TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2608, 14 May 1869, Page 2

TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Thi North. —We hare received our usual files from the North, but they contain nothing of genera) interest which has not been anticipated bf our daily telegrams. OBiTnAAT.-T-Wer regret to learn that Mr M. J. Burke, late of the Halswell district, died *at Melbourne of disease of the heart. Mr Burke was on his way back to New Zealand, having found the climate in the old country too severe.

Presentation.— The visitors who expert-1 enced the hospitality of Mr and Mrs Mclntosh, of Mclntosh Bay, on Good Friday, hare presented the hostess with a clock m remembrance of the kindness and attention which they received on that occasion. Journalistic. —Mr Togel, who has been prominently connected with journalism and politics Id Otago, and who also holds a leading position In the General Assembly, has undertaken the management of the Auckland SoiitherHCross. BeforeleavingOtago, MrVogel was presented with a testimonial and purse of sovereigns by his Honor the Superintendent, on behalf of the principal citizens. Freemasonry. —About sixty of the members of the St. Augustine Lodge, at a dinner held last night, presented Past Master H. Thomson with a very handsome Past Master’s jewel. The jewel) which weighs about three ounces of 22 carat gold, was manufactured by Messrs G. Coates and Co., and does great credit to the taste and skill of the establishment.

The Domain. —The public, who have always shown a lively interest in the progress of this favourite place of resort, will be sorry to learn that some mischievous boys have lately destroyed several valuable and rare young trees. We feel sure that it is only necessary to mention this in order to enlist the co-operation of the general public in the preservation of the objects of interest and beauty which the domain contains. Plecro-Pneumonia.— The following is a return of the number of cattle that have been destroyed under the provisions of the Diseased Cattle Acts, or that have died from the effects of pleuro-pneumonia, and of the number slaughtered for beef, with the number remaining on the Maori Run, from the outbreak of the disease to May Ist, 1869 : Number destroyed, 192 ; found dead, 5 ; slaughtered for beef, 13 ; ; total, 330. Number remaining on Maori Run, 317. Thr Quarter’s Customs. —The return of the customs revenue for the quarter ended March 31,1869, is printed in a recent Gazette. The total received is £189,584, against £194,273 in the corresponding quarter of last year. This gives a loss of £4689 on the quarter, or at the rate of £18,756 a-year. The variations in the receipts at the different ports are confined principally to Auckland and Westland. The former shows an increase of about £14,2ii0, while the falling-off in the revenue at Hokitika, Greymouth, and Westport, reaches a total of more than £9OOO. The rest of the deficiency is distributed over the other ports of the colony, with the exception of Dunedin, which exhibits a very trifling decline. It would seem, therefore, that Auckland enjoys an exceptional state of prosperity, owing to the quartz mines in the Thames district, that Westland is going down hill rather fast, and that the rest of the colony is slowly declining in prosperity. The causes of this are the war and the fall in wool.

Courts foe Revision of Electoral Rolls. —Mr Edward James Lee, the Revising Officer for Canterbury, holds his Courts on the days named below. There seems to be an impression with many voters that the objections to claims to vote which have been advertised mean that the elector’s name has been already struck off the roll. This is a serious mistake. The opportunity of answering the objections is given at the Revision Court. In numerous cases all that seems necessary to secure the elector’s name remaining on the roll is that he should supply the requisite full description of his property, stating the number of his section as given on the public maps of the province. Probably, also, the acreage would be as well added to complete the claim. This could be done by a letter to the Revising Officer Kaiapoi District: At the Court House, Kaiapoi, on Thursday, 27th May, at H o’clock a.m. Ashley District: At Cameron’s Hotel, Saltwater Creek, on Friday, 28th May, at 11 o’clock a.m. Cheviot District: At Ross’Hotel, Weka Pass, on Tnesday, Ist June, at 10 o’clock a.m.

Cure Boating Club. — A meeting of this club, was held on Wednesday last. The secretary read the annual report of the committee, from which it appeared that the club numbers 18 members, and the property of the club was represented by three four-oared boats, and one pair-oar, with all requisites. The Tui, which was built in the province, bad been very successful during last season, and the Mosquito was presented by Mr G. W. H. Lee. The committee recommended 'that in future, the practice boats, Cure and Lurline, should be kept at moorings during the season, and laid up in winter; that a boat house was much needed. The treasurer submitted a balance sheet, shewing a. balance to the credit of the clnb of £l4 5s 2d, which was adopted. It was resolved that the thanks of the club be given to Mr John Anderson of Christchurch, for the use of the shed in Charles street, for storage of their boats. It was also (resolved that a dinner, to close the season, should take place, and that Mr C. Sims (Commodore), and Mr H. Feldwick (Secretary), should make all the arrangements. Mr Nettleton placed a sum of £lO at the disposal of the club, to make a sweepstake match, open to all the clubs in the province, lots to be drawn for choice of water at Kaiapoi, Lyttelton, or Heathcote, the match to take place early in the ensuing season. The Commodore and Hon. Sec. arranged with Mr iiurnip (Custodian) to see to the proper stowage of the boats lor the winter.

American Banks. — A general abstract illustrating the condition of the 1626 national banking association of the United States on the Ist Monday of January, 1869 shows that the assets embraced the following items: Loans and discounts, 643 090,7-t® dots ; United States’ bunds to secure circulation and deposits, 372,828,300 dols ; due from banks, &c , 43,790,525 dols ; cash items, 142, '05,590 dots ; specie, 29.590,960 dols ; and legal tender notes, 87,980,726 dols. The liabilities comprised—capital stock, 448,858,931 dols ; profits, 116,439,650 dots ; bank notes outstanding, 297,000,000 dols ; deposits, 584,857,850 dols; due to banks, &c„ 121,431,000 dols. Possums.— 1 “ How a man may make a comfortable living and support his family,” says the Gipps Land Times, “Is shown in the case of a man who has lately come over from Western Fort, and pitched his camp near Rosedale. The materials are slight upon which he builds his success, the most important being small twisted copper wires, which, placed as experience suggests, around the stems of green trees, ensnares the ‘ possums ’ on their return from their nightly meal in the branches of the forest giants. After being secured by the snares, roaster {ossum is skinned, and his furry coat tanned in vats, ranged in order at the camp. After a certain time they are dtied and packed off to Melbourne, bringing in from 8s to 15s per dozen. As a fortunate night’s hunting secures from six to seven dozen in the green state, and whilst they are in the process of tanning others can be caught, it would appear that something is to be made of opossums after all.” Men Wanted. —The Southern Home Journal says : —The great want of this age is men. Men who are not for sale. Men who are honest, sound from centre to circumference, true to the heart’s core. Men who will condemn wrong in friend or foe, in themselves as well as otters. Men whose consciences are as steady as the needle to the Pole. Men who will stand-for the right if the heavens totter and the earth reels. Men who can tell the truth and look the world and the Devil right in the eye. Men that neither hrag nor run. Men that neither flag nor flinch. Men who can have courage without shouting to it. Men in whom the courage of everlasting life runs still, deep, and strong. Men too targe for sectarian bonds. Men who dio not cry nor cause their voices to be heard on thd streets, but will not fait nor be discouraged till judgment - be set in the earth. Men who do know their, message and tdl it. iten who know, their places and All them. Men who mind their own business. Men who Will not lie. Men who. are not too lazy to ifotk, nor too pseud to. be poor. Men who are willing to eit what they have earned, and gear whdt they have paid-for.

WaH Officb EiPENDiTUtti A London publication say* that the whole expense of the Frifench War Office is <101,973, including everything. • The War Office In Pall M»l| was estimated to cost £169,487 in 1868-69, adding to this £21,445 for the staff at the

Hone Guardi, £9,466 for the Commander-in* Chiefs Office, £13,379 for the AdjutantGeneral’s Department, and £4,345 for the Quartermaster-General’s clerks, it wi'l be found that, with contingencies and the cost cf the Topographical Department, the total amounts to £224,678. Thus the cost of oar central administration of 137,400 troops is about £1 12s 9d per head per annum. The French administer the affairs of an arm/ of 389,604 men for less than half the money (£•01,973), or about 5s 3d for each soldier annually. Why is there snch a difference. The pay of private soldiers does not absorb an unreasonable part of the English estimate; but there is too much squandered in officering the army. Mr Lowe observed that his friends, the Secretary for War and the First Lord of the Admiralty, are diligently endeavouring to cut down what is superfluous in the establishments over which they preside, “ but I am sure,” added the right hon. gentleman, “ it is not the wish of the Government any more than would be necessary to mar the efficiency of the service.” Let us ask, however, if the efficiency of the French service is not maintained 7 France having a powerful army at the cost described, surely England might be provided with efficient soldiers, and the estimate be greatly reduced. Artificial Sprat and its Uses. —The Times says:—Everybody must have seen, and most people must have used, a little toy that was exhibited a few years ago in the shops of druggists and perfumers, under the name of the Perfume Vaporiser. It consisted of two glass tubes, set at right angles, and with the fine orifice of one reaching partly over the somewhat wider orifice of the other. By placing the latter vertically in a bottle of scent, and by blowing pretty strongly through the former, which would then be horizontal, two effects were produced—the vertical tube was first exhausted of its air, and then the liquid in the bottle, as it rose to fill the vacuum, was broken by the breath current into a cloud of fine spray, and diffused in the atmosphere. If the hand and face was so placed as to receive the stream of spray, a sensation of refreshing coolness was produced by its contact and its speedy evaporation, but the liquid was so finely divided or pulverised, that the quantity deposited would be scarcely enough to wet the skin. This method of dispersing liquids was soon found to be of much use in medical practice; and one of its early applications was Dr Kichard°on’s employment of ether spray as a means of rapidly freezing the skin, for the purpose of producing insensibility to pain in surgical operations. In order to keep np a continuous supply, a small hand-bellows of india-rubber was used as the source of the current of air, and the tubes themselves were variously modified in order to fulfil various requirements. Among other applications, the spray has now been largely employed, and with great benefit, as a means of applying lotions to the eyes, nostrils, mouth, and throat, its advantages being that its fine division insures its perfect contact with the whole of the diseased surface, and that it is carried by the air to parts not accessible by ordinary means. The intricate cavities of the nose, and the parts of the throat that are below those reached by a gargle, are perfectly exposed to a current of spray, and spray has even been used as a means of introducing remedies directly into the lungs themselves. The benefit of this is, however, at present questionable ; and it is for the throat, above all other parts, that spray is especially valuable. The ordinary gargle is not only disgusting and comparatively inefficient, but it is in some cases positively injurious, because the effort of using it exerts and disturbs an inflamed part. The spray, on the other hand, only requires the patient to open his mouth. The palate is in a great degree saved frem the contact of the remedy; and the absolute quantity deposited on the surface is so small that this may be of a higher degree of concentration and power than would be possible with any liquid that was to be taken in bulk into the mouth. The ingenuity of surgeons and of mechanicians has been greatly exercised in contriving improved and inexpensive instruments for the production of spray; and in the interests of the large section of the public who suffer from occasional sore throat we hope that in such cases the abomination of the gargle, its combined nastiness and inefficiency, will shortly be only known as traditions of the past.