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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 71, 25 March 1870, Page 2

The New Zealand Steam Navigation Company's liquidators are paying a dividend of £1 per share. The liquidators have also advertised for sale the whole of the fleet-, property, and effects, including the freehold lot of land, buildings, wharf, &c, five steamers, and two coal hulks; and the slip in Evans Buy, which can take up vessels of 300 tons, for repairs. The steamers are — Wellington, Storm Bird, Ran<zatira, Ahuriri, and Lady Bird. The Maori prisoners who were iriel for rebellion, and sent to Otago when couvicted, are, we are glad to hear, making themselves useful in work connected with the uew Botanical Gardens at Duuedin. An amusing description is given of their delight at finding, in the stumps which, they clear away, numbers of large maggots which are considered such a delicacy, without any cooking or formal {J dishiug up." At the opening of the Canterbury Provincial Couueil, which lately took place, the Superintendent proposed that the General Assembly should be applied to for an Act to authorise the construction of a railway from Christchurch to the Northern districts, aud that the works should be let in small contracts under the supervision of the Government. Taking' for his text the great scarcity of labor that prevailed during the late harvest, he recommends that the sum of £30,000, to be spread over three years, should be" devoted to immigration. It is also proposed to make a large increase iv the wharf accommodation at Lytteltou. Polly Plum, writing in the ' Southern Cross,' says — " Early settlers grew to love colonial life, it was so free, so easy. A lady could answer her own door, or be seen dusting her drawing-room without any fear of losing caste ; and a gentleman iv easy costume could be his own jrardeuer, and cared not if all the world passed his palings whilst he busily handled the spade. Now, alas, we are losing all that, and what are we getting in exchange ? Formality, long bills, and bankruptcy !" (i Necessity is the mother of invention," but it has never been accurately ascertained who is the father.