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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1103, 25 August 1871, Page 2

The San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, says : —Mr C. H. Reynolds, an old resident of New Zealand, but for some time attached to the Chronicle and other papers of this city, will leave by the next pteamer for his old home, by way of Australia, ' Mr Reynolds has made a large pircje of warm friends dutiug his residence here, whose best wishes accompany hiju to his new fielu 1 of labor, where he wilj continue the profession of journalism.

We take the following from a recent Evening Post: —Captain Johnson, of the Marine Board, Wellington, has recently been acting as pilot to the Jbig boats of Webb's line, and, acting under orders, has thereby been compelled to neglect his proper duties. Why this special line of highly subsidised boats should be provided with pilotage along the coast at the public expense is certainly mysterious. It would be aa insult to the officers in the service to suppose they are not capable of safely navigating their splendid vessels to the southern ports after having had the experience of a trip or two, but the Government think otherwise, apparently, and detach an officer from his ordinary duties expressly for the purpose. But it is probable that in this, as in other things, there is a motive. Capt. Johnson is only a substitute, we hear whispered, till it is found convenient to appoint a miuisteriai relative to the post that is now so unnecessarily filled. A coastal pilot, to an ordinarily intelligent seaman, is about as much use as the fifth v\heel of a coach, and it is to be hoped that the Assembly will no longer permit the farce being kept up, whether in the person of Capt. Johnson or any one else. It is not reasonable that such a strange exception in favor of an already dangerously costly line should be made, and it is the duty of members to look to it.

The Australian Trade Review says ; The National Agricultural Society is laudably exerting itself to make sheepfarming a more scientific pursuit than it has hitherto been, and to force upon wool-growers closer study of those specialties of the soil and the climate of their respective runs. Not only has it for the purpose of its next prize list mapped the colony into five regions, according to climate, but it has addressed a long string of queries to wool-brokers and manu factures in England, asking information as to the exact qualities desired in wool for different purposes, for a statement of the defects of Australian wools, and goner ally for any such suggestions that may assist the producers to provide more exactly the article that is wanted. 'lf only a reasonable proportion of those to whom the inquiries have been addressed should be courteous enough to reply, wo shall get a mass of information out of which we may pick blots of more specific utility than the somewhat vague sugges tions of brokers' circulars as to the belter getting up of the wool. The society is anxious to throw as much light as possible on the special capabilities of the different districts of the colony, so that every squatter may see more clearly than at present what is the bast use to which his run can be put, may have a d< finite aim before him, and may proceed intelligently and systematically towards the realisation of that aim.

A man who pays especial attention to the fattening of pigs says the following treatment will make the biggest hog out of a pig in twelve mouths: —Take two parts of barley, two of corn, aud one of oats. Grind them together ; then cook and feed cold. He says it is the cheapest, food, and that any pig of good improved breed can be made to gain one pound in weight a day until a year old.

A couple of fellows who were pretty thoroughly soaked in whiskey got into the guttir° After floundering about for a few minutes, one of them said —"Jim, let's o"o to another house—this hotel leaks."

An Indiana paper notices the death of an old subscriber, and touchingly adds : any of our subscribers who are prompt in paying up." " A contented mind is a continual feast, my good man," said a curate to the head of a poor family in the north. Northern acuttness r?spouded, ''Yea, sir, that may be true, but a feast is the best way of getting a contented mind."

The Turkish Ambassador being at a public dinner with some of the magnates of the land, the chairman gave as a toast, in compliment to his Excellency, " Ihe Sublime Porte and the Turkish Ambassador." The waiter echoed it down the table, " A supply of poit for the Turkish Ambassador."

A Chicago bishop waited two hours for a bride who had been disappointed in her bonnet strings. A resident in Epsom writes to say he only backed one horse in h|s life, and that was into a shop window.