MISCELLANEOUS

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7295, 26 August 1893, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS

On a very hot day last summer an employee in a Nottingham factory being thirsty, sent a lad out for a pint of threepenny ale, tolling him at (be same lime that, should the employer see him and enquire the nature of his errand, bo wa» to say he was going to fetch a halfpenny bottle of herb beer for Tom. The lad went out and procured the ale, but passing through the factory gates on his return was met by the employer,who asked him where he had been. Remembering bis instructions, the boy answered that he had hi on to fetch a halfpenny bottle of herb beer for Tom. The employer, looking incredulously at the led, took the jug from him and drank the contents. Remarking that it was good for herb beer, ho handed the boy a halfpenny, saying : “Go and fetch another bottle for Tom.”

The following “ fairy tale " appears in the Christian Age, and does every credit to tho imaginative gifts of its author. Sir John Gorst, if be has perused it, will be puzzled to tell whore fiction enas and truth begins. It is headed “ Terrible Ammunitionand runs as follows :-■ “ A strange story comes from New Zealand. Some years ago Sir John Gorst lived in Waikato, and edited the Maori newspaper Te Hokioi. The paper was printed near the scene of the hardest fighting of the wav then raging. Oaring the struggle the Maori* ran short of ammunition, and having no ball for their 14 pounder guns, they loaded them with shop weights confiscated from the neighbouring shopkeepers This source of supply was soon exhausted. Then a raid was made upon the Hokii office, and their guns were charged with type and stereo blocks This new ammunition proved very effective. One of the white invaders was injured by a patent medicine advertisement, another was invalided by a ‘ church bazaar announcement,’ a third lost his leg through a solid leader on the Land Bill, and Sir John, who hd taken refuge with the British troops, had a narrow escape from being hit with one of his own poems.” As the result of a careful study, Dr Oppel has arrived at the conclusion that 1,700,000 square miles of the earth ere uninhabited or ownerless, about 5 000,000 rquare miles more without settled government, and the remaining 45,000,000 square miles occupied by d»finite States. He recognises seventy-five such States, but most of them are of such insignificant extent that the eighteen largest make up eighty seven per cent of tho whole area. Europe is generally believed to be over populated. Yet in a memior on the Iberian peninsula just issued by Professor Theobald Fischer, it is shown that much of Spain is actually without inhabitants The orange gardens of Valencia sell for from £3OO to £SOO an a ■'re. Yet the province of Despoblado—2ooo square miles in extent —is *• completely uninhabited.” Irrigation is the sole want of these dry treeless places, where a new bouse in a town is unknown and while streets in rums the most common sight. Spain must be a rich country, since the inhabitants have been trying to ruin it from the day the Moors were driven out, and have not yet quite succeeded.

There were a good few people in town fo day, and the bright day and the bustle made the streets uncommonly cheerful. The planet Venus is now an evening star, and U a brilliant spot on the western sky after dusk. Saturn is also an evening star, setting about 20 minutes later than Venus.

Mean's Glaason and Co. put under the hammer at their rooms this afternoon a quarter-acre section at Atteuboro, with two brick cottages upon it, belonging to Mrs Leckonby. The bidding fell short of the owner’s reserve, and the property was withdrawn at £216.

The prizes in the Garrison Band’s art union were on view ts-day next Mr P. W, Button’s, in charge of a bandsman, and hundreds turned into (he room to have a look at them. The first prize is a well finished cottage pianoj the second a good looking safety bicycle, the third a euphonium. Other musical instruments, a watch, pieces of furniture, pictures, ornaments, and needlework are among the rest.

At the Western Spit, Napier, the curl of the eea, influenced by tho breakwater, is rapidly encroaching inland. Already a large portion of the foreshore han gone, and several small houses in a heavy eea have been deluged with water, and the North British Freezing Company’s works have had more than a foot of water ia them. The company is now running out expensive protective work?.

The steady progress of Fairlie has been further shown this week by the opening of a new butcher’s shop by Mr J. H. Shaw, late of Waimate. The shop was built by Mr T. Foden, for Mr Wreford, and is qnite in town style. Mr Shaw opened the shop last night with a floe display of meat, dressed in a stylo that showed him a master of his craft. The shop is roomy and well ventilated, and is provided with office and a separate “ small goods ” factory. The premises present a neat appearance and are quite an improvement to the township

In a letter criticising the reply of the Bail way Commissioners to some criticisms of his, Mr Samuel Yaile says some of their statements arc “ simply bosh, unutterable bosh.” He says “In tho traffic ton-mileage return (here is one reliable figure, and I believe one only, and that is the average cost of moving each ton one mile. It ia 2,041. This is not the charge to the public, but the actual cost to ths country. When wo remember that in the United States the charge (o the public is less than id per ton, and that in Zadia the groat bulk of the trade is done at a charge to the public of from id to jjd per ton per mile, and that these rates pay,we have not much reason to be proud of our grand management.”

From the Lauds and Survey Report for last year we learn that in Canterbury the Crown lands sold for cash amounted to only SCO acres, whilst over 12,000 acres were taken up on settlement conditions. The total number of settlers under the village home stead system, on the 31st March last was 900 —538 in tbo North and 368 in the h'outh Island. The 900 occupied £2,667 acres—l4,39B in the North, 8285 in the South Island ; average holding, 25 acres. Since the commencement of the system, six years ego, £24,325 bad been advanced to settlers, and the total received, as rents and interest, was £10,523. The improvements effected by all the settlers are valued at £61,699.

Mr A, M. Clark met with an accident afc Temufca Inst evening which threatened to r result more seriously than, fortunately, it actually did. Mr Clark was driving through the township with bis daughter, Mies Alma Clark, in an American buggy drawn by a pair of horses, and was turning round when the pole snapped. The vehicle running on to the horses frightened them, and they began by “playing up” and then bolted. Mr Clark stuck to the reins but could not get on the brake. After going a hundred yards or so the buggy was capsized in a ditch. Miss Clark cleverly jumped cut as it went over and landed unharmed on her feet, but Mr Clark, by stick* ing to the reins, was dragged out, and bruised in several places—on the side of the head, on the knee and the wrist—but not seriously, and bo and his daughter were presently driven home. An examination of the break in the ! pole showed (hat it had been partly broken through before.

The Courthouse has been subjected to certain small improvements lately, raising chimneys, painting of exterior woodwork, repair of flashings, and the painting of the south end wall to keep out the moisture . while the front and tide walls have been leit untouched, except for the plastering of cracks with cement darker than the dark exterior of the walls. The result is that the building looks dirtier than before, the fresh paint bringing into relief the dulness of the weather-beaten cement wash and the brown lichen growth of years. It has been suggested that the building should be turned end for end, so as to show a decent front, but it would be much easier to put a coat of wash over the other walls. It would not cost much, one would think, and as nothing has been put on the walls since the builder left them in 1877, it would hardly be extravagance to spend a few pounds upon them now. But if that were done the front picket fence would look more dingy than it does now, aud that would have to be painted too. Is the Public Works Department like the Education Board, hard up for funds for Jbuildings and repairs ?

We are given to understand (says the Bay of Plenty Times) that superstition is rather increasing than decreasing amongst the Maoris in this neighbourhood. At Judea about a dozen deaths took place lately from measles These were young children, and the parents had been well warned by European neighbours not to expose their patients to tbe cold after tbo disease seemed to have all passed. These warnings, however, they did not attend to, and death was the result, just as would have been the case with Europeans. ‘ Tbo wiseacres of the settlement pronounced that the deaths had not been caused by measles, but by some evil person or persons bewitching their children. They accused three, and sought to drive them from the settlement. Two of these —Henry Pearson, who had said “ taipo ” in the hearing of one who died, and Hilda, a half-cast married woman—left, but one old woman, Marie, refused to go. She may often have been seen by such o! our readers as pass Judea ; she is nearly blind, and has no relations in tbe settlement. The people of Judea offered to pay her passage by coach to the Thames, where her relations reside, but she preferred to stay at Judoa.