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Thames Advertiser, Volume XVI, Issue 5177, 26 May 1885, Page 3

' There is fresh: evidenoo, tliat the Chinese in our midst are learning to enjoy in some small;, degree .the (blessings /of- 'Christian civilisation. (r The> thing, is but a trifle in itself, but it speaks volumes. ; Weread in the newspapers that Chick Yu and Ah Kun, market gardeners, of Dunedin, liavo filed- a declaration of insolvency—liabilities, £531; assets, £10. 'Ihis shows as muoh real progress as would be represented by a good many missionary reports., The Chinamen in question .have 'realised 'tho advantages of the Bankruptcy Aot in all their solemnmagnitude; and :they havo; resolved forthwith to avail' themselves of- this—oho of most glorious of British institutions. With them to determine was to do, and they were careful, in doing, to do the thing-well. Liabilities £500 and aaaeta £.10 is respectable, If the assots could only haye been reduced to lOd it would have beeu sublime. Presumably Chick Yu and his partner scarcely saw their way.to this! ;Jt;W(is a: first attempt, smacking, indeed, in some degree: of a national.enterprise, and caution : was-indis-pensable.'.- But the ice oiico broken,;-the 'compatriots of Chick Yu and All Kun'ihay bo expected to rise to,noble things in the way of insolvency. Years ago, according to Brot : Harte, Ohiuamon mastered "the .intricacies of ouchre, and they have) now added to this a fair knowledge of the art of bankruptey. It really seems that if-they would only 'esohew opium and take to tobacco aud Colonial, beer there is nothing to prevent the Celestials atoainingall the-virtues of the higher civilisation;— Cms- ,

. A German paper reports a singular example o£ the sagacity of sharks. A man fell overboard from a German ship. The place was known to be infested with sharks, but to the astonishment of the crew not a Bingle specimen appeared, , The . man managed to keep afloat, and a lifebuoy was thrown to him, Unhappily he missed it; whereupon another member of the crew jumped in to tlio rescue. He had barely reached the drowning man when a hugo shark rushed up like a flash of lightning, and,'seizing both men in his jaws, dragged them under.' The shark's conviction that if lie would only be patient for a few minutes he would probably have two victims instead of ono is certainly remarkable.—Globe.

The area under wheat in India averages about 26 .million acres, with an average gross produce of nearly 7 million tons; and in the year 1882-83 21 million hundredweights \\sra exported,