SLIGHTLY MIXED.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 341, 28 May 1877, Page 4

SLIGHTLY MIXED.

A remarkable instance of the direful results of tlie present system of telegraphing the war news has just occurred in Wellington. It appears that an unfortunate ■word got mangled on its passage across Cook's Straits. That word started as Dobruscha, with the evident intention of informing the people of Wellington that the country it designates was threatened with Russian gunboats and torpedos. But it reached the office of the Nev; Zealand Times as Drohobyez. The staff of that journal, with a consideration that does them honour, immediately proceeded to find the stranger a habitation. With the assistance of a microscopic map, they succeeded in locating him in Austria, under an approximate name. The difficulty was that the newly-found placs was altogether beyond the theatre of operations. The editor examined the Eastern question. He became convinced thai the Russian army was about to be precipitated against the white-coated forces of the Kaiser. He surmised that Austria was the Muscovite bugbear, and must be coerced. He informed his readers to that effect. The next day the evening papers adopted the idea, and the whole of the Wellington Press countermarched the Russian forces many miles to the reax - , and reported in effect, that Russian gunboats and torpedos were swarming on the dry land about Lemberg. Here was a complication of affairs which, no doubt, eclipsed everything which the good people of Wellington had ever heard before. But the New Zealand Times found out that the thing was impossible. It abandoned its designs against Austria, and, returning to the Danube, discovered that the mangled word of the previous evening was no other than the name of a Danubian district, of which it had given a copious account some days before. The writer of the explanatory article gave many perfe<tly satisfactory reasons for the mistake, amongst which we observe that the telegram was delivered at a late hour. Having explained how very little he knew about the matter, he fell foul of his brother journalists for having adopted his ideas "on subjects concerning which they are quite ignorant." It is on record that when gentlemen of colour in the United States desire to be supercilious they address one another as "You blessed niggah." Altogether the history of this little mistake is very "charming.—Guardian, i