Provincial and General.

Otago Witness, Issue 1501, 21 August 1880, Page 8

Provincial and General.

MR HALCOMBIC ON NEW ZEALAND.

Theroara othtr "tall talkers" about Now Zealand beside Mr Batbgate. Mr A. F. H&loorube, in a recent lecture before the Royal Colonial Institute, i» reported to have spoken rh follows. We have no doubt it is all true, but somehow it does not read .like (.he actual experiences of daily life in thiH Colony :— "ln 1880 we may tike the express train, and are carried very easily to Dunedin, and in another day to Itivercargill, another 200 miles. t You can go 600 mileß continuously on the railway, and as we go what do we fiud 1 Instead of a desolate pJain, cornfields appear as far as the eye can reacn, and at intervals between the cornfields large English • grafs paddocks, covered with Lincoln sheeD and cattle tak«n from the finest herds in England. At every few mHfB now townships are rising up. Everything has a new look; everywhere we s^e signs of prosperity and growth, At every little township you see churches, chapels, and public schools, You will also fiud, as the express goes along, long trains carrying wheat and wool, and other rich products of these plains, waiting to be shunted on ; and branch rail way a and roads, bringing the rich produce of the country from the sea. .'on the one side and the bills on the other.— (Cheers.) I saw myself, wh>?n I ■was passing there la-t year, one paddock of 1000 acres. It had been all in wheat. At the time I went through they were takiug the wheat off the land. There waH a gang of some six reapers and binders st work ; there was also a steam threshing-machine in the corner of the field, which was threshing what had beon reaped a day or two before. There was also a large gang of double and treWo furrow-ploughs tolloivingasthe corn was talon off the fi«;ld, and turning up the ground at tha rate of three acKB a day. Following the plougbft werelurnip sowers, aud, following these, the rdleis completed the work. All thtse wcvu working tbe 1000-acre field at the same time — (Oheera.) If the3e railways had not b fc eu made, it would have been impossible for ihet (i operations to have been carried on. I also want to pomt out the profb at which the otitKatioDß have been earriad on. I do Dot wish to be understood to say that anybody now couid do the same, as the price ot land has risen, and that bas to be allowed forj but I know as a faoi, that an ordinary labouring man, who happened to have naveri L4OO, took up L4OO woitii of land— thai is, 200 acr«s— in the Cantorbiuy PlaiDS, cl'>so to one of the?erail wayc He pi. ugtied it, and laid it down in ■wheat; and he assured me that, as the result of bis one year's operations, after paying for land and all expenses, he bad his land and improvements free of cost, aud 30a an acre in bis poukot besides. Now that has been repeated over and over again on many thousands of acieH on the Plain ; and the reason why New Zealand is to good a milch cow to those Eaglish investors who put their capital in these loan companies, banks, and other moneylendiog societies is because psople hava m*de such profits as to be able to do well for themselves, acd pay ss much as 10 per cent, for the capital they employ. ■No money laid out in England could have done that." OBTAINING A WIFE BY ADVEETISEEMENT. Some time ago Mr Hatmaford, of Auckland, advertised for a wife for a gentleman residing on one of the ulanda of the Pacific A large number of applicants forwarded their photos., letlwrs, &c, for the coveted boon of wifehood. An advertisement appears in the New Zealand Humid intimating that thegentleman in question hiui made his selection, aod that tho young lady in no vcm her way to her future home ; and Mr Hannaford requests tbe other applicants to call for their photos, and letters. He horn informed the Herald that there are several other untnar. j r(ed men on tbe same island in want of wives, but ail are holding back until they see the selection already made for the manager of tho station. Ma PROCTOR IN AUSTRALIA. Mr R. A. Proctor, the eminent astronomer, whose works bave a world-wide circulation, has been lecturing in Melbourne and Adelaide during the last ibreo months ; and bis discourses bave excited intense interest amongst all classes. Tte most siugular circumstance connected with the affair i« that Mr Prooior did not contemplate appearing in public at all, but in visiting ibe Antipodes was merely seeking in trave \a distraction from tho memory of a gr^at grief t the death of hit* wife having occurred Bbortiy bfrfortt |he left Eogiand. Hera )shys the Sydney Morning Herald), is another illustration of the ignor«iico lespecing the Colonies which pravailw even amongnt t.he bestinformed rcen; for unless the disiingui<hed Hcientlst, through studying- tho heavenn overmuch, baß grown f-up<rior to all earthly considerations, it> is difficult to believe tbat he would have resolved to pay only a flying visit to the Colonies if he had any idea that he would be welcomed here by such crowded and appreciative audiences. Mr Proctor was to comrueuce a course of lectures on the 16 bh inst. »t Sydney, and from that city it is stated that it was his intention to come to New Zealand, but he will only lecture in tho principal cities. BEAPPEABANCE OF A WBJ.L KNOWN SHREW. The W&llington Post of the 10th mat. thus speaka of an old Dunedin " identity" :— '• For a woman of v.\ nd erf ul volubility commend us to Mis Barnes, who to day appeared in support of an information against her husband, at present residing iv Dunedin, summoning him to chow cauee why he should noj; be coinoelled to support her. After considerable difficulty, it ■was elicited tbat she left her husband in Dunedin some time ago, and since her arrival in Wellington she has been maintaining herself by going to aervicet Mr Shaw wished to know wiiat prompted her to leave her huaband. Thereupon Mrs Barnes commenced a little Btory about what her son used to do when he was only four yearß old. The narrative was not easily intelligible, great stress being laid on the fact that Bt;e ' neither cared for the begging system nor thestealiPgßystem.'and that whensho Wbs inDuuedin she didn't, like Inspector Mallard or Sergeant-mejor Bcvm. In vain his Worship repeated the question. At length, however, on being kept to the point, she said she left her husband 'in order to eeek protection, of course.' The defendant was ordered to pay 7s per weak." A COUNTRY EPISODB. A correspondent ti the Clutha Leader tells the following story, .illustrative of how the monotony of every-day life at Pnerua is occasionally broken :—": — " Last Saturday, as a settler had left his house iv thi3 district and when parsing along a district road leading to the main road, a neighbour, geographically, though not in feeling, approached him in a hurry and assailed him in language the revme of complimentary or refined. A family of eight all told were soon on tho scene, and while the settler referred to was seized by the beard and held fast by a blushing rianwl of 23 summers, b6r father, an ol 1 grey-haired Presbyterian, belftbonr^.d him over the head and other parts of tho body with a i_,iece of sr-antling four by orw and >.-hait inches. The victim nfc laot got away with hi« iifo, bufc still Buffers severely from tha effects of the affray. I cm informed not the slightest provocation was given,"

I GAUGING THE TIDE. I Tha Southland Newa says :— " We have been shown the drawing of an improved tide-gauge, the invention of Captain Thomas Thomson, harbourmaster afc the Bluff, It is a still further improvement upon the one lately erected on Rattray street Jetty, Dcraediu, which gave very satisfactory results, Bhowiug the swell coming in at the Heads even as far up as Dunedin. The present instrument has still further improvements : it rules upon paper the feet, hours, and tide undulations, and requires only to be supplied wita cleau paper to enable it to record continuously. By means of thia gauge a record of each tide, the height and exact time of high water, besides every tidal undulation, can ba obtained printed upon paper for any length of time, the time being only regulated by tha extent of paper supplied to the instruments. Another improvement; is that the pencil iv made to aufc directly from the water by an arrangement worked by the difference between the specific gravity of water and quicksilver, doing away with the necessity of a differential wheel tor communicating and reducing the tidal undulations, We regret that circumstances have prevented Captain Thomson from sending one of these to the Melbourne Exhibition." MILITARY DISCIPLINE Considerable hilarity (says au English paper) has recently been excited iv Austro-Hunganan military circles by an incideut, quaintly illus* tratinf the rigid strictness with which Magyar non-commissioned officers are wont to carry out, to the very letter, the instructloas contained in the Imperial Royal Military Code. A few days ago a private soldier died iv the infirmary at Kaschan, and his body, in due course, was consigned to the grave with the customary military honours. It wa3 observed, howevei", by a superior officer present at the cerdmony of interment, that bho firing party following the coffin marched into tho cemetery with fixed bayonets, contrary to the established military usage in similar cases. As soon aa the burial rites had been oncloded, he sent for the sergeant commanding tne party, and asked him wita some asperity, " Whether he did not know thao it wan contrary to regulations for a funeral «BCort to march with fixed bayonetß ? " Standing s;>ffly at the salute, the conscientious sergeant replied, "Yes, sir; I am quite aware of that. But I beg respectfully to report that tbe deceased, duriug his illness aud at the time of hu dtath, was under arrest. Ifc wa3 therefore the duty of his escort to fix bayonets."— '• Very well ; you may go," was the rejoinder ; and the model disciplinarian retired with the proud consciousness that he had triumphantly proved bis case, THE QUEEN AS AN ARTIST. According to the " Magazine of Art," the Queen is not merely a dilettante admirer of painting ; she is herself an aitist. All her life ie baa been one of her favourite occupations to handle the pencil. Take up her "Journal in | the Highlands." At Blah*. Athole, in the autumn of 1844, " We sat down on the ground, and Lady Canning and I sketched ;" 1852, when her husband had shot a slag, "I sat down and scratched a sketch of him on a bit of paper, which I put on a stone ;" iv 1862, within sight of the Lomond Htlle, "I made some hasty sketches ;" aud on board a yacht in Cork j Harbour in 1849, " While Albert went on puore I occupied myself in writing and sketching ;" — Buch entries as these mark uoores of occasions on which Nature caught her Majesty's eye wita a j peculiar beauty, or whan sue plied the pencil to while away the hours during which she waited on lonely Hills and in the solitary *ooda for her husband's return from his sport. Of that gentler exorcise of tho pencil there is in tuis volume other evidence than these entries— dome oi the sketches themselves. Nor is this the only instance in which her Majssty has run the gauntlet of criticism bysubmitcingher work to the public. To Beveral exhibitions at home and abroad has sho contributed, among otheru to that of Philadelphia, where sbe Bent a series of etchings, which we specially mention becauae they indicate that the cooperation already alluded to aa existing between the Quean and the Prince Consort in the Btudy and patronage of tha fine arta was aleo carried to the extent of collaboration in the practice of them. And the mention o these etchings remiiida ua that toiue of th* royal handiwork in this kind narrowly escaped being made public against the will of the artists. Thin was in 1848, when some copies of etchings, the joint; work of the Queeu and the Princi.-, were hu'den by a workman in the employ of a printer at Wiudaor, who had been engaged to take impressions from the original plates' aud these were roproduced by a publisher in Patarncster row, named Strange. The Prince instructed the Queen's private solicitor to apply forau injunctiou preventing the issue- oi' copies of any of t>h» private engravings referred to in " A Descriptive Cataloxud of the Royal Victoria and Albert Gallery of Etchings " ; and this was granted by Vice-chancelLr Knight Bruce, whose decision was appealed against a few mouths later before the Lord Chancellor, by whom, however, it was finally confirmed, THE COLONIAL FREE THINKER. The Sydney Bulletin, in an article on the bigotry of fieethought, says :•— " The Colonial Freethinker, as he has made himself familiar to us, is a t.ype of a certain class. Half-edu. cated, but not unintelligent, he will almost always be found untoned by any regular system of instruction, having obtained what mental pabulum he may have absorbed, in a precarious hand-to-mouth fashion. His science h the gleaning of text-bool:s and primers, and his idea of the Christian code, if ho has any, the result of the communicated lore of a well-meaning but perhaps not too refinod Sunday-school teacher. Perhaps the only stable social institution of which he has had practical experience is that of the family, and how his reminiscences in that direction jar with his present inner consciousness ho best can tell. His life will be found to have been a desultory, uneven conrees unballasted by any of those gniding principle, which go se far to imbue one with gentlemanly instincts, and which are the neceßaary concomitants of a regular system of education. He lives by his wits, or more properly, by absence-^ of wit in others. The persistent vituperation of every revered tradition sanctified by the growth of ages, the ruthless violation of every hallowed sentiment, and the vulgar blasphemy of every sacred doctrine form the precepts of bis evangel. He profeßseß a lofty contempt for those who differ from him, and, as experience tells us, when circumstances admit he displays all the rancour and prejudice of bigotry in its most repulsive form. Notoriety is his life, and hence he will be found obtruding bis crude opinions on one's notice, irrespective of time or pla-30, while he retires within the recesses of his own overweening conceit when he can no longer find hearers. Thia is the type of the Colonial Freethinker. In the charac teristics quoted he presents a fearful contrast to the cultured atheist of Europe, while he haa about as much idea of the truo spirit and permeating genius of broad Christianity ag a rhinoceros might have. To improve on an old Haying, true enough in its day,' Of all cantt.he worst and most difgusting is tbe cant of Colonial freethought.' We do not Bpeak of the leaders, bat of the bujk of $heir followers."

i THE PILLARS OF SCOTLAND. . Profeasor Blackie, of tho Edinburgh University, recently presided at one of the series of weekly concerts given in the City Hall of Wasjrow under tho auspices of the Abstainers Union. Tbe programme was wholly devoted to Scottish music. The learned and humorous Professor concluded some remarks which he addressed to tha audience as follows :— " Scottish nationality consisted mainly of two things —tbe Scottish Presbyterian religion and Scottwh national song. Don't let these things be dribbled out of them by any conspiracy of school inspectors or anybody else.— (Laughter.) Don't run after foreign idols ; don't send their daughters to faßhiouabto boarding-schools, to sine? only German or Italian songs — that was a matter for th-T exercise of the throat and the amu-emenfc of the ear ; but to stir the heart aud cultivate the feelings sing a good Scotch song.— (Ohoers ) If an angel were to come down from heaven and say to him, ' Blackie— (laughter)— for the many faults you bave committed during your septuagenarian march in this Hublunary world— (great laughter) —we mean to take away from you all your accomplishments and all your virtues, except one ; Snow think, Blackie." (Roars of laughter.) He would answer, ' Take away my Greek, take away my Latin, take away my German, take away my Gaelic, but leave me the good Scottish t'song.'— (Great laughter.)— He could only say that if any of the dozMi or twoor three Ecore of songs he had written, while other people were smoking their cigars, Bhould happen to live in the hearti and throats of his countrymen, he should esteem it the greatest honour that could be done to the memory of Blackie when hb died — (Chaers.)" TAKING IT PHILOSOPHICALLY. Las': week we published a telegram to the effect that Mr Bradley^ had met with a serious accident at Waugaaui. We obtain the following particulars from the Wanganui Herald oftha 9th met. :— " The Ofcago Hounds met on Saturday at Jackson's Pier Hotel. About 50 horsemen were present, including moot of thoße now famiiiar in the hunting-field. A good coursa had bi'en laid out on Fordell, and for about; three and a-half miles the field had a merry run, the fences boing just comfortable. A cuiiou3 incident occurred during the run. In jumping a fence, Mr Bradley's horse touched, but did uot at once fall. Staggering along the horse tried to recover, but could not, and came down on its bead, throwing Mr Bradley forward. In plunging, the horse struck its rider on tho left _ ear, cutting off the upper portion as cloan as if it had been done with a knife. Mr Bradley did not know of his loss, but catching his hor&e, rode after the hounds, and came up at tbe finish. During tbe spell, his attention waa drawn to the injury by the remark, ' What have you done with your ear?' Patting up his hand, the Master of the Hunt discovered he was short of a piece. 'I know where it is,' orieß Mr Bradley, and away he went to search for his ear. The piece was found and taken to the nearest house. The advice now offered to the Master of the Hunt was cunfusing. 'Put it in c >rbolic acid,' said one. ' No ; put it in whisky,' said another. I think the first plan was adopted ; but a third remark being made that the acid would kill the flesh caused its hasty iemoval. Thea Mr Bradley determined to give his advisers best, and came away into town bringing his ear with him. Dr Connolly, at Mr Bradley's request, sewed on the severed piece, and spring-time coming on, a join is just possible. Mr Bradley's sang froid under the painful circumsfcauoaH was rather remarkable. After he left Mr M'lvor laid another course, and a second run was obtained." AUSTRALIANS AT THE GAPS. From the Cape Times of July Ist we extract the following :— That Australia should contribute towards tbe populating of South Africa is a singular episode in the history of our Colony. The Northumberland, which arrived in Table Bay yesterday, brings over 100 passengers who have come from Australia to try their fortunea at the Cape. They are mostly j gold-diggers who, finding gold-digging in Australia not so remunerative to the poor man as in the days of old, have been led to come to the Cape by the news tbatgoldfields have been discovered her<\ V7o do not know on what representations they were induced to come to South Africa, but a passenger by the Northumberland assures us that they are of a class who make capital colonists, for they are prepared to do other work besides gold-digging. We trust that thia is so, for if these people were gold-diggers, and nothing else, they are likely to ba dieappoiuted on their arrival. We may tell them that up to tho present time tbe goldfielda of South Africa have not been a success. A few persons have managed to live at Pilgrim's Rest, in the Transvaal, and th^re ia a c rafident belibf of paying goldfielda existing in thia land ; but they have yet to be discovered. There is, however, the satisfaction of knowing that any man of industrious and Bteady^ habits can at all times make more than his living at the Cape of Good Hope.