MISCELLANEOUS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1109, 6 March 1879, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Those who think the Government should do everything receive the following rap from the New Zealander. —There are cart loads of rubbish talked by weak people about what the Government should do for us. A sapient scribe wishes the Government to buy Ludlain's garden at the Hut, as a sort of public resort. The idea is proposterous. In the first place every well informed man knows that the Government have no money to spend upon objects not authorised by Parliament; and in the second place, if they had any money to spend for such a purpose as that suggested, it could be much better spent upon the Botanie k Gardens in Wellington, which is worth fifty Ludlam's gardens. * The following is a simple method by which water may be tested : pint of water is to be placed in a clear bottle, perfectly clean, and a lump, about the size of a pea, of the purest and whitest loaf sugar is to be dopped into it. The bottle is then to be laid on a sheet of p ip> r and exposed to the sun on a shelf or window of the room, and allowed to remain eight or ten days. If, after a time, the water becomes turpid, it shows that it contains foreign or organic matter, probably resulting from sewerage in Alteration. According to Professor Franklin, who suggests the experiment, the water results from the fungoid growths which are developed by the sugar, and from the traces of phosphoric acid derived from the organic matter.— Wife-beaters appear to be plentiful in Christchurch The Lyttleton Turin states that on Monday an elderly woman named \ ennell, of very respectable appearance, made application to the Magistrate that her earnings might be protected by order of the Court, as she had been driven irom home by her husband, who during the last four year* had been an habitual drunkard, and had threatened frequently to take her life. The husband made a yerv light matter of his own cruel conduct and his wife's wretchedness, asking grossly indecent Questions and laughing heartily when «he thought he had said something funny." The protection order was granted as prayed for.

Referring to racing and lotteries, the Wairarapk Daily says—lt is tolerably well known, too, that both at the Wellington and Wairarapa races there was a certain number of inocents slaughtered throogh the laxity which prevails with respect not only to the bookmaking fraternity, but also the low moral standard which actuates some of the principal owners of horses in the colony. It would be better to go back to the old "fashionTTd methods of last century, when the State legalised all lotteries and they were then honestly carried out, then to submit not only to the illegal, but the Press an<fc the public denounced the frauds of all kinds with which we are surrounded, including in some instances the bogus land sales.