NOTES AND QUERIES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 952, 4 July 1883, Page 5

NOTES AND QUERIES.

If " Censor " can in any way forward the interests of the Tuapeka constituency while in Wellington, he will be most happy to do bo ; and if any elector wants any little tomahawk ground, he has only to drop aline to " Censor," and. to ask his aid is to obtain it. Surely some of you want something— a Government billet, a bridge constructed, or a district railway surveyed past your door? Write to "Censor;" he is aw fait at log-rolling and ratting. Of course, if I can't do anything for you, you will have to send up " a deputation " to the Minister of Public Works.

It is generally known that in New Zealand, semi- confidential " Gazettes " arepublished, the readers of which are thereby posted up in a knowledge of the financial status of any of their neighbors who may be forced by hard times or lack of thrift to negotiate bills and deeds for the benefit of their creditors ; and I can assure you it is worth the half-guinea or guinea subscription to some people to know all their neighbors' monetary difficulties and dodges. None but those who have tasted, can know the sensation of pleasure that one experiences when he can slap a haughty fellow-sinner on the back familiarly, and say something tantamount tot-" I know all your delinquencies, old boy J»

Mr Steward has introduced a Bill to make an amendment in the mode of election of School Committees. He thinks that School Committees, being composed of so many very superior personages, are too valuable to retire in a body ; he therefore proposes that only a proportion of the members go out at the expiry of the annual term ; and the time of election is to be altered to read " April "—perhaps the Ist! How suggestive the altered date would be of the power held by members of these Committees conjointly, according to the Act. Some disrespectful people say that Education Boards have somewhat usurped the functions of School Committees, and left to the Committees little else besides the hewing of wood and drawing of water to do. No wonder then if the School Committee elections fall by-and-by on the Ist of April.

Mr Hutchinson's Evidence Bill is as good an example of law-makers' circumlocution as the following, which means "I give you that orange;" — "I give you all and singular, my estate and interest, right, title, and claim, and advantage of and in that orange, with all its rind, skin, juice, pulp, and pips, and all right and advantages therein, with full power to bite, cut, suck, or otherwise eat the same orange, or give the same away, with or without all its rind, skin, juice, pulp, and pips, anything heretofore or hereinafter, or in any other deed or deeds, instruments of what kind or nature soever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding."

An important debate raised in the House of Lords on the subject of emigration from Ireland has disclosed the fact that the Government have a large scheme in hand for the settlement of Irish families in North-western Canada. A most generous offer has been made to the Government by certain persons interested in developing the far provinces of Canada, by which it is proposed to give to selected families, each 160 acres of good wheat land, a comfortable house and a cow, with the means of carrying on the labours of the farm, and their subsistence for a year.

One Ministry goes out of office, and another goes in, yet the claims of Tuapeka remain unsatisfied either by Liberal or Tory. In answer to Captain M'Kenzie on Wednesday last, the Minister of Lands stated that it is proposed to spend £20,000 on the erection of a bridge over the railway crossing at Dunedin. Well, you really must excuse me, but "Censor" thinks that a greater need exists for a bridge in a certain part of this county than at Dunedin. The Government are very kind to Dunedin,

A few days since, a newspaper correspondent stated that Miss Rhodes is to marry Mr Moorhonse, a brother of her stepmother. Miss Rhodes is said to be worth from £20,000 to £30,000 a year. The wedding is fixed for July 10th. The young lady is going to marry her stepuncle ; she will thus become her own aunt, and, at the same time, the^sister-in-law of her father, her father's daughter (!) being her niece ! Rather a serious . relationship for her progeny to be entangled in. Censor.