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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 38, 12 February 1873, Page 2

" The present age is impudent enough," said George Channing,i' s but I foresee that the next will be one of iron and raillery.'" Under the heading, "The Longest Throw on Record," the Australasian has the following : — " A wonderful throw was witnessed by the spectators at the Clermont cricket match on Boxing Day. The telegram says that between the innings some discussion arose amongst the players as to the distance some of them could throw, and it was decided to test the powers of those who professed to excel in this line by a match. Amongst several good throwers, Billy, the aboriginal, astonished every one by sending the ,ball a distance of 140 yards, as measured with a tape. This throw surpasses the best we have ever heard of in the Colonies or in England. It takes a good thrower to throw 100 yards ; and in athletic sports in England the man who can get beyond 110 is almost certainly the winner. A 120 yards throw is very rarely heard of, and hitherto a throw of 130 has been quite unknown;" "']■<' \ For continuation of news see fourth page.

The Southland Times in noticing the depredations of caterpillars among the crops in , tbe various localities in the Southland district, suggests that the farmers should subscribe 5s a-piece to enable the local Acclimatisation Society to import insectivorous birds. An Auckland paper says :•— One of the young lawyers of this city was discoursing very eloquently a few weeks ago, when a young lady, who had been ao attentive listener, said, " Mr , I wish I had your head." The active-minded lawyer immediately replied, "I wish I had your heart, Misa — — ." The ready response is likely to be successful; it is already rumored that the lawyer's head and thafj young lady's heart will soon be in partnership for life. Dinner to Mb. Stanley in New York. — The New York Herald Club gave a dinner at Delmonico's on the 25th ult. in honor ot Mr Henry M. Stanley. Among the guests were Mr John Livingstone, the brother of Dr Livingstone, and the Earl of Caithness. In returning thanks for the toast of his health, Mr Stanley referred to the misfrust which had been exhibited towards him by some of thß English papers, and to the abuse bestowed upon him even in America. ** But," he added, " whatever may be said, you wili never be able to disguise the fact that a Herald correspondent discovered Dr Livingstone (great applause.) I may be called a forger, but I would like to know if I could forge Dr Livingstone's cap " ; and here Mr Stanley suddenly drew from his pocket a dark blue military cap, with a large gold band around it, raised on a still larger band of red velvet. The action was received with loud cries of enthusiasm, and the cap was passed around the circle and tried upon each head in the company. "That," said Mr Stanley, *' is the veritable cap which Dr Livingstone took off at Ujiji when the Neio York Herald reporter said to him, with a bow, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume.' " (Tremendous applause.) In a recent speech Mr Robert Lowe, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said : "America cama out of a gigantic civil war bleeding at every pore, and "with feelings very much excited and irritated. To her eternal honor be it said she offered an unique instance in history. In her case ,{ no statutes glean the refuse of the sword; 5 ' no executioner was called on to finish the work the soldier had left undone. Whatever blood was shed was shed in the height of violent conflict. No blood, no mockery of judicial proceeding, no semblance of impartiality wbere tbe sentence was predetermined on and the executioner was ready, clouded tha triumph of that civil war, and for that America deserves immortal honor. Almost everybody knows that tobacco, like all exciseable articles, is often more or less adulterated, but smokers may be somewhat surprised to hear of the extent to which this is carried in England. Out of 482 samples collected by the Excise Department and carefully tested, 312 were found to be adulterated, the adulterating substances being wheat and rice starches, sugar, liquorice, lamp black, catechu, and various coloring matters. The adulteration by means of sugar and liquorice will scarcely be believed, as it is reported up to 46 per cent of the former, and 55 per cent of the latter ! How many smokers would imagine that their tobacco was onehalf, at least, sugar and liquorice ? It is notable that the samples adulterated with sugar and liquorice were nearly all Cavendish. Turkish tobacco appears to be generally the most genuine article sold. High Heeled Boots for Ladies. — A London surgeon, Mr P. Hewlett, reports several cases of serious fractures of limbs indirectly caused by these heels, which had tripped up their wearers; and he refers also to the distortion and injury to tbe foot that tbey often induce. He says : —"Last year I was sent for to see a young lady in one of our London hotels. She wished to consult me about her foot. On seeing it I thought that its state depended upon her boots, and I asked to see them. The boots were brought in by the lady's maid, but tbe only thing I could observe about them was the immensely high heels. I said : "It is tbe high heels of your boots that cause this mischief, and unless you diminish them I can do nothing for you.' She becamß quite angry, and said she could not alter them. ' I cannot do it, and will not.' Suddenly she again toned down, and said : ' Pray, sir, what would people say if they saw me walking about the park withoq,t high heels?' I said : 'It is simply heels versus brains. If you have brains, you will cut off the heels; if you have no brains, you will continue to wear them.' She fortunately had brains, cut off the heels, and her foot got quite well." j Some. Georgia. ladies flogged a bogus j doctor for quackery. Householdebs who are anxious to economize their coal will do well to try a plan suggested by a correspondent of the i

Edinburgh Conrani, which, assuming it to prove effectual, should at once practically reduce coals to a third of their present price. Looking over au old volume, he says he found the following valuable piece of information: — "By expending one penny you can render one ton of coals equal to three tons. One penny-worth of tar-water will saturate a tub of coals with treble its original quantity of bitumen, the principal source of their heat and light, and of course render one such tub of three times more value than when it was unsaturated," Any householder who finds this experiment answer will, if he is wise, preserve a profound silence on the subject, for he may rest assured that if the secret gets wind the coal owners will at once treble the price of coal, and the colliers will all strike for three times tbe amount of their present wages. The American Government may point with pride to tho success of tho new Indian policy which has been ia force nearly two years. The Indians have begun to work on the reserves secured, to them by the Government, and have made greater advances in civilization than could have been supposed possible in the time. The White Earth *reserve, where ths soil is adapted for farming, supports about 1000 Indians. Many have cast aside their blankets and cut their hair. Over 100 houses are building or built, in which _ large part of the work is done by the Indians, This year they bad on that one reserve 140 acres of wheat a_d many more of potatoes and garden products ; they have 250 head of cattle, besides horses and hogs; there is a saw-mill cutting from 15,000 to 20.000 feet of lumber daily, run by a dozen Indians under the direction of one white man ; two fine buildings accommodate a boarding school with seventy scholars and four teachers ; and in a comfortable chapel built by the Episcopalians a Chippewa preacher gathers every Sunday a congregation of sixty to a hundred. " One has only to see," says an eye-witness, the " conscious pride with which men who, a year ago, were worthless savages, drive their oxen, and point to their gardens and houses to be convinced of the strong hold the new life has upon them." There are no complete mortality records of the population on tbe reserves, but it is believed that the Indians are not now decreasing in numbers, in spite of a circumstance which makes their advance in civilisation a matter of great moment, tbe prevalence of pulmonary consumption among the women, owing to the heavy burdens they carry on their backs. — Pall Mall Budget. A Nice Country to Live in. — A letter from Naples in the Grenzboten draws an alarming picture of the condition of that city and of the surrounding country. " Southern Italy," says the writer, " is a huge den of robbers; not only the mountains and the fields, but the large towns are full of them. The higher officials of the towns are now tolerably honest, but their subordinates form a sort of Camorra, whose sole object is plunder. At the cab-stands in Naples there are persons who extort money under various pretexts from everyone who takes a cab; in all public eating houses and theatres there are swarms of pickpockets who do an excellent business, and are on very friendly terms with the gendarmes and police. Thieves are stationed in the squares and markets and.in the most frequented streets; in the hotels they have private relations with the servants, and in tbe harbor with the custom-house officials. Nearly all the porters at tbe water-side belong to this Camorra, and it seldom happens that tweuty per cent, of tbe luggage which they carry to the custom-house does not disappear. At this moment — the autumn of 1872 — the sums offered by the commandants in the province of Basilicata alone for the capture of brigands amount to 86,142 lire; 23,515 lire are offered for tbe capture of Capuccino, 21,565 for that of Alfano, and 500 for that of a woman named Parente. If the State is ready lo pay such enormous sums for the capture of a single brigand, they must indeed be formidable. Manzi, who has now escaped, is. the perpetrator of 120 murders, and yet tbe jury only found him guilty " with extenuating circumstances ! "