AN AWKWARD FIX.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 8, 28 July 1883, Page 4

AN AWKWARD FIX.

" Moles" in the Australasian, tolls the following : — Archdeacon M , of New Zealand, was a gentleman remarkable for getting into minor scrapes through an innocent meddlesomeness. Shortly after landing in England, upon a brief holiday tour, he was walking along ft railway platform, when he descried a few yards in front of him a gentleman whom he recognised as that of an old New Zealand friend. Inspire! by an impulse to playfully surprise his old acquaintance, the Archdeacon plucked at a pocket-handkerchief Nvhioh was hanging out, but in an instant Ihe hand of a stalwart policeman was on his arm. ' Come with me, and come quietly,' said the guardian of the peace. ' You, mistake me/ said the prisoner. 'I am Archdqacon M— , of — , in New Zealand/ pointing to his clerical attire. " Oh, that won't do/ Said his

captor ; < that game is' often tried on.? ( But/ remonstrated the archdeacon, ' that gentloman in front is a friend of mine. Ask him who I am.' To this reasonable request the policeman acceded. Overtaking the reverend gentleman's friend, the policeman tapped him oil the back, and as he turned round the, archdeacon saw, to bis horror, the face of an entire stranger. * This person,' said the policeman, ' just now picked your pocket. He says you're a friend of his.' 'Never saw him before in my life!' was the reply. And the policeman, now certain that he had got hold of an accomplished impostor, ran him in. It was only by communicating with the Bishop of Lichfield, under whom he had served in the diocese of New Zealand, that the sportive archdeacon after a time obtained his release.

A Home Radical paper, writing on the recent division of the House of Commons on the Affirmation Bill, says :— " It is to be hoped that the good Christians who believe that the majority of last week were animated by pure zeal on behalf of religion when* they rejected the Affirmation Hill, will take due note o£ the fact that one of the gentlemen who voted against the Bill used foul and blasphemous language in the division lobby to one of the Liberal Whips ; that another was so drunk that he could hardly walk when he went to record his vote against ' irreligion ;' and that a third, Sir John Hay, huR described tho measure in reverent and decent language as a ' Swear-and-be-damned-if-you-will Bill."