MISCELLANEA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 228, 24 March 1874, Page 7

MISCELLANEA.

Sir Walter Scott's, works (says a late London paper) are being reprinted in halfpenny weekly numbers, and th<*:p*icot>f each complete novel ■ is twopence halfpenny! Peaches Of the choicest description avo selling in Poverty Bay at Id per lb by the case, and 2d retail. They are said to be unsurpassed in size in U^wrZealand—ten inches n circumference being, quite common. The fltiw/cea' Bay Uer.oll says tint whilst a horse was being taken aciuss from the Weiforn to the Eastern- Spit;- h«s was savagely attacked by a shark of good-ly proportions, and was severely bitten in several places. The telegraph wjre. is being carried by Messrs Oargill and Anderson from the Roxburgh office to their homestead, Teviot Juictoi. This and tfib meat-preserving works station at Kakaflui, are, we believe, the only private offices in the Province. The Chinese have,- a more expeditious method of lurching .fish than wo. They place a certain quantity of 'spawn in empty hen's eggs, which are sealed up with wax and placed under-the'sitting hen. After bomb days they break and' empty the fry into water well warmed by the sun, and there nurse thein until they are sufficiently strong to be turned into a lake or river. The Acclimatisation Society might try a similar experiment.—DailyTimis.

I We hear of a robbery of a peculiar kind at ! Invercargill. As. the,story is told us it seems pa contractor went into a.-Cliinese store in that I town with the object of securing, tlie employ - I mont of Celestial labourers. While there ho : was generously invited to smoke the " caluI met of peace" in the shape of opium, which i had the effect of rendering the unwary em- | plover of "John" insensible. When hu < came to himself, ho .was. minus. a valuab'o j cluster-diamond ring; which had been taken from his finger. A rather novel way of ejecting obnoxious tenants was lately adopted by a landlady at the Teviot with great success." After all legitimate means had failed, she tried the following strategy :—Whilst her lodgers (they were man and were locked in the arum of Morpheus, and probably 'in each other's arms, a flood of water, which had been stored in the attic, was let in upon therm from the;region above, the bed. Imagining that a second deluge had set in, or that the Molyneux had overflowed its' banks in a mighty flood, they, in the shortest possible time, managed to clear out as for their livesj to the no small alnmittt of delight of the .landlady, who had watched the result of the manoeuvro with considerable anxiety :—TiMpck<i Trwe.sv The Gre.pwMh Star understands that the country snb-enumerators have groat trouble with the Chinese. As soon as the Mongolians anyone with blue papers in flftur hands they obstinately f« ho savce," and all the explanation that the unhappy official may offer might as well be addressed to the nearest stump, for all the seeming effect it has on its auditor. When the paper is after all left,. they seem to regard it as. an .unholv thing/ and destroy all documents of the kind as soon as possible. On the sub-enumerators paying a second visit there, is a general stampede] empty tents'and niimies only meet, his view, and to get, any returns is an'impossibility. It is evident that the Celestials think the subenumerators tax gatherers of some kind, and it is probable that not.one per cent, of them hold miners 1 rights.