EXTRACTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 270, 3 April 1873, Page 7

EXTRACTS.

The Bay of Islands must be a sin gularly primitive place, judging from the followiug account of it by a recent visitor :—": — " I can compare the folks in this part of tb.3 world to nothing but a sort of human vegetable, who, having grown like cabbages, always in one spot, live in happy ignorance of an outer woild. Once having cast anchor in the Bay of Islands, civilisation i 3 left far behind, and an existence of purgatory is commenced, which to a mai of active mind must end in imbecility or self-destruction. Intellectual conversation is unknown ; and if language was given to com. municate ideas, the faculty was superfluous here, -where so few have any ideas at all, and where an accident to Mrs. Grundy's cow, or the arrival of a stranger in the village, are incidents sufficiently important to occupy the mind. Here we live in a most primitive condition and as an abhorrence of work forms a distinguishing characteristic of the people, money is but rarely met with, and cash payments are almost superseded by a system of barter. Thus, if our butcher gets sick, the doctor takes his fee in mutton and chops, and the baker takes his bread bill out in pills. In fact, this is as near as possible 'a life led according to nature ;' but, although I endeavor, like Dr Johnson's philosopher, 'to cooperate with the general disposition and tendency of the present system of things,' I must admit that I quite fail to see the advantage of it." On 12th November, a feat of a rather novel character was performed at the Fulbatn Grounds, London, in which H. Howe undertook to walk four miles and a half with a two gallon bottle balanced on his bare head, neck downwards, against J. Plumpton's (the Westminster grocer) covering five miles without any encumbranca, and on the issue of which each man staked £o. It was further stipulated in the articles that should Howe touch the bottle more than twice he should lose the match. Preliminaries having baen arranged, the men appeared on their respective marks, Howe being an exceedingly powerful young fellow, 28 years of age, and weighing.over 15st., while Plumpton has been a pedestrian of 25 years' standing. Howe had to pass the referee 22 times (21 laps 126 yards), and Plumpton 24 (33 laps 267 yards), and on the word being given by H. A. Eeed. they started on their journey, Howe balancing his bottle apparently with the greatest ease, and though an occasional gust of wind made the bottle waver at timas, he never once put his hand to it throughout. In the first lap, Plumpton gained ssec. and at the end of a mile he had occupied half a minute less than his opponent ; but though he walked very gamely and fairly, he could not overtake Howe, who covered two miles in 19|min, and the four miles and a-half in 47mim, 31|sec. An extraordinary case has occurred at Hauraki. Ann Folks, widow, aged 73, was found hanging in an outhouse. The person who discovered her went for a constable, and the constable fetched a doctor, who pronounced life extinct, but none of them cut the body down. The body was left hanging for 36 hours, during which time all the people fa the village went and saw it. The coroner being absent, Mr. Kells, J.P., summoned a jury, who viewed the body while it was hanging, but did not order it to be cnt down. The inquest was most irregular. A verdict of felo de se was returned, although it was shown that the woman was insane. The Inspector of at Auckland was not informed of the

occurrence until the inquest was over, when the Sergeant of Police went and had the body, which was decomposed when it was cut down, placed in a cofiin. The Rev. E. A. Hall now refused to bury it, or permit it to be buried in the cemetery until after the expiration of seven nights, as provided in the church prayer-book, but the police buried the woman in defiance of him without any religious service. The intense heat and continued drought have had a very prejudicial effect upon crops and pastures in the neighborhood of Nelson. Such a drought, says the " Colonist," has not been known for many years past, everything having more or less suffered. The potatoes are especially light and scanty, and agricultural matters of every description have felt the bad effect which the absence of rain has produced. The fruit has shared the detrimental effect also, and vegetables are so dear and scarce that importations have taken place from the Coast. The curious fact of the older and settled districts being supplied with vegetables from the neighborhood of our goldfields has presented itself this seaBon, and City people have consumed their mutton with the usual accompaniment of a West Coast cabbage — brassica of great size and weight, and potatoes very large and good, being frequently procurable from this quarter at a reasonable price, when all local supply has failed. „ We find the following sensible suggestions in a late English paper : — *' Every spring farmers lose cows by turning them upon young clover before they have become accustomed to such succulent food. Lot them heed these five rules : 1. Never put anything into fresh clover on an empty stomach. 2. Never w.hen the grass is wet. 3. Never put them in when the weather is changing from warm to cold. 4. Do not give them any salt for at least 24 hours before putting them in the first time. 5. Do not let them remain in more than 50 minutes the first time, after which they may run wet or dry with perfect safety. The very latest on dit, says the Melbourne " Daily Telegraph," is that Sir Charles Gravan Duffy contemplates a return to Europe, and that with the termination of the present Victorian Parliament he will bid farewell to colonial politics. The object of the knighthood bestowed upon him by Mr. Gladstone has, it is said, been misunderstood by the people who regard it simply from a colonial stand point. The purpose of the English Premier in conferring the honor was to conciliate the Irish party in the struggle which the next. general election will create, and it is understood that Mr. Duffy intends to throw all his influence into the scale of the G-ladstone party, and will accept a seat in the next Parliament as the member for New Ross — his old seat by the way, and for which arrangements are now being made. Considerable sensation was experienced on the classic " pave " of Pittstreet, Sydney, in consequence of the apprehension of a smart person of youthful appearance by Constable Harrington, who was on duty in that locality. From inquiry it appears that the individual was a girl named Caroline Downing, daughter of respectable parents, residing in Melbonrne, from whose custody she was abducted about three weeks ago by two old men, one of them known as Eves, who brought her on to New South Wales, and took her to Cook's River. The disconsolate parents, on missing her from home, telegraphed to thu police authorities at Sydney, and subsequently sent her likeness to assist in her identification, and the police have been actively in search of hter ever since. When found in Pitt-street by Constable Harrington, she was attired in a fashionable youth's light tweed suit, a Californian hat, and wore elastic side boots, she also -had a false moustache and her hair was cut short like a boy's. She carried a smarb riding whip in her hand. The constable apprehended her under the provisions of the Industrial School Act, for being, when under sixteen years of age, rambling the streets, without having any lawful abode. Miss Downing was brought up at the Central Police Court on that charge, but as she appearod to be eighteen years old the Bench were reluctantly compelled to dismiss the case. It was admitted by her that she had £20 when she arrive:!, and that she had spent JSIO of it in Sydney ; but she promised to return home to Melbourne in the City of Adelaide, her mother having made arrangements to pay her passage at that end. — " Sydney Empire." Teetotalism is taking root in the country of Dorsetshire, not by the force of eloquence nor the charms of rhetoric, for the lowly peasantry of Dorset cannot understand these things; but simply by practical homely acts. "Now, Hodge," the farmer says: " The Earl of Shaftesbury is a wonderful great man, and he is my landlord. He says strong drink is the very divil ; and as Soloman, a wiser man still, compares it to a raging tempast ; and as our neighbor, Mr. Barnes, the poet, say ' drink is an awful ffre,' I have made up my mind to give you money instead of beer." The result has had a good effect. The peasantry of Dorset are so miserably poor, that from sheer circumstances, rather than from conviction, they buy bacon with the money. Another unfortunate gone before the coroner! The story of Caroline Walsh is all too common a one in

lydney, though the end may not ilways come so soon. The stages of he poor child's progress on her fatal lath were much as they always are in ach cases — first, a machinist working fir scant wages, then to the more seductve position of a night-waitress at a nusic hall, and then to lower depths sill. The end of all, disease and <sath, a coroner's inquest, and a quiet orner at Haslem's Creek. And all tiis misery and sin crowded into a siort life of seventeen years ! If any oie wonders whether there are many m»re Caroline Walshes travelling the sane road, let him walk down Gteorgesteet any Sunday evening, and note th) charming free and easy manners of the youthful generation of Sydney bors and girls. Heaven forbid that we should say that sewing machine gir's must all be tending in the same dinction, or even necessarily with evey stitch " sewing a shroud as well as : shirt." But if they could take thei* evening walks abroad at more seasraable hours, and with a little less the tir of tempters of men and their fate,as admirers of the sex who wish then; one and all well, we should feel all tl» easier. — " Sydney Empire." Ac a hit at the numerous quack doctors in the United States, the " American Agriculturalist " gives the following recipe for getting rich : " G-efc from the medical dispensatories or elsewhere, any simple stimulating compound or tonic, or take cheap whiskey and color it, adding any cheap stuff to give it a medical taste. Adopt any name you * choose, the more nonsenscial or mysterious the better — one having an Indian or Japanese, or Turkish sound, will be all the better. Employ the glass-blower or printer or both, to get up fanciful bottles or boxes, or labels. Look out that the package, contents included, does not cast over five to eight cents. Assume I for yourself a name as near that of some noted physician as you dare go,and add to tbe end of itM.D., F.E.S., D.M.D., &c, &c. Write a long story about your great age, experience, and success abroad. Invont 50 to 100 or 1000 wrought by your medicines, giving names in full, with residence, date, etc., but be careful not to blunder into giving any real name of any person living in the same place. These matters arranged, advertise your medicines largely. Print and scatter circulars, pamphlets, and pictures by the ton. — Result. — You will reach a multitude of weak, nervous,' ignorant people who are slightly ailing, or think they are. They will take your stimulating or tonic preparations, and ' feel better ' right away. They will believe they have escaped or been cured of some terrible disease (the symptons of | which you should take good care to set forth vividly in your circulars). Henceforth you have not only a regular customer, but one who will sign your certificates of cure as strong as you can write them, and will take up the wonderful virtues of your medicines to others. The skating ponds in Central Park, New York, received Christmas scratches from 97,000 pair of skates. The Paris correspondant of the "Pall Mall Gazette " says : — " Among other curious tiials which will soon be called on is a demand for damages on the part of three widows. It appears that during the late war a German soldier was shot near the village of Vaux, and immediately a Prussian column swept down the place and seized 28 peasants, who were shut up in the church, with orders to select three victims, who were to be shot in revenge for the death of the invader. The unfortunate men remained in the church for 76 hours, and then announced that the three victims had been selected by a majority. Upon what principle this vote was conducted is not mentioned. The Prussians wished the peasants to draw lots, and even offered a pickelhaube for the purpose of an urn, but this was naturally refused by the majority, and in the end the three unfortunate men who found themselves in the minority were led out and executed. To-day the widows of the victims demand damages from the 25 survivors' of this tragedy, on the ground that the three should have been selected by lot. We shall probably have to wait for the trial to learn the details of this gloomy affair, which ended in the death of three married men." Some very sensible remarks upon "our boys," which are almost as applicable to this city as to San Francisco, appear in the " Naws Letter." We make the following extract :— Every father ought to feel it a paramount duty that his son should, at a {proper age, be sent to some useful employment. The fact is, there is a monstrously absurd feeling growing up, not always openly expressed, it is true, that work is not just the respectable thing for our sons to do. It may be all very well for other people's children, but for ours, why, that alters the question. This nonesense must be got rid of. Nothing is more honorable than work — nothing more vicious than idleness. No doubt some of the causes are peculiar to our city, which go a great wry toward making our boys the helpless young scapegraces that many of them are. Their parents too often live in hotels, boardinghouses, or in lodgings, where there are none of those home ties which, in other States and cities, go far to produce a happy home circle. Without such surroundings, parents too often feel a sense of relief when their boys are u out of wa7, J^and are only to careless as to their whereabouts or their associates. Then our climate being as mild and genial as it is, there is not that incentive to active out-door exercise which prevails elsewlere. We know towns with leas than half the population of San Francisco that

could supply a hundred boats' crews of boys. How much better it would be for the moral and physical development of our boys if they were engaged pulling a stout oar on our lovely bay, instead of standing at a corner grocery, sucking away at their cigars, a nuisance, and a public eye sore ! Nine out of every ten of the young hoodlooms one meets are small-chested, swallow complexioned, and totally lacking the robustness and vigor of manly boys. With -no true ambition, they seek only to excel in things which it would be well that they knew nothing at all about. It is far from pleasant to look forward to the race of emaciated, chestless, strengthless vicioua beings that must inevitably be the result of the follies of these times. No problem to-day demands more earnest tteatment than the question, What are we to do with our boys ? Two members of the west Virginia Legislature lately took the sleeping cars to go to Graf ton. The cars were crowded, and the two had to sleep together. One was fat, the other lean ; the fat man snored, and the lean man therefore lay awake. At about midnight the insomnic legislature could no longer stand the stentorous breathing* of his mate, and arose and sat by the fire. An old lady entered and wanted a place to sleep. ' 'Go to my berth," said the- sardonic lean one ; " I left my little boy asleep there ; I shall sit up. I must think of legislative things." So the lady went to the berth, disposed of useless clothing, and lay down. Presently the " boy '\ kicked. Then the lady patted him on the back and said, •' Lie still, sonny ;pa said I might sleep along with yon." " O ho !" roared the bison — a boy no more but a bison. " Thunder ! who are you? I ain't a boy. I'm a member of the West Virginia Legislature." The lady went into a swoon, nor could she be aroused till the fat mtuk promised her that he would have the lei^T" one impeached. There has been a #rcat deal of talk here, writes a London correspondent, about the death by starvation of a gentleman who is described as having been "a consummate classical scholar, a profound mathematician, a man whose acquaintance with the lioman, with our mercantile, and with feiidal law, was unrivalled ; whose general knowledge was almost encycoppedic a perfect master of five lauguages; a man of family, a gentleman, and a barrister at law of the Middle Temple." This gentleman, whose name was Haddy, died the other day at the Strand Workhouse, of literal starvation, four hours after he had been admitted ; and now lies in a pauper's grave at Woking. There was no reason for his death by starvation but the simple one that, without any fault of his own, he found it im possible to earn a livelihood, and was too proud to beg. There were 6,267 marriage licenses issued in Chicago during the year 1872, but it will be four months yet before the authorities can get the list of divorces granted figured up, and they are working night and day at it too. The last sensation in Chicago i 3 a trunk which can be converted into a bath tub or coffin. The last peculiarity renders it very appropriate for railroad travel, in the light of recent (and for that matter, continued) events of a fatal character. The "Chicago Times" of the 7th December contains the following: — "The game of billiards has been described as one of the arts, and its skilled practitioners are termed professors. That there is a science in billiards there is no doubt, especially as played with the cue ; but when it comes to making caroms with the nose one is at a loss for the proper expression to describe the same. One of the principal attractions at the re-opening of Barnes House wa3 the announcement that a Frenchman, an amateur, would with his nqSe^pJay- a game of 100 points against auyi&lliard champion of Chicago. The game was played, and it was the most wonderful exhibition ever seen on "the field of the cloth of green" in Chicago. His opponent, a skilled player, an attache of Brunswick's billiard estabblishment, used a 17-ounce cue ; the Frenchman with his nose. His method of playing is somewhat noved. iirst chalking the end of his nose, he is permitted to play with either of the white balls, and to place it as he sees fit. He then pushes his ball again the object ball, and seldom fails to effect a carom. But it is impossible for him to play -with effet, or, in other words, "English" his ball. It is in effect a complete push and nothing more. He "nurses" well, and once during the game made a run of nine points, but had to succumb to the "cuist."