EPISODES IN LIFE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 416, 29 March 1877, Page 3

EPISODES IN LIFE.

* This is how a writer in the 'Grey River Argus ' alludes to the early New Zealand days of Mr. Charles Ha«.ghton ; o.jce. M.H.R. and Under-Secretary :— '* Poverty not only makes people acquainted with strange bed-fellows, but drives them to strange expedients for a living. In the early days of the Otago Goldfield3 cirumstances threw together two young men on the diggings who were equally hard-up One was a doctor, and the other was a sort of geneia' utility man, ready to act as schoolmaster, parson, bush lawyer, or anything of that character. Things had not flourished with either of them. As Jhe doctor would say to his companion "Hang it, nobody gets ill, and if they do they get better directly, and as for teeth I never knew anything like it—l lived upon one tooth for a week, and two boxes of pills had to last me for three days." And the other was no better off—there were no children to teach, and the miners were too contented to go to law. While they were discussing their future course of action a happy thought struck the doctor, and he sang out, "By Jove, old fellow, I've got it. We'll make rat paste!" " Rat paste ?" asked his friend, quite astonished. "Of course, rat paste; don't you know that the rats are playing the mischief with the storekeepers, and there are neither traps nor cats Look here, old fellow, I can muster up a few bob; that will buy some rancid butter at the store. You go round to the back of the next shanty and fetch a few empty bottles, pound 'era to fine powder in that morter, then mix, and there you have your Patent Rat Paste, in packets of half-a crown each a reduction upon taking a quantity:" So the two sat to work, one pounding broken glass, and the other mixing it with butter, wrapping it in small packets and labelling them " poison." In a day or two there appeared a notice pinned outside tent announcing the wonderful preparation which was guaranteed to exterminate all the rats in the district. The success was wonderful. The rats took the bait ravenously, but as they could not digest it, of course, died. The paste sold extensively and the vendors sold their secret, and by the means thus obtained they were enabled to go to another part of the Goldfields, where they subsequently got on well. One became a member of Parliament for the district and an Under-Secretary, and the other rose to a very good practice.