T H E W E E K .

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 154, 29 June 1872, Page 2

T H E WEE K .

... i - I. f| Although not an interesting one, the weather has certainly proved ihe principal topic of conversation during the past week, partly because if. has been so unusually wet and miserable, but chiefly I thbk, oa account of the absence of any event of greater importance. People say that the month of June is almost invariably showery, inelemeut, ami generally disagreeable, and that at its expiration we shalfhave a return of clear, frosty weather; if this be correct, I can truly sny lbat I am very glad July is close at band. I doubr, however, whether this sentiment will he shared, in by the whole of the animal creatioa in this part of the country, for instance, if the pheasants knew what, was in store for them on Monday next «nd the succeeding thirty days, it is possible that they might prefer the soft dropping showers of June- to the harder rain of' shot to which they are to be exposed in July. If all the guns that are to he directed at these unfortunate birds will but carry straight, there will be terrible slaughter within the next four weeks, more than one hundred licenses having been already taken oat by the members of our sporting community, and those who have been attracted from the neighboring Province of Marlborougb. The steamer Lyttolton, which arrived from thence yes. terday, presented quite a lively appearance as she came alongside the wharf, the guns which they carried and the dogs that accompanied them plainly indicating the intentions of a number of the passengers, and a perfect feu de joie may be expected from the hills around the town at an early hour on Monday morning. It is said that the birds are in excellent condition, but how this is known passes my comprehension, for of course no one has yet shot any, the season not having yet commenced, indeed I hear that one individual from a thickly- pheasan ted part of the country was very nearly getting into a scrape the other day by hazarding the remark that they would prove to be very fat and plump, for the question was immediately put to him in rather an iu-

sinuatiog manner, "how do you know that ?" The gentleman, however, proved himself quite equal to the occasion, und replied without the least hesitation that he had noticed that they "flew very heavily." He ought to have a seat on the Treasury benches of a representative assembly for, depend upon it, he would be ahhi 10 answer nr,y number of questions " without notice." Another steamer has arrived from Australia without bringiua; the news of any vessel having sailed from Newcastle for this port, so that there is no prospect whatever of the coal famine that prevails just now being allayed for the next two or three weeks at least. If, is a strange si^ht; in a coal country such as this to see the grates pilel up with woo:?, in some instances so green that it will, not by any amount of coaxing be persuaded to burn. It certainly is very unpleasant in such weather as this to be short of coal, but the inconvenience, I fancy, will not be without a good effect, for if, after the experience of this w inter, the people of New Zealand quietly permit their numerous and excellent miues to remain unworked, they are not made of the stufi I take them to be. The present scarcity of this necessary article will probably iead to a lavjre portion of the money that now finds its way annually to New South Wales being retained within our own boundaries. At the Perseverance mine crushing operations have once agatD commenced, and report has it. that the yield promises to be :t pood one. Such promises, however, have been very frequent in ?he limited quartz mining experience of this province, and the news that the plates are looking well does not give rise to one half of the sanguine expectations that it did in the days that have gone by. Another cuke or two of goid such as was once exposed to our admiring gaze ou the occasion of a certain meet'iDg of shareholders would go far towards reviving the hopes of those iuterested in the' Perseverance Company, but promises and appearances are not much thought of just now, however much we may hope that they will be realised. The breaking out of the smallpox in two of the principal towos of the Colony has given rise to some alarm, and the authorities are recording alive to the necessity of adopting precautionary measures for checking the spread of the disease in places where it has appeared, and for preventing its introduction where it has uot yet shown itself. The Vaccination Act has probably been more frequently perused within the last week or two than has ever been the case since it became law some nine years ago. I, for one, have felt it incumbent upoa me to make myself acquainted with its provisions but I was rather startled on reading one of its clauses which runs thus : — " The pareut of every unvacciuated child born in New Zealand after tbe Ist March, 1864, shall, within six calendar months after the birih of such child, cause it to be vaccinated," &c. The natural inference is that, occasionally, vaccinated children are born ia New Zealand, which, owing probably to the fact that, my knowledge of infants and their peculiarities is not. very extensive, I must confess is something quite new to me. However, we live and learn, but a volume of the Acts of the General Assembly is the last book to which I should have thought of referring for information upon physical phenomena, of this description. F. for remainder of news see fourth page.

Three-Fifths of the shares in the Trans-continental Railway Company of South Australia have been taken up. The' last Californian earthquake had the effect of suddently curiug several lame beggars jn San Francisco. Nearly 2000 miles of irrigated canals have been projected in California, which, it is said, will protect ten million acres of land from drought.

A Darkey says : — " All men are made ob clay, and, like meerschaum pipes, are more valable when dey are highly colored."

An Itaxian Newspaper laments that, after the liberal subscriptions made there for a monument to Garibaldi, that agitator will not take tbe hint.

A Paragraph in a Tasmauian paper speaks about mushrooms being found at Brown's river; averaging a pound weight each, and one that turned the scales at two pounds.

The Returns from the Victorian goldfields continue to be most satisfactory. The total value of tbe gold exported from the Colony since the first discovery of gold is estimated at £163,019,221. The Fall Mall Gazette says :— " The Buccess which has marked the exportation of small-pox from the United Kingdom to the United States, free of duty, must have surpassed the most sanguine hopes of those interested in the Society for the Diffusion of Diseases."