MRS JOHNSTONE'S CASE. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10179, 13 October 1894, Page 2

MRS JOHNSTONE'S CASE. TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, —_o_r leader of the Bth inst. discussed the above case and the provisions of "The Unclaimed Lands Act 1892" very fairly, but there are ciicnmstances connected with this matter that were evidently unknown to you. The improvements referred to, put on the section by Mrs Johnstone's mother (Mrs Crawford, deceased), were effected at the expense of confiding tradesmen. Mrs Crawford obtained -credit for material to build the house on the section. Shortly thereafter Mrs Crawford Sled in bankruptcy and the tradesmen got nothing. Therefore, whatever claim there may be on account of the improvements, the creditors of Mrs Crawford are the persons entitled to it. At the meeting of Mrs Crawford's creditors, held on the 7th July 1885, a resolution was carried that the deputy-assigues take possession of the housejand section, but tbis resolution was not' given effect to. Very strong comments were made at*, the meeting of creditor*! which it is now unnecessary to repeat—remembering tho maxim, De mortuis nil nisi boimm. —l am, &c, A Confiding Tradesman. Invercargill, October 10.

— Even the most expert tree chopper or sawyer cannot compete in point of time with the electrical process of filling trots. The method is simple, A platinum ivire is stretched between two pole.', und made incandescent. No matter how large the tree in diameter, the wire will burn through it, and in about one-eighth of the time it would take to saw it through.

ring at remote intervals, to the ordinary course, derived by Babbage from the working of his calculating engine, threw out the suggestion of a like rare exception in the ch*racter of the offspring of a known species; and he cites the results of " einbryological studies " to show how much " monster," either by excess or defect, by arrest or prolongation of development, might bo no monster in fact, but one of the preordained exceptions in the long series of natural operations, giving rise to the introduction of a new species. Linnaaus was an admirable classifier, and a religious man. He said: "Tha Author of eternal salvation is also the Lord of Nature"; yet he maintained, as ah aphorism, " Natura opifex rerum salius non farit." A critic of "The Origin of Species," in 1860, says : " And Mr Darwin's position might, we think, have been much stronger than it is if he had not embarrassed himself with the aphorism, ' Natura, non facit saltum,' which turns up so often in his pages. We believe that Nature does make jumps now and then, aEd a recognition of this fact is of no small importance in disposing of many minor objections to the doctrine of transmutation!"—l am, ke., October 6. Hermes.