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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 39, 13 February 1873, Page 2

Paris frog vendors have of late adulterated their wares with numerous toads, which appear to be far more unwholesome food. The police have been accordingly instructed to pay great attention in future to the barrows of the itinerant frog vendors.

Holloway's Ointment and Pills.— Glandular swellings in the throat, neuralgia, tic doloreux, rheumatism, gout, lumbago, and other diseases affecting the glands, muscles and nerves are permanently eradicated by this heftling anti-febrile and soothing unguent. It is also a perfect remedy for all skin diseases, and superficial or deep seated sores; -which soon lose their angry and painful character under its cooling beneficent action. The Pills have never been administered, either by hospital or private practitioner in dyspepsia or liver complaint without producing the desired result. 346 For continuation, of neivs see fourth page.

The Growth of Flax.— Many people are under the impression that flax is very difficult of cultivation, but it is a great mistake, and would be entirely dissipated by a visit to Mr. Hawkins' nursery Antigua-street South. Those who take an interest in the development of the flax industry would also find themselves amply repaid by adopting-a similar course, and inspecting the plants which have been cultivated by Mr Hawkins on behalf of the flax Association. The plants occupy an acre of ground, which posseses no special advantages for the purpose, and yet has produced most astonishing results. The contract between Mr Hawkins and the Flax Association was entered into in October 1871, about which time he planted upwards of one thousand flax stools, obtained in equal proportions from Tarauaki and from the bed of the river Avon at Ham. None of the stools exhibited so much as one -green leaf when first placed in the ground, but, notwithstanding that they also had to contend against exceedingly hot dry weather for some months, some of. the plants have during the fifteen months interven ng grown to a height of seven feet. Doubtless the care with which Mr Hawkins brs carried out his contract is to be credited with a great portion of what has resulted, but the evidence of the inexpensivenees of cultivation and the rapidity of growth is under any circumstances incontestible. — Lyttelton Times. Holidays in the Colonies. — A contributor to the Otago Daily Times, writing of the numerous holidays that the community has lately undergone says : — Is it possible to conceive a more pestilent nuisance than the Dunedin system of holidays ? For six months out of the year there is a constant succession of days when we are compelled to forego everything in which we can take an interest, and devote ourselves — not to enjoyment, but to downright idleness. Anything does for an excuse. To please the English, the Scotch agree to observe Easter Monday, Christmas Day, Good Friday, &c, whilst the English reciprocate by making holidays of New Year's Day and a couple of Fast Days. Then come in the days of different Saints, and before long we shall have to shut up our places of business alike in honor of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick. St. David may come next, and then perhaps we shall take to observing the Jewish and Chinese festivals. In our capacity of zealous colonists, we of course make a holiday of the province's anniversary; and, as loyal subjects, do not neglect the birthdays of the Queen and Prince of Wales. If a Governor or Royal personage visit us we take a holiday in his honor, and if a respected fellow-citizen dies, we testify our sympathy in like manner. The most dissimilar events are made an excuse for the same observance. However our minds may be affected — with joy, sorrow, exultation, or self-abasement — whether we are fasting or feasting, celebrating a religious ceremony or inaugurating a new jockey club, the upshot is the same — . general idleness. I would not say a word if the constantly recurring holidays were really occasions of relaxation and enjoyment; but generally speaking they are not,' and employers and employed alike feel it as a relief when they are over, and j they get back to work again. So little | can be done in one day's holiday. We have all been to the Maori Kiak, we have explored Portobello, attended the Caledonian gathering, and inspected the Volunteers. All these have lost their freshness, and if we want any real diversion — a break in the general monotony of colonial existence — -we can only get it by a few days devoted to a trip up the country or along the coast. But as things have arranged themselves this is impracticable. .If a clerk or shopman hints at such a thing, his employer at once points out the frequent general holidays, with which poor Jinks has to be content. Why can't we adopt a national course — abolish superfluous days of dreariness, and allow our employes a week or fortnight's • continuous leave of absence ? That would conduce to enjoyment, health, and renewed energy, whilst the present system produces only depression and disgust. A Matbimonial Wild-GtOose Chase. — It would seem from a letter which appears in a Calcutta paper that the solemnisation of matrimony is in India sometimes let and hindered by reasons of circumstances which shall be hereafter alluded to. A loving pair were on the verge of matrimony. Everything was got ready for the union, and on the appointed day the marriage procession set out for the church at half-past 4 o'clock, arriving at the edifice at 5 p.m. They waited until 6.30 for the, arrival of the clergyman, but as he did not come, the party went in search of the officer of the station. He advised them to go to the magistrate, and accordingly to that official they went. His counsel to thenr was that they should at once drive ©ff to the reverend gentleman's

quarters, which they did, but were politely told by two gentlemen in attendance that ho was indisposed, and were advised to seek the magistrate without delay. The time was 8 p.m., but to the magistrate once more they hied. He was somewhat surprised at their return, but all he could suggest was that the application should be made to the judge. Here again disappointment cropped up; for, on arriving at the judge's residence, the matrimonial party were informed that the legal luminary was out dining. There was, therefore, nothing for it, but to give up the chase for the day as a bad job, and drive home, a distance of some eleven miles. In Newark the policemen are such crack shots with a i-evolver that they don't think anything of killing a dog with a club, after firing at him fourteen times. The Japanese utilise their condemned. Two Yeddo policemen, sentenced to death for murder, were lately set up as targets on the Yeddo rifle range. A Man up in New Hampshire named his two children Ebenezer and Flora ; he always speaks of them as Eb and Flow — very tidy nicknames. • It is reported, says the Times, that four of the recently constructed Russian 11 -inch steel guns have burst, upon proof, with ordinary battery charges. In future, trials will be made with powder the strength no!; exceeding one-tenth, instead of one-sixth the weight of the projectile fired. A prejudice against color still lingers even in the heart of New Engl&nd. A New Hampshire cat had two kittens, one white and the other black, and she deliberately drowned her colored offspring and devoted her sole attention to the survivor. The unfeline creature! The price of a wife in the Zulu country, £outh Africa, is fixed by the law at ten cows. The purchaser can give more if he chooses, but the seller cannot demand more. This law was passed in consequence of a speculator having once bought up all the young girls and demanded exorbitant prices for them. True Conjugal Impartiality.-" I can assure you, Sarah, that I'm not at all the sort of woman who can't see a man's faults because she happens to be married to him. On the contrary I'm quite convinced that if dear Robert were not absoluthy faultless as / must say he is I should be the very first person to find it out' — Punch. A Meeting- of the principal manufacturers of vesuvian and lucifer matches in London has been held, with the view of forming .an amalgamated society, the objects of which would be to obtain better prices for their goods, lo enable masters to meet strikes, and to establish a fixed uniform price for goods throughout the trade. The American barque Callao put into Port William on the 21st ult. The captain reports that he had to " cut from a whale" (cast it adrift) during the late westernly gales. The barque was at the time close down to the west side of Stewart's Island. He also reports several American whalers cruising off the Soianders. The Callao is eighteen months out, and has 600 barrels, equal to 60 tuns, of oil on board. The Southland News states that on the 22nd a man named Phillips discovered, on the beach at the Pahi station, Oarpuki, a sperm whale with a chain attached to its jaws, ropes to its tail, and four harpoons in its body, which is supposed to be the one " cut " by the Callao. Solar Spots. — The Rev. Frederick Howlett, F.R.A.S., East Tisted Rectory, Hants, writes that a large group of solar spots, distinctly visible to the naked eye, is again to be seen in the sun's southern hemisphere. It has now accomplished half the transit of the disc, so that, weather permitting, it will continue visible till the 17th inst. The group, which oiight almost be described ac one large spot, so intimately are its various portions connected together, has a length of ' 172 seconds of arc by a mean breadth of 86 seconds, or, in other words, it is 77,000 miles long and 38,000 miles broad, affecting, therefore, no less Dhan 2,995,000,000 square miles of the sun's surface ! Another long group, or rather succession of small groups (also in the southern hemisphere), extends to a length of 290,250 miles, or just one-third of the solar diameter; but its western portion has already reached the sun's " preceding" limb, and therefore is beginning to pass off the disc. Two other smaller spots lie in the northern hemisphere, and the total area affected by the spots is not much short of 4,000,000,000 square miles. Mr Howlett remarks that such solar disturbances, though not of frequent occurrence, yet have been rivalled on more than one occasion daring the last three or four years, add notably during the month of August, 1870, and there can be, he thinks, little doubt that the unusual frequency and intensity of meteorological

disturbances on the earth's surface. during the period just mentioned — tb.3 droughts, the rains, the thunderstorms, the cycloues, &c. — are more or less directly connected with these remarkable disturbances of the solar surface, aud have been so similarly in times past, had both the one and the other been recorded. Referring to the preposterous roll of names of colonial J.P's the Post, referring, to future nomination?, says: — " Wo do not see that it would be at all infra digiov any gentlemen who aspires to a seat ou the bench to submit to be examined in his knowledge of law byajudgeof the Supremo Court. The examination need not be. a hard one, while the fact that ho had passed it would give the public a confiJersce in his decision which is not now accorded to the decision of Justices generally. The Judges themselves, have to undergo a legal examination in the first stage of their career, and, though their duties are of a much more important character than those which fall upon magistrates, yes inasmuch as the latter have to administer a portion of the lav/, there is no valid reason why they should not prove that they understand that portion, while for other purposes, it is very desirable that such a test should be applied. The escapade of Warren, the bank clerk who absconded from Sydney and was recently arrested in Dunedin, appears to have had prejudicial effects upon the bank clerks generallym Sydney. The Town and Country Journal, published iv that city, says: — "There ia tribulation, we hear, in Bank-clerk-dom. Jewelry is at a discount, and old suits, the worse made the better, have come suddenly into fashion. It is not true that bauk directors have issued a general ukase against the use of thß moustache as an item of persenal adornment, but it is true that anything approaching the ' loud ' either in dress or ornament will subject the wearer to an interview more short than sweet with the manager in the parlor, aud possibly to yet further pains in the shape of a notice to send his rings and studs to his uncle's, or to quit. And all because a silly, wicked young man chooses to run away with a little money. This last of the levanters was, it seems, remarkable for the extensiveness of his jewelery, and the apparent confidence of bis tailor, while his dissipation seems to have been admirably for a sort of city Sardanapalus, with a Bank for a Treasurer. The Women of Siaji. — Mrs Leonowens, in a lecture iv Boston on the life at the Siamese court, paid a high tribute to the Buddhist women, many of whom were lovely in their lives. In many respects she claimed these benighted women were in advance of their Western sisters, stating the indisputable fact that with many of us the knowledge of tiam consists in having" heard of the Siamese twins. The capital has yet vast numbers of 'floating houses — the best estimate has two hundred thousand — and to each of thesa the average population is five persons. At night the city is hung with inoumerabble colored lights, and the effect is one of wondrous beauty. An interesting sketch of the quarters occupied almost exclusively by the womBD, to which only the priests are admitted, and then only when under guard, included a description of the young ladies' gymnasium, in which the principal instruction is dancing, nnd where the fair Siamese attain such proficiency in bending backwards that they pick up bits of straw with their eyelids — which to the stern Western mind might seem an unnecessary exertion for the paltry end of getting something disagreeable in one's eye. The women, she said, did excellent service in the workshops, and under the command of their captain, "The Great Mother of War,". had shown themselves good soldiers. Nearly all the men are priests during some portion of their lives. Upon one occasion such a youth, being enamored of an English dress-maker, called to present her with a flower-pot and plant, and as his vows precluded his touching the band of a woman, .he begged her to shake the other end of his umbrella. This the maiden's prideforbade, nor would she shake his hand when wrapped in his soiled handkerchief, nor even shake hands with him in secret. Seeing that he was an object of ridicule he claimed his flower-pot and withdrew, a sadder and a wiser Siamese. The marriage ceremony is performed only with the first wife, and the ceremonies of proposal for a wife's, hand are for, the youth's mother or aunt to visit the bride, bearings a white dove and a rose. If the proposal is favorably received the' maiden places the rose in her bosom, and the dove is freed and flies back to gladden the heart of the accepted lover. If the marriage proves unhappy the husband is obliged to return double the dower brought by his wife. The law recognises but one wife;: yet polygamy and slavery are the curses of the race. When a new building is begun; the Siamese sacrifice: innocent human victims, crushing them beneath the foundation walls, that, their spirits: may guard the (building.