TEE AUCKLAND POULTRY SHOW.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1879, 22 July 1884, Page 4

TEE AUCKLAND POULTRY SHOW.

The following were the honours taken by Waikato residents at the poultry show at Auckland :— Class (any variety.)— Plymouth Rocks : Ist prize, Thoma* Gresham, Te Awamutu ;'3rd prize, Thomas Gresham. The second prize was awarded to another variety of fowl. Highly commended, T. Gresham. For Dark Brahmaa ; six entries. — 2nd prize, hen, A. Bluck, Te Awamutu ; 3rd prize, hen, T. Gresham ; 3rd prize, hen, T. Gresham ; 3rd prize, cock, T. Gresham. Selling class— any variety. —3rd prize, taken by pair offdark hrahmas, A Bluck. For heaviest pair fowls— any vaiiety. — A special piize given in addition to those offered by the association. Tn this class dark brahmas carried off all honours. A. Bluck, of Te Awamutu, having tied with J. Cornwell, of Auckland, eaoh pair of tirds weighing twenty-one pounds. The next most weighty pair of fowls were also of the dark brahma breed.

Rain is badly wanted at Blackhall, Queensland, where, owing to the lengthened drought, at the end of May, teambters are refusing £30 per ton loading from Blackall to Irisford, a distance of 80 miles. In Blackall oats are selling at 20s per bushel ; corn at 23s p«r bushel ; and chaff, 36s per cwt. . . Mr Proctor, writing m Knowledge, relates, on the authority of Mr Steinmetz, that in 1813 a Mr Odgen wagered 1000 guineas to one that " seven " would not be thrown with a pair of dice ten successive times. The wager was accepted (though it was egregiously unfair), and, strange to say, his opponent threw "seven" nine times running. At this point Mr Ogden offered 470 guineas to be off the bet. But his opponent declined (though the price offered was far beyond the real value of his chance). He ca&t yet one more and threw '• nine," so that Mr Odgen won his guinea. . . . We have spoken of the unfairness of the original wager. It may interest our readers to know exactly how much bhould ha\e been wagered against a single guinea that ten " sevens " would not be thrown. With a pair of dice there are thirty-six possible thiows, and six of these give " seven "as a total. Thus the chance of throwing " seven " ten times running is obtained by multiplying six into itself ten times, and placing the resulting number under unity, to represent the minute fractional required. It will be found that the number thus obtained is 60,466,170, and, instead of 1000 _ guineas, fairness required that 00,406,170 guineas should have been wagered against one guinea, so enormous are the chances against the occurrence of ten successive throws of " seven." 'Edith' writes— 'How can I tell whether the unknown writer of a novel is a man or a woman ?' Head the novel. If every five pages the hero ' lit a cigar," it's a woman. The young lady who made seven hundred words out of ' conservatory ' laßfc fall has run away flora home. Her mother wanted her to make three loaves of bread out of 'flour.' Prjxck Bismarck who was once admonished for whistling on the Sabbath Day in Scotland, and has never foi gotten it, will not be in the leastsupiised, whatever other people may feel, when his hears, as he will with grim satisfaction, that a member of, the Helensbuig United Presbyterian Church, who had been elected to the office of elder, has just been refused ordmation by the Session on the ground that he " took a walk in the country oh the Sabbath afternoon." Paul Frederick, eldest brother of the Grand Duke of Meckleuburg-Sch-werin, having been converted to the Catholic Faith, has lenounced his hereditery lights in favour of the younger brothers' families, anil their offspring. If the brothers' families become extinct, the throne is to levert to the family of Paul Frederick, providing the successor becomes a Protestant. The crops of beetroot for sugar on the Continent of Europe have increased from 1,749,545 tons in 18S0-81 to 2,135,000 tons in 1883-4. The increase has been remarkable in Germany, where, it is prophesied, every farmer will turn his cornfields into beet. The competition of cane producing countries is not feared. Under the heading " The heights above and the depths below," the following statement appeals in "Knowledge" :—": — " A remarkable lllustiation of human degradation reaches me from the other side of St. George's Channel. An Irish gentleman of station and fortune recently undertook, in concert with his English biethren, a series of observation of vanable stars. He has, perforce, been compelled to relinquish his share of the task for the simple but sufficient reason that he dares not cross his own grounds at night to proceed to his observatory for fear of being murdered. This gentleman — whose name, for obvious reasons, I suppress — is resident on his own estate, and actually offered all his tenants leases in perpetuity three years before the Land Act was ever heard of. Hence it is the mere fact ot beingalandloid at all which imperils his life. During all the ghastly hoirors of the French Revolution, when the guillotine was perennially soddened with the life-blood of some of the best and wisest Frenchmen Lalandc was suffeied to pursue his astionomical studies in peace, and when the death of Robespierre enabled innocent mpii and women to breathe fr«ely again, ' thanked hi? stars' for his escape. It seems to have been reserved for the pitiful curs who fire thiough windows at night at defenceless women and childien ; who maim helpless cattle ; who slink behind stone fences to shoot their unsuspecting victims, but who rnn like hares at the mere sight of a policeman ;it seems, I say, to have been reserved for vermin like this to lie in wait for the life of a man going forth to study the wonders and beauties of those heavens whose very canopy they pollute by crawling under it." Prevention of Rust. — We give the follow ing plan for preventing tools from lusting, employed by Professor Olmstead, for the preservation cf scientific apparatus, and which he published, declining to have it patented. It is made by the slow melting together of six or eight parts of lard to one of resin, stirring till cool. This remains semifluid, ready for use, the resin preventing rancidity and supplying an air-tight film. Rubbed on a bright surface ever so thinly, it protects and preserves the polifah effectually, and it can be wiped oil nearly clean, if ever desired, as from a knife blade or it may be thinned with coal oil or benzine. A writer says that if oxidation has begun, no matter in how slight a degree, it will go on under a coating ; it is therefore essential that the steel surface be both bright and di y when filmed over. Cement for Joints or Ikon Pipes. -- It is stated in the Revue Industrielle that a kind of mastic cement for the joins of iron pipes have been recently patented. This composition is foimed of a mixture of brick earth, linseed oil, graphite, pipeclay, and milk of lime, in the following propoitions : Brick earth, 6 kilos.; linseed oil, powdered graphite, pipeclay and milk of lime each one kilo, the earth and pipeclay are previously dried and powdered, and all the ingredients are ground together to a fine dust. Water is then added tofonn a paste, which is directly applicable to steam joints, boilers, and pipes. Or the water may be added to the powder at the time when it is to be used ; the composition being easily kept, either in the form or paste or powder. It is not stated whether the composition is intended for joints merely exposed to steam heat, or beyond ; nor are its peculiar advantages set forth. Life in the Bush— Then and Now.— It is generally supposed that in the bush we have to put up with many discomforts and privations ia the shape oi food. Formerly it was so, but now, thanks to T. B. Hill, who has himself dwelt in the bush, if food does consist chiefly of tinned meats his Colonial Saucb gives to them, a. most delectable flavour, making' them as well of the plainest 'food most enjoyable, and instead as hard biscuits and indigestible damper his Improved Colonial Baking Powder makes the very best bread, scones, cakes, and pastry -far superior and more wholesome than yeast or leaven. Sold by all (torekeepers who can. oh.