TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 56, 5 March 1873, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

[?xr Anglo- Australia!* - Paras Teleqeaph ■AGE-TOT;] ; . ;'. pro y t;n.c:i al , ■ .'•- 77- 1 . '.7\ 77. yy-AxmaMscDj March s. ■ :> The Dacotah oaili Muth at four to-day.

The Governor arrived last night, and lands today. ' Dunedin, Mareh 5. The monthly escort brought down 8580 ozs7 7 Oamaru, March 5. , The body of a man has been found in a room; supposed to be James Lyons; at the ioquesi an open verdict was returned.

t^WaCltVJM^«lWW»S»^l^W»«'|l,-^Tr l W'--T>»Wl.lwi^.»l»t.rllli, . n-.ni.iii.wiJ 'n;tt„ .tifiva I , . A final clear up of the All Saints School Bazaar was effected fit Hokitika (Feb 25) when all the articles left over were disposed of by Messrs Todd and Pollock. There was a large attendance of buyers, and most of the purchases were really bargains. The sale was concluded about eleven o'clock, every article being then disposed of. We learn that, the receipts up to last evening, includipg the proceeds of the auction sale, amount to close on £450, but there are several sumsyet to come in, and also the proceeds of the art union for the oleographs, which the committee thibk will swell the proceeds up to nearly £500.— West Coast Times. The Southern Gross states that the new oil, an Auckland product known by the name of 'kauri gum oil,' is beginning to attract .some attention amongst our painters. It is a product obtained by tbe distillation of kauri gum and coal. Its preservative properties are spoken of in the highest .terms of praise, and it is said to be far superior to tar for preserving wood when exposed to damp. It gives a beautiful soft brown color to any article painted with it. If tbe high opinion now formed of it. should be borne out in actutl and lengthened tests, there cannot be a doubt that successful manufacturing of this oil wili add somewhat to the price of tbe wellknown kauri gum. Is It True ? — ln reply to a paragraph we recently wrote under this heading, upon a statement made by the Charleston Herald to the effect tbat a member of the House of Eepresentatives had received as a douceur for obtaining a rise in the salary of a telegraph clerk a cheque for £10, that journal says : — " We know not whether our contemporary is feigning surprise at such a mild peccadillo as that referred to, but if he is not we would say to the writer, if be would have his eyes opened; — become intimate with one or two political " loafers," men who have little else — perhaps nothing — but their " representative fees " to live upon, and then tell your readers how much it would take to excite your surprise. Not alone do we reiterate the assertion made, but we could also state others committed by tbe same gentleman as a member of a lesser representative body. It may ease the writer of the Mail to inform him that the said person is no longer an M.H.R. We may also remark that the lad referred to has also left the Government service, finding it impossible to rise either in pay or place without the assistance of such corrupt influences. Are not those facts sufficient' proof that men should be possessed of a considerable property qualification before they are allowed, to become eligible, as representatives in the General Assembly ? " The explanation is not satisfactory. It matters not whether tbe M.H.B. referred to does or does not still represent a constituency any more than it does whether the lad is or is not at the present time in the Government employ. The charge has been made. The M.H.R. may at some future period choose to emerge from his temporary retirement and seek to be reelected. If the Herald knows tbat such a flagrant case of bribery has takea place, it is its duty to expose tbe recipient of the " douceur" and by so doing endeavor to prevent his ever sitting again in the Colonial Parliament. The Wanganui Herald in an article on the decline of the Native Race says: — "We regret to learn that many of the most numerous and powerful tribes, residing on the Rangitikei, Manawatu, Waikanae, and Otaki rivers, are being literally decimated by sickness of various kinds. Where a few years ago were large cultivations, formidable pahs, and a numerous population, there are now but a few old men and women, ruined fences and over- grown gardens. Whares tapued or in a state of decay, rotting canoes, and scattered bones, alone remain to show where once was a populous and busy settlement. Yearly statistics unerringly prove that so far from the Natives being benefited %y their religious, political, and Bocial intercourse with ourselves, tbe reverse is the case. Disease and death are on the increase, and crimes, often of a heinous nature are committed more frequently in proportion tb the progress of their - acquaintance with our manners and our customs, our habits and our views, our treachery and our falsehood. This seems an appalling picture, but nevertheless it is a true bill.'* A Bay of Islands correspondent, writing to an Auckland paper, says: — The depression which exists in Auckland has communicated itself even to this remote district, and universal growling is tbe order of the day. Business is a reminiscence of the past or an anticipation of the future—of the present it is not. Since the opening up of the country inland and the establishment, of townships there, a large proportion of the / trade which formerly centered here has beeti^diverted j and this place now derives its chief support ''from ; 'ttie''annu •v^ich puts 7:l-hflii:ipr77j^$lm

activity —the village scandals and petty animosities sinking into insignificance in the pursuit of the " almighty dollar." Meanwhile we drag on a miserable existence, a prey to all those'afflictions wbich beset (he idle and unoccupied. The village doctor sighs for an epidemic, -and looks forward with impatience to the next accouchement; the village photographer grows thinner and thinner —all look melancholy and dejected. But the good time is approaching, and already are the steamers bringing us numerous visitors in search of health, the picturesque, or relaxation from the anxieties of business life. The natives are bringing io their garden produce, and large quantities of gum collected during the winter months, the proceeds of wbich fall chiefly into the bands of the publicans, if one may judge from the number of these noble savages who are always to be met with in the various stages of intoxication.

The Intercolonial Conference, — It would appear, says the Australasian, that the progress of business at the Intercolonial Conference was not wanting in a few piquant personal elements to add variety to the proceedings. In addition to the childish claim of Mr. Parkes to be allowed to sit in the best chair at the Parliamentary banquet, there were other little incidents to .prevent tbe business from descending into the dull humdrum. Ooe of these arose about the question of fixing the terminus of the Suez line at Melbourne. The representatives of New South Wales drew up a protest against the agreement come to in conference, and Messrs. Francis a.nd Langton handed in a written reply. At the same time Mr. Vogel, who it seems was annoyed by the Sydney Government appearing adverse to his offer relative to the New Zealand and San Francisco line, tabled a paper showing tbe reasons why the New Zealand representatives decided to support Melbourne being the terminus of the line. In reply to an argument that. Mr. Parkes and his colleague had employed, that the mails could not be carried safely overland on account of bushrangers, the New Zealand representatives, declared that tbey could not sympathise with it, and added that, " coming from a colony that has made vast sacrifices to maintain law and order amongst the native population, they cannot but regret that it should be thought necessary to urge that a wealthy colony like New South Wales is unable to preserve law and order amongst an exclusively European population." This clause very much roused the ire of Mr. Parkes, wbo was also nettled by an implication conveyed iu the paper that the Parliament of New South Wales would not agree with all of the views advanced by the delegates of that colony. Then we read that His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson in someway permitted himself to take umbrage at the proceedings and results of the Conference, and to " speak of the delegates in the most contemptuous terms." These the amiable Mr. Parkes was good natured enough to repeat to several people, and 'so made matters very . pleaeant with the gentleman whom they met in conference nearly daily. This sweet-tempered gentleman also made some sneering remarks about the delegates attending entertainments given by members of the Opposition, this beiDg apparently regarded as an act of high treason against Mr Parkes and his Government. Some of the members Beem to bave been sufficiently unreasonable to resent this behaviour of Mr Parkes, and one declared that he would never again attend a conference at Sydney of which Mr Parkes was a member. Madame Patti has made her debut at , Moscow in the "Traviata" with tremendous success, having been recalled during the representation thirty times. The bouquet of camillias thrown by the Princess Dolgoronki was so large as to require two men to carry it across the stage, and the value of the flowers showered upon the famous cantatrice amounted to £100. Christmas in England. —The London correspondent of the Australasian writes : -—Christmas in tbe year of grace 1872 has been a very exceptional one, mainly owing to the weather, which is anything but Christmas-like. I am sitting. without a fire, and by an open window, and.even under these circumstances it is almost oppressive, so abnormally mild and muggy is the atmosphere. This,,however, is not the worst feature ; the rain it raineth every day, and has been doing so, more or less, for nearly three months, to the great detriment of agriculture, and the sowing, I fear, of a large crop of spring epidemic. I doubt, indeed, whether we have ever suffered from euch universal floods. I had occasion the other day to go to Oxfordj which is rather-water-ridden by the Tsia and Cherwell, and the scene was a most extraordinary one. _?qr.;. • milesf--JM* iafc^ JtfiJEi^ vajley was a vast lake, hedges and trees only barelyyiharking they lines of the difiy ferent fields, while "y aohta disported them-

selves oyer the meadows and sailed saucily along the highroads. Iu the eastern counties, villages without end are unapproachable except by boat, and many a, family have been floated out of their dwelling; and had to seek the refuge of higher ground. The worst of it all is .that it is not the result of a chance flood, but the gradual rising from weeks of rain ; and in certaioly two-thirds of the couutry there has been do autumn sowing, and what was put in before the rain began is running great risk of being rotted with moisture. It is a comfort, however, to reflect that a real scarcily of wheat is, in this country, more and more unlikely, because each year sees us better supplied with corn from the great granaries, of Europe and America, so that as long as we have money to buy we are not likely to want, and the British farmer has been so exceedingly prosperous during the last 12 months tbat he can well afford a passiug check. A Whirlwind of Fire in England. — On Saturday a most remarkable phenomenon occurred at King SuttOD'; near Banbury, by which a man had a narrow escape. No less than 17 trees were torn up by the roots, 86 more or less injured, and 116 yards of stone wall thrown down. About 1 o'clock in the day the people in tbe neighborhood saw something in the shape of a haycock of great size revolving through the air. It was accompanied by fire and a great deal of smoke, and sometimes was seen high in the air, and at others near tbe ground. It made a great noise, something like a railway train travel ling, and progressed with great rapidity. It passed over the estates of Colonel North, M.P., Sir William BrowD, Bart., and Mr Leslie Melville Cartwright, 61 yards of whose park wall at one place has been thrown down from the foundation. It tore up one of the largest beech trees ou Sir William Brown's estate, and about 12 to 15 tons of earth with it, and the branches were carried about in all directions. A man named Adams, who was breaking stones on the road, says he heard a great noise as if a railway train was coming up, There was a dense smoke, and a tree that he bad been standing under a minute before was torn up. There was a heavy rain at the time, and a few minutes before a vivid flash lightning. For a mile and a half there are traces of the destruction caused by the phenomenon, which seems to have travelled almost in a straight line from south to north. It was followed by a whirlwind that swept everything before it, and a pond it passed wiis dried up, stones carried a distance of forty yards, and railings knocked down. Frightened cattle ran about the fields, many of which are strewn with the branches of the trees struck. The people were greatly alarmed-— some of them say the noise was terrific — and they thought the earth was about to open and swallow everything up. After travelling for about two miles the fire meteor seems to have expended itself. — Liverpool Mercury, December 6. We have, (says the San Francisco News Letter) a first-class Indian war in progress, and the marshal arm of California is uplifted in hideous battle. The despatches from the seat of hostilities are voluminous to a degree that renders it a little difficult to get at the facts of the campaign. The forces of the red enemy appeared to number seventy braves, but this may be an exaggeration. Opposed to them the TJnioD army embraces two companies of regulars and a volunteer contingent, embracing a large part of the main population of three counties. An obstinately contested battle took place about the 12th inst:, in which both parties claim the advantage. Deeds of thrilling heroism are described by|the special correspondents, from whose graphic accounts we make room for the following incident .-—"The troops have not captured any but two sick squaws, whom tbey sent to Fort Klamath. One of these squaws had two children killed in the fight. It seems tbat one Bob Small, a ranchman ia the vicinity of Link river, was with the ( Brown party in the fight: When . , the firing began on the soldiers' part,- Small, bred on a party of squaws near their huts and killed" a little half-bred six years old. Tho mother, who had a little baby in her arms not six weeks old, ran to Small, falling on her knees, and begged in the most piteous way that herself and her little one might, be spared. - She said she would go to the : Reservation— do uny ; thing,;,-in: faet, r if this white man would not murder her.; The biute filled with whisky and inflamed by hatred for the Indian race, never made a reply, but, raising his gnh, ytook delibets ate aim at the woman, only five feet distance, and fired. The ;shbt,m?ssed 'bei\ t>iit killed the little one at her breast instantly,. The poor woman fell to the ground and lay there in a semi-insane condition,'. We. await the report of thp officer commanding the troops 'with lively' interest, toyyse.e whether^ 7theVgadanfay^b_W ; : h^spi_^