FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 74, 23 February 1872, Page 2

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1872.

Nelson Institute. — The annual meeting of the raemberfe of this Institute has been postponed until Wednesday evening next, at half-past seven. Our Late Resident Magistrate. — The Wesiport Times says : — The retirement of so old and experienced a public servant as Mr. John Sharp from the Resident Magistracy of the City of Nelson, cannot be allowed to pass over without our expressing the deepest regret at an event by which New Zealand has lost oue of its ablest administrators, the Province of Nelson an upright, judicious, and conscientious magistrate. While wishing Mr. Sharp deserved success in whatever undertaking he may embark, we trust that be will still find time to take a part in those duties which fall to the lot of a good citizen. The Clairellen left Cardiff on the loth November, with railway plant for the Port Chalmers railway. The heat at Geelong has been so great that some of the frnit in the gardens has been literally roasted on the trees. Mr. Richakjd Nancarrow, of Greymouth, has established himself at Reefton as mining sharebroker and commission agent. The duty paid in Dunedin on New Zealand spirits during the year 1871 was £4942, as compared with £2652 in 1870, showing an increase last year of £2290. Two respectable lookiug young women were fined £5 each, at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Dnnedin, for stealing fruit from a garden. A Mr. Howlan, who was on a sketching tour from Dunedin, was drowned while crossing the Rangitata (Caterbury), on the 11th instant. Fort Brittomart, Auckland, is undergoing the process of demolition, its site being required for the arts of peace as a railway station. A Man named William Fogharty was killed at Mr. Wales' quarry, near Port Chalmers, by a ledge of stone, weighing three tons, falling upon him. The Chinaman, Ah Hoon, charged with receiving money obtained by Eec Chang for spurious gold, has been committed for trial before the Supreme Court, Invercargill. The Otugo Daily Times says : — " The Borough Council of Hokifcika employ only one day-laborer, and the 'post' being lately vacant, seventeen persons applied for it." The Hokitika Saw-mills — although for some time past working night and day — are unable to supply orders. At present several vessels are waiting at Hokitika for cargoes. Messrs. Reid and Gray, Oamaru, have this season manufactured from 120 to 130 reapers, nearly all of which have been ordered as fast as they could turn them out. The Mortality among children in Auckland, during the month of January, was alarmingly great. In the case of children under five years or age, the number of deaths was equal to the number of the survivors. A number of Chinese and a general cargo of Chinese goods have been brought to Port Chalmers by the barque Seagull. She brings 120 Chinese, all told, viz., 113 passengers, o assistants, 1 doctor, and 1 interpreter, all in perfect health. The Death Rate in Christchurch and the suburbs among infants, is alarmingly high, as thirteen burials were recorded in one day last week. From all accounts the epidemic answers to that known io England aa choleraic diarrhoea. The Representatives of the several brewing firms in Auckland have convened a meeting " to consider the price of beer." Considering the price of beer, says the " Cross," admits of a wide interpretation. It may be that, owing to the excessive amount of thirst lately experienced by the Auckland multitude, the brewers propose being humane by reducing the price of their beverages j or. as is. alleged by some, , the scarcity of water necessitates a rise ie the article. The hotelkeepers state thai they are quite willing to submit to a reduction on the charge of colonial beer ;

but if a rise is contemplated, why then they themselves will have & meeting on the subject. An official document, quite unique in its way, was recently laid upon the table at the Malmsbury Borough Council, Victoria,, At the previous meeting Councillor Hunter complained that the borough inspector had called at his house in his absence, and used very insulting language to Mrs. Hunter, the expression specially complained of being that Mr. Huuter and his fellow-councillors " ought to be boiled down." The inspector, in a most elaborate report, denied that he had ever, in the whole course of his existence, made use of " such a low, vulgar, and colonial expression." Throughout the report Mrs. Hunter was referred to as Mr. Hunter's " missus," and the document wound up by demanding a withdrawal of the charge, and a threat ot legal proceedings in default. As Councillor Hunter was not present, the reading of the report was held over till the next meeting. Haud Times for Gardeners. — The miseries of the market gardeners of Geelong are in excess of those of the majority of the human race. The sparrows, it seems, took a good part of the cherry crop, and the hot winds baked a good part, and for what was left they have been obliged so content themselves with Id. a pound. The gooseberry bushes have been very prolific, but so small has been. the dpmand as compared with the eupply, that it has not paid to gather the fruit. The consequence is that the ground underneath the bnshes is strewn with ripe luscious fruit, rotting and fermenting in the heat of the sue. Apple trees are literally groaning under the superabundant weight of fruit, which the branches are unable to bear without being propped up. The Geelong Advertiser, which reports these circumstances adds that, " in the one garden that we saw the gooseberries rotting in, we saw thousands of quarts of French beans, which were becoming old and withered, and in answer to the query, ' Why not gather these?' the reply was. 'No demand.' " The following from the London Journal of Commerce will doubtless have the hearty concurrence of all newspaper proprietors : — The best and cheapest mode of advertising in the world is that in the newspapers. Every successful advertiser will say this. Seed strewn there — if the seed is good for anything — always brings up a crop of some value ; most generally a hundred-fold. Placarding the dead walls, and showering handbills among the people are auxiliaries in advertising, but it is doubtful whether, as a rule, they more than pay the expense, while it is no doubt they are a nuisance. The blankest of dead walls is only disfigured by posters, provoking in the well regulated mind a sense of aversion to the man who so advertises, and the articles whose excellences he expatiates ; while, as to handbills, nothing so prejudices a citizen against going to see any show, or buying any goods, as the ugly slips of paper thrust at him from all quarters, eloquently recommending him to do all those things. Greymovth and Grammar. — The Greymouth Star thus severely criticises the address recently presented by the citizens of that town to the Premier : — A committee, whose names deserve to be handed down to posterity, drew up an address to be presented to the hon. Mr. Fox ; that address was good-naturedly read to Mr. Fox by Mr. Heber Newton ; and printed and published as it has been with Mr. Heber Newton's name attached, Mr. Heber Newton deservedly suffers for his too great good-nature, by becoming the laughing-stock of his profession and the public. In the presence of a hundred people, more or less intelligent, that young and amiable gentlemen stood up and read, to the leading man of the colony, some of the most arrant rubbish, io sentiment and expression, that we have ever seen put upon paper, and there is due to him the credit that, so far as the thing would read, he read it well. What his sufferings may have been in the discharge of his too graciously accepted duty it is difficult to say. We believe he survives, and that is more than can be said for the temper of the hundreds who have since read the address, and who have any respect for the repute of Greymouth. It is an address which, at the risk of the loss of temper, we recommend all others to read, if they desire to discover to what lengths ignorant presumption will go in induciug people to undertake duties for which they are entirely unfitted. It will bo especially useful to schoolmasters and the fathers of families when they desire to punish the peccant youth by inviting them to parse sentences which can be rendered into neither grammar nor sense. In the name of Lindley' Murray let us have no more v of this display of ignorance which has lately been ho amply demonstrated in public documents, but, when the duty of drawing up memorials or ad?

dresses has to be undertaken, let the gentlemen, such as our- lawyers, and others who are fitted for it have the task deputed to them. The community has reason to be heartily ashamed of the address to Mr. Fox. As compared with those presented to him at Westport or other places, it is a melancholy example of our local education. Our German Chairmen have been twitted as to the idiom of public documents and their occasional public writings, and sometimes not without reason, but Germans, though they may have Saxon blood in their veinp, may be excused if they fail in the use of the Anglo-Saxon tongue. Only on one plea — tne defective system of education which prevails in the County — is this discreditable production to be excused ; and if it only results in directiag the Premier's attention to our lamentable condition in that respect, it will have achieved an object for which its authors may deserve to be blessed, though by every sensitive school-boy they should be soundly cursed.