MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1489, 29 December 1884, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

It has always puzzled an E g!i<b paper to find a reason why bheCasom i House authorities should bum all, or nearly all, the tobacco confiscated as smuggled goods, and the statement made by Mi 1 Courtney in the House of Commons the other day that 95,000 pounds of tobacco and cigars were seized during the four years ending January 1, 1884, that the cigars wer& sold and the tobacco burned, with the exception of 7000 pounds weight, which was sent to Kew to serve for fumigating the plants, leaves us still in doubt as to the sanity of the act ; surely some better use might have been found for the weed. Were there no military or naval hospitals which might have been supplied for the cost of the carriage? Possibly while th& Treasury was busy burning this good tobacco, the War Office was laying in a stock at the usual high prices which the nation is made to pay for it. "Couldn't you find room enough for yourself on that bench, without pushing that littln boy off on the floor ?" asked the school teacher of the bad boy of th« school. " 1 didn't want any room at all for myself," was the reply, " 1 wasn't crowded at all." " Then why did you push him off?" •• to give him more room. He was the boy who was crowded, so I pushed him off to give him plenty of room. There is a great deal more room off a bench than there is on it."