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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 163, 10 July 1872, Page 2

Mr. Baxter lately stated in the House of Commons that Uie amount of funds in Chancery was nearly 60^,- mMioas. Hargreates, the Victorian gold-•iiscovi-Tj has askvd for the sweepiugs of the Mint as a reward for public services. A Pastoral Staff of Silver, studded with precious stones, has been presented to Bishop Short, of Adelaide, commemorating the 2Qih year of his episcopate, " Atticus," in the Leader, tells the following somewhat apocryphal story: — A commercial fraud has recently been committed not many thousand miles away from Melbourne, which for daring and ingenuity surpasses !tnythin» that I have heard of for a long time. A., confidential officer of a certain institution had embezzled its fuuds to the extent of £5000. The half-yearly balauce was about to he struck,-and be could not rsise the money. la this diiemma he consulted his solicitor, I do not know the exact nature of the advice given, but what A. did was to appropriate £10,000 more. When the audit day came, the defaulter related his sad story to the manager,stoutly maintaining that he had lost the whole £15,000 iv unsuccessful mining speculations iv various mines. Criminal proceedings were threatened, hut then there was the injury to the credit of the ingtjiutiorj, ami to the reputation of the directors for smartness and sagacity. Could not A. make restitution ? He was afraid that he could not, but he thought his wife's family, rather than ccc him sent to gaol, would do sornethiufj. The board gave him twenty-for hours to consider. At the close of that period he offered £5000 cash on consideration- of receiviDji a letter testifying to his integrity, and regretting that his being about to commence business upon his own account prevented the institution retaining his valuablee servics. The offer was at once accepted, and A.'walked ..out of the office with a clean bill of health, and £5000

carefully stowed away in his "cash-hox as a sli»ht solatium for hia loss of office. On Tuesday, the 2nd July, the first messages were to be sent by the overland Hue to Tennant's Creek, thence by horse express to Darling Waters — thirty business telegrams and several congratulatory messages, one to the Emperor of Germany, and another to President Grant. The Marlhorovgh Express says: — ■ " With great regret we luarn that diptheria has agiiiu made its appearance in a fatal form iv Blenheim. Ie is vow some four years since this disease committed such ravages iv the same locality, and under neaily the sume conditions it has comme&ced with now. The year ]868, memorable for great floods, will be by many remembered as the year of death, so extensive- were the ravages of diptheria, Tife present year also having been noted far hi»h floods, the connection between these and the malady appears to be confirmed. Native Assemblages now-a-days cast quite into the shade our Provincial Councils, as regards the observance of parliamentary modes of procedure. At Pakowhai, iv Hawke's Bay, the Herald states that the Natives have an Upper and Lower House of the Legislature, and both were in session on the 13th ult. Some point having arisen on which it was (bought (here would be a difference of opinion between the two bodies, a conference was agreed to be held, and managers were duly appointed, and met, and settled the question, everything being conducted in a style which would have satisfied Sir Erskine May. The Duneiiin Echo is responsible for the following: — "At n recent spiritual sitting in this city, as we are informed, there was a woman who mourned the loss of her consort; and, as the manifestations began to appear, the spirit of the departed husband appeared on the scene. Of course the widow was now anxious to engage in conversation with the departed one, and the following dialogue ensued : — Widow : 'Are you in the spirit world ? ' The lamented : • I am.' Widow : < How long have you beeu there ?' The lamented: 'Oh, some time.' Widow: 'Don't you want to come back and be with your lonely wife ?' The lamented : 'Nob if I know myself ! T.t's hot enough here.' " For remainder of news see fourth, page.

Paltry. — A new Jersey editor has announced the death of his uncle in Australia, leaving him » goldmine and 400,000 dollars. His village contemporary professes to ' regard the matter as a plan cunningly devised to obtain credit for a box of pamper collars and a straw hat. An economical lowan, who had the toothache, determined to remove his tooth in the Indian fashion. Accordingly he bent down a sapling in the woods, lay down himself, and attached a stout cord io his tooth at one end and the sapling at the other ; then he released the sapling, and the next thing he knew was that be had jumped over a grove of about 40 small trees, and was trying to get out of a pond into which he happened to alight. About fifteen years ago Mr. Herdmnn, of Liverpool, in one of his papers in the Liverpool Mercury entitled " Liverpool 50 years ago aud 50 years hence," stated that the scientific triumph of lighting street lamps by electricity would be accomplished. The Society of Arts in London has announced that the street lamps of G-otten-gen were lit simultaneously for the first time on Saturday, the 16th March ultimo, by electricity.