THE NARROW GAUGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 289, 8 December 1870, Page 2

THE NARROW GAUGE.

o The following extract from a private letter received by a gentleman in WelliDgton from the Hon. F. Dillon Bell, has been published by the Independent :— Of course a very powerful agent will be found in this new system of narrow gauge railway. I have just been to see the Ffestiniog line, which you have heard so much of, and which we write officially about. I can only say that no description can give the least idea of it. You see a toy; it is a giaat in its power. Nothing looks so absurd, after thundering along the great railways to the North and being dazed by the size of the engines, the length of the trains, and the ceaseless rush and whirl through tunnels over embankments, aloDg cuttings, and across bridges — as the little Ffestiniog line, with its tiny engine aud train, alongside of which a man looms enormous. You get in, wondering what next; presently you begining running up a steep hill at the rate of 15 miles au hour, following the contour of the ground. You come to a sharp curve, turning round, you see the tail carriages of the train coming round the last sweep. You are in the middle of what seems all but a circle of little carriages, the engine looking ridiculously small, the long line of trucks behind being just big enough to hold a bale of wool. You are running along a line of lft. ll£in. gauge, and while on one side the hill is a few inches from your feet, for the Iriah jaunting car projects over the rails, and you can't help fancying you are going to have your brains dashed out by the siding, as soon as you turn to the other side you see only a precipitous descent of the hill, with nothing between you and the slide down. Presently you look at the distant < hills the stream shining silvery in the valley below, the ferns close enough to pluck, the trees on your right and left ; why this is New Zealand ! The illusion is wonderful. I never saw any one struck with a novel scene as Knowles was, who accompanied me. Heaps of travellers who know the Alps by heart have never seen this quiet Ffestiuiog Vale, and of course the New Zealander who comes home must do his Rhine and his Lucerne ; but if you want him to be reminded of his country, send him to the Ffestiniog Eailway. But apart from the surprises of thß scene, the cool calculation of the adaptability to our wants soon comes. Ido not hesitate to confess that, after reading what I could, and talking to people who knew, the surprise I felt was as if I had never heard of a cheap railway. All I can say is that after seeing this one I have ceased to consider there is any difficulty in New Ze_aland. As for the Wairarapa road, the Horokiwi, the Waikouati, and dozens of others where we have made expensive metalled lines because we kndw not of possible railways there, it certainly will aot be long before these are abandoned in favor of the narrow gauge railway. The Ffestiniog line once seen, all sense of difficulty or trouble absolutely vanishes; and although lam no engineer and am quite incompetent to decide whether Fairlie's Bogie engines or j Fox's Norway engines are the best, it is satisfactory — perfectly satisfactory — to have been on a line which for seven years has done what I have seen at Ffestiniog. Featherston's visit to the Norwegian lines with the 3ft. 6in. gauge will be very interesting to you ; and when you take the impressions we have each received and weigh them together, you I will realise as well as we do ourselves that the " Railways of the Future," to use the title of the Times Essays, will give New Zealand a place she never dreamt of getting by any other means. Whenever the time comes that you shall be able to spend money on New Zealand railways, you need entertain no sort of doubt that here, already at work, are the patterns we want, suited precisely to the country in which we live, and possessing the elements of advantage most precious jto us. There is the evidence before our ■ eyes of the fact, and the men are here too. I don't want to be sanguine, but I am quite certain in my own mind ; and I only regret I did not see for myself in time to write before the Assembly met.

The Canterbury Press states that Mr. Moffat, of the Lincoln mill, has in his possession a cow that is certainly one of the most remarkable animals in this country. She has had no less than five calves in eleven months (four heifers and one bull), and they are alive and show nosigns of weakness. There are eighteen candidates for the office of clerk to the Mayor's Court, Dunedin, and the Times says that a considerable number more would, doubtless,. have applied had not security and a "considerable knowledge of the law 15 been required. Legal knowledge must be at a discount in Dunedin. During the debate in the Otago Provincial Council on the proposition for the union of Otago and Canterbury, several honorable members expressed themselves to the effect that efforts should also be made to induce Nelson and Marlborough to join the union, believing that the concentration of legislation would secure unity of interest, curtail the public expenditure, and cause the inhabitants of the several provinces to sink all petty jealousies for the common good. A Prisoner who was arrested at Hokitika ou a charge of bigamy, and taken down in charge of a Ballarat detective by the Rangitoto on her last trip, escaped at the Bluff, but has since been captured. It appears that when he got away from the steamer he concealed himself in the scrub, and defied the efforts of his pursuers to make him speak by the ordinary process of beating. The strategy of smoking out was next resorted to, and with effect, the fugitive being forced to take to the .open once more. He was caught on the Bluff road, shortly after the Rangitoto sailed. Rewarded. — A contemporary is responsible for the following: — "At a total abstinence meetiug, held lately in one of the up-country districts of Otago, one of the speakers related that, until lately, he was one of the greatest swipers in the country, and had a touch of the 'blues' ou the occasion of his last spree. In recognition, perhaps, of his moral courage in making this statement, he waselected President of the Society." A Hokianga letter to the Southern Cross says that the natives, near Judge Manning's residence, caught eighty sharksin one day. Our Welliugtou telegrams inform us that Bishop Hadfield has pronounced his opinion before the Synod at Welliugton that Hauhau3 are only disseuters, not apostates, and that they are seeking for re-admission into ' the Church. Very agreeable additions .they would be, no doubt, excellent Christians as they are,, and if the Bishop of Wellington re-admits them into the Church, as it would seem these amiable dissenters expect he will, we shall not envy either him or his diocese such on accession to their numbers. — Auckland Herald. A Melancholy discovery was lately made at Titiraugi, Province of- Auckland, by a settler, of a human skeleton. The remains turn out to be those of Captain Weston, who disappeared some two or three years ago. A pistol was found in the vicinity, which has been identified as one borrowed by the unfortunate gentleman from the wife of a settler in the neigborhood. Telegraph from Wellington to Auckland. — A correspondent of an Auckland paper states that Warbrick, interpreter to the Telegraph department, had arrived at Tauranga from Taupo, and reported that the line from Eotorua to Taupo, a distance of about 60 miles, was finished, that Mr. Blake, the Inspector of Telegraphs, was attaching the instruments at Te Ngae, a telegraphic station; and that the first communication from Auckland had been transmitted to headquarters at Wellington. A District of Promise. — A correspondent from Kaurihobore, Whangarei, writes to the Southern Cross — " This is a splendid district. It abounds in coal and limestone, and in my immediate neighbourhood there is some honey-combed quartz in the bed of a little streamlet, that may, at some former period have contained gold; the auriferous metal having been washed out of the holes, and now lying in the soil of some future alluvial diggings." The great proportion of flax put up for sale in London, marked in the returns " sea damaged," is beginning to excite the attention of flax manufacturers, and efforts

are to be made to ascertain what is the cause of such an undesirable state of affairs. The Carandini Family gave a concert at Honolulu, ou the evening of the 24th October, -which was well patronised, and was a complete success. A Special Correspondent of the Argus writing from the Fiji's respecting the various Christian Missions on the islands says : — " The Wesleyan Mission is in part self-supporting, the natives being called upon to contribute oil and other produce. The Roman Catholic, missionaries are supported by the Societe de la Propagation de la Foi, at an annual cost of from £1200 to £1500, and do not appear to rely upon donations from their converts. The Fijians, in their own concise way, distinguish the two faiths by calling the Wesleyan na lotu zvai-wai (the oily religion), and the Roman Catholic na lotu Popey (the Pope's religion). Thompson's traction engines have already found their way into Victoria. In a late issue of the Argus we find that " one of Thompson's traction engines was very usefully employed in removing a large marine boiler, weighiog 35 tons, from the foundry of Messrs. Langlands and Co., where the boiler was made, to the You Yangs steamer lying r.ear the Falls-bridge. The engine travelled away with the boiler, notwithstanding its great weight, with apparent ease, until near the berth where the You Yangs was lying, when a small rivet of one of the bars composing the wheel tire broke, and caused a stoppage for a few minutes, after which the boiler was placed into position, near the wharf, from which it could be lifted into the You Yangs. The ease with which the transit of the boiler was effected caused great surprise to a large crowd who gathered together during the time occupied by the journey." JFor remainder of News see Fourth page.

Mr. Levien, who is the largest peach •grower in the immediate vicinity of Creelonp, slates lhat on hundreds of trees there will be scarcely any fruit this season. The crop of apricots and other fruit in the same neighborhood is also said to be a -4otal failure. Under the heading "A Rise in Life," -the New York World mentions that Mr. -James Dawson, who began life in the (humble capacity of Speaker in the Mississippi House of Representatives, has ■risen to be police reporter of a New "Orleans newspaper. Sympathetic. — On January 12, 1870, at Knockgraffan, Ireland, the wife of, Mr. -John Myers was delivered of twin sons. At the same time and in the immediate vicinity, the wife of Mr. William Myers presented him with a brace of daughters. "The Messrs Myers are brothers, their farms adjoin, and their wives are sisters. " Playboy" in the Australasian says : — Monday was a busy day at the " corner'' between payers and payees. At an early •faour business commenced, aud " fivers," titid " tenners," and iu many cases " fifties," were the circulating medium by which bookmakers settled their accounts with ■4her constituents. In one place might be ■seen one well known letting man counting out 20 "fifties" to a Ballarat gentle--ojan, who receives £ 500 for himself, and £500 for the owner of the Cup winner, -the original bet being £1000 to eight drinks, ngaiust naming the winners of the Metropolitan and the Cup. Another ■well known fielder seems to do nothing but «3raw, aud his pockets are overflowing -with notes and cheques, aud my eye ••caught the name of "Alfred," on a pretty ?aroje one of the latter. The stakes of the V.R.C. Spring meeting, amounting to •£6017 have all been paid over. With the of the Melbourne Cup, the Sydney horses have carried off the cream •-of the stakes, "their winnings amounting to 12 races, nearly £3000, or oue half of the whole. The Spanish Press on the Empeeoe. ISTapoleon. — The Madrid Igualdad has -die following : — Eighteen years ago an -audacious adventurer, invoking the military glories of France, condemned the heroic fjeople of '89 and '93 to the life of slaves ! Eighteenyears the perpetrator of monstrous • crime of the 2ud of December has insulted with impunity the justice of the people ■and the laws of morality. This man and fiis power have succumbed under weight -of an expiation most righteous, despised by all, abandoned by friends and foee, =aod execrated by the whole Latin race, whose civilization he has compromised. He has not even merited the death of a *tero, or the end of a genius. He who destroyed the liberty of the French, aud vrho pretended to represent the traditions -of the captain of the century, surrendered •tiimself up yesterday. It ia reserved to •the nephew of Napoleon the Great to be -conducted to any place of detention the King of the Teutons may designate. To assure bis dyuasty he provoked the war. ■and now he goes bound to the victorious dbariot of King William, leaving behind him 300,000 corpses on the fields of battle and 500,000 foreigners threatening the independence and the life of his oountry. Justice is fulfilled. Democracy Is avenged. There are some punishments -a thousand times more fearful than death. People of France ! and people of Europe ! learn that military glories cannot last, that the conqueror of yesterday is the con- • quered of to-day ! The Republic alone is $>eace ! Down with the monarchies ! 'Down with the despotism of the sword ! .Make way for the savitg principles of $nodern society !