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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 6, 7 January 1873, Page 4

At a Wesleyan Foreign Mission meeting lately held at Hobart Town, the Rev. Mr Hutcheson said he had found that at thirty meetings iv Victoria mission sympathy was expressed through the threepenny and fourpenny pieces, and he thought that these small silver coins had introduced a system of deceit into the house of God.

We can, says a writer in one of the high class home periodicals, safely recommend a graduate of a newspaper office for almost any station in life, at least for all which require a very good knowledge of the peculiarities and characteristics of the human family. A man who can preserve the serenity of his temper, the sweetness of a Christian disposition, and an unflagging perseverance amid ail the obstacles and difficulties which newspaper publication present, deserves to be ranked with Job for patience, Baxter for goodness, and the Iron Duke for nerve, power, and obstinate determination.

Gallant Eescue. — We have to record ihe very gallant conduct of a young Irish gentleman, third officer on board a steamship in American waters, between New York and Port Richmond, Philadelphia, on the Deleware, upon the afternoon of the 4th of October. The captain's daughter, a young lady of 18, was a passenger on board, and while leaning over the after-part of the ship, the sea beinp rather rough, a sudden lurch of the vessel threw her overboard. This accident being seen by Mr Stephen J. Cassan, third officer, he instantly plunged after her, and, being an expert swimmer, succeeded in grasping her, after sinking the first time. The ship was instantly stopped,, when the first officer and some sailors were lowered in a boat, and succeeded, after much difficulty, in rescuing them from so perilous and dangerous an adventure, the more wonderful as sharks were seen to follow the vessel that day, and were noticed in the water when the boat was rowed to their aid. Mr Cassan is quite a young man, not 20 years old, from the Worcester, training-ship, Thames, London, and has made several voyages to India.—Philadelphia paper.

Needs Must. — M. de Mirandel has just published an exceedingly curious letter, written by Eossini, in reply to a young artist who consulted him as to the best manner of composing an overture : — " Ist recipe. Wait till the evening before the first performance. Nothing excites inspiration like necessity; the presence of a copyist waiting for your work, and the view of a manager in despair tearing his hair out by handfulls. In Italy, iii my time, all the managers were bald at thirty. 2nd. — I composed the Overture to " Othello " in a small room in the Barbaja Palace, where the baldest and most ferocious of managers had shut me up by force with nothing but a dish of maccaroni and the threat that I should not leave the place alive till I had written the last note. 3rd. — I wrote the Overture to " Gazza Ladra" on the day of the first performance in the upper loft of the La Seals, where I had been confined by the manager under the guard of four scene-shifters, who had orders to throw my text out of the window bit by bit to copyists, who were waiting below to transcribe it. In default of music I was to be thrown out myself. 4th. — For "Barbiere" I did better. I

composed no Overture, but tacked on one intended for a very serious work called " Elisabetta." Ttie public were delighted. sth. — I composed the Overture to " Count Ory" when angling, with my feet in the water, and in the company of M. Aguado, who was talking Spanish finance all the time. 6th. — That of "-William Tell " was written under somewhat similar conditionp. *■ 7th,— l did ? not ; compose any. Overture for " Moiae," &c.— 'Pall Mall Gazette,