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Temuka Leader, Issue 2474, 9 March 1893, Page 3

Geraldine County Acclimatisation; Society.—ln our advertising column s will be found the balance-sheet of the Geraldine County Acclimatisation Society. It shows that the society has the very satisfactory credit balance of £278 Is Bd, £2OO of which is at fixed deposit. G. R. Sims, the well-known English writer, in an article referring to American invention, describes his fellow passenger in a railway jonrney as follows ■ There was another gentleman in the carriage who also interested me greatly. He waa dark and dressed with elaborate care, and he kept on producing instruments of a remarkable character from his pockets. He was a man evidently thoroughly equipped for all the contingencies of every-day life. A : blue bottle got into our carriage, and he produced a fly. paper, on which it prqmptly settled and died, He wanted to smoke, and he took out a pipe with seventeen distinct and separate patents on it. He filled it from a pouch which was absolutely remarkable for its ingenuity. He put the tobacco in with a patent spoon, he rammed it down with, a metal stopper, then he put & which he wore attacked to, » silver chain up the .atom, then he stabbed the tobacco will a stiletto to make the pipe draw more easily, and then he kindled a light by means of an elaborate arrangement, in six compartments, whigh, took about fifteen minutes to fit together. After that lie hung up his hat by a patent hat suspender, put on hi;i gloves with a button-hook, squirted himself all over with a scent spray, cut his newspaper with a paper-cutter that was also a railway key and a boot-jack, and wrapped himself up in a patent rug which by pulling various strings could bp mad<i inia an overcoat, a mackintqsh, i\ bedtmilt, a life-belt, a table-cloth,, ami a shroud, Finally he went to sleep after Hotting a pocket alarm to wake him in an hour, and putting a patent catch on his watchchain, in case either of us should be taken with kleptomania.