Lowburn, Cromwell, 9th August, 1880.

Otago Witness, Issue 1501, 21 August 1880, Page 18

Lowburn, Cromwell, 9th August, 1880.

TO THE EDITOR 03? THE OTAGO "WITNESS. Sir,— lf you will kindly give space in your valuable oolums you will confer a great favour on one of your readers. Sir, I find by study and observations that it is impossable for the sun to be the distance astronomers say it is from the earth and show himself to the earth as he does. I am open to prove my asstion to any astronomer who may wish to dißoußS the question, either through your valuable columa or by public interview, or answer any question that any gentleman may desire to ask me on the subject.— Yours truly, James Thomas, Lowburn, Cromwell. I have no doubt the " study and observations " of the writer are profound, and if he will only give the details as well as the main conclusion, I for one shall be very much obliged to him. But in fairness I must warn him that his discovery is one that may prove of immense value, and on the strength of which he may take a tour to Europe like the immortal Jack Barry. I wish the writer's orthography had been better ; I wish that his genius had not been so long concealed in such an out of the way place as Lowburn ; but I am reminded that Full many a gem of purest vay serene The dark unfathomed caves of "ocean bear ; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And wasto its sweetness on the desert air. and therefore I have no doubt whatever that the astronomers are all wrong and James Thomas of Lowburn right. My readers, like myself, will await with breathless interest the further development of this remarkable theory. I know it has been logically and satisfactorily proved k that there never was any such person as Napoleon ; that the world is flat and not round ; that all men were originally monkeys ; and that some are now a3ses, but this century has not witnessed a more startling discovery than that to which I now have the honour to give publicity. In the language of Dominie Sampson it is prodigious. As an example of how readily some folks " drop into poetry," a correspondent of the Witness residing at Hindon, has sent a contribution, taking , above all things in Heaven and earth, for the inspiration of his muse so unsuggestive a subject as — the Otago Central Railway. He assures the Editor that "it was all made out of his own head and there might be material left to make another of a different pattern/ That ruthless functionary has rejected it and passed it over for a brief notice. I may presume that it is in the form of an acrostic, and as I cannot give it whole I will here insert the first three verses to give an idea of its general style : OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY. 0. Is the the Ocean o'er which you've been borne Some thousands of miles to this country forlorn, Where employers have ono all-absorbing desire To reduce the amount of tho working-man's hiro. T. Is Temptation to which you gave way At the instance of agents in Government pay, Whose language was choice, whose descriptions were glowing Of a land that with honey and [milk was o'erflowing. A. Is the Anger to which you gave vent When you found you wero sold and you'd spent every cent ; So crest-fallen and weary, 'your hopes all destroyed, You fall into the ranks of the poor unemployed. Without intending any personal allusion, I may remark that as the remainder occupied three pages of foolscap it is necessarily crowded out from these notes. The writer is evidently one of these individuals who are capable of finding "sermons in stones and good in everything," or perhaps I ought rather to say " bad in everything," as he takes a very pessimist view of things in general and persons in particular. He talks severely of " paupers and serfs, vagrants, drunkards and fools." Of "hail, rain, and snow, winter blasts and night dew," of Godly Presbyterians with "bumps of benevolenco shockingly small." "Arrogance, fraud, and deceit," characterise a considerable proportion of the individuals within the writers' immediate purview. Therefore, perhaps, an unpromising theme like the Otago Central is the more congenial to the mind of the writer. There is something stonyhearted about it, and the wild rocky gorge through which it passes is suggestive of the more unkindly aspects of nature. Then Governments, Royal Commissioners, Engineers, Gangers, are all natural oppressors of the working man, and form a dark background to bring the virtues of the latter into high relief in the foreground. There is a stroke of genius here, and with a more promising theme great things may be expected from the writer. Shelley tells us that — Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong, They learn in suffering what they teach in song. and here, perhaps, on the bleak hills about Hindon this correspondent may bud and blossom into the world of poesy , as my above-named friend at Lowburn has burst full-blown into 'the world of science. Only it may be best not to cry out too soon. He wants a little more suffering to educate him properly. A Frenchman describing the relative painfulness of rheumatism and gout puts it thus : " Yen you have a scrow on your fioger and screw and screw till you can't bear no more — dat is rheumatism ; den if you take one screw more — dat is gout." My poetic friend had better take "one screw more" before he gives to the world the next edition of his poems, as the result of his sufferings — they will gain in intensity what they lose in length. Oivis.

The Dimertin Hospital returns for the past ! week are as follow :— Remaining from previous I week, 128 ; admitted, 24 ; discharged, 22 ; died, 1 X j-rtotal remaining, 129,