TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 207, 2 September 1870, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

(from oue own correspondent). Dunedin, 2nd Sept., 12.48 p.m. The s.s. Gothenburg, Captain Pearce, arrived at the Bluff yesterday, having left Melbourne oq the 27th ult. The news brought by her is unimportaut. Claud Fairie, the sheriff of Victoria, is dead. The Alhambra has sailed for the Fijis, with a full complement of passengers. The brig Yarrow and the barque Sussex have been wrecked at Queeuscliffe. Tuo certifi -ate of the captain of the Yarrow has been suspended for six months. The Tararua arrived at Melbourne on. tha 27th August. An international free trade bill has been, read the fir3t time in the Tasraanian Parliament. A heavy thunderstorm occurred at tha Bluff on Wednesday night, The schooner Daphne was struck by lightning, and tho flax in the hold set fire to, but the fire was extinguished before any damage was done.

The Otago Provincial Government intends to establish a labor registry office at each telegraph office, in the province, so that the state of the labor market can be learned throughout f lic province on a moment's notice in Dunedin. It advertises that there is employment for any number of men, at road making, at five shillings per day. A Venturous Voyage. — After Laving been detained iv the Mersey for several days in consequence of adverse weather, the City of Ragusa, n little boat, only two tons burden, and 20 feet loi>g, left, the Mersey on June Bih, for Is'ew York, having on bourd only two men, namely, the commander, Captain, Sir. J. C. Buckley, and a Genoese Sitilor. Peter De Costa. The little boat is well provided, having stores for three months on honrd. She is fitted up as a yawl, ?in<) covered over with a small poop amidships ; and she has also got an auxiliary screw, which can either he worked by hand or by a kind of windmill, fitted to the mizemnitst. She can spread about. 70 yard.* of canvas, and Captain Buckley expects to make the voyage in about 50 days. B- fore leaving Liverpool, Captain Buck ey saw some of the agents and owners of flu; Liverpool and New Yoik steamships, who promised him that the cori>m»!i<l< is of their vessels would keep a f.»ood look out for the City of Ragusa, and i> poi t her. The little craft put into Qutensiowii on June 12th, owing to stress of weather. During the iii st days of her j-s.s-age she experienced light wind?, but. on Jutifc 9 and 10 strong north-westerly winds set in, with a heavy sea. The vessel behaved admirably, but the gearing of the propeller is leaking, end it will be necessary to remedy the defect before she pioceeds on her voyage. The Australian Civil Service. — The Axislralasiun ui:>kcs the following remarks upon the Civil Service of Victoria, which may be possessed of some interest to our readers : — Another Royal Commission has been appointed to inquire into the condition of the civil service, »ud to report upon the improvements which are capable of being effected therein. That a reform of the Service is much needed admits of little question. The principles upon which it should be organised mxi conducted are few and simple. It should be the object of the G< vemment to attract to the public service men of the highest character and capacity; they sbonld be liberally remunerated ; tliey should be guaranteed permanency of employment ; ami no more should be appointed than would suffice for the discharge of the required duties. Superior zeal and ability should be encouraged and rewarded, and political considerations should not. be suffered to influence official appointments or promotions. But no reform of th<- Civil Service can or will be efficacious unless i( is Hccornpanied by a radical reform of our political system. It is a mere farce to insist, upon an applicant for employment in public service pas-sing through a rigorous examination to prove his fitness for mcc clerical labor, when you demand no qualifications whatever from the men who aspire to m»ke your laws and to administer your revenues. A man miiy be unable to write bis own name, he may be destitute of all instruction, he may be unfit for a junior clerkship in a loan office, he may t>e unveracious and dishonest, he msiy be coarse and crapulous, but none ol these disqualifications will debar him from entering into Parliament, or even becoming one of "her Majesty's Ministers." It. is this ludicrous incongruity between the intellectual, moral, and social status of the official classes in this colony, si tid that, of some of their political 6up< i visors, that cnn>tiiutes one of the great difficulties of the question which the Civil Service Commission has undertaken to enquire into. As a general iulr, it may be asst-ried tbut the administration of public affairs in this country is conducted with much greater ability and honesty by its permanent officials than by its political servants; ;md that the oi.e reform which is imperatively needed is that which would tend to Si-cure us a better obihS of meu in our Assembly, and by consequence in the various MMiisireis which are composed out of that motley crowd. i For remainder of News see Fourth page

Two physicians, in consultation at the bedside of a patient, disputed as to the nature of the disease. At last one of them ended the discussion by saying, "Very well, have it your own way now, but the post-mortem will show that I am right,'* The patient was not much encouraged . France had on the 31st December, 1869, among her ironclads of first rank, 17 ships and frigates ; also, pight ironclad corvettes. At present there are being built, five ironclad frigates, and two corvettes. These men-of-war are said to be very floe models. "I cannot bear children," said Miss Prim, disdainfully. Mrs. Pnrtington looked over her spectacles, mildly, before she replied, "Perhaps if you could you would like them better." Colonial Boys. — One great reason why colonial boys dout take well to farming is, they are not taught enough of the business to be certain that they can live by it. Or in other words it is made too much a drudgery and too little of a scientific pursuit — too much toil for the body and not enough exercise for the mind. A New Religious Sect — an improvement on the Howling- Dervishes. — Great religious excitement exists in Macopin, twelve miles from Paterson. A new religious society, called "Jehovah's Balm," has been started, supplanting a favorite station of the Methodist Church. The Methodists have sent their best preachers to combat the heresy, but they are repudiated. Each in turn is forced to leave. The peculiar form of worship develops itself in puffing, blowing, whistling, shouting, jumping, wrestling, falling to the floor and rolling over and kicking. Both women and men engage in the exercises. Baptism is by immersion in the village mill-pond in the dead hour of the night. On Sunday they hold a continual service, and take a recess for meals only, refusing to read a newspaper or even to receive a letter on that day. Every Thursday evening they held their meetings iv the school-house, until a difficulty about the candles used led them to leave it, and now they meet at any house iv the neighbourhood where the spirit manifests itself. John Rhinesmith, a wealthy and well-to-do farmer of the neighborhood is the chief man of the band, and recently had hia house rebuilt especially to accommodate the brethren; one room resting on strong beams it stands the jumping; but about a month ago an ardent member, in a paroxysm, declared that when filled with the Holy Ghost he felt as light as air, and even though they jumped upon a lookingglass they would not so much as bruise it with a scratch; whereupon he began to leap upon the stove-hear ih, and broke it off, and then, leaping on the top, broke in the frail covers, and finally smashed a big rocking chair before he subsided. Recently Rhinesmith baptised Gilbert B. Speaker, a man of family and a convert to the new faith, the baptism taking place in Rhinesmith's mill-pond, before the members of the band, and amid shouts and cries, the whole gang at one time shouting " fire," to the alarm of others in the neighborhood, it being then after midnight. One of the band told a reporter that as he was at work in his barn, he got the spirit, and that he ran one mile over diicbes and fences before the spirit left him, and all this time he was so elated that he thought he was flying. When jumping in ecstasy of the Holy Gost, they say their spirits rise far above their bodies. They permit no person exceeptinj? those belonging to the band to join them, in singing or iu.nping, or any other of their exeicises, although no objection is made to 'l>i attendance of outsiders at the meetings of the band. A dozen will have the fl<> rac once, pounding ami kicking, and the wh>» ( e crowd seems worked up to a fearful smtj of excitement — some jumping unt'l \h-v fall; the women shrieking in the w 1 n-t manner, and others praying, whistling, or puffing, as for a wager. They permit <•<) levity on the part of the young folks during tlieir proceedings. Col>!>, one «f the baud, is thought to he growing inSf.ne under the. excitement of ibis reliyi< i»s fienzy. There is no doubt, thai il c members of the baud are sincere enthusiasts. The society now uuinliers <j\er 500 members. — \_.<ew York (April 16). dispatch to the Cincinnati Commercial.]