TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE. PROVINCIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 17, 20 January 1873, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE. PROVINCIAL.

Wellington, January 20. The Independent, of this morning, complains of the delay in sending out rails and rolling stock for the railways, and says that although 2 1 ,000 tons have been ordered Bince November, 1871, only 3,500 tons have been shipped, and the Government does not know whether or not the rails, &c, have been actually ordered from the manufacturers. The Government has forwarded a strong memorandum to be telegraphed to London insisting on ships being immediately chartered to bring the material out. The Independent also states on authority that unless things are better managed in London, the railway works will soon be at a standstill. The stock of the National Bank will shortly be offered for subscription. Arrangements has been made with the Union Bank of Australian to receive applipations and the deposits. The date on which intending shareholders can apply will be notified in a few days. William Taylor, late seaman of the City of Newcastle Jwrites to the Independent stating that he, and not Hamill, saved the people from the wreck. He says the rope from the bowsprit was his invention. Auckland, January 20. Arrived : The Locknsgar from London ; Prima Donna from Fiji. Fiji news reports that a deputation waited upon Thurstan to petition the King for an annual election of executive officers. Thurstan said Cakobau declined to entertain tbe proposal. Prospect of crops favorable. Timabu, January 20. M'Allister's accommodation house, M'Kenzie country, has been destroyed by fire. It was insured for £500.

A Cricket Match •was to be played last Saturday at Wellington between ' the team that recently visited Nelson and another eleven. A Sensible Question. — A writer to the Otago Daily Times asks : — " If it is worth our while to pay £46,000 a year for having our European letters delayed, how much ought we pay to anybody who will prevent the communication altogether?" The Statistics of New Zealand Methodism,.'now seeking self-go vernment under a separate Conference, , show 3 districts, 29 circuits, 119 churches, 45 ministers, aided by 181 local preachers, 2638 churoh members, 16,000 hearers, and 5615 Sunday scholars. - The Harvest in Canterbury. — A correspondent of the Press says : — " The opinion of the farmers themselves is that, take the province through, the average ■will hot be over twelve hushels per acre — whole paddocks on the higher lands having dried up throtrgh excessive drought, and become utterly worthless." How to Get Money. — The kingdom of Fiji has suceeded in borrowing £3,000 in New Zealand. That kingdom -is willing to pay a good rate of interest, and might be worth cultivating by some of the capitalists of Melbourne who like a rough interest. These Fiji bonds are of three years duration, carrying 10 per cent interest, and they were issued at 20 per cent discount. Thus, at tbe end of three years Fiji will have paid £1,5®0 for the privilege of -owing £3,000. "That is," wickedly suggests a Fiji newspaper, "supposing Fiji pays at all ! " — Australasian. Testimonials and their Value. — A. Melbourne resident, who was not so great a man in the eyes of anybody as of himself, was some months ago on the eve of departure for Europe. He called at the place of business of a working jeweller, to whom he did not presume his appearance would be known, and informed him that he and a few other gentlemen were about presenting a friend with a gold vase in token of tbeir respect and regard, and that he had been commissioned by them to select the testimonial. An order was given for the manufacture of the vase. When ' tbe inscription was furnished, the jeweller, to his astonishment, found that the purchaser and the presentee were one ahd the same.. Being a prudent tradesman, he masked his thoughts and held his tODgue. He made the vase, engraved it, and got paid for it. It probably dow adorns the sideboard of the successful Australian, colonist in his elegant English residence. His visitors read of his gold-emblazoned virtues, and distract themselves in wondering what manner bf men they be who give gold cups to such men as their new acquaintance from' foreign parts. How much more genuine are half the testimonials than that which a man presents to himself ? — Australasian. Sheeffarming and How to Learn it. — A singular grievance forms the subject of complaint in a letter written to the Melbourne Argus. The writer feels himself called upon, when the Polynesian slave trade is attracting so much notice, to call the attention of the public to " another branch of slavery." According to this correspondent, two squatters on adjoining stations ou the Murray have been accustomed for some time to get young men from Europe to pay premiums to be instructed in station management, the conditions being that they pay £300 for three years' instruction. When they arrive, they find awaiting them as grand a disappointment as Nicholas Nickleby found at Dotheboy's-ball, and the employers, in emulation of the economic plan of Mr Squeers, begin their course of practical instruction by setting the youthful squatters to chop wood for the purposes, of the household. This can hardly be regarded as a branch of knowledge necessary for the proper management of a station ; but what follows is worse. If the victim is found to be incapable of manual labor, he is, according to the writer, treated so that he finds it impossible to remain, and prefers to forfeit his premium rather than to continue his Btudies in the "real-school which has taken charge of his squatting education. Out'of seven of , such pupils only one has remained his full three-years, the general result being that they have accepted their disappointment, and have preferred to sacrifice their time and money as wasted rather than continue at the ; work set before them. It is not to ba-sup-' posed,. of course, that the two squatters alluded to are representatives of their class, and it is possible that the proceedings in their case have been exaggerated or misrepresented by the writer j but if the facts are as he states tbem, it is. well that they should be widely known, that these bucolic rivals of the Yorkshire school-,, master might -be guarded against. '. ... The Good of Sparrows.— A correspondent sends the following, with a request that it may be published :-^ls ihe sparrow the gardener's friend or : foe ? This is a question which has often been discussed, aud the verdict has almost in-

variably been in favor of the sparrow. In face ot all evidence, however, there is a popular prejudice against this little bird, the reason probably being, that 'he .boldly commits his crimes before our eyes, while bis good deeds are done more quietly. Mr. Edward Wilson has produced in one bf the daily papers authentic information as to the balance of the sparrow's merits and demerits. Ha bas ascertained tbat no less than 1 ,400 cockchafer's wings have been found below the nest of one pair of sparrows. Each female of these insects produces about 40 grubs, which burrow for three years in the ground, preying upon the crops during this time to. an enormous extent. As many as 100,000 of these grubs have been found on one acre of ground, and as each acre will grow about 40,000 mangolds or turnips there are about three grubs to each root. Io some years the damage done by this single insect in France alone has been estimated at the astouodmg sum of £40,000,000 sterling. A very simple calculation shows that simply in feediDg their young a single pair of sparrows annually prevent the production of 14,000 grubs, and the account in favor of the birds is not yet complete without leaving any record of their deeds, for sparrows by no means restrict themselves to cockchafers, even when these delicacies are in season, but will eat almost any kind of insect or grub that comes in their way. Mr Wood, in his "Illustrated Natural History, 1862," states that a single pair of these birds were once watched for a day, and were seen'to carry to their young no less than 40 grubs per hour. Such labors are not to be disregarded.— Once a Week.