PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 208, 25 January 1872, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

It would seem as though there were already a multiplicity of methods of taxation, bnt an ingenious Belgian has invented a new one for all kinds of manufactured fabrics. It consists of narrow little bands of thin-gummed paper, marked off into metres and centimetres, which should be fastened all along the edge of every piece of cloth. The material would thus measure itself as it were, without the aid of a yardstick, and the quantity sold would be self-registered. Thise bands furnished by Government would cost the State fifteen centimes per hundred metres. If Government should sell them at one franc a hundred metres, it would every year make a very respectable number of millions. On a silk dress worth two hundred frances the tax would be only twelve to fifteen .centimes, with the advantage of perfect accuracy of measurement without the possibility of mistake or cheating.

The Paris Gaulois is responsible for the following; — "An eccentric person has just died in London upon a miserable pallet in the wretched quarter of Saint Giles. He had his hour of celebrity thirty years ago, at which time he was a chimney-sweep. He fell in love with Queen Victoria, and as he was constantly introducing himself by the chimneys into the Palace of St. James, it was found necessary to take him into custody, and he was shut up in the prison of Tothill street. It was believed that his confinement had cut ed him of his hopeless passion, and he was released ; but he had been at liberty hardly a single day when he was discovered in the Park, watching the Queen as she took her walks. The police, after consulting his father, took him down to Gravesend, and embarked him on board the Diamant, for Sydney. They were not a moment too soon, for he bad hardly left his home when the manager of a small theatre came to offer him £4 a week to permit' himself only to be exhibited on the stage. The Diamant set sail for Australia, and the Queen's adorer lived for a long time at Sydney. Five years ago he returned to England, very miserable, and still faithful. He took up his residence in one of those narrow streets that the English call " lanes." He selected one named Queen's lane, and there he died. His death happened in this manner. The other evening io was rumored that Queen Victoria was dead, and this gave him such a shock that he died almost suddenly. His name was Edward Jones. Poor man !"

The London Echo says "it has hern calculated that something like 37,000 girls are seduced annually in England under the age of 19, and 13,000 at a later period."

The Nelson farmers have outgrown much of their land. Nelson barley — once considered the best in the colony — is now rated very low. Marlborough barley takes first rank now. The Waimeas (Nelson) have been cropped some twenty years in succession without any manure having been applied.

In New York a man lately made a wager that he could run a closed umbrella down his throat to the handle. No sooner had he accomplished this feat than the base wretch who made the bet seized the umbrella by the handle and opened it all the way, clinching it on the catch. He then fled. Of course all efforts to close the umbrella and remove it have been utterly useless, and the poor sufferer walks about with his person distended in a manner that is inexpressibly painful. These practical jokes are very wrong. Just for the sake of a moment's amusement this man is obliged to carry that umbrella with him to the grave.

The " Cork Constitution " publishes an article upon, " The engineering of the future," in which allusion is made to this colony in the following words.- —" New Zealand will be in a fair way to make good its claims to be the Britain of the South, and its beautiful clime and fertile and mineral-yielding soil will be the home of a populous and prosperous nation. Only let the War Demon be kept under foot, and the industry and genius of man be left free scope to apply themselves to their normal Jtask, the task of subduing and replenishing the earth, and the next generation will witness the accomplishment of engineering works which the Telfords and Stepliensons and Brunels of former days would have regarded as the day-dreams of an enthusiast."

One can endure with tolerable patience a justification of mothers-in-law, and may smile good-naturedly at a defence of creditors. Free love and poor relations are so commonly upheld as to excite only a temperate indignation. But when the Boston " Traveller " descends to to the fathomless infamy of defending inosquitos wo feel injured That- we cannot, and do not wish to endure. We believe that even Mr. Bergh at his craziest never thought of upbraiding anyone for insulting a mosquito. Horace Greeley, in his great work upon farming, expressly says that " the mosquito should be carefully uprooted, and the stalk burned, or it will multiply so rapidly as to choice out the late-sown goslings,' and ruin the soil by sucking out all the quinine. We should suppose that the "Traveller" would be ashamed of itself. — " San Francisco NswsLetter." The "New Zealand Mail" says'

that newspaper editors and correspondents, stock owners and Government officials, appear to labour under the delusion that bush land is best adapted for agricultural operations, and that such operations have nothing in common with those of the grazier on the the one hand, and those of the dairy farmer on the other. No opinion could be more opposed to common sense, and the experience of practical men. Bush land, especially in New Zealand, is least fitted for agricultural operations, which, under no circumstances, ctn be carried on, after the first crop has been garnered on any extensive scale. Unlike the forest land of Canada, or the open bush of Australia, it cannot be ploughed, nor can those labour-saying implements and machines, so advantageous and necessary where labour is dear, be employed amongst the roots and stumps which for years encumber the bn&h land in New Zealand, after the greatest care has been employed to get rid of them. It is true that the finest crop of wheat can be grown for the first year on bush land, because wheat has an affinity to wood ashes ; but after the first year, unless the land be of small extent, it is absolutely impossible to crop it except with grass, and consequently the wheat-grower has to become a grazier or dairy-farmer in spite of himself.