Untitled

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2298, 2 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.— Thorean.

Thkre is no being eloquent for Atheism. In that exhausted receiver the mind connot use- it wings,—the clearest proof that it is out of its element.—Hare.

" What is filling our insane asylums ?" asksa patent medicine .advertisement. Well, there are 30,000 brass bands in this country at the present time, and the number is rapidly increasing. If this is not the right answer we have another.—'American Paper.

If anyone versed in the craft had been told that there was in America a printer who had been sixty-one years in one situation, lie would have instantly denied it. It could not seem possible in thcs° clays of strikes and lock-outs. Joseph Sand ford entered the Methodist Book Concern in New York four months after it was opened, or in Jauuary 1825, and has ever since been employed there. The establishment then had four iron handpresses ; now it has more than twenty cyliuder and Adams machines. Then the amount of work done in a year did not probably exceed £15,000; now it never falls as low as half a million. Mr Sand is still in good health at the age of seventy-nine, and does a full day's work.

Whites " Atticus , 'in the Leader : — There lined to be a pretty general impression in the public mind that before payment of members, and oven after, the pickings attaching , to the position of a legislator were not to be despised. But there would appear to be handsome pick, ings in other professions. I heard of a gentleman in a small country town who acts as local correspondent for the district journal, and receives in return the modest stipend of 11s Gd per week. As he has no other means of living with which to maintain himself and his family, it was a puzzle to his friends how he made ends meet, and one of them told him so. "Well," said he, with a meaning smile, :" you see I don't depend altogether on the fixed pay. Everyone knows I am connected with the press, and I am treated handsomely. Do you know that yesterday I had thirty-two drinks, which, at Gd each, would come to 16s ? If Ido as well every day ray berth in worth over £300 a year." If this "'entleman were in Parlia'mentas well as "on the press," how .magnificently he might supplement his income !

The Law ov Divorck i.v France.— • The law establishing divorce in France into force on the 27th of July, ISS4, and the statistics relating to the administration of justice in that year, which have Tecently been published, show to what extent the new law was taken advantage :of in the first five months of its being in force. During the period 1773 petitions for a divorce were lodged, buyout of this total all but 124 wove for converting a separation into a divorce. The total number of petitions for a separation was 3GG6, or 49 fewer than in 1883, but of these petitions 388 were based upon an allegation of adultery, as against only 19S attributed to the same ciuse in the previous year. In Si cases out of 100 the petition was lodged by the wife. In more than half the petitions for divorce there was no issue by the marriage. No definite information is furnished as to the profession of the different petitioners. J'ut 2521 separations were granted, while l(if>7 of the petitions for divorce were successful. (Jut of this total, 601 divorces and 723 separations were granted in Paris, while of the other departments in France five (the AriOae, the Cantal, the Corrtize, the Lozore and the Savoie) had not a single divorce in the lirst year.