Flotsam and Jetsam.

Otago Witness, Issue 1341, 11 August 1877, Page 14

Flotsam and Jetsam.

Si quidnovud rectiui iflit Candidtu imperti; n mm, hi* utert mecum.

If you know anything better than thete remarks of mine, kindly tell me; if not, use these with me."

The man who plays the flute a little is the time-honoured bore of small musical parties at home. Judging by the effect on the ears of George street, I should say that his rival, who runs him close, is the man who plays the cornopean hard by the northern end of the town. Anything more distressing than his efforts I have seldom heard. What are the Police about that they do not interfere 1 For a quiet man like myself, who likea to go to bed, summer and winter, at 8 o'clock, the youth who learns is nothing less than a nuisance. At present he knows no tune except a few cat calls. What he will be when he has- learned two or three simple melodies I shudder to think.

What is the precise meaning o£ " aonBtruotion " here 1 When applied to the rolling stock of the Colony it seems to have several meanings. Which is right 1 It has been suggested to me thai the cry for local construction means -that axles, springs, windows, cushions, stuffing, &0., &0., are to be brought out from Home

and put together in Dunedin. Perhaps this is right, perhaps not : anyhow, I should like a more precise definition of the want — a more definite interpretation 1 of the cry re local industries. How much, for instance, of the commodities required for the construction of a firstclass railway carriage can be absolutely, created out of the raw material in this Colony 1

My sympathies are all with Mr George Tnrnbull over this question of compensation from the Corporation for taking away the natural supports of his land, and bo letting the whole thing tumble down. The Jury of four found for the Corporation, whether on points of law or not does not appear. I never with the decree of a jury. Nine times out of ten they are right, whatever may be said to the contrary. Still there is a limit, and while 1 don't say this particular Jury is wrong, I think everyone will allow that Mr Turnbull's ia one of the hardest cases they • ever came across. Is there to „be no way of bringing Messrs Mirams and Company (I go straight to the real cause of offence) to reason? I never yet met anyone who did not think him a hard bargain. Could the City Council send him over to live at I Melbourne at a thousand per annum it would be a vast saving to quiet people, j who not only have to pay heavily for his eccentricities, but who are also kept in a perfect fever of excitement as to what he will do with them next. If anyone want to see an illustration of what may be their case to-morrow, for all they know, let them look at the condition of the water tubs overhanging Queen street, at the corner of Pitt street — and let them tremble in their beds.

I see Mr J. G. S. Grant is not without a following. Mr Hees has announced his intention of writing to the London Times on the stat9 of the Colony. It is so nice to see good old English customs acclimatised among ourselves. "To write to the Times " is the first thought of every irascible parent who has had his toes trodden on by passers-by in Brighton, say, or Cheltenham. Cvi bono— that is what I want to know. And I ask it in its proper sense— i.e., whom will it benefit? Not Mr Rees, I should say, and not the Opposition, I rather think. " The state of the Colony question," by Mr Rees would find remarkably few readers at Home.

Mr Thomson's comments on the extreme amallnesa of the flounders that are sold in Bunedin, ought to excite some comment, if they do not. Anything nastier than the ordinary flounder II 11I 1 have nevereaten, even when itis an adult; When, however, it is a mere infant, then it is nastier than babec are, as a fiile. I" don't understand why the fishermen should catch them at all. , I presume there are people who like eating mud, else it would hardly pay them to bring .them into the market. Probably candidates for public office, Buch as City Councillors, City representatives, and others, having an appetite for mud, will be then Hole cust '

The .number, .of patients under ..mechanical restraint in the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum has risen from one to : eight J or nine; This, more than* anything else, seems to me to appeal to the public and the Assembly for" 'an appropriation for t^e, purpose of putting vp 'a- new asylum frr the country where restraint would not be so much needed. Lao not' suppose thafc this fact can well be • separated' from that other, that' the, able bodied .patients have nothing to do. No wonder they take to stabbing their warders when this is the case. ■ " -

Crustacean.