GOSSIPY NOTES.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 142, 27 November 1877, Page 2

GOSSIPY NOTES.

(FROM OUR TIMARU GOSSIP.)

Scarlet fever has made its appearance here. The only wonder is that it has not made itself known before, considering the quantity of garbage, &c, shot on to the beach and the numerous stagnant foetid lagoons within the town boundary. The Inspector of Nuisances and the local Health Officer tell us that they are taking all possible precautions to prevent the disease from spreading; but what can they do ? Practically nothing. . I have seen boys catching rock-cod from the filthiest part of the beach, and doubtless these fish are eaten. All the Hospital; drainage goes" oii to the. beach, and is carried by the. tide along what you can call' the windward side of the towri. : . •

The dry weather continues, and farmers are predicting -very.*light crops this harvest. In many placed cm the .plains the wheat ik looldiig', quite withered ; close" under the hill's and on the low-lying lands near the coast things are not so bad. The -waxworks have arrived, and are now on view, &c. They forcibly remind one of Dickens' description of Mrs Jarley's show. I don't think that I ever got such a cheap shilling's worth of fun as I did at the Theatre "Hoy al on Friday evening, or learnt so much of people's peculiarities. For instance, in looking at the StanleyLivingstone group, one wonders why the great explorer did not die before.he met Stanley; his extended hand seems to be supported by. the mere bone, and the red digger's shirt hangs .loosely round it. Stanley has biue-mouldy knee boots, and he wears them down on the inside,of the heels. Prince Bismarck is decidedly off his centre of gravity. Elizabeth Woolcock sits in a chair, and shows no signs of knees, her dress falling straight down. . In the group called " The judgment of Solomon," the soldier either has the child by the wrong leg, or is delivering a number seven cut at his own arm, but perhaps the little beggar twisted round, you know. Whilst looking at the figure of the notorious Sul-' livan,,a short,; dark, man spoke thusly :— " That's.*) ot at fttl like Sullivan ; I knew him in Dunedin gaol." I wondered whether he was a warder.

A storekeeper here (he was formerly down your way) called a meeting of his creditors. The estate showed a dreadful deficiency. In reply to an indignant creditor, the poor innocent (?) ■.'storekeeper said that he did not keep any .books ; he didn't understand them, and he ~ was obliged to send goods directly they arrived here to the auction room, and to sell them for what they would fetch, in order to get money to pay his bills. He' said that.he was obliged to sell goods for less than they cost him, or he could not make a; living ! This fine specimen of commercial morality must not be interfered with ; he is specially protected by Act of Parliament— that Act ia known as the Bankruptcy Act.

A meeting of those interested in getting up a Regatta on Anniversary Day was called for yesterday evening. Three persons attended it.. JAfter that, don't upbraid your townspeople as being apathetic. Smith wanted a thousand acres of land, and a surveyor " laid him on" to that quantity. It was good land, yet Smith, when he saw it, changed his mind, and said that he thought that lie would only take four hundred acres out of the block. He bought the last-named quantity, and paid the surveyor the usual commission on it. Less than a week afterwards the surveyor took another client to the Land Office to take up the remaining six hundred acres ; he found that it was sold. Smith did not pay him any commission on that lot.