MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

North Otago Times, Volume XI, Issue 372, 15 December 1868, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

u Anti-Maori" writes to the " Sun" as follows : — "To come to the point at once, I beg to say that I have not the least belief in the noble savage. I consider him a prodigious nuisance, and an enormous superstition. His calling rum and me a paleface wholly fail to reconcile me to him. I call him a savage, and I call a savage a something highly desirable to be civilised off the face of the earth. I think a mere gent (which I jtake to be the lowest form of civilisation) better than a howling, whistling, clucking, stamping, jumping, tearing savage. It is all one to me whether he sticks a fish-bone through his visage, or bits of trees through the lobes of his ears, or birds' feathers in his beard ; whether he flattens his hair between two boards, or spreads bis nose orer tho breadth of his face, or drags his lower lip down by great weights, or blackens his teeth or knocks them out, or paints one cheek red and the other blue, or tattooes himself, or oils himself, or rubs his body with fat, or crimps it with knives. Yielding to whichsoever of these agreeable eccentricities he is a savage — cruel, false, thievish, murderous, addicted more or less to greuse, entrails, and beastly customs ; a wild animal with the questionable gift of boasting ; a conceited, tiresome, bloodthirsty, monotonous humbug. Yet it ia extraordinary to observe how some people will talk about him as they talk about the good old times ; how they will regret his disappearance in the course of this world's development from Bench and such lands where his absence is a blessed relief and an indispensable preparation for the sowing of tho very first seeds of any influence that can exalt humanity, how even with the evidence of himself before them, they will either be determined to believe, or will suffer themselves to be persuaded into believing, that he is something which their five senses tell them he is not. These are not my words, they are Dickens', but I most cordially endorse them, and believe, if you can find space, they will prove no unseasonable hint." It will be seon by a telegram from our Nelson correspondent, which appears in another column, that, as anticipated in our issue of the 2 1st ult., the remainder of the prisoners at the Chatham Islands, to the number of 151, have arrived at Taranaki in the barque Oollingwood. Fortunately, however, for the peace of that district, they manifest a desire to settle down quietly if unmolested, and we trust that the Government, profiting by its previous bitter experience in this respect, will allow them to do so. We can ill afford at such a juncture as the present to have Taranaki become a third centre of hostilities, and the wisest policy will be to let the new comers alone. From the casual reference to their arrival made by our Wellington correspondent, we may infer that it is viewed there with unconcern, while at Nelson it is regarded favorably, so that we may hope that the storm which a short time ago seemed impending, may pass over without bursting upon this lair but hithorto unfortunate district. — Daily Times. In its account of the Jate firo, the "Timaru Herald" gives the following approximate statement of 'the liabilities of the different Insurance companies in respect of the late disastrous fire : — Victoria, L2200; New Zealand, L8000; Imperial, L4000 ; London Liverpool and Globe, L8000 ; London and Lancashire, L3500; North British, L2500 : Royal, L2000. Total, L30.200. •' The manner in which proper names are transmogrified, and the Queen's English butchered in some of our local courts," says the " Beaufort Chronicle," " was experienced not long ago. The Bench directed tho attendant Constable to ' call Duncan Campbell and another.' The limb of the law stepped to the door, and with a strong Milesian accent vociferated, ' Drunken Campbell and his mother.' Again, when directed to call Chamberlain versus Stewart, the Hibernian announced, after calling at the door, that Chamberlain and Stewart were ' here, your worship,' adding ' Varsus don't appear.' The Magistrate at once directed the removal of the oracle, observing that the proceedings resembled those of a pantomime 'moro than those of a court of justice." The " Panama Star and Herald" writes: — " One of the greatest facts in the political economy of tho i day is tho assumption of all the telegraphs in the United Kingdom by the English Government — a change that will produce a variety of other changes, and at the same time disturb some of the foregone conclusions respecting government. The Ministers now propose to turn every Post-Office and letter station into a telegraph office, and send messages all over at shilling rates, to correspond with tho existing penny or two cent rates. A man may send his shilling message in six words or go, or he may spend ten or twenty shillings on his correspondence if it is worth it. The result of all this would be a lessening of the customary letters, and in time the Post-Office would be all telegraph, nearly — except love-letters and parcels. Population and confined space are turning Britain into a largo family, for whom such a system would be advantageous. Our own country lies too broad and too loose for such a snug system as yet."