MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 402, 10 December 1874, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A young woman (a late arrival) named Rebecca Stewart, was charged at the Magistrate's Court on Saturday with having no lawful risible means of support. She &t first indignantly denied the statement made concerning her by the detectivet but as the case proceeded her real character began to disclose itself. His Worship, in a tone of voice plainly implying that he considered the money badly spent, told her that she probably had cost the colony £15 or £16 to bring her oufc, and that she onght to go to service. The woman, however, thought differently, for sht emphatically replied that it was not her intention to go to service any more. She had tried it once and the result was not satisfao tory, as her mistress had not paid her her wages, and she wns also told that she was not worth her meat. She could work in a mill, and was inform 'd before leaving home that there were plenty of mills s—but5 — but no more servico for her. She also gavo it as her opinion that there was not such a thins as a good mistress in the whole colony. She was then proceeding to tell his Worship that she would ?coner live with those she liked than marry those she did not like, when she was stopped by the bench telling her she might live with whom she chose, but that she must live according to law or go to gaol for three months. As she had 15s in her possessiou when arrested, the proceeds of a dress pawned by her, she vu severely reprimanded and dismissed. — Otago Guardian"At the Supreme Court yesterday morning a juryman who had been challenged requested his Honor the Judge to permit him to retire, as he had important business to transact in connection with the delivery of her Majesty's mails. His Honor, being desireue of, if possible, acceding to such a reasonable requt it, quietly put our juryman through his ■ cittechism as to the specific duties he had to perform in connection with the n.ail delivery, when it appeared that Mr Juryman was the proprietor of the stables that lodged the horses that dragged the coacb that carried the mails. His Honor did not srem to realize the importance of the business, and the juryman experienced the truth of the remark, ' that the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley.'* I—Wang«n*i1 — Wang«n*i Ckronitle.

The latest American progress in building will bo t't* Mammoth Hotel, soen to b« erected in Chicago. T.iia enormous hotel is to have a frontage of three English milei, and a depth of six miles. The heightb of seventy-aevea stories will measure 3,480 feet from the ground doer to the £ roof. Tho hotel will have no stairs, but fire hundred balloons will always be read* to take visitors up to their rooms. No room-waiters are to be employed, but visitor* Will be served by a newly invented automatic, put up in every bed. room, which will do all the shaving, shampooing, elc, for theguesti — a vory simple and ingenious mechanism. Supposing the guest requires hot water, the automatio wilt q be able to call down stairs, " A bucket of hot water up to 1 number ono million three thoustnd one hundred and seven ! " and the water will be up in ten seconds by th» patent elevator. Ono half-hour before the table d note, instead of the ringing of bells, a gun (24 pounder) will be fired on each floor to call the-gue»t* to- get ready for their meals. The tables in the dining-room will measure four miles each, attendance to be performed by twelve waiters on horseback on either side of the table. Music during table d'hote will be played gratis by eight bands of seventy-seven men each. For the convenience of visitor* a railway will b« built on each floor, as well as telegraphic offices. The price for one bed-room will be from one to ten dollars. The coit of this building is estimated to be $680,600,000. The billiard-room will contain nino hundred American, ninetynine French, and one English table ; and most of the visitors are expected to be American. The billiard-room will be fitted out with a spittoon of one hundred feet in circumference. Style's antidote for jibbing horses, says the Keto Zealand? Times, is certainly the most novel yet invented. Style*, became possessed of a horse " what wouldn't go " upon any occasion, and was equally steadfast in rejecting the peaceful but persuasive endeavours of its master. Style* man fired 4 a blank charge under its tail, but the animal stood impassive, and Styles tried the effect of another charge himself, but with no better results. Such a mode of dealing with the poor animal was not long in reaching the eats of the proper authorities, and the modus operandi when explained iu< court created no small amount of amusement. One witnesi stated that the defendant was under the cart, close to the horse's heels, when the charge was fired, but another laid he was alongside the cart. Examination of the animal proved tkat the effects of the shooting were not very seiiou*, and His Worship, while remarking that he did not believe the defendant had been intentionally cruel, said he could not allow such a peculiar case to pass by without imposing a fine. Defendant was therefore fined 40s. The following sensible remark* are from tho Wellington, | Tribune : — The ancient Jew* wer<! much wiser in their generation than we moderns are. They invariably taught their children some trade or other, and in this way they were fully qnalified to earn their own living. Assuredly we might do worse than follow their example. Let us come to under-^ , stand that productive labour is not only useful but thoroughly " genteel " — that idleness alone is dishonorable. Let boyi be taught how to keep books, study the classics, practice law — the more education the better — i ut let them* I also be qualified as above, to that they may earn bread, if ) need be, by forging a horse-shoe, planing a board, ploughing , a field, or something else that will not get out ot fashion,. ' cannot well be outgrown, and can hardly be overdone. Other things are most proper and may be expedient, but this, in a new country, ought to be indispensable*. ( A writer in a Victorian paper says : — Few persons realise ■ the losses sustained through bad .>r careless shearing. I have . been assured by a large sheep-owner that with a too easy ' superintendent he had calculated that be had lost, the year before last, sixpence on every sheep shorn, or £1200 on tke ■ whole of his flock. This is perhaps an extreme case, but in i, another instance, m my presence, a squatter in the south took one of the shorn sheep irom the pen when being counted, out, and by re-shearing obtained njno ounces of wool from 1 it. In teply to my query, this gentleman asserts tbat the wool so left on the barks of the sheep is lost, for it comes off - in streaks afterwards. Not a, season passes but we notice especially or exceptionally high prises for certain, bales Theauctioneers tersely explain that these *re " well got up," that is, besides quality, they have something else to recommend them. Judges who have bten shearing on the continent and in England invariably state that not one-half the T sheep in this colony are properly shorn, and that w« lose sixs pence per fleece thereby. A gentleman well posted on the subject sslvs ;—"; — " The flockmaster wants a large capital in thepurchase and improvement of sheep, spares no exgense, no1 toil, no care in putting on his flocks the best fleece that they '' are capable of bearing, washes them with soap and hot water, ( l by means of an expensive apparatus, and brings them into. . the shed in as perfect a condition as possible; and when* i there & careless, nasty, or unskillul shearer so mangles both shepp and wool, that a considerable portion of the squatters' ' labor and expense is thrown away." If flockmasteis would: I only consider that while they pay Ss 6d to 4s per score for- ; shearing, and lose 3d to 6d per fieese, or from 5s to 10s prr ( score, through " tomahawking" and " camping," some activesteps towards reform would perhaps take place. From what ! I have written it will be seen that the losses arise from two. ' causes. First, through leaving too much wool on, and causng. * broken fleeces, with "under and over" cuts; and secondly, [ through brutal carelessness by injuring the sheep in cuttingoff skin and wool. Last year, when there were lo\ooo,ooot \ sheep in the colony, we estimated at a low calculation, the lasses through these combined causes were not less than a. " quarter of a million sterling. Oddfellowship seems to be in a flourishing- condition in. c Pcnnsj Ivania. In the Grand Lodge proceedings for the yean- * ending May 19th, 1824, which have just been published, the 1 following statistics are given :— Membership, 95,197"; increase ' during the year, 10,034 ; working Lodges, 800 ; Rebecca, j Degree Lodges, 86 ; r< lief extended to 12,021 members- , during the year, $265,779 83. There was also paid $19,820+ 18 for the relief of widowed families ; $1,434 59 ior the ' education of orphans, and $76,556 32 ior burying the uead^ 1 making the total amount paid for relief $363,59J 92. The ) receipts in the various Lodges during the year amounted to. I $£98,302 32, and their total assets i» given 'at $2,166,202 57. One day while in Melbourne, Major Ropata went to tho , Institution of Arts, and this is what he says of it: — "In. this building there are some shocking things — images. , > Really the Pakehaa are a most extraordinary people ! They * aie shocked if a button falls from a man's shirt collar, and exclaim, ' Mind the button of your shirt ! it has fallen otl ! The ladies will see your throat ! ' And yet they manufacture naked images of stone, and exhibit them to travellers !. 5 Who can comprehend the mystery of their ways ?" i A Wicklow farmer, while harvesting, kept his gun netr ■j him to shoot pigeons. Seeing one, he reached out and took, , the gun by the muzzlt, but, in drawing it towards him, by some moans tho gun went off, and the contents- passed near his head without injuring him. As soon as he had sufiU > ciently recovered from the shock, he hastened to the house l and informed his wife of bis narrow escape ; at which the p good woman, who is noted for her economy, raised her hands and exclaimed in a tone of regret, " Sure an' its a ' murthering pity that the charge was lost, anyhow."