Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 June 1907, Page 4

The takings at the DuDedin Winter Show for the four daj's were £903, as against £850 for last year, The crowd of country p?ople who came to town was the largest for years, a sure sign of proejseritj among the farming community. Replying to deputations from the Auckland Cremation Society the Mayor said if £600 was subscribed by the public the society would find the Council wr-uld give eifect to their desires. He suggested they should submit a definite scheme showing what buildings are required. " When we get on to our second legs we shall not want any Government protection," remarked a member of tbe Canterbury Fruitgrowers' Association at a til. ding cfri Saturday night. The Chairman of the Assbciation : "If Taamanian fruit is admitted free 'into New Zealand it will collar the markets, and the only thing left for us to do will be to chop down our o-cbards and go in for cow-spanking." An incident occurred last week which might be of interest and importance to ■ horse-owuers (says tbe Otahuhu corres- ! pondent of the " New Zealand Herald.') j A horse was brought down from VVairoa, \ eviJently almost beyond hope of recovery. Mr. TV. Patterson, veterinary • surgeon, stated the case to be lock-jaw, ; and as a last resource administered through the animal's nostrils a dose of a powerful remedy which his been effiB icious in rheumatism and paralysis. In about five minutes the dose took effec. an abscess appearing to burst, whico 'i released the jaws, and the horse was '■ able to commence feeding in a few minutes. How hopeless tbe case was at one time will be realised from the fact that arrangements had been m»de for disposing of the carcase, and aa the ■ animal was lying stiff in the paddock it ! took the efforts of several men to move it in order to take off the cover. • There are in London 1829 philanthropic institutions, which spend annually £3,537,100 in the relief of sickness and distress, in addition to unknown sums which are given by individuals and local agencies. The alphabets of the various langjages of the world vary from twelve to zO2 letters. That of the Hawaiian lan» guage has only twelve letters, while that of the Tartars is at the other end of the list with 202 letters. M. Piol, the French Senator who in view of the declining ,b,irtih-rato, in France, has proposed a bounty, upon large families, is eith«r a very sanguine theorist or deploraMy. wanting in knowledge as- to ' tins effect of similar : bounties ill thy past, x Taking the first of those assumptions to be the correct) <xm?(, he evidently 'believes that theory may prove stronger than all past t-xperienCe. ; For history ds dead! against him. Many such bounties have l«en tried and all haves fa,ilpd. A pertinent example, is offarod in the history of French Canada. la the seventeenth century. Fsjench; Canadian officials were much oxercisetf over the abundant growth of population in Now 'England as compared ' with their* owrn So they devisod a bounty of an ascending scale. With every increase the bounty 1 paiid was 'doubled, ami wiheni a man could show a family of a clQzen children ho received 1 a sub-, stantial pension from the State, But in spite of the bounty the population increased but little, while that in New England went up by leaps and bounds. Also- i-tl was fotincl than an evil trafficking in children had arisen. When |ai man had a fairly large family he; was always ready fto pay a goqd price for somebody else's baby to pass off as his own, with a view of making tl.» dozen and securing the pension. When this' state of affairs was discovered the bounty sj-stem was stopped. Iri England, ■where the birth-rate lias always been, until very recently, fjmost too satisfactory, it may not be generally known that births were at one time taxed. In 1695 the birth of a duke carried a tax of £30, that of a common person 2s. In 1783, another tax was imposed, and under it, in. 1800, :tha hard ase of a tailor named Nelson, in Oxford Market, London, whose wife haid five children at a birth, was the subject of much comment.

.Wednesday's Wairafrapa "ftew»" says: — A picture [that has causodl many a smile land added yet areother to the list ol qivips agjainst' law and lnwyers is that of two farmers quantellitig about a 'coW while a lawyer is cheerfully draw* ift^ the milk, A case, in the. S.M.. Court -at Catterton yestterday might have- been- the inspiration of the picture.- Two farmers were having a dispute about & cow, the total amount of difference between them origiinally being ten shillings. They bad a lawyer each, who. very, learnedly, and ,'mith forensic ability/ talkdd cow, aq<* grazing 1 ! and otfcfer lariri suitijdotls, ' until each litigant felt; his s'fftrlitsl i rise and fall like the mercury in a I | barometer, and occasionally each thought he was bound to win, and then again each evidently was sure he was bound to lose. The lawyers I j enjoyed themselves. Finally the defendant found himself ordered td ! pay 335, instead of 10s, and also | the cost of going- to law. Thto ] winner gained his judgement, but j had to pay his witnesses i out of jt|. I The net result to the litigants was that they had tfieii* wrangle otjus the cow, and the lawyers had collared all the milk. The moral of this story is as proimnbnt a s Carterton's street lamps. Two Russians were present at! the strangers tea at the V.M.C.A.. Wellington, the other day, and expressed themselves deeply grsjt-eful; for tho welcome accorded themi I One is a s °n of a, merchant of St. ' Petersburg, is rt clerk, and 1 thelotheris a tailor. Asked why ihey bad 'been sndused to leave Russia, they replied j that it was for reasons mainly polif tical." The whole country was 1 in such a state of disorder that comfortable living was practically impossible. When they had made !up their minds to leavo they spontj jtsomo tiino in consiKjering what country they would emiigrastc to. ( Tho majority of Russian emigrants, aided by the iiramSjcraUon facilities tif Canada and the United States, havo invari-njbly gono to| those \ couutrleSi but thel two Russaams . here referred: .to considered ther«> [would be great difficulty in getting (work in either Canada or tho United States, owing to the number of their countrymen who were daily leaving for 1 countries, decided to go further afield an>i, hearing New Zealand spoken of from one ienid of Russia to the other as tine "'Working man's paradise," and nn ideal place to live ■in, they decided that that was a'■ country worth going many miles to: see. The reformers, prohibited .to derida the Russian Government,; spove of ttii' social life of New Zea^ land as an ideal to which all Russians should strive to attain/. Tho new arrivals were very pleased! with) New Zealand, and considered It a fine country to live in. One of ,t)hcim/ has already found work as a Jbailori tnlt the other, who is a clerk, is ' well (educated, but not 'being thoroughly conversant with Eng»lisih, is experiencing some <tifnculty( in gaining employment. j '«_! I