THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9125, 6 August 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1888.

We feel warranted in saying that a deep impression as to the inefficiency of our Parliamentary system will be left on every intelligent mind in the colony outside of Parliament itself by the proceedings at Wellington during the latter portion of the past week. On one night, as reported in our columns, expenditure to the extent of £277,600 was voted, item by item and without deduction of a farthing on anything proposed ; and all in the space of three hours. Members had spent five hours in an excited party struggle after place and power, and then when most of the weary combatants had gone to bed, this enormous expenditure of over a quarter of a million pounds was subjected to the formality of being voted, till the work was completed at four o'clock in the morning. And this is the result of that fervour of retrenchment with which the people of New Zealand elected and sent their representatives to Wellington. But this is only a single illustration of the incapacity of our existing system to do the work of the country. A mass of measures for legislative action, .all of more or less importance, and the greater part no doubt of very considerable importance, has been submitted to Parliament. It is already recognised that not one-fifth part of these will be placed on the statutebook, and the rest of them, without any disparagement of their value, are deliberately doomed, from sheer force of want of time, to be sacrificed under a system, which as an established usage is known as the ''slaughter of the innocents/' Now these are features of Parliamentary procedure not peculiar to the present session, although in the present circumstances and temper of the country, they will be viewed with more impatience than perhaps at any previous period; but it is to be borne in mind that they are a recognised part in Parliamentary proceedings. Members, according to timehonoured usage, consume all the earlier portion of the session in prolonged discussion, for the most part either on party questions or others of minor importance, in which the whole of the ninety-five feel it incumbent on them to express their individual opinions, having the clear knowledge before them that this rush of the estimates, this abandonement of measures, and a general stampede will inevitably take place at the end. At a recognised point in every session, the hurry and the scamping of business begin, and it is only a matter of . accident what measures or what votes are made the victims. Indeed, it would appear that Governments . are accustomed to make deliberate calculation of this, and form their arrangements accordingly, prudently postponing to the period of hurry such questions, whether of votes or legislation, as are likely to encounter criticism and opposition ; and when the first signs of a disposition to bring the session to a close are found, first private members' days are appropriated for Government business, then Mondays, and perhaps Saturdays, are added to the clays of ordinary meeting, and the haste to get away from business is openly recognised as an established usage. Now, this condition of things has been viewed with indiilerenee by the country for many years past ; yet it is patent to everyone that it has been the cause not merely of defective and blundering legislation, but of what is of greater interest to us now, that wasteful extravagance from which the colony is suffering. That it should have been as characteristic of the present session, as of any one preceding it, is aggravating because of the tension of public feeling, and the universal desire existing that the utmost care should be given to curtail the public expenditure, and to have something done to promote settlement, or otherwise raise the colony from its present depression. But there can hardly a doubt remain in any reasonable mind that these are evils inseparable from our present parliamentary system, and that so long as matters remain as they are, representatives going to Wellington cannot emancipate- themselves from the evil traditions of the past. In view of the present condition of affairs, and the past, it is impossible to deny that witli us representative institutions, and so called responsible government, have been a failure; and that hardly any other system of government could have shown worse results than have come of our administration of popular self-govern-ment during the past eighteen years. It may be unfair to charge to the principle of popular government these ill-results, which are not so much attributable to the principle as to the incidents which in our ease have accompanied it. These incidents have been such that probably no form of Government would have saved us from the corruption which they have entailed ; but it is quite clear that if the colony is to shake itself free from the evils that seem as if inseparable from the system we have been pursuing, that system requires to be completely revolutionised. One of the first changes that the country should set before it as imperative is the immediate reduction of members to about one-fourth of the

present number. Twenty-five, or at the most thirty, members in the House of Representatives, would afford more time for deliberation, and quite as much wisdom directed to legislation, as is applied to measures at the present time. That such a change would be distasteful to those who at present enjoy the honour of representing electors in Parliament is certain ; and that certainty is emphasised in the recent attempt in Parliament to postpone even the very moderate reduction in the numbers from 95 to 74. It must emanate from the country, and should be pressed in defiance of those who have been imbued and corrupted by the traditions of Parliament, and who would see in it a total reversal of the system to which they have been accustomed, but under which the country has so bitterly suffered. It Avould require further to be accompanied by the removal from the bauds of Parliament of that power of largess which comes of the distribution of public works and local grants, and which has been the cause of the wild rush for plunder, and of the evils of log-rolling, that have mounted up our public debt to thirty-six millions. This would, of course, entail the necessity of an extension of local Government, if not on the lines of the Provincial system—which was abolished as a necessary prelude to our lamentable " heroic policy" —at least in the direction of giving local powers of government on such a scale as would be a substitute for the powers now exercised by the central authority, limited as it must in future be by the absence of money to expend. These two reforms would lead to a successful attempt to break down the bureaucracy at Wellington, which is really the governing power in the colony; and with which Parliament and successive Governments have shown themselves to be utterly unable to grapple ; and it may be a question whether even at this hour it would not be advisable to remove the seat of government from Wellington to Christchurch, or some other place with a considerable population, as the most effective means of bursting from the trammels of tradition in connection with administration, and in order to prevent the growing up again of the influences engendered in a community consisting mainly of officials and those dependent on them commercially and otherwise. It is this official influence everywhere surrounding them that has proved fatal to the determination with which members have gone up from time to time from the country full of the high i resolves that they had formed from contact with the real life of the community ; and probably at this time no single reform in the evils of Government would be so effective as the removal of the Legislature and the Government from Wellington and from the influence of bureaucracy with which that place is sodden. These are among the points of reform to which the public mind should direct itself, disgusted as it unquestionably is at the inipotency of Parliament, its utter failure during the present session, and its manifest unfitness to grapple with the difficulties by which the colony is distressed ; and we do not hesitate to affirm, after the experience the colony has had in the session now drawing to a close, that the most urgent of all questions from this time forth should be the question of radical Constitutional Reform.

Considerable anxiety lias been manifested by many people in the Auckland district respecting the numbers of those who have left during recent months for one or other of the Australian colonies. A general feeling prevails that the majority of those who have gone are Auckland citizens, and that if the emigration goes on much longer the result will be a very considerable reduction in our population. These fears are groundless. Many of those who have gone away for a time do not belong to Auckland, and many others have come from Southern portions of the colony to Auckland to till up the gaps made by those of our people who have left. The fear that house property will permanently greatly depreciate in value is also, we believe, unfou nded. There is a greater demand for houses now in Auckland, and a fewer number are unoccupied, than was the case a short time ago. A rumour is frequently circulated that there are 2000 unoccupied houses in Auckland, but this is not the case. Several months ago the Mayor caused an accurate count of the unoccupied houses in the city to be made, and on the 11th of April last the number of such houses in the city was found to be 787. On the 3rd of August Mr. Gulliver completed the serving of notices for rates, and during his peregrinations he has found that the number of empty houses at present is G93, or 94 fewer than existed on the 11th of April last. It would thus appear that our occupied houses are increasing instead of decreasing. When the census was taken last, the number of unoccupied houses then was 419, and those in course of building numbered -20r>, making a total of 624 houses then unoccupied, so that the difference to-day as compared with what existed in 1886, is very little in this respect. The unoccupied houses at present are distributed among the different wards as follows:— North, 160; South, 183; East, 88 ; Karangahape, 73 j Graf ton, 16 j and Ponsonby, 173. If an enumeration of the inhabitants of Auckland were taken to-day, there is no doubt it would be found that our population had increased to some extent since 1886, and the increasing pressure of population, and the easing of the commercial depression, may be inferred to some extent from the fact that between April 11th and the 3rd of August, 94 houses had become occupied which were at the former date empty. At the present time there are only 69 more houses empty than existed when the census was last taken, and at that time nearly eacli family lived in a selfcontained house, while at present, for economical reasons,many housescontain two, and even a greater number of families. When the census was taken in 1886, the population of the city was 33,161, and now, on the 3rd August, the population, calculated on precisely the same basis as in 18SCJ, is 33,545, or an estimated increase of 384, and this notwithstanding the large numbers who leave by every steamer for Australia, and the still greater numbers who have left the city for settlement in the country. The solution of this increase, in the face of many departures, is the large birth rate as compared with the small death rate in Auckland.

Notwithstanding the glittering show of the New Zealand court in the Melbourne Exhibition, we have been once more doomed to failure in that which of all other things was the feature most desirable to present. As will be seeu

from the special telegram f r ' Melbourne correspondent i n °? column, "the mining exhibits r New Zealand court are a tn * That they have been beaten bvtfi *! Queensland is perhaps not to dered at ; that they are beaten bvR° n ' of Tasmania is less creditable k u they should have been in them o i a * failure at all is ble. It seems to be always so t New Zealand court [ n the' T don Colonial and Indian Exhilv" was a splendid museum but • loli seurn only, of fads and *ff the conception of a mind JS ; in touoh with our commercial however much in sympathy /*' the secrets of scientific researc! that fatal blunder we owe it that \ '' Zealand is outside of the intlu'er *■ * that wave of mining enterprise vi!- 01 broke at once with such force n't shores of Queensland; that «!*"" having presented her wealth of rait deposits in such an attractive for! caused an excitement anion," all i circles of mining adventure i n !' 5 great centre of the worlds coning. That we should have repeated "fr blunder again at Melbourne i s tool i though it was not unexpected, a S u *' ■ who were deeply interested' in'li':' colony in the coming Show »t \n bourne, had denounced from ty T'[ the constitution of the body ;i t \vT lington which was entnisted with work of collecting and forwardi"* the New Zealand exhibits. Of -I things that which we had m , reason to show was our minf°l wealth. An exhibition of \vo o ] " r tallow, or timber, or other might of course win attention rtsuluV in a,n addition to our settlement" I • the mineral resources of New Zeal" 1 ] especially require to attract wealth risk ill for their development ; an*! j t f v '."| of the very first importance that tH world of sightseers at that Exhibition should have placed before their »••■,.' evidences that in these remote li'tC islands of ours, we have a variety ami a teeming abundance of mineral rit'L" awaiting development, second to i,.'■'! of all the colonies in Continental Australia. It may not be too late vet t!i repair the error, and we are pkWj that our correspondent has drawn [■ tention to it at the moment* and we sincerely trust thai those who are more immediately connected v.-C----our mining interests will see to "r promptly, that the fullest possible' representation will be made of ever class of our mineral resource;.

Our cable messages state that Italy ha; formally annexed Zulla, a position of ?om* importance in Annesley Bay. Germany iis also announced, has assumed the protectorate over Pleasant Island, one of the Marshall Group. The Fan-Anglican Conference has concluded its labours, and the report of its proceedings has been published The Conference decided to iv<Y"ni.J adultery alone a? a ground of divorce >-■'■ to refuse re-marriage in certain caseSeven volunteers have bet-n drowned „; Cardiff while bathing. The Australian cricketers hud an easy win in the match with the Eleven of England. A French military officer has been arrested at Kiel, on suspicion of beinjr a spy. The August civil sittings of the Supreme Court will commence at. ten o'clock this morning. There is a somewhat lei.yihy list., but only one of them is for trial by jury. Ip is necessary that jurors hiemoned and parties to the actions should ba promptly in attendance. At an extraordinary general meeting c: the New Zealand Land" Settlement Company, held on Saturday, a resolution vra passed that the company be voluntarily I wound up, and Messrs. George S. Ki.--!i:.} and J. B. White were appointed liquidators, at a remuneration of £100 each. A report of the meeting appears in another ! column.

On Saturday afternoon, at, the invitation of Mr. J. C. Firth, the members ivt tlie Auckland Trades and Labour Council visiwi that gentleman's Eight Hours" Roller Flour Mills. Seventeen members responded to the invitation. They were courteously r~ eeived by Mr. S. B. Firth, and conduct?! over the mill, Mr. Filth pointing out and lucidly explaining the various process by which the wheat was tirst cleaned and classified and weighed and measured, then ground, and the different wayof dressing the flour, by which was produced the several samples of r! iur, from the coarse qualities to the justly celebrated Germina. The Council dele gates expressed themselves much please! with their visit, but what .-truck them most- appeared to be the wondrous state c-i perfection to which this machinery ha?beea brought, and which allows such an imraens business to be successfully conducted, ani such splendid results to be obtained with the employment of so small a number : hands. On leaving, the delegates cordially thanked Mr. Firtli for his kindness, and wished him succes? in his spirited enterpriaYesterday, shortly after norm, a nun nainad William Pollock was arrested by Constable Mackej', of the water police. en I the twofold charge of stealing a shipV tie: and assaulting- George Murdoch, the ec-i of the brigantine Borealis. It appear; •'::.■" Murdoch was left in charge of the Bortai. which is lying at the Breastwork, and *a= onboard about/ noon yesterday, when Pollock came down to the vessel in en,; sy with Nathan Patterson and Charles Dint-. two of the crew. The two latter, it ,; alleged, were much intoxicated, and : once made tho best of their way to t!vbunks. As Pollock was a strangi r, Murdoch objected to his coining on board, bit the former persisted, using very abiwvi language. It. is stated that lie shortly an--' j took a net belonging to the Borealis. ani coolly emptying a sack of potatoes, piaee-i the net in the bag and walked otf. Murdoch promptly informed Constable Maekey, who went after Pollock, and brought hirn back to the vessel. On being charged v.i:a stealing the net, Pollock stated that it been given to him by Dinis, and on Murdoch insisting that the article belonged to Captain McKenzie he used very violent language, and rushing , at Murdoch seuw him by the throat. The constable promptly interfered, and after separating the two men, arrested Pollock on the charges of larceny and assault. Another of Auckland's oldest identifier Mrs. Annie Bryce Proudfoot CampbeUi passed away yesterday at her residence, Hobson-Rtreet, at the ripe age of 83 year*. Mrs. Campbell arrived in New Zealand with her husband and family in the Vβ" 1565 from Port Hope, Canada, and they settled in Mangonui, where they remained for 10 years, after which they removed to town, where Mrs. Campbell lias since resided. Her husband, Mr. Samuel Cvnp* bell, during his lifetime, was a very prominent figure in Masonic circles. }l ::, Campbell was the mother of 11 children! eight of her family being still living, &i residing in Auckland. " A mother " complains that the East. School is closed on the least sign ot rain less the average attendance should W reduced. She gives several instances. a Dd adds :—" If the schools were dependent on the usual school fees, I venture to say tW they would not be closed at all owing " wet weather. It is quite a new innovate? which has sprung up under the [ ulb "j system of Education. Most of the n* 1 teachers are honest enough to admit that =- was unknown during their school cia>-• What are the various school commute about, to allow it now ?" A correspondent of the VTanS* . Herald writes as follows :—" As a pn»» l the mildness of this winter (were » n . needed), I would suite that I received' day from G. Morse, of Fordell, a wowine' chick about 10 days old. Again, J*JHolden informs me that a lien pheAsa brought out a brood of chicks _ near house on his property, No. '2 line ; a ' again, sportsmen here told me that season they have found duck of all "SJ from the very youngest, on the lakes lagoons of this district.. Starlings st; V^ n to nest in June, and the sparrows have at it some time. The vagrant P'S 60 .™ t j,jj town were nesting last month, thou?" is not, I think, unusual. This "'.-- *-, must have a wonderful climate llia , when its birds continue to pair and through its mid winter."

An inquest was held at Waiuku on Friday last, on the body of J. Barr Brown, who had died somewhat suddenly on the previous day. Mr. W. J." Harris acted, as coroner, and* Mr. E. Constable was chosen f. reman of the jury. The evidence showed that some two and a-half years ago the deceased met with an accident by being thrown out of his buggy resulting in injury to his spine, and that ever since he had been, with brief intervals, confined to his bed. In consequence of his objection to medical advice no doctor was called in to attend him. Deceased frequently expressed his belief that he was dying, and Cave instructions concerning his funeral. On Thursday afternoon, on Mrs. Brown entering , the bedroom, she found that dee> nsed had expired. Tie was 4S) years of age. Dr. Dalziel, who had made a post mortem examination, deposed that (lie cause (a death was chronic alcoholism. The jury iviurned a verdict to that effect, adding that they were of opinion that a medical man should have been called in for the deceased, and that measures should have been taken to prevent the deceased troin i:i lu'gence in the excessive use of alcohol.

Judgment wvs delivered in the Wellington R.M. Court on Saturday in the ease of Van Quon charged with being the keeper of a gaming house. The defendant, was the occupant of the house upon which the police made a raid recently. Counsel for the defence called twenty-nine Chinese who were arrested on the occasion to prove that no gambling was going on at the time. The R.M. held that the case was proved against the accused, and ordered him to pay a tine of £15 and costs. Leave to appeal was granted. The North Wairarapa Benevolent Society have instructed their solicitor to take action in the Supremo Court to compel the District. Charitable Aid Board to provide funds for the relief of the distressed. The local trustees have incurred heavy liabilities, and, as no money is forthcoming, the storekeepers refuse further supplied. " An old man named Delaney broke his leg on Friday evening by falling down a step at the house in Cook-street, in which he lives. Dclaney was alone in the house, and he walked to the door in the dark, and missing lii.« footing fell. He lay foi sometime before assistance came, when some neighbours lifted him into the house, and sent a mes- ■ i.'t 1 to Dr. Hooper requesting his attendance. That gentleman wrote a note to Dr. l'-A\, who is in charge of the Auckland dispensary, informing him of the accident, but this note Mas left at the dispensary, and therefore did not pass into the hands of Dr. jvll until mid-day on Saturday. Shortly :.:; that hour he received a telephonic message from Dr. Bakewell stating that the Litter would attend to the case. "* Delaney thus lav during the night, and the greater part of Saturday, with his injuries unattended to. On Saturday afternoon Dr. Kakewell went to the house and set the nun's leg. and Delaney was then taken to the Hospital. Prosecutions to enforce the compulsory clauses of the Education Act are fortunately i.-x frequent here, but there have been i ■!--. - in which real hardship ha* been indicted en poor parents through the enforcement of these clauses. It is not I a;.' since a father had to plead that if his *-„:, were taken away from the employment vTiich he then was in and compelled to attend school he would have to go without i■ A. It appears that prosecutions under the London School Board have been so harassing as to become oppressive. In a recent issue of the Daily 2sews the following paragraph appears:—"Mr. Montagu Williams said he had made an invariable rule while he was at Woolwich never to have those school board commitments en- £ reed without his sanction. Half the time the poor people were nearly destitute, and t lie would not have their homes sold over their heads- if he could help it. His instructions infutnre to the warrant officers of this Court were that he should be consulted before any distress warrant was put in force." Punch has the following hearty commendation of the outspoken magistrate :— V ht-ii the poor anil distressed a true champion would seek, They rind the right man in the brave Wandsworth Beak : Who from bearding the biggest of Boards will not blench. ■What a joy to >ee heart- and sound sense on the Bench": * " A fortnight to pay," says tins Beak of sound brain, "Ami if still you're hard up. why just come here asain ;" Thru he adds words of wisdom as printed above. Now, if there's one mixture Punch really does love. It's a "blend" of sound sense, and warm heart, and sr« ,d pluck. Bravo 1 Monty Williams. Here's wishing you luck In your rc:»nly crusade on behalf of poor want Against cruelty, cast-iron rule, and sheer cunt.

An interesting discussion (siv.- the Chicago Times) is being carried on by the principals of the Kansas city public schools. They met the other day to consider the qu> «tion of suppressing the game of marbles » - played "for keeps." It was agreed that a? an amusement marble-playing , was all l'i-h:. but there was a division on the question of "keeps." One side held that it was immoral, dangerous, vicious. The other side said it was a necessary part of a boys education ; that marbles for keeps is Eimply a miniature phase of life's trials and contents, and that a boy in playing for keep? might learn many a lesson that lie would have to learn some time or fail. Tho-e who stood up for this practice declared it was not immoral, and called in the church fair with its several kinds of lottery schemes, the horse races at the nrinual fairs, whist, euchre, and like games which are played for prizes. These they F;;id. are no worse than speculations in (~ ■■•.I-γ lots, or any of the other games, which respoeted men play ''for keeps." One supl»'>rter of the game went so far as to declare that a bov has two natures—his moral nature and his selfish nature —and that litithui , should be suppressed; " for," said I •'. "" the destruction of the selfish nature Minifies the crushing of all aspirations and tii'j annihilation of all motives." Some of tho—.• who agreed that marble? for keeps is an immoral practice, still held that an attempt to suppress it would only result in driving the boys, to practising deception, which would be worse than the game.

The Inspector-General of the Benedictine Order, the Very Rev. Prior Bergh, who arrived by the steame." Coptic, from London, preached at St. Benedict's Church morning and evening. Prior Bergh has visited Auckland on a tour of inspection in connection with the work of th.j Benedictine Fathers, and he will remain here for a few months. He was accompanied to Auckland by Father Bromley, 0.5.8., who has charge of a Roman Catholic parish in Kent, and who will return to England by the Tainui next month. The usual Saturday evening's entertaintnent at the Temperance Hall, in Albertstreet, again drew a crowded house. The chair was taken by Mr. Tremain, President Df the Auckland Temperance Society, who opened the proceedings by a short but moving speech on the benefits of total abstinence, and the progress the cause was making. During the evening Mr. May also spoke, taking for his subject "Changes/" as applied to the commercial, social, and temperance world, relating one instance of the deplorable results of an indulgence of Firong drink in the ruin of a lady he had known who had held a good social position, but who had been induced to first taste arid then crave for liquor. He also dwelt upon the changed attitude of public opinion towards the temperance movement. Songs Ren; fjiven by Misses Serle, White, and Stevens. Messrs. W. Tremain and Ryan; a duet by Messrs. Ryan and Tucker; recitations by Misses Leslie and Miller; and a pianoforte duet by Misses Tremain and K' ilor. Everything went off very successfully, and from the applause following almost every item appeared to be most Heartily enjoyed by the large audience present. These entertainments are evidently Raining in popularity, and appear to be dcnn\r considerable good in attracting adherents to the temperance cause, and strengthening the ranks of temperance Workers. At Sydenham, Christchurcb, recently, Mr. R. Bell, of the British Israelite As-BOf-iat ion, delivered a lecture to a very small audience. His subject was " Anglo-Israel-«am as it relates to the Chinese." In the course of over an hour he quoted book, chapter, and verse from the Bible to sustain his argument that the Lord forbade the introduction of heathens into tho heritages promised to the Israelites. The people of the British nation were descendants of the A°ra<-!ites, and in the latter-day acceptation - J i the te rm "promises" the heritages meant were America and the British colonies. The experiment of growing chicory in Hastings district has been very success

The Tabernacle Band of Hope held a most interesting meeting on Friday evening last, Miss Gaze presiding-. There was a very much larger attendance than usual, from the fact being known that the fair sex would render "the programme, which was done in a very pleasing manner. The meeting was opened by the singing of the hymn, " Hold the Fort," after which Miss Spedding offered up prayer. The programme was as follows : —Pianoforte solo, Miss Stevens; reading, Miss E. Gaze; song, "We'd Better Bido-a-wee," Miss ftlarson : recitation (by request), "The Old Actor's Story," Miss A. Nettlingham ; song, "Turnham Toll," Miss Stevens; violin solo, with accompaniments, the Misses

Stevens ; recitation, Miss Webley ; song, "The Fiend of Drink," Miss L. Petty; song, " Happy Dreamland," Miss Clemens ; quartette, " The Teetotal Car," the Misses Clemens. Kilpatrick, Petty, and Pearson ; song, " Little Johnny," Mrs. C. B. Stone ; pianoforte duet, tho Misses Dewar; reading. Miss A. Nettlingham ; song, "List, "tis Music Stealing," Miss Clemens. Votes of thanks, singing of doxology, and pronouncing of benediction terminated a very pleasant evening's entertainment. Several pledges were taken at. the close of the meeting. The Christchurch Press says : —An individual representing himself as a " poor shipwrecked sailor " did a good stroke of business in Ashburton recently. He interviewed a prominent citizen, and represented that, during the voyage from the old country, he had been shipwrecked and lost • all his worldly possessions, save a six yards' length of blue serge that he intended making up into a suit of clothes. This lie had bought in the old country at a high figure ; but, as lie was now badly in want of money, he would sell the serge for '2s 4d per yard. A bargain was struck, and the poor shipwrecked sailor walked away down the street with 14s in his pocket. A part of this lie took to a well-known draper's : shop and purchased another six yards of serge, for which he was charged Ss, or Is 2d per yard. Armed witli this stock-in-trade he interviewed another citizen, told his story of shipwreck, and soon pocketed another 14s. He then made another journey to tlie draper, bought another six yards of fourteen-penny serge, and again with the "shipwrecked" story found a client at 2s I4d per yard. This went on till the lucky i draper had sold his stranger client nearly two '" bolts" of serge, and the poor " ship- • wrecked sailor" had driven a nice little trade, considering these dull times. The same man victimised the Oamaru people in the same way, and is now reported to be coming north.

A short time ago, says a Christchurch piper, Mr. McXae, a farmer residing at Courtenay, Canterbury, lost two bullocks that had been grazing on his son's farm. The other day his son happened to be passing a straw stack in the paddock, where the bullocks had been running, and he- noticed a strong smell, as if from a dead animal. Suspecting that tho missing animals might have been buried under the stack, a search was made, and on clearing away some of the straw the dead body of one of the bullocks was found, its neck having been broken by the falling straw. Further search discovered the dead one's mate, which was alive, but very much emaciated and weak, as it had been buried for about, three weeks. On being liberated it made at once for the water, but it was not allowed at the time to take more than was thought would be advisable. The animal is now recovering from its long term of close confinement.

It may not be generally known, says the Post, that manganese —large deposits of which have quite recently been discovered by Mr. J. Wallace, and "also by Mr. H. Hughes, of this city, within a few miles of town—forms the chief ingredient in the manufacture of Condy's Fluid (permanganate of potash dissolved"™ water), which is regarded as probably one of the most powerful and effectual disinfectants known. This beinLT so. and if the stone can be brought to Wellington by the Wellington Miid Manawatu Railway Company at a figure which will leave a margin of profit t'l the manufacturers, the discovery should prove of great value to the district. The highest- health authorities hare expressed the opinion that the fluid mentioned will before very long be universally employed in disinfecting closets, cess-pools, etc., and as the co.-t of the manufactured article is \-ery tritlinp, it is to be hoped that the manganese discovery at Paraparaumu will shortly be utilised. A correspondent suoyesis that now that active steps are being taken to abate nuisances all about Auckland, the manure stores in Fort-street should be taken notice of. He says the smell is .sometimes unbearable, and there is no escaping it, as it is on both sides of the street.

We are requested to mention that prize schedules for the camellia show of the Royal Horticultural Society to be held at Newmarket on Saturday next,may be obtained on application to rhe hon. sec, Mr. W. Rattray, 116, Queen street.