AMONG OUR EXCHANGES.

Northern Advocate, 26 March 1887, Page 2

AMONG OUR EXCHANGES.

A strange affair happened in Wocloomooloo. A little girl about It years of ago has been living with a woman by whom she was adopted. A man about 60 years of agehasbeenin the habit of paying attention to the child, and he took her to Church for the purpose of being married to her. The Rev Mr Garnsey, however, declined to unite them on account of the girl' s age . The Rev gentleman is now of opinion that a minister went to the house where the girl resided and performed the ceremony. A prize of 200 guineas is to be given at the Frome (Somersetshire) dairy show next September, for .the finest cheese made 'on the Cheddar system anywhere in the British ; here is a chance for the Maungak— aramea and other factories. It is stated that within a radius of twelve miles round Louth, in Lincolnshire, there are 22,400 acres of land without tenants. At the R.M. Court at Timaru on Monday James Matthias, a farmer of Waitohi^ near Timaru, was fined jGIOO and costs for having an illicit still in his possession. Mr : Hay, counsel for the accused, gave notice of appeal The natives who have assembled at Parihaka have been feasting during the past few days. No speechifying has taken place, Te Whiti keeping himself in seclusion. Te Whiti has been having the native land fenced in with wire fencing; and some portion set apart for families In addressing his constituents on Saturday Mr Hursthouse said he objected to forcing any industries by protection, but thought it might occasionally be advisable to foster some by protecting them for a time. He hadjbitherfco given the Government a general support, but in future he would support them when ho considered them right, and oppose them when wrong. He objected entirely to the Representation Bill uit proposed to . establish an equal population basis for town' and country, and predicted that under such conditions the " stonewalling of the last Bill would bo a mere pebble compared to the edifice of obstruction that would be raised against this. A man of the name of JOlsen, a gumdigger, living at the Ruakaka gumfield, was dreadfully burnt on Sunday morning last. It appears he went to his state in a drunken tent, and must have lighted a .candle, as his mates were aroused by hearing his screams, and on rushing out, found him crouching between tyro sacks of gum with his tents in flames around him. Dr. Carolan was sent for and attended to his injuries, which are of a serious nature. It has been agreed to wind up the Kaiapoi Gloss Company on account of the refusal of shareholders to pay calls. Wholesale arrests of persons implicated in the lats plot against the life of the Czar continue to be made in St. Petersburg. It is rumoured that several officers have been secretly executed. A board belonging to the schooner Mary King, of New Zealand, which foundered near the Tasmanian coast in 1883, has been found near Mackay. In Hawke's Bay the continuance of dry weather is becoming alarming. There has been no rain to speak of since November, and the whole country is dried up, On some [farms the willow trees are being cut down to feed the cows. .It is. feared there will be no growth of the grass before the frost sets in. The State forest plantations • made by the unemployed at Wairengd, Rarigiriri, aro said to be looking splended. The wattle and blue gums planted are stated to be thriving excellently. .-....■- Further floods have taken place in the north of Queensland. Two men have been drowned by inundation.

The Colonial Secretary will probably intro duce a bill next session to make debts for goods under £20 irrecoverable in a law Court. It appears to the Government that the E. M. Co^ts in tho large centres is resorted to as a pi^ce'Df legal .nachinory to recover small debts. It is thought thiit. the indiscriminate credit given by some tiiulvs;nen has beoomo a source of mischief. I uudeisi.md that investigation had established tlio connection between -this indiscriminate credit and small debt cases in the R. M. Court. The number of cases for hearing last Court day in Wellington were 130. It is also stated that a reduction of the business of these Courts will be followed by a reduction m the cost of maintaining them. .. • . ■-■«'•"