Daily Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1892.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 5202, 8 February 1892, Page 2

Daily Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1892.

Mr T. Mackenzie did not carry out his threat to confront the Minister for Lands. Consequently the Hon. John was spared to pass through Oamaru on his way north. Moreover, he had not the least appearance of being shrivelled up, and the Government still hold the fort. When the Hon. John had got beyond fighting range, Mr T. Mackenzie's courage waxed marvellously, and be met a few friends to discuss a few political matters in perfect safety, none daring to make afraid. As nobody was present on the occasion to receive the blows dealt at the space that had a few days before been occupied by the Hon. John, the Clutha Leader, imagining that the lion, gentleman would have been severely punished if he had only been present and permitted, with Christian resignation, Mr Thomas to maul him, thinks a very great deal of Mr Thomas' prowess, and challenges even the Premier to go to Balclutha to meet the St. George of its village. It is a capital idea from an Opposition point of view. The Premier is by no means a busy man, and should really adopt the plan of hastening to every locality where he and his Government are attacked, in order that his spare time might not hang heavily on his hands. It would, too, add so much to his personal reputation and the dignity of his office to make so much of every officious and se'fsuffieient opponent as to rush pell moll into the breach to set him right. We wonder, though, how Mr Thomas Mackenzie appreciates the zeal in his behalf of the Clutha Leader. If lie wished to meet a Minister and have it out with him, he had the opportunity of gratifying this ambition when Mr M'Kenzie was in the district, and he will probably feel particularly uncomfortable lest a Minister should really go down to Balclutha and have it out with him. With what trepidation he will scan his " daily " to know whether the challenge is to be accepted or not. He may eat, drink and sleep in peace. Ministers have an idea, though it may be an absurd one from the Clutha Leader's point of view, that attention to the business of the country is their first duty, and that party attacks based upon erroneous assumptions must be allowed to die a natural and ignominious death. There is no need of a Minister to reply to Mr Thomas Mackenzie. The Ministerial Press will bestow quite sufficient attention on him to allay his thirst for some sort of notoriety.

Mr T. Wilkinson, the Native Agent for Waikato, Waipa, and Thames, in his official report to the Government on tiie natives in those districts, says The absence of much European settlement in their midst is, in a measure, the cause of their not making more rapid progress in civilisation." He adds that '' their record in temperance still holds good, and crime is very rare among them." This is most unsatisfactory. Cannot we make them drink somehow ? Cannot we induce them to commit crime ? It is a scandal that these people, surrounded as they are by the blessings of civilisation, refuse to participate in them like Christians. Mr Wilkinson mentions the antidote to the barbarism of these people—that is what gives value to his report. Europeans and drink would remove the stigma of their quiet, respectable, inoffensive life. Degradation, disease, crime, punishment, and death would follow. There are those, however, who take a different view of the matter, and who hold that if the Europeans would only learn the virtues of the natives—their abstemiousness, their consistency, and their self-respect—they would come nearer to the Standard which the nation professes to revere. The south express is stopped at Bushy Bridge, near Palmerston, and the northern express will not get further than Waihao. But Mr Crombie expects to connect with them both to-night, and the south express is expected to arrive at six o'clock. The usual evening trains for Kurow and Timaru were not despatched, but the Ngapara train is expected to go as far as Queen's Flat, and may get through. At a special meeting of the Oamaru North School Committee on Saturday evening it was unanimously decided to vote for Messrs H. Clark, A. M'Kerrow, and J. J. Ramsay for the Education Board. The Papakaio School Committee have voted for Messrs Clark, Jago, and M'Kerrow. Our Waimate correspondent says :—Friday and Saturday have been very favorable harvest weather. Nearly all the crops have been cut down and stacking is being vigorously proceeded with. In the Deep Creek district a great many stacks are finished, and others are rapidly being put up. Nearly all the crops are considered to be good, and indeed some look as if they were going to yield considerably above the ordinary average. If the weather continue fine farmers will soon have their minds at rest. A Mr Henry Edwards is reported to have received a severe shock from fright at Newcastle, Pa. Two men, who were building a fence near his house, saw him running down the road minus hat, coat, and vest, and calling loudly for help. " He was pursued," they say, "by a mammoth hoop snake, which was running, or rather rolling after him. The reptile had its tail in its mouth, and was rolling along hoop fashion." The men succeeded in killing it. The snake measured exactly sft. 9in. in length, but its body was very little thicker than a man's finger. Near the end of the tail was a horn-like affair, which is said to be the reptile's means of defence. This horn was 1J inch in length, and its sting is certain death. The snake has been preserved in alcohol. The alleged rolling of the hoop snake, says the Scientific American, is an optical illusion. The reptile does not roll, and does not take its tail in its mouth. It progresses by loop movements, somewhat like the measuring worm. The snake gathers itself up in large loops and pushes itself forward, all with such amazing rapidity as to appear to a frightened beholder as if it actually rolled. The mind of man is very easily deceived by false impressions made through the eye. The Napier Telegraph celebrated its 21st anniversary recently, and in an article it thanked its patrons for their indulgence. Well it might. The Telegraph affords the strongest instance extant, so far as we know, of the mighty influence of the landocracy. The paper is kindly and with becoming humility kept alive by the Hawke's Bay public in order that it may guard the interests of such men as Captain Russell and Mr Ormond, the great landed magnates of the provincial district. But has the Telegraph really arrived at that period in its existence which is supposed to bring discretion with it? We really thought that it was scarcely yet out of long robes, for it is only the other day that it stopped exchanging with us because we, in a polite manner quite foreign to itself—for it only knows how to be sycophantic to its patrons and rude to its opponents —spoke of it as one ought to speak of an enemy to this poor New Zealand. The annual general meeting of the local branch of the Railway Union will be held in the Coffee Rooms to-morrow evening, at 9 o'clock. The petition which the ratepayers in the Waitaki Road District are preparing, praying that their district shall be merged into the County, will be presented to the next meeting of the County Council. The Walter Swanson who is reported by telegraph to have been drowned at Outram is an old Oamaru resident, and used to tend Mr Sewell's horses. One tempting field for research scarcely yet attacked by pioneers awaits exploration. I allude to the mutual action of electricity and life. No sound man of science endorses the assertion that "electricity is life nor can we even venture to speak of life as one of- the varieties or manifestations of energy.

Moreover, electricity has an important influence upon vital phenomena, and is in turn set in action by the living being—animal or vegetable. Wehaveclectriefishes—oneofthein the prototype of the torpedo of modern warfare. There is the electric slug which used to bo met with in gardens and roads about Hornsey Rise. There is also an electric centipede. In the study of such facts and such relations the scientific electrician has before him an almost infinite field of inquiry. Professor Crookes. The Marton Mercury, a paper started not long since in the interests of the settlers of the district from which it takes its name, is just now breaking a lancc with Mr Tiryee antl one or two of his henchmen—the gentlemen who recently started the Political Association in that locality—and we arc glad to find that the opinion of this journal on the spot is the same as that formed by us. The Mercury, with considerable force and evident truth, contends that the agitation is the outcome of political jealousy. The annual fete of the St. Luke's Ladies' Guild, which will take place in the Severnstreet Gardens on Thursday afternoon, will be made as attractive as possible, and, should the weather clear, a large gathering may be expected. There will be plenty of music, as the Navals' lsand have promised to play. A few good side shows arc being arranged, and the articles for sale w ill be laid out in several tents. 'I here will be no charge for admission, as the gardens are always public. The ladies request that articles intended for the fete be sent in by "Wednesday.