OBITUARY.

Grey River Argus, 18 January 1912, Page 3

OBITUARY.

CAPTAIN PATRICK ALLARDYCE

It will be with deep feelings of r^j greti that the old West Coasters will I learn of the death of Captain Patrick- AUardyce which took place ati Ghristchurch yesterday at the rip- old age. of 80 years. Deceased w v a s one' of the best known men in. the •early days. He. was for many years in the, employ of the Grey Harbour Board, and was a citizen that any town could 'be justly proud of. He was a Stirlingman and was respected and esteemjed ''by; all sections of the community. IHe tlook a keen interest in you ng imen and for years carried on swimjming- classes free of charge. Sonic few years ago he left Greymouth to reside with his son William in Christchurch, and the declining days of t] 1c •old man were passed hi* peace and contentment. He leaves two sons, William and Patrick, to mourn the loss of an excellent parent.

There were eight motor cars at the North Egmont Mountain House one day lately. The track is reported to be in beautiful order.

Embedded in the, hear;-., of -a .plank of wood taken from a railway station platform at Oakley," Fifeshire, there has been found a sword meamir^ip" over two feet long. The plank 1-ad been in usb for at least fif'oen yp:ir-\ The weapon, which was . of «n old fashioned type, a short cross-: oeco forming the handle, was in good preservation, and, it is believsd, had been- picked up by the tree at an early period of its exist mice and encircled with the growth.

A somewhat: _passec summer «°"rf. :;! the end of a season that li ad left her further off' than ever from the matrimonial harbour,, looked sadly seaward, and said: "Well, marriage is a lottery." But a fair young widow whose engagement to a millionaire: of fiftytwo .summers had just besn announced—this, fair young widow with a toss of her head retorted: "Don't you believe it. It's is a game of skll'. !f

.Cherapunji, n village in the Khast Hills, Assam, r amri.s as h axing-, ths highest recorded rainfall of run- plane in Asia,, last year had WT\r. ..f rain between May 1 and October 31, ihe total since January 1, a "period ' f ten months, be'-ng <"60in The avcafT' fall for the calendar yeair is 458 in. ; but in 1861 a total of QOoin. r°'J of which 3GG were "-iri-l:d t *ho .':ir«nih of July.

Joseph Bishop was so dirty wh'en he was presentied at the Water Police Court, Sydney, last Aveelc, charged with being' idle and disorderly, that the police moved away from his, and the Bench would not allow him to sit down. The. magistrate though it would take about three months to clean Bishop up enough for his nationality to be 2uess :d at, and gav<: the .gaol officials that period to accomplish; the job. ' ■

The editor of the Sydney Bulletin, Mr. James Edmond, who has just re %rned [from, a 'ioufc of Ithfe Did World, says it is possible to go into forty-one costly hotels in and around London, at ..which one was liable to be charged ,£lO pere week for board and lodging, and "find the 'bathroom door as rigidly locksd .as if it contained a gorilla instead of harmless washing apparatus." This impres^ioa of Mr. Edmond's is borne out by •;- turned Now Zealanders, who Have been surprised by the fact that, like "wasTiing" in a colonial boardingan extra. ' ,

An English cOimmercial in a lartge drapery establishmeint remarked that he regretod. not hav-'ng left his heavy overcoat at a railway cloalTf^oi-'. a 5 * th • ciay was warm an.o. ne 'I»'d":.'n^t: •tl ink that ne wr.n.ld n'oar it. ' • wurda do that, '•»• a '"army fvi'iul ''Why not?" s.-t 1/J . t» ; ii '-'ngl'shiTi' n. "lecause,, said the friend, "if wud cost ye a tuppence at ihe railway staifion an' the bother o' coin' thers aaid then comin 5 back. Were ye to put it in .fhs pawnshop for a shillin' the ticket would cost ye a bawbee and the. interest a ba^vbee, thas would be one. penny. That wud ' hn a great savin' these hard times."

If the Chinese revolution triumphs and the "pig-tail" goes at last," that' will be an outward and visible, sign bothiof r'--form and of emancipation from Manchu tulc>' For ti must be remembered that what all the modern world regards as the chis-f distinguish ing mark of the Chinaman is nor Chinese at all, but a badge of submission to the Manchus not three centuries old. When Liab-Yang was captured by the Manchus in 1618, c the inhabitants shaved the front part of the .heads in token of allegiance 1 , and all China followed, though the people , of the Amoy and Swatow districts long concealed the mark of conquest under cotton turbans. •

Before the Linnean Society of Sydney Mr. D. G.- Stead brought, a 'grave charge against the seawscd' known as the "'balloon" plant. This unprincipled- vegetable has actually been caught red-handed in the act of steal inrr oyster's from recognised leases and taking- thsm out to sea either to drown in deep water or to be eventually deposited in the beds leased by some other -man- .who had nothing to do with breeding the bi-values in qu2stion. The method adopted , by the thievish plant is to get hold' of an oyster when on one is looking; It attaches its roots, to* the' shell, and thenvbegins to swall /itself , into a balloon filled with gas. ; When it has grown ;to a. sufficient size to puU off the^ga's is sufficient to get the oyster away from its bad, and the pirate plant sails off with its pirize. . ■