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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1455, 15 October 1872, Page 2

The Canterbiuy Press has an article on Mr Gisborne's retirement, on the defeat of the Ministry of which he was a member, upon his Commissionership and .£7OO per annum. It says :—-" To speak plainly, it is a very discredit*)hi" affair. One cannot imagine anything of the kind happening in England. Try to fancy an English Minister deliberately holding in hand the choicest piece of patronage at his disposal a.s a provision for himself in the event ol his leaving office. One cannot conceive such a thing as possible. To find any

approach to a parallel caso, we must ao back a hundred year*) to the days ©f sinecures and pluralist*. Or take Victoiia, for instance. "We do not think for a moment that any Minister there would be mixed up with such a transaction; but we are confident that if he were, he would draw down such a storm of condemnation that his character as a public man would be utterly ruined. Even in the least particular of the A nstralian colonies we believe it would regarded as a scandal. We are grieved and ashamed that in New Zealand alone it should have been found practicable. There is no saying what mischief may not be done by so pernicious a precedent. The tone of political life, Heaven knows, is none too high in this colony, and actions such as these tend to lower it beyond redemption. The late Ministry have much to answer for in this respect. Their influence upon public life and morality, the standard of which they should have regarded as a duty to maintain or to raise, has been miserably degrading. We have had many examples, and this is another and a grievous one. They have taught the country that in the words of Sir D. Munro, " the avenue to advancement and prolii lay through the door of political prostitution;" and they have criven our representatives to understand that the most lucrative appointments in the civil service are the legitimate perquisites of the occupants of the Treasury Bench.

One of the most curious phenomena connected with the late eruption of Vcsavhuis has been its effect on the trees. The heat of the lava was so great as actually to boil their sap, and to cause them to emit noises of the strangest character. A moment later and they were destroyed.

According to the Paris Figaro a most terrific scene recently occurred in the neighborhood of Manchester. It appears that twelve years ago a child, of the name of Lydia Cunningham, was stolen from her parents by an Irish acrobat, le Sicur Mahonye, who trained her up io his piofevi<>n. M iss Cunning ham became the ornament of the troupe; costumed en Patagone, she used to crack flint stones on Mr stomach. But vengeance was destined to overtake the child-stealer. The infatuated man ventured to give a performance near Manchester. Among the spectators was the bereaved parent, who, with un cri epouvantable, recognised his daughter He was, however, pacified for a moment by the iruperturable assurance of the actohat that she was a Patagonian Princess, and the performanceproeoeded. But the recognition had been mutual, and the younglady vas onl\ biding her time. The exhibition of serpents came next. A docile young boa constrictor, in obedience to a signal from Miss Cunningham, seized on the unfortunate Mahonye with a bound The public littered un hurrah formidable. The incantation continued, and the bones of the acrobat were distinctly heard to crack like dry wood. " The Patagonian, addressing herself then to the public, coolly observed, * Where is the man named Cunningham % ' ' Here I am,' cried the man who had first spoken. 1 Dear sir,' continued the young lady, I distinctly recogni-e you. You are my father. Go aud wait for me at the Star aud Garter.' The public at this instam rose in a flying from the horrible spectacle of Mahonye eaten by the boa." The story bears a certain air of improbability, but we have it on the authority of the "largest circulation in France.'' It would be admirably adapted for a realistic drama, and the boa-oonstrictor would fuvuhdi a magnificent stage effect.