, 36 millions; and of Great Britain and. Ireland, 33 millions.

Lion hunting on board a steamship is certainly a novelty, yet the passengers and crew of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company's vessel City of London seem to have bad a most exciting and successful lion hunt on the 19th of March last. From the account given by a correspondent of the Times of India, it appears that on the moritniff of that day, when at the junction of the two river* Euphrates and Tigris, where the river* hid overflowed the embankments, thveo full grown lions wore seen walking along the shore in the water, about a mile ahead of the steamer. On nearing the one wns shot dead whilf tr\ing to swim towards iheihip. The launch was manned to pick up the carcase, and tho' steamer pursued the two others, who turned round to chtfrgo the vessel. After many sliota had been fired at them one was struck dead by the comirander, and the other vm shortly afterwards despatched by a bullet from a Snider. The steamer then approached the bank,' and the dead lions, or rather, lionesses, for such they proved to be, were talon on board. About ten minutes later a large male lion was observed crouching down on a small tract of ground surrounded with wnter and waving his tail, perhaps *« a signal of distress. On being fired at ho gave a tremendom roar, and with his mane standing on end advanced to charge the ship, when a fresh volley kid him low. He, too, was carried on board when thoroughly dead, and his dimensions were as follows : — Length from head to end of tail, 9ft 6in ; length of body, 6ft 7in ; height, 3ft 9£in ; weight, 4601b. The like of this incident, it is stated, had never occured before in that part ofAlesopotamia. The fattest steamer in the* world : — Such is the title claimed by her builders (Messn. Tliornyeroft, Church wharf, Chiswick), for a boat they had just built to the order of the Government of India, for lervice for the Orissa Canal : — The dimensions of this extraordinary little vessel are — length, 87 feet ; beam, 12 feet ; draught of water, 3 feet 9 inches. The •peed contracted for was twenty statute miles per hour. / The hull, the working parts of the engines, and the propellor (Thornycroft'a patent) are of Bessemer steel, and the woodword of teak. The official trial of the boat wa* made on March 14, under the inspection of Colonel Haig, RE., chief engineer of the Bengal Irrigation Works, and tiio results were — with tide, 25-18 miles per hour; giving a mean ■peed of 24-15 milea per hour. In another official trial it was shown that the boat could keep *p a speed of twentytwo miles per hour without losing steam. These speeds are extraordinary enough in themselves, but when it is oonsidered that tbey are attained by a boat only 87 feet long they become absolutely wonderful, and f*r beyond anything over before accomplished. The value of swift stcamlaunches as torpedo boats is acknowledged, and already various foreign Governments hare ordered boats from .Messrs. Thornycroft's yard. An extraordinary thunder storm visited Craven Arms, a village about three miles from Ludlow, Shropshire. Without any previous atmospheric disturbance or the slightest indication of a coming storm a thunderbolt fell upon the house of a railway servant named Castree, very near to the railway station. It threw down a large stack of chimneys, lifted off the greater part of tho roof, burst the front door open, and went through the house, ripping up the staircase, mnd knocking a window out. Passing through the roof it ran down an iron piping, fusing the solder as it passed, and burying itself in the ground at the bottom. Three gentlemen were dining in, on adjoining refreshment room: They ran out terrified, thinking the place was coming down. It was immediately filled with a dense suffocating vapour. A cattle dealer was driving two cows up tho road a short distance away and they were all three driven violently across the road into tbe opposite hedge, but without any material injury. Fortunately for the man Castree, who is a ruilway guard and usually takes his rest in tho day time, had been out on day duty or his life would almost certainly have been sacrificed. There is * rumour that the Crown Princo of Holland will marry tbe Princess Thyra, a ibler of the Princess of Wales. This will in tbe course of nature make tbe Princess Queen of Holland. The King of Denmark, her father, is one of tho poorest monarchs in Europe, and has perhaps the smallest kingdom. He has done remarkably well with his large family. One daughter will probably be Empress of Russia, tbe other Queen of England. One son is King of Greece, another will be King of Denmark, and now another crown comes into his family. To have children reigning over England, Russia, Greece, Denmark, and Holland is a great achievement in the way of honours and power. The collector of taxes for the parish of Llandudwen, in tbe union of Pwllbeli, is an old woman of 83 or 84, and, in spite of her great age, she does her work so well, that at the present time there is only lOd on her books in the shape of arrears of former rates — a state of affairs, we should imagine, almost without parallel in the Principality, where promptness in collecting rates is not very generally practised. Mn Thomas, the venerable official of Llandud«en, has discharged ber public duties for 30 year 3, and at tho lust meeting of the Pwllheli bench ot magistrates, the chairman, the late member for the county, paid her a well deserved tribute of praise. The inhabitants of ten counties in South-western Minnesto and the North-western part of lowa, are fleeing from the grasshopper plague, and are in a destitute condition. The ancestors of this army of grasshoppers laid waste that fertile section of country las* year, and fully 100,000 dollars were contributed by the good people of those states to help the swfferers through the lust winter. The plague threaten? to be more wide-spread this year than last, and the people there must be aided or tbey will starve. A very indifferent preacher of the Established Kirk was appointed to the chaplaincy of :he Dunfermline Prison. "Weel," said a witty Baptist minister, Brother David Dewar, a member of the Prison Board, when giving his assent to the appointment, " I hae nae objection to the man, for I understand he has preached a kirk empty already, and if he be at successful in the jail maybe he'll preach it empty also."