A GOOD CURLING STORY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2514, 11 April 1881, Page 2

A GOOD CURLING STORY.

A laird of Strathaven who owned a quarry, and who was reported to bo worth “ a gey - twa-three bawbees besides," was playing one day, and his foreman, whose name was Lawrence, was playing with him on the same side. The laird was very anxious he should play a certain shot, and he cried out in this fashion—“ Noo, Jock Lawrence, d’ye see whaur my broom is ? Lay your stane doon there, and as sure as

death, I’ll gie ye my dochter Jean if ye do.*’ Birr rushed the stone out of Jock’s hand, and went trintling along to the very spot where the laird wished it. “ Capital, Jock, capital! Ye couldna liae done better, and ye can get Jean the morn if ye want her.” “Ye mann gie me something else than Jean, laird. I hae got her already. We were married sax weeks ago ; and we’ve been thinking o’ asking your blessing ever since, but something aye cam’ in the way.” The laird was dumbfoundered when he heard this ; but he compromised matters by saying “ Aweel, aweel, Jock, I’ll let bygancs be byganes. A man that could lay doon sic a pat-lid like is worthy o’ the best and bonniest lass in Lancashire ; keep her an welcome, an’ ye’ll maybe get the maitter o’ sax hunder wi’ her. Keep her, Jock; and if ye hae ony laddie weans atween ye bring them np in the fear o’ the Lord, and be ye sure ye dinna forget to make guid curlers o’ them.”

A Lyceum or Free-thought Sunday school was opened yesterday in Dunedin. Two hundred attended.

The s.s. Napier, which went aground at Blenheim was got off safely on Friday at midnight and reached Kaikoura at noon on Saturday,

Messrs Rees and Jones, two solicitors, after a heated argument in court at Rockhampton, exchanged blows outside. They were separated by the police. A Press Association telegram, which was not sent to Southern papers, reports that the police at Marton have anested Christina Goodrun and Joseph Hall, daughter and father, on a charge of child murder. Both have been remanded.

There is a chance for a new school at Temuka after all, provided the residents take kindly to the member for Geraldine. At a recent meeting of the Wellington Education Board Mr Donald Coutts stated that the Colonial Treasurer had informed him that the Government intended to place on the Estimates next session a sum of £IOO,OOO for school buildings. The Christchurch Public Library was thrown open to the public for the first time on a Sunday yesterday, The attendance in the afternoon, from 2 o’clock till 5 o’clock, numbered 58 in the general reading room and upwards of 35 in the reference library. The institution was rc-opened at 7 o’clock in the evening, for two hours, during which time 65 persons attended the reading room and 23 the reference library.

The silver lining of the cloud referred to Borne time back by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce has been revealed at last. The only insolvency declared in the city of pawnbrokers last week was that of a servant girl named Bridget, whose debts fell sixpence short of £3O, Times are looking up when the servants are imitating their masters.

Mr Alexander Garland, of the Gust, farmer, died on Wednesday last at the age of 50. Mr Garland was a native of Perthshire but had spent 22 years in the colony. He began dairy farming at the Peninsula and afterwards, through steady industry, purchased the farm he has since occupied at Gust. He has been a very successful farmer and owns another farm near Carleton. His articles, written specially for the “ Canterbury Times ” on various matters in connection with agriculture have been widely read and appreciated.

It is well known that sailors and sharks are never on the best terms. Nothing so delights -a hungry shark as a drowning sailor, and nothing so excites a sailor and developes his ferocious instincts; as a freshcaught shark. A visitor to the ship Wellington yesterday tells us that the forecastle was the scene of a singular exhibition. A baby shark, between two and three feet in length, having been hooked, every marlinspike at hand was brought into requisition, and for a time nothing could be heard above the noise of savage thuds dealt in rapid succession. Then, with a face beaming with satisfaction, a junior tar, holding the much-be-labored fish before the gunwale, disembowled it with bis jack knife and consigned if to the deep again.

A petition, numerously signed, has been presented to the Patea County Council, praying for a Road Board on the Waimate Plains. The Council refused to accede to the petition, the Chairman stating that the refusal would be the means of bringing the whole question of local government before Parliament. It is believed that only three settlers on the Plains are opposed to the proposed Road Board. Sixty signed a petition in favor of it. The Census returns show that there are 120 people residing on the Plains, but a good many of them are men.

We have received by the mail a copy of a journal issued in London by Mrs Victoria C. Woodhall, a famous lecturess on women’s rights. The number, which is dated Jan. 29, is chiefly taken up with the “wrongs” of the fair authoress rather than the rights of her sex. Half a column is devoted to the publication of the deed of divorce obtained from her American husband, Colonel Blood,whose name shines in black rather than sanguinary colors all through the periodical. A friendly clergyman contributes a sketch of Mrs WoodhalTs trials and sufferings showing how she was persecuted for the writings of her husband in connection with a “ beastly ” production emanating from the “ Free Lovers Club ” of New York. The Colonel is alleged to have attached his wife’s name to the filthy articles in this journal, while she was earning her living as a lecturess. To screen her erring lord she allowed herself to be maligned, held responsible for the depraved literature of the most depraved institution ever reared in America, and imprisoned for an article on the RcvH.W. Beecher, which ghe never penned. ’ Her character was not only undermined, but according to her story she was the viclim of slow poisoning for years. Still she has been amply avenged, for one of her detractors was shot through the head, and she has the privilege of marrying while the Colonel’s hands are tied. If Mrs Woodhall’s version is the right one, her story of virtue triumphing over systematic slander is a singular one

Mr Vincent Pyke commenced to hold meetings throughout central Otago on the land question. A meeting at Clyde on Saturday resolved to petition Parliament to amend the land laws re re-letting of funs. Mr Pyke said one million and a-half acres in Vincent County alone were held by twenty-one persons.

Holv week services will he held at St. Mary’s church, morning and evening throughout the week. A confirmation service will be held cn Wednesday evening, and an afternoon service in addition to°the others will take place on Good Friday. Messrs Wildic Allan and Stumbles and K. F, Gray, will hold a c'oaring sale of pure shorthorn cattle, porkers See., on the farm of Mr J. Meyer, Arrowhenua on Thursday, April 21.