CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 85, 8 April 1873, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

"■'-'. j l\i 7w- 'ii\ .V"-^-.' : 'f\'' ".' .' ' ,',.i. ,_ ' To, the Editoe.otthe Nelson .Evening Mail." Sib,— l sometimes see the Auckland papers, in which IJmd.it recorded how passengers to .the Thames 'have 'frequently lost their 'passages by the strict 'purictuality /l observed} by :^ the steamer Gblden'or6wn. rj I do 7 not think-that such a thing would ever occur in Nelson, which' is said, I 'don't 7 know how truly, to be the most unpunctual place in New Zealaiyl. '[Witness yesterday,; when .the Ladybird was advertised; to .sail,- at 3 o'clock. Passengers went down accordingly, and on arrival at the, wharf were told .that., her departure , was put off for an hour. After • giving utterdnce to sundry growls, they drove back to town, and returned- ;. againv at four', o'clock, , v?ben, .to 1 -, their disgust, they found she was not topsail before fivej. which, after all, it appeared, meant .twenty miriutes'to six! No wonder, if they did not bless the, agents, who must .have r known what cargo had to be landed and' shipped,' and consequently might have formed a shrewder guess as to the actual time' of her departure -than thWt -which proved to be in error to the extent of two hours and. forty minutes. ; The Wellington, too, . which was, advertised,, to jsail at five o'clock,, did'no't get a'way ' until; " past, ."six'.', To / tb.e" , notices of sailing' of tne N.'Z.S.'S;' Cb.'s' boats' there should be added the words Don't Yoti Bblievb It. ! For remainder of news, see fourth page.

The Melbourne Government officials fiod Captain Logan, of the Hero, rather a tough customer to deal with. The Age says :—- " Captain Logan wafs censured recently by the Pilot Board of Victoria for not reporting a slight grounding of' his vessel that took place in coming up the Yarra. Evidently he will not, be guilty of an omission of the like kind again. On Saturday he forwarded to the Board the following report :— ' S.S. Hero, Sandridge, 11th January, 1873. To the Secretary of the Pilot Board of Victoria — Sir,— l have to report, for the information of the Board, that the steamer Hero, under my command, drawing 13 feet 3 inches, in coming down the river Yarra this morning stirred up the mud the whole distance from the. falls to the mouth of the said river Yarra.-r-I am, sir, your obedient servant, Thomas Logan, Master.' " , The Bendigo Advertiser is responsible for the following:— ■*• Mr. Alexander Bayne, who has unsuccessfully attempted, an election of the North- Western Province, and was equally unsuccessful when 3eeking to be elected to the Sandhurst City Council, promised to give £1000 to the charities if the spirit of his grandmother—Mr. Bayne is a spiritist — advised him. He got en rapport with the spirit of the canny old lady, and to his anxious inquiry the answer was ' Stick till yer bawbees yer ainsel, laddie,' or words to that effect, or to such an effect that the charities are not yet benefitted by Alexander's safe promise." South Austbauan Fleas. — A correspondent of the Melbourne Telegraph, has furnished that journal with an account of a tour made by him in South Australia. In one of his letters he has the following : "Another hour or so and we are steaming up the river which leads us into Port Adelaide, a more miserable looking place than which it has been my good fortune never to see. For dust it stands unrivalled. Everything is covered with it. No one has a clean coat there, and if it is at all hot, and if you perspire, you have not in ten minutes a bit of clean linen on you. As might naturally be expected, a place so full of sand would be full of fleas, which is a fact, I believe. I was. assured that the city people knew the "PortDnians " by their scratch, which they are always up to. One of the Adelaide Presbyterian ministers was preaching at the Port one Sunday on the occasion of Bome Caledonian festival'. He noticed the restlessness of the congregation, especially an aged Highlander, who was dressed in full costume, and 1 he thought the sermon had made an impression; so after it was over he took the opportunity of walking with the old man a part of the way home, and told him He had noticed his attention to the few remarks he had made — how restless he seemed to be— and hoped that the word preached that morning had taken effect. To which the Highlander replied replied — 'Nae, nae, mon, i' was nae the sermon, it wos the fleas ! ' " 4 The Honolulu Advertiser says: — By a recent arrival from Micronesia it appears that the notorious Captain Hayes is dodging about somewhere in those seas, with a British man-of-war, the Barossa, close at his heels. If fallen in with the John Bull, it is anticipated that he will be detßined on " strong suspicion " to answer for some of his numerous misdeeds. , But it would be only a continuance of Hayes's »ood luck — or shrewd management — if he »ot off clear. Pease formely aconfederade with the firstnamed buccaneer, was some time ago arrested and taken to the United States for trial for some crime; but luckily for him the only witness against him died, and so he was discharged. He went back ;o his old haunts, and is now at the Bonin Wands. One of the little' pleasantries of the gallery " gods " at the Dublin Opera House soasists in throwing on the stage a boquet ;o which a piece of twine is -attached. When the prima donna goes to pick up .the losegay it is suddenly drawn up again unid the roar of the " deities. " An engaged young gentlemen got rather leatly out of a little scrape with his intended. She taxed him with having kissed two ladies at some party at which she was lot present. He owned it, but said that iheir united ages made only "21. The; simple minded girl thought of 10 and 11, ind laughed off her pout. He did not jxplain that one was 19 and the other 2 irears of -age. Wasn't it artful, Tobias ?-r A Geobgia paper lately had the folowing among its marriage notices:— "On ihe 18th inst., Mr T. Winkle to Miss Rachel Starr. T. Winkle, T. Winkle, ittle'Starr. ■" ■ V :,'.", ' .>.,:., •."■,;•• .• ■■<'.;■ i. ; A New Type peom an " Obo Fount;" Che compositors ' employed ori the Tribune ■New, York) have invited ; the co-operation >F Ihw^feUow-mftßme^ Jnited States for the purpose of erecting iv: statue '■ tcK the ;.-.iaj;e^Mr ; )Ut of old type^'theproppsition being that lach compositor j; :^ould^<cpntribute ' y/sjigbt p£ ;^d:i;:^e:;?|^f t|^;(yalae" ot' the !bmp<rtitio#p^ : ;iQO^b^insi ; #voO ?'^K; V . '+: $■■< v ! !^"feSwh^J' < j^JJi^'---'(:s) 1 .V li '. ; ';i;'-;'. i . - UrX >■:..•'■■ ■■'^..■<:;. : '■■•■•-'V~. : ■::■''? '

A Yankee fashion editor sums up th*? present female costume with the brie* word, . " tuckupbehinddollywriggledarnI pboolUiveness. " . . ■ John Scannel, the New York murderer, is reported to be very comfortably pro- 1 vided for in the Tombs. An expensive carpet covers the floor; hair mattresses, sheets, and quilts have been furnished; and various other articles, . all calculated to promote the personal comfort of the prisoner. Arrangements it is said, have been made, with the proprietor of a firstclass restaurant to furnish his meals. This is the manner in which a Californian shipping reporter notes the arrival of two or three coasters: — " The commerce of Sacramento is developing to unprecedented proportions. . Oo one day this week three schooners from the port of San Francisco, and two scoros from Marys ville, arrived, imparting to the water front an air of unwonted bußtle and activity. The roar of traffic, the crashing of loaded teams, the cries of their excited drivers, the screams of struggling horses, mingled with frenzied shrieks of the steam whistle, swept in widening circles; from the busy slopes of the distant G-ieras, and the blue foothills of the Coast Range. To this is appended a foot-note by the editor, with the following terse remark: — "Drunk again.—Ed. " The Engineer, of a late date, says that much interest has been excited in the United States and England by the movement among the Japanese looking towards the introduction of the English language, and its literature into the Japanese empire; and it has ever been stated that there is a possibility that our mother toDgue may in time become their national language. The principal difficulty in this desirable consummation lies in the peculiarities of the English language, and the. number of irregular verbs characterising it, as also the want of uniformity in its pronunciation. The idea has been suggested of forming an improved English language for, the benefit of our Oriental friends by making all the verbs regular, and improving the orthography. The choice of a new language by the Japanese lies, it is said between the English and the German, and the selection of the latter is warmly urged by the Germans. Indeed, that language appears to be quite a favorite one in Japan, as is attested by the existence of an extensive G-erman book store there doing a large business, and by the establishment of a number of schools for teaching the tongue. The Hospital at the General Postoffice, — In the course of an amusing Daily News description of the interest of St Martin's Le Grand under the pressure of Christmas presents, we read of a nook where the secrets of a good many packets stood revealed. Damaged packets are, it appears, borne away to a side table, which is called ." the hospital" and in this postoflSce infirmary ,two clever surgeons dexterously stitch up* ttfeir wounds, and set all their broken limbs in splints. Some of the patients seem past cure. Alas for the pretty box of bonbons that has burst open, and the contents of which are brought piecemeal into hospital, where the surgeon'receives them with a shake, of the head ! In extremis seems this doll, whose integuments have been torn off, whose nose has been stove in, and one of whose nether limbs arrives some time after the frame to' which it belongs. : A bit of string tinkers up a box containing a lump of plum cake half cased in sugar, but there is no cure for this packet of Taddy's snuff, addressed in a woman's handwriting to a woman, and the contents, pervading the atmosphere generally, set everybody a-sneezing. A pair of baby's shoes, with an inscription " from Annie" pinned on them, have been sore battered as to cover, but the address is all right, 'and with luck baby will wear the pretty little boots, as she sits crowing on her mother's lap tomorrow night. It makes one sorry to look on the damage .that has befallen -this boxful of tiny-dressed Molls , but the tender little things are gently re-packed , and fastened up. ' The trussed fowl in this package has not been seriously injured, nor has the snipe in this other, but the surgeon sniffs disgust at its high condition as he makes it fit for the road again. And more to the same effect.