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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 8, 9 January 1872, Page 4

The -Wohomai Herald is a curiosity in New Zealand journalism, being written. It consists of four pages post folio, four columns in a page, and is published at one shilling. The following is the leading article in the fifth number : — " What is to become of New Zealand ? In 1769 Cook took possession of the Island. In 1841, by an Act of the Imperial Legislature, New Zealand was declared independent of New South Wales. la 1846 Governor Grey arrived in Auckland ; and in 1871, just thirty yenrs after our self-government, we are £7,500,000 in debt, with a population of say, a quarter-of-a-million; equal for every European man, woman, and child in the colony, to a debt of £30 per head, and an annual payment of £2 each for interest, being at the rate of £1 4s. 6d. per head in excess of the individual tax on the inhabitants of Great Britain. Let us ask what the people possess for this vast sum? Can we point to any one great public work of utility ? The roads are unmade, the rivers unbridged, the country unworked and unpopulated. Its vast natural mineral wealth hourly leaving its shores to enrich more tempting lands. Emigration a failure, and labor scarce ; and so we might go on adfinitum. The Maori war, numerous Provinces and Councils, with all the mum raery of Government tin-pot displays and pleasure-trips at home and abroad, for Governors, Ministers, and Special Commissioners, red tapeism, jobbery, corruption, and a glorious squatocracy, are all we have for £7,500,000, the very interest on which leaves the country for England. Who will arise and stem the torrent of ruin that etares New Zealand in the face — boldly step into the gap, and lead the country the true way ? In these degenerate days, we do not look for another Washington to arise ; but is there not one earnest, honest, far-seeing man, with a love for his country, that will come forward and scatter the money-changers that defile what should be our boast and pride — the Legislative Assembly of New Zealand." The Bi&hop of Manchester, at a railway employees tea party at Bolton, concluded a speech as follows : — Might he .venture to say in all seriousness one S'tnple word to sweethearts. Let him ask them to mak» their sweethearting consistent with Christian purity here ; do let him say, in the second place, girls, don't you take up with uuy young fellow just because he has a sprightly tongue or a dashing manner. If you don't think he is likely to make a good husband, don't have him. Before you take to a good uoan, see that he is worth taking to. He would say to the young men, dont be caught by the prettiest face or the smartest dress. Look put for a lass who will make you happy at home, and who, if she cannot make the calico to sew ou to the buttons, will know how to make a shirt aud stitch the buttons ou, (Applause). Twenty Parsons in a Fix.*— The following story, which is evidently of American origin, has been going the round of the English press : — Out in Ohio, twenty Baptist clergymen, who were attending a convention went down to

a secluded spot on the river bank in the afternoon for the purpose of fakiug a swim. This score of brethren removed their clothing, and placed it upon the railroad track close at hand because the grass was wet. They then entered the water and enjoyed themselves. Presently an express train came rouod the curve at the rate of 40 miles an hour, and before any of the swimmers could reach dry land, ail of their undershirts and socks and things were fluttering from the cowcatcher and speeding onward towards Kansas. It was painful for the brethern — exceedingly painful — because all the clothing that could be found, after a careful search, was a sun umbrella and a pair of eyeglasses. And they do say that when those twenty marched home by the refulgent light of tha moon that evening, in single file, and keeping close together, the most familiar acquaintance with the Zouave drill, on the part of the man at the head with the umbrella, still hardly sufficed to cover them completely. They said they felt conspicuous somehow; and the situation was made all the more embarrassing because that night all the Dorcas societies, and the woman's rights conventions, and the pupils at the female boarding school, seemed to be prancing around the streets and running across (he route of the parade. Sufferings on Board a Geioian Emigrant Ship. — The captain of the emigrant ship Europa from Bremen was, on the arrival of Ihe vessel at New York, arrested by order of the United States Emigration Commissioners for a breach of the regulations. Mr. Herudorf one of the cabin passengers describes the voyage as sickening in the extreme. He states in an affidavit that the passengers were suffering nearly all the time for want of sufficient food, and he swears positively that two of them died from actual starvation — in fact, when they were thrown overboard they were perfect skeletons. The small-pox also broke out on board in the lower cabin, causing the greatest consternation amongst the passengers. There was no doctor on board, and during all the illness the captain paid little, if any, attention to those in the steerage; and Mr. Herndorf, although entirely ignorant of medicine, was obliged to look after the sick as well as he could, whilst with regard to food he shared the same as the rest, except that all the salt pork he got he was unable to eat. He says : — " I one day took the little piece of meat given me for my dinner, stuck if; on the end of my fork, and went up and held it to the captain's face, asking him if he thought that was sufficient for a man's dinner. Besides my meat, which I could almost put in ray hollow tooth, I bad bean coup. It was little better than clear water; at least I could count the beans on the bottom of the basin. Each one also had a cracker, which was so hard that it had to be soaked in water before it could be eaten. But the pangs of starvation were nothing compared with the loathsome horror of seeing the passengers huddled together like swine — they were huddled together, men women, and children, from the first, aud were obliged to remain so during the entire voyage. When the ship had been out a week, the women were all so reduced in health and strength that they were barely able to move." Mr. Herodorf states that even before leaving Bremen they were treated badly, and that but very few jbf the passengers before they went on board knew the name of the ship they were to sail in, so completely had they been deceived by the agents.