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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 238, 7 October 1880, Page 4

*ffyfyfeWfll**W^*PW l| W ,w *yW l N^ In examples of curious Christian l names (says a correspondent of Notes and Queries) there is probably no district richer than the West Riding of Yorkshire. Every out-of-the-way Scripture name is to be found. Levi and Moses are great favourites. Marquis, Duke, Earl, Lord and Squire are com-, mon, and children are actually baptized Little Tender, Little Scribbler, etc.,; from the branch of the woollen manafacture carried on by their parents. I bave met with a boy named Washing-* ton christened General George, a girl named TogotUbuline, and. still more ex-: traordinary a boy called Wonderful, Counsellor (Isaiah ix., 6.) Nicknames! are quite common, Tom, Ben, Bill, Jerry being confirmed at baptism instead of the full name. In some of the 1 rougher \ illages I should add that suanames are still dispensed with or unknown. Tom's Bill means : Tom's son; Bill. Tom o' Bill's is the same* while Tom's Bill o' Jack's means that Bill is the son of Tom, the son of Jack. I It is not generally known that among, the industries of Paris the keeping of bees is one that is much practised, and frequent complaints have made to tho police off the nuisance thus occasioned.; One inhabitant alone in the 19th Arrondissentient keeps from 800 to 900, hives; and there arc a great nnmber to be found in the 13th Arrondissement, near the goods station at Ivry. Valuable as is the possession of bees to the owners, there is no question but that they do a great deal of damage in various directions. Afc the Say sugar refinery, for instance, ifc is calculated that, the damage amounts to 25,000 francs a! year; for a whole jarful of syrup will be completely emptied in the course of two': hours, and two or three bushels of bees! are taken or destroyed within the! day. The workmen, who are obligedj to follow their occupation bare to the i waist, suffer terribly from these little' pests, and frequently get badly stung. > The Otago YDaily Times asks how it is that, jusfc when the brewers and pub-: licans are subjected to a tax of three-: pence a gallon on beer, the price of a* glass of beer has been reduced iv Dun-| edin from sixpence to threepence? " Of the fact the public are assured by large placards, and if it stood alone we shonld suppose that the retailers were determined to make up for diminished profits by encouraging a larger trade. We are told that the reduction is not so large as it looks, as anyone conld get a pint of " colonial" for his sixpence if he liked* But the drinking capacity of a person does not extend to a pint for a draught and we suspect more glasses than pints were sold for sixpence. Admitting thai the concession is an important one, then 1 what does ifc mean? We should rejoice at it if its effect was likely to be theexf tensive substitution of colonial beer as a universal beverage for bad spirits] We cannot help thinking this would be an improvement, just as a Chinaman is a step in advance between a negro and a white man. But at the same moment we hear of " drinks" of all kinds being reduced in some houses io fourpencej and this really . intimates something sef rious in the condition of things. Can it be that the demand for intoxicating drinks does not keep pace with the aupj ply. Is Othello's occupation gone? Of all the melancholy signs of bad times this issurely one ofthe most melancholy. Not 'only are ,WQ losing all i prospect olf y*i drinking ourselves out of debt" as a State, but the condition of a large and time-honoured "local industry" is in jeopardy." - Thus, satirically inclined^ our contemporary concludes by expresj sing .opinion that the.drinkseller lias fevf friends, and that those that use him most will most abuse him. "We cannot help having a feeling that it is one com;pen6ation for-reduced wages and want of employment that less is spent in drink. ' This is another of the "' sweet uses of adversity.' And if threepenny beers' are one ofthe enforced necessities ofthe . times, the public will not be inclined to grumble that they can obtain a very mild .stimulant at one half the price which. they have hitherto had to pay foj* it. We should like to see the price of the more spirituous stimulants kept up, and that of good wholesome beer kepi down." I ■