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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 51, 27 February 1873, Page 4

■ The Melbourne Argus says :-— "An I inquiry into the wreck of the Polonaise f was commenced on the 6th inst., and is f not yet concluded. The Southern Insurance Company have £31,000 on the Polonaise; all but £5000 has been reinsured; Tbe National have £3000, Pacific £1000, and fcydney Insurance Company £1700. Six thousand cases of preserved meat were lost in the Polonaise. The cargo wag valued at £60,000. In Australian farming one of the greatest defects which strike an Englishman is the wicked waste of straw which prevails almost everywhere. There are and have been exceptions. One of the most successful farmers of twenty or thirty years ago was in' the habit of threshing all his grain with tbe flail, and feeding the straw to his sheep, giving the lambs the first picking of it. He kept about 400 sheep on a 250-acre farm, and cut only about sixteen acres of hay to winter his whole farm slock, depending directly on the straw, corn-stalks, and grain, with this little supply of hay, for feed, and he undoubtedly found this to be the most economical method for him to adopt at that time when labour was not much more than half the price it is now. — Exchange, A Sevbbb Thundebstobm recently occurred in the neighborhood of Melbourne, the effects of which are thus described by the Argus : — :Some agricultural machinery in the paddock' of Mr. Machem was twisted into a useless mass, and the cottage of a laboring man named Heffer, about a quarter of a mile further away, was struck with such force that one side of the "bed- . room and the roof were blown from the building. Mrs. Heffeif and the baby were

in this room, while the husband, and the other children were io the front or sittingroom. On recovering from the shock, Heffer rushed into the bedroom, where the baby lying on the floor, apparently dead, first met his sight. His wife he found on the floor amoag'the fallen debris, bleeding excessively from a gash on her forehead, which was no doubt caused by one of the falling rafters. She was conveyed to the Melbourne Hospital, where her case was pronounced to be very serious, but not necessarily fatal. The baby soon recovered from the shock. Fanny Fern received £30,000 from Mr. Bonner, of the New York Ledger, for her contributions to his paper. Californians are rejoiced at the discovery of a spring near Kearne River, whose waters have an inebriating effect. One of the items in an lowa lawyer's bill, recently presented, was a charge of five dollars for waking up at night and thinking of his client's case. Professor C. A. Young, of Boston, U.S., in September last, by the aid of a powerful telescope, discovered a spot in the sun of 10,000 miles in diameter, in other words, a hole in the sun large enough to allow the earth to fall through without touching the edges. Making a Good Use of Wealth. — The senior member for Derby (Mr Bass) has made another munificent gift to the town of Derby in the shape. of a donation of £5000 towards the erection of a free library. Mr Bass ha& already given a recreation ground , value upwards of £4000, and public swimming baths to the town within the past year. The hon. gentleman has contributed books to the free library, value £500, and £500 towards erection of licensed victuallers' almshouses in the same town. Hints to Masqtjeraders. — A tall, slim fellow is in trouble. He wants to know what character to assume at a masquerade. A .Gotham journal advises him to braid his legs and go as a whip. lash; swallow himself round and round a few dozen times, and go as a roll of tape; wrap himself in the American flag, and go as a barber's pole; bristle his hair up, and go as a white-wash brush; swallow a few marbles, and go as a telegraph pole; or walk in on his hands, as a pair of scissors. He is in worse trouble now than, before. Alcohol, in one of its many forms, is every day prescribed for all sorts of evils, by all sorts of people, chiefly non-profes-sional, as though it were a universal panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to. We see this continually, from the newborn infant, whose officious turse thinks it requires a little gin to keep it quiet, on through all ages to the close of life. It is given to persons in health to keep them so, and ward off disease ; it is prescribed in illness to restore them to health; it is taken before meals as a tonic, after meals as a digestive; it is taken to quicken the circulation, it is taken to soothe irritability of the nervous system ; it is taken in hot climates to counteract the heat, it is taken in cold climates to keep out the cold; it is taken on all important occasions — at births, at weddings, at funerals.— Dr Spencer.