PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL,

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 226, 30 May 1872, Page 8

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL,

'• In the Ballarat Court of Insolvency on April 27th," the " Courier " s,ays> " there was a case of more than ordinary interest involving a question which was likely to affect the niode of trade pursued by the Chinese in this colony. One Lee Soon, a storekeeper in Ballarat, had received goods of a Melbourne merchant, On Kee, to the amount of £260, and now sought to repudiate the debt by making affidavits that he knew no such person as On Kee. It appears that .the Chinese have a trading or general name by which they are known in this country, but they have also a private or family name known only to themselves and their relatives in Ghina. Kong Meng for instance, who is known by that name as a bank director and in all his business transactions in Melbourne, owns th£ native patronymic of Wye Kee. The business name is usually a motto ; On Kee, the plaintiff in the action, meaning 'remember happiness.' Les Soon, the defendant, traded under the style of Sin Nam Hing, which on being translated means ' new south traffic ;' and because On Kee had forwarded the goods to Lee Soon under this title, and because On Kee when he was in the bosom of his family was known as Wan Hung Yung, Lee Soon conceived the brilliant idea that Le could get out of paying for the goods ; but his Honor Judge Rogers held a different view of the matter, and ordered the amount due to be paid by the 14th June, or defendant's estate to be sequestrated. We understand that Lee Soon will now be prosecuted for perjury,"

A. hint, says a contemporary, as to providing a precaution against vexatious actions for libel agajnst newspapers comes from California. On the !)th February a bill was introduced into the State Assembly which, says the •'bVn-ament Union," "contains provisions that have long been needed to protect the independence of the press. The main feature of the bill is the compulsion of the complainant in action to give bonds, with sureties to the amount of 1000 dollars, to pay the costs in case of failure, and 100 dollars for lawyer's fees to the defendant. A like provision is contained in the bill that the defendant shall pay the plaintiff 100 dollars for lawyer's fees if .found guilty."*

The following tale is told by the "Pleasant Creek News" — "A circle of investigators into the mysteries of spiritualism was sitting a few nights ago in a country house not far from Stawell, when manifestations took place which astounded them. The conditions were favourable, the medium was in good form and rappings came from under a table in the corner of the room, which were unmistakeable in their iinre'uosity and loudness, No one was near the table, but the loud vehement beatings occurred at intervals, and with such startling suddenness, that the owner of the place believed he was likely to be haunted by the Fox knockings, of which he had

heard a great deal. The result of the sitting was regarded as eminently satisfactory by all present, till a ' canny ' member of the nervomotor-battery suggested that it would be well to examine the table and its surroundings, when to the^ disgust of all present, a terrier dog was discovered, who, in divesting himself of fleas, caused the raps by bt afcing his leg against the floor in the ardour of the quest. Our informant states that the circle dispersed in- a subdued manner"

The nominal roll of the civil establishment of New Zealand, compiled on the Ist July, 1871, as compared with that taken on the Ist July, 1868, is suggestive. In the latter year there were 1471 name? included in the roll, while in 1871, though a large number of Maoris have been struck off tne list, the number amounts to 1665. ' An increase of nearly 200 clerks had taken place in the three years ended last July, and how mauy more have been added since then we scarcely dare ask. It will be remembered that this does not include a whole army of officials whose names are judiciously kepj out of the civil list. Reckoning the Maoris struck off, and the travelling lecturers, agents, commissioners, &c.,not entered on the roll, we should not be far wrong if we put down the increase of Government servants to have been for the last three years at the rate of 100 a year. If this kind of thing is to be allowed, the sneer that one-third of the able-bodied men of the colony are living on tbe receipt of Government pay will become a stern reality which the other twothirds should look to and change speedily. — •' Wellington Post."

I A wonderful Spanish pianiste, a Mdle. Carreno, Us at once angering ; and puzzling all the musical world; for she plays the compositions 'of the first masters without the slightest regard to tbe time in which the movements are generally taken, but with a fire and originality so surprising that even the sternest critic eaunot but listen and* admire. It is, in fact, a battle between genius aud conventionality, and the genius seems to get the best of it; for it is no use arguing with a wilful young?wornan, who sees most beauty in. her ~Yersi°n.