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Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 12761, 14 January 1905, Page 4

There arc, approximately, 3000 Justices of the Peace, including. Stipendiary Magistrates, in> New Zealanld. TJio eager spectators who crowded too dlosely round the woo'd-ciboipping com)petit(Ott-s at a holiday ."(ports o-atihering in the Marlboi-ough ' district t,he otlfcer day, were considerably startled when one of tiho men aocidnnstally let the axe slip fr;om his hands!. In its flight it actually grazed tho throat, of an onlooker, who had; a narrow escape, for the keen blade inflicted a wound two anid a half indies longv— fortliinately a shallow one. The correspondent of an Edinburgh paper vouches for the trtath of' the following :• — The other morning ' a boy, who 'had on the previous evening- been looking over the pages of "Darwin's Descent of Man," put tins question to liis mother at the brealcLable : "HUi, is it true that 1 am, descended from an ape TJT J "Yes,'*'answered the mother, jo'ki'iigly. , Tlven, this young hopeful aJcMed : "Was it your pajpa 1 whto was the ape ?T? T The motheiys, reply has not been pla,cqd on record. Vice-admiral Day TTbrt Bos-antfliet, who succeeds Sir 1 Archibald Douglas in the command of the North American and Wies't Indies station, belongs to an oH TTuiguenot family, Whose an(estors in England fled from IJmrel in Languocfoe after tho Rtwobation of the I'xtioft of Nantes, and, though: bred to tho law, m,ade a large fortune in the lanjcl of his adoption as a morV&aht. Admiral Bosanquet's grandfather married an aunt of tiio ricji Mir Bblford, of Dorchester HoUse, and through her obtained the' NorthHimbenland' 'Estate, wlicsT© t3ie admdital was IdoiHi. Tho ('omin'on Sergaant of London is another of this family. He comes from tho' Bosianrqtuiets of Dingestow Court, Moiuniouth, the seat of the head of the family. A third is B. J. T. Bosanr||uct, known. as one of the best alllotiaid cridketers of to-day. A reniankable tale of Irish Humour is told by a French chaff euiv He was 'driving in Ireland when ho rode over a eyedist. Tho injured man apologised. "Pray continue your journey," f-aid he. "i am really ashamed to have in!ck>mmio)dod such a sportsman/ Next day the dhafleur received a ,]ette.r from this sym'patliotic stranger, full of regrets, and making tender inonines' aboiut the state 'of the automobile. "I mjust tell you,". it proceeded, "that as a result of yesterday's acfc'ident, for which T am alone responsible, I expect to die soon. But ]• am arranging to leave you athirfd of my pirroperty, so that youcAnembolliSihi youfr automobile with' all the latest improvements.' 1 ' This anecdote is Waving a great sfudnoss m. Paris, whore the' appreciation of- liiumioiir from tihe British isles has hillherto been rather fitfjul. ' < ' > • \

The losses of the New Zealanld iniurantcc companies on fires last year :\rc said to have totalled £-100,000. Tho li'vwy stable-keepers of Palmer--ion North have (ombimel, uivfer a penalty of .C3O, to raise ihe prioo of feed a»!d stabling. The dog- fiend is again in evidence in Wanganui. and already some residents are lamenting lh(. loss of their (anine pfts as the result ol strychnine poisoning. jMcssrs llatrick and Company forwand a hantdy pocjket time-table of their houVse-boat and overland routes. 'Any persons * contemplating the trip 'should write for the firm's illustrated booklet. The Registrar of Births '<n Christchurch has recently had a new title thrust ' upon him by a corres-pondont, who addressed his co'.mmunicition :r— "To 'Jtosister' of Births, Christchurch Post Office, Canterbury." The Wostport doctors have a rather singular case in their hands. A man named Petfc-y Canmtlierte, who was. engaged 1 painting, went homo at the" beginning of last week feeling* slightly unwell. Shortly afterwards he bejatnn inicionf.c.ious and has remained in' that state ever since. From, the secretary (Mr Thdmas Lloj d) we have rocei^Tfl a copy of the schedule for the annual show of the .Normanby Horticultural, Poultry, ;aiid (j!«neral Produce .Society, Avhiclx is to be held on Marciv 14th and 7JHIL' • The shows are always very popular, fa«c» this year an ovcelleirt prize-list has been drawn up. ' ; The peculiar habits of~ a rat attracted a good deal of attnntion in Willis-stroot on Sunday afternoon: (says tho Wellington Times). Tne animal was inside tho window-front of a bicycle shop, and, for several, hours 'engaged itself iii catching Hies as they buzzed or) tho panes of glass. As it. , caught each fly, it deliberately pulled the wings off, and thru ato the' small living body. Apparently tfte rat was qjui'te unconcerned at the number "of curious eyes watching its jnethads. , Says Sj'dlney Bulletin :—A feature of the meeting of tradespeople helid in Wellington in connection • witftu the Shojp's anid Offices Act, was the large numjber- of Chinamen who tftumed up and looked on with wondering- eyes. Appears tfliat tfliey had been refunded ap by other shopkeepers to "protest" against the A°ct.-. Now, ' the Chows only know the word "protest" in one comiectioni—that of the racecojujtße; and when they mobbed into) the meetings, and flavoured' the miua-Jcy atmosphere with a delicate aroma,' tihey had-fa vagute idea that Premier- Seddori had weighVd'in shortl or somethiiig of t that sort, an/d was to be dis(jualified'. Anyway,; when the crowd was hootdng Seddon , at one meeting ofdisaffecteds, Jhb hpat«hens;'rose and waved their ;hats; and, i^riod/'Plotest ! plotest I." . " . / '• jtfew Zealajwi: (says "Or^l.iHn'^lie Molbourne Argus) has had/a close call, and.has only been saved from- disaster by the firmness of the Wangamii licensing magistrate, who lias decided, just as tho tourist se^a^n is beginning, that the bona' fiac traveller s.till exists hi the. eye of the .New Zealand law. Whatever the law may have been,, we venture to think that he not only existed all tho time, but bulked fairly large in tin* eye. of the New Zealand licensed, victualler. . Obviously, if when one travels one is not a 'bona, fide traveller, tlitere would be no possible object in travelling, at all, and if no one travelled what would ' become of New Zealand ? The extinct moa and the extinguished terraces have been good advertisements for our, neighbours, but the extinguished bona fide traveller would never prove a popular draw. It is a remarkable fact that since the pxiblication in the Argus of the reassuring announcement the New Zealand steamers have been crammed with tourists. That Wangamii magistrate. Mho Caesar (or was it Balbus?) has; as the Latin exercise books used to day, deserved well of the republic. Tho penalty is .£2, states the " Sydney IMoraing Herald," if any tram passenger puts his feet upon the,seat, and since that by-law was proclaimed thp weary travollor- has lost a lot of the luxury of -:ife. But the un weary were jubilant, * because it was generally the mam whose clothes could not be soiled who made mud stains just where the other fellow who could suffer was going- to sit or whore a lady .wanted,a place. So the balance was all in favour <.f the by-law. But then, it is not sound equity for tho tramway" authorities' to make their passengers do all the requisite cleaning, and it is quit<> excusable to remind them of th-3 words of Bunthorne's poem. "An oarthy dust to-day makes a' dusty oartfcu I'o-inor-row." The trams arc cleaned in the morning, and, perhaps, it is assumed that they ought to remain clean all clay. As Mr Wilfer would havasaid, " They certainly ouglit to," but they do not. Thick chist „coats the i^ats,and passengers unwittingly help in the cleaning operations by taking with them a Government imprint. Of course,,it may lie answerod tha*t the conductors cannot keep the dust out of the cars ; but they can put it out at, say, the end of each journey. What is gathered on tho trip cannot be guarded against, because it would bo folly to disturb" the dust when p.as-. ! scngers are -in the cars.