Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 162, 9 July 1872, Page 2

The ALiiAarDRA took 2000- ounces of cold to Melbourne on her last trip from Hokitika. The Auckland Ice Com' any intend to make ice-chests to supply the Southern provinces. The Otago Customs Eetukns for the half-year ending June 80 show an increase of £21,245 over the corresponding period of 1871. In an article on the Waikato railway, the Times says :-— The day tho Waikato railway is opened should be one of rejoicing throughout New Zealand. During a recent gale in the Waikato, King Potatau's tomb was brown down, several punts carried away, and houses blown bodily off the blocks. Resolutions, similar to those passed in Canterbury, for altering the constitution of the Province were under discussion at Taranaki at lhe date of our latest advices. Mr. Brogden's Tender for 34 miles and 55 chains of the Clutha railway, including two miles of sidings, has br-en accepted at £142,000, exclusive of rails and rolling stock. Twenty Thousand Bushels of "Providence" oats were harvested at Southland this year, the produce of a parcel of four ounces imported from Scotland through the Postoffice a few years ago. After bringing the Auckland members down to Wellington, the Luna visits the West Coast with Mr. Edwin to survey the reputed dangerous shoals. She loads with coal at Greymouth for the Government. The Wellington Post complains of the "worse than Cimmerian darkness" of the streets of the Empire City, and of the "mud, thick clayey mud" which is "ancle deep in most places, a foot deep in many." Altogether, Wellington seems to be a nice place in which to reside. Messrs. Hart and Buckley, solicitors to the Emigrant and Colonist's Aid Corporation, have received a letter from Colonel Fieldiug, agent of the Corporation, announcing that the operations undertaken by it are in full progress, and that in a short time a batch of emigrants will i>e despatched uuder its auspices to New Zealand. — Post. The Auckland Evening Star oi Tuesday last says that the smallpox has been thoroughly stamped out in Auckland, and that the citizens are indebted to Dr Philson, who, when Thompson died, laid him in the coffin and nailed down the lid without any assistance, and in order to prevent the possibility of contagion, took water and scrubbed the infected house in every part. — The Board of Health has resolved that ho communication be had with any vessels arriving from Wellington, America, or Great Britain until the ship had been" visited by the Health Officer. In a lecture delivered to the YouDg Men's Christian Association of Auckland by Mr. Gillies upon " Our Laws and how they are made," occur the following pertinent remarks : — "This brings me to my moral that if you want better laws and better made, you must select your legislators better. You must select men who know the wants and -requirements of the community — men who, knowing these, have no w^nts and requirements of thenown of greater personal importance — and if you can get them, men of trained, cultivated minds who cau, even if they cannot speak, put laws ia such a shape that even lawyers cannot pick holes iu them," . : ,; -. ."„ ' ....".'.•.■. ,\.

Freight on Coal. — The Neiocaslle Chronicle gives the following as the rates of freight on coal to the various ports drawing their supplies from thence : — Shanghai, 455.; Hongkong, 425.; Mauritins, 203.; Singapore, 255.; Galle, 18s.; Yokohama, 465.; Bombay, 183.; S.tn Francisco, 33a. to 345., Calcutta, 165.; Honolulu, 40s 5 ; Java, 155.; Manilla, 40s. Intercolonial : — Newcastle to Adelaide, 205.; Auckland, 235. ; Nelson, 205.; Dunedio, 205.; Lytteltcn, 239.; Wellington, 235.; Melbourne (bay), 153., wharf, 15s. 6d.; Sydney, 4s. A Number of newspapers have been stopped in the course of transmission, at rlio Postoffice, Duuedin, because of their lienrina: the stamp of the sender on them. The Postmaster-General was appealed to, hut it has been ruled by him that, in conspquenca of the newspapers having the stamp of the firm upon them, they would each be treated as a book packet and require the additional postage to be paid. The Postmaster was waited upon and remonstrated with, but he was inexorable, and the cash had to be paid. The india-rubber stamp is handy, but it proved rather too much so in this instance. For remainder of news see fourth page

An American Paper thus chronicles a domestic incident : —"A Fratiklin street gentleman and his wifa had a little argument on Christmas Eve, when he kiudly said he would haug up her stockings for her; he did, but inadvertently omitted to take her out of them. Sho stood ou her head for nine minutes, when {he neighbors arbitrated." Central and South America. — Kailways are being built iv Peru, chiefly by English capitalists. — Rich coalmines have been discovered in the Aranco province, Chili. Measures are being taken to work them.— The West Coast Mail of March 23 announces that telegraph wires in the Argentiue Republic cow cross the Eepublic in all directions. The expense of sending a message of ten words is twentyfive cents. — One hundred and twenty irou bridges have been constructed over rivers and rivulets in the province of Buenos Ayres; and in the city there are thirty miles of tramway. Taught by the late scourge, the inhabitants aro pushing out their residences beyond the present limits of the city. The building of pretty suburban villas and the surrounding of them with orchards is now the order of the day. At Newcastle, New South Weles, a monster colliers' meeting has resolved to demand 6d. per ton advance, beginning with the Lambton mine, and if it is not paid, ihey intend giving their employers notice on the 24th. The effect of this on New Zealand will be something considerable, and is another argument added to the many which have been urged why the 1 Government should take some active steps in assisting the development of our own mines. A rise of Is. per ton on all the Newcastle coal imported iuto this colony will represent a very considerable sum, which might bebeneGcially employed in doing what Ministers talk much about, namely, fostering the local coal industry of the colony. The amount of coal imported last year was 93,867 tons, valued at £121,121. The shilling per ton ou this would give the respectable sum of £4,693. — Post. The Church Times copies the following bona fide advertisement from a Kent paper: — "Notice. —In consequence of , the practical teetotal bootmaker of——, being very ill in consequence of his having caught a severe cold through attending Divine service on that cold damp night, New Year's Eve, in the large room connected withEbenezer Chapel , he therefore begs that all tho Christian ministers who are personally acquainted with him will offer up prayera to Almighty God for his safe recovery to perfect health, at the many churches and Christian dissenting chapels in many large towns that he has very much frequented in his younger days, as hundreds of the poor in and the surrounding villages are waiting lor him to supply them with more cheap strong boots and shoes from his establishment, , which has been established for more than three years." A Novel Invention. — A novelty in machinery is reported from Salt lake city, where a machine has been invented to kill grasshoppers. The cost of the machine is 75 dollars, and it should at once be imported in large numbers iDto those countries where locusts abound, as it might make a sensible difference to their ravages. The machine, which is drawn by two horses, consists of a large iron apron, which picks up the insects as it is drawn for ward. Behind the apron is a pair of rollers, driven by the carrying wheels, and whatever finds its way into the front of the machine is obliged to pass between these rollers' — a passage fatal to grasshopers. The amount of execution done against the enemy is therefore proportioned to the strength of the horses. How far the machines may be capable of dealing with a really fine swarm of locusts remains to be seen, but four or five of them working steadily backwards and forwards all day might perhaps do eomething to defeat the advancing hosts.— The Ironmonger. Havoc by Lightning. — We, Wangaanui Herald, have just baen shown a fragment of a telegraph pole, which was rent by lightning during the late thunder storm. The piece has been torn off apparently with irresistable force, yet as clean as if split by an axe. The insulator is shattered both on top of the cap and also inside, and strange to say in Beveral instances where two arms have been attached one on either side of the pole, one has been shattered and the other felt intact. Near the residence of Mr. John Handley, there are nearly a dozen poles shattered, some within a foot of the ground. Fragments, in some cases a half and a third of the poles, are carried, after having been wrenched off, over a chain from the original pole and scattered several yards end up in the ground, showing the force with which they have been driven upwards. Small splinters are lying round for over 50 yards from the poles. Travellers should be. careful to avoid proximity to poles in thunder storms, $s fee w really very great danger. Th

wire is on the ground in several places and we should imagine cornßiuuicatiou must be frequently interrupted.