CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 21, 25 January 1870, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

o ■ *** We are desirous of affording every reasonable facility for the discussion of public subjects; but it must be understood that we are in no way responsible for the opinions expressed by correspondents. To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir— ln your issue of last evening I noticed a paragraph relating to the old Fire Engine. In reply to your remarks I beg to inform you that the Engine is taken out to practice with every two months, and I can safely say that no Fire Engine ia the Colony is in better working order than is ours. I am, &c, M anson Sinclair, Captain N. V, Fire Brigade.

A melancholy case of accidental poisoning has occurred at Napoleon, which terminated fatally, on the morning of Tuesday, the 18th inst. On the previous Saturday afternoon, about (wo o'clock, a fine little girl about seventeen months old, the daughter of Mr. Charles Gardiner, an hotel-keeper at the Middle Township, was fount playing with a box of wax vesta matches, and although it was suspected that she swallowed some of them, she was not actually seen doing so. In the course of the eveuing the child became unwell and was put to bed. Shortly afterwards she began to vomit, and the mother became alarmed by seeing a phospheric glare on the matter which came from the child's stomach. Emetics and other remedies were administered, and on closer examination the remains of a large quantity of wax vetas were discovered. Duriug Sunday and Monday the child appeared to be getting better, but on Monday night it suffered a relapse with convulsive fits, in one of which it died on Tuesday morning at nine o'clock. The poor little thing became conscious, and recognised its pareuts just before its death. Much sympathy is felt for Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner for the child was quite a pet with everybody in the township. The funeral took place on Wednesday evening, and wes largely attended by the miners and townspeople. The Provincial Hotel, Theatre, &c, Dunedin, collapsed last week, greatly to the astonishment of many. The Bailiffs were in possession on Thursday, all the boarders got notice to leave, the various bars were closed, as well as the billiard saloons, bowling alley, &c, &c. This is much to be regretted, as the circumstance has thrown nearly 80 people of one grade or other out of employ. The whole concern was to be sold by auction in a few days by Messrs M'Laundress, Hepburn, and Co. The Dunedin Echo relates the following amusing anecdote of the independence of "a young Colonial": — "The holiday last Saturday (New Year's day) greatly interfered with the distribution the Echo published on that day, the boys who usually perform the task evidently preferring the Caledonian Grounds to the more monotonousoccupation of selling newspapers. Ia order, however, to effect a good circulation, we requested oue young Colonist to accept a thousand copies of the newspaper without charge, to sell them on the Recreation Ground, aud pocket the proceeds. With some hesitation he accepted this ready means of earning £4 3s. 4d., and left us speculating upon the future of a country which possesses such an independent spirit amongst its children when, to our intense surprise, the lad returned and suggested that it was ' very 'ot,' and he thought that as the papers were ' 'eavy,' his passage to the ground by a car should be paid. It was paid. That boy will be a member of the Provincial Council — or rather the House of Commons of New Zealand — when he grows to man's estate. Brave Little Emigrants. — The Irish Times mentions how three little children, aged respectfully 11, 6, and 4, set out from the neighbourhood of Louisburgh, a pretty town near Mayo, and made their way, via Dublin, Liverpool, and New York, to Chicago. They had no friend or protector in their company, their sole viaticum being 10s. to pay their way to Liverpool, and a ticket to carry them thence to their destination. A gentleman, who happened to travel up to Dublin in the same train with them, spoke to them, and finding them shoeless ahd stockingless, he gave thorn his railway rug, and took them to some I friends, who equipped them in some better plight for their long journey. But these acts of kindness were accidents on which the children had not and could not have reckoned. They only knew that from beyond a wide ocean a father's voice summoned them, and they' obeyed the call. There was no grand gentleman to place them in safe hands. There was no benevolent lady to see after their little clothes, nor any human being to ask the question, were they hungry ? But alone and unaided, in their new cotton frocks and skimpy summer shawls, they undertook a journey which even a strong man with , plenty of' money in his pocket considers a serious one. The females of some of the Indian tribes, in order to keep silence, fill their mouths with water. Our women fill theirs with tea, aud gossip more than ever. .

The Saturday Review comments on the newly created baronetcies in the following strain ; Mr. Gladstone, we are very glad, to hear, has recovered his health, and seems to be spending a happy, quiet vacation, with enough enjoyment of a gentle sort. A most careful record ' is kept by observant provincial newspapers of all the doings and goings of " our great and good Premier," and so, if we like to take the trouble, we may guess pretty well what he is about any. day of the week. It appears that, if it is five he takes loDg walks, going sometimes as much as seventeen miles over the mountains ; if it is showery he stays indoors, and makes a bishop; if it is very wet, he settles dowu to an idle day, and makes baronets. The beauty of 4 making baronets as a recreation for a wet day is that it is boundless. A Prime Minister can always go on. There are always plenty of people whom baronetcies would just suit. The pursuit, in fact, answers the same end which billiards or pool auswer to men less high in power , and intellect. If the weather persists in not clearing up there is always the resource of another game. Mr. Gladstone can always make another baronet, and some of those who have lately received the honor might perhaps smile if they could trace their elevation to the severity of the equinoctial gales which blew at the " wrong time in September. Making baronets is a humbler and less noticeable pursuit than making bishops; but then it is much pleasanter and much less anxious. There is no howl from the religious pres?, no sorrowful remonstrance from intimate friends, when a Jew or a manufacturer is made a baronet. Mr. Glad-.tone has honored men of his own class, his political friends, but also the men who see in his elevation a reflected glory for themselves. He has strewn the flowers of dignity thickly in Liverpool and Manchester, and it must be very agreeable for him to be able to do this, and to come amongst them once again, as it were, with his pocket laden with good things for them. In the old days of our public schools, before boys were the well-managed, decorous, excellent creatures they are now, there used to be a delightful, though reprehensible, custom of boys who had left school a year or so coming back aud giving their old companions a grand spread. What a hero, what a king-like man in his opulence and bounty, the returning young officer or collegian seemed to be; and what a grand day it was in his young life when he felt he had so much in his power to bestow, and when he found everything he did and wore admired, and his name blessed and his memory loved by his friends and companions, as they drank his health in what > they foldly believed to be champagne ! i Mr. Gladstone has beeu tasting a similar delight ; he has been, metaphorically speaking, standing gooseberry all round to his chums, and who would grudge him the pleasure of administering, or them the pleasure of imbibing, that delicious beverage ? A tall Eastern girl named Short longloved a big Mr. Little, while Mr. Little thiuking little of Short, loved a little lass named Long. To make a long story short, Little proposed to Long, and Short longed to be even with Little's shortcomings. So Short, meeting Long, threatened to marry Little before Long, which caused Little in a very short time to marry Long. Query : Did tall Short love big Little less because big Little loved little Long. ■_— —^—g— —— a.^— t*m _.— _^_w _^ »