Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 67, 19 March 1878, Page 2

"Sharpshooter" in the Canterbury Times of Feb. 16, thus pokes fun at somebody : " A gentleman at Blenheim, who five years ago rashly neglected to affix a stamp to a receipt, is now summoned for the requisite penny by a Mr Church, who is instructed by the Crown to prosecute this nefarious peculator. He is also informed that " the desire of the Government was, that the world at large, and the Wairau in particulor, should study the Stamp Acf" Artful device ! And now the demand of the " world at largo" is all for the Government Stamp Act ; a special edition has had to be published for the Wairau— bush fallers and holders of runs up the Wairau may now he seen sitting on the some log poring over this important production, and the circulating libraries complain that Mudie is played out, and that the rush on Stamp Acts threatens to swamp the Government Printing Office. And yet. alas for the blind infatuation of the '• world at large," Kamschatka has not yet forwarded any orders for this startling work ; even Stanley forgot to provide the natives of Central Africa with this necessity of existence ; while in this benighted City of Christchurch the number of those who know the Act by heart might be counted on the fingers of a one-handed man after his remaining hand had been cut off by a irowing machine. We are behind the age. We (Mirlborough Express} heard a capital' thing the other day of a runhokler, or it might be a would bo runhokler, for we like to be as exact as we can, who bought a run— we need not say "where— but it was sold by one who well knows the value of what he pa-ts with. So it appears did the purchaser, for it is said he got an advance upon it by way of mortgage to the extent of a few thousands over the amount of the purchase money. Which was the better business man we leave the reader to judge. On Friday evening last a man in the employ of Mr M'Uae, of Tekoa, while on his journey to Amberley with a two horse dray laden with wool, met with a mishap at a new piece of road. His horses took the load too near the edge of an embankment, fifteen feet high, and the whole went over. The man had his lower jaw broken and the top of his skull injured, but next morning managed to ride into Amberley for medical assistance. The horses escaped unhurt and the dray was not injured. The man has, since gone on to the Christchurch hospital.— Press. The Wellington correspondent of the Melbourne Aryus, writing on the Education Bill, says: —It is now no secret thatthe Bill which is now an Act, and for which the Hon Mr Bowen received such credit in Parliament, ■was really drafted by Mr Hislop. An English paper thus refers to the kind of butter served up in Paris :— "A truly shocking discovery has just been made in Paris. The centre of civilisation, the city par excellence of luxury and refinement, the vitle lamuve, as disciples of the Hugo school love to call it, has not an ounce ot honest butter within its fortifications. From the Boulevards to the Halies— from Portori's to the Bastille— a cry of alarm has been raised, which has at length penetrated through the walls of the Institute, and reached academical ears. Lumps of butter have been submitted to searching investigation by science, the result being to establish pretty clearly that the chemist has more to hand in the butter Paris diurnally eats than the cows. The " benrre fin," as it is ironically termed is lard in its Sunday best, flavoured with certain chemical salts or acids, 'and colored with saffron ; whereas that known as household or kitchen butter is vaguely proved to be grease of somewhat inferior quality ; whilst that " trompe l'ceil" margarine, which looks so nice aud tastes so nasty, is a substance of which clarified tallow and " dog's fat" are the component parts. The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer says:— lt was thought worthy of note when, about two years ago, the wife of Mr Thomas J. Snuggs, formerly of this city, but now of Gaston County, gave birth to three children at one time; but last week she went herself better giving birth to four, and the whole quartett are living and doing well. Further than this, the triplets, Mrs Suugg's former achievement arc still living; and here we have the case of seven children from one mother, aud none more than two years of age. It is the most remarkoble case of its kind we ever heard of, and we doubt if it ever had its parallel in the United States. A Canterbury country paper tells the following tall story:—" Whilst walking o-i the beach near the mouth of the Kakaia some few days ago, a farmer of the neighborhood. Mr Sutton, found a bottle that had been washed ashore, and its being covered with barnacles indicated that it had had a lengthened voyage. Upon the outside beingcleansed, it was found to contain a curious woodwork miniature imitation of the crucifixion, there being a cross of the whole length of the bottle, the cross piece being the whole width ; the upright part standing on the transverse pieces of wood, also the width of the bottle. A ladder leads up to I the cross, whilst there are at either side smaller crosses. There is also a representation of a spear, and of another with what is meant to represent a sponge on the end of it, whilst at the foot of the cross is a very good imitation of an old-fashioned Bible, all carved in wood, a hammer and other instrument but what the last is intended to represent cannot be made out. The whole is very neatly carved in common wood, and fixed together without a flaw. The Avonder is not so much at such a thing being washed up by the sea, but how the wooden structure got into the bottle, as the bottle is a common brandy one, with the usual narrow neck, and quite free from any scratch or defect. It is surmised to be the work of some pious sailor, and must either have accidentally got overboard or be a waif from some ill-fated wreck." After looking at a picture of a spouting whale, for a long time, a little boy seemed to become more and more puzzled. At last he turned to his uncle, and pointing to the picture, said. " Uncle Ned, what is that ?" On being told that it was a whale, he looked at it again, aud said, " Oh, my, don't he sneeze an awful long way l"

The Paris letter of the San Francisco Call says :— "France reckons two braves more. A fireman at Tarbos rushed among the blazing ruins of a house to save his captain and a clergyman, who were buried beneath a floor iu endeavoring to rescue the inmates. The fireman remained trying to extricate the captain, but without avail, till the flesh peeled off his hands and face. He has died from his wounds, has been buried at the nation's expense, and for a mouth his name will be read out first on the roll-call of every regiment in the army, — Jean Plantier is a pointsman, and a few months ago, in endeavouring to close the gates of a crossing, he was struck down by a goods train and his arm amputated Not a sou! was within reach, and aware that an express train was due, he tied up his bleeding stump, and remained at his post till a station master, informed by the engine driver that some accident had occurred, picked up his arm from thi rail and succoured the hero." The revolution that has occurred in our commerce with the United States is expressed by a few figures. In 1H65 the value of British exports to the Lnion amounted to 122.000,000 dols., against 84,700,(,'00 dols. imported by us from that country during the same period. In 1876, however, the tables were turned ; for, while our exports to the States had dwiudled to 98 000,000 dols., the value of the goods imported reached the large sum of 367,352,000 dols., showing a balance in- favour of America, in twelve months, of 269,00 >,000 dols.— 7 rack Journal. It is a fact, not perhaps generally known, that there is a firm doing busiress in San Francisco, who purchase the thousands of dogs slaughtered by the pound master of that city, or that may have been otherwise killed, for which they pay 40 cents each. The carcasses are conveyed to their factory at San Francisco, where the skins are removed and sold to the tanneries, and hair taken off and re-sold to the plasterers, the hide tauued, made into gloves, and sold in the market. The denuded carcass is then thrown into a huge cauldron and boiled until the bones are easily separated from the flesh, when they are removed and sold to the sugar refineries, where they are ground and used to clarify sugar. The oil that rises to the surface of the boiling mass is skimmed off, and manufactured into cod-liver oil, and the remainder is used for the purpose of fattening hogs. A band of strolling Thespians recently hired a hall in an up-country township in Canterbury. They paid for the hall in advance, but not for a piano that was iu it. The owner of the piano claimed payment, the Thespians, who had got possession of the key, refused payment on the ground that they ha i hired the hall and its contents. In the afternoon there wps a nice rehearsal, and things went off quite smoothly, but just as the players had left the hall a small boy sneaked out from under the stage, and iu the twinkling of an eye stole off with the " action," in other words the inside of the piano. There was a full house that uight. The lady who was to sing came on the stage in the usual fascinating style and opened the programme, while the accompanyist thrashed the piano with his fingers, without evoking asound. The singer I looked aghast, the pianist bolted, ami the audience laughed. Just then the owner of the piano appeared on the scene ; his guinea was paid, the " actiou " restored, and all went merry as a marriage bell. The Nortt O ago Times, says the Canterbury /Ve<s of the 7th instant, mentions that on Monday a very large transaction was concluded for grain of the new season's crop Messrs. Fleming and iledley being the vendors, and Messrs. P.Cunningham aud Co. she purchasers. The quantity sold in one line was from 80,000 to 100,00*0 bushels in all, of which from 70,000 to £0,000. were wheat and the balance outs, grown on the Eskbank Estate. The figure obtained is stated to he satisfactory, but the exact price has not transpired. The deposit on the purchase was rather larger than in ordinary grain transaction, being no less than £10,0u0. The 'I im s is informed that Messrs. Morton and Bruce have tested the quality of the wheat grown on this estate, and find that the yield of flour is exceptionally high, 40 bushels and 16lhs. producing a ton of the manufactured article. An English merchant prince lately engaged a rising young painter for the purpose of having his own portrait in oil conveyed to prosperity. How long do you think it "will take? " asked the model; " Perhaps 15 days " was the reply. Sittings began aud the artist entered so heartily into his work that in eleven days the portrait was done. " Why." asked Croesus when the Jfacfc was announced to him, " do you intend suppressing four days' work? " «It does not matter at all, ( the portrait is finished, " answered the painter. " Well, sir this is not business ;we said a hundred guineas aud fifteen days' work. I am quite prepared to stand the price, but you ought not to spend an hour less upon the work than was agreed upon. " There was no use arguing with such a man. " The painter took his brush again, and spent four sittings more in lengthening, little by little, iu the portrait the ears of his patron.