CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10273, 15 February 1894, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

The Napier Telegraph says:—"We hear that the brown , beetle is atillplaylng terrible havoc with, the fruit trees in soma parts of this district: It is disheartening to the .growers to find that their efforts to bring a good article to market are frostrated by the ravages of the beetle, A large potato sack full of this pest, caught in a single night, was brought in by an orchardist from the Gteenmeadows the other morning.”

The West Coast Times complains that at Hokitika, on Feb, 9, a humiliating spectacle was witnessed at mid-day. On the adjournment of the Court, two _ boys, charged with breaking and entering a fruiterer’s shop, were handcuffed together and marched to the lock-up, with a policeman on either side. " The boys up to that time were only accused of the crime; ' they bad not even been committed for trial, and the English law always assumes a man is innocent until he is proved guilty. The two policemen were sufficient to prevent the boys from escaping when on their way to the lock-up without the degradation of handcuffing them together.” . -

An American method of driving the hot fly larvae out of a horse's stomach is given in the Melbourne Age as follows:— Give the horse one peck of raw potatoes once n week during the season of the fly._ If the horse is already affected, griping and biting, and in a condition not able to eat,' then take four quarts of potatoes, walk and grate, add a little water and pour down. In ten minutes the horse will be able to resume work, as the hot wjU let ge bis hold on the stomach.

Among all the illnesses from which A diplomatist ever suffered surely none could be more remarkable than that which afflicted our Ambassador in St Petersburg in 1844. It is mentioned in Mt Hare’s book about the Ladies Canning and Waterford. Their father. Lord Stuart. de Rothesay, was the Ambassador meant. He was attacked by. a kind of nervous paralysis. One of its oddest forms was that he could no longer command hi* limbs. His legs ran away with him! Mr Blomfeld, his secretary, passed him once running rapidly along the quays. After* wards he heard himself called, and found Lord Stuart clinging to a lamppost. “I wanted particularly to apeak to you, but could not stop 5 .my legs ran away with me.” On another occasion he rushed involuntarily through the rooms of the palace, and was only forcibly stopped by an equerry at the door of the Emperor’s private room.

A gentleman presented a parcel the other day at the railway station at Brie-Comte-Robert.-and asked to have it registered to Vineennes. The railway official who weighed it said that it weighed 33. kilogrammes, and that aa fractions of 10 kilos reckoned as 10 kilos, the cost of carriage would be the same as if it weighed 40 kilos. The owner of the parcel seemed extremely annoyed at this. “ Wait a minute,” ho said, and ho stepped outside, returning presently with about T or 8 kilos of paving stones, which he picked up at the station entrance. This he added to . the parcel, which, with the extra weight, was accepted at the rate originally demanded. Doubtless the irate customer of the company thought he had done a rather clever thing, bat his triumph wa» short-lived, for on arriving at Vincennes he was, on peremptory telegraphic order* from Brie, arrested for stealing pavingstones, and marched off to prison between two policeman. Lord Chief Justice Coleridge has written as follows to the Secretary of the Society - for Promoting Christian Knowledge:—* have learned' froin what seems unquestionable authority that those who administer the affairs of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge have finally determined to range the Society in the number of those favouring the practice of vivisection and advocating its horrors. It is my duty, as I regard it, to separate myself at once from such a body, and I have accordingly directed Messrs Childs not to pay any further subscriptions to the Society. As I informed you of what I should feel bound to do in the event* which have happened, I shall not occasion the Society any inconvenience.