News and Notes.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 1, 31 March 1893, Page 12

News and Notes.

A Thox-nhxxxy correspondent states that cutting- is pretty well over, and all the farmers are busy leading- in. The crops on the whole are very g-ood. Turnips, as in other districts, promise well, while the grass is all that can be desix-ed. According to the Adelaide Observer a Tennyson is only possible in a country replete with historical associations —a land of moated granges and baronial castles, whereas Burns’s song would have been possible wherever, throughout the wide world, there were men and women to live their lives through joys and sufferings —loving passionately and erring frequently, yet ever with 'a heaven-boi-n sense of the innate nobility of the just, the true, and the beautiful. One for John. Some small boys who cheeked the Chinese gardeners on the North Road the other day got lesson they will not forget in a liux-ry. The Celestials chased their tormentox-s through the paddocks to the railway lino, and the youngsters jumped into a creek, hoping to reach the opposite bank and “ wink the other eye ” at their pursuci-s. Unluckily for them, however, they found themselves up to the neck before reaching the middle, and, afraid to ■venture fux-ther, they implored the Chinaman to let them off. The latter were masters of the situation, however, and kept the yonngstoi-s in the water till they obtained their names and places of abode.

Attention is directed to the City Band’s advertisement x-egardixxg tlxeixforthcoming- art union, the drawingin connection with which has been fixed fox- the 12th of July. The px-izes, fifty in number, are of a supex-ior natux-e, axxd will x-epreseixt fully £2OO. A special feature of the art union is that, as far as possible, the prizes will be procured locally, the lowest being valued at not less than £l. The members of the baxxd have always been ready to give their services for the delectation of the public of Invex-cax-gill, axxd this, apart from the substaxxtial nature of the px-izes offered, will caxxse the necessary number of tickets'to be rapidly taken up. Mention is made ixx the advertisement of the differexit places at which the various articles will be oxx view. In the township of Tlxox-xxbuxy several propex-ties have changed hands recently. Cottages of five oxsix rooms with quarter acre sections attached, have been sold at prices averagixxg about £7O. From thin, some idea may be gained of the value of property in country townships. Messrs Whittingham Bx-os. and Tristoxxe have under offer a great deal of their property in and around Thornbux-y. The late Duke of Rutland, when walking one mox-ning in his grounds, came across a gamekeopex-’s little gix-1. “Well, little one,” he asked, “ axxd what do you call yourself f ” “ Unwind; we are going to x-eceive make us truly- thankful,” replied the little one with apparent irrevox-ence. It seems that the child’s mothex-’s instructions had been : “If you meet the dxiko he quite sure to say, ‘ Your Grace.’ ”

Messrs Mohr and Walker have been appointed by tbe members of tbe City Band to represent them at tbe animal meeting’ of the N. Z. Brass Band Association, to be held in Oamaru during - Easter week. Some very important businesss will be transacted at this meeting’, in which bandsmen all over the colony are interested. A well-known bon vivant, commissioned by Land and Water, has passed judgment On two fish, known as “ blue fish” or “ blue cod,” taken from a sample received at Leadenhall Market, from Messrs Nelson Bros. He pronounces it a most delicious fish. It is rich, firm and sweet, and certainly superior to any cod or haddock in Britain. A recent number of Nankivell’s shorthand journal, Facsimile Notes, contains a page of notes taken at one of the secret sessions of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, sitting at Richmond thirty years ago. The taker of the notes (which are of great historical value) is dead, and so far no one has been found able to transcribe them. The system used is believed to be the old stenography of Taylor, and it is not unlike that employed by the late Mr W. Pettigrew, of Invercargill. If any readers who happen to bo acquainted with stenographic systems care to see the facsimile in question, we will be happy to gratify them. Countryman (to wife, when looking into an upholsterer’s exhibition of bed-room furniture); “Well, well, Maria ; aint these town folks gettin’ pretty bold, to have their bedrooms so’s everybody can see right into ’em, like that I”