Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 125, 27 May 1878, Page 2

Parents ought to be careful what kind of lollies their children consume. Some children gave a quantity of Jollies to the monkeys in the Botanical garden at Ballarat. Two of the monkeys sickened aud died. On examination ifc was found that the intestines of one were plugged up with plaster of Paris, an adulterating agent used in some cases in the manufacture of coufectionery ; while the death of the other wa3 attributed to lead poisoning, caused by eating lollies colored with chrome yellow (chromate of lead). From this it will be at once perceived to what danger children are exposed in being allowed to eat such baneful rubbish as must in some cases evidently be sold to the general public. We believe that lollies are sometimes imported from Victoria to New Zealand. The South Australian correspondent of the Melbourne Pu> ch says :— " The mosquitoes of Adelaide are splendid animals. They lack the wool, hone, and meat of sheep, but if they were all boiled down it would be a good thing for the residents. Ifc is a great mistake to think that they are devoid of mind. They possess reasoning powers of a very high order. The oldest inhabitants in Adelaide, knowing the acuteness, mentally and suctionally, of their mosquitoes, take care to keep themselves filled with beer. Therefore, wheu the mosquito bites he grows sfcupified at once, and so falls an easy prey to his erstwhile victim. The mosquitoes are aware of this, and accordingly look round for a new chum. Two or three of the old sharpers are always hunting around Port Adelaide seeking whom they may devour. Aa soon as they behold a new arrival they melancholy mark him for their own— share and share alike. The mosquitoes will get iuto the same train with him and track him about until he secures his lodgings, and then they spread the news around to a favored few, who are bidden to the feast. They treasure him, save him up. They know the value of. a -good thing, and believe in the motto of " waste not, want not;' so they don't go and make beasts of themselves by eating him up ' ail at once." Not they! They put some of him by for a rainy day. They take the tit bits first, the chief delicacy appearing to be the ear. Perhaps the new chum has been used to mosquitoes, and takes care to have his curtains drawn very close when he goes to bed; bufc Lord blessyou! they're up to that. If they can't get a hiding-place before he goes to bed they double themselves up and slip through the meshes of the cuitain. They commence upon his ear and make a meal off that. He slaps ear aud there, but if they can't escape his hand in time, they creep into his earhole and madden him. He slaps aud slaps until he grows hard of hearing, and theu he is at their mercy. They graze where they will at their own sweet pleasure— face, eyelids nose. By the way, they never tackle a red nose-, "they know that ifc means liquor and thafc they are apt to be caught napping. The victim, after using every strong word to be found in Shakespeare, puts his head under under the bedclothes altogether, and fondly dreams that he is safe, but he isn't. They just skirmish round, playing leap-frog until they think he's fast asleep, then they quietly turn down the quilt and blankets and commence on a fresh place. They continue this every night until he isn't worth a sue!?."

A good deal (says the Chronicle) has been said about the force of the Wellington wind, but we have never heard anything so bad about it as that which was said by a defendant at the Resident Magistrate's" Court this uioriiing. The man in question was charged with having left his express unattended, aud neglecting to lock the wheel. In his defence he stated that he did lock bis wheel, and that before leaving the express he fastened a slrong chain round the wheel, but that the wiud was so strong tbat the hook which fastened the chain was literally blown out of the link! -*• The Loafer in the Street" tells an amusing story in fche Canterbury Press. "In the earlier days of Hokitika," he says, " a barber's shop stood opposite the R.M. Court. One day a citizen named Roscoe was being shaved. Contemporaneously with this operation the Resident Magistrate over the way, was trying a case of larceny. A knotty law point arose, and he directed the constable in attendance— who naturally was of Hibernian extraction- to fetch him 'Roscoe on Evidence.' The policeman going to the outer door proceeded to call ' Roscoe' in the orthodox maiinef. A bystander informed him Roscoe had just gone into the barber's shop. Thither tbe constable and found hia man seated in the tonsorial chair, his face well lathered. On being told that his presence was required by the UM., Roscoe demurred, but the policeman, who was a man of action, ran him into the Court, shaving cloth and all, with the teroark. < Here's Roscoe, your Worship.'" Tableau. A gentleman well-known in town (says the Post) recently made a good "hit" by purchasing some 10 acres of land in the assigned estate of A. Mullins and son for £472. He yesterday re-sold the land, which is situated close to the property of Mr P. Laing, at the LoWer Hutfc, for £1500, or a profit of £1028. It is said that a disagreeable surprise awaits Mr 11. M. Stanley on bis return home. A New York lady, to whom he has been iong engaged, and to whom he was to he married on his return from the present expedition has wearied of waiting, and taken to herself a mate more likely to stay at home.