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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 33, 9 February 1870, Page 2

The Wellington Post says that it is rumored that Major Heaphy, V.C., has received an appointment as Commissioner of Native Reserves at a salary of £1000 a year. The nature of the duties required to be fulfilled is not commonly known as the appointment is a newly created one.

The erection of the new Government House at "Wellington has been stopped for the last day or two, owing to the inability of the contractor to proceed, and the sureties will, it is said, be called upon to finish it. Native News. — Auckland dates of Ist February state that the enemy has been seen six miles from Tapapa. M'Donuell's scouts came up with him yesteida}', killing one man and taking another. Thames Goldfields. — The following crushings are reported : — Una Company 150 tons, 130ozs. ; Inverness 210 tons, 490 ozs. ; Golden Crown 80 tons, 8970z5.; Shooting Star 2 cwt., 230z5. ; Young American 100 tons, 113 ozs.; Point Russell 160 tons, 1200z5. ; Long Drive 17610z5. for the month of January — dividend of £2 per share declared. Te Kooti, we are informed by a gentleman who lately saw him, rides one of the handsomest horses seen in New Zealand. So too, with the arms of himself and his followers, they are of the choicest kind, aud kept in such order that they would gladden the heart of the strictest military arm inspector If he had chosen his time of intimidation for the purpose of harrassing our settlers to the utmost, he could not have chosen a better, or we should rather say a worse one, than tbe present. Throughout Waikato the grain is ready for the sickle, and a large breadth of crop has been planted this year. The calling out of the militia in Waikato means neither more nor less than leaving this grain to waste in the fields. Ths men are called away to garrison the redoubts, and the harvest fields are deserted. An Auckland contemporary says that a certain wholesale house in the Colony, finding that the demaud for the Nelson tweed was far in excess of the power of Mr. Webley to supply with the limited means at his command, forwarded home a sample of two tweed, with the order to imitate it. to the best of their ability, and send out a large quantity, as it was in great request in New Zealand. The order was completed, and much of the tweed now sold as of Nelson manufacture is thus obtained and worn by the public in blissful ignorance of the deception. To the initiated who have compared the two kinds of goods, that produced by Mr. Webley shows a decided superiority, and to those persons the article is sold under the name of " imitation Nelson tweed." Me. E. Wilson, late of Melbourne, has addressed a letter to the Times on the important question of national disintegration, iv which he says : — " As au Englishman, I look upon the destruction of our colonial empire as simply the most tremendous experiment that the world has ever seen. It might be a success ; but what if it turned out to be a failure ? We colonists might fiud that we had done wrong ; but our sun would shine, our wool would grow, our vines would flourish, and, in one way or other, we should manage to pull through. But what of England, with all that highly artificial organisation which has lifted her from her narrow limits and ungenial climate into the employment of numbers incalculably greater than she can maintain from anythiug grown within her own bounds ? What of her if she should find that in wantonly parting with her colonies she had parted with half her trade and threefourths of her national prestige ? How then would your shallow doctrinaire be detected as the mere lunatic who had tampered with the very foundations of a highly elaborated structure, of the delicate constitution of which he had shown himself entirely ignorant Ie dealing with the British aspect of the case I will not enter upon the worldof figures which so abound in Blue-books and statistical returns ; suffice it that the colony with which I am best acquainted consumes, I believe, ten or twelve pounds' worth annually of British exports per bead of the population, to the ten or twelve shillings' worth of the inhabitants of the United States. The doctrinaire talks glibly of the laws of supply and demand, and of buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest market. But I have seen reason to believe that by some mysterious process trade has a great tendency to follow the flag. And as an Englishman I have a horror of so hazardous an experiment as might teach us, when too late, that when we hauled down our flag to-day we should have been prepared to put up the shunter of oar great shop to-morrow.

Two deaths have lately occurred from eating tutu berries. Joseph Jones died near the Hogburn, in Otago, and a native woman has been poisoned in the Taranaki district. QuiTE a sensation has occurred iv Hokitika. So says the correspondent of the Greymouth Star. A cab was imported to run in the streets. It was brought over by a Melbourne enterprising cabmau. He took a look at the town, had a pint of ale, the greater part of which he threw on the floor, and then ordered his cab to be re-shipped without being unpacked, aud he has gone away. At a meeting of the Miners' League which took place on Saturday last at Westport it was resolved that circulars embodying the opinions of the 'Committee on the requirements of the goldfields generally, _hould be sent to Messrs. Gallagher, Donne, Mackley, Franklyn, and Moss requesting them to hold public meetings in their respective districts, and appoint committees to cooperate with the head committee so that some unanimity of action might be established. It was unanimously agreed that the establishment of Mining Boards is the most effectual remedy for the many •existing evils, and the meeting deferred further consideration of these evils, being of opinion that if other districts support them they will have no difficulty in persuading the Governor to establish Mining Boards, as he has promised to do in Auckland at the request of the miners. They agreed also to mention in their circular, as a great object to be attained, -a better basis of representation for the goldfields. Fokty thousand applications for patents ; have been made in the United States within twelve months, some of which are for inventions of a most extraordinary nature. For instance, one man claimed protection for the application of the Lord's Prayer, repeated in a loud voice, to cure •stammering ; another applied for the envied parchment on behalf of a new aud useful attachment of a weight to a cow's tail to prevent her switching it during the milking operation ; another proposed to cure worms by fishing for them with a -delicate line and tiny hook, baited with a seductive pill; whilst one, more practical than the rest, is desirous of patenting a luxurious contrivance called "The Snorer's Friend," a device to be attached to pew backs, to form a comfortable head-rest, •enabling the owner to sleep through the dullest sermon in peace and quietness.