MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1044, 3 February 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Dunedin Echo, speaking of diphtheria says that this terrible disease seems to be quite acclimatised in Canterbury. Hardly a month passes without a case in or about Christchurch. Dr. Coward is an eminent hardworking Health Office — would that we had in each city of the Colony such a Health Officer; but even he has been unable to rouse sufficient public attention to the need of preventing and stamping out disease. We would call attention to the need of preventing highly infectious diseases. The result of the small-pox in Sydney should warn those in the Colony what we many expect from neglecting sanitary precautions. We believe no country in the world could be made so healthy as New Zealand. But if our cities are huge camps without any sufficient sanitary arrangements, what do we expect but diseases and death. Diphththeria is a terrible disease, fatal in its results, and the germs of it are easily propagated and spread. Typhoid fever, also, is faa^too common in many places. As a recent scientific investigation has shown, that disease is ceaused by matter in the wrong place, the need of our Councils and Boards of Health looking after the sanitary arrangment is apparent The own correspondent of the Lyttelton Times telegraphs that Mr Seymore George, M H. R., has received a telegram from Mr J. C. Brown, the Opposition whip, stating that after communicating with various members, he calculates the strength of the Opposition to be 50, and 5 neutrals. This leaves 40 on the Government side. Efforts will be made to consolidate the Opposi tion forces before Parliament meets. In excavating ground for the new harbor at Reval, in Russia, in the bay of Bothnia, the hulls of several ships Ions: buried in the earth were discovered. Four Russian men-of-war of considerable dimensions — 120 to 180 feet long — have, it is said, been identified. From the inscription, "Olonets, 1711," on one of the cannons found, it seems that the ships were wrecked, after that date, and the fact is curious, as, showing how rapidly the water has receded. In old times the sea evidently came up to the walls of the town, which must then have presented a singulary picturesque appearance, with its quaint red-tiled houses, perched high on the rock above. At present there is half a mile of dry land between the walls and the harbor, and where great ships rode not very long ago the locomotive runs between rows of whaves and merchants' offices. Exporters of frozen meat have still a great deal to learn. The " Argus " correspondent lately writes : — " When I last wrote the shipment by the Orient had arrived in splendid order, and it would brought a good *price had not the Cusco shipment done so much harm. Now the Garrone meat is on the market in bad condition, a lot of it condemned by the inspector. I believe the machine on the Garonne worked as well as that on the Orient, but the meat was spoiled before it was put on board. The meat that the inspector takes is perfectly sweet, but the bulk of it has a fungus growth on the inside of the sheep. The sheep look all right on the outside, at least some of them do, but when opened you see this growth from the ribs on each side. On one that I saw it was as large as a dinnerplate, nearly an inch thick, white, and not easily rubbed off, felt like soft ] leather. Some of the other sheep the inspector took on account of small spots. The fungus is, I think caused by the j meat having been frozen in a damp atmosphere at Orange, allowed to thaw on the way to Sydney, and put into the ship wet. Some of the sheep in j this shipment were prime, others j again were wretchedly thin. One of the j salesmen said to me, they must think we are badly off for meat when they send us such stuff as that. Another j reason I have for thinking the meat was not in a frozen state when put on \ board is that it is all manner of shapes, j like some of the first Protos shipment. I One good feature in this shipment is j that there is not so much dripping or ! discoloration as in the shipments previous to the Orient.'' In a Southern colony there has been j raised a crusade against what we know | as "shouting." It might be interesting j to inquire the origin of the term. It seems to be somewhat connected with [ early mining days, or as we know them j vulgarily the breaking out of the diggings. One may suppose that at this period, when drinking was a kind ! of religion, and when a man who would ! not drink was accounted no better than j a heathen, the bars of public houses j were much crowded, and that those who desired liquor had to call out in j loud tones to barmaid or barman, as j the case may lie. After that fervous I epoch it was customary for the drinki ing to be done in parties, and the man I who paid the score was the man who called out to the Hebo or the Ganymede, rv; t!io e:v:e mi^ht be, the order. 1

And calling iufWrr.'! ] -v;;-,- i '.■>:>-.;.». quently to pay was to cali tor tiu? liquor, or to "shout" for it. So much for the .etymology. The moral aspect of the question has, for the most part, a ludicrous expression, for it exhibits mankind swallowing down liquor for no reason at all, but complying only with an insane custom which appears to have decreed that whether you desire liquor or not you must take it when it is offered you ; and, having taken it you must return the the compliment by offering liquor to him who offered it to you ; and if your friend has seven or eight other friends you must offer it to them also, and that each one of them must offer it to the company : and as one good turn deserves another the invitation to swallow liquor must go on, if not at that time, at some time after that, in fact you must never see one of those persons, or for the matter of that, any other person, without beseeching him to take a liquor, and not one of them must ever see you without pressing upon you the obligation of liquoring. It is easy to see that, in this way, life in the main will come tb be synonymous with liquor, and that to shout and to drink will be the chief business of existence, and, in more senses than one, the principal end of man. No doubt this custom is very good — for hotelkeeps ; but its benefit to anylwdy else is open to question, and those who have begun to reckon the cost of complying with the custom are beginning to wonder whether shouting money might not be put to more profitable uses, especially as many shouting people shout at the expense of their creditors ; and as they do not benefit their health, and as they certainly damage the health of their friends and acquaintances, it is asked why this heavy tax should be paid to the publicans ? For a wliile the non-shouting man will be voted mean ; but he will get over this imputation and probably at no distant period we shall neither liquor nor invite others to liquor unless the weather be exceedingly hot and we are desperately thirsty. And even then it is open to consideration whether every thirsty soul shall not pay for his own liquor without being under the compulsion to defray the cost of that of a crowd of other persons.