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Grey River Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3987, 9 June 1881, Page 2

A London writer says:— "The defeat on Majuba Hill has creator nothing like tho sensation which was caused by laandula. Tho reason ia not far to seek. The novelty of a British army getting thrashed by niggers and amateurs is wearing off. Eels, wo are toLl, in time get used to being skinned, and tho British Lion will, doubtless, in time, become as used to blows and kicks a3 a costerinonoer's donkey. He still retains tho faculty of roaring, and with that he must b 9 content." With an inexhaustible supply of the very best gas coal in the Colony — or anywhere else for that matter — it does seem a little oda that the gas supplied by the company should be of so inferior a quality. Our coal is in great demand all over the Colony for gas-making on account of its excellence ; yet here, at the fountain head, a stranger, to judge by the equality of our illuminating medium, might imagine that it was extracted from lignite. It would be unfair, perhaps, to say that Greymouth is exceptional in this matter, aa other towns hive been open to the same charge ; but as complaints on that score have not been heard of lately, it is reasonable to assume that improvement is possible, and it is with the object of bringing about a ohange that we call attention to the matter* Reforms, we all know, aro eeldom brought about without the need for them being pointed out — and sometimes even to the extant of wearisome iteration. It is to be hoped this gentle reminder will have the effect of stirring up the manage ment of the Gas Company to take some remedial means to improve the quality now served out nightly, and which simply makes darkness visible Instead of enlighten • ing our darkness. We take the following from the San Francisco Journal of Commerce :— "lt is a grand, feasible, and commendable scheme — that of draining Lake Okeechobee, in South Florida. Therefore we hope it is true, as reported, that a contract has be-in agreed upon between the State authorities and parties representing capitalists in Philadftlphia and on the Pacific coast for that purpose. If this scheme succeeds 12.000,000 acres of the best sugar land in the world will be reclaimed The territory reclaimed will include the celebrated Everglades, and will be in extent twice as large as tho State of New Jersey. This is tho largest contract on tho record, and when completed Florida can produce more sugar than the United States now consume. Tho reclaiming of this vast and inexhaustibly fertile tract is sure to be effected sooner or later, as we have before pointed out Tho fall from the lake to the ocean, and especially to the Gulf, is sufficient. The sooner the work is clone the better. When it is done, if well done, the land of flowers and orange groves will proceed to the front rank of agricultural States, and become conspicuous for her products uf cane, rice, and corn. The cultivator of corn on this land will not stop at 100 bushels an acre, aud may reach 150 bushels." A Wanganui nurseryman, writing to the local Chr -nicle, expresses surprise that the Uovprnment should have decided to send for 500 white mulberry trees, and adds that for years past large numbars of these trees have been grown in the nurseries of the Colony, but there being little demand the supply has fallen off. He is, however, in a position to supply a considerable number, and believes that as many thousands could be got as the hundreds now asked for. To parsons who contemplate making a trial of silkworm culture, such a statemeut should be highly gratifying.. At the last meeting of the Tokomairiro Farmers' Club (says the Bruce Herald), the Chairman said that his first experience of Irish flix was in connection with a web of alleged flax which he, when a lad, bought from a Hibernian, who said it was grown on his own land, pulled by his mother, dressed by his grandmother, ironed by his grandfather, and "beetled" on his doorstep by his wife. Mr Lindsay bought the patriotic web of flax, and after the seller's exit found that it was nothing but cotton, Mr Gladstone was one of the first persons in the metropolis made acquainted with the assassination of the Emp.ror of Russia on the arrival of the news. It happened an hour or two after tho receipt of the news the right hon. gentleman walked down from Downing street to the University Club, where a number of members were reading the Sunday papers and lounging about. The Premier remained in the reading-room for s>me time examining maps of Greece and Turkey, and then took his departure without addressing anyone. Just as he was stepping into the streei he informed the h.vl porter that the Emperor of Russia had been assassinated ! The man told hi 3 fellowservants, and tho intelligence soon spread all over the club. •• But how do you know that it is true ?'' exclaimed the members in an excited manner ; to which the hall porter replied, "I had it from Mr Gladstone just as he wo* ntepping into the street." The Premier had never informed any of his f rienda at the club, but reserved a piece of information — tho importance of which has convulsed the world— for the private ear of a hall porter !— Home News. The European population of the Taranaki County has increased since IS7S from 4GS9 to 6521. During the same period ihe Borough of New Plymouth has increased from 2650 to 33:6. The net coat to the Colony of the San Francisco mail service 's only LSOOO a year ; although a subsidy of L 40.000 is piid, most of the amount is recouped in postage. It was mentioned tho other day by the Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times that Mr Pitt, one of the members for the city of Nelson, had "entirely broken j with the Hall party." What grounds the correspondent had for making such an assertion we known noti Wo have Mr Pitt's own authority, at any rate, for an~ nouncing that there is no foundation whatever for any such statement, whicn is entirely untrue. — Press. A writer in a London paper says he was recently introduced for the first timo to what is now known in the House as the Home Rule drink, the backbone, I understand, of obstruction ; for after a jorum of it one becomes imbued with st vying-power for any number of consecutive hours. This is tho recipe— beat up well two raw ee^s, *nix with a large glass of hot milk, and add a wine-glass of real Irish whisky. This beats Mr Gladstone's nostrum of sherry egg flip into a cocked-hat, to quote the expiessive language of the House, and is guaranteed to raako the most silent member eloqueat. The Wairarapa Standard a papor to which the. mention of Sir William Fox's mame has hitherto boon like tho sight of a red rag to si bull, makes tho following remarks on Mr B.illancci's address to his constituents :— "We felt Boino little curios ; ty to learn what . were Mr Ballanca's views on tho Native question. Ho says that the real Native Minister is to be found in tho person of tho Koyal Commissioner, and that it Is the policy of tho latter which has been adopted. Well, seeing that the Native policy of the Royal Commiesioner has been a success, and that under it the confiscated land 3 are being settled upon by a European population, while the peace of the Colony has at the same time been maintained, wo think tho result is veiy gratifying, and care comparatively lit.t-.ln who has tho real direction of Native affairs." C-irea is hardly a desirablo country toreside in, judging from the following para- '< graph, which is clipped from the Japan i

Mail ; — " By all accounts the Japanese residents of Fusan are having anything but a pleasant time this New Year. The cold is reported to be so intense that no passible precautions can gainsay it, and as i he people lie Bhiverii.g in their wooden domiciles, the roaring of the hungry tigers helps to freeze their already torpid blood. Up to the present times the tigers have contented themselves with inactive menace, so far as the Japauesa arc concerned, but the inhabitants of the neighboring Corean villages are not equally fortunite, and from many of them terrible tales of the man eatei's raids cone to comfort the exiles. Native thieves, too, aro apparently quite as nimble and daring in Corea as in Tokio, but so far the policeman — that much maligned product of national progress— has not betrayed his countrymen's confidence, so that the merchants of Fusan have not yet added burglary to their nightly discomforts." It is said to hrve been a picturn to see the twinkls in Sir George Grey's left eye when he solemnly complimented the Thames people upon their ferbearancQ ia "Never thinking of themselves a.x all " in the matter of Government pickings. Ihe beauty of the joke (remarks the Scar) was heightened by the appearance on tho platform of the porfry figures of Wilkinson, the Mayor, and Bro^ie the County Chairman, tho indefatigable M'Cullough, the persevering Ehrenfried, Speight, and Adam Porter, who— Bingly or in conjunction— have worried to the verge of distraction every Cabinet Minister who has ruled ftew Zealand for the last ten years. The Thames is notorious for having picked up the cast-off mantle of the "Sturdy Beggar" of Wellington—Fitzherbert. Not a session goes by without a deputation being dispatched to Wellington to lobbj . The announcement of a Ministerial visit to Auckland is the signal for tho appearance in town of a number of the old familiar phizss frooo Hauraki, and one Minister tells with great gusto how these modest Thames youths, having asked for everything they could possibly think of, at last asked for a few old plans that were lying about. The Thames people have earned among the members of the House of Representatives a reputation of the champion cadgers of New Zealand, and it was too bad of their member, who knows it very well, to poke •' borak" at them in that uafeoling way. The Tlmaru Herald, whose able editor formerly held a leading position in the Civil Service, remarks :-If we desired evil to an enemy to take the shape of rendering nugatory his intellectual attainments, and cf destroying his ordinary common sense, we should place him in a Government office. Ere a few years had passed under the cold, passionless life to b? found in departmental bureaus, brought about by the steady, unswerving system of routine and of red tape, and of that nowhere-to be-fixed responsibility which in itself is so charming a feature in officialdom, wo should find out sweetest revenge more than gratified ; the intellectual attainments of our quondam foe would be brought to one dead level of no high order, and his common sonse, from want of exercise, if not entirely deserting him, would he found to have so wofully deteriorated in quality as to be practically valueless for the ordinary business of life.