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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 120, 22 May 1868, Page 2

We are informed that the Spez Mail will probably be brought on Tuesday next, by the Otago, which arrived at Lyttelton this morning. We are compelled by the length of our report of the proceedings in the Provincial Council last night, to hold over our report of this morning's sitting. The preparations for the celebration of her Majesty's Birthday are, we hear, progressing most satisfactorily. Our citizens were roused from their slumbers at an early hour this morning by the practice of the Artillery Cadets, which at first suggested the idea that the Wakapuakans had anticipated Monday's . programme, and had taken the city by storm. The tickets for the ball are being rapidly disposed of, and the Stewards are actively engaged in making every possible arrangement for the comfort and accommodation of the numerous guests who are expected to be present on the occasion, A return laid before the Provincial Council shows the cost of erecting and maintaining dipping stations under the Scab Act, from its introduction to 31st March last. For the dipping apparatus erected on the Quarantine Ground near Stoke, £289 ss. lld.; for that at Fox Hill, £130 12s. 3d. Total, £419 18s. 2d. According io the time table of the P. and 0. Company's steamers, telegraphic news of the attempt to assassinate the Prince should have been in London on 21st April, which, by a curious coincidence, was the day on which O'Parrell was executed. The Westport Times of the 21st has the following: —The accounts of the Hokitika bar are more and more deplorable, aud though the Bruce is going to make a desperate effort to get in, it is doubtful in the extreme whether she will succeed. It is stated on what appears to be reliable authority, that the channel a few days ago was little more than 18 inches deep at low water. Whether the rains that have fallen to-day will burst out a new course or deepen the old one, remains to be seen. The Independent says that tbe crops in the Hutt, which are now nearly gathered in, turn out to be very poor indeed, the apparent cause being the unprecedented wet season. The cereals are particularly light —some crops of oats scarcely being* equal to two-thirds of- the average one j but the potatoes have suffered most —an immense quantity turning out rotten. The Marlborough News of Saturday says that a telegram waß received from Nelson on the previous Monday, stating that Mr W. Adams had resigned bis seat as member of the House of Representatives for the Picton district, and that an address had been forwarded by him to his late constituents. The Kaikoura Herald statep that the so-called pleuro-pneumonia that was said, to have infested the cattle in that district has disappeared, and adds that it can scarcely believe that it ever was pleuropneumonia, and, indeed, cannot perceive the idea of the party —whoever was blume-able—-in rushing and declaring the district infected under the Cattle Disease Act without making a proper inspection. The Southern Cross mentions that Mr • Hudson Williamson, eldest >son of his Honor the Superintendent of Auckland, has passed a most J creditable examination in classics, mathematics, history, and EDg-

lish literature, previous to his entering upon his studies for the bar. Mr Williamson was educated at Nelson College, where he gained high distinctions. It appears that the New Zealand Society has become a merely local association under the title of * The Wellington Philosophical Society.' The South Australian Government have positively forbidden the heads of departments to recommend any increase on the Estimates for the ensuing year. In * Rambles on Railways,' Sir Cusack P. Roney observes : — On Australian mail mornings the weight of mails is 46 tons j to carry these at the rate of locwt. per mail coach from Loudon to Southampton, 78 miles, it would be necessary to have 61 coaches and 4,758 horses, besides guards and coachmen. The following appears in the London Times of the 28th January last:— The Chancellor of the Exchequer begs to acknowledge the receipt of £5 from X. T. Z., New Zealand, on account of Income Tax not charged in New Zealand. The session of the New South Wales Parliament, which was opened by his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief on the 2nd July, 1867, closed its sittings on Monday, 27th ultimo. It is the longest session in the annals of Parliamentary Government in New South Wales.