THE CROAKER.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 72, 6 January 1864, Page 6

THE CROAKER.

The following sketch of a class, of which Qucenstowu possesses several examples, is too good to be lost:— Of all the pests which infest and infect a commercial community, your ••Croaker" is the most intolerable. Nothing with him is ever going right. He seizes you at the corner of Mansestreet, or in the centre of the Octagon—possibly down away towards the Water of Leith, and with a most ominous look and prophetic shako of the head, he ass ires vou that trade never was so bad, and what is more, sir, will he worse before it is better. His attention is drawn to the fact that buildings are rearing their fronts in all directions; that the roads are noisy with the constant traffic ever moving to and fro; that the streets are thronged with a busy populace, looking prosperous and content. His gaze is directed towards the jetties and the bay, that he may convince himself of the large number of shipping and craft loading and discharging valuable freights. It is all of no avail, the " Croaker" places all these symptoms down to bad and doubtful. What business is there doing, he enquires, to pay for the goods? Shopkeepers, sir, are not paying their rents —not taking tbem, sir, by long chalks. According to this view of our " Croaker," landlords must be a very easy,humane class, for shopkeepers apparently hold fast by their shops and generally demand pretty stiff "good-wills" before they show any inclination to depart from out of them. This is what " Croaker" will not or cannot understand. He evades the question, and mentions the number of people who are leaving. We refer to a possibility that many are going with their pile, and quote the quantities of gold carried away by the steamers; that a proportion leave to return again with their wives and lambkins ; that not a few go who would go from anywhere to anywhere else upon meeting with the very slighte>t obstacles to*success, and we a»k mildly of "Croaker" why he does not go, and "Croaker" says he intends: nevertheless he does not, and there is no doubt that if by any fortuitous concourse of circumstances, the community were rid of him he would still be found to be, wherever he pitched his lot, the same individual —Mr "Croaker." We have a number of these in Dunedin—not more perhaps than in other towns and cities of the same extent, but we live in such busy stirring times that the torment of being waylaid and our time sacrificed by such evil prophets is felt to be intolerable. The fact must be patent to those who think at all, that a prosperous, wealthy, active and enterprising people will always have a proportion of the needy and unfortunate among them. There may be instances, also, of unmitigated distress and suffering. No populous town or city in the world could be named where this is not so. If the planets are inhabited, there is little doubt but many natives of Jupiter, Mars and Venus are hard up and in bad case. The fact that, on the last day of last week, four thousand of our inhabitants could pay for admission to the sports at our Recreation Ground, and when there spend among them ovtr five hundred pounds on the good things and superfluities of life, is some answer to all such croakings. Just as a little muddy water will defile the purity of the clearest Btream,so does your croaker attempt to cloud the prosperity of a commercial community by the black infusions of his evil imaginings.—Telegraph.

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS. The following account of a singular prognostic concerning the weather is published by the Argus: —"It seems that the good people on board the Great Britain were quite aware, from the day they left Liverpool, that they would be in for a gale of wind of no ordinary character on the 15th December. In a paper on board was contained the following prognostic, which, published two months beforehand, certainly furnishes a remarkable illustration of the value of accurate meteorological observation. We regret to be obliged to infer from the paragraph in question that the atmospheric disturbance will extend over the whole world, and that for months to come we must expect to hear of disaster consequent upon such phenomena:—'Science has again and again proved that popular superstitions where philosophical facts. Another instance of this is recorded with regard to the weather. It is, perhaps, the most generally credited of popular beliefs that the weather is influenced by the moon. Scientific men are now coming forward to prove that this is actually the case, and they tell us the nearer the moon is to the earth the more disturbed the weather will be. Thus, in December next, the moon will be 1800 miles closer to the earth than she is now. This, a correspondent predicts, will cause extraordinarily high tides and rough weather. In this prophecy he confirms a previous prophecy by Lieutenant Saxby, who has declared that between 12th and 15; h December, we shall be visited with one of the severest storms ever known in England. Another writer holds that not the moon only, but the other heavenly bodies influence our meteorology. • For example,' says Mr. Pearce, the advocate of this theory, 'Saturn—a body one thousand times as large as our earth, crossed the equator on the Ist January last; and again on the 16th of that month, being stationary on the same day, and the sun ninety degrees from Jupiter on that day also; consequently, the new year was ushered in with a gale, and on the 16th gales commenced which lasted till the 20th. Saturn again crossed the equator on the 2nd of September last, and accordingly another stormy period occurred. The solar conjunction of both Saturn and Mars, on the 2nd of the present month, again demonstrated the power of these bodies—they having been conjoined on the previous day. A confirmation of their influenco will be tound when we remember the Great

Eastern was disabled in a fearful gale on the llrh of September, 1861, these planets being in conjunction on that day. Now, as to the storm period of December, 10 to 13. Let Mr. Saxby observe that on the 10th, the earth will pass between Mercury and Uranus, and on the 15th. bit ween the sun and Uranus. These positions have tor years been observed to produce heavy gales." Bite from an Addeu.—The following very interesting ciicumslanee is i\ ported in the Maryborough Chronicle, and it is stated to be the only case on record of recovery from the bite of an adder:—We have received information of the successful treatment resorted to in a serious case of this kind, on Saturday evening last, which we gladly publish. About eight o'clock a black fellow was brought to the Degilbo head station by some of his friends, who reported that he had been just bitten in the foot by a " very saucy" snake. When first seen by those who administered to him, the poor fellow was in a lethargic, incoherent, and nearly insensible state. No time was lost in an endeavor to neutralise the effect of the poison by pouring clown his throat about a half-pint of strong spirit (l unO. Search was t hen made for the wound, and a small scratched-like puncture discovered over a prominent vein above the toes of his right foot. Into this, after being sucked for a moment by a black-fellow, spirit was poured and ipecacuanha rubbed. As the sufferer appeared to be sinking fast, water was dashed into his face and more spirit given, the combined application of which seemed to have a slight reanimating effect. More water was now administered, and the almost lifeless body kept in motion by being moved about in a walking position. All this occupied about a quarter of an hour. The first sign that lec to any expectation that these violent measur.s would not be ineffectual, was a fiiut request from the sufferer when he heard an order given for more water, not to throw it. The walking motion was now resumed with greater energy, but again life appeared fast ebbing—the pulseatthis moment being imperceptible. Spi'it inwardly, and water outwardly being again administered, ir. a few minutes of animation gradually returned ; but a crisis was evidently at hand. The whole body became contorted, the back fearfully arched inwards, eyes dilated. Tlie pulse gradually quickened; the patient actually became too violent to hold, and broke loose from control. This paroxysm was of short d mat ion ; the p< or fellow once more became ina innate. More water and more spirit were freely admiiiis tered, and after a few minutes of prostration, and much anxiety to those who witnessed the another shoit fit of violence en>ue:l; and when this was expended, the patient became quite sensible, and so visibly recovering that his friends led him away to the camp. An hour or so after he was found sitting up by a camp fire, quite conscious of his escape, and able to explain when and where the accident happened. Tne quantity of raw spirit given him in the course of an hour must have exceeded a bottle ; but the operator considers the counteracting shocks by water upon the system, as well as the constant motion he was subjected to, were most efficacious. On Sunday the blackfellow was walking about nearly well, and the reptilo (twenty-five inches in length) w»s found dead where he remembered encountering it. No sign of intoxication was exhibited by the patient while he was recovering, nor did he afterwards complain of any iil effects whatever A ligature was tightly applied ab:ve the punctured spot.

Gilbert and Hall in their old Quarters again.—The reign of terror has again commerced in this district. The villains, Hull and Gilbert are once more amongst us. Like an invading army, these ruffians soon make their progress known by fire, rapine, violence, robbery, and too often murder. Nothing daunted by the losses they have sustained in the deaths of OWleally and Burke, and the apprehension of Van?, they again brave justice, an 1 set ut defiance the outraged laws of the land. Last week the townspeople and inhabitants of the district generally, were astonished at hearing rumors of the appearance of the desperadoes in this part of the colony, and the natural consequence, sticking-up of a number of persons on the Burrowa road. All tlie information obtainable here was very meagre, the accounts being of a most contradictory nature. Hall and Gilbert, since their visit, appear to have lost no ti ::e. On Tuesday, Ist instant, forty men, women, and children were stuck-up. On Saturday, the mail from Young to Yass, via Burrowa, was stopped and robbed. It is time, we think, that additional escort should be provided to convey our correspondence with safety. The police authorities here on Monday took the precaution to order mounted troopers to escort the Yass mail (via Murramburrah) to that township; but this was after the Burrowa mail had been robbed. It reminds us of the old adage, " Locking the stable door after the horses are stolen." We notice in the report of the mail robbery, that Gilbert expressed his anxi»ty to Mr. Handley, a pissenger in the mail cart, to get hold of a Burrangong Star, to see tl what Vane had been saying."— Burrangong Star.

The Value of a Dead Chinamw.— A somewhat novel application was made a few days a<»o, to the llcg'strar-Geuernl on behalf of a Chinaman who has travelled all the way from Canton to obtiin the remains of his deceased brother, who, it is stated, was interred at Tarnajrulla, iii October, 1860. The affidavit forwarded with the application sets forth that the name of the deceased Mongolian was Shon a Chino, and the object in seeking the disinterment tf his body is an act of fraternal affection. The Registrar-General is powerless to act in the m itter without the authority of the Minister of Justice, awaiting which the matter rests in abeyance. Mr Michie, astounded at this feeling of brotherly love, has intimated his intention of tak-

ing a few days to consider the danger of relinquishing possession of what by law has undoubtedly become the property of her Majesty, but in order to appease the a'nxiety of the applicant, he stated there was every probability of his request being acce(.dul to, as he did notthiiik the Queen bad any particular wish to po.-s.ss relics of this description. His object in not issuing the necessary authority at once was to consult precedent, or see how far he would be justified iu establishing ow.— Oeelung Advertiser.