Outwitting the Customs.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7012, 26 June 1894, Page 4

Outwitting the Customs.

■ ■» i Some days ago the Victorian Customs I Department, with a kindly regard for I tea drinkers, detained a chest of tea i which, on examination, was found to have r been saturated with sea water. To prei vent its going into consumption it was » decided to destroy it, and the importer i was so informed. The Customs officer I was cogitating as to how he would effect i destruction, when the idea struck him ) that it might be burned m the furnace of - a locomotive that was ntanding by. The • engine driver readily consented to under- ■ take the duty, but as soon as the ohest ■ was placed on the engine he blew the > whistle, and the locomotive, the driver, i and the tea very soon disappeared. The I Customs officer knows neither the number i of the engine nor the name of the driver, > and as he did nob superintend the operai tion of destroying the tea cannot certify ; to it. lie is suspicious enough to con- , elude that the tea, 801bs m all, has gone ' into consumption or is being daily con- ; sumed, and would like to have a report i from the engine driver as to its quality r and the effect of the sea-water.

r __«_!«_—»■»•__«■«_»■«___■ ' Things must me pretty bad at the Thames I when the property contained hi the cupi boards of the sacred edifices are not safe t from the depredations of light fingered ; gentry. Local papers contain news of a i theft committed by some young man who was evidently no respecter of persons or [ places. This enterprising individual ob- > tamed ingress to the Baptist and Congre- . gational Church, and annexed the contents ' of the missionary boxes 30s m all. He afterwards visited the Wesleyan Sunday School, but filthy lncre, and not religious > literature, being his object, he did not ■ obtaia any 'substantial benefit from his tour , of inspection, as all the^coin of the realm bad . been carefully removed from the building. 1 Appearances are often deceptive, and should any of our readers chance to visit . Mosgiel and see its railway station, they L must not conclude from its attractive outside that it is as substantial as it looks, for 1 the local paper says : — " The Mosgiel rail- , way station is blushing with pride m all the glory of a new coat of paint. The paint 1 has been laid on very thick because the * poor cM building is getting shaky and badly > repaired something to support it. The 1 paint will probably help to hold the place 1 together." A well-known Masterfcon resident was 1 walking on the outskirts of the town (says an > exchange) when he noticed the following 1 remarkable occurrence. A number of small 1 birds commonly known as fantails were j busy catching flies, when a kingfisher : Bwooped down on one of them and carrying , it to a tree a short distance off proceeded to l swallow his victim bead first. — The writer , should have added that the greedy kingfisher then imbibed a quart ot ale and succumbed to apoplexy. [ A bicyclist's case came before the Supreme , Court the other day. Miss Mason, the driver of a vehicle that was overturned, sued three young men named Nisbitt, Wills, and Lithgow, for £200 damages for injury - sustained through her horse shying at the 1 bicycles. A nonsuit was entered m Sisbett's > case, he having ridden past the horse before it shied. The jury after a short deliberation found for the other defendants. He was married, and the income on which ■ he used to ride about comfortably could Bcarce bear the strain of his daily cab. So ' she often urged upon him the economy of the tram car, which he had never tried and , feared to tiy. One evening he came home excited and triumphant, and shouted : "I've done it at last 1" " Done what ?" asked she anxioußly. "Why, came home on a car! Capital fellow the conductor. First rate Johnnie. Gave him half-a-crown when I got down !" The law as to the sale of intoxicants is very severe m Nebraska, where the statute provides that " the person licensed shall support all paupers, widows and orphans, and the expenses of the civil and criminal prosecutions arising out of or justly attributed to bis traffic m intoxicating drinks."