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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 164, 10 July 1880, Page 2

The Sydney Licensing Bench ruled that when petitions for or against the granting of publicans' licenses are presented, the persons Bigning them must appear personally to verify their autographs. The Bruce Herald says: — •' We have been seriously informed that on an early day a duel has been arranged to be fought with pistols by two well-known residents of Tokomairiro, but we are not acquainted with the particulars. . Writing on the " Unemployed " question the Wairarapa Daily says that in England a poor man with a large family, when he is hard up, will risk imprisonment by snaring a rabbit or two to replenish his scanty larder. In New Zealand the poor man can go any day and get a score of rabbits, and sell them for, say sixpence a-piece, or, should the market be overstocked, get three-halfpence a-piece for their skins. Yet, though he has, perhaps, not a sixpence in his pocket, he doesn't go. He doesn't take the ''good things that God provides," but bangs about, waiting for something to turn up. Any able-bodied man can any day walk to the Opaki or Waingawa, and secure a load of rabbits. If he has not a gun he can take a dog, if he has not a dog he can take a spade and dig them out, if he hasn't a spade he can get a piece of wiie and snare them. The Cromwell Argus says: — Rabbit poisoning is being prosecuted vigorously throughout the Dunstan district, affording employment to a considerable number of men, and, for the time being, solving the perplexing question — What shall we do with our boys? On some stations quite a school of youDgsters are engaged in the persecution of the bunny tribe, and fair wages are realised. As showing the extent of the operations, it may be worth mentioning that a farmer in the Wanaka district is under contract to supply one station alone with forty tons of wheat for poisoning purposes, and large orders are being executed for other pastoral teuants. The adage — " It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," is realised in this case. The wheat was grown in anticipation of the establishment of a flour mill in the Clutha Valley, but the scheme failed, and the hopeful farmer had his produce stored in the barn, an unmarketable asset, until the rabbit pest brought him a cash customer at a good figure. The San Francisco Weekly Bulletin of May 26th says:— One of the largest merchant ships frequenting this port has been lying at anchor for several days in this harbor, with 3000 tons of grain on board, waiting for a crew. A premium has been offered for men. But after waiting for a week, only ten seamen out of the twenty-four wanted have been put on board. The ship is a famous one for short passages, and her captain is a thorough - going seaman and kind-hearted man. The fault thus far cannot be in the ship nor her comtnander; nor is the instance cited * dolitary one by any means. It is a noteworthy fact that in what is called a dull season, there are few seamen available for deep-water ships. Many seafaring men have probably gone to the country, and for a few months will find work on farms at larger wages than they would receive on shipboard.

The Ven. Archdeacon Stock has given notice that he will move at the next meeting of the Wellington Education Board—" That the Government be urged to so alter the Education Act, that all school committees be requited to insist that in the Bchools connected with each committee each day shall commence with the reading of a selected portion of the Bible, and with prayer ; such service to be conducted by the head-master or head-mistress of the school in the preseuce of all the teachers and children, all standing; that such portions of the Bible which shall be used shall be selected by a committee to be named by the Board} and that the prayers to be so used shall also be prepared by such committee — provided that any child may be absent from Such service on the request in writing to the head-master or mistress to that effect, and also that no cl>ild be entered on the day's roll who, without such permission, has been absent from such service." Mr Hutchison's Chinese Immigrants Prohibition .Bill, which passed the second reading on Thursday night, is a short measure of seven clauses, and provides that from the coming into operation of the Act on the Ist January, 1881, the owner, charterer, or master of any vessel which shall arrive in New Zealand, having on board Chinese passengers, shall be liable to a payment of £10 for each such Chinese passenger. This sum is to be paid to the Collector of Customs before the master of the vessel shall be permitted to make an entry at the Customs. Chinese passengers are to he maintained at the expense of the vessel, and deported by the same vessel or earlier at the expense of the vessel if a suitable conveyance can be found. A Chinese entering dr attempting to enter the colony without the fine having been paid may be fined £5 in addition, and detained in custody till arrangements are made for his deportation. Chinese already in the colony are exempt from the provisions of this measure. At an adjourned meeting of the Oamaru Licensing Bench held on Tuesday, four of the local clergymen handed in a protest against granting any fresh publican's licenses in the town. One of the clergymen also read a memorial from the Good Templars on the same subject and to the same effect. Tbe chairman of tbe Licensing Court said that because handsome edifies were erected, it should not be taken for granted that licenses would be issued; the public interest had to be served, and speculators must take the consequence of a license being refused. The Court would be guided by what it considered the best for the public welfare. The following extraordinary tale of torture has appeared in the columns of the London Telegraph :— Dr Schweinfurth, in a lecture which he recently delivered at the Berlin Geographical Society on the subject of his latest explorations in Central Africa, gave his hearers a thrilling account of the mode in which capital punishment is inflicted upon criminals by the 11 Quadjis, a small tributary off-shoot of the great and powerful Djour people. The malefactor condemned to die is bound to a post firmly driven into the ground in some open place where no trees afford a shade, and is there slowly roasted to death — not by any artificial means involving a waste of fuel, but by the natural heat of the sun's rays as they reach our earth in its equatorial regions. To protract his Bufferings and to avert his too speedy end by sunstroke, the ingenious Al-Quadjis cover their erriDg compatriots' heads with fresh green leaves, which effectually shield his brain from Pbcebus's darts. No such protection is, however, accorded to his body, which gradually dries up, shrinks together, and ultimately becomes carbonised. One chance of salvation is open to the roasting man, while as yet he id not completely " done to death." If a cloud passes between the sun and his place of torment he is at once cast loose from bis post, and becomes the object of popular reverence, as a mighty magician in whose behalf the supernatural powers have deigned directly to intervene. But clouds seldom interfere with the administration of justice on the days chosen for public executions by the Al-Quadji authorities ; at least, tbat appears to be Dr Schweinfurth's experience of African weather as far as it hears upon the judicial roasting of malefactors. Lady readers who delight to display their feet encased in tbe latest fashionable freak of the bootmaker's art, may find food for reflection in the following :— A Boston physician states, as tbe result of his experience, that the use of high-heeled boots causes injury to the eyes, not only weakening the sight but producing a sensation of constant pain. It is not altogether so surprising as 1 might be supposed at first sight that the eyes should thus sympathise, as it were, with the feet ; for it is well known to physicians that the eyes suffer in a specific manner when other parts of the body are affected, and there are some ailments whose presence the physician has been even able to detect in this way, when the patient himself would have concealed the real nature of his illness.