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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 206, 2 September 1869, Page 3

At the meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society on Saturday night, during the course of some remarks on a paper by Dr Knox on the power of the tree lizard to reproduce its tail after it became detached, Dr Hector put a broad grin on the face of the representatives of science present by narrating the following lizard Btory which he said he had from the lips of a well-known old whaler. It runs thus: — At an early period in the history of the colony, while the narrator was living on the Island of Kapiti, he used to amuse himself occasionally, in the intervals of work, by watching the innocent gambols of the lizards on the island where they abounded. He would crawl up as noiselessly as possible without disturbing them. In a minute or two he would raise a fearful yell, which used to terrify the lizards so much that they shook off their tails in fright and scampered off to their holes minus the necessary appendage. He would lay perfectly still for a short time, when the lizards would shyly peep out of their holes and look carefully round. Seeing no sign of danger, however, they mustered *ip courage enough to venture out and look for their lost stern-piece. Upon finding it, and making certain that it was not a case of mistaken identity, they used to hack up carefully to the detached members, which, after a few wriggling contortions, they invariably succeeded in re-ship-ping, and travelled off rejoicing. The narrator wound up his tale by naively adding that he would not have believed it if he' had not seen it with his own eyes. Protective Duties. — A benificent protective policy makes itself felt in manifold ways. It is now showing its blessings on the agricultural classes in an unexpected fashion. An active, little ■white caterpillar has inade its appearance in the grass lands of the colony, aud is ] eating all before it. It is not particular as j

I to its fare; takes vegetables when it cannot obtain grass, and can put up with growing crops for a change. There is pne thing which it does not like, and that is salt. The agriculturalists, anxious to cater for its woe rather than its weal, are anxious to procure salt and scatter it broadcast over their lands. But here a paternal tariff" interferes on behalf of the caterpillar. Salt is subjected to £l per ton import duty — why? Mr M'Culloch only kuows. One of the most valuable industries of the colony is the preservation of meat for exportation. Salt is one of the principal ingredients necessary to the process, and j it is taxed. Who or what this tax, on a j commodity brought here as ballast for I ships, was intended to benefit, no one can j say. There was something once said by some wiseacre about the native salt to be obtained from Australian swamps, but no one is desirous of opening up this promising trade; still salt is taxed, to the detriment of our manufactures, and now to the exceeding injury of our agriculturists. Only the caterpillarjjhas reason to feel peculiarly grateful to the tariff of the McCulloch Ministry. This is but one of many anomalies which a protective system from time to time discloses. If a chance good is now and then achieved, it is counterbalanced by a dozen chance evils. The balance is always heavily weighted on the side of injustice. — Australasian, Aug. 21.