NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1827, 28 April 1888, Page 3

NOTES.

Fo there is really tia at Alford Forest ! after all. That is to say that the men of science, who declared against the existence of this metal m that particular locality are proved to know something less about the matter than the nonscientific people \vho haye ail along maintained 1 that thoy had discovered the genuine article, We had not long ago a very learned disquisition which oonclusively proved tin at .Alford Forest to bo a geological impossibility, but there is no gettirfg over the logic of facts. The case is precisely similar to that of the man of law «nd the rustic w|io was doing penance m the village I stocks. The legal luminary argued m i vain that it was quite impossible that a ! man could be &o treated for the particular peccadillo with which he hsd been charged, the answer lt . But I am here," from the culprit himself being incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. So, though it may be possible that according to all recognised geological canons tin neither could, would, should, nor ought to have been found at Alford Forest, it is there all the same, and the scientists will now have the ' pleasing task of

I explaining the phenomenon. This they ! will now do quite satisfactorily to I themselves, but m view of the egregious mistakes so frequently made by these learned pandits, the public will soon begin to learn to take all their prophecies with the proverbial pinch of salt, except such prophecies as are made after the fact. We well remember the time when it was declared that there could be no payable gold m "Westland, and even the ime when it was contended that wheat coukl not be grown south of the Waifcaki, hut have lived to see hundreds of thousands of ounces of the precious metal disprove the one statement, and millions of bushels of wheat grown at Oamaru, the Taieri, and elsewhere m Otago, disprove the other. But we may leave the geologists to take care of themselves, what the public will most care about is the fact that the metalsought for does exist, even if it be but m small quantity m the stone so far obtained. For if there be tin there at all, there is no apparent reason why it should not exist m payable quantity, nay it is not impossible that there may be silver also. Those who have persisted m the quest — Mr E. G. Wright and others — are to be congratulated upon the fact that they have declined to be discouraged by adverse scientific reports, and it is to be hoped that having proved one pomt — that of the metal's , existence at Alford Forest — they will follow it up by determining beyond all doubt whether or not it exists m payable quantity. If it does, then there is a good time m store, not only for them, but for the whole district.

To those who take an interest m the subject of remarkable coincidences, we may present a couple of instances which have recently been reported, and which are of a more than ordinarily noticeable character. The first is m connection with the case of Werrill, the railway gatekeeper, who recently lost his life while trying to rescue a child from being cut to pieces by a passing train. It now appears that Werrill himself was rescued only a few months before from a precisely similar danger, the particulars given by an exchange being as follows : — " On the morning of September 10, 1887, Werrill was at the Petersham Railway Station. Whether he was stationed there or not at the time is not clear, but on the morning m question the 8.40 through train had just made its appear- J ance round the corner near the bridge, travelling at a terrible rate. Werrill, who was a heavy and rather a cumbersome man, happened at the time to be crossing the line. He missed his footing, and fell right across the line. In a few seconds he would have been cut to atoms, had not the stationmaster heroically jumped off the platform, and, by a superhuman effort, lifted the fallen man out of danger. It was the work of a moment, and the stationmaster narrowly missed being killed himself." It is strange indeed that poor Werrill should have suffered the death, while endeavoring to save the life of another, from which he was saved only a few months previously. The other coincidence, happily not of the tragic sort, is still more curious. An English paper received by the last mail contained a paragraph headed " The Biter Bit " which was reprinted by us m last issue, m which we were told how v pick-pocket m an English provincial town had re

lieved a lady of her purse, and m the act of so-doing left m her pocket a diamond ring valued at at least £30. Almost on the same day (within a day or two of it at anyrate), news arrived from Melbourne that a young lady riding m a tram car m that city had had a precisely similar experience, the value of the ring m this case being, however, set down at £40, while, still more remarkable, the contents of the lady's purse m both instances amounted to exactly the same sura samely 2b. Query though, was there any coincidence at all, or did an Australian paragraphist seize upon the English incident, and take the liberty of locating it m Melbourne on the principle of making your own local news if there is otherwise none

to record ? This last seems a likely supposition, but if it be a mistaken one then the exactitude of the coincidence is very remarkable. Anyhow, the moral is clear, via. : — He that takes to pocketpicking should eschew tho wearing of diamond rings, or at least should see to it that they fit too closely to drop off Into ladies' pockets.

We don't want to be hypercritical, and wo are quite aware that the drawers-up of official documents, from the Queen's speech down to s, School Repoyt, are allowed coneiderable latitude with regard to the use or abuse of the Queen'B English, but we feel constrained to eutor our protest against the crystallisation as part of the accepted English of the New Zealander of the future of slangy Colonial colloquialisms. It is baa enough to find tha£ the entire rjsii^g generation oj the Colony is abandoning the old-fashioned form of greeting which wishes " Good -morning " or "Goodday," or hails an acquaintance with the national " How do you do ?" m favor of the ugly « Hallo" I" (or " Hollo 1", as it is pronounced) which is* made to servo for all purposes and on all occasions ; but what can't bp oured must, we suppeao, perforce bo endured, But we protest against the use of such an ugly phrase as " roll-up " or " rolling-up " being substituted for the word "attend" or " attending" m the official repoyt of a public body. Yet a pertain (School Committee the other day m its report to the Annual Meeting of Householders " regretted tho lack of interest displayed by parents noirollingup better at the School Concerts." The term is all very well for the first days of 1 a diggings, when plenty of gold means plenty of drink and ". rolling " becomes the properly descriptive term for the mode of procedure of tho avcrago population, but m theso days, and m our own sober and well-ordered township where there is little gold and less drink, and happily still less unsteadiness of gait on the part ot our citigens, wo protest against its employment, especially m connection with a reproof to parents for not " rolling-up " sufficiently.