The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1880.

Kumara Times, Issue 1129, 12 May 1880, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1880.

The new Roll under the Registration of Electors Act, 1879, for the electoral district of Hokitika is now open for inspection at the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Hokitika, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs-

day, and Friday, in every week, between the hours of 10 a. in, and 2 p.m.

We would direct the attention of the authorities to a tree the stump of which is allowed to rest against a treacherous embankment on the Zigzag road, at the commencement of the last descent to the Teremakau bridge, and which threatens at every moment to slip and entrap the unwary traveller and those whose avocation necessitates their passing frequently, with valuable animals too, this unseemly snare. A slip occurred near this place on Monday, which for awhile blockaded the road; but now a much more extensive landslip which covers a portion of the new approach to the bridge completely cuts off dray traffic, with Greenstone and Greymouth, and requires immediate repair.

In consequence of the continued rainy weather and the impracticability of getting their valuable exhibits across the Arahura river, the proprietors of the Oriental Exhibition have decided' on postponing the opening of the same until a change of weather takes place. The sale by Mr F. A. Learmonth of a number of suburban sections yesterday, at the Public Hall, proved most conclusively that there are a number of people who are of opinion that the prosperity of this goldfield is far from declining, as the bidding was brisk, and the sections ultimately realised even more than those lately sold in the township. The Pev. John Hobbs, of Naseby, Otago, lias a tenderness of a peculiar kind for hot-cross-buns. 'The local paper, the Mount Ida Chronicle, says :—“ Hot-cross-buns” are three words which one would think would hardly make a good subject for a sermon. Yet the Eev. John Hobbs made them the corner-stone of his sermon last Sunday. The rev. gentleman waxed very warm in his discourse, and said that the practice was a “most horrible one”— “it was an insult to Almighty God. The idea of a person irreligiously eating a lot of buns with a cross on them made him almost shudder. ”

The Sydney Exhibition was open only 185 days. On the opening day 19,853 persons were present; On the Prince of Wales’s Birthday, 26,569; on Boxing Day, 24,127; on New Year’s Day, 13,260; and on Anniversary Day (January 26th), 27,500 (of whom 5534 were children). The total admission to the Exhibition was 1,045,898.

They are a smart p<mple_in Cork, but the laugh this time is not on their aide. The other night they vociferously refused to allow Mr Archibald Forbes to deliver his Zulu War lecture to them, on account of some old grudge dating from the period, of John Mitchell’s candidature for Tipperary. When they had accomplished their purpose, interspersing the proceedings with eggs heaved at the would-be lecturer, they serenely demanded to have their money returned to them, but they did not get it; and now, when they reflect that Mr Forbes has pocketed their money without having been put to the trouble of delivering his lecture, they begin dimly to recognise the truth of the geographical axiom that the Scot is too far north for the Irishman.

By command of Her Majesty the Queen a stone cross has been erected on the spot where the Prince Irnperial of France lost his life. The cross bears the following inscription :—“ This cross is erected by Queen Victoria in affectionate remembrance of Prince Napoleon Eugene Louis Joseph, Prince Imperial, to mark the spot where, while assisting in a reconnaissance with the British troops, on the Ist June, 1879, he was; attacked by a party of Zulus, and fell with his face to the foe.”

A few days ago a justice of the peace took his little son down the river on an excursion. The lad interviewed the man at the wheel, and gathered much information relative to the business of steamboating. Presently his father joined him and asked him how he was enjoying himself. “First-rate,” was the enthusiastic reply. “I’m going to be a steamboat man, papa.” “ All right,” responded the J.P., “but you will have to study navigation, astronomy, and divers other sciences in order to be a good one.” Thtf lad said nothing at the time, but appeared to be revolving the difficulties of the case in his mind. Half an hour later he remarked, with much gravity, “Papa, I think I won’t be a steamboat man ; I’d rather be a justice of the peace ; you don’t have to know anything for that.”

Did you ever notice the broad, comfortable, shady-looking Leghorn hats in the milliners’ windows 1 Just buy a woman one, and the first thing she will do will be to double-up her dainty fist and punch, a

three-cornered dent on the right side, then she will .pinch the front rim down and the back rim up, and then stave in throe or four more big dents at odd corners, and when it resembles in shape an old tin pan that has ..been a target for a stone-throwing match, she will remark upon the elegance and grace of the affair. But just let a man jam in one side of his hat, and he will be proclaimed a winebibbing vagabond. Curious comments by a judge, even in the presence of the prisoner, though extremely rare, are hot'unpredecented. Mr Justice Maule once addressed a phenomenon of innocence in,.a.smock-frock in the following' words Prisoner at the bar, your counsel thinks you. innocent; the counsel for the prosecution thinks you innocent; I think you " innocent. But a jury of your own countrymen, in the exercise of such common sense a» they possess,, which does not seem, tp be ; much, have found you ‘ guilty and it temaihs that I should pass upon you the sentence of the law. That sentence is that you be kept in imprisonment for one ..day.; as that day was yesterday 5 ,' you ‘ ihky hOw go' about your business.” The unfortunate rustic, rather scared, went about liis business, but thought, that law’ was an uncommonly jmzzling,thing. . / ‘