NEW BUILDINGS IN THE DIS TRICT.

Notwithstanding the loud complaints of dulnoss of trade, and the number of car penteis out of employment, wo are still able to chronicle the fact that building operations have not entirely ceased ; and that the class of edifices at present in course of construction are a decided im provement upon the efforts of architects in the past. We are proud to record that in the construction of them a consider able portion of the material used is of local manufacture, Messrs Montgomery and Co. ’s brick manufactory being capable of supplying the wants in their line at a price which can defy competition with outsiders, and the quality is also superior to tho brick previously brought from Christchurch.

By far the most important building now under construction is the County Hospital. Situated in an elevated position at the west end of the Domain, with the spacious grounds in front of it, and the township in the foreground, it would he hardly possible to imagine a more suitable site, and one on which patients, from the natural healthiness and beauty of tho place, may recover from any complaints in which salubrity is considered an aid to convalescence. The buildings now being erected are from designs prepared by J. Stanley Bruce, Esq., but the whole of the structure planned by the architect is not included in the present contract, as one of the wards is left out for the present. It was resolved by the County Council in February last to erect an hospital, and Mr Bruce was requested to submit plans for a building to suit the purpose. At the Council’s meeting in March last the architect was able to show what sort of a structure he proposed to erect, and the suitability of it at once decided the Council to adopt it, leaving out a por tion for the present, which can at any time be added without detriment to the struc ture. The building presents a very com pact and elegant appearance. That portion which is at present the north end of it, but will eventually be the centre, is two storeys high, and has communication with the wards by spacious passages. The entrance is very handsome, the brick work being tastefully relieved with Oamaru stone, cut to tasteful designs. The entrance is re cessed, and wiU form a pleasant lounge for convalescents, out-doorpatients, or visitors. On entering the main building, the visit or first enters a spacious lobby, which is flanked on one side by the dispensary and on the other by the consulting room. At the end of the lobby is the entrance tothe warders’ room and the kitchen, and these officers will find that every convenience possible has been provided for them. Ihe ward is separated from the main building by a corridor fifty feet long and eight feet wide, and contains rooms for six patients, who will not have to complain of ventilation, as pro vision is made for a supply of 1584 cubic feet for each invalid. In dependent of these rooms, there are rooms for a nurse, a linen room—which can also be utilised for preparing an occasional snack for a patient with a delicate appetite—a lavatory and a bath room, capable of being utilised for either cold or hot baths ; and the other rooms and requisites necessary for an hospital. Provision is also made for those who pre fer'the advantages to be gained by having medical attendance at such an establish ment, to living and being treated at their own residences ; and this is one of the means by which the hospital will become to a certain extent self-supporting. Six extra rooms are provided, which are to be used for those who are able and willing to pay for the luxury of skilled attendance, and this part of the estab lishment will no doubt be largely patronised by those unfortunate enough to become patients. A fever ward is also provided, and a padded room some dis tance away from the main building for lunatics. The morgue and operating room are also detached, so that the ordinary patients will be out of hearing of noise caused by operations in those rooms. A large laundry, with all the necessary arrangements, for this portion of the ward is also placed in a convenient part of the building ; and altogether the hospital is a model of compactness, and con venience. The external appearance is imposing, but at present looks slightly one sided, as the design included the erection of the north wing. The style of architecture is Elizabethan, the outlines and proportions imposing and bold, and the general appearance either from a close inspection or a distant view pleasing to the eye. We must congratulate the archi tect on the success he has achieved, and the contractor, ,Mr Carleton, who, although a Dunedin tradesman, has found it to his advantage to use Aahbunon made bricks in the construction, and expressed a very flattering opinion as to their quality.

The Ashburton Home. —At the meet ing of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board on Wednesday, the Ashburton House Committee acknowledged with thanks the receipt of a case of books from Mr G. Gould for the instruction and entertainment of the residents of the Home. Mr G. Gould has also given an order to the value of £5 for materials for mats, &c., to be manufactured by the in mates. It is hoped that this liberal and thoughtful example will find many imi tators.

The Question of Emigration is occupy ing the anxious consideration of the work ing people throughout the old country at present. The South Staffordshire miners met at West Broomwich to discuss the preliminaries of a scheme of emigration which provides that every man wishing to emigrate should contribute at regular periods a fixed payment to a common fund. .At such times when snflicent funds are in hand a ballot among the subscribers will take place for the choice of emigrants. Any man who desires can contribute double payment and take a double chance in the ballot. The scheme receives cor dial support among the miners, and many have already left the Cannock districts for the colonies, being aided by Colonial Go vernment grants. In Sheffield also the scheme has attracted practical attention, and. pieetings there have been held de claring a considerable emigration of sur plus population highly desirable at pre sent. It was resolved to form an associa -tion to facilitate this object.

THE FARMER.

AGRICULTURAL PAPERS. No. 4. On the System of Farming Best Adapted Under the Existing Circumstances to Canterbury. By J. N. Tosh will, Esq. The following paper, headed as above, was read to the Lincoln Farmers’ Club by Mr Tosswill on the 9th July, 1872 ; In considering this very wide and im portant subject it will be obvious that while many matters require to be taken into consideration, such as peculiarities of climate, the relative values of produce and labor, etc., ■ yet they are all in reality included under the one general enquiry— “ What system of farming will yield the greatest amount of profit, and at the same time diminish the fertility of the soil as little as possible 'I " In this paper I propose to keep the question steadily in view, and although-it is impossible to lay down any rigid rule suitable to all cases, yet I hope to be able to indicate with sufficient distinctness a general system, .which it may reasonably be hoped will best comply with its conditions.

As you are aware, land may he farmed in three ways : 1. As permanent pasture. 2. As arable land, under a rotation of crops extending over four, six, or more years. 3. As alternative pasture and arable land.

As a convenient method of dealing with my subject, I will take these systems in their consecutive order, and endeavor to ascertain how far each is adapted to this province.

1. Permanent pasture. A few years ago, when both sheep and cattle were worth three or four times their present value, when roads were bad and railways only talked of, there was a general desire to sow land down with English grasses. Men looked forward to the time when, relieved from the uncer tainties, anxieties, and hard labor atten dant on grain growing, all their fields would be in grass, and by anticipation counted up the profits and rejoiced over the comfortable maintenance which they supposed to be in store for them. But, unfortunately, wool steadily declined and sheep fell to one fourth of their former value. Experience moreover proved that pasture, however carefully laid down, in most cases deteriorated rather than im proved after the first two or three years, ambit became evident under the peculiar conditions of our climate it would be im possible to maintain ordinary land as per manent pasture with any hope of success or profit. Sheep have lately slightly recovered in value, but it is greatly owing to the fall in cattle having created a sudden demand. In a few years, at the present rate of pro duction, it will probably be difficult to find a market otherwise than by boiling down or preserving for a large proportion of our cross-bred paddock sheep. T need hardly add that under these cir cumstances the idea of laying down land to permanent pasture has, in most cases been abandoned. 2. Cultivation as arable land under a rotation of crops. It is clear that any regular rotation of crops must imply a corresponding loss year by year of the fertilising properties of the soil, and that unless they are artifi cially renewed, it must speedily break down. Under the rotations common in England, such as the Norfolk or alternate system, which consists of turnips, barley or oats, clover, wheat (or their equiva lents), the fertility of the soil is main tained, and even increased, but it is solely by means of the manure applied to the roots and green crops. This manure is obtained by stall feed ing large numbers of cattle—involving much labor, —by feeding sheep upon turnips or hay, and by occasional pur chases of guano, phosphate of lime, &c. The cheapness of labor and the high price of meat render it not only impossible but highly successful amidst a dense popu lation like that of England, but as a re cent writer in the “ Australasian ” justly observes : “It would be no more possible to farm profitably in these colonies by adopting the four course Norfolk system in its integrity, feeding stock for nearly two thirds of the year upon straw, turnips, and hay, than it would be to pay farm rents in England out of beef and mutton at Australian [and he might have added Australasian] prices. It is the extreme value of meat which maintains the fertility of English farms, and those who are con stantly blaming the colonial husbandman for not following the example of his Eng lish prototype, only exhibit their incapa city to assume the role of instructors.” 3. Cultivation by alternately sowing down to pasture for a time, and breaking up and cropping for a time : As this system—which is that described in works upon agriculture as the convert ible system of husbandry—took its rise out of the old triennial system, it may be well, before proceeding further, to trace their connection. The triennial system, which continued through so many cen turies the practice in England, where it was enforced by law, consisted of one year wheat or rye, one year oats or barley, one year fallow. Owing to the thinly popu lated country, large tracts of grass land and forest were available for pasturage around each village, and while cattle could feed on these runs in summer, and eat up the straw at home in winter, no difficulty was experienced in obtaining sufficient manure to maintain the fertility of the soil and produce two grain crops in suc cession, while the fallow kept the fields clear of weeds.

But when the pastures were in time broken up, and less manure produced, the land became impoverished, and at last the worst, being uncultivated, returned to natural pasture. After a time it was found to be greatly renovated, and this gave the idea of laying down regularly to grass by sowing seeds, as a means of restoring fertility. In fact, as the Rev. W. Rham states in the “Dictionary of the Farm,” the articles from which are copied into the “National Cyclopjedia ” : —“ The want of a sufficient supply of manure on the old three-field system, led to the laying down arable land for pas ture for a time, and then breaking it up again.” •' ■ ' You will perceive that there is in this a remarkable analogy with our own case.

Tho waste lands in the settlor! districts have all become enclosed, and it is no longer possible to enrich our holds at the expense of adjoining open country. The original fertility of our soils has so greatly diminished by repeated cropping, and “the want of a sufficient supply of manure ” is exactly our great need. Our case, in fact, exactly resembles that of our forefathers, and the remedy which they devised appears to bo the only one possible in Canterbury. By the introduction of turnips and green crops highly manured they pass on to the alternate system, with all its many advantages, but for reasons already stated we cannot imitate them. In our rotations we must be content to start from what the Melbourne “ Leader” calls “ the healthy and natural basis of grass,” taking care not to draw too largely upon the fertility thus obtained before sowing down again. Having then arrived at the conclusion that the convertible system is the one best adapted to our circumstances, we will proceed to consider what rotations are possible under it. Land that has been laid down in pas ture two or three years becomes greatly enriched, not only by the droppings of sheep and cattle, but also by the peculiar power possessed by grass plants, especially clover, of abstracting nourishment from the atmosphere. “Plants of this kind,” says Professor Stockhardt, absorbs so much nourishment, —namely, carbonic acid, ammonia, and water— from the atmos phere that the roots and other residue produced thereby remaining in the land give the soil more humus constituents and nitrogen than they have extracted from it during their growth. ” When it is broken up this stored up fertility becomes avail able for the production of crops of grain. By the rotting of the sward it becomes rich in humus. “This substance,” says Professor Stockhardt, “ when air and moisture can act upon it is slowly but unceasingly decomposed still further, and therefore continually furnishes fresh srjjplies of carbonic acid to the roots of plants as nourishment. At the same time also, the nitrogenous and mineral sub stances which it contains become soluble, and capable of being received as food.” As long as the stock of humus lasts, and there is sufficient moisture to decompose it, good crops may therefore be expected. But owing to the great demands made upon it by cereals, and still more to the gradual disappearance and volatilization going on where it is exposed to the rays of the sun, the supply soon diminishes and for us there is no alternative but sow ing down to grass to obtain a fresh supply. The quantity of humus still remaining and available for the nourishment of the young grass is of course dependent upon the extent to which the land has been previously exhausted, and the “ plant” of grass will be good or bad in proportion.

A good “ plant ” of grass is essential to the formation of a fresh supply of humus for a future rotation, and hence it follows that by repeated cropping not only is the immediate result attended with loss and disappointment, but the injury done to the land is felt through many successive years. The humus contained in the soil is, so to speak, a farmer’s capital, and the taking of three or foui grain crops in suc cession, is nothing less than living upon capital at the expense of income. History teaches us what the result of such a prac tice has always been, and we need only read the American and Australian papers which lie on this table to learn, that in this respect history still repeats itself, in obedience to the same immutable laws of nature. The best rotation possible, after breaking up grass land, would be to take but one crop of grain, and then sow down again. A good corn crop would be looked for with tolerable certainty, and a splendid pasture would follow, the land becoming more and more rich, in proportion to the amount of humus stored up. Such a ro tation would, however, allow but a very small proportion of the total area to be in cultivation at any one time, and this, added to the cost of the necessary clover and grass seeds, would prevent its general adoption. Farmers are so much in need of present returns that I think most men would insist upon at least two grain crops, obtained either twice in succession or with an intermediate fallow or root crop. More than two grain crops in succession are certainly not advisable, for reasons already stated. On rich soils it might be possible to take three grain crops by allow ing a turnip crop to intervene, but it is questionable if the third crop would not. be dearly purchased, and the land would certainly require to remain longer in grass before being broken up again; where wheat is required to follow wheat, tin intermediate fallow may no doubt be ad vantageous. The practice allows of sow • ing rape immediately after the first crop is removed, and plenty of time is allowed to feed it off in spring. The droppings of the sheep, rich in nitrogen, the principal constituent of wheat, are ploughed in fresh and a good crop generally follows. The the chief objection, besides the cost of fallowing and the loss of a year, is that should there be any sorrel in the ground it will speedily spread, unless kept clown by repeated harrowings and scarifyings, and this constant attention it is not always possible to give during the busy months which include harvest. Hallowing the soil no doubt in creases its immediate productiveness, owing to the rapid decomposition of its inorganic and humus ingredients. The cereal crop rapidly gains, but it is at least an open question if, in this climate, where the sun is so powerful and evaporation owing to the high winds, so excessive, the loss arising from volatilisation is not more than equal to the gain by absorption fi om the atmosphere. The introduction of a turnip crop between the second and third grain crops, although excellent in itself, and to be defended upon all the principles of scientific husbandry, is open to the same objections about sorrel, and on heavy land in this neighborhood it has been found a bad preparation for grain, owing to the poaching of the soil caused by feeding oft' in winter and early spring, and its consequent lumpy condition. As you are aware, spring is ordinarily ushered in with high winds, the transition from extreme moisture to dryness being ex ceedingly sudden. Heavy land has always at such times a tendency to cake, and this is much increased by the treading of sheep consequent upon feeding off roots upon the ground. The objection would not, of course, apply in the same degree to light soils. Although it is impossible, as I stated at the commencement of this paper, to lay down any rule applicable to all cases, a man’s own experience being often his best guide, yet in my opinion a

simple rotation something like the follow ing would offer many advantages, and would be open to no serious objection : One year wheat. One year oats or barley. Three years grass, or one year turnips, two years red clover and grass. Upon a farm of 100 acres there might be 20 acres wheat, 20 acres oats or barley, and CO acres grass each year ; or 20 acres wheat, 20 acres oats or barley, 30 acres grass, 10 acres turnips, 20 acres red clover and grass. The proportion of red clover and turnips might vary according to cir cumstances, but as it appears certain that comparatively high prices will always be obtained for meat in the winter and early spring, each year will probably find us devoting more and more attention to the growth of roots. Turnips fed off witli sheep make a splendid preparation for red clover, and any sorrel m the land world bo speedily banished when the latter be came established. Red clover supplies an abundance of feed during the hottest summer months when ordinary pasture is burnt up, and in consequence of its r r ots being so rich in nitrogen is about the best known preparation for wheat. Three years in grass or under turnips and red clover fed off by sheep would more than restore to the soil the humus abstracted from it in producing two grain crops. The farmer would be enabled to keep a comparatively large flock of sheep in pro portion to bis acreage, and I need not say that where sheep abound there will grain also abound. Many other reasons might be brought forward, but as this paper has already grown beyond ordinary dimen sions, I will conclude by expressing a con viction that if instead of exhausting the soil by repeated cropping some more ju dicious system were generally adopted we should not only find ourselves nearer to the solution of the question—“ How to obtain the most profit at the least expense in fertility,” but also having the satisfac tion of knowing that we had done our duty in our day and generation as stewards and trustees of the farm lands of this young country for the benefit of posterity.

ANOTHER FATAL FIRE IN DUNE DIN.

TWO CHIDDREN BURNED TO DEATH. Dunedin, Oct. 30. A fire broke out shortly before ton o’clock in a two-roomed cottage at the rear of a building near the corner of Great King street and Union street. The building was occupied by a dairyman named Michael O’Brien, his wife, and three children. At the time the fire oc curred, the husband, wife and infant were outside the bouse, and the two children in bed. It was believed that one of the fowls inside the house knocked over a kerosene lamp, for it was from the break ing of a lamp that the fire originated. The small tenement was filled with flame directly, and though desperate efforts were made to save the children, both perished in the flames. Their bodies were recovered about half an hour after the fire broke out, as the flames were easily subdued. One of the children is a boy aged three, and the other a girl two years old. The scene was a terrible one. The father and mother were in uncon trollable agony, and the mother swooned, and was removed to a neighbor’s house in an insensible state.

A very sad incident connected with the affair is, that when O’Brien rushed to see the bodies of his children he received a heavy blow in the face from a fireman, and an order was made by one of the Brigade to take him in charge. This of course occurred in mistake, but it was an exceedingly painful exhibition of officious ness.

Women on the Gallows.

Within recent recollection the gallows have been busy in England with female criminals; and more than a dozen have suffered death under Her Majesty Queen Victoria, many of them being phenomenal criminals. In April, 1845, we believe, Sarah Freeman was hanged at Taunton for the poisoning with arsenic of her mother, brother, husband, and illegiti mate son. In April, 1849, Sarah Thomas was hanged at Gloucester for beating out the brains of her mistress, an old women of fil, with a stone. She went to the gallows in an ungovernable fit of rage, wrestling and biting so desperately that it was with difficulty two warders could force her up the ladder, and her screams of anger and terror continued until the bolt was drawn. On the 21st of August of the same year Alary Ann Geering was hanged in front of Lewes jail for having poisoned her husband and two sons, so as to get the burial allowance from the Friendly Society to which they belonged. Two days later, Rebecca Smith suffered at Devizes for the murder of her baby, aged four weeks. Her show of fervent piety had provoked much sympathy for her, but after her conviction she broke down and confessed that she had poisoned her seven other children. Finally, on the 13th of November the Mannings were hanged before Horsemonger Lane Jail. On the 9th of August Patrick O’Connor, a custom-house officer, was missed from his lodgings. On the 17th his body was found buried in the back kitchen of his friends, the Mannings, in Minister-place, Bermondsey, lying on its face, with its legs doubled and tied up in a mass of quicklime. The house was deserted, Mrs Manning having gone to O’Connor’s lodgings after killing him and taken his money and securities, and then fled to Edinburgh under an assumed name. The police during the three days that elapsed before her flight had searched her house, but not closely. On the 20th she was taken, having offered some of the stolen scrip for sale; on the 29th her husband was captured in Jersey. During the inquiry lie declared that his wife had invited O’Connor to dinner, and asking him to go downstairs to wash his hands, had put her arms around his neck when they reached the passage and shot him. The trial took pLce on October 25th and 26th. Mrs •Manning, who spoke in ex cellent English, but with a slight French accent, complained that she had not been treated like a Christian, but like a wild beast of the forest; that there was no law in England to execute her; and if Mr Ballan tine had called witnesses he could have shown that she bought the scrip with her own money. Her husband made a confession of a kind, imputing the guilt chiefly to her, though she severely asseve rated her innocence and besought him to tell the truth and save her life. His most

circumstantial statement \v f ya ns follows ; “My wife asked O'Connor to go down stairs, and in about a minute afterwards I hoard the report of a pistol. She then came up to me and said, ‘Thank God, I have made him all right at last; it will never be found out, as we are on such extraordinary good terms no one will ever have the least suspicion of my murdering him.’ To which I replied, ‘ I am quite certain that you will be hanged for this act,’ and she said, ‘ It won’t be you that is to suffer ;it will be me.’ After shoot ing him she said, ‘ I think no more of what I have done than if I had shot the cat on the wall.’ Upon her coming to me upstairs she insisted on my going down immediately, and upon my reaching the kitchen I found him lying there. He moaned —I never liked him well—and I battered his head with a ripping chisel.” Mrs Manning was hanged in black satin and a long lace veil. She and her husband shook hands upon the drop. Dickens wrote of the execution, memorable to this day, that “a sight so inconceivably awfulasthe wickedness and levity of theim inense crowd could be imagined by no man and presented by no heathen land under the sun. * * * There was no emotion, no more pity, no more thought that two immortal souls had gone to judgment, no more restraint in any of the previous obscenities, than if the name of Christ had never been heard in this -world and there were no belief among men but that they perish like the beasts. ” On the Bth of August, 1853, Helen Blackwood and Hans Smith Macfarlane were hanged at Glasgow for throwing a ship-carpcnter, named Boyd, out the window of a brothel, while he was helplessly drunk. The next execution of a woman which we find recorded took place at Dumfries, April 29, 1862, when Mary Timney was hanged for killing Ann Hannah. “ The execu tion,” we road, “ was rendered unusually touching and remarkable from the hysterical appeals of the poor woman on her passage to the gallows that mercy might even then be extended to her for the sake of her poor children.” Sept. 19, 1804, Jane Myers and Joseph Sargisson were executed at Leeds, and on the 11th of January, 1869, Ann Lawrence suflered death at Maidstone for the murder of her child. On the 27th of May, 1870, Maagaret Lynch and her brother Lawrence were hanged at Tulla more, Ireland, for the murder of one Dunne, and on the 11th of October, within the precincts of Horsemonger Lane Jail, was put to death the notorious Margaret Waters, the baby farmer. She had had many aliases and was known to receive infants at railroad stations and in the streets. Wherever she made her residence, at Brixton, Batterson, and Peckham, the emaciated bodies of babies were found with suspicious frequency in out-of-the-way places. On the eve of her execution she wrote a statement attribut ing her resorting to baby farming to finan cial difficulties ; she bad borrowed money at exorbitant interest, and people were willing to pay freely to get rid of their illegitimate children —she thought they were more to blame than herself. She owned to having laid down the bodies of five babies, but insisted that they bad died of convulsions or dysentry—not of deliber ate starvation. The original Little Butter cup walked to the scaffold with a firm step, and after the rope had been adjusted, “ uttered in a calm and composed tone, what was described by those who heard it, as a beautiful extempore prayer. She appeared to die instantaneously.”. March 25, 1873, was banged at Durham, Mary Ann Cotton, the Bishop Auckland prisoner, who had done to death eighteen persons, husbands, children, and lodgers. With

all tin's load of guilt upon her conscience slept well, walked to the gallows with a firm step, and spent several minutes there in earnest prayer. The person who “funked” was the Under Sheriff, who had to be supported by two men, and fainted dead awav when the drop fell. On the 29th Juno, 1874, Frances Stewart was hanged for killing her gradson. On the 15th of .August last Selina Wadge, a woman of 28, was hanged at Bodmin- for dropping one of her two illegitimate children into a well. A man had prom ised to marry her if she could d'spose of one of them. She was a “ very kind mother,” and the jury recommended her to mercy, but in vain. On the 2Gth of May, 1879, Catherine Churchill, aged 54, was executed at Tiunton. She hail killed her husband with a bill-hook to prevent him altering the will he had made in favor of their illegitimate son, and then burned the body so that scarcely a trace of violence could be found about it. She firmly pro tested her innocence and insisted that her life had been sworn away. Finally, on the 29th July, Kate Webster was executed at Wadsworth for being unable to hold her tongue. Had she kept her own counsel it would have been impossible to establish legally that it was she who killed her mistress, Mrs Thomas, at Richmond, cut the body into pieces and threw them into the Thames. Her case was further notable in that when she pleaded preg nancy in bar of execution a jury of matrons was impanelled to pass upon the plea. The President of the London Obstertrical Society published a letter on the original impropriety of retaining in a modern judicial system a custom "based upon a mediajval medical error long since exposed.

Military Pocket Handkerchiefs.

From J}-on. Geography is a weak point with the Fi ench nation. The Germans, when they invaded France, were found to know the country Letter and to possess better maps of it than the natives themselves. Cul ture in France, indeed, seems to be the possession of the few, and that probably is one cause of the dangerous instability of the Government. The men in power appear to have discovered this, and are evidently doing all they can, despite priestly opposition and intrigue, to strengthen themselves and the country by educating the masses. One of the ex pedients adopted for popularising science in the army partakes of the ludicrous, suggesting as it does the “ moral pocket handkerchiefs” for the elevation of the little niggers which Dickens has made famous. The French soldiers, we are told, have for some time had pocket handkerchiefs served out to them, on each of which is printed a map of France and its principal colonies ; and now others are being distributed bearing impressed on them the leading directions in reference to arms, equipments, harness, drill, &c, of the infantry and cavalry.

Mark Twain’s Cat Story.

A GOOD ONE NOT IN ANY OF HIS COL LECTIONS. I knew by the sympathetic glow upon his bald head—l knew by the thoughtful look upon his face—l knew by the emo" tional flush upon the strawberry end of the old free-liver’s nose, that Simon Wheeler’s memory was busy wi:h the old time. And so I prepared to leave, for all these were symptoms of a reminiscence— signs that he was going to be delivered of another of hia tiresome personal ex periences—but I was too slow ; he got the start of me. As nearly as I can recollect, the infliction was couched in the following language : “ We were all boys then, and didn’t care for nothing, and didn’t have any trouble, and didn’t worry about nothing only to shirk school and keep up a re vivin’ state of devilment ail the time. This yah Jim Wolf 1 was talkin’about was the ’prentice, and he was the best hearted feller, lie was, and the most forgivin’ and onsellish I ever see—well, there could not be a more bullior boy than he was, take him how you would, and sorry enough was I when I see him for the last time.

“ Me and Henry was always pestering him, and plastering horsebills on his hack and putting bumble bees in his bed, and so on, qnd sometimes we’d crowd in and bunk with him, notwithstanding his growling, and then we’d let on to get mad and fight across him, so as to keep him stirred up like. Ho was nineteen, he was, and long, and lank, and bashful, and we was fifteen and sixteen, and tolerably lazy and worthless.

“ So, that night, yon know, that my sister Mary gave a candy pullin’, they started us to bed early so as the company could have full swing, and we run in on Jim to have some fun. “ Our winder looked out onto the roof of an ell, and about ten o’clock a couple of old tom cats got to runnin’ and chargin around it, and carryin’ on like mad. '1 here was four inches of snow on the roof, and it was frozen, so that there was a right smart crust of ice on it, and the moon was shinin’ bright and we could see them cats like daylight. First they would stand off and e-yow, yow, yow, just the same as they was scoldin’ one another, you know, and how up their hacks and push up their tails and swell round and spit ; then all of a sudden the grey cat ’ud snatch a handful of hair from the yallow cat’s ham, and spin round him like the button on a barn door. But the yaller cat was game, and he’d come and clinch, and the way they’d make the fur fly W'as powerful. “ Well, Jim, he got disgusted with the row, and ’lowed he’d climb out there and shake ’em ofl’n that roof. He hadn’t reely no intention of doin’ it, likely, but we ever lastin’ly dogged him, and bullyragged him, and ’lowed he’d always bragged how he would not take a dare, and so on, and lo and behold yon, he went—went exactly as he was—nothin’ on but a shirt, and that was short. But you ought to see him. You ought to see him creeping over that ice, and diggin’ his toe nails and finger nails in to keep from slippin’, and ’bove all you ought to have seen that shirt-tail a-flappin’ in the wind, and them long, ridiculous shanks of his a glistenin’ in the moonlight. “ Them company folks were down there under the eaves, the whole squad of them under the ornery shed of old Washin’ton Bower vines—all sett’n round about two dozen sassers of hot candy, which they’d set in the snow to cool. And they was laughin’ and talkin’ lively ; but bless you, they didn’t know nothin’ about the pano rama that was goin’ on over their heads. Well, Jim, he went a sneakin’ up unbe known to them cats—they was a swishin’ their tails and yow-yowin’ and threatenin’ to clinch, you know, and not payin’ any attention—he went a sneakin’ right up to the comb of the roof, till he was in a foot and a half of ’em, and then all of a sudden he made a grab for the yaller cat ! But bj r gosh, he missed fire and slipped his holt, and his heels flew up and he flopped on his back, and shot ofl”n that roof like a dart, went a slashin and a crushin’ down through them old rusty vines and landed right in the dead centre of them company people— sot down like a ycarthquake in them two dozen sassers of red-hot candy, and let of a howl that was hark f’m thetonih ! Them gals—well, they looked you know. They sec ho wasn’t dressed for company, and so they left. All done in a second, it was just one little war ■whoop, and a swish of their dresses, and nary the wench of ’eiu w'as in sight anywhere. “ Jim, he was a sight. He was gormed with that bilin’ hot molasses candy clean down to his heels, and had more busted sassers bangin' to him than if he was an Injun princess—and he came a prancin’ up stairs just a whoopin’ and ragin’, and every jump he gave ho shed some china, and every squirm he fetched he dropped some can cl v !

“ And blistered ! Why bless your soul, that poor cretur’ couldn’t rcely set down comfortable for as much as four weeks. ”

Taxation of Beauty.

Tho Chancellor of the Exchequer when presenting or about to present, his Budget, is .annually inundated with sug gestions and advice as to what article should have a tax imposed upon it ; each would-be legislator of course being equally confident that his is the only right and proper way for diminishing the National Debt, or possibly producing a balance on the credit side. The list of articles when road causes much laughter, and, if the Budget is not so satisfactory as it might be, the Chancellor of the Ex chequer benefits, by this hilarity, inas much as hy the time he is ready to pro ceed to the business part of his speech, the “House” is in a good humor. Amongst other gratuitous counsel there was one suggestion at the last “presenta tion” that struck us as being decidedly good. That was the proposal to tax photographs. The enormous increase of late years in this branch of pictorial art fully justifies the supposition that a small imposition would he a great source of revenue; and as the main object and aim of a Government is to tax luxuries onty, leaving intact the necessary commodities of every-day life, it would seem to answer this requirement completely. It cannot be said that photography, especially portraiture, is a necessity, it must come under tho head of a luxury. It is one of “ Mary Ann’s ” chief delights to be “took” with-her young man,” and the effigy, costing from sixpence to a shilling, will remain in her possession long after

tTio ‘‘young man" has trjftsferrei powers of fascination to others; or it be that Mary Ann herself is some changeable, in which case her box contain a perfect gallery of her portrait, with the protecting arms various ‘ ‘ young men ” encircling waist. Again, surely it is not a necess that photographs of reigning beauties, so-ealled beauties, should fill our sh windows, side by side with actressi leaders of the derai monde, malefacto and murderers, all labelled and ticketted “Mr A., 2s fid ”; Mrs 8., 2s ”; “ Mau C., 3s”; and “Putney Bill, in great dt mand, 2s 3d”? No. The vanity 0 human nature, whether displayed as ii the case of Mary Ann, or by the love o, publicity, as in the other ' instances (save and except, perhaps, “Putney Bill,”), is fair game for taxation, and well worthy of consideration. At first sight it would seem somewhat difficult to collect the tax, or to obtain even an approximate idea of how many photographs were taken in the year by the various “ galleries,” “ studios,” and “ companies ” now extant. There are, however, many ways by which this difficulty might be overcome. Either by compelling each artist to take out a license, costing, say £ls per annum, or by having every card on which the photo graph is mounted stamped at so much apiece, as is done abroad with bills and advertisements; or perhaps the best 1 method of all would be—a fair impost on every lens or apparatus in the studio. It 1 would, of course, increase the price of ' photography in a small degree, but that ! cannot, be held up as a disadvantage, or one that the public would feel very strongly about. We doubt if it would r diminish the production by as much as r one “carte.” For a short space cer r tainly, the “young men” and “ fol -1 lowers ” might grumble at having to pay a penny or so extra for Mary Ann’s picture, and the contractors for male ic factors and beauties might raise the 1 cuckoo cry of “injury to trade.” But 3 that would not cause a revolution or civil I war. Even if their trade were slightly k damaged by reason of the increased 3 price, the pandering to human vanity is 3 not an article of commerce that is essen f tial to the the welfare of the country, but 1 rather the reverse. Indeed, it will be a I healthy sign when the public are tired of 3 portraits of celebrities and themselves, or 1 their husbands, perceive how execrable is I the taste which allows of the practice? 1 being carried on.

Cyclone and Waterspout at New Bruns wick.

An extra edition of the “ Moniteur Avadien” contains the following particulars of the great storm at Buctouche :—At about one o’clock on Wednesday afternoon the sky was covered with dark, thick clouds, and heavy thunderclaps were heard in the distance. This presaged a tempest, but nobody expected the terrific one that plunged the people of North Bank in terror. Some tliick clouds ploughed the sky, and two especially, and black, approached each other from opposite directions, and came into collision at Rich Cove, about two miles above Mary’s Church. The shock was terrible, forming a waterspout conical in shape and frightful in size. The cyclone, moving towards the east, traversed several small woods, uprooting and raising everything in the course of its passage for the width of two acres. Three farm-houses with bams and stock were scattered about the fields. After describing a circle towards the north, the waterspout fell upon a bam and completely demolished it. The zigzag course saved St. Mary’s and the Presby terian churches and their dependencies. Advancing towards the east in a .zigzag fashion, in the twinkling of an eye it reached Buctouche Church, where it wrought its last destruction on the side of the frith, and then lost itself in the sea. On the river the waterspout lifted two arches from the top of the big bridge to the south of the channel, and launched them a hundred paces below'. The covering of the mill on the south side w r as carried off, and the crown was injured. Return ing to the river the cyclone moved back to strike the convent, the church and presby tery, and it is here especially that the ruins are enormous and the destruction indis cribable. The convent was considerably damaged, the church steeple was raised on one side many feet, and the church itself w r as othermise much damaged, outside and in. The presbytery is a mere mass of ruins. The violence of the cyclone was tremendous. Houses were raised thirty feet and dashed to pieces. At St. Mary hi Church trunks of trees, poles, pieces of wood, Ac., traversed the air with the rapidity of lightning. A large, heavy hay cart, that had been left near a barn at St. Mary’s was transported a quarter of a mile, and a carriage was smashed to atoms. Ricks of hay containing twenty tons nearly disappeared before the tornado. One of the gallery benches of the Buctouche Church was carried through a window into the presbytery. The number of -dead and wounded, large as it appears, is w'onderfully small considering the circum stances. Among the dead are the wife of Etrenne Duplestis, who was confined to her bed with sickness, and was found dead in it in her demolished house; Jean Squaw, wife of Thadeus, who had her head broken by stones from a chimney; a two year old child of Alexis Roy, who died yesterday of wounds received. Among the wounded are Alexis Roy, dangerously bruised all over his body; Mrs M. Girouard, whose skull is frac tured, and who remained insensible until this morning ; Narcisse Chesse, wife, and two daughters, badly bruised ; Anseime Allain, sick in bed and much bruised ; a little Girl of Phillip Cornier, burned foot ; two little girls of Thomas Ward, . legs crushed; an Indian widow ; fractured skull and other injuries, and expected to die ; two young Indian girls, broken arms; a young Indian, wounded in the leg; a child of Yitol Girouard, fatally wounded. The number of houses destroyed is more than eighty. The losses amount to fully SIOO,OOO.

4

THE ASHBURTON GUARDIAN

[ S.-Wt;RuaV t. 1879.



Dissenters are much persecuted by - tho authorities in the Bernaul and Biesk dis tricts of Siberia, and 150 of them have decided to complain to • the RuSsialn Go vernment of 1 tho invasion' of ; thair |fmhily life,- the taking 1 ftwajr •' of ‘■’their and other arbitrary acts to which they are subjected.