MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 232, 15 August 1873, Page 7

MISCELLANEOUS.

The death is recorded of Dr. M'Chrystal, at Switzers last week. The deceased gentleman will be remembered by Southland " old identities" as the only practising medical man in Invercargill some ten- or twelve years ago.—' Wakatip

The following copy of a telegram from the General Government has been handed to us for publication :—" Agent-General advises sailing of. Allahabad, with 276 souls, in May—details bv first mail. The Peter Denny was to sail"from Glasgow on 15th June, with 280 adults ; and the Dover Castle from London on the 23rd June. No particulars yet received.— ' Star.'

Waste Lands Boatid.— The usual weekly meeting of the Board took place last,week. There were four Commissionj'ersrpresent, including the Chief Commissioner. -The amount of business disposed of was rather less than usual.

The District Land u nicer, at Naseby, wrote recommending that the upset price of the residence area applied for by Mr. R. E. Field should be £8 per acre—The Board- decided that it should be £lO- per acre.

The Gifts of Fortune.—The natural tendency of a man when he suddenly drops into a legacy of £14,000 is to do something which could only be tolerated in the possessor of so much money. Some people, therefore, make presents of bracelets and rings to ladies who value them—the < bracelets and rings. Others, again, invite all and sundry to alfresco banquets of What-ever-they-like./ The-best-in-the house, at the nearest hotel bar. Yet more, give sixpence in'charity, or buy a watch chain like a succession of horse hobbles. All these, and other freaks committed under, such circumstances, are excusable, but what shall we say of a newspaper runner who fell in for £14,000,

and in his ecstacy forgot to deliver 'som'eof his papers. Until this morning ive did imagine that everyone connected with the Press,, in no matter how remote a degree, was. above sensibility to cireum- . stances. When we have heard a machineboy_ tell an editor to light his own " thiagummyjig' fire and be " thingummyJigged" to him, and when we have known a literary man sample th.« contents of five arid-thirty public-houses, and then write a " local" on intemperance—then, indeed, we-have thanked Heaven that we are not as other men, but are insensible to the extremes of fortune either way. Yet a newspaper runner has shown .us how deceived even the most cunning may be. The gentleman who has hitherto honored us by delivering the ' Guardian' at Caversham, found on Monday by an English letter that lie had fallen in for £I4OOO, and has a result he kind of distributed his papers yesterday morning. In doing this he struck an average amongst our subscribers, about one in each half-dozen of whom got a paper. This was annoying, but to be forgiven to one with £14,000 "a year. The worst of the affair is, however, that, whether suffering from disappointment because they had not s;ot £14.000 each, or trembling with excitement because as one runner had got £14,000 so might another, that portion of our staff which disseminates intelligence by running newspapers every morning, made, each and everyone of them, similar mistakes to that of the Caversham man. Under these circumstances, and to prevent such confusion in future, we request —and we think our readers will not consider, us exorbitant —that the next man who has £14,000 to leave'will leave it to a reporter, when, in addition'to a nice " par " in the shape of an obituary, the deceased will have the satisfaction of knowing that he has not interfered with the circu." lation.of a newspaper. Estd of the Meat-peesekying Season. —The Kakanui meat-preserving works have finished for the season, after turning over 25,000 sheep and 1,000 head of cattle.