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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 117, 19 May 1868, Page 2

Last night an accident occurred at the ' [ Port, .which must uridoii^diy" hiai^e're;

suited fatally but for the providential interposition of ;Constable Bailey, who happened to be near the spot at the time. It appears that ooe of the firemen of the John Perm, whose name we have been unable to discover, was making his way on board the steamer,' about 11 o'clock, and whilst crossing the platform from the wharf to the steamer, fell into the water. Constable Bailey, who had seen the man . pass, and had been noticing ; his move- • ments, instantly gave the alarm. The steward of the John Peun, aud his assist- ' ant, immediately came to his rescue, and dropping dowu the piles of the wharf, at length succeeded in fasteuing a rope round the man's waist, by which he was raised te the platform in a very exhausted state, but eventually, by the administration of stimulants, was restored to the use of his faculties. There can be no question that had not the constable been in the neighborhood at the time, the man must have perished, as the steward and his boy were both in bed, and his cries for help would, in all human probability, have been unheard. It may be.yet fresh in the memory of our readers that a considerable amount of golddust was on board the ill-fated General Grant af the time of her foundering in a cave at the Auckland Islands, into which, whilst becalmed, she had been driven by a ' strong . current. Shortly after her loss became known, an enterprising firm of Melbourne and Hokitika, Messrs Spence Brothers, undertook the attempt to recover the lost treasure. Out of their fleet of small steamers, they selected the p.s., Southland, as the most suitable for the purpose. The services of one of the survivors, named Teer, were secured, in order to 'pick up' the exact locale of the wreck, and a couple of divers also accompanied the expedition, which left the Bluff Harbor, under the charge of Captain Kirkpatrick, on the 7th of March last. The steamer was duly provisioned and furnished with all requisite appliances for the pur- ! pose. The trip, however, proved singu- j larly unfortunate, the Southland having j returned to the Bluff on the 3rd of May, J without having effected the desired object, i Captain Kirkpatrick reports that since his departure, a month previous, he experienced a continual succession of gales and of weather such as, after many ineffectual attempts to send his large boat into the : cave, compelled him to relinquish the project, at all events for the present season. He left a 6-ton boat at Port Boss, near the depot of the Auckland Islands, for the benefit of unfortunates. Owing to the continuance of bad weather, a large quantity of coal was burnt'on board the steamer s but thanks to the plentiful supply of seals which they were enabled to procure, her steam was. kept up on many occasions by utilising these animals as fuel. It is much to be regretted that this spirited attempt on the part of Messrs Spence should not have met with the success which such enterprise merited. The entertainment given by the Japanese Jugglers last uight at the Oddfellows' Hall, which was very numerously attended, was so completely sui generis that it is hardly possible to criticise it after the fashion adopted in noticing other public performances of a somewhat kindred character. The introductory discourse, illustrative of 'ye customs and manners of ye Japanese of the period/ although somewhat prolix, was nevertheless amusing and instructive enough', and was given by a membetf of the company, whcv was formerly interpreter in chief to the English Embassy at Yokihama, and who claims a half Dutch, half Japanese extraction. The songs and dances introduced into this, part wereof veiy peculiar character, and did not; suggest the most favorable ideas of Mongolian inventiveness in these particular branches of art. The second part of the p'rogtfanime was certainly the° most amusingj 3 and some of the feats . performed by . an- elderly member of the company . with a<mdst Unpronounceable name, were really v jn^eUbu's,, and entirely unlike $uything which ha* ever been attempted by European performers in this line. The perfect command which he ; manifested over" the, gyrattens of top's' of eyery imaginable'isize was the. great, feat of the evening^makiiig' them ascend the edge of a swordy or/travel along a piece ! of string* with eqiip facility. The performance i was receiyjed with/much applause,, despite the demonstrations of- some. ignoramuses amongst the audience who evidently were igtfra&ut of' the geographical position of j;apsn, J and,prpbably imagined that feats of |his 4escriptipn executed by natiyes of

that interesting and only lately developed country must of necessity resemble, those of Professor Jacobs and his prestidigitorial brethren. The programme for to-night includes the 'butterfly trick' and other feats which are said to be quite as astonishing as those performed last night. The Government Gazette of the 14th instant, contains notifications of the acceptance by' the Governor of 'the resignation by the Hon. J. Hyde Harris, of his seat in the Executive Council and of the office of Solicitor-General.