Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 257, 10 November 1879, Page 2

Under the heading of « Presence of Mind" the Scientific American quotes the following short rules given by Professor Wilder for . action in the case of accidents. For dost iv the eyes : Avoid rubbing ; dash water into them. Remove cinders, &c , with the round point of a lead pencil. Remove insects from the ear by tepid water, never put a hard Instrument into your ear. If any artery is cut, compress above the wound ; if a vein is cut compress below. If choked, get upon all fours and cough. For light burns, dip the part in cold water ; if the skin is destroyed cover with varnish. Before passing through smoke, take a full breath, and then stoop low ; but if carbon is suspected walk erect. Suck poisoned wounds unless your mouth is sore ; enlarge the wound, or better cut out the part without delay. Hold the' wounded part as long as can be borne to a hot coal, or end of a cigar. In case of poisoning excite vomiting by tickeling the throat or by water or mustard. In casta of opium poisoning, give strong coffee and keep moving. If in the water float on the back with the noise and mouth projecting. For apoplexy raise the head and body ; for fainting lay the person flat. " Brevity is the soul of wit," so the professor's maxims have, at least, the merit of being short and perhaps many will think that some of 'them are more easily preached tban practised— to wit, floating on your back in water when you cannot swim, and cutting off your finger or putting into the wound a live coal when you bave been bitten by a mad dog ! During the haying season an honest old farmer out on the Gratiot road employed three young men from the city to help to cut and store his timothy. None of them liked work balf as we 1 as whisky, and a conspiracy was the result. About noon oae day one of the trio fell down in the field, shouting and kicking, and the other two ran to the farmer with wild eyes and called out that their companion had been bitten by a rattlesnake and must have whisky. The farmer rushed to the house aod brought out a quart, and the three harvesters got a big driuk all round on the sly, while tha " bitten " one had a lay-off of half a day. The next forenoon a second one was bitten, and again the farmer rushed for his bottle It was a nice little job for the boys' and on the third day the third one put in his claim for a bite and yelled for the whisky bottle. The farmer took the matter very coolly this time, and after making particular enquiries as to the size of the snake, location of the bite, the sensation, and and so forth, he slowly continued :— "' Day before yesterday James waa bitten and drank a quart of good whisky. Yesterday John was bitten and drank a quart more To-day you've got a bite, and the best thing you can de is to smell their breaths, and lay in the shade while the rest of us eat dinner!" The man got well in ten minutes and not another rattlesnake was seen during the season. With the following remarks, made by the North Otago Timts in reference to the further conduct of tbe business of the session we entirely agree. Says our contempor-' ary :—" The time for superflously squirting venom in the Press and vomiting flre and brimstone in the Assembly is over. Captiousness should be abjured, and tbough those in the minority should continue to exercise to the fullest extent their right to criticise the acts and proposals of the party in power, they should do so in that spirit of fairness which is one of the most distinguished characteristics of liberal-minded menj The welfare of the country demands that these considerations should now guide the conduct of members of Parliament and the pens of journalists."

In the town of Paterson, New Jersey, every vagabond, loafer or drunkard, as often as he gets into tbe clutches of the law, is vaccinated, no matter how often he corties. Tbe cute is said to be complete. Teetotal pledges, imprisonment, lashing even, is as naught when vaccination is introduced. Moral for New Zealaud — vaccinate your drunkards. The sawmills at Pelorus Sound (says a Wellinton paper) have resumed operations and are again in full swing. Notwithstanding the numerous brick buildings which are being erected in this city, the demand for timber has not very much abated, the sawmill proprietors affirming that their orders have not relaxed to any great extent. During the past two days, four vessels, timber laden, arrived from the Sound; with cargoes representing ah aggregate of about 160,000 feet. In ordinary circumstances (observes the Press) it is always a mistake to bring men into the colony at the time of the year when little is doing, and when there is no chance of getting them absorbed by the country districts. To have ordered one thousand to reach our shores during last winter was to exhibit a disregard of the welfare, not only of the working men themselves, but of the interests of the colony generally. Had the late Goverment shown any prudence in their management of immigration, much of the distress which undoubtedly prevailed during the last few montbs would have been avoided, and unemployed meetings iv dli our principal cities would have been less frequent than tbey were, and, if held at all, not so largely attended. It is undoubtedly true that at a later date free immigration was practically stopped by the late Government ; but then the general elections were at haud, and it was necessary that the vote of the working man should be secured. The Chinamen at Hokitika are catching whitebait by the ton. What are not sold by them in town are dried iv the suu on big tables, on which they are constantly turned, and after being dried they are put into bags and shipped from the Coast and sold .by the pound to Chinese customers. They ask ls 6d, but if sold by the sack they readily fetch la per pound. The balance, for which they have no tables or boards to dry them on, ate used as manure for their gardens, and if the wind is coming from their quarter the odour is like that from a slaughter-yard. Bank managers are usually suave, affable, and polite gentlemen. 'They do squeeze customers with terrible tightness sometimes, but that is aU in the way of business ; but in a general way they are " bland," if not "child-like," in their ways. But there is a bank manager up Wanganui way who does call a spade a spade, and who wires into those who annoy him in a very trenchant fashion indeed. It seetris that Mr W. H. Watt, the chairman of the Wanganui Education Board, wrote to Mr W. F. Russell, the manager of the Bank of New Zealand there, complaining " that the bank bad charged interest on the Board's account while it held £4000 to its credit. This," wrote Mr Watt, " was discreditable." Ms Russell, in reply, calls Mr Watt a " false witness," and says «• that his charge of discreditable action is a He and vile calumny." Of course there was a row at the Board about this letter, but we gather that in the end the irate banker had the best Of it.— Chronicle. * The following piece of " high falutin " is contained in Mr Pearson's Parliamentary report on the selection of land on deferred payment in Southland.-—" In 1871 I stood on a hill in the centre of the Toi Tois Hundred, and as far as the eye could reach, the noonday sun disclosed earth's bosom covered with its pi ime val carpet. The tussock lent its yellow hair to the breeze. The graceful head of tbe cabbage-tree qnivered in its embrace Tha brifliant green of the flax and tutu bushes glowed in contrast with the darker tints of the luxuriant fern, and the spirit of solitude brooded over the landscnpe The purple shadows of descending night were unbroken by a Bingle scintillation of light from cottage window or ruddy glow of cotter's fire, and, under the gently-fottfag beams of the mistress of the cight.lSrHi slumbered with tbe perfect rest of utter solitude. In 1879 I stand on the same hill, and see stretched before me the undulating plains clothed with the strong breath of man's labor, the spirit of man's life. The sunbeam dances over well tilled fields ripe with cultivated abundance. The soft autumn breeze, sighing through the golden effect of the dying summer, wafts along the gladsome laughter of sunny children; kisses the russet cheek of the matron watching at her cottage door the gambols of ber children; cools the brow of honest labor, as, resting for a moment, the farmer surveys the bright landscape, and proudly realises that the great gift of ' The Master'—' tbe earth and the abundance thereof,' is being turned to its legitimate use — the blessing of the many — wbile the grey smoke wreaths itself aloft trom many a smiling homestead." The Melbourne Woollen Company sold during tbe past half-year no less than 59,282 yards of tweed, at prices which enabled it to pay a dividend of ten per cent to the shareholders. Dr W. H. Russell, it is said, is to have a fee of two thousand guineas for the campaign, aa special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, in Zululand We are informed by persons who bave visited some of the battlefields in South Africa (says The Coioniea and India) tbat while the bodies of Znlus and of horses and cattle slain there have been devoured in a few daya by the flocks of carrion crowa, the bodies of white men have been left untouched by these scavengers. This was observed particularly on the field of Isandulwana, on its beiog revisited for the first time after the disaster to our troops there, when the bodies of European soldiers, were found untouched, while tbose of the Zulus were almost entirely devoured. The reason of this preference of the birds for the flesh of black men is difficult to understand. Possibly the fact of the Europeans being clothed, while tbe Zulus were naked, may help to explain the circumstances, though this solution is not entirely satisfactory, as some ef the bodies of our fallen troops were stripped by tbe Zulus. The Toronto Globe states some plain facts showing how the introduction of a protective tariff in Canada has brought down the ratea of wages: — " The latest reduction haa been made by the Canada South Railway Company. Not only has the Company lowered tbe pay of its employees 10 per cent, but the working staff has also been considerably re* duced. The manager has stated that the reduction of expenses in tbis way has been rendered necessary by the increased cost of running since tbe introduction of the protective policy. Coal costs the Company 50 cents per ton more than it ought to cost, iron is taxed from 17, to 35 per cent, locomotives and cars pay [2s per cent, bridges 25 percent, and hardware 30 per ceut. On the other hand, the receipts have been diminished by the same cause. The increased cost of living tends to lessen the passenger traffic, and, according to tbe returns of the port of Montreal, the shipments of grain have fallen off. the quantity exported from January 1 to May 14 this year being 1.473,700 bushels against 1.898,836 bushels during tbe corresponding period of last year — a decrease of nearly 24 per cent. Meanwhile, as the working man's wages are reduced, his expenses are increased. Four, which three montbs ago cost bim 3.60d0l per barrel wholesale, now coats him 4. 15d01; sugar is 1 cent per lb dearer; oatmeal has gone up 15 per cent; bacon is 10 per cent dearer, and beef is also higher. Clothing has likewise advanced in price.

Contrasting the education system of New South Wales with tbat of Wfflfi Z Sydney Morning herald says th* "New Zealand has got rid of the difficulties whfch have fnghtenett otlr legislators fo?Jean, and has alteady fa. Outstripped tte ii the l ?L J??J • dm «««m«i provisions. She has 100 children at school whera wa have only 76 every day of the year, and to reach her standard we must add at once 20,000 to our average attendance . . It ia time for the Slate, if only for its own salvation, to put an end to this scramble for public money, aud while securing for every child the means of instruction, leave the contending sects to settle quarrels out of school hours and out of school days." A gigantic telescope, said to he the largest hi the world, haa jmt been constructed for bir Henry Bessemer by Messrs Galloway, engineer! and ironfounders, Knot Mill Ironworka, Manchester The telescope, which is a marvel of ingenuity and workmanship cost £40,000. y Before theJAeronautical Society of Great Britain, on June 23, Mr Glaisher stated tbat during the past year the British and French Governments had been actively engaged iv balloon experiment* to see how far it waa applicable during times of warfare. He thought that the direction ia which the development of ballooning wonld in the future be fouud to be of great service waa for photographing different placet for war purposes. v I'he hope of the colony ia in her young men." This i. a quotation. Very recently a gentleman holding honorable degrees as a scholar, decided upon openiug evening classes three nights in tbe week, for the purpose of teaching the higher branches of education to young men over 18 yeari of age. His •uccesa is worthy of note,— he had two pupils, at 2s 6d each 1 Close at haud waa a " jigging " society, where scores of young men, who are unable to say " boo to a goose," are found spending their time and cash every night, inthe graceful and '* fantastic tee " business. " When I look around me," said a statesman the other night, " and look npon these young men, I see before me the future legislators of this colony, and men who will also legislate for the Islands of the Southern Ocean J" We see something else.—" Auckland Free Press. 1 '