TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 105, 2 May 1872, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

[Per Greville's Company, Beuter's Agents.] AUSTRALIAN. Bluff, May 1, 1872. The Albion arrived to-day, having left Melbourne ou the 241 b April. She sails for Dunedin to-morrow. Passengers : for Dunedin —Mr. Saunder, Mrs. Ross and two children,. Mr. Philip Oakden; for Canterbury — Miss Kennedy, Mrs. Cooper. Miss Griffiths, Miss Turner, Miss A. Turner. MELBOURNE. April 24. — Parliament meets on the 30th inst. Tbe advocates of the Permissive Bill are getting up an agitation on the subject. Tbe trial of the Rev. — Abraham and wife, for cruelty to a servant girl, resulted in a verdict tantamount to Not proven. Great dissatisfaction is felt thereat. Mrs. Davis has been found guilty of attempting to poison her husband. Senteuce is deferred, pending the consideration of a poiut of law. Street, her paramour, is now under trial as an accessory. Wilkie, indicted for the murder of Harry Peusam,at Dajlesford, is now under trial at Castlemaine. There is little doubt of bis conviction. Tookeye, £5 10s.; holders asking £5 15s. Flour, £15 to £15 10s. Wheat, 6s. 6d. to 6s. 9d. Arrived. —Wave, Zephyr, from Hokitika; Macquarie, from New Zealand. Sailed —Magnet, for Lyttelton; Florence, for Wangauui. Passed Cape Otway, H.M.S. Clio. SYDNEY. There have been more gold discoveries, and a forty-eighth share in Paxon's claim, has been sold for £17,00. Tho barque Maty Hamilton bas been purchased by a Melbourne firm for whaling purposes. The wreck is reported of the Queen of the East from California to Newcastle on an unknown reef. The captain and crew leached Clarence Head safely. Flour market firmer, and closed at 10d. dearer. NEWCASTLE. The ship owners are taking active steps for the abolition of tbe tonnage duties. Arrived : Hydra, Bengal, from Dunedin. Sailed : Star, Mersey, A'lima, for Dunedin ; Moa for Auckland. ADELAIDE. A message has been received through from Baly Springs, the southernmost station from Port Darwin. The work is proceeding favorably. HOBART TOWN. Thomas Dowling, of Canterbury, purchased largely at Kerniode's sale of valuable stock sheep. Wheat firm at ss. 9d.

A novel wager for £10 a side has been; made in Oamaru. . A man in that town has undertaken to cut with an American axe a cord of firewood into two feet lengths in the same time that two men can cut tbe same quantity into similar lengths with a cross-cut saw. A correspondent of the Christchurch Press who contributes some quaintly written letters to that journal under the pseudonym of " The Loafer in the Street," thus comments on the new Poison Act :— " When you go to buy laudanum now, you have to sign your name as a purchaser. I inquired of a chemist what for. He said it was under the new Act, which was made to stop people poisoning themselves or their friends. If this be true, tbe Act is bosh — jußt that. If I want to poison myself, what does it benefit my adopted country tb find that the chemist who sold me the poison can produce my autograph. On the other hand, if J want to poison Flapps, and really the community would be benefited by such an act, do you think I should buy the poison myself ? The only thing I see about signing one's name for six-perm' orth of laudanum, which strikes me as at aU good is that when a man contemplates suicide he must be able to write. As a help to education, the Poison Act, or whatever it is called, may do good." Printing under Difficulties. — The Auseralasian, of February 10th, says : — Bonrke must be a cheerful place of residence during the summer months. Speaking of the heat of the weather on Saturday, the 20th ult., the Central Australian — for Bourke has a good weekly paper now a month old — says: — "At half-past two the thermometer stood at 108deg. in the shade. Being placed in the sun it rose to 140deg.; it was then placed in the water bag, when it fell to 76deg, So intense was the heat that our rollers (a composition of glue and treacle), which were placed in the coolest cellar in town, melted. We are, therefore, certain that our subscribers will excuse the general appearance of the paper while this weather continues, for we can assure them it is often a matter of the greatest difficulty to produce an impression of any description." We should think so. Printers are not * proof ' against heat like this. A life in the ' galleys ' would be preferable to being roasted to death in such a • case.' The sufferings of the compositors on the Central Australian^ must be out of all ' rule ' and ' measure,' and in order to ' adjust ' themselves to it they should be salamanders. As they looked at tbe " copy ' on their ' frames,' they must have felt tempted to exclaim, with Othello, "There is no 'composition in these * news.' " Every man must have confessed himself to be out of -sorts,' and prone to believe that the hour had arrived for final ' distribution.' The production of a newspaper in the midst of a fiery ordeal of this kind affords another striking illustration of the successful " pursuit of knowledge under difficulties." A Bathing- Incident at OrakeiKORAKO.— -A writer in the Napier Telegraphy thus describes a bathe in the hot springs of the above place : — The baths are in continual use by the natives — men, women, and children together luxuriate in them indiscriminately — placidly smoking, and puffing away care — that is, if they have any care, which we almost doubt. The evening after our arrival, the water was studded with black heads, distinctly seen from the village heights. Being lovers of the bath, we descended ta indulge in the luxury ; approaching with a towel, we expected the ladies would retire — no such thing. We waited a little, and pretended to regard some shrubs in the neighborhood. The ladies still smoked, and they still remained. It was embarrasing ! It could not be expected, that after travelling 120 miles or more for the purpose of bathing, we should undergo disappointment — what could be done ? At last we told these interesting people what our inclinations were, —-■the answer was " CDme in." We screwed our courage to the sticking place, and " in perfect innocence we then made our toilet." In a second, one foot was in the pool, and in less than another it was out again. It was beyond physical or philosophical endurance—in short was insupportably hot. We had forgotten the natural law that compels the hottest particles of water to seek the surface — here was a dilemma. On the verge of that treacherous bath "we were the observed oi all observers ; " we were not ambitious, and the distinction was not gratifying. At last one compassionate matron (may her shadow never grow less), gave two or three sweeps of the hand, causing the hotter media to commingle, when the heat was thus modified in we Jumped, and were quickly submerged. Everything was done with dignity and decorum. The fluid was soi' exceedingly soft, the heat so agreeable, that one almost sighs to leave. At this place, fed as the baths are by the boiling, fountain, the surface water needs occasional disturbance and dispersion.