Some of our women folks are working themselves up into a hysterical state oj nervousness as to the mulbibude of bad, wicked men who are going aboub the sbreets seeking, whab innocent maiden or chaste mabron they may devour. lam told that our young ladies in the fac tories are putting spikes into their um brellas to poke the horrid men with and thab some of them are armed with great big six shooters. The bhing borders upon the farcical. That there are a Jew dirty rascals in this as in other cibies we all know bub thab, as one woman re marked bo some one I know, " no girl can leave her own home afber dusk " is all twaddle and to pub such stuff about will do infinitely more harm bhan would a few genuine cases. The next thing we shall hear will be that a half-dozen of decent family men have been " run in " for glancing a paternal eye upon the handsome ladies he passed on his way home. Even the assault case bhab came before the Court on Wednesday had ibs amusing side, and had the young lady walked straight to 'her house she would, probably, have not met with a brute who mistook an innocent look for an invitation,

Our Dunedin correspondent vgjred. last evening that the river was 2ft lOin above " normal."

At a meeting of directors of the Lawrence Dredging Co. on Tuesday evening, it .was re- Qplved that a bonus of £10 10s be awarded to Mr A. N. Wakefield for bis valuable services in supervising the overhaul of the company's dredge. The short time taken over the alter ations and the efficient manner in which the work has been performed afforded great satis faction to the directors. The secretary was instructed when forwarding the bonus to ex press the directors' appreciation of the energy and ability shown by him. Mr Alex. Aitken, late tof the Tuapeka dredge but how on the Roxburgh Jubilee, had « narrow escape from drowning on Wednes day. He was engaged boating coal to the dredge when the rope got wrenched from his bund and the boat got adrift. Bhe struck a side line, the jerk throwing Aitken into the water. On coming up he managed to oatoh hold of the side of the boat and bo saved him self.
