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South Canterbury Times, Issue 5004, 11 May 1889, Page 3

Wellington is beginning to feel dubious about the success of the electric ligh' ing of the streets, and to think that 20-candle power lamps will not be an improvement on 16. candle gas lumps, even though they do shine ail night.

In connection with a question raised at Tauranga, the Auckland Education Board took legal advice and arc informed that it is quite legal for a teacher of a public school to be a member of a school committee.

Sydney Taiwhanga was sued at Auckland yesterday for £2013s Id for bread supplied, and was ordered to pay it in three months. The Magistrate, Dr Giles, remarked “You are one of those who make laws for the whole colony, and it docs not look well for you not to pay your baker’s bill.”

The number of students enrolled in the recently started technical classes at Dunedin is 204. It appears that the department of Science and Art, London, is prepared, on the application of Government or other public authority, to arrange for the examination of classes, issue certificates and returns of awards on the result of the examination. A committee has been appointed to consider the matter and approach the Education Board. A West Dunedin man and the Mornington Tramway Company are at legal loggerheads over a dividing fence, because their two allotments together are too narrow by ten links to give each of them the area sot forth in his Crown grant. The company sued the individual for knocking down the fence they had put up on what they claimed to be their boundary. He had upset it because he believed it was within his boundary. The court adjourned the case to see if the parties could not agree to split the shortage. On Monday the new railway time-table comes into force. Travellers will have to consult the schedule for some time till they become accustomed to the alterations. Many objections have been raised to the new table, but it may bo found to work well on the whole. The alteration in the running of the express trains will make a great apparent difference, the train from Christchurch will not reach Timaru till 2.40, and the one from Dunedin not till 4 58 p.m. An earwig has been caught at Featheralon, Wairarapa. These insects are numerous at Home, but wo do not remember to have heard of one been found in New Zealand before. The earwig is something of a nuisance to gardeners by eating leaves and flowers, but it earns its vegetable food by slaying smaller insects. A notion exists that earwigs creep into the ear. To this they owe their English name. The fact is that the shape of the wings whoa opened is nearly that of the human ear, and from this circumstance it seems that the original name must have been ear wing. Some lover of musty times has been diving into old files of the Melbourne Argus. A mong other tit-bits discovered are two advertisements which denote how closely people were packed in those days. One offers comfortable board and lodging for seventeen gentlemen in a two-roomed cottage, where no other lodgers are taken j and the second notifies that ton gentlemen can have a room to themselves by applying to such and such a place. , In Iceland the people are so honest that crime is almost unknown. They never lock their doors, and but two cases of thieving are known to have taken place within many years. t One was an Icelander who had broken his arm, and whose family in winter were suffering for food. Ho stole several sheep, and was finally detected. Ho was at once put under medical care for his injury, provisions were furnished for his family, and in time ho was given work. This was his punishment. The other case was a German who stole 17 sheep. He was in comfortable circumstances and the theft was malicious. His punishment was to sell all bis property, restore the value of his thefts, and leave tho country, or be executed. Ho left at oacc.

Mr Wilmott, district surveyor, Queenstown, lately returned from an exploring trip to look for a pass to Milford Sound, reports that in some of the West Coast valleys he travelled in rabbits arc as thick as they can be, so also are ferrets, but at present they do not seem to trouble the rabbits at all. They live on wekas, and kakapos and ducks, which are now extremely scarce where they used to be very plentiful. Mr Wilmott says they prefer feathers to fur, and will soon exterminate the birds while they certainly are not checking the advance of tho rabbits. It is a great pity the ferrets were turned out in that country ho thinks.

Two precocious youngsters aged ro- ! spectively 9 and 7 were brought before the Resident Magistrate at Dunedin on Thursday for housebreaking. They smashed a pane of glass, 14£ by 10£ inches, in a shop door, picked tho glass carefully out of the putty, and the elder got in through the aperture, j and handed out his “ pal,” 7s. in money, half j n dozen packets of cigarettes, some matches and a bottle of cough mixture. They then went into town for a spree. They had tea in a restaurant, some rides on the tram cars, and as a finale of their day’s debauch got a bottle of lemonade, mixed the contents with the cough medicine and drank tho mixture. The younger scamp told the Bench he went

with the other “ to get enough money to go to Wellington with,” A gentleman from Boston, U.S.A., who has just reached New Zealand on a tour, and came last from Japan where he spent four months,, told a Wellington Times man that he thinks that Japan will become a good customer of New Zealand before long. " Take mutton, for instance. It is next to impossible to raise sheep in Japan, owing to the prevalence of a noxious plant which is fatal to sheep. I believe there is a vast market there for your frozen mutton. Then with regard to wool, Japan is erecting woollen mills in various parts, and will want to buy wool in the best and cheapest market, and whore can she come to a better place than New Zealand ? I have reasons for knowing that the Japanese Government will shortly send a Commissioner to New Zealand to consult your Government and your leading merchants on the wool question, and it is probable that this commissioner will try to make arrangements to introduce your wool as early as possible into that populous co'untry. There is an enormous trade to be done in wool, mutton, and other products in Japan. It is a thickly populated country, fast taking up European ideas.” Some people have a curious idea of what constitutes marriage. At tho Mastcrton R. M. Court, a Swede named Maurice Johnston who was summoned for the maintenance of his illegitimate child on being sworn said : “ I promised to marry the girl to a certain extent, by living with the girl if I could agree with her,” Then ho wont on to say, that after trying the experiment, finding her temper not up to the requisite standard, he ordered her homo, and offered to pay for “tho youngster.” She objected, and ho then said he would keep her as a servant, provided she be- , haved herself properly. During his absence, however, sho brought a sister and a young man to their domestic establishment, and then war was declared, Johnston was ordered to pay six shillings per week, and informed that if he failed to pay, or tried to leave tho district, he would be at once arrested under warrant. If Johnston lived in Scotland instead of New Zealand he would be legally married.

The noted quality of the Coffee made in the Cafes of Turkey, France, and America is chiefly due to the fact that only Fresh Eoastcd Coffee is used ; so that none of the volatile oil and other essentials are lost. Ask your grocer for Anderson’s Coffee, and you will have a beverage alike refreshing and stimulating, as it is fresh roasted and ground at the factory, Timaru.— [Advt.]