OCCASIONAL NOTES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume II, Issue 102, 24 October 1871, Page 6

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

—o— By Tyfo. Strange items of intelligence frequently come to hand when the English mails arrive. A month or two since it was gravely announced that in some of the English counties "butter was being made from flint." This was a puzzler to ordinary mortals—in fact to mortals of every degree of mental calibre ; and to me the mystery has remained unfathomable until the present day. By the last mail we learn that ''paper railway-car-riage wheels are now being made in England." This latter triumph of scientific research with a stretch of the imagination is believable ; but butter made from flint I can't swallow. What next, I wonder >

So Gregory Summerville and his destroying pills aru myths. Recent news from America declares that the story of the fearful scientific discovery with which this earth-god was accredited, and which has been published far and near, causing the life-blood in the hearts of timid maidens to freeze, and wise men to think and ponder over the supposed dreadful catastrophe which was averted by the destruction of the all-potent Gregory, is a hoax and a sham. The very fact of its coming from America was sufficient to cause the extraordinary story to be received with the utmost caution ; but it had about it such an air of plausibility, and was so accurate in all its minutest details, that people were constrained to believe it, whether they felt inclined or not. Sensational in the extreme, the story of the " Man with the Secret" will long be remembered as one of the triumphs of American literary hoaxes.

. I see that the Cricket season has been inaugurated in Duncdin by a match between

sides chosen by the President and Vice-Pre-sident of tho Duncdin Cricket Club. This leads me to lament tho want of activity clis. played by the youth of this rising town. Before this time last year we had a local Cricket Ciub in full swing, and practice was continued vigorously throughout the summer; but this season I have not yet heard the word " cricket" ever mentioned. This fcimolionoured, national sport of the old country ineffaceably associated with the recollection ß of our happy school-days, should always hold its own as a healthv and exhilarating recreation. Shake off your inertia, young Cromwell ! and the Club once more started and placed under efficient management, success is bound to attend your efforts.

Otago's happily conceived method of ridding herself of vagrants and other notorious characters has at last been taken notice of in the other colonies. It has long struck me as one of the most unique proceedings of this progressive age. Habitual drunkards, vagrants, and prostitutes and their associates, if they become troublesome and make their appearance too frequently in our Police Court, instead of receiving condign punishment, have their passages paid to some neighbouring colony, there to be a pest and a burden to society. If a " Brunuhy Wilkes," a " Polly Sutton," or some other equally notorious character, becomes obnoxious to tho community, and forfeits the good opinion of respectable humanity by reason of a flagrant disregard for all the rules of morality, the remedy is simple and highly efficacious : Give the outcast a free passage to Victoria, or New South Wales, or Tasmania. Never mind who are tho sufferers thereby, so long as wo, tho respectable and moral (Hag.ins, arc freed from the hateful presence of those social lepers. Paupers, who, mayhap, have no other crime laid to their charge, but that ■of being steeped in poverty and unable to i provide for themselves, are also disposed of in like manner. As the instance which has come before the notice of the Victorian J authorities is that of an unfortunate woman | with seven children, who had been charitablypacked off to Melbourne with her precious offspring, whore she made her appearance in the City Police Court as a vagrant, and detailed her woes and sorrows, —if Victoria liked to retaliate, and furnish the Otago community with periodical additions to her population from the vilo dens of Stephen and Little Bourke streets, it occurs to me that, a largo accession to our police force would soon bo necessary.