THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1744, 1 June 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

“ A man may jest fend tell the truth,” - " ' —Hokace.

Big as the States are and big the enterprise of her citizens, that American millionaire, who boasted that he could buy Great Britain, had a bigger contract onhand than he knew of* Twelve thousand millions sterling would take more than afew Astors, Vanderbilts, and .Rockefellers to make up; and as the value of the British. Isles in* crease by about two hundred millions every year, this greedy plutocrat had better hurry up or'the price will soon., be beyond his means. Boasting as she-: does, of the biggest everything, America has of course the biggest plough in the world. Fifty horsescan just manage to shift it, so that: it achieves a double record as the biggest folly too. I have heard of a wheat farm where the teams finished one furrow by dinner time and just managed ; the return furrowby dark, and the mules knew it so well, that not another stroke of work could be got out of them. Here's-a tip to him who have not got a watch. Let him buy amule and work it regularly and he’ll always know crib time. A more successful invention than the plough was the. tooth-draw-ing machine patented by, a New York dentist. Unfortunately, however, his first customer had an extra strofigly rooted tooth, and the chair of agony being .firmly screwed to the floor the infernal machine lifted pationt, chair, floor and the lower portion of the house all together. ■ :7 * * * *.

The history of intentions is both sad and curious. Sad in showing how many men of undoubted genuis pursue a Will o’, the Wisp all their lives for want of knowing what has been done before or perhaps what is impossible. Sad, too, in that the genuis perhaps discovers the principle which .some practical man makes workable and scoops the pool* Look at Arkwright monopolising, the babter business in his native town by ‘ an easy shave for a penny,’ and neglecting his-bnsinesa while perfecting his spinning machine till he hag his model at last perfect,"when his wife mad with starvation burns what she regards as the Moloch to which she and her children are.sacrificed. He has the idea through and it is worth . knighthood and a fortune to him. Parsons generally'levy tithe, but the parson who made the world a present of luoifer matches saved us all about a week’s work in the year vfitH our : fires alone, not to speak of the soothing pipe. One of the most curious points about inventions is the perversity with which people denounced what appear to us the most, obvious as utterly impracticable, which they believed implicibly in the feasibility .of things,.which,we khow to be absolutely impossible. ' ‘The chronicles of the- Schonberg-Cortfe .family ’ gives a familiar instance. - All the family regard the father’s plains of a steam engine as mere lunacy, while their, hopes of a fortune -from) the transmitation of lead ihtd silver or gold, are damped only their conviction of their parent’s bad luck.. By the way, I would recommend tins book to all who wish to get a ture historical insight into the growth of Luthor, the Reformer, out of Luther, the zealous monk;.

* Save me from my friends ’ may. Well be China’s cry. Good-natured Russia backed by Germany and France, foybids Japan taking possession of any of continental China, but the poor Celestial has to pay Japan an extra forty million pounds to save what is hot worth aS ■ many pence, while her friend wants a slice of .the forbidden cake herself. Japan has been a.'better friend to France in caving in. Had she held-to her rights France would surely have ! backed up Russia in war, but Germany, I am sure, would never ha,ve embarked on . such a Quixotic enterprise. On the contrary what a fine opportunity she would have had of paralysing French enmity forever. It would have taken every man-of-war Russia and France have to convey an army safely to Japan in face of the latter’s fleet, and if they ever got there it would haye required a large slice of luck for them .ever .to get out. It was the German game, thoroughly fin harmony .with Bismarldan traditions, to fan the flame, and it must be a bitter disappointment to Berlin that Japan didn’t say ‘ Do your worst.’

•... o • o . . * ■ .8; I learn on the authority of A. Tramp, Esq., and Mr. Stevens, M.H.R. for Rangitiki, that Paeroa means ‘The -place for Snaring birds/ .The: native game played there was but the type of wh ; ch its modern occupation is the antitype.- The French capon is now. being snared- there to, furnish fat to grease the works of- Waitekanri gold mines The net is also spread for fish, and all is fish that-comes to it, from John Dory, Jean Dore, or gilded John. Bull to the Italian mullet.- Qappn, John Dory, or mullet will, however, wax fat ifWaihi may be taken as a precedent, so that we may expeet the net always full, John Dory, will, of oourse, as usual skin the cream ; St. Peter’s thumb inark .probably makes •him lucky. ; Here in la striking'encourage-! ■ment to the Ministry in- their reverting to' Maori uain?A Oiice officialdom tried to multify Newcastles, - Hamiltons, Oxfords an t..Camhridges, here hut with better taste they are now .falling back on Native names. The public would never accept Newcastle or Carlyle, but stick resolutely to Ngariiawahia and Pfelea and now their wisdom is justified*- • . r -:' jf -: ; A • ■

About tAvo-thirds df tlid way .up to the saddle on Thompson’s. Track is a Very large native pa still in fair'preservation as far*as the earthworks afe.conoerned. It occupies an exceptionally strong position,, being absolutely impregnable except from the rear. Perhaps Some of my readers ■ might be able “and curious enough to extract is history from some Maori patriarch. Sad to say the younger generation appear to know little and care less about their ancestral traditions. I have heard it attributed to Te Kooti, absurdly enough as it is generations, if not centuries, older than him. They had probably cultivations at the back as judging from the amount of scrub and tea-tr ee, the flats ahd slopes of the hill Were once cleared, It, looks; like an outpost of the coastal tribes to ;holcj. the pass through the. hills against the;.inland tribes aigl so protect tliei.r sea fisheries from interference. By the way I hope the intelligent’ Compositor ;will jstick to ihy.spelling.of'tea-tree. This is a good instance pf the proverb,:. ‘ A little knowledge is a dangerous thing/ as, every new chum who masters the fact that in Maori' ‘ i Hs'pronounced ‘ e/ spells manuka ti-tr.ee; The-word is of course English and it deviation obvious as the early settlers used , it as ; a. substitute for - the Chinese herb, .j ttdt, as some noW use if as a .makeshift for tobacco when, the storekeeper is deaf. There is a Maori * ti/ but if is, 'ap» plied to the cabbage tree. ; . a- ' * * ■: % ' , y. South Africa after all is going, to fight: our battle with the Cassell Company, land. I am si t j New Zealand Hoed not grumble at the Transvaal payiiig the piper; v ;The neW developments, howeverwhen cordponnds of bronicflV with cyanogen ard used will revolutionise the

Pf. oeess * The Victorian expert who fh poq U^J 011 1 S sea-weed is apparently on cenwJ\? and contsina a - Mr Gordon’s ' „? * re fw S rom the Crown tailings saving at ast word aboUt gold;. j?. spoken. Some people talk ur,lSf| U i ting;tlie CaßseU C e.’s claims were So T thin S Hke Peking away BumSnf h 7 Whlch y° u have the wlviA 1 * -°ii y ° Ur ' am biti°n, but they have oaSnf I? 1 - 7 thin » of and If them:, for^w be Vall - d the y ought to feet/ritifi/.u /* that P hl P w P n lty ’ ther ttan tnat it is not allowed to continue. :"/ j - - ■' . ■- lAPYX. ~ : ——