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Colonist, Volume XXVII, Issue 3881, 31 March 1884, Page 3

The great family of the Smiths (says ' London Figaro') occupy fifteen closely printed columns in the commercial department of the newly published Post Office Directory, and the Browns eight columns. Only one man in London is given as Fatt, and only one Thin, but; there are two Stout. It is not generally known that there is in existence a charity for poor Smiths. It was left upwards of two centuries ago by an alderman of that name who bequeathed a thousand pounds for the relief of captives by Turkish pirates, and a thousand pounds for poor kinsmen. Towards the end of last century, there being no " captives " to relieve, an Act was passed to devote all the bequest to poor kinsmen, and a few years . ago these had increased to between 400 and 500. The value of the charity is now some £12,000 a year. At Melbourne, Miss Emilie Melville, the well-known operatic singer, has failed with liabilities said to amount to £3000. Her assets are stated to be £100. ' Yes, Bobinson's a clever feller, and he's a modest feller, and he's a honest feller; but betwixt you and I and the post, Mr Jones,' said Brown confidentially, picking his wisdom tooth with his little finger nail, Bobinson ain't got neither the looks, nor yet the language, nor yet the manners of a gentleman ! ' ' Bight you are, sir! ' said Jones shovelling the melted remains of- his pudding into his mouth with a steel knife (which he afterwards wiped on the table cloth), ' You've 'it 'im orf fco aT!' Archibald Forbes in the '' Sydney Morning Herald,' relates the following concerning Mr Gruneisen ; the { Morning Post' correspondent in the Oarlist War of 1837 :—" G-runeisen took his chances like other people, and one of these was a very near thing. He was sentenced to be shot the following day, but was able to get off a messenger to the British Consul at Bilboa, who galloped all night up the the Asturias Mountain slope, and arrived just before dawn, barely in time to save Gruneisen, the hour for whose execution had been fixed at sunrise. Long years after, at a dinner party in London, he was presented to an elderly Spanish officer, who, glittering with multitudinous decorations, was among the guests. 'I have had the honor, Senor, to meet you before to-day, observed Gruneisen. The Spaniard professed himself desolated that he should have no remembrance of the occasion. 'Your Excellency,' said Gruneisen, with fine politeness, ' did me the honor of sentencing me to be shot up in the Asturius in '37 ! " It is not recorded that his Excellency made the retort General Sherman is said to have done to the American newspaper correspondent who met him after the war, and told him that he, Sherman, had ordered him to be hanged. 'Then how the devil are you here now ?' queried Sherman with disappointment in his tone." It is stated that £1,500,000 is annually paid by the milk consumers of England for water sold as milk. At an influentially-attended meeting in the Durham town hall last January, under the presidency of the Marquess of Londonderry, in support of a proposal made by the bishop of the diocese to' erect 26 churches in the County of Durham, resolutions ap proving of the object were carried by acclamation. Subscriptions to the amount of nearly £20,000 were promised at the close of the meeting. The chiefs who are likely to go to England with Tawhiao are :—Taiaroa (MJLB), Henare Tomoana (M.H.8.), Henare Matua (Hawke's Bay), Topia Turoa (Whanganui and Taupo), Moetara (Hokianga), "Wi Han (Bay of Islands) Bey Wi Pomare (Bay of Islands), Paora Tuhaere (Orakei). Hone Mohi Tawhai (M.H.8.), Ihaka te Tai (Bay of Islands). It seems probable that trip will have to be put off for I another month, as the agent of the San Francisco steamer has given Tawhiao notice that all the cabins are engaged for this trip. The Coffee Palace at Invercargill is to be sold, though only just completed. It appears that the necessary number of shares cannot be got off, and £3,000 is required to furnish and carry on the building. The temperance people hold aloof because half of the premises are leased to the Southern Club, who intend running a private bar. The farmers in the Ashburton district (Canterbury) will have about 180,006 bushels less wheat this year to sell than last, 158,000 less of oats, and about 20,000 less of .barley. But as a set-off against this, they have put more land in fettle for grazing, and have raised more sheep and fed more cattle than ever; • At the inquest at Dunedin upon the late Mr Oliver Wakefield, the tramdriver stated that the unfortunate gentleman deliberately laid down in front of the engine, instead of falling' through nervous collapse. The jury decisively rejected the driver's theory, which would have been a very painful one to Mr Wakefield's friends. A gentleman who. has just shaken; off the dust of his feet against Poverty! Bay gives us some very interesting' particulars of that terra incognita, asfar as the South Island is concerned.' The population of Gisborne, the; capital city, is 1700. There are 17 practising lawyers, several of whom are making 'froni £2000 to £3000 a year. Between them they employ a score of lawyer's clerks. There are between 20 and 30 native interpreters in Gisborne, and a dozen commission agents, and of the unlicensed practitioners who prepare deeds and evade the " Conveyancing Ordinances, " and who jump licenced interpreters' proper claims, their name is legion.

Archdeacon Farrar, in a recent, morning sermon at St. Margaret*, London, spoke of the step of contrition ■winch, in Dante's allegory, led to the gate of forgiveness. He continued— Would to God that England's prophets and statesmen would stand there W think of and confess her faithlessness and her drunkenness and her mammon worship —all the fraud and all the greed that corrupt her commerce ; all ihe dirt and degradation that .lurk.in, her dark places ; all the slanders and lies oh which her fashionable societyi ignobly gloats and daintily revels infj all the bad examples of frivolity- arid^ godless pleasure with which many of her rich set a bad example to her. poor; all the timid conventionality^ and immoral acquiescence of her laws;" all the party spirit which mars her politics and makes un-Christian and: anti Christian the championship of her religionism; all the ignobleness of her professions, her dearth of faithand of great examples, her desperate lack, of nobleness and magnanimity,, her pride and envy and fulness of bread, her sects and churches teeming, with zeal about trifles and deadnessabout things essential; the streets of her Sodoms rife with prostitution, and reeling with abominable, drink. I hear no prophet voice amid the sleek orthodoxies and controversial frivolities ; I hear the voices of. the enemy and the b'asphemer; but there is no :prophet vo.'ce, and if the voice of any prophet were heard^ I am full sure that all her critics, and all her legalists,, and all her Pharisees, and all the multitudes whose one aim it is to swim with the current, would shout in chorus " Not this man, butßarabbas;" and so it will be till ere long, aa I firmly believe, some humbling, shattering calamity wakes this lady of the. kingdoms from her self-complacency,, until, sitting with tangled hair on the step of shame, she too shall be forced,; like other nations, to see God's terrible finger shrivelling the falsehoods which so thickly encrust her Church and her Stats. Great disturbance occurs in Sydney in connection with the Salvation Army meetings. A senior constable of the police has had his head cut open in one of the scrimmages. The late Deputy Eegistrar-General of New South Wales, James Boscawan Duff, has been found guilty of embezzling £1107 and sentenced to fouy years' imprisonment. The Blue Kibbon movement continues to make rapid progress in Victoria. Over twenty thousand blue ribbons have been issued since Messrs Booth and Glover commenced their orusade. The Melbourne • Age' reports thata party of American trappers recently arrived at Harrow, in the Western district, having with them eleven horses, eighty ferrets, and about a mile and a half of netting. Their plan of operation is to spread their netting and drive all the animals into it, forming, of course, with netting, men, and horses, a large circle working towards the netting. They capture the animals alive, and send them to the •Melbourne market. To land owners troubled with rabbits their terms are very liberal, and they ask nothing for taking the rabbits off the.ground, but grass for their horses free, and meat to purchase at a reasonable price. It is rumored in naval circles in Sydney that the first admiral of the Australian fleet, now strengthened to 12 ships of war, will be f Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, Bart. Commodore Erskine's stay upon the Australian station will termiaate in October next, when the transport ship Himalaya is expected to take the crew of H.M.'S. Nelson Home. It was thought that, in view of the complications that were likely to arise in consequence of the operations of the French in Tonquin, the Nelson would be ordered to join the British fleet on the coast of China, but it was decided that she should remain on the Australian station. Mr Bkoadley's new book upon Arabi Pasha gives us a fresh instance of the famous Earnum, and also of the busi-ness-like spirit with which transatlantic journalism is conducted. After the battle of Tel-el-Kebir the .correspondent of the 'New York Herald' wished to purchase Arabi for £250.000, cash down. The Egyptian patriot was to receive an allowance of £1,000 a year, and for the first twelve months three-quarters of a column of the space of that valuable paper was to be placed at his disposal weekly within which to ventilate his opinions upon Egyptian politics. After the New Yorkers had tired of this interesting literary pabulum Barnum was to " run him on the platform in the Stales." Mr Broadley might well be pardoned for regarding a proposal like this, coming from the inhaoitants of a Christian and civilised country, as a practical joke f but that it was meant in, all seriousness is shown by the fact that the same proposal was formally made to Lord Dufferin. It would be interesting to know the reply given by that witty diplomat. " An amusing incident if recorded at a book sale in New York. The owner of the collection gave 5000 dollars to ten public libraries to be spent at the sale. The natural result was that the libraries bid against one another, and many of the books were run up to nearly double their market price. " I tell you," said the.boy confidently, to a group of youthful friends, " ray mother may seem small—don't believe she'd weigh more than I do, in her stocking feet—but her slippers is heavy, though, you bet!" The Philadelphia ' Chronicle ' says the grammar used in the Mormon schools don't recognise the 'first person singular,' which would upset their religion. But all the same the first person must feel pretty singular when her, husband accumulates a dozeii more wives. . ' 7 : Hoeaoe . Mayhew once joined a league for the suppression of 'tips ' to waiters. Lunching one day, he began to feel nervous as the time for paying the bill arrived, but finally mustered courage, ' William I am sorry for you; but I have joined the No tippers.' ' Well, Mr Mayhew, answered William mildly, '.as you are an old customer, I don't mind telling, you that I have joined a rum lot too. We>Ye bound ourselves to upset hot dishes by haccident .over the. legs of stingy customers.' ■ • ••