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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 81, 6 April 1867, Page 2

We are glad to find from the following, in the Marlborough Express, that Nelson skill has helped to keep in order the Provincial Clock. This unfortunate specimen of horology, we are happy to record, at last bids fair to be of service. Our readers will remember that when at Picton it was perfectly useless. Some months ago it was sent to Sydney, and a knowing hand undertook a cure, and on its return it was put up in the new Council Chambers, Blenheim ; but alas ! it was still ailing. Our contemporary told us the other day how ill it fared. But since that time a council of wise men was held ; Mr. Chief Contractor looked at it and felt it, and pronounced that the fault lay in the ropes, and he added 161bs more to the pendant. Mr. Tailor decided that it was wrong in its balancing powers, and its unsteady gait was caused by a want of equilibrium. Many and various were the opinions laid down, when Mr. Avery, of Nelson, came over by the p.s. Lyttelton, and at once took the desperate case in hand, and we are happy to say with apparent success, as the "Janus" has for the past eight days kept capital time, which circumstance will no doubt be considered by many as a recommendation of Mr. Avery's skill. We (Express) find that the Governor has been a suitor in the Resident Magistrate's Court at Wellington. Sir George Grey, Governor v. James Wallace. — There were two cases between the parties, in the first of which Sir George Grey claimed the sum of £87 10s., for the use of a house and land by defendant ; and in the second, claimed . possession of the house and land. .In the first case defendant confessed judgment ; in the second, defendant consented to an order being issued that possession of the property should'be given up. Costs allowed plaintiff. The Wanganui Chronicle mentions, as a " sigu of the times," that among the claimants for registration oh this occasion ' it is glad to find the name of a Maori freeholder. George Gray has very properly put in his claim, and the fact deserves mention as beiDg the first of the kind in Wanganui. These is no need for- any special laws for the natives, Colonial law is as free to the Maori as the Pakeha, and we shall best help the former by seeking to impress this upon their minds.

, From the report of a lecture lately given by Mr. Dob&on, in the Christchurch Town Hall, on "Piling Caisons, and Coffer Dams," we take the following : — With regard to the alleged difficulty of driving piles in the Canterbury rivers, he thought it. was more imaginary, than real. In the bed of the Rakaia he had found no difficulty'whatever, and they were so firmly fixed that, in some experiments made by Mr. Doyhe upon them to test their stability, he found it impossible to draw them out. . The bed of the Taipo was of a more difficult character, being full of boulders, but even there, notwithstanding the length of the bridge — 270 feet — not a single pile failed. They were all driven in eight feet in the shingle, and are as firm now as ever. Pile, driving in shingle is more difficult than in soft ground, for the piles have not only to ., be driven in, but also pushed from side to side to force their points between the boulders.