LOAFER IN THE STREET.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1401, 12 August 1878, Page 3

LOAFER IN THE STREET.

\ [PROM THE PRESS.] / It seems likely to be a short session. From the appearance of tne Parliamentary barometer, I should judge hon. members will elect not to talk quite so much as they did last season. There will, I think, be less eloquence and " Hansard " and more business. In the summary of Bills to be introduced are two which attract my unqualified approval. These are the Sale of Food and Drugs Amendment Bill and the Cruelty to Animals Amendment Bill. They will require working. Between the publican and the merchant I can't quite see how the vendor of alcoholic poison is to bo got at. I know myself more than one p'ace in this province where a correct analysis of the drink supplied would recall a very curious state of affairs, but you can't get at the vendors, and I think this Act will want very clever manipulation. As to the latter act, what is cruelty to animals ? Is it cruelty to hire a horse for " a Sunday out," and drive him, with a heavy load, at top pace to Rangiora and back without a feed ? Is it cruelty to drive a horse into town ten miles to hear your favorite preacher, hang him (the horse I mean) in the sun all the time you're calling yourself, with the most perfect justice, a miserable sinner, and then drive him back and turn him out in that miserable dust-hole you call a paddock while you're devouring the heavy feed you consider necessary to honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy ? Is it cruelty to chain a dog alongside a gate to keep a boundary, and leave him for days without food of any sort? Is it cruelty to drive a lame horse in front of a heavy baker's cart day after day and get out of it by saying "its only his style of going." Colonel Whitmore, who introduced the Bill, means well, but then I'm afraid the worst cases of cruelty to animals will never come under the provisions of the Act. _ I'm curious to know, too, if the animal man is included in the new Bill. From what I see sometimes he ought to be. I learn from your columns that the Minister for Public Works recently took occasion to give a quiet hint to hon. members that the gratification of their curiosity in tbe matter of returns often involved considerable cost to the country. One return alone, he stated, cost tho colony £260. I fancy if ever this country takes the benefit of an Act that has proved of such advantage to many of its leading citizens the item printing will be found one of the leading csiuses of its insolvency. Among the papers recently "laid on the table of the House is one quoting a correspondence between Lord Carnarvon, Lord Normanby, and Sir George Grey. It has reference to two days' unpaid pension, which Sir George through some mistake was not paid, the amount of which, according to the printed papers, would be about 16s. The printing of the correspondence would cost, I should say, about £B. This after all is a mere trifle when we consider that hon. members are now aware that the Governor is sorry that Sir George Grey has been out of pocket sixteen shillings for a few months.

Mr Bowen must surely be of opinion that tho millennium must be near at hand. In committee on the Fraudulent Debtors Bill he stated that he thought the time was coming and must come when it would be impossible to recover debts at law, and that tradesmen would not allow goods on credit to any except those who were known to he men of honour. When this state of things obtains the takings of our tradesmen will be so Bmall that we may as well start in like the primitive Christians, and have all things in common. There are some men I must say who get tick and impose on it. The following is a case in point. A tradesman of my acquaintance had a sum of money owing to him from a man who could perfectly afford to pay any time, but who did not like parting. The account ran for two years and six months. Then the tradesman suggested his debtor should give him his acceptance for the amount. This the long winded one agreed to, but stuck over paying the discount. At last he said " Well governor, if there's to be any deductions about this matter, I'll pay you my account in full, less the discount, and we shall be square." From a contemporary I learn that Mr Vesey Stewart, intending to sever his connection with Ireland, has sold out all his property. The " Tyrone Constitution " describes the sale as " the largest amount of property ever submitted to auction in the town of Omagh. The property was put up in nineteen lots, being chiefly town and suburban lands, and realised £11,900."

Without any disparagement to the Stewart property, the town of Omagh or the local columns of the "Tyrone Constitution," I think we can show sales here as well worth celebrating as the above. In connection with this topic don't you think we are almost overdoing this land buying business. It strikes me so ; but it's no affair of mine further than to remind me of a man I knew some years ago who bought an allotment in the fair watering place of Sumner. When he came to look at it he found that, like the broad acres of Earl Goodwin, it was covered at high tide by the ever encroaching sea. He has never built on it and the allotment remains unlet even unto the present day. A friend of mine, I may add while I am on this subject, bought lately a section in a township on the South line. He discovered after the sale was concluded that he was the proprietor of two chains of the Great Southern Railway, and one chain of the main South road. He seems a bit embarrassed about his purchase. Such are the results of buying town sections in a distant rising city. This land mania bus, however, its good side. Only a few days ago a gentleman in answer to a question in the R.M. Court as to what his business was, replied that he had no business, but made his living by buying land with borrowed money. Why did I not think of this game before, and where are the men to be found who are confiding enough to lend money to friends on such terms ?

In a norlhom city the citizens have recently been establishing a fire brigade. Is it necessary to Bay that being British they dined over

lit ? The local chronicler says it was the first time the helmeted warriors of our mural guard had publicly appeared in their proper war paint. " The dinner, however," he goes on to say, " deserves especial notice, not only on account of the excellency of the viands, and the appetising effects of the tout ensemble, but as a genuine British specimen of a social gathering where tie songs were sung, and the ft net went right merrily. Justice having been done to the chef <le cuisine, &c," I gather from the foregoing that the helmeted warriors of the mural guard ate up the cook. Can this bo as the writer assumes, a genuine British specimen of a social gathering ? In another Northern city a draper received a consignment of Persian rugs, which he advertised. His advertisement when it appeared read as follows : "Public Notice.—Just arrived per Overland mail, and now on view, five very handsome, real Persian Bugs, to be seen at my drapery establishment. Price, £5 55." A considerable number of people were observable during the succeeding day hovering around the drapery mart, busting with a curiosity which was perhaps pardonable, to see if the Eastern importations were of the same type thoy had been used to for so long. There is a class of young gentlemen getting every day more common in this country. It comes out from England without much capital, and goes round the country looking at it and staying with friends. A gentleman of the squatting interest, who resides up North, and who has a good many of these visitors, has a style of his own when he wants to get rid of them. When the young gentleman has, in his opinion, remained long enough, the squatter orders his visitor's horse to be saddled and tiod up opposite to the door. Then he makes use of the following remark—- " Well, Limejuice, I hope you've had a pleasant stay. Won't you come in and have a nip before you start ?" His plan has never failed yet, though he has been favored with some really good stickers too.