The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1472, 16 June 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1881.

The poll for the election of one person duly qualified, to serve as a member of the House of Representatives for the district of Grey Valley took place to-day, the poll closing at four o'clock. Although there are three candidates, the election virtually rested between two of them—Mr G. G. Fitz Gerald and Mr T. S. Weston. We purpose if we receive a telegram at a reasonable hour this evening to publish an Extra with the results so far as they may have been ascertained. The Nelson Mail learns from a reliable source that Mr Thomas Russell, of Auckland, is known to have made a profit of £750,000 by speculating in the rise and

fall of Turkish bonds On the London Stock Exchange. The operation extended over two or three years, when the Eastern question was active.

According to a northern paper> there have recently been made at the laboratory of the Technological Museum at Melbourne, series of analyses of teas, obtained from all manner of sources in that cityj including all the kinds in common use in New Zealand, and the results are rather startling. Out of thirty samples purchased out of bulk from importers, and varying in price from lOd to 3s 3d per ft in bond, not a single one would pass the standard even for a low-class genuine tea. The Brush Electric Light Company have constructed a lamp of 100,000 candle power, which has been successfully tested at their manufactory in Cleveland, U.S. A. This is the largest and most powerful lamp that has hitherto been made* and is, it is said, intended for use in the navy. The carbons are 2J inches in diameter, and the motive power required is 40-horse power,

Probably few of our readers are aware that date coffee, that is coffee made from the date fruit, is slowly but surely super* ceding to a large extent in England and the Continent, the use of the article at present made from the well-known berry, We notice by London papers that eminent physicians give the date coffee the prefer* ehce as a wholesome and pleasant article of diet, indeed superior' to "the ordinary coffee in every respect, and large companies have been formed in England, France, and Germany for the manufacture, which must be a lucrative undertaking—as one of these companies advertise in the London Telegraph a. dividend of £3 per £5 share. Here is an opening worthy the attention of some of our enterprising New Zealand, capitalists. Does any one remember-a beautiful girl who, under the nickname of "La Comete," - flashed through the Parisian world during the last year of the Second Empire ? She was called " Comet "on account of the exceeding length and loveliness of her golden hair. The*ophile Gautier, wrote a sonnet to her son, Cabanel painted her portrait, Worth dressed her, and Leon Cugnot took her as the model of the statue, "Laßaigneuse." Her real name was Adele Terchout, and just before the Franco-German war broke she declined an offer of marriage from an elderly duke, with a very ancient escutcheon. At that time she owned one of the finest mansions in the Champs Elysees, had twelve horses in her stable, and a bushel of diamonds in her dressing case. Last February this dazzling creature died in a Parisian hospital absolutely destitute ; and the disease which earned her off was the most hideous that could befall a pretty woman—a lupus vorax, or cancer in the face, which totally disfigured her. Like Zola's "Nana," the only vestige left of her beauty when she died was her matchless hair, which measured nearly five feet.