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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIIII, Issue 34, 7 February 1873, Page 4

** Old Colonial" writes to the Auckland Weekly News with reference to the cultivation of the poppy as follows:—" The cultivation of the poppy for the manufacture of opium is steadily increasing in France. Fifty thousand acies are now devoted to this crop, and opium is produced to the value of two million francs. The opium contains from eight to ten per cent of morphia. It is also being cultivated in Victoria and New South Wales, as yet tentatively, but with good results. I think a few careful experiments might be made here with the plant. The Chinese amongst us are increasing, and there is a duty of 20s per pound upon all opium imported , into the colony. The climate, I believe, is well adapted for its growth, and the tariff protection should be ample. We aend away annually some £6000 or £7000 for this drug. Thence would I Flee Away. — The Thames Evening Star gives the following lively account of the district Court-house : — The building in which (he District and ' Warden's Courts are held is a pretty building. It is also tolerably new, and, in fact, is pleasant to look at both within and without. But to use it for sitting down, or for Court purposes, it is much pleasanter to be without. For there is cocoanut fibre matting on the floor, and in that cocoanut fibre matting there are fleas, so plentiful that there is as ouch flea as fibre. This is merely a literal statement of fact, neither adorned by hyperbole nor enhanced by exaggeration. It is pleasant to notice " how doth the little busy flea delight to hop and bite." So soon as ever the Clerk of the Court and the lawyers sit down at their tables and place their legs on the matting the fleas begin their pleasant, wanton gambols, the consequence of which is that these gentlemen divide their time into equal proportions of picking fleas off their shins and pursuing their professional duties. They work at the former occupation with the energy of men pumping a ship on short watches. They have but a certain time for picking off fleas, and there is barely' space to accomplish the work, in the time, so as to admit of their getting through their business with comparative ease. The result is pleasing to the beholder. A counsel will have addressed the Court in a speech, remarkable for its eloquence, and will have concluded, when, instead of looking around for the approbation he may reasonably expect, he suddenly assumes a position like that be was accustomed to in his early days, when defied by a schoolfellow to put his toe in his mouth, and is seen to plack nervously and earnestly at his anklee. He is fleamg — not fleeing from the wrath to come — but fleaing with a feeling that even the wrath to come would be better than the plague he endures in the present. It may be noticed that the members of the Press enjoy immunity from the fleas — not because the fleas have any respect for the " mighty engine of civilization " ; not a bit ; but because the members of the Press have a long wide form to themselves, upon which they recline as did the old Romans at their banquets, and so deprive the fleas of the banquet. This is resented by ' the fleas, who contend with eath other madly, in a series of high jumps, to reach the form and their vanquished prey. But they cannot, and therefore, when a member of the Press puts his legs on the floor— whicbr.he only does in order to bolt from the j^aurt-^b-e, is pursued by fleas, who chase him "even, beyond the Court door. -