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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 76, 31 March 1871, Page 2

The largest and most extraordinary 5 catches of herrings ever known were 3 brought into Lowestoft market on Saturr day. They consisted of 15,000 lasts, or ; 19,800.000— nearly 20,000,000 herrings. The price realised was Is., per. 100, being between £7500; and £8000. The scene in ' the market beggared description. — Fishing } Gazette.

In responding to the toast of his health at the hue hall iv Auckland, the champion, Captr.in Wales, said : — Colonel Harrington having referred to the want of support ! >y the ladies to the volunteer movement, be would mention an incident which occurred in Otago in 1862. In 1858 or 1859, the number of volunteers had dwiu- I died down to about six or eight, and they ! were obliged to drill in an enclosure used by the police, in order to be out of sight of the people, and avoid being laughed at. (Laughter.) In 1862 the movement was set on foot again, and the manner in which it was done was rather singular. A number of young gentlemen wrote to the newspapers assuming the names of young I ladies, and threatening that they would never have a sweetheart who was not a volunteer. (Laughter and cheers.) The ranks were soon filled, and the movement had progressed ever since. With regard to cadets in Otago, they had between 400 and 500 members of the corps formed from the different schools. They might attribute their success in a great measure to the volunteers themselves, although they had been liberally assisted by the Provincial Government. What Constitutes a Gentleman. — Mr. Carleton, in one of bis election addresses, is reported to have said : — "Another charge brought against him was, that he was proud of being a gentleman. The charge was sufficiently nonsensical, but, under what was nearly universal suffrage, might be damaging. In the first place, he knew of nothing more vulgar than any assumption of the sort. But it did so happen that, from the time of bis arrival in the colony, he had steadily refused to recognise any difference between man and man, except in honesty, character, and ability. He believed in a real aristocracy, but utterly repudiated a sham one, aud they could have nothing but a sham one in a colony. What offence he had given was exactly in the opposite directiou — to the mushrooms — by one unfortunate expression ; that 'he had no eye for microscopic distinctions.' But he would ask them what they understood by the word 'gentleman ?' If they meant 'fine gentlemau,' that was a variety of the breed for which he had as great a dislike as anyone. But by the word 'gentleman,' he understood a man who was truthful, fearless, faithful to his friends, unselfish, thinking of his neighbour before himself; his hands ever ready to redress a wrong ; courteous to all alike, but merciless to f'alsehoo I, meanness, and trickery. He had known gentlemen in all clases, and blackboards in all classes ; and he did not scruple to say that he hated a blackguard with all his heart." The Man Milliner of Paris. — Among the vanquished glories of the limpire must be rankel the great manmilliner, who ruled with an iron sway over the fair ladies of the Court, aud exacted an implicit, and even servile, obedience. Strange to say, while Paris boasted of leading the fashions of the civilized world, this autocrat of the toilette was an Englishman, though his countrymen will not probably feel much honoured by his elevatiou. He gave himself all the airs of a distinguished artist, and treated the suppliants for his favours with an impertinence which they certainly deserved for their folly. He refused to dress any longer the wife of an important Court dignitary who had offended him. She wept and pleaded in vaiD, but at last he relented, on condition, however, that she should wear her dress for the first time in his shop. He would lean back iv his chair before the fire aud call up the ladies, one by one, to be criticised. " Why do you wear those ugly gloves ?" he asked one ; " never let me see you in such a colour again." The grandes dames of the Empire would take tea with the man-milliner, and rival each other in their eagerness to fill his cup. Before a great Court Ball they would kneel to him in their anxiety to be made beautiful. The Empress once told him she would leave him if he did not abate his prices. " You cannot," he replied, aud she did tot. His prices were ruinous, but were willingly paid, and the glory of the Euglish man-milliner did not wane until the Prussians were on the road to Paris. How to Secure Good Oats for Seed. — A correspondent of the Country Gentleman soys : Place your oats in a heap on the middle of the thrashing floor, on the ftid that the wind blows to. Get you a milking stool and a small scoop — your wife's flour scoop will do — and throw the oats, with a light turn of the wrist, to the other end of the floor, against a gentle wind. A little practice will soon enable you to throw it in a half circle and at the same distance. Sweep off now and then, if you have much, the utmost circle for seed, the light oats for feed, and the weed seed to burn. You will now have seed oats worthy to sow, without buying at five dollars a bushel. I have seen oats grown in Sweden until I was forty years old, but I never saw a heavy crop where the seed was not selected as above*

Pop-Corn. — A Melbourne paper says : — A uew article of food — or new, at least, so far as the Australian colonies are concerned — has just been introduced to the inhabitants of the city, in the shape of a preparation from maize called " pop-corn." By some peculiar semi smoking process each grain of this corn is made to assume something the form of the manna of commerce, while it retains just enough of its original flavor and crispness to render it pleasant to the taste. The pop-corn may be eaten either raw or male into custard puddings, with eggs aud milk, in the same way as rice, tapioca, or sago. It has long been extensively us3d in the United States, and it is there considered to be one of the best preventatives of sea-sickness. An old stork-raiser says : — "lf I had a mule that wouldn't either kick or bite, I'd watch him dreadful close, to see where bid malice did lie."