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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 138, 11 June 1872, Page 2

A Dutchman's Temperance Lecture. I gall tell bow it vos. I drunk mine beer; den I put tny band on mice bead, aud dere vos one pain. Den I put mine band on mine pody, and dere vos anoder pain. Den I puts mine hand on mine bocket, and dere vos notting. So I jine raid de demperance. Now dere is no pain in mine head, and de pain in mine pody

vas all gone avay. I put mine hand on mine bocket, and dere was dwendy dollar. So I stay mid de demperance peoples." Charles E. is three years old, or there abouts. The other day he became very aDgry because his father insisted on enforcing the parental views on some disputed point, and blurted out, ' You're a fool, papa ! ' Papa looked very grave, and presently was called out of the room. Mamma, embracing the occasion to impress upon the young hopeful the impropriety of bis conduct, said papa felt very badly, and he must kiss him and say he was very sorry. So, when his father returned, Charley rushed up to him with his little face all covered with smiles, and kissing him over and over again, exclaimed, ' Papa, I's so sorry you's a fool ! ' The March number of Macmillaii's Magazine bas a remarkable article on the American Bench, by Mr. James Bryce. The accusation made against the mighty swindler Fisk, of "keeping judges in his pay," is shown to be applicable to many notoriously wealthy blackguards. The system which makes the judge a dependent on bis party and his office a purely political one, combined with the meagreness of the salary (averaging £800 a-year) when compared with the incomes earned by practising barristers, has brought about this lamentable condition of the American bench. A judge who is elected for four years is compelled to purchase re-election by constant subservience to the particular "Ring" which put him into office. " Men," says Mr. Bryce, " have been accordingly placed on the bench, whom one might rather have expected to see in the dock — bar-room loafers, brokendown X om hs attorneys, needy adventurers whose want of character made them absolutely dependent on their patrons.'* Indeed, no better illustration of the depths of degradation to which the Bench has sunk in America can be given than the remark made by a " prominent politician" of one of the judges of the Supreme Court of New York city — " I don't think him so bad a fellow as they make out ; he has always been very friendly to me, and would give an injunction or do anything else for me at a moment's notice; and. he's not an ill-natured man. But of course he is the last person I should ever dream of asking to my house." Where the Gold Goes. — In the reign of Darius, gold was thirteen times more valuable, weight for weight, than silver. In the time of Plato it was twelve times more valuable. In that of Julius Ceesar, gold was only nine times more valuable, owing, perhaps to the enormous quantities of gold seized by him in his wars. It is a natural question to ask what became of tbe gold and silver ? A paper read before the Polytechnic Association by Dr. Stevens, recently, is calculated to meet this enquiry. He says of our annual gold product, fully fifteen per cent. is melted down for manufacture; thirty-five per cent, goes to Europe; twenty-five per cent, to Cuba; fifteen per cent, to Brazil ; five per cent, direct to Japan, China, and the Indies,; leaving but five per cent, for circulation in this country. Of that which goes to Cuba, the West Indies, and Brazil, fully fifty per cent, finds its way to Europe, where, deducting a large per centage used in manufacturing, four-fifths of the remainder is exported to ludta. Here the transit of the precious metal is at an end. Here the supply, however vast, is absorbed and never returns to the civilised world. The Orientials consume but little, while their productions have ever been in deraaud among the Western nations. As mere recipients, these nations have acquired the desire of accumulation and hoarding, a fashion common alike to all classes among the Egyptians, Chiuese, and Persians. A French economist says, in his opinion the former nation alone can hide away 20,000,000 dollars of gold and silver annually, and the present Emperor of Morocco is reported as being so addicted to this avaricious mania that he has filled seventeen large chambers with the precious metals. The passion of princes, it is not surprising that the same spirit is shared by their subjects, and it is in this predilection that we discover the solutiou of the problem as to the ultimate disposition of the precious metals. This absorption by the Eastern nations has been uninterruptedly going on since the most remote historical period. According to Pliny, as much as 100,000,000 dols. in gold was, in his day, annually exported to the East. The balance of trade in favor of those nations is now given as 80,000,000 dols.— -News of the World. Presence of Mind. — A baby lately had the misfortune to swallow the contents of an ink-bottle. It's mother, with wonderful presence of mind, immediately administered a box of steel pens and two .sheets of foolscap paper, and the child has felt vyrite, inside ever since. Mb. KoBEBTSON; Gladstone's experiment for the reduction of drunkenness in Liverpool by the publication of the names of \ the ; . apprehended tipplers has

failed. The number of excessive drink.fß has not been reduced, but, if anything, has been increased. Me. E. W. Fkbeday, solicitor, Chrislchurch, in order to lest whvthi'r a receipt given for a cheque is liable lo duty under the Stamp Act, has givi?n t\u unstamped receipt in n case of ihe kind to .-» peroon with the request that ho would report it to the Government. This was done, and according to the Lytlclioii Times, Urn Attorney-General's opinion .having beon obtained, Messrs. Dunenn nnd Jtunoson have been instructed to commence an action against Mr. Feredny for a breach of the Act. Mr. Fereday is very confident of being able to show that, tho Act does not render it compulsory to stamp receipts for cheques. Fabulous stories are told of tho wealth of some of the old identities of Sandhurst, Victoria. One man is said to have £50,000 a year, another to havo mining property worth at present prices nearly a half a million sterling. A few years ago they were both working miners. These stories are very pleasant to hear, and, making the ordinary allowance for exaggeration, are probably in the main true. The police are reputed to be very wealthy. A seedy-looking constable, who certainly so far as clothes went was no credit to the force, was pointed out as having an income from one mine of from £50 to £100 per week. Fancy the delight of being escorted to the lock-up by a bobby of that description.