CRICKET.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 2, 2 January 1872, Page 2

CRICKET.

A match, of which the following is the score, was played at Richmond yesterday between the married and single.

Short Lived Colonists. — A writer in the Australasian says : — The number of sudden deaths of well-known persons which have lately occurred in this community causes men to pause and think — for five minutes or so. We miss a man from his accustomed haunts for a day cr two, or perhaps he is not missed afc all, and the next knowledge we have ot him is that gloomy notification which, with other disastrous occurrences, precedes the leading article of the daily journal. Men in Victoria work harder than men in England. They are unsparing of themselves, and waste the tissues. How rare it is to meet an easy-going person, passing through life doiug nothing, taking life quietly, carefully watchful of health, eating and drinking by rule, in order to preserve health and prolong its many enjoyments. In colonies like ours, men at first are compelled to work industriously. Afc length habit causes work to be regarded as a necessary concomitant of daily life. It promotes excitement in systems predisposed thereto by the exhilarating quality of the Australian atmosphere. Thus men io the stir and activity of their lives are unconscious of declining powers. They have no time to watch themselves. And at last they drop on tho field — they die iu harness. They have nothing in reserve to withstand a blow, and once down there is seldom a rally. I think this is why we observe so many what are called sudden deaths. For remainder of news see fourth page.

According- to the Mark Lane Express, a revolution in the practice of milling is imminent. Cart*, of Bristol, has brought, out a machine for grinding corn without tbe intervention of stones of any kind, excepting for tbe purpose of reducing the inferior products of the grain which are left incomplete by the machine. The machine occupies the space of only 12ft by 3ft, while it is said it will reduce with perfect ease from twenty to twenty-five quarters, or from 160 to 200 bushels per hour, thus doing the work of more than thirty pairs of stones, reduced to twentyfive by requiring five pairs to grind the semolina, or middlings,and bran if required. The flour handles very soft, which in other flour would indicate a want of strength, and consequently a less production of bread per sack. It is maintained, however, that this flour will produce more bread than the common flour, and that it fetches several shillings per sack more than that made by other millstoues.

The following ia the text of the bill which has just been brought into the Legislative Assembly of New Sou.h Wciles : — Every female subject of ber Majesty, whether married or unmarried, oi the full age of twenty-one years, being a natural born subject, or the daughter of a mother being a natural born subject, or who having resided in this colony for three years, shall have become a naturalised subject shall, if qualified as in section nine of the Electoral Act 1868 is provided in regard to the male subjects, and entered on tbe roll of electors, aud not disqualified or incapacitated for some cause in the said section specified, be entitled to vote at any election for the electoral districts, in respect of which she shall be qualified. Provided tbat no female be qualified to be elected a member of the Assembly for any electoral district in the said colony.

Total Failure of the Eclipse Expedition. — A telegram from one of the Eclipse expedition dated Cardwell, 16th December, states : — The Governor Blackall put in at this port to-day, all well. The Expedition reached Number Six Island, off Cape Sidmouth, on the evening of the 6th December, and erected all the instruments on the island. Everything •was got in excellent order by the llth inst., and up till then fair weather was experienced. On the night of the llth bad weather set iu. A most severe thunderstorm burst over the place. The lightning struck the ship's masthead several times, discharging itself into the ocean with loud crackling noises. The flashes were so vivid as to take away the power of sight for several minutes. Thick weather continued during the whole of the 12th, the sun being obscured by heavy rain-clouds. It was impossible to make aoy observations by the instruments, but the corona was faintly seen through the clouds, and two glimpses of another phase of the eclipse was obtained. The schooner Matilda came up in the evening:. The master and men reported that they had seen the eclipse very distinctly in comparatively clear sky near Night Island, only lo miles north of the Expedition observatory. They did not know of the eclipse beforehand, and only observed it with the naked eye.

We copy from Walch's Literary Intelligence (Hobart Town) the following apposite remarks in re the loss of the Rangoon : — ,l With wise men every calamity works out some good result, every disaster is made a stepping-stone to better things, and it were acting the part, not of the wise, but of fools, if, after a catastrophe so serious as the loss of the entire correspondence for all the Australian colonies, some simple and effective means be not adopted to save the letters in the quite possible case of the wreck of another mail steamer. Of all the ingenious methods to ensure the impossibility of saving the mail, that now adopted cannot be improved upon. The old plan of packing the letters in stout and handy wooden boxes gave soma chance, as is proved by the box containing the Indian mail having been saved; but they gave place, a year or two ago, to large sacks, on the plea that the boxes occupied too much space. We do not object to newspapers being so packed, for we believe the plea set forth to be a good one, but we do protest most earnestly against the wanton carelessness of letters being so treated. They bear but a small proportion to the bulk of the entire mail, and special means should be adopted to ensure their safety and facilitate their recovery. Our suggestion — and we know it to be a feasible one — is that letters be enclosed in metal cases with a screw down aperture and air compartments, the former rendering the case quite impervious to water and at the same time enabling it to be used times without number, while the latter would ensure, its floating. We trust that our Postmaster-General will at once, while the loss of the mail by the Rangoon is fresh in the minds of all, call the attention of the authories in England to this important matter, and urge the promp adoption of a plan that will give greater security to letters than the present absurb method of cramming them into large bags."

Fijian Morality. — The demoralising effects of any social system in which slavery, or something closely approximating thereto, is tolerated, are making themselves apparent in Fiji. In a recent number of the Gazette, published at Levuka, tbere§ appears au announcement of the intention of the Government to organise a military force for the purpose of subjugating the mountaineers of Viti Levu, and of taking possession of their lands. We are told that there are "hundreds of thousands of acres of wellwatered and fertile soil " in the district upon which the marauders of Levuka have fixed their greedy eyes. But* there must be some colorable pretext for wresting the laud from tbe hands of its present owners and occupiers, and this has been discovered in the fact that they are "bloodthirsty savages who are living in a state of heathenism horrible to contemplate." Of course the persons composing " the army of occupation," as it is to be called, are not at all bloodthirsty, are highly civilised, and eminently Christiau. They obey the Decalogue. They do not covet their neighbors broad acres ; they will not murder, and they are far too honest to steal. We wonder whether the members of the future " army of occupation " are iu the habit of entering their respective sanctuaries at Levuka, and tbankiDg God that they are not as those blood-thirsty savages in tbe mountains of Viti Levu ? The latter, it is consolatory to add, are not to be exterminated. They are reserved for a better fate. They are to be " deported in small lots as laborers to the planters, where they may be Christianised and civilised." Iu other words, they are to be soid into slavery, and it is considered that, under such circumstances, they will be necessarily charmed with the principles and practice of their enslaver?, and be eager to adopt a faith which brings forth such good works among thoso who were born into it. "We trust in a short time," says the editor of the Fiji Gazette, glowing with philanthropy and piety, "to be enabled to announce the arrangements that are projected for this noble purpose, and are confident that they will meet with the cooperation of the public." "Noble" is a good word, aud we are glad to know the interpretation placed upon it in Fiji. It is noble to commit acts of rapine and violence, noble to hew and slay, uoble to appropriate other men's la»d, noble to carry savages into captivity and make slaves of them, and noble to win them over to Christianity by the exhibition of such Christiau virtues as the foregoing. — Australasian.

Sl>"liLE. Ist Innings. 2nd innings. A. Leary, c Sutton 33 notout 5 ft. Bright, b Bonnington... I J. Young, e 11. Tasker ... D J. Tasker, run out 4 notout 0 J. Saywell, b Bonnington 14 J. Primmer, b Bonnington 1 A. Coles, b Bonnington ... 5 W. Higgs, b Sutlon _. R. Primmer, b Bonnington 0 IT. Primmer, not out 2 T. White, b Bonnington... o Extras 6- Extras 0 "' Total.. -7 Total 5 Grand Total, 62, with 10 wickets to fall.

-vIAItBIED. Ist innings. 2nd innings. IT. Bonnington, b Leary .. 15 c Leary 0 M. Lodge, b Leary 8 eJ. Primmer o F. Bonnington, c Bright... 0 c Tasker !) H. Tasker, b Leary 2 c Bright 5 J. Sutton, Lb. w 9 l.b.w 2 11. Haycock, run out 1 c 11. Primmer 0 J. Sigley, c White 0 notout 2 .1. Tasker, c Tasker 0 runout 0 W. Tovey, not out 0 b Leary 0 IT. RuiEel.b Coles 0 c Higgs G — Brock, c Leary 1 runout 1 Extras , 5 Fxtras. 6 Total 41 Total 40 Grand Total, 81.