FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 159, 5 July 1879, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

We hear on all "ides complaints of "hard times," and the expression that " money is tight" is frequently used. The following extract from a Sydney paper is applicable : —A young married woman asked her husband what she should wear at a fancy ball. "Oh, but Harry, dc tell me what I am to wear ; you say you don't like dresses that are too much on the ground and not enough on the wearer, and you don't like the female Robintson Crusoe style, or the Amazonian soldier dress,\of Zazel, or any other light and inexpensive dress of that kind ; so what am Ito wear, dear V " Bother the fancy ball in the first place, and in the second (said that wretch, Harry Hardup) wear a coat of paint, or a possum rug, or a sheet of brown paper tied round with string and labelled "to be carefully handled;" —or stay, I have it ! go as an overdraught, my dear, with a nice little trimming of dishonored cheques and-< unpaid bills forming the flounces, and a coronet on your head emblazoned with the letters 'N.S.F., refer to drawer.' There, that will be novel, and truly emblematical*! of our position in society, Eh, my dear." The brute laughed, and beauty was left in tears. In consequence of the high price charged for stock by breeders the Wellington bntchers have decided to import cattle from Sydney by the Sydney trading steamers. The next steamer will bring a lot down.' It is stated that the Dunedin butchers have already commenred importing. The representative of a large New South Wales breeding firm is here making arrangements to supply butchers with live stock.

Three clergymen of the Church of England, including the Bishop (says the DuDedin Morning Herald') appear to be creditors in the estate of Mr T. Chalmers Reid, a circumstance of a most unusual nature. On the other hand, a claim against the ' New Zealand Churchman ' figures as an asset. The inference is that Mr Reid's claim is for editing or contributing. We should doubt il.e proprietor of that journal admitting the .claim to be valid A prominent insolvent some years since included in his assets an eagle and a Tasmanian Devil. The Devil died from want of care in the hands of his assignees, and the eagle flew away, their loss materially reducing the value of the estate to the creditors. The German term for creditor ("Glaubiger," or Believer) is an admirable one. Few creditors, howevers, would believe either in the value of a devil or of such a claim on the ' New Zealand Churchman' as an available asset of a bankrupt estate. The "Churchman' regrets very much to announce that the funds of the Church Society, which were under the charge of the secretary and treasurer, Mr T. C. Reid, some £4OO or £SOO, have entirely disappeared, and all efforts on Uie part of the committee to recover them have as yet failed. They are involved in the fate of the Colonel Building Company, and as Mr Reid, its representative, is bankrupt, and the company is being wound up, the prospects look very bad. The company for some time past has been making efforts to withdraw the money. The matter is at present in the hands of solicitors and accountants for investigation, and it is proposed afterwards to call a meeting of subscribers. The police received information last Monday (says the ' New Zealand Times') that a man was living in a cave at Lyell ti Bay in a perfect state of destitution, Sergeant Anderson at once sent a constable round, and he found a mail named William Persse in a state of nudity, and halt-starved, there being no food of any kind in the cave. In answer to the con- *> stable, the unfortunate man said he had. ~ lived principally on boiled seaweed and a" few fish which he had managed to catch. He is well known to the police, and has several times been brought before the Court for vagrancy. The poor fellow has been living in this cave for about two' months, exiting as well as he could on anything be managed to pick up. He was brouv'T, iyho tho lock-up yesterday, and will i ■■■>■ • -iur.-ged wiih vagrancy before the R.M. Court to-day.