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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 188, 13 August 1867, Page 2

\L One of our facetious correspondents inquires what is the present price of bark? We conclude that, according to a recent decision, it must be £20 with two securities in £10 each. The price however would probably depend materially on the fact whether the article was registered before it was collared, and moreover upon the Waite and measure employed. The Southland News of the 3rd instant gives a lengthy report of the opening of the new Wesieyan Church at Invercargill, which took place on Sunday the 30th ult., when the Rev. R. S. Bunn, late of Nelson, preached two sermons to crowded and attentive congregations. On the following Wednesday the tea meeting was held, which was very numerously attended, and at which the Report of the Building Committee was read. From this statement the agreeable fact was elicited that the funds, with the exception of a comparatively trifling amount, had been found sufficient for all the requirements of the undertaking. The whole credit, of the movement is ascribed to the Rev. Mr. Bunn; and his numerous friends in Nelson will learn with sincere pleasure thafc the same zeal and activity which he displayed during his sojourn in this city have borne such fruit in Invercargill. We understand that we were misinformed yesterday that Mr. Jones and his party had returned to town. They were at the Baton store on Thursday last, for the purpose of obtaining provisions, and were there seen by our informant, who concluded, doubtless, that they were on their way to, aud had arrived in town. Mr. Jones is still going on with the work he has in hand, cutting the track from the Baton store to the bend of the Karamea. Our readers will perceive from an announcement in our advertising columns, that another daily conveyance to Wakefield had been started, leaving that place every morning at 8, reaching Richmond at 9, and Nelson about half-past 10, returning the same afternoon at 3 o'clock. This conveyance is, we understand, a very comfortable one, being built on the American principle, with through brace springs, and the enterprise will, no doubt, meet with encouragement. Yesterday's Gazette notifies the appointment of Mr. Henry Clouston, as Gaoler of Nelson Gaol, in the place of Mr, Rodgerson, resigned, and furnishes lists of applicants for leases, under the Crown Lands (Nelson) Leasing Act, 1865, received during the last month, including Messrs. J. Ribet, A. Drummond, W. D. Hough, (in the Baton district), H. J. Tunnicliff, and W. Norris, and of applicants for depasturing licenses, including Dr. Reuwick, Messrs. M. O'Laughlin, T.Carter, and J.Stuart. The Gazette also contains a list of sixteen applicants for relief under the Debtors and Creditors Act, all from the West Coast.

The usually monotonous routine of a Monday morning's business at the Police Court was yesterday diversified by a very amusing scene, which more than once sorely tried the gravity of the Court, froni the Resident Magistrate downwards. It appears that Mr. Reuben Waite, the wellknown pioneer of the West Coast Goldfields, was passiug down Trafalgar-street, between 8 and 9 o'clock, 1 on Sunday evening, when his attention was arrested by a street preacher, who was walking" slowly up and down the street, at the corner opposite the Trafalgar Hotel, repeating portions of Scripture in a loud voice. It is notorious that Mr Waite is possessed of very considerable ventriloquial and imitative powers, and thinking, we presume, the opportunity too good to be lost, on the preacher approaching gave the audience assembled on the spot, numbering about 40 or 50 persons a "taste of his quality" by imitating a merveille he barking of an angry dog. The policemau on duty then came up and threatened, on a repetition of the supposed offence, to lock him up." Mr Waite however, insisting on his equal right to amuse the public after his own fashion, and no doubt somewhat nettled by the threat, immediately repeated the " bark," and was straitway collared by the constable, conveyed to the lockup, and confined there until liberated, some time afterwards by his friends, who came in a numerous body and offered bail for his appearance. The hearing of the case yesterday morning attracted a large audience at the Resident Magistrate's Court, and the illustrations given in open Court by the offender of his imitative powers in more than one instance completely convulsed the assemblage. To the surprise of all present, who had totally failed to discover wherein lay the offence said to have been committed by Mr Waite, or what possible right the policeman had to arrest him on such an absurd and trivial charge, Mr. Waite was ordered to keep the peace towards all her Majesty's subjects for the space of six months, and to be bound himself in £20, and two sureties in £10 each, which, we need hardly say, were at once forthcoming. A general opinion seems to prevail that as " every dog has his day," Mr, Waite bad as much right to indulge in his peculiar canine proclivities as the street preacher in his doubtless well-intentioned but misplaced efforts to convert our street Arabs and other local sinners, and that the constable greatly exceeded his powers ia making the arrest. We regret to read in the Sydney papers the announcement of the death at Rome t in April last, of Miss Adelaide Ironside, daughter of the Rev. S. Ironside. This lady, an Australian by birth, at an early age gave evidence of a decided taste for the fine arts, and had in consequence resided at Rome for several years past, for the purpose of study iug there. Seve^ ral of Miss Ironside's works have reached Australia, and give unmistakeable proof of the possession of very remarkable artistic ability. The Government of New South Wales, some years since, with the laudable intention of encouraging native talent, and enabling Miss Ironside to prosecute her studies in Italy, granted her a sum of money for this purpose. Her early and premature death will be deeply lamented by her numerous friends in Australia. The Evening Post states that a telegram from Hokitika, dated 6th August, saythat the diggers at the Haast and Jackson's Bay are starving, in consequence of no provisions having been sent there lately. ' .■ Mr Kennard, late of Wellington, was a passenger to England by the RoyalMail steamer A voca, which left Melbourne on* the 27th ult.

""Ifl III' ~ " ill r •""•■' . "km-hii ..„__ i i mil/' >*— - -The Sydney Mail gives an amusing incident which lately occurred in the Legislative Council of New South Wales, illustrative of the fact that the members of that august body do not possess a greater acquaintance with geography than other people: — The Postmaster-General laid upon the table of the Legislative . Council a dispatch from the Secretary of State, notifying that her Majesty had entered into a " Treaty of Commerce with the President of the United States of Columbia." This evidently raised a grave geographical question in the minds of several of the members present, as could he readily seen by their countenances. Even the Postmaster-General appeared to be aware that it was rather a tough point to decide. At length Sir William Manning gave audible expression to what appeared to be uppermost in everybody's mind, and asked this point blank question " Where is^Oolumbia ?" Vague reminiscences associated with the patriotic air of "United Stales of America," par excellence; but Captain Towns gave the matter quite another aspect by boldly expressing bis belief that it might be probably the North American colony of " Columbia " •that the Secretary of State was writing about. The astute legal mind of Sir William demurred to this solution of the difficulty, not being able to see how, even in the present day, her Majesty could be reasonably expected to enter into a " treaty '* with her subjects, however distant they might be from the seat of her Government. The Postmaster-General assured Sir William that "the United States of Columbia" constituted a nationality somewhere down in South America, and having examined the dispatch and its enclosures with considerable curiosity, Sir William, appeared to be gradually convinced of that important fact. The report of the Government Commission appointed to inquire into the condition, of the runs in the Far North of . South Australia, since the great drought, | has been published. It stated that 304,000 1 sheep and 33.000 heads of cattle have died, 1 and other lossess have been experienced I equal to £100,000 through the drought since 1864. It recommends a great morti- | fication of the present system of leases. J Active, measures are already beiug initiated with a view of giving H.R.H. j Prince Alfred a suitable reception at I Adelaide. Local and sub-committees are j to be organised, in addition to the large I general committee; and Parliament will I be appealed to at once to vote the necesI sary funds. I Mr Thomas Walker, of Concord, has | presented to the Sydney Infirmary the I handsome, sum of £1000. This noble gift j is to be vested in trustees named by the I hoard, to be held, in accordance with the j douor's wish, in trust to pay over, as his ! annual contribution for all time, the yearly I accruing interest. It is Mr Walker's hope I that his donation will form but the com- ' meucement of a recognised fund to which ; others, wishing their contributions to be held in like manner for the permanent benefit of the institution, may direct them to be devoted. The Melbourne Age states that des- • patches having been received by last mail I conveying the information that Sir Charles : l Darling had retired into private life, the if sum of £20,000 (which, upon resolution of 1 the Assembly, was declared to be due to fl him as compensation for loss of office If caused by his devotion to the interests of V| the colonists, and his resistance of the M tyrannical dictation of the colonial oflice if in Downing-street) will, now be placed on §g a supplementary estimate and included in || the Appropriation Act of the present year. || The black trackers have been indefatig|table in their search for the lost children ferouud Daylesford, but as yet their labor „. has been in vain,. The following parti-'

Culars, from the Daylesford Express possess a certain amount of interest :-rMr Graham, father of two of the lost children, called at our oflice recently and reported that nothing fresh had occurred during the search. Constable Mansell came back in the morning for provisions and returned to the bush in the afternoon. Mr Graham, who has been out with three black trackers for some time, says they are examining the whole country systematically for seven miles each side of the dividing range east of Specimen-hill. He speaks of the sagacity of the aboriginals as somet' ing wonderful, for without any apparent land mark they seem to know in the thickest part of the bush precisely where they are, and to recognise almost every tree they have once seen. They do not use a compass, and return with the utmost facility, on a track parallel with the one already passed. So great is their endurance too, that from the start in the morning till dark, they keep moving forward and backward in line, without stopping for refreshment. The London papers state that among the officers present at a grand banquet given at Willis's Rooms on the evening of her Majesty's birthday, by the officers of the army and navy who served in the war in this colony, was the notorious Colonel Weare, 50th Regiment, whose slanderous statements in reference to alleged atrocities committed by the troops and native allies have been so universally censured. The Artistic Union of Paris gave a splendid concert recently. Mme. G. wore for a head-dress a painter's palette, made of gold and charged with colours in rubies, emeralds, diamonds, amethysts, sapphires, &c. ; a bundle of brushes fastened to the side of the palette was also represented with gold and precious stones. — Paris letter. The affianced bride of the King of the Hellenes, daughter of the Grand Duke Constantine, was born 3rd September 1851, and is therefore iu her 16th year. The king is only 21, having been born the s'h January 1846. It has been unanimously decided to award the gold medal of the Paris Exhibition for pianofortes to the eminent English house of Broadwood and Sons.