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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 247, 19 October 1870, Page 2

A botanical correspondent of the Tafanaki Herald draws attention to the fact that the common New Zealand supplejack is a species of sarsaparilla, and that a decoction of its roots is as valuable as that of the sarsaparilla of commerce, aud of which upwards of 130,0001bs are annually imported into England from North America. If this is a fact, supple-jacks, now simply deemed a great nuisance to bush travellers, may become an. exceedingly valuable article of export. The butchers in Wanganui have raised the price of meat 20 per cent. This is owing to a scarcity of stock, brought about by excessive exportation. We (Cross) are glad to learn that the railway surveys are beiDg rapidly proceeded with ; already two of the Waikato surveys have been completed, and the remainder will be finished in a few days. The following marriage advertisement appears in a Tuapeka paper. — On the 26th instant, at Waipori, by Mr. Baker, Registrar, Sing Kum Chung to Elizabeth Nisbett. — Chiuese papers please copy ! i The Echo mentions Mr. George Erodie as a probable candidate for the superintendency of Otago. Mr. James Smith and Mr. James Mac- ssey, solicitors, are also spoken of as likely to contest the Dunedin election for the General Assembly. The Otago Daily Times has the follow- , ing on the now absorbing topic, the defence of the colonies: — "The outbreak of war in Europe, aud the contingency that England may also become involved leads to the consideration how New i Zealand will be situated should that contingency become fact. It will be seen from our Wellington telegram that it is rumored there that the Volunteers aud Militia are about to be placed on a war footing, but this is not the point to which we intend at present to refer. As New Zealand will, should England go to war, be exposed to danger chiefly from the attacks of the enemy's cruisers, it is on cur naval defences that we should be compelled principally to rely. A con- I sideration of what those defences are is by no means re-assuring. The number of the vessels composing the Australian squadron is five, namely, the Clio, the Galatea, the Blanche, the Virago and Eosario. We do not include the Challenger, inasmuch as she is about to proceed to England. We are not much aware of the precise number of guns carried by the five vessels we have named as belonging to the squadron, but we are not far from the mark in putting it down at 70. Again, the Clio and the Galatea have left for Sydney -j (the latter to be overhauled), and the Rosario has gone for a cruise among the South Sea Islands. The Challenger sails for England on the 14th, and the Blanche, according to our Wellington correspondent's letter, will most probably proceed to Sydney, though it is somewhat doubtful now whether she will go on to the South Sea Islands as originally intended. When she leaves Wellington, therefore, the sole naval defence of the Colony will be the Virago, so that we shall then be reduced to what Lord G-ranville called the " Last ship." Witchcraft among the Maoris. — The Auckland correspondent of the Lyttelton Times writes : — I presume it is generally known that amongst Maoris a belief in Makuta (witchcraft) largely prevails, though until lately a case of that kind has not been brought before our tribunals, On the 14th ult., an action wag brought in the District Court by a youag native named Wilson Whiwhi to recover £50 damages from a

;Maori doc tress and witch called ." Miria " and Joho Shera, a sailor, Miria'a husband, whom plaintiff accused of bewitching him. Plaintiff received a superior education at St. John's College, Bishops, Auckland, and is a draftsman, employed for the last nine years by Government.' In June last he applied to Miria to cure him of sickness. Miria bears a great, reputation amongst Maoris, ''and 1 her husband is a firm believer in his wife's skill as a doctress. Miria's system is strikingly original, simple, and vigorous, as developed in evidence. It consists- in forcing the left fingers up the nostrils, and punching a person's head with the right hand until the nose bleeds. Some of the details, lapping up the sick man's blood, &e\, : were rather horrifying. A verdict for the plaintiff was given on the 26th, and Judge Beckham said the case was the most extraordinary ever brought into any court in New IZealand. As the case proceeded, occasional" war dances were performed outside the court by sympathisers with the bewitched one; The same locality '■'■ witnessed plain tiff's victory which was duly celebrated with plenteous libations of rum, and consumption of good store of comestibles at plaintiff's expense. Miria's terms are — fee, £12 ; and a couple of dozen pocket handkerchiefs, by way of perquisite, According to the testimony of her husband, her practice lies chiefly amongst lunatics. The Legislation of the Past Session. — Addressing his constituents at the Clutha last week, Mr. Macandrew made some remarks with respect to the legislation of the late session that will not prove uninteresting to our readers ; " There had been " he said, no fewer than 133 Bills introduced into the House of Representatives, ninety-nine of which were now on the Statute Book of the Colony as Acts of Parliament. Of petitions received and dealt with by the \ Public Petitions Committee, there had been / 105, mostly of a personal nature, none of them demanding organic political changes ; — a circumstance somewhat irreconcileabla i with the assumption that the people are \ greatly dissatisfied with existing political ! institutions. There had been during the - session 334s notices of motion and 520 orders of the day. Of returns laid on the table there were 207, touching upon every imaginable subject — all of which the members were expected to read. Of reports from Select Committees there had been 178 — all of which members were supposed to master. It would readily be observed, from what he had said, that the man who made himself master of the 183 Bills, the 105 petitions, the 334 notices of motion, the 207 returns, and the 178 reports of Select Committees, must be a very clever fellow indeed — a regular rara avis in terra. For his own part he could not pretend to have done so, and he frankly confessed his utter inability to have read even carefully, much less to comprehend, fully all that was embodied in the Acts, petitions, returns, and reports to which he had adverted. To his mind their legislative machinery was altogether too massive — out of all proportion to the incipient condition of the Colony. It was more adapted to the requirements of a densely peopled country, with its ramified and diverse interests, than of a country i like New Zealand with its mere handful \ of people. Just fancy where they would be \ in 50 years hence, if they were to go on manufacturing 100 acts of Parliament per annum, not to speak of Provincial • Ordinances, with each and all of which nofc only their judges and lawyers were supposed to be acquainted, but also each individual who lives within the Colony. , "With such an annual crop of legislation it was no wonder if many blunders were committed. For his own part he confessed that he could see uo probable remedy against this state of things. The colony had got into a regular grove of law-making,, and nothing short of some very violent jerk would extricate it. A Doctors' Paradise. — The Fijis must be a remarkably pleasant place to live in, if the following account of the numerons ills to which flesh is heir in those parts, which is furnished by a correspondent of the Auckland Heiald, be correct. He says : — Speaking of the ills to which flesh is heir in the islands of the Fljis, a correspondent of the New Zealand Herald says, — The disease :of Fiji is dysentery, and frequently proves fatal,, carrying off the victims of attack in a few 1 hours with fearful violence. A much dreadful disease is the ' thoko,' a kind

of leprosy, chiefly confined to the natives ; but it sometimes attacks Europeans, through the medium of inoculation by the common house fly. This disease is principally developed on the upper parts of tie body, which becomes a mass of small ulcers, so exceedingly irritable that the patient can scarcely bear a sheet round the body. When a settler has a wound, no matter how trifling, on the finger or on any other exposed parts, the greatest caution is necessary to keep it well covered from the myriads of flies that swarm in Fiji, or it may be many months in healing, even though 1 Dot inoculated by any native disease. Elephantiasis also occur among the Fijians. I have seen one or two of them with one leg so horribly swollen that the foot was as if it were a continuation of the ankle. Neither the cause or cure is known. Ophthalmia is common among the natives, and frequently their eyes are not to be seen on account of the swarm of flies that encircles them. Then there is the native ' itch' similar to that of Europe, but it is cured easily enough, provided the flies can be excluded from the affected parts. The clothing suitable for the islands must of course be very light, and capable of absorbing a capacious perspiration. Too Bad.— On looking over our northern files, we were greatly surprised to find it stated in the Thames Advertise?', "The (Ecumenical Council, as was expected, has turned out a duffer." Although not ourselves of the Romish persuasion it gave us a considerable shock to find the dignataries of that Church, in Council assembled, spoken of in so slighting a manner, and it was with an inexpessible sense of relief that, on casting our eyes to the head of the column, we found that we were only perusing " Mining News," and that the " (Ecumenical Council" was the name of a claim. Really these Thames miners should be a little more circumspect in the appellations they bestow upon their reefs. To call a claim that was yielding satisfactory results an (Ecumenical Council would be bad enough, but to attach such a name to a "duffer" is simply unpardonable. Baxlarat storekeepers have raised the price of kid gloves fiora 4s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. and 9s. per pair because of the war ! And there is reason for it, of course. French " kid" gloves are largely manufactured from the skins of rats caught in the vast sewers of Paria. The Prussian ship Lannia, with a cargo of turpentine, rosin, and other contraband of war, has been captured by a French fiigate and towed into Havre. A Frenchman, living at Dunolly, became so ill from excitement on hearing the war news, that he died shortly after. Another, in the same place, also fell ill on the receipt of the news, though his illness did not terminate fatally. A third who was working on a farm on the Loddon went mad on hearing the news.

For remainder of News see Fourth puge,