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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1038, 18 August 1879, Page 2

Mr. T. W. Hislop has, in compliance with a numerously signed requisition, re-con-sidered his decision to retire from political life, and 13 again a candidate for the representation of this district in Parliament. We are sure that this will be viewed with general satisfaction by the electors. The irrepressible Mr. Macassey is putting on hi 3 wav paint once more. ill he put it off again without a struggle, or will he have a struggle and be beaten, as usual? Mr. Macassey has now offered to serve his country so often that we have lost count, and we should have thought that he had lost heart. But that which would cause any other man to say, " I'll take very good care that they shall not refuse me agaio," only whets Mr. Macassey's appetite for another trial. He may be submerged in the ocean of despair for a moment, but he comes to the surface with the buoyancy of a cork just when he is wanted, we were going to say—but just when he is not wanted, it would appear. "When will the electors melt at the solicitations of Mr. Macassey, and give him a show for Parliament and the AttorneyGeneralship ? Mr. J. L. Tait has been appointed a clerk in the Resident Magistrate's Court, Oamaru, ▼ice Captain Carey, transferred to Wellington.

The next practice of the Philharmonic Society will be held on Thursday evening. The practices having been greatly interfered with of late, it lias been decided to postpone the concert, which wa3 to have taken place on the 22nd inst. The total amount collected at the Customs last week was L2SO 103 7d. We arc to be favored with a visit from two celebrated billiardists. Wra. Cook, who made the champion break of the world, and Mr. Kilkenny, his companion, have been engaged by Mr. J. D. Kett to play for two nights at the Royal Hotel. The Wellington Chronicle of the 14th instant contains the following announcement, which, if true, should be very welcome to all residents in the Colony:—"It is said that the Bank of New Zealand has received advices to the effect that L 12,000,000 has been subscribed at par, in London, for the New Zealand L 5,000,000 loan. We trust that this good news is true. If it is, then the loan will be at once discounted in the Colony, and the rates for money mil be reduced by at least 2 per cent. This would at once case the money market, and revive trade to a wonderful degree." A famous impostor has just died in the poorhouse at Hawick. He had his day, Robert Aitken, alias " Hi-I-Cbby," a name

belonging to a language, which, probably, | Robert himself invented. He had several notable things ; but his greatest exploit—that by which he is still most feeliiigly remembered- in the South of Scotland—was when, twenty years ago, he made the canny people there believe that he had become heir td a large estate and great wealth by the death of ail- Uncle in America. Robert, soon found himself living in clover, as the saying is. HM.'.storj£ perhaps, to Jns surwas halved. ..It was';easy point out ./that itV. would" take a- considerable: time to realise an estate bequeathed to him in America; and several generous gentlemen in the neighborhood o£ Dunse—no punning allowed—gave him a cash account m one of the Banks for LIOOO. It was easy for an ingenious fellow like Robert Aitkin -to playthe.gentleman.. His-society was courted on all hands, and by the most respectable families in Dunse. He purchased an estate, but of course forgot to pay for it; he bought, hunters, jewellery, was richly apparelled, gave great dinners himself, and dined sumptuously with the most respectable families in the neighborhood. It was a gay life while it lasted, but Robert hung to it too long.. He was convicted of fraud, and imprisoned ; and this seems to have broken the spirit of the clever imposter, as his fortunes thereafter sank low, and now he has died in the poorhouse. Mr. Mark Boyd, author of the " Reminiscences of Fifty Years," mentions that a Scotch gentleman of fortune, on his death bed, asked the minister whether if he left a large sum to the Kirk his salvation would be secure. The cautious minister responded —" I would not like to be positive, but it's weel worth trying." English is the Court language of Germany. It is a proud moment when a Briton or American, visiting the palace, is saluted with—"Dot vos a pooty schplentit morning, ain't it ?" We buy of those that advertise. —The London correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer tells the following story. The moral will be obvious to those who have anything to sell : —ln Paris, last summer, I saw a friend of mine, who had just come over, using a pen of peculiar construction, designed with special reference to those unfidy persons who, like myself, ink their fingers when they write. Now, my friend is a man whose hands are as white as lillies, with finger-nails like rosebuds in tint—noticeable hands, even remarkable, considering that he is an elderly man, and who occasionally helps with the lighter work on his farm in Nebraska. Catch him inking his fingers ! " " Why, where did you get that nice pen ? " I asked him, a vista of blissful exemption from an uninked middle finger opening on my joyous expectant mind. "In Omaha," he answered. "It's the nicest thing. I used to ink my fingers before I got it!" He did ! He inked his fingers ! That was enough for me. I got the name of the merchant from whom he bought the pen, the price of it, and, enclosing the money, I sent from Paris to Omaha for the pen. By the last steamer it came to me. The stationer at Omaha was out of them, but he sent to Sioux City to the man that advertises them for another lot. And now here is where the laugh comes in. The pens are an English invention, and tons of them can be bought in London if desired. At the stationer's next door I could have got what I had sent after to Sioux City. But how could I know that ? I dealt with the man that advertised.