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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 233, 2 October 1871, Page 2

A Volunteer Review, on a grand scale, is to be held at One Tree Hill, near Auckland, on the 9th of November next — the Prince of Wales birthday. It is expected that upwards of 1000 men, besides 300 or 400 cadets, will muster on the occasion. A Race, thirty-three miles in length, and to carry from twenty to thirty heads of water, is being constructed from the head of the Beaumont river, Tuapeka fiat, in Otago, and is eventually to.be extended to Tuapeka mouth. It is owned by eighty shareholders, and is expected to be completed in about a year's time. The Charleston Herald of the 23rd says: — "The sale of the coal mine, lately held by John Behan, took place yesterday, at the Court-house, Mr. Broad, under instructions from the Crown Lands office, acting as auctioneer. Mr. Dwan auctioneer, entered a protest against Mr. Broad selling as being illegal, and handed in auctioneer and business licenses to the amount of £150, claiming it as Lis right to sell, and offering his services. Mr. Broad read a section of the Act to substantiate his authority, and proceeded to sell the mine, which, after some brisk bidding, was knocked down to Mr. M. Scanlon for £45. There can hardly bie a question as to the legality of the sale, in fact, none at all ; but it certainly seems a great injustice that men who have to pay such heavy licenses as auctioneers are charged, should be debarred of the advantages arising from any sales that may occur, whether under Provincial or General Government management. Heavy Gale at Sea. — The ship Asterope which arrived at Lyttelton from London on Friday last, experienced 1 a most severe, gale on the voyage which is thus reported : — On the 17th August, in. lat. 33deg. 41min. S., and long. 3deg. 23min. W., a very heavy W.S.W. gale sprung up. At 10 a.m., hove the ship to under lower maintopsail and foretopmast Btaysail. .At 1 p.m., a very heavy sea struck the vessel on the starboard bow, breaking three knees iv the forecastle beams, and starting the topgallant forecastle deck all over, and doing a great deal of damage on deck by carrying away everything movable. The strong westerly winds continued until August; the 27tb, increasing on that day to a very heavy gale, with a tremendous sea running clean over the ship fore and aft* On" Sept. 2, at 1 a.m., it increased in fury, wheu in lat. 43deg. 54min. S., and long. 64deg. 20miu. E, a sea which struck the vessel, broke in the front of the poop, filling the cabin with water, breakiug all; the fittings and damaging .nearly all the stores, a great quantity of water going down the lazaretto. Both upper and lower foretopsails were split to pieces. ; (The front of the poop was boarded up as well as circumstances would - permit. At 7 a.m. another sea struck the ' vessel, fore and aft, and again oarry ing

away the front; of the poop. Hove the ship to under the lower maintopsail, until 2 p.m., when the gale aud sea moderated. Some rooks, to the number bf sixty, had been put on board in England, but only teu survived, the remainder having been washed overboard in the gale. . A number of petty- robberies have lately taken place at the Scandinavian settlement, at Palmerston North, Wellington Province. A. New G-as Company is being started in Christchurch with a view of reducing the price of gas to 10s per thousand feet. The Fish in the Invercargill Acclimatisation Society's ponds, situated at Wallacetown, have commenced to spawn for the first time. The notorious J. G-. S. Grant, of Dunedin, advertises that he finds 309 idiomatic and grammatic blunders in Professor M'Gregor's lecture ; and no less than 347 grammatic errors in Professor Sale's inaugural address delivered recently ia Dunedin. The Wellington Post says: — ?*The Hon. W. Gisborne, when speaking on the subject of the appointment of a Select Committee to enquire into the question of tbe establishment of a Central Lunatic Asylum, opposed the centralist view, saying that iusane persons would not like being removed from their Provinces. This caused a good laugh, tbe idea of lunatics possessing more love for the Provinces than sane legislators, who were seeking daily and nightly to abolish them, rather tickling the fancy of most members: Mr. Gisborne bad some glimmering of the truth when he made this statement, though he decidedly made a mess of his attempt to give it expression. Many, not lunatics, might not like to be removed from scenes with which they are familiar." A • Raglan Correspondent says : — "My attention has been called by an old resident in this locality to a climatic change which has taken place here within the last 10 years or so. He states (and I can verify his assertion as far back as 14 years ago) that the natives used to produce immense quantities (tons upon tons) of really magnificent pumpkins and melons every season, while of late years the crops of those gourds have failed utterly. Indian corn also, for which Aotea and Kawhia used to be famous, never ripens now. If I am not mistaken too, Taranaki also is not, as an agricultural district, what it was years ago. Are the subterranean fires dying out, or is the change to be attributed to some Maori divinity irate at the desecration of his sacred soil ?" A Case op Death by alcoholic poison recently occurred at Hokitika, under very distressing circumstances. The deceased was the wife of Carl Rohloff, a baker in Hokitika, who is generally respected for his industrjf and good character. Mrs. Rohloff, who was addicted to drinking, had, it appears by the evidence adduced at the iaquest,got possession of a botlte of brandy, and had taken the whole of it. The husband was away at work at the time, and the son, a lad of about fifteen years of age, thinking that his mother wasouly laboring under ordinary intoxication, did not call in assistance in time to prevent a fatal result. The medical evidence given at the inquest proved that death was the result of congestion of the brain, caused by the enormous quantity of alcoholic liquor which the deceased had take. Takanaki Ikon Sand. — The Independent says : — " A gentleman who has just come to New Zealand bythe Halcione paid a visit to Mount Cook Barracks, where the experimental operations under Mr. Smith, the Government Armorer, are going on. Coming direct from Sheffield with ten years' experience as manager of a large steel company there, his opinion is especially valuable. When we say that he was delighted and surprised at what he saw, we are not using adequate language to express his state of mind. Examining the ignoL of steel we described the other day he pronounced it to be superior to the best English steel. He undertakes to sell 100,000 tons of it in England at an advance upon tbe price now ruling there, namely, £60 a ton. It is io his opinion fit for the finest kinds of cutlery. He examined the furnace and sand, and oo learning the simple process by which in two operations the same result is attained as in fourteen operations at home, he could not find words strong enough to express his surprise and pleasure. The experiment of Mr. Smith is in his eyes convincing evidence that New Zealand has in the hitherto ' useless Band ' a mine of wealth greater than in all her goldfields." , The Registrar-General of Land, in his report on the working of the Laud Transfer Act, makes the following remarks : — " The result of anxious enquiries in all directions is a conviction that it is my duty to recommend the Government to promote legislation without delay, enabling them to oreate a system of survey whioh shall operate over the Colony. lam

aware that many difficulties surround such a proposal, but I am nervously sensible that while on the oue hand I might succeed in making an approximation of the cost of correcting and completing surveys, it would be utterly impossible for me or anyone e'se to make even an approximation of the damage that must result from an extensive operation of the Land Transfer system, with its accompanying assurance of title, in the absence of that principal element of safety, a reliable survey of the lands, a title to which is to he guaranteed. I hold very strong opinions ns to the means by which a satisfactory survey of the country could be best arrived at, haviag regard to expedition, economy, and accuracy; but as this branch of the public service is not included in my department, I may only venture to suggest that it might be profitable if the questioo of the surveys of the Colony were handed over to a competent commission for examination and report. With regard to the expense of placing the surveys of the Colony on proper footing, I would, if permitted, state my belief, notwithstanding any alarm which might follow, that a sum of at least £100,000 will be required. I trust that no apology wili be necessary for my having* ventured upon what I am aware must be a disconcerting and unwelcome disclosure of opinion." A Company, to work the Taranaki steel sand (if not formed in Londou shortly^) will be floated in New Tork. A Lady recently advertised in a Victorian paper that she wauted a " gentleman for breakfast and tea,"- while another in the same journal, asked for "a husband having a Roman nose with strong religious tendencies ;" and a third party seeks to recover " a lost wallet belonging to a gentleman made of calf." A sensation has been caused in Connecticut by the arrest at Derby of Mrs. Lydia Sherman, charged with having at intervals during several years past, poisoned three husbands, two step children, and six of her own children ; the preliminary examination now going on shows strong evideuce of guilt, the bodies of her last husband and a child having been exhumed, and upon examination, giving evidence of poisoning with arsenic.

Agkicttltueal. — An Otago contemporary has the following : — A four-furrow plough,, made by Messrs Reid and Gray, of Oamaru, has, for a short time, been in use on a farm on the Papakaio Plains iv ploughing stubble land, and has, we are assured, averaged six acres a day. Six horses are used, and tbe ploughman sits on a seat sucb as is used with the reapeT, and guides the horses and plough with ease. The land is quite level, and the soil tolerably light, but the new plough is said to make better work of it than either the ordinary single plough or the double furrow. Of course it is only on pretty level land that these large ploughs can be used at all. The Oddfellows. — The Annual Moveable Committee, the governing body of the Manchester Unity, met at Bury St. Edmund's Grand Master George Ramsden, of Sheffield, presided, and . about 200. delegates were present. ■ The Grand Master, in the course of his inaugural address, said at the close of 1870 the society numbered 442,576 members, 29,970 having been initiated during the year, but about 20,000 had either withdrawn from various causes, died, or ceased to be members. Of the 29,970 new members 72 per cent, were under 26 years of age, aud the withdrawals were less than in the two preceding years. The finances bad also been considerably augmented. The receipts bad been £547,072 7s. 10J , and the payments £396,221 lis., showing a net gain of £150,550 16s. lOd. Of the latter, £3 0 8,55 7 was for sick, and £87,664 10s. lOd. for funeral benefits. The total . reserve capital was £3,042,438 19s. lid. The past had not been without its blunders, but the society was now more numerous, more prosperous, and more united than at any former period in the history of the Unity. News of Da. Livingstone. — The following interesting particulars regarding Dr. Livingstone are contained in letters recently received from Dr. Kirk by Miss Livingstone, daughter of the celebrated traveller, dated Zanzibar, April 30, 1871 : — " I will tell you that, by the last news of the Arabs, he had gone to a place called Manema, which is on the other side of Tanganyika Lake ; but this place you will not find on the map. At Ujiji he made friends with some Arabs, who, I hear, have been very kind to him, and in their company visited Manema, which is about 200 miles west of the lake, and tbey must have crossed it in punts or canoes, or what we call dhows. He and his Arab friends got to Manema, and they (the Arabs) made a good business in ivory. I suppose the doctor did what he went for and will tell us some day what he saw ; but on his way back he got — well, he seems to have been hard up, as I should have said — quite out of cash, and was detained for remittances. Luckily the means were at hand, and the man I sent to Ujiji to help him has sent off all he needs, and there will still be a good store on his return to Ujiji. The expense and loss of getting things so far into a savage laud are great, and at a cholera time it was well we got anything tip at all, so that he will never receive the whole of what I sent, and Mr. paid for. A second supply has been forwarded, but I shan't be sorry if the doctor passes it on the way. I should say the parcel of clothing and boots was sent off long ago." A Fashionable Yankee Marriage. — New York papers give accounts of the marriage of Mr. A. A. Maginnis, of New Orleans, to the daughter of Mr. W. Tweed, of New York. The ceremony was performed at Trinity Chapel, at 7 p iin . : — The aisles were crowded with fashionable ladies, all in full dress and the confusion of white arms and shoulders, elegant laces and valuable jewellery, was perfectly bewildering. The bride wore a dress of white gros grain, with a train 31 yards in length, and trimmed with real point lace, costing 4000 dols. The price of the material and labor required in making and trimming this dress was 1000 dols., making, with the lace, a total cost of 5000 dole. After the ceremony the invited guests entered their carriages to the music of selections from the Prophete, aud drove to the residence of the bride's father. The decorations of the house presented a marvellous scene of floral magnificence: . . . . The presents were displayed in the front room on the second storey, and occupied the entire four sides. Such a wealth of bridal gifts was never before seen at a metropolitan wedding. They represented over half-a-million dollars in value. Laces, turquoises, pearls, diamonds, gold, silver, and everything else of value reposed in satin or velvet on every side, vying with each other in brilliancy and beauty. . Should the young couple ever become bankrupt in greenbacks, 01 in gold or silver coin, all they have to dois to open a first-class jewellery store. The dinner was "the chef f<Buvre of Delmonico's establislinlent, which /had been occupied for two days exclusively in getting it up. j The trousseau of the bride was supurb. It comprised fourteen other dresses j the -total, cost ycly fly© of them. deMrtbedV wai' SfaO dole, -„'-■ '.*' ... _-•.....'.■ --■; ■ ... , ■