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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 74, 26 March 1873, Page 2

The Dunedin Star of the 10th inst., in commenting on, the defeat of Otago at the firing, made the following remarks:— "Unable to get a boating crew, defeated on the cricket field and riffe range, the year 1873 has been a very unfortunate one for the Province. Men of Otago, you must look to your laurels!" Mtjsic at Reefton.— The Herald says:— Some p-iblic benefactor, with a view to waking up Reefton from its slumbering condition, has. conceived the happy idea of introducing a strolling band of serenading goats, who seem, judging from their severe appeal to our sympathies to have been ruthlessly torn from the bosoms of their respective families. The, voice of an evil-intentioned goat thus [ afflicted when pitched in tbat distressful key which haunts one's very dreams, is certainly impressive.

For remainder of news, see fourth page.

,'A Wbitbb in the .Tuapeka .Times,cpn'^>^hnieß\'tl^ei'^6\\6yrin'\ :—^Between' the Ist November>ain4 „ the 30th April, on an average :£9500 are given annually away in prizes for horee racing in the Province of , Otago. During the Christmas and New ../•/Year holidays the amount in prizes, for v various sports exceeds £2500. On the ..... various racecourses of the province there ■i.fis annually spent £21,500 in liquor. This : ■ makes a total of £33,500 devoted every" ; year '"to sporting— -not so bad for a province .of 70,000 inhabitants of essentially rioni,-. sporting ; tasltes. Nearly one-half of the • population never visits; a race-course, and; •-••■ a considerable^ proportion consider spor of every description disreputable. There * is scarcely a legitimate sporting man in . the whole- province, scarcely a decent racehorse owned in it, and betting is not indulged in to any extent. Theprincipal part of the money given as prizes goes to horsebreeders and livery-stable peepers resident in- Canterbury, who annually ; send their horses to the Otago meets, thereby an- . uually draining Otago of a considerable sum." L y... The _|$ay of Islands must be a singularly primitive place judging by the following account of it by a recent visitor: — "I can compare the, folks in this part of the world to nothing but a sort, of human vegetable, who, having grown, like cabbages, always in one spot, live ih happy ignorance of an outer world. Once having cast anchor in the Bay of Islands, civilisation is left far behind, and an existence of purgatory is commenced, which to a man of active mind must end in imbecility, or selfdestruction. Intellectual conversation is unknown; and if language was given to communicate ideas, the faculty was superfluous here, where so few have any ideas at . all, and where an accident to Mrs Grundy's i cow, or the arrival of a stranger in the , village are incidents sufficently important • : to occupy the mind. Here we live in a most primitive condition, and as an abhorrence of work forms a distinguishing characteristic of-the people, money is but rarely met with, and cash payments are almost superseded by a system of barter. Thus,, if ourbutcher gets sick, the doctor takes his fee in mutton chops, and .lhe. baker takes his bread bill out in pills. In fact, this is as near as possible ' a life led according to nature;' but, although I endeavor, like Dr Johnson's philosopher * to co-operate with the generel disposition and tendency of the present system of things, 'l must admit that I quite fail to see the advantage of it." The Capture of Chambeblain and , Levy.— The following particulars of the capture of Chamberlain and Levy are given by the West Coast Times: — Laßt - Sunday information was brought down to Mr James, at the Otira Gorge, by a stock rider, that Chamberlain and Levy had breakfasted at 8 o'clock that morning, at a hut five miles on the Westland side of the Saddle, and that they intended to make for another hut < some twenty miles away, were stores of all kinds were kept. The police immediately commenced a pursuit and arrived at 7 o'clock in the evening of last Sunday, at the place where the men they* were after had had breakfast at 8 o'clock in the morning. Thence they were guided over the Saddle, journeying; through the night, and reaching the hut. at 4 o'clock in the morning. This they : rushed, but found-no one there. Thinking , that they had perhaps anticipated the; fugitives, they remained in the hut, wait-; ing the arrival of Chamberlain and Levy) At about 7 o'clock in the morning the I correctness of the surmise of the police ; waß proved by the approach of the two : men to the ambush. They came along ieach wearing a sack over his shoulders; with a hole cut in the middle for his head ; to go through, , and . carrying their shoes , in their bands; They came up. -to. the; backdoor of the hut, and, when within a J yard of it, Mr James flung the door open and he and those with him rushed out ; upon the two men. Mr *■ James seized * Levy and threatened to blow his brains ; out if he resisted. But Levy had not . the least notion of making any resistance. ! He flung up his arms declaring, with loud j voice that he was unarmed, and that he surrendered himself a prisoner. \ Chamberlain was equally submissive, and admitted afterwards 1 that even had He been armed he could have offered no resistance, so sudden was the surprise, and so completely was he covered. ; I The Prussian correspondent of the Times states that the Russian engineers in Central ; Asia ; have, constructed « gigantic " works in the range of mountains which barred 7 the .approach to ' Kashgar, and that through a defile hitherto : passable to wary nwuntain;artillery trains •; ; can now * he se****-^'^ . 4000 ' horses and;; ;oamefe „' wai^- recently sen t ■ through^ the; |raßS^ *„;';, : ' : ;;7;A;,TkA^cai.. .;Pqo§fc^ "* ;;iterriblefi^r^B^ ; '^3&£^6^&^B^^:^iiiß, went i6i ■»: \

bathe. A few minutes after entering the water an'anjgato.r"wa^ cook p'f the Jessie,- a^ small -pearlfishing craft,- to' make a rush at poor Davis, and carry him off. The alarm*was soon given, and two boats gave chase. Several shots were fired at him, one of which it is believed struck -the alligator on tbe head. Ultimately he gotvaway,' taking the body with him ;.. Some; few hours later, ! as Captain Lockyer, of the Strathmore, was pulling round the outside"of the mud flat in front of the township, and about 300 yards from high water mark, he was observed frpm ; the r shore to-stop pulling. -.- He then, with one of Übe sailors, ;, discovered, the body of Davis lying just in tli ripple" of the retiring tide, and, with the assistance of Mr George Perrin, who had observed the captain's movements from the shore, and ran to his assistance, carried the. body., ashore, assisted by several others who had by this time arrived on the; scene.; The,, body was not mangled in any way^except about the head. One of tbe alligator's teeth bad entered the left eye, and the back of the head was badly bitten and torn. It iB supposed that Davis' swam out to what he supposed; was a log, and, upon • discovering, his mistake, turned, round and made for the shore. Then the alligator made a rush at bim and seized him by the back of the head, and having drowned him, took .him away until forced to let go by the firinjg, the tide 1 * bringing the body to where it was found, some 400 yards from where he was first seized."

A Boston Journal says : — Our commerce withthe South Pacific is growing with amazing rapidity. During the twelve months ending June 30, 1871, the total imports from Australasia into the . United States reached but 278,964 dol. in value— -only one-ninth of which was carried in American bottoms, while the total direct imports from Australia and New Zealand (at New York and Boston for six months ending April, 1872, they were 1,312,048 dole, and at San Francisco for nine months 'ending September 30, 1872, 1,448,902 dols) must have been during tbe present year four and a-half millions of dols, the duties upon which would be over 1,500,000 dols. Our .exports have also grown immensely and proportionately, and are of the most varied description j the manifests .of four American vessels wbich sailed to Australasia from New York and Boston last October showing over seventy varfeties — from kerosine down to rubber boots; regular assorted cargoes. In addition to this you must add over 1,000,000 dols. per annum in iin ports from the Sandwich Islands (for the six months ending September 30, 1872, such imports into San Francisco were 542,870 dols ), and a fair proportion of exports. Such figures as these, coming as they do from official sources, open one's eyes to the tremendous strides our South Pacific commerce is making, and -the fact that American bottoms are now doing over two-thirds of this carrying trade is encouraging. An official statement before me shows that at San Francisco, from March 1, 1871, to October 30, 1872, the number of vessels entering from Australia and intermediate islands in the Pacific Ocean was 213, of which 146 were American; of vessels cleared to same 197, of which 155 were American-r-nearly three-quarters ; you oorb r serye; But -after all bur trade with Australia is nothiog to what it should be. There are 3,000,000 of Anglo-Saxons there besides the aborigines. Its foreign commerce amounts to more tban325,000,000 dollars annually, and, much as we have progressed within the last year or two, we have but little over 10 per cent of it, while England has the other 90— and this i a spite of the fact than San Francisco is so many thousands of miles nearer than Liverpool. -„ . Farming and Half ( FlmnNG.7-We\ have known people ambitious to make money, who would spare no labors to increase their income, and when they had secured it, would spend it to no purpose- — waste it; get rid of it they scarcely knew how — and have nothing to show for it. They were good to . mafte-. money, -but; could not keep oruse it well. ; Thb onlyi good they could get of their money,, was the doubtful good of having it pass through their hands. There are many people of this stamp; they can get business and do it; can earn great wages; drive andi push through any amount of toil;*" "f^ake llongl and, close calculations; talk largfy and well enough about business, but cannot increase their own capital. Their purse will not hold monejMt leaks; it seems like the fable|d pit, wi&out!\ s bottom; or, like the -miifer'sdamj 6 Which' 1 whether it rained much or little, would hold no water;. or,- most likely,; they have no purse;^^^ theii^ pqckjpte • ;andf hands;Vlh>y/ : -ha^ is got, orj plans on hand for >its disposal. ;MuciC;likevth is k class jo^ people •; are many : farmers---theyican ra}se igpod<? croppy but yy:i-WAb^A<.'i-il',lJ^.^-'<y--.Y&i-yYP 'v-O'- ''.i'i"r£' /liT "iii*, cannot make' them pa^;- they neglect their* fences,, and the cattle break in just before harvest or if they get fi good orop they

have no place to secure/ it;- fine fields of hay sind /grain are gat^-Jred, but there are iip*ljarnß^rior-grana>ies-i;o'%e6p them; the. fruit trees yield well, but there are no means for preserving tbe fruit, and it goes' to waste; the root crops are good, but the frost and winter destroy them, because they cannot bear everything ;-*the farming implements rot mor-^Hhlan, they vfearf|becausejthfl. rain and }iSu.ni:.a*i;jß.jiailys.pelling ... and scorching them; the cows give good milk, but the want of dairying appliances makes the milk of but little value; the pigs are in the corn -crib; the sheep are in the garden; ithe kitchen has'noi;Woic>dobut lives from hand toj mouth;; the fhot[se x i'has no cellar; "the "water is far away. Everything works the wrong way; there is much done, but little Saved. When spring comes, everything is gone; seeds of all* kinds must be bought; thfe^rotten utensils replaced by; new ;*itlie, broken-down fences, made over';. the peeled,. and.' .browsed fruit' trees replaced by new and young ones; and a world of labor spent to get thie farm into working order. So it goes year after year; and all the difficulty lies-* in want of order and taste in the style of farming. tJ^To man of, order or .-taste, willsee '; gates hangin g on one hinge^ fences reel ing, . everything looking like old chaos or young ; ruin; men of taste will -husband well their farms, and men of real farming skill will have arrangements for making 'the ; most of all they'hav& got, for saving or ajarketihg • that nothing be lost. It is the. farmers' losses that keep, them ba;ck,\anjd : the tiaps't of their own losses afe by their owp negligence or. want of skill.. - There*; is much . half-farming V they waste: W i great deal of labor and time. The art of keepiing everything in order lies-in haying; a place -for everything, ! and putting eVerytbiDg in its place when used;, in .making repairs when needed ; in ! . always putting odd moments of time, raing days, &c, to making improvements, arranging conr veniences,. and in getting Jrieady 'for- the season's active labor. Let all half farmers mend their ways asiast ; 'as ppssible,; so they will mend their fortunes and their tempo;ral4nf;erests.-- Utiea Weekly Herald.