LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 17, 18 December 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

As showing the exceptional character of j the season last summer, Mr Tyree, of Nelson, on the second of May last, took to the office of the Nelson Evening Mail a number of ripe strawberries gathered from a third crop of the season produced on his farm at Hope, where he has four acres planted with this delicious Jruiti He also I brought into town some splendid ' jraapberries, of which he gathered no If ss a quantity than six gallons during that week, and, as farther evidence of the mildness of the season, some good sized apples, forming part o! the second crop of one of his trees. The Tablet says it will be good news to the literary circles of the colony that Mr Thomas Bracken is about W publish a new volume of poems— " Lays of the Lands of Maori and the Moa.' 1 The work is being brought out in London, and will be issued in New Zealand probably next months It will be anxiously looked for here among all the lovers of poetry. An old gentleman has' just died in France at the ripe aee of seventy, leavirigbehind bim a log-book of all that he has drunk for ; the laet Efty years. His habits in this respect was very regular, his daily allowi ance being four litres of wine (seven pints), a couple of glasses of absinthe be - 1 fore each of his three meals, and twelve i petits verres of cognac, rum, or some other spirit, { to drive away despondence.' The t ital for the half century thus comes to .: —Wine, 3 27,827 pints; absinthe, 109,56$ glasses; spirits, 219, J 32 glasses. The old gentleman boasted that he had never had a day's illness in his life. According! to the Press, on Wednesday last a test was made of some Canterbury diamonds incomparision with others, the genuineness . of which had been as-, certained. Mr T. B. Craig placed some of the Canterbury stones in an ordinary, copying press, and on screwing the levee d^own the stones were reduced by the pressure to, powder.- This was repeated four dr' five times with the same result. On placing the genuine diamonds in the press, however, the utmost efforts were unavailing to break them; nay, more, so hard were the stonea that thev actually j indented the ifon surface top and bottom.; The Ago, in a recent article, charges! tho police of Victoria, not only with con* niving at the recent sweep frauds, but boldly says they shared in the " plunder." Whenever letters were posted to the pro* tnoters containing cheques on which to ; found. informations, the sweep men invarU ably had timely warnings and declined to accept the tempting missives. • If China ia arming, remarks a Wellington journal, Zealand is contributing a number of arms which will nuke the , heathen soldier of the Flowery Land look | as formidable 83 the celebrated Bedouin ; who protected th«J Innocents of Mark Twain during a portion of their journey through Palestine. There have been j shipped, ex b-irq'Mentino May, for Hons? Kong about 000 muzzla-loadin long and medium Enfield rifles, for which, it is presumed, the New Zealand Government: has no further use. Some of these are • in a fair state of preservation, but with ■ regard to others, we should be inclined to '■ toss up to decide which end we should put to our shoulder before ', we fired it off. The Chinese troops will no doubt have every confidence, in the efficiency of these weapons*, which must in every case prove lea dangerous to themselves than the old muskets which are still in use in some of; the districts. , . . •