The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1873.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 157, 1 July 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1873.

Messrs Calcutt and Ma okay returned from their inland expedition by tbe Rangitoto this morning. Mr Sayle wil! come back with the horses overland. The outgoing Suez mail will be despatched by the Rangitoto which sails for Melbourne via Southern ports to-morrow night. The Tararua will arrive from Wellington at 11 o'clock to-morrow morning. She is bringing a quantity of machinery for the Decimal Company, and the Lady Barkly haß been detained a doy so as to avoid a week's delay in taking it across to Collingwood. The Lady Barkly will leave Nelson for Motueka and Golden Bay to-morrow, at 1 o'clock p.m., and Motueka for Nelaon on Friday, at 7 o'clock a.m., instead of as previously advertised. Conversazione — There was a full and very pleasant meeting at the Masonic Hall last night of the parishioners of All Saints' Church. Two or three papers touching upon matters of interest to Churchmen were read, and the intervals were filled with music and singing, and conversation. Altogether the meeting was a decided success, and calculated to lead to frequent reunions of a similar character. Caledonian Society. — One of those popular entertainments, for which this Society is so justly celebrated, will be given at the Provincial Hall to-morrow evening. Singing, recitations, and acting are to be the order of the evening, and the programmes, which have been most assiduously circulated, are quite sufficient to attract a crowded audience. The Caledonian Society has, after three or four years' existence, obtained a, firm footing in Nelson, and we have no donbt that the entertainment advertised for to-morrow evening will be largely patronised. The Westport Times of June 20 says : — ,{ Mr Calcutt, accompanied by Messrs Mackay and Sayle, arrived on Wednesday at Rowe's accommodation house overland from Nelson, to inspect the ground offered by the province as security for the railway to be constructed. They have gone up the Mangles, returning by the Matakitaki via Lyell to Reefton and Grey Valley." This is the first detailed account we have received of this expedition. Never Satisfied. — The Westport Times says : — " The annual election of a School Commiitee was advertised to take place at the schoolroom on Wednesday last, but excepting the Acting- Secretary, neither member of the late Committee or ratepayer attended, and consequently the meeting lapsed, and no School Committee

is at present ia existence in Westport, three members having retired by rotation, and the rest resigned in disgust at the recent niggardly action of the Nelson Central Board, who refused to repay a certain sum expended by the Westport Committee for school purposes. But apart from this, it is much to be regretted that parents of children attending the school show so little interest in school matters, and it is now absolutely necessary that a few among them should shake off their present apathy, and endeavor to obtain some six individuals to accept office, and apply to the Superintendent, according to the terms of the Ordinance, to have their names gazetted as formiDg the School Committee for the current year." It should be understood that " the recent niggardly action of the Nelson Central Board " consisted in refusing to meet an overdraft of the Westport Committee for a sum that it was in no way authorised to disburse, and which, however laudable may have been the object it was expended upon, the Central Board had not the funds at its command to repay. The Westport Local Committee has the reputation of being a little too fond of independence in its actions, aud it would be well if the parents of children altending the schools in that locality were to lake the advice tendered to them by the local paper, and, having shaken off •• their present apathy," to act "according to the terms of the Ordinance." At a meeting at Balclutha, Major Richardson declared himself to be "tired to death of what is called politics." The goods traffic at the Dunedin railway statiou Is co great, that it has been found necessary to double the amount of shed accommodation. The Stjpekintendency. — Mr Ivess the correspondent of the Inangahua Herald, wrote, to. that journal when in Nelson on his recent placing-sums-on-the-Supple-mentary-Estimateß-mission as follows: — " The forthcoming Superintendent's election is already beginning to excite attention in Nelson, in proof of which I may mention that a caucus was recently held of gentlemen interested in the event. The respective merits and chances of success of the probable candidates were fully discussed. The caucus determined that a good man should be selected to run agaiDSt the present occupant of tbe office. Mr N. Edwards was considered the most favorable, but that gentleman has refused to accept the invitation, as he contemplates an early visit to England. Mr Guinness was next nominated, when a gentleman remarked that Mr Guinness would be contented with a seat in the Executive, and would not care for contesting for the Superintendency, providing an arrangement could be come to with the most popular candidate in consideration of his retiring from the contest. Mr. Guinnass, in reply, remarked that he was certain of a large amount of support in the Grey Valley, but he would be perfectly satisfied with a seat in the Executive; acd at the same time would withhold his consent from being nominated. Mr Seymour, the present Superintendent of the Marlborough Province, was next brought to the surface, but his nomination was generally condemned in consequence of ail his interest being confined to Marlborough. Mr Moorhouse was favorably spoken of, but, on turning up the roll, his name failed to appear. Mr Joseph Shephard was asked to come forward but that gentleman has nominally withheld his consent. Mr O'Conor, last though not' least, was hinted at, but the gentleman, although receiving an invitation, did not put in an appearance at the caucus., In my opinion the last named gentleman possesses the best qualification and chance bf cjccess for the offioe out of the lief; nominated."— -Of course Mr Ivess, who acted as Mr O'Conor's loblollyboy throughout the late session, considers " the last named gentleman possesses the best qualification " &c, but then Mr Ivess is a nobody of the smallest degree. The Charleston Herald in quoting this funny correspondent of the Inangahua Herald laughs at him and his fancies as much as we do in Nelson, The crew of the Lizzie Guy had a very narrow escape from death by poisoning, a few days before sighting tho New Zealand coast. The cook made some cakes for all hands, using as one of the ingredients .a white powder which he thought to be carbonate of soda, and which be found in a bottle among the other ship stores. The cakes were cooked and eaten, and shortly after the entire crew were seized with violent symptoms of poisoning, the Captain in particular being badly- affected. On searching for the cause it was found that the bottle contained arsenic, and was labelled poison, although the cook had failed to observe it. Such remedies as were at hand were freely applied, and providentially the sufferers recovered, but for some little time after were barely fit for duty. Captain Houston is still suffering. — Westport Times. ; Victorian Railways. — " JEgles " writes iri the Australasian : — Are we not a. much-enduring people ? How long would a railway speed of 15 miles per hour be tolerated on any passenger line out of Victoria ? Imagine 12 minutes beiug systematically devoted to a suburban railway journey of about three miles The London to Brighton journey used to be accomplished at the rate of 60 miles per hour, but this was, I think, without stoppages. Couldn't the Hobson's Bay Railway Company, by a tremendous effort, succeed in running its trains, say, half as fast, which would be double the present rate of speed to and from Hawthrou. A bit of fashionable gossip, in which it appears that New Zealand is specially interested is thus retailed by an English paper : — Thore has been-a mesalliance in high, life which is causing no, little talk. The bridegroom is said to be

the third son of a Peer of the United Kingdom — a mere stripling, who left college only last summer, and he has recently married one of his father's housemaids. In spite of the mofct rigid scrutiny by lawyers and others, no ground can be discovered for annulling the contract. The thing is being kept very quiet, and the young folks are to be sent off to New Zealand to engugo in sheepfarming. The girl, though a housemaid, is well educated, and was at one time a pupil in one of the Edinburgh Normal Schools." - The P. and O. Company. — A correspondent of the Australasian says : — The good terms on which the mail is to be carried to and from Galle ought to be very good terms indeed. ' For if there were no subsidy at all, I . would not despair of losing the friendly visits of the P. and O. steamers. Look at their inward freight lists of valuable packages at high rates, and look at the outward gold shipments and passenger lists! One of the most acute steamship-owners in the colonies, who lately made a voyage per P. and O. Company, amused himself by calculating the probable value of the gross receipts of the steamer he sailed in on that particular trip. He reckoned it at £10,000. That was irrespective of mail subsidy, and there are 26 trips in a twelvemonth — not all, perhaps, so good as that. A Bank Manager lately brought before a police-court the writer of a threatening letter. v And he was quite ri»ht thus to check bravado. Threatening letters do not always produce exactly the 'ame result. A few years ago the manager of another branch of the sume hank ia another colony waa cheeringly assured iv no anonymous letter that if he showed nimself the following day in the street iv which the bank was situated, he would be shot down remorselessly. He was a languid manager this, and somewhat of the Sir Charles Coldstream type. On the morning in question, however, he put a six-shooter in bis pocket, and during the whole day patrolled the proscribed street. This unusual performance attracted the attention of some of his friends, to whose

inquiries he replied that he- was " wailing/ to be shot." But the shooter didn't turn up. He probably noticed* that the mana-v ger always kept one hand in his pockefc;---Melbenrne Argus, Contempt of Court; — A heavy sentence for contempt of court has been passed on a newspaper proprietor by Judge Lawson. At Belfast, Mr MucAleese, the rpgistered proprietor of the Ulster Examiner and Norther ji Star, bas be«-u sentpiiefd by his lordship to pay a fine of £250, ami be imprisoned for four months. The contempt consisted in the publication in that journal of two articles referring in strong terms to the sentence passed' on' two Roman Catholic rioters. Judge Lawson has received a second threatening letter, with/ the usual emblems of a coffin, &c. Some persons seem to imagine that the Chinese are far interior to other residents in the colony as regards intelligence and the feelings by which a man should be actuated; but, judging from the conduct of one of iheße heathen yesterday, many so-called Christians might learn a lesson from some of them. A Chinese fruithawker had prosecuted three young fellows for meanly stealing his goods and then assaulting him, and the Bench ordered the defendants to be imprisoned. After getting outside the court John inquired* what the sentence was, and on being told fourteeo days in gaol, he thus expressed himself : — ■" Fourteen days ! Me welly soliy. Two, three days welly good; seven days much plenty; fourteen dnys no good. Me welly solly.*' — Thaynes Advertiser. For remaind. rof news see foui tk page.

""Yi'-A Season off Pestilence.— The youth •of hoth» sexes. (observes Ythe Pall : ~all Gazette) will Jo well to pay attention to a prophecy made by a melancholy Dr Trail, V^ho announces in a Piladelphia newspaper, the .uugra'ifyinjj intelligence thai ,we are approaching a climax of -a pestilentai period. : From 1880 to 1 885 Ju piter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will come nearer the earth than they have l»een Tor; eighteen years. The result will be (a a Dr. Trail says it has heen before) :■ that we shall be visited by plagu<\ famine, preternaturally hot and cold weather. One \, of these planets alone is quite capable, in tod close contiguity, of making things very •unpleasant, but four of them together are likgly to bring a train of calamities only to be averted or mitigated by tbe adoption '" of strict sanitary measures. The coming " evils will,' in the opinion of Dr Trail, fall 7 "with especial severity on gluttons, tobacco chewers and smokers, and tight-lacing young ladies. YRhet-jmatism was formely looked upon as peculiarly a malady of persons advanced in life. Whatever may bave been the case in former years, there is litile ground , for such an idea now. Tne disease, in ail .- its forms, attacks, in these days; not only old people, but persons of middle age, , young men and women, and even little children. lis increase among children ia such as to give reason for uo slight alarm. It would be a mobt tei rible thing if parents, in addition to qiher forms of suff ring Which they see their children endure, should frequently be obliged to . witness the pain ' occasioned by- tbis disease especially in its severe and aggravated forms. We need not say anything to re- ? commend ... the increasing . prevalence of Ythis malady to the earnest- attention of medical men. It-is a subject the importance of 'which is fully recognised by the though unhappily, the efforts made to check the evil appear at present not to meet with at all an encouraging degree of success. A. Discovert near Cape Horn. — The captain of the British, ha? que Cedrie, of which has just arrived at Valparaiso, reports to the authorities of that port that he had found a splendid bay, with safe anchorage, in the Inland of Wollastoo, situate in latitude 55 c 32 S., and longitude 67° W., in the Hermit _ group of Islands south of Terra del Fuego, 29 miles distant from Cape Horn, and protected from ail winds and storms. The Cedrie was anchored 14 days in this fine bay, taking in wood and water. The vegetation all i-ound is described as magnificent. ' Tlie Indians, were found to bdocile, and Ihey use canoes of bark covered with the bide of the sea lion. The captain of the Cedrie says the' harhor is superior even to that of the Falkland Islands. The Chilian Government, in consequence of the aHove information wasahout to Fend orders to Captain Simpson,, who commands at present, a Chilian v Coist Surveying Expedition in Patagonia, to proceed to an<f examine into the claims of this^laland of Wollaston. News bas reached the Jewish Chronicle of the commission of a fVariul outrage upon a Jewish family "iri "Russia in the district of Mtohaelow. v A Jew is landlord of an inn which is solitarily situated on the border of a wood. The family consisted of husband, wife,, brother, and four children. On the 15ih instY, at about six in the evening, two laborers came into the inn and. called for some brandy,, for which they refused to pay, and jeeringly asked ip addition for the loan of a few roubles. As the landlord refused ,to lend them any money and demanded payment for the brandy, the laborers became abusive, and ultimately were turned out of the house, the landlord detaining the caps of the men, so that they might be afterwards identified when be complained pf their conduct. The laborers went away muttering ominous threats. When the inkeeper and his. family had been asleep but a Bhort Mmc, they were awoke by a loud cry of "', Fire 1" and on rushing out of> the bouse theyiwere attacked by eight men, among whom were the, two laborers who had come to the bouse in the early part of the evening The landlord and his family were thrown to the ground and bound. The men set to plundering the house. When they had -ransacked the place, they, caught hold of the poor landlord, his wife, broiher, and three youngest children, and threw them into the midst of the burning building. Only the eldest son of the landlord, about twelve years of age, managed to escape into the neighboring wood. The others perished in the flames. One of the laborers has been, arrested, and the police are in active pursuit of the other murderers. ' ' ' . * The following curious account of a dWaifish race of human beings, said to resemble a race of monkeys found' in and other places, is* given by the Siam Weekly. Advertiser :— On the Island of Borneo has been found a certain race of wild creatures, ef which kindred varieties have been discovered in the phiilipine Islands, in Terra del Fuego, and in South America. They walked usually, almost erect, on two legs, arid in that attitude measure about four feet in height. They are dark, wrinkled, and hairy. r Jhey construct no habitations, form no families, scarcely associate together, sleep in caves j

and trees, feed on snakes and vermin, on ante, eggs, and ; ongg&ach other. They cannot be tamed or Torced to any labor, and are hunted snd shot among the tts*B like the great gorilla, of which they are a stunted copy. When captured alive, one finds with surprise that their uncouth jtibbeiiugs are like articulate language. They turn up a human face to gape at their captors, atid females show instincts of modesty; and in fine, these wretched beings are men.