The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 65, 15 March 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1872.

Government Wharf. — T^e tender of Mr. Akersten for £218 has been accepted for repairing the Government Wharf. Steamer Claud Hamilton. — This steamer arrived, from Melbourne, via the West Const this morning under Ihe command of Captain Rouse, who has recently gained his promotion, he having for some lime been first mote of the same boat. On arriving at Hokitika the captain, officers, and passengers sat down to a champagne lunch, when the following address was presented to Captain Rouse : — " To William Rousp, Esq., Commander of the s.s. Claud Hamilton. — Dear Sir, — On this, your first voyage as commander in the New Zealand trade, we tbe undersigned saloon passengers, wish to testify to our high appreciation of your abilities as a seaman, and your attention at all times to the duties connected with tbe ship. We beg further to acknowledge your urbane, courteous, and gentlemanly conduct on nil occasions, and trust that the career before you, so well begun, may be long and prosperous. We are, dear sir. very faithfully yours."' — Here follow 32 signatures. Professor Haselmayer. — Another very capital eutertainment was given at the Assembly Room last night to an audience who throughout expressed their high appreciation of the numerous tricks that were so cleverly and so easily performed. The mysterious drum, the tell tale bell, the obedient wine and water, the well disciplined packs of cards — all these are made to bear evidence to the skill of the accomplished conjuror, magician, or necromancer, we scarce know what to call him, who is now amongst us. For to-night the programme is an entirely new one and he will display his skill as a pianist, and among other eccentric performances play tbe Carnival of Venico on the piano with a clothes brush instead of with his Augers as any ordinary man would be satisfied to do. To-morrow afternoon a grand clay performance is to be given in order to allow children to be present, and we can easily imagine the look of nstoDisument that will be visible on their faces as they witness tbe wonders displayed to them. Four Hundred Thousand Feet of Timber were exported from Havelock during the month of February. The Salary of tbe Mayor of Wellington has been voted at £200 a year. The original motion was that it should be £300. The Nevada on her last outward trip took a number of samples of preserved fish from an establishment recently started at Port Chalmers. A Closely Contested Election of a member of the Marlborough Provincial Council has taken place at Picton, the numbers being: Conolly 39, Tripe 37. About 1600 sacks of grain have been delivered in Kaipoi within the last twodays. Along some of the streets the grain-laden and return drays kept up nearly a continual string. — Press. At a Recent Meeting of the committee of the Canterbury Flax Association, it was stated that a Christchurch firm had executed an order for a Liverpool house of ten tons of double stripped flax at £45 per ton. The working expenses of the Wellington and Masterton line are estimated at £12,500 for one train per day, aud £16,000 for two trains calling at seven stations. The Manawatu and Wanganui line is estimated to cost annually £5,600 for one train, and £9,400 for two trains daily calling at the same number of stations. Two very extraordinary pedestrian matches are to come off at the Albert Barracks, Auckland. Signor Donato has ftsreed to run a 100 yards race with another one-legged man for £10 a side, Donato giving his adversary a start of 25 yards. In the second match Donato is to receive 40 yards in 100 to raeeagainat the best local pedestrian amateurs. The Naseby correspondent of the Waikouaiti Herald says that for several | weeks kiteflying, in the absence of better amusement, has been all the rage, the Chinese having first set the example by the flying of a musical kite. We venture a guess that there are other places besides Naseby where "kiteflying is all the rage." Fears are entertained of the Opawa river in Marlborough creating another breach. Many thousands of pounds have been spent at one time and another in tbe endeavor to prevent this calamity, but the water has proved too powerful an enemy

for the engineering skill brought to bear upon it, and now it, is said that it is likely to create a uew channel for itself, which would have the effect of destroying a large amount of valuable property. Intelligence from the head-quarters of Maoridom reports an almost entire failure of potato crops. The natives have sown for a second planting, but it is feared the yield will besmall. Mauy anticipate great suffering amongst the Kinsites during the ensuing winter from this cause, and as the supply of food is altogether inadequate to last through the season, unless it is augmented in some way, absolute starvation will not improbably be the result. Many of the natives have manifested a desire to obtain employment upon public works. The Newspaper Press of New Zealand to be Exhibited at the Inter national Exhibition, 1872. —TV following telegram has been received from tho Secretary of State: — "Inform all Governors in Australia and New Zealand that perfect collections of periodical literature published on any one day in January or February, is desired for international exhibition (1872) ; also, specimens of typography, if exhibiting novelty in type or excellent execution, utmost despatch desired." — The Hon. Mr. Gisborne has accordingly telegraphed to the Superintendent as follows: — "I should feel obliged if you would send specimens here in time for transmission, by Government, by next mail via San Francisco. The day fixed to be 24th February, but newspapers published on preceding clay, and not published on tbe 24th, should be included." — Taranaki Herald. The End of a Fray. — A fierce battle has of late been raging between the two Blenheim papers which now appears to have been brought to a close, the Press in its last reply to its opponent stating as follows : — " Wheu the article we are peuning is concluded, we will burn the pen we used on the occasion, throw our inkstand into the street and break it, wash our hands for fear of contamination, and finally scatter some powerful disinfectant in our sanctum to counteract the bad effects that might arise because we touched or meddled with such an infected affair." Upon this, the Express, which is the cause of all this burning of pens, smashing of glass, washing of hands, &c, remarks: — " Well that fellow sicknowledges ho is finished off at any rate." We trust not, for he is altogether too amusing a " fellow" to be lost to tbe public. TiiEßallarat Star gives the following information respecting his Celestial Majesty the Emperor of China : — " The Chinese New Year's Day that has passed is, we are told by one who got his information from a Chinese source, the eleventh anniversary of the accession of the present Emperor, Xt Tsiang. The Emperor is eighteen years of age, and entered into the holy bonds of wedlock at the early age of sixteen. Since then he has been married 'considerably,' as Artemus Ward would say, for his subjects in Victoria assert that he has 118 wives. With respect to his children, all we can learn is that he has two sons, the first being two years old. This almond-eyed babe has been proclaimed through the empire as the future ruler. We are further informed that the 118 wives were all presents to Emperor Xi Tsiang, and that it is as much as a subject's head is worth to present him with a wife under fourteen years oi age." The Queenstown correspondent of the Southland Times speaks of the weather, with the thermometer at 130 degrees in the sun as "delightful — if anything too hot." A Californian Mine. — The Californian Chronicle reports : — Developments have recently been made at Gwin mine iv Lower Gulch, unparalleled in the history of quartz operations in this State. A stratum of rock has been discovered in the main shaft, at the depth of 400 ft., that for richness eclipses anything of which we ever heard or read. The straugest feature in the development is, however, that the rock recently discovered so closely resembles the slate of which the walls of the lead are composed, that it has heretofore been taken out and thrown away with the other debris from the mine. The stratum mentioned lies next to the foot wall, and is about a foot in width and thickness. In color and formation it so nearly resembles slate that it requires a close examination to distinguish the two from each other. It was discovered that this singular deposit, instead of being slate, was a mass of sulphurets, carrying free gold in abundance. A portion of the For remainder of news see fourth page.

rock was brought to town and critically assayed by Dr. James Hepburn. Two and a-half ounces yielded 166gr. of cold; or, in other words, at the rate of 53,140 dollars per ton. Should this stratum prove to be one of the permanent component, parts of tbe lead, there is no calculating the amount of gold that will be taken from it. If ore of equal richness has ever before been found there is no record of it. The Spectator thinks our meat companies t?re aiming too low. In its issue of December 29, it says :— " The Australian Meat Companies seem to us to be playing an unwise game, which we notice not for their sake, but for that of the public. The have got the ball at their foot. They can sell their meat at a cost which, allowing for cooking, bone, and household waste, is barely a third of the cost of uncooked butchers' meat — 7d. a pound instead of 19d. a pound— and if they can only get rid of the impression of overcooking which spoils some of their specimens they will have the limitless market they desire. In Manchester they have seriously affected butchers' price lists, and as Englishmen like meat and cannot pay its present price, their ultimate victory is quite secure. Under these circumstances, their managers are idiotic enough to compete for workhouse and prison contracts, that is to seek for a dividend to-day at the cost of dividends in perpetuity. The precise prejudice they have to face is that their meat is wholesome, hut only good enough for paupers and convicts, and they deliberately go and give that prejudice a seeming foundation. We are ashamed of their brains. Yankees would have tendered for the supply for Windsor Castle, the Guards' mess, and the Travellers', and whether accepted or rejected, have advertised the tender." The Worth of Four Pins. — There is, or was, a Polish lady, the Countess of J£ , living in Paris. She wears a very singular brooch or breast-pin. Encircled by twenty precious stones, on the ground of a dark-blue stone, and covered by glass in tront, are just four common piDS bent together in the form of a star. Why does she wear such a singular thing as this ? Her husband, a Polish nobleman, was put in prison because he was thought to be a secret enemy of the Government. He was put into a dark and deep dungeon, far down under the ground. He had no light. He could not tell when it was day or when it was night. He had no one to speak to, for no one was allowed to go near him but the keeper of the prison, and he was not allowed to speak to him ; he had nothing to do ; days, weeks, and months passed, and he was still in his dungeon ; he was not brought to trial. Poor man ! how miserable he was ! he thought he should lose his. mmd — he felt his reason giving way. Ob, if he had only something to do ! Feeling all over his coat one day he found four pins, and he wept for joy. But you say four pins ! And what use were they to him? Why he just took them from his coat, and threw them on the floor of his dungeon, and then he went down on his hands and knees and felt, all over the floor till he found them. When he found them he scattered them on tb.p floor again, and, could you have gone into his dungeon, you would have found him on his bands and knees groping for his pins. It was all his work. Aod when after six years' imprisonment, his cell was opened to set him at liberty, they found him groping for his pins. And he would not leave his prison without taking his four pins with him. They were his best friends, because they had given him something to do ; and his countess had them made up into a breast pin, which she valued more than gold . They had preserved her husband's reason. South Sea Labor Traffic. — The Times has published n letter from a correspondent who calls himself " Neither a Missionary nor a Planter," relative! to the murder of Bishop Patteson. Speaking of the Santa Croz Islands, which he states he has visited, tbe writer says : — " For my own part, I would not think of landing upon any of them unless accompanied by at least seven or eight men, armed to the -teeth, and even eyes and ears must be ever on the alert to prevent being thrown off one's guard for a s?.ngle moment. And I consider that any one going on shore without taking these precautions whether to trade with the natives or to preach the gospel, is guilty of foohardiness and presumption. It appears to me that on islands where one's flesh is considered a delicacy, aad where one's teeth strung together is admired as a necklace, it is not necessary to look to the outrages of Queensland and Fijian kidnappers as the cause of the murder of an enthusiastic clergyman. The statements made that some of these 'labor vessels' have obtained natives by professing to be mission vessels are true. I know of one Queensland vessel that went to another group of islands often visited by the Bishop, where the captain and crew got out a fiddle and

flute and several large books ; one of their number threw a white sheet over his shoulders, aud they began to sing. When the natives, thus thrown off their guard, came crowding on board, the crew rushed on them, huatled as many as they could below the hatches, and sailed away. I wish I could say that this was all the harm done, but I regret to say that, before the cruise of the vessel was completed, many a poor native met his death after a gallant resistance against the superior weapous of the white man. No natives being: taken to Queensland who betrayed the slightest knowledge of English, these poor savages were all passed by the immigration officers as Polynesian laborers. But before concluding, let roe s:iy that it is not only Queensland or Fijian vessels that are guilty of these atrocities. French vessels from Tahiti are as bad, or worse. Only a few months ago, a vessel from Tahiti landed an armed force ou the island of Pern, one of Gilbert's Archipelago, and fairly beat the islanders towards the vessel, just as one would drive pheasants in an English battue." Law Reporting in Amekica. — In South Carolina the ordinary run of a newspaper reporter's business appears to be occasionally varied by deadly street encounters with learned judges. One such is repoited iv the Charleston Courier, without any comment that would induce us to believe it was an exceptional circumstance. It appears that as Mr. Whaley, of the News, was passing the corner of Broad and Meeting streets, on his way to the Police Court, he came under the observation of Mr. Trial Justice Mackey, who was stand iug under the porch of the Guard House. Mr. Mackey I confronted the reporter, and calling upon him to defend himself, took out a sixbarrelled revolver, aud " blazed away at Wbaley." Just as in England a reporter might on being asked produce a pencil, Mr. Whaley brought out from his pocket a Colt's revolver, and returned the judge's fire. The hour was between ten and eleven o'clock in the morning, when we may presume a street in the locality of the Charleston Police Court would be somewhat crowded. Nevertheless, the judge and the reporter continued firing at each other until ten shots had passed. The judge, finding his revolver empty, brought out "an extra pistol," and had fired a shot from it " when his attention was called to the fact that Mr. Whaley had raised his weapon in token of having exhausted his meaus of defence," whereupon the judge honorably desisted. At this juncture there beiug no further prospect of anyone being killed, Trial Justice Levy ordered the arrest of the parties, who were conducted before the Mayor and bound, over in the sum of lOOOdol. each to keep the peace. The Charleston Courier observes that " considering the number of shots exchanged, it is wonderful that no injury resulted to the antagonists." What appears to us to be a still more marvellous matter is that a judge, sunning himself in the porch of the Guard House, should think it necessary to carry about with him, in time of profound peace, a six-barrelled revolver and "an extra pistol," and that a reporter who chanced to pass by should, on being challenged, be able to produce from his pocket a Colt's revolver, loaded and capped. Loyalty in England. — The London correspondent of the Australasian writes under date December 29 : — Just at the present time it is astonishing how the sympathies, not only of members of the same nation, but of the whole world, have been roused during the last anxious and dreary month, a month which the English nation may be said to have spent as one man by the bedside of our Prince of Wales. Never in the history of England has there been such ao extraordinary spectacle, or one that has so vividly impressed the nations of the earth, occurring, just as it did, in these most perilous times. England waa supposed to be ripe for revolution and not government. Royalty was publicly insulted and tacitly sent to the wall, and nobody had a good word for our future King. So that it is not to be wondered at that Republican journals of France and America joined in conclusions that the British monarchy was sick unto death. But lo ! out of evil came good. The typhoid fever, from which the Prince was suffering, suddenly developed alarming and dangerous features, and, as if by magic, the nation flung off its apathy and its cynical carelessness, and in one day regained more loyalty and affection for the Crown than it had lost during the last few years. Nobody was prepared for the universal burst of sorrow ; every one spoke with bated breath as though there was a death io the house ; business stood still. All engagements^ whether of duty or pleasure, were put aside, and it seemed as though the English people ha \ nothing to do but stand in the streets and wait and watch for the next telegram. Not only at home with our owu was this terror visible. Kings from all countries ap-

peared to be infected with the same anxiety, and telegrams were flashed several timps a day to all the reigning powers. The most marvellous tbiDg, too, was the unanimous truce to all politics, whether religious or otherwise. Roman Catholics and Nonconformists, fireworshipping Parsees from India, patriarchs of the Greek Church, Shakers from the backwoods, all united in prayer with the English people for tbe recovery o: Albert Edward, and mirabile dictu, even tbe English Republicans uttered a few words of sympathy, as if in obedience to the general will. While all this was going on we were in a state of popular excitement and tension that was painful, but now that the tension is over and the crisis passed, it seems to me more marvellous than ever, and as if the Almighty had read to the world, through us, a lesson to remind it that He is the only guider and ruler of events, and that we have been in much danger of forgetting Him. It is consoling to see that the heart of the nation is sounder, and that at present, at all events, we Bre in no humor to put up with any treasonable nonsense. The Republicans say that this unfortunate illness has put their hopes back at least 10 years, and it is amusing to note how they have drawn in their horns and disappeared from public gaze. The other day a friend was standing in a crowd at the Mansion-house reading a bulletin, when a Radical of the deepest dye was incautious enough to Bay out aloud, "I'm sorry he is not dead." Before the words were out of his mouth, he was in the gutter, and very glad was he to sneak off, with the assistance of the police, with only half a coat to his back, and a general idea of how very unpleasant the lynching process would be. Odger was equally unfortunate at Reading, even before tho great burst of affection, during which time I think he would scarcely have dared to show himself. But the Reading people refused to listen to his lecture, and pursued him to the railway station, where he was ignominiously shut up and guarded till a train came, in a portion of the premises more noted for convenience than comfort. He finally got into the train, at the expense of bis hat and coat. Sir Chas. Dilke was scarcely more lucky at Derby or Bolton, but be does not p< ssess the somewhat sturdy pluck of Odp,er. and takes greater care to keep out of i arm's way. I do not envy the baronet i i this coming session, and I think that Yj must wish that his bad tongue had 1> en bitten off before he had made such a Tool of himself.