Miscellaneous Extracts.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1801, 1 March 1886, Page 3

Miscellaneous Extracts.

THE COLONIAL HEROES OF NEW ZEALAND. The Taranaki Herald is informed that the manuscript of Mr Gudgeon's new work, entitled, *• The Coloui.l Heroes of New Zealand ; or'the Moving Spirits of the War o» 1860 70, ' is finished. It is a complete biography of the doings of all those who took a prominent part in the conflict, including the recipient* not only of the New Zealand Cross, bat of the medal as well. It also gives an accurate account of the individual bravery and hairbreadth escapes of both Maoris and European*, who equally deserve the Cross, bnt lost it simply through not being preperly represented In it Mr Gudgeon speaks oT upwards of 100 officers and men who did their country signal service, and whose photos will adorn the chanter devoted to each. Altogether the work will be a moat valuable record of the rebellion.

TINNED BUTTER. The Hawkee Bay Star says Mr Corkill six weeks ago sent away to various paits of the world samples of tinned butter. A letter has been received by Mr Corkill from his Honolulu correspondent acknowledging the receipt ol a sample tin. He writes as follows ; —" On receipt of your sample tin of butter, we immediately placed it on ice, and after freezing it for a couple of hours we opened it op and found it in first rate order and condition. We send you trial indent for 20001bs, to be packed in assorted sizes, and shipped to ns first steamer. We shall do our utmost to introduce your brand successfully, and believe tbit a trade of two or three tons per month can be created with little difficulty, provided the quality of the present sample is maintained. We expect, of course, that you will accure to our firm a monopoly of your brand in this market." Mr Corkill informa the Taranaki Herald that the tin referred to waa one of a number of 11b tins mailed by him six weeks ago to correspondents in various parts of the world. That the bntter should torn out in such prime condition after being subject to the very severe teat of transit through the tropics in a mail bag must be most satisfactory and encouraging to those who have at heart the development of onr dairying industry. The batter would doubtless be in a fluid state on reaching its destination, hence the necessity of freezing before opening. The tins in which it was sent away were unsoldered, but have evidently proved to be most suitable for the packing of butter.

A YANKEE OPINION OF NEW ZEALAND. Mr Dion Boueicault, tbe dramatist author and actor, in a lett< r to tbr Auckland Star, describes a con verst t on he had with a Yankee visitor to New Zealand, oo board the ss. Mararoa oo her last trip to 'Frisco. We clip the following ; " I presame you bare done tbe islands ’ " said I. invitingly. Well. I guess I've looked ’em over." replied the Yankee, reducing his eyes to a focus as be swept tbe horizon, seemingly in regard to New Zealand as if it were a parcel of goods be was likely to buy. “ Natur, sir, has been gen'roos round here 1 I make no account of •heir gold and silver, but there’s nigh on 3.000 miles of coast and there's not a quarter section in tbs island that lies more than sixty miles bom a port. There’s mountains of fair coal and uscfnl minerals. There’s as rich a sile aa man needs to turn over ; plenty of wood and water, and a climate as the white man thrives in. It is goin’ to be the maritime bosa of tbia aide of creation—yon may bet your sweet life on that! Yes, sir, that's what’s the matter with New Zealand. Ef I'd ha seen it before, I’d ha like to have had a hack at it myself I ’’ I ventured to observe that a general impression prevailed about tbe colony having gone too fast ahead, and general depression was tbe oonaequenee of a too rapid development.

’’ Naturally, quite so,” replied my fellow traveller. “ Hoopin' cough, measles, mumps, and other eomplaiuta grow in' kids are bound to have. (The State* bad 'em all—bad.) It i* all along of growin'. Now jest see this eraft we are on—tbia Mary Bearer 1 What right baa New Zealand with a boat like this f What a piece of extravagance! Three thonaand ton* ! Built of steel, double eased, aba baa an inside dun, and engines as fine as chronometer*. She is lighted by electricity, furnished and fitted better than any of tbe Canard or White Star vessel*. I’ve been through them all, and there ain't one of them that for fioiah and style is fit to lie in a dock alongside of her ! What was she built for ’ Why. for the coasting trade of New Zealand t "

" She doee Mem to be out of all proportion to tbe want* of tbe colon;.” “ Proportion I " cried the American ” proportion, cir, be darned I Tbe company that boiit thia boat baa thirty«two vessels in their fleet, doing a coasting and intercolonial trade !—thirty-two vessels, figuring np 84,000 tons. Then there is another company here fits oat five ocean steamers trading direct with England, measuring 21,000 tons I Then there is a third company with five more ocean steamers measuring 21,000 tons ; say 80,000 tons of steam shipping to serve a population of 480.000 souls, all told— jest about one-half the popnlation cf my native eity, Philadelphia. Now jeat figure up that awhile, and do a sum in proportion. It is jest one ton for every six inhabitants If Great Britain wanted to match with these islands she’d have to pat np six million of tons of steam shipping ! ” ” And to think,” I suggested, •' that fifty years ago this place produced nothing but savages.”

' “ That U how to put it, air. Wild men, like other production* of the wilderness, is very picturesque sod sentimental, bat they hev to get when we make a clearing. Where tbe white man sets his toot tbe red man and black man disappear."

DINNER IN THE VESTRY

A atory at the expei.ie of a church vestry I will not aay what denomination,acmee from a very remote country diatrict. A notaUe paraon having been invited to preach, gracefully replied that he would be with them the following Sunday, D.V. Thia was considered highly satisfactory, but the D.V. was a puzzler, and a meeting of the vestry was called to deliberate. What conclusion they came to will be disclosed in the sequel. Tue sermon was preached, and the congregation duly impressed with the great man's eloquence. After tbe Mimon the preacher made to the verity, and was surprised to find a first-class spread laid there. He turned to several of the vestrymen who had followed close at bis beela, for an explanation. Tbe spokesman of the party said he didn't know what explanation was wanted seeing that the rev. gentleman himself bad pot D.V. in his reply to their invitation asking him to preach. *• D.V. my frieods,” replied the worthy parson, *' stands for dto voltnU (God willing).’ “ Oh I then we have a mistake,” answered one of the pillars of the church, we came to tbe conelosion DV. meant dinner in the vestry, and we acted accordingly.

DRUNKEN IMMUNITY One sometimes sees a drunken man pitched violently from a horse, and when the bystanders rush to the spot, expecting to find him dead, they are astonished to discover that be has been little injured. In his " Scrambles among the High Alps ’ Leslie Stephen tells the story of a guide who while drunk, fell over a precipice so deep that a UO over it seemed almost certain death, and who yet sustained little injury. Stephen accordingly gives his readers the advice either not to fall over a precipice or to get thoroughly drunk before doing so. I myself once saw a man who had thrown himself while drunk over the Dean Bridge in Ed in borough, a height of 200 ft.. on to the rocky bed of a stream below. A sober man would probably have been instantly hided, hut this individual, though he had broken both thigh bones, quickly recovered ; and 1 aaw him a few weeks afterwards bafpis| briskly about on crotches, the lags

being nearly, though not entirely well. The reason of this immunity pro! ably is that the nerve centres, which legiPate the heart and vessels, are so much paralysed in the drunken man as not to be affecled by the shock of a fall, which in a sober man would have acted on them so violently as to stop the heart, arrest the circulation, and cause instant death.—Exchange.

SNOW STORM IN SCOTLAND The Edinburgh correspondent of the Otago irifneiw, writes under date Dec io As this letter leaves, all Scotland is covered with snow snowstorm set on in the N.E. coast on Decemoer 5, and has since become general. In the Buchan district of Aberdeenshire the roads are blocked to a extent unknown for many years. The absence of wind has alone kept the railways from being blocked up. Masses of ice are already beginning to come down the Tay, Clyde, Tweed and other rivers. The piognostications of the weather-prohets, that this will be a very severe winter, seem to be in a fair way to be fulfilled.

A PROTESTANT BULL. A curious incident is reported to have occurred in connection with the visit of Cardinal Moran down south. A fine bull belonging to Mr E. B. Cargill caught sight of the Cardinal in his scarlet robes, and, not being able to get at his Eminence, went incontinently mad, and had to be shot. The animal was a very valuable one.

SHEEP FOR AUCKLAND. Large numbers of store sheep are being sent from Hawke's Bay to the Waikato, there to be fattened off, and then trucked for Auckland by rail for local consumption and freezing for export. The Waikato line enables the graziers there to put their fat stock into the trucks in the cool of the evening and send them to the sale yards at Kemuera during the night. The cattle and sheep are thus placed before the buyers in good order and ready for immediate use. Those coming by steamers and overland byroad compare very unfavorably with the trucked stock, |which, others things being equal, always bring a better price under the hammer. As Auckland and suburbs have a population of between forty “ and fifty thousand people, the weekly consumption of live stock must be considerable. At present owing to ample supplies coming foward from the Waikato and Taranaki, prices are depressed and the market dull. Fat crossbred wethers from here (Wanganui) were sold by auction last Tuesday at Remuera at an average of us, a figure which left no margin of profit for the shippers.—Wanganui Herald.