LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1080, 28 July 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An up-country correspondent of the Rangitikei Advocate writes : — "A gentleman, or rather a man possessed of a large share of worldly goods, passed througha toll-gate where a lady waited to take the toll. He, feeling indisposed to bend his haughty person, threw the coin on the ground and rode on. On his return he handed the fair toTlkeejfer a pound, note, and waited while she went in for change. She came to the door and threw the change ■ on the ground. Hie had no alternative but to dismount and gather it from the mud, which he did in? very bad grace." Eet us hope the lesson was. understood and appreciated. -• ' In the petition of William Halliday, of Auckland, ' presented to the House of Assembly last week, the petitioner states that while under medical treatment at Auckland hospital his daughters Sarah, Mary, and Alice, were committed to the Home for Neglected Children. The authorities of the Home sent his daughter .Sarah to service in Waikato. She was detained there against her will, contrary ■to .law, after the term of her committal expired, and while still in service was debauched by a Maori. The petitioner prays redress. The Committee reports that the case appears a. very hard one, but not one of the committee can provide a remedy to recommend it for the consideration of the Auckland Benevolent Society. " The question has often been raised,", says the Kapunda HeraM, " whether cats and rabbits will interbreed. By way of solution to the question we may mention that at the Yauyarrie eating house is to be seen a five-months-old white puss, which, so far as regards the hind quarters, is a perfect rabbit, but her fore part is thoroughly feline, and she is a capital moused She is quite deaf." The Maoris sometimes appear to have a keen sense of the importance of obeying Scriptural injunction, but occasionally even they find, it necessary ;„. to draw the line somewhere. On Friday the Sheriff of Hawke's Bay wished to leave a bailiff in possession of some land illegally occupied by the Natives. The Maoris asked-who-was to feed the bailiff. The Sripture commanded them to feed their enemy w.hen hungry, and give him drink when thirsty, but that command did not in their opinion apply to bailiffs. The. only member of the Lower House who takes an interest in the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill is "Paddy M'Caughan," M. H. K. for Mataura. ■He has had the good luck to lose one wife who left him £25,000, ana now desires, "for the pure love and affection" which he bears her sister to have his marriage with her sister made legal, and ' ' thereby become possessor of a similar amount." Such is life, dear boys. — New Zealand is coming to be regarded as a "shocking example. The Sydney Morning Herald says :—"The state of New Zealand finance might serve as a warning to those of our reckless members who want our- Government to make things pleasant for the present by simply shutting their eyes to the future, and to go on spending without considering where the money is to come from. Such a course is sure, not only to lead to discredit, but to ■a much severer financial pinch not ■ long hence. Every year that we postpone doing the right thing, that right thing becomes more difficult . to do. . . . We have no doubt whatever about the ability of New Zealand to work _ through' its difficulties ; its only danger lies in a set of reckless and popularity-hunting politicians, who are ready to purchase pleasure and power at the price of their country's credit. The people can pay all that the Government needs to discharge its liabilities, but it will require .some self-denial and steadfast honesty of purpose fora teim of years.; It will be a severe discipline, but a very healthy one withal. The people have a lesson to learn, and if they digest that lesson thoroughly they will find themselves all the wiser for it."