The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1873.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 49, 25 February 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1873.

Nelson Gaswoeks. — Tenders are invited up to Monday, the 10th pros., for bunding a stone and brick tank to serve as a gas bolder. ;' , • Pbizb "Fisox&.~ The firing for these -prizes by the Gity Rifles took place at the Maitai Butts this morning, whenlf the following . ,' were the highest scores made : First ee t, Private CrpssDQ an, 40^ JSergeantBurn- 3^j second set, Pri- ■ vate^;Mopre^-43^:SeVg : eantP' BurriW',}4o. : ,;^.e'r:-isual|'> f; ;disife>>:- th^ " v of the »;'dejailsuufcil<ltb^ ...". ' ,i..^/

Inland Communication Committeb.--The members of this Committee are invited to attend at the Government Buildings to-morrow evening for the purpose of discussing the report. . Masonic Ball. — The re-opening of the Masonic Hall (late Assembly Boom) in Trafalgar-street, is to be celebrated by a ball on Thursday next. The advertisement states the names of those from whom tickets may be obtained. Concert. — The complimentary concert to Mrs. Scaife and Mr. Walcot last night was well attended, the body of the Hall being well filled. Other engagements prevented our reporter from attending, but from all we can learn from those who were present, the greatest satisfaction was afforded by the manner in which the very liberal programme was carried out. Life Insurance. — A lecture will be delivered at the Masonic Hall, this evening, by Mr M'Donogb, the travelling subcommissioner to the Government Insurance Department. The subject of the lecture, to which admission will be free, will be found in the advertisement, where it will also be seen that persons already insured in private, especially in mutual, offices, are particularly requested to attend. Christ Chukch. —We are informed that several of the lady parishioners of Christ Church contemplate getting up a bazaar to take place in about twelve months' time, the proceeds to be devoted' towards extending the gaapipes to the church, and providing it with chandeliers, and all other fittings required for lighting it with gas. We wish them every success in an undertaking that will involve considerable demands upon their time, and a large amount of hard work, but which, judging from past experience, there can be no doubt they will well and zealously carry out. Volunteer Reception Committee. — . A meeting of the Committee was held last night, when the subscription lists were handed in and arrangements made for the reception of, the representatives. It was decided that lunch should be provided for them on the ground, and that a ball should be given to them prior to their departure. Other arrangements were left in abeyance fending fuller information as to the amount of subscriptions likely to be raised. Mr Stevens, the Staff Secretary, arrived by the Albion this morning for the purpose of making all the necessary arrangements. He -states that there will be about 90 volunteers in daily attendance on the shooting ground. Is it Teue"? — The Charleston Herald of a recent date has an article on the wretchedly low rate of pay awarded to young men in the Telegraph Department. In much of what is said by our contemporary we heartily concur, but there is one statement made in the article before us that should not be allowed to pass unnoticed by the press or the Legislature of the colony. It is as follows : — " We state it for a positive fact that we know of one lad's salary being advanced from £70 to £100, the douceur to the M.H.R. obtaining that advance being a £10 cheque." We are not going to make the bold asser- • tion that the atmosphere of our political world is entirely free from corruption, but so flagrant a charge of bribery as this we never yet heard adduced against any of our colonial representatives. Even though it had no foundation, an assertion of this kind getting abroad is calculated to do an infinity of barm to the colony, the legislature of which hitherto, has in this respect compared favorably with those of the other Australian colonies, but if it is based on any grounds whatever, no matter how slight, a full investigation is absolutely necessary in order that the slur which has been cast, by an indefinite charge of this kind, upon the whole of the representatives of the colony, may be removed, or the accusation brought home to. the individual alluded to, who should at once be ignorainiously expelled from the House of Representatives. Having gone so far, the Herald should have boldly stated the name of the guilty member. As it is, either too much or too little has been said. It is unfair to the represented and the representatives alike that a floating and indefinite charge of so grave a nature should be allowed to remain unchallenged, and it is to the interest of both that itß Iruth or falsity should be clearly and unmistakeably proved without any unnecessary delay. Ngakawhau Coal Mine. — A West.port telegram to the Wellington Post, dated 20th met., says : — Mr. Dobsoc, Provincial Engineer, has again inspected the Ngakawhau mine, and also the newlydiscovered seams in the immediate neighborhood. He expressed astonishment at the extent of the discovery, and calculates that one plateau alone?§at an altitude of 1500 feet will yield 20,000,000 tons, In the Ngakawhau mine- there is a seam of 19 feet; lo inches of; splendid coal.' The lessee i is anxious to float a company. Mr Hartman, from Wellingto is expected to-morrow to negotiate. Should this ar-

rangement fail, Mr Chamber, mining manager, will visit Wellington to have an interview with the speculators. The shallowness of the Ngakawhau bar will necessitate a service of light-draught steamers and barges for bringing the coal to Westport, where vessels of all sizes can sail in and out at any time. The Government has been memorialised to construct a railway between Westport and Ngakawhau out of the money voted last session. The Superintendent visited the Ngakawhau mine on Tuesday, and was very favoranly impressed. He will recommend the General Government to proceed with the railway at once. The Steamer Patterson. — The following description of Mr. Brogdens new steamer, which arrived at Wellington on Saturday morning, is from the Sydney Empire'. — She was formerly the property of the Hunter River S. N. 1 Co, and was recently purchased by Captain Kennedy on behalf of Messrs James Brogden and Sons, railway contractors, Westminster and New Zealand. The vessel has recently undergone some extensive alterations and repairs, and iu fact has been almost rebuilt. This work has been done at the works of the A. S. N, Co. The most noticeable change is the new spare deck, which is constructed of 2% inch kauri pine, and measuring 113 feet in length, commencing at the break of the poop, and going forward. Both the main and poop decks have been sheathed with kauri pine. Under the spare deck there are several powerful spurs of If inch iron, stretching from the main deck to the angle irons. These are of great service in strengthening the ship, and also serviceable in diminishing vibration. The tonnage measurement is now nearly 400 tons, previously it waa 219. With regard to passenger accommodation, that has been perfectly looked after, and there has been constructed a row of very fine cabins on the poop. The boilers with which the ship has been fitted were for a short time in use in the steamer Leichardt; they have been given new bottoms, &c, and are almost equal to new. A Rope Factory has been started at Cobden. Californian Quail are becoming very numerous upon Inch Clutha, Otago. A Second Telegraph Wire is now in course of preparation between Hokitika and Christchurch. Canaries have on several occasions been liberated by the Auckland Acclimatization Society, but they seem not as yet to have done well in the open air. His Excellency Sir George Bowen is to be entertained at a dinner given by the members of the Wellington Club, this evening. He proceeds to Auckland in the Luna at the end of the week. An Order in Council, dated the 15th instant, prohibits the importation into New Zealand of aDy cattle, horses, sheep, or pigs infected with the foot and mouth disease, and all hides, skins, horses, or hoofs of the same. A Dispute about the boundary of two adjoining small sections of land ia Otago ended recently in a court case between the two holders thereof, and resulted in a verdict for one of them for £80, with £500 costs. A Woman was recently charged at the Thames Police Court with disorderly behavior at Shortland. The defence was that as the offence took place below high water mark, the place could not be described as one of public resort. The plea was successful. The Secretary of the Hutt Races has received a telegram from Mr. H. Redwood, of Nelson, asking whether two-year-olds can run at the coming races, and has informed — "Yes, if they carry three-year-old weights." Mr. Redwood, we should think, is likely to enter a large number of two-year-olds upon those terms. At a Sale of station property recently held at Christchurch, the following prices were realised :— The Glenmark Station was bought by Mr G. H. Moore for £85,000; Dean's Peak Station ; for £13,500. Mr F. Conrage purchased 4,000 acres of land for £6,500. Mr G. H. Moore bought the Black Hill Station for £13,500, Doctor's Hill Station for £14,750, and Wakanui Creek and Ashburton Station for £52,000. Undeb the heading " Shirts and Civilization," the Southern Cross, referring to the late native meeting at Maungatautari, says : — "A welcome indication of a higher civilization, is given in the announcement of Henare, a chief of the Ngatiraukawas, who declares that unless he sold land he could not buy a shirt; and smitten by the love of that garment which white humanity enjoys, he declares he will never go shirtless. To, en joy that boon, and other comforts of which it is the forerunner, he will lease lands to the European. Tarapipipi, too, loves clothes; and he, Rewi, Henare, and the test , no longer sitting naked and; desolate among the tombs of the arid ; 'the^rebeUioni 1 r now' , clothed and , in ififeir right mind.''

An English paper, called the Labor ers 1 Union Chronicle, published in the interest of the class from whom it takes its name, states "by authority," that some friends of .the agricultural laborers, despairing of a | satisfactory settlement of the land ques- ! lion, are making provisions whereby at least balf-a-million of the cream of our agricultural population will be offered an immediate, practical, and attractive scheme of emigration to the colonies. The strike of the miners at Newcastle, says the local correspondent of the & M. Herald, has had the effect of completely changing the aspect of the city ; that whereas it was formerly busy and bustling, it is now quiet ; that its wharves are deserted, and that the cranes are lying idle, while there is scarcely any activity among the shipping. He speaks also about hundreds of able-bodied men living in idleness, and of the sufferings endured by many. Mr Gourlay is now exhibiting at his show-rooms, in Pitt-street, Sydney, a very remarkable dried specimen of an aged chieftain which he has procured at considerable expense from the captain of the French barque Victorioe, who brought it a few weeks ago to Melbourne, from Darnley Island, near the New Guinea coast. This mummy was procured from the natives by custom ot barter. The natives averred that the remains were those of a distinguished chief of the main island, who was the first settler on Darnley Island. The remains appear very much shrunk and shrivelled, but the sinews and dried flesh are in a wonderful state of preservation. Haystacks a quarter of a mile in length are a feature of Kansas scenery. A prosperous merchant, a well-informed contemporary says, has for his motto : — "Early to bed and early to rise; never get tight, and advertise." " If you don't want the soot, don't you go up the chimney," was the reply of a New York editor to respectable parties who requested him not to mention the fact that they had been arraigned in the police courts. An old maid in Lockport, N.Y., purchased one of the Egyptian mummies at the Niagara Fall Museum the other day for a parlour ornament. She said it would seem better to have a man around, even if be was advanced in life and withered. The sharpest, so far, this month, is the Troy girl who makes her unsuspecting father the daily bearer of sweet missives to a clerk in his office who has been forbidden to visit his employer's house. She pins the letter in the old man's cloak, and when he reaches the office and throws off the garment, the clerk gets it, and responds by the same carrier.

Holhwafs Pills,— V.nre for Indigestion.— lndi- v gestion, with torpidity of the liver, is the curse of thousands, who spend each day with accumulated sufferings, all of which may be avoided by taking Hollovray's Pills according to their accompanying directions. They strengthen and invigorate every organ subservient to digestion. Theic action is purifying, healing, and strengthening. They may be safely taken without interfering with ordinary pursuits, or requiring much restriction in diet. They quickly remove noise in the ears and giddiness in the head, and dispel low spirits and nervous fears. These balsamic Pills effect a cure without debilitating or exhausting the system ; on the contrary, they support and conserve the vital principle by substituting pure for impure blood. 1 444

In noticing the programme of the Dunedin Jockey Club for its meeting on 24th and 25th March next, the Australasian remarks that "it deserves the attention of. Victorian racing, men, who might, pay Dunedin a visit with advantage to them, selves — altogether, one of the best programmes that has been issued by any club outside of Melbourne, and just such a one as would suit horses like Warrior, Nimblefoot, Misty Morn, and Contessa. In 1874 it is proposed to issue a still more liberal bill of fare, as it will include the Dunedin Cup 0f,300 sovs, with a sweep of 10 sovs added ; a St Leger of 150 sovs, with a. sweep of 5 sovs added ; and other rich prizes." In reply to an address from the Oddfellows at Dunedin, Sir George Bowen replied as follows : — Gentlemen, — I thank you heartily for the kind sentiments which have just been so well expressed towards Lady Bowen and myself. But this is no novelty, for the great Association to which you belong has always and everywhere been celebrated for loyalty to the Crown, and for respect and courtesy to its representativs. I take an active interest in the progress of those benefit societies formed by and for the British people of which Manchester Unity is the chief. From a small beginning, in a single town of Lancashire, in 1812, the Manchester Unity has spread itself in the course of sixty years not only throughout the British Islands, but over every portion of the British Empire. From a recent address of your Grand Master to the central governing body in England, I find that your reserved capital now exceeds three millions sterling: and that your yearly revenue exceeds £700,000, of which the greater portion is annually expended among the members chiefly in sick relief. Tour Society is'without exception the most extensive self-governed provident institution in the world. Next in importance to the Manchester Unity ranks the Order of Foresters, which, I am glad to know, is also firmly established in New Zealand. The Friendly Societiee, amongst which the two above mentioned take the foremost place, exercise an amount of influence which it would be difficult to over-estimate. | It is certainly a striking fact that more than four millions of working men—representing an aggregate of above fifteen millions of our race — should have spontaneously organised themselves in voluntary associations, for the purpose of mutual support, in those times of distress which must occasionally overtake all families. AH institutions which are calculated to foster habits of industry, selfreliance, and self-respect amongst the mass of the population of every country, are eminently worthy of public encouragement, Once more, gentlemen, I thank you all; and I pray for the continued success of your Society, and for the general triumph of the noble principles of "Friendship, Love, and Truth," which form' your motto.