Items.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 5203, 9 February 1892, Page 4

Items.

Mr Walter Besant writes as follows in an English paper respecting a book recently published ; " Among a heap of new books now lying before me is one which the author—an Australian—has sent me. It is in the form of a story, but there is not much plot in it. Yet the book is extremely interesting. At this distance one can only wonder if it is true. For it is a drawing—not a sketch, but a drawing—of society and business morality in a certain town of New Zealand. For obvious reasons we will suppress the name of that town. If, however, the book is really true —if only half of it is true—if only a third, a fourth, a tenth part of it is true, the inhabitants of that town would do well to flee unto the mountains, if that will save them from the coming wrath. For they are all knaves, thieves, and gamblers. That is the keynote of the book. The writer does not call the people by these hard names. He does worse. He shows their character by their acts. If, however, the book is an act of spite and malice, if the author inteuded to be revenged on New Zealand for some real or fancied wrong, if the picture he draws is false and falsely colored, he is simply a criminal of the deepest dye. The name of the book is ' Making His Pile.' " The wheat imported into New South Wales during 1891 amounted to 902,000 bushels, and the flour equivalent to 3,200,000 bushels, in all 4,102,000 bushels. The export was 322,000 bushels of wheat and (538,000 bushels of flour, in all 960,000 bushels, the net. import being 3,142,000 bushels. A recent visitor to Tasmania relates an amusing circumstance that occurred at. Zeehan. "A New Zealander who had laid down his swag in an hotel found himself suddenly pounced upon by a crowd of fellows, some of whom held him while others cut the lashings of liis swag, which they distributed in shreds amongst them. He thought he had got among a lot of lunatics, but soon found they were Maorilanders who had not seen a blade of flax for so long that they could not resist. I I have been made to promise on all sides that I would send over some flax seed as soon as possible ; they say the place is unbearable without it. A man's best friend is a wife of good sense and good heart, whom he loves, and who loves him. In woman there is at once a subtle delicacy of tact and a plain soundness of judgment which are rarely combined to an equal degree in a man. A woman, if she is really your friend, will have a sensitive regard for your character, honor, repute. She will seldom counsel you to do a shabby thing, for a woman always desires to be proud of you. At the same time her constitutional timidity makes her more cautious than your male friends. She, therefore, seldom counsels you to an imprudent thing. Rely, then, on her wisdom and faithfulness, and scorn the thought of proving unfaithful to the tenderness which, should occasion demand, would impel her willingly to die for you, as when the brutal Emperor Claudius commarded the death of her husband, the wife, Arria, stabbing herself, handed him the dagger, with the immortal words : Postus, it does not hurt." —Bulwer Lytton. It has been suggested that the best way to effectually rid the Wairarapa district of the Hessian fly would be for farmers to grow oats only for one season. This would starve out the pest. Owing to the stoppage of buildings, in consequence of the depression in Melbourne, laborers find a difficulty in obtaining work, and when the proprietor of a brick kiln at. Hay (New South Wales; advertised in the Melbourne Age the other dav for a brickmaker, he received by letter and telegram over 500 applications from Victoria. The immense swarms of locusts in the direction of Green Hill and Malmsbury, Victoria, are attracting flocks of birds that may be termed enemies to the pest. The bustards or wild turkeys are present in large numbers, and flocks of ibis are also busily at work. An immense crowd of black crows is also to be seen hovering over the insects through the day. The Longburn Meat Freezing Company have at their works a sheep which is trained to lead other sheep into the slaughterhouse. During a racent visit, Mrs H. M. Stanley bestowed the very appropriate name of "Judas " upon it. It is reported (says the Southland News) that a well known business firm in Invercargill is bringing an action to recover LIO,OOO damages from a banking institution. The case will not, however, comeon for hearing at the approaching Supreme Court sessions. A singular fatal accident has happened at Stawell, Victoria. A little girl named Lily O'Dea, while leading a pet calf to water, fastened a rope round her own neck, and it is supposed that she fell and the calf ran away, dragging the child a considerable distance. She was found lying dead with the rcpe drawn tightly round her neck, and the calf attached at. the other end, grazing close to the body. Mr G. Bernard Shaw says that the working classes have so far saved L 12,000,000 as co-operators. The wealth of the country is L 10.000,000,000. Looking back at the starting of the co-opera-tive movement at Rochdale in 1840, the total wealth of the country was given by Porter as being L 6,000,000,000. So that whilst co-operation had been saving L 12,000,000 the capitalist class had been saving L 4,000,000,000. Gathering up every mortal thing that could be credited to the total savings of the working classes, they could not be put at more than L 200,000,000. But, according to Giffen, this was exactly the amount saved every year by the upper classes. The Guardian says that the crop of rye-grass in the Wairoa district just gathered in is not a third of what it would otherwise have been, owing to the depredations of caterpillars, and also the unseasonable wet weather. As some compensation, however, the crop of cocksfoot is large, though great difficulty has been experienced in getting labor to save it. The six meat-freezing and boiling-down works in the province of Hawke's Bay employ 210 men, with a yearly wage list of L 30,495. The Wairarapa Daily says that, alarmed by the extensive amount of drinking going on in Hawke's Bay, the Bishop of Waiapu has headed a movement to stem the evil. A Napier fruiterer informs the Woodville paper that the codlin moth has never been so bad as it has beeti in the Hawke's Bay orchards this season, and it is a difficult- matter to get any sound fruit.