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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 35, 10 February 1879, Page 4

During the bearing of a civil action in one of the Canterbury Resident Magistrate's Courts recently, the defendant had been examined and retired from the box, and another witness had to be sworn. The Clerk of the Court was about to administer the customary oath, when he found the sacred volume was missing. Great amusement was caused by one of the bystanders informing the officer that the defendant had slipped it into his pocket, and it was discovered that such was the case, the defendant having innocently enough put it there in mistake for his own pocket book, which to say the ieast it somewhat resembled. In an article headed " Starvation in the Nursery," the Luncet calls attention to wbat it says is a fact established by daily experience : that large numbers of persons occupying decent positions in society systematically starve their children in respect of that article of food which is the most essential to their nutrition. Even to very young and fast growing children they give cocoa with water, and not always even a suspicion of milk, corn-flour with water just clouded with milk, tea, oatmeal, baked flour, all sorts of materials, indeed, as vehicles of milk, but so very lightly laden with it that the term is a sham. The consequence of this misplaced economy is that there are thousands of households in which the children are pale, slight, unwholesome-looking, and as their parents say in something like tones of remonstrance, " always delicate." Ignorance, no doubt, is of ten the cause. The parents do not know that, supposing there were no other reason, their wisest economy is to let their growing young ones have their unstinted fill of milk, even though the dairyman's bill should come to nearly as much a3 the wine merchant's in the course of the week. But in many (the medical paper is of opinion) the stint is a simple meanness, a pitiful economy in respect of that which, it is supposed, will not be open to the criticism of observant friends.

A valuer (says the Canterbury Times) who is now in receipt of his answers from tbe ratepayers to whom he sent notices, informs us that some ludicrous errors have been made by people in filling them up. In many instances the intelligence that they contain is more amusing and embarrassing thau useful. One gentlemen informed him on the document (which, by the way, was not sufficiently large to contain the information, and a supplementary sheet of foolscap had to be introduced) that he had various properties in different parts of the Provincial district, others in the North Island, and an interest in some property in the Old Country. This interest was that when his mother died (which he took care to i nform the valuer was a matter of expectation by every mail) he should own one-third of it, the remainder belonging to his two brothers. The value of these properties was, however, given, and the information required was easily abstracted from them. Another declines to give the value of his land, as he does not want to sell, and he will not therefore venture to hazard an opinion as to its value, while others send the sheets back empty. Taken all round, in about one out of every five instances a correct answer is given.

It was a startling, but, upon consideration, not an unreasonable announcement which Mr Whiting, of New York, made in regard to the increase of fire losses as the rates decreased. He states that when he was Secretary of the National Board, he found by the statistics of losses, that just as fast as rales were reduted, losses increased. "It was a matter of wonder that it was so, but we found it to be an actual fact. Upon investigation we came to the conclusion that when rates were reduced, people increased their insurance. When a man paid high rates upon property he said, | Here, I guess I wont take but 2000 dollars insurance.' By and by the rate comes down, and he says, ' Now you have got the rate down to decent figures, I will put on more insurance'; and the more insurance he putt on the ics vigilance he exercises; the consequence is, even among honest people, the per-centage of fires is greater as the rates go down/ Shareholders in local insurance companies might think of this, as it is perfectly plain that if rates are reduced, so will their dividends, and thus the general interests of the whole community suffer. The Californian newspapers are publishing a series of letters by a gentleman bearing the name of Kwang Chang Ling, in which there is much told about China that has not been hitherto generally known. The writer says, for instance, that the population is only 100,000,000 or 120,000,000, instead of 450,000,000, as generally reported; that the country has reached the limit of agricultural development, that its prosperity and population have been decreasing since 186! ; that unless improved machinery and methods are adopted from the Western countries the people will not be able to support themselves, since they are already as poor as it is possible to be, aud can only with great difficulty maintain existence; that the wealth of the empire is in the hands of the few, and that with a diminishing population and increasing wages at home there can be no great tide of emigration to the United States, so that Americans have no cause for anxiety on this point. Kwang Chang Ling does not explain why, if the population is diminishing and wages are increasing, the people find it harder than ever to earn a livelihood; but, if he is to be believed, the prospect of the Chinese is anything but a comfortable one, and it is not surprising that they emigrate. The signs of the times are ominous, and terrifying to contemplate, the nations of the earth are on the watchtower, and all prophetic of a coming storm. It behoves every sensible person to be on the alert, for the day of action is fast approaching— Health and strength will be the great desideratum. These can both be procured and then maintained by the timely use of " Ghoixah's Gkeat Indian Cures." They are the finest improvers of the constitution ever yet known in the shape of medicine.