LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 70, 24 March 1870, Page 2

LATEST AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The following are some of the items of Austral iar, news brought to the Bluff by the Claud Ham il ton : — There has been a large number of failures and insolvencies of firms of long standing, aud which have hitherto been cousidered undoubted. The result has been a total loss of confidence in every branch of commerce. Araoug the reported failures are Messrs. Levy and Son ; also, the well-known firm of Messrs. Georgeson, who haye 1 lodged their estate in the Insolvent Court. Messrs. King aud Co. of Ballarat, have compromised, and Mr. Buzzard has assigned. Sir Henry Barkly has be?n appointed Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. His great forte lies, it is said, in not doing anything at the proper time. Mil. O'Shannassy has had the Order of St. Michael and St. George conferred on him. He opposes the opening of the Council with prayer. Chaeon, the celebrated racehorse, is dead — supposed to be from internal injuries. At Adelaide theGovernmenthad offered three shillings per day to the unemployed. The agitation among the working classes still exists.

A Substitute for Tobacco. — A correspondent of a Calcutta paper makes a curious suggestion to tobacco-smokers. Alluding to the alleged discovery, by a Parisian chemist, that watercress is a perfect antidote to uicotiae, he says: — "It lately entered into my head to try how some of it dried would smoke. To my great satisfaction I found that when put into my pipe, after a couple 'of days,' drying in the sun, it had all the flavour of the best cavendish without the treacle, and it was even stronger than cavendish. Here, then, is a perfect substitute for tobacco, without the deleterious and deadly poison so freely contained in the latter ; and it is at the same time cheaper. Watercress, with its fine stalks and leaves, when dried, requires no cutting to fit it for ihe pipe ; and while a pound of cut tobacco ranges i'rom 2 lo 4 rupees, hero we have an article, a rupee's worth of which, when dried, would weigh more than a couple of pounds." A " Late Enemy," writiug to the Pall Mall Gazette on the Crimean war says: — War is a good field in which to study national character aud temperament of any one caring about such matters. The difference-presented by the captive English and Fiench soldiers was alone worth notice. The former were almost always shockingly wounded before being taken prisoners ; the latter often quite sound, and only sometimes bearing a few insignificant scratches. Aud even if so wounded, the English soldier would not give up his animosity to the Russians, while the Frenchman immediately fraternised with thi'm. I remember one day having seen an English soldier brought to the hospital with a fractured leg and a broken jaw. The man could not articulate, aud hardly respired, he only groaned, and when put on his deathbed aud surrounded by Russian surgeons, closed his fist and shook ifc at them. Amputation of his leg Avas resolved on, but as the surgeons could not make themselves understood, they found somewhere a German medical man, supposing he would be more intelligible, and the learned doctor apparently did suppose it too, for he willingly uudertook the uegociations as well a3 the operation, The wounded maa was decidedly opposed to the operation, but chloroform beiug administered, the amputation was performed. Scarcely had the patient recovered his senses aad seen the absence of liis leg, than he took a leaden water-jug standing by his side and threw it at the German, groaning most dreadfully. Happily for the learned doctor, the mau appears to have been a bad marksman, and the jug only smashed a window and flew out into the street. Around the bed of wounded Frenchmen, on the contrary, there was always uot only cordial conversation, but positively au entertainment of laughter an.l jokes. The French papers report the death of an electrical child, aged ten mouths, at St. Urbain, near Lyous. This interesting but inconvenient infant was, it is stated, so endowed with electricity that nobody could enter the room where it was without receiving constant electric shocks. It is stated to have passed away painlessly so far as it was concerned itself, but there is reason to fear that the survivors who attended it must have suffered much, for it is affirmed by the doctors that at the instant of death luminous effluvia proceeded from its body and continued for several minutes after its decease. Tua Medical Times and Gazette, alluding to the case, .says that it is supposed to be quite unprecedented in the world of science. We hope it is so, for however much we may regret the untimely end of this little prodigy, we confess we cannot look forward without some uneasiness to the possibility of a recurrence of babies of this nature. Evevy person with any pretension to amiability must be, or ought to be, foud of children, and his must indeed be an unenthusiastic temperament who does not appreciate the marvels of electricity ; but a combinaof babies and batteries would, there cau be little doubt, seriously interfere with domestic comfort. The most tender father that ever existed would shrink from clasping his child to his bosom if he felt that this proceeding rendered him liable to a smart electric shock ; and parents who yield to none in their love for their children, and their admiration of electricity, might be forced to fly from the former for fey of the effects of the latter. Pall Mall Gazette.

Tiie Melbourne astronomers state that' most wonderful changes are taking place in the star world. Some wonderful phenomena are looked for, and with results which cannot be calculated on at present. There is intense excitement and speculation among scientific men. A Telegram was received by the directors of the Australian diamond mines from the manager at Mudgee, to the effect that the yield was 85 diamonds for the last six days, and 6^z 13ilwt of gold for ten days' work. Theyield of diamonds has of late been so satisfactory (hat the directors have given instructions to set up two large machines of Hunt's that are on the ground. Titular Distinctions. — Our Maori members in the General Assembly, however much they may lack wisdom, have at, any rate a due sense of their individual importance. "General Mete Kingi, M.H.R." Terns absurd enough ; but ihe WangOnui Evening Herald, has recently seen a letter in Maori, from the Middle Island member, signed in the following modest style, "From your friend, Mr. John Patterson, Esq., M.G.A." Woman's Eights and Man's Wrongs. ■ — Some of the female regenerators of society go to work in a very strange wav, if they really wish to exalt, their sex. A correspondent of an evening contemporary met a missionary of this kind the other night. She had taken possession of his sleeping; berth. He remonstrated with her, but she merely replied that she was! not afraid to sleep in his room. Of course, she never asked a question about "his" feelings on the mutter. Presently the gentleman thought to frighten his unwelcome visitor. He began to throw off his clothes. The strong-minded one very naturally despised the artifice. She was "not afraid" of a man, no matter in what guise he presented himself. The owner of the state room laid himself down to sleep ; ihe lovely woman did the same, -having first "made herself ready." We confess that this is a truly alarming narrative. Woman is asserting her rights at a rate which promises to make some of us extremely uncomfortable. Where is it all to stop ? The invador of the sleeping car, we are told, "bears a name which is perpetually appearing in the papers." She only carries her precepts into practice, poor thing. But really, it is getting to be a very serious business for the inferior creature called man. — New York Times. Everybody, says the Pall Mall Gazette, will be glad to hear that the sea serpent has turned up again ; and what makes the , intelligence doubly gratifying is that, not only does it seem iv good health and spirits, but since we last heard of it, it has given birth to a small serpent. There can be little doubt that the domestic arrangements con- ; sequent upon this interesting event have ' been the cause of its seclusion. Captain Allen, of the barque Scottish Bride, was fortunate enough to meet the mother and her child on the 23rd of last month, in latitude 38.16, longitude 74.09, and full accounts of the appearance of both are given in the American papers. The mother serpent was about 25 feet in length and proportionately thick ; its head was very large and flat, while at each side, on the extreme edge, were set two bright scintillating eyes, "looking daugerousand wicked." Its back was covered with large scales, like the crocodile, about three inches in length, which hooked together and formed an impenetrable armor. Its belly was of a tawny yellow color, and altogether hideous. The child serpent was but a few feet in length, but iv shape and color closely resembled its mother. The captain gave orders to have a boat lowered to attack the monster ; [ but the little serpent was too sharp for him. Its attention had by this time been culled to the presence of the vessel — it raised its head a few inches above the surface, and then went towards its parent, and seemed to tell her of the circumstance, upon which she immediately disappeared head downwardb, her body describing a circle like a book, thus exposing to view her tail, which Captain Allen says tapered off to a sharp Doint.

The following conversation, between two ommibus drivers, was overheard on the day that London was lately visited with an intense fog, when a collision took place between the respective drivers' vehicles near the Marble Arch : — First Omnibus Driver (log): "Where are you a-driving to ?" Second Omnibus Driver (log): "To the Edgware Road, to be sure." First Omnibus Driver (log): " Well I'm not the Edgware Road."

" What ought boys to learn ?*' was once asked of a Grecian philosopher. "That," said he, " which they ought to practise when men. A Contemporary, describing a dance at a village in the neighborhood, says : " The gorgeous strings of glass beads glistened on the heaving bosoms of the village belles like polished rubies on the delicate surface of warm apple dumplings."