THE LOITERER IN KUMARA.

Kumara Times, Issue 189, 12 May 1877, Page 2

THE LOITERER IN KUMARA.

"FESTINA LENTE."

A medico, residing not* hundred miles from Kumara, must, have read the following paragraph :—" The quills of the New Zealand black swan have been found to make excellent pens. A paragraphist-in the Wellington Argus writes : —£They are infinitely.better than the quill pens usually procurable in the stationer's shop, being more pleasant to write with, and far more lasting. The .one with which we write this paragraph has been in constant use fo' four days, and has never needed mending." The medico, I refer to, went shooting the other day, and no doubt with the intention of providing himself with such excellent quill pens, shot a swan, forgetting or overlooking the fact that the bird is undor the protection of the: New Zealand Game.Lawß. I should advise him not to "flourish" too much with hisquillSjfOTamonth or two. tions," which are played on the telegraphic wires, in the matter of proper names, whether' those names - be of persons or of places. There is not much cause for surprise at this, when the names are foreign, and it is not therefore astonishing that we should hear of some non-existent Turk or Russian doing something extraordinary at some nou-existent place. The cause for wonder is, however, considerably increased, ..when the circumstances telegraphed relate to New Zealand. The other day we were told' that a Greymouth digger had been run over on the Kaipara Rail way k This, of course, set everybody speculating as to what a Greymouth digger could be doing at Kaipara in the north of the North Island. It turned out that."Greymouth'' was a mis-reading for " gum." Another telegram told us of a lad bavin g drunk poisoned brandy "at Greymouth.'', The fact was that the place

where this unfortunate mistake was made, was Onehnnga, als® in the North Island. The Nelson papers have been, lately publishing telegrams sent from Greymouth, anent the New Rush here. By some extraordinary blunder "Greymouth," has been altered into " New Plymouth," and Teremakau into Ter-.'' angahua, and strange to say < the " West [ Coast Times" published *>the tele-; gram as a " local." Here it is :— * " The prospects of the new rush on the north bank of the Teranghua, New Plymouth, are improving* Eight claims have bottomed on good gold, and the supposed line of the lead is pegged off several chains wide for nearly a mile. Should the shafts bottomed this week strike gold there will be a large rush. About 300 people are on the ground." ; With singular naivete the "West Coast Times" yesterday published a notice of the blunder, which had peared in the Canterbury Press, concluding with the following words; —" But it can only have been "new chums" in mining, who cduld possibly have been misled by the news, even when so printed. Here and elsewhere, if not in Nelson, the error was easily detected, and corrected previous to "publication." The Editor of the "Temperance Times" has been threatening the Editor oftbe*'ltangiora Times," with an action for libel, because the latter wrote as follows :-*•" The editor of the Good Templars, Organ the Temperance Times has always taken and still continues to take his liquor freely." The Editor of the T.T. denies the" soft impeachment, but does so in language which, to say the least of it, is extremely ambiguotts. He says "I never did nor... do I now even take liquor moderately." T-he natural inference to,be draw from atich a denial would be, that ray friend of the T.T. has always taken,? ;and .still takes his liquor—immoderately: