The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1573.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 243, 9 October 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1573.

Rifle Match. — We understand that Captain Baigent has received a telegram from the President of the Toranaki Rifle Association, statiug that the Rifle match between twelve of the members of that Association and t«velve of the Nelson district, is fixed for the 15th instant. Waste Lands Board. — The Boa.d has been occupied for the last four days in considering the various applications for leases on the West Coast Coalfields. That of Mr Maearthy for the Brunner Mine has been granted, subject to the approval of the General Government. Upon the others the Bnrd will give their decision on Tuesday next. Harmonic Society. — The members of this society are very sanguine of achieving a great success to night, when Barnett's eatuata, " The Ancient Mariner," will be produced for the first time in Nelson. The music is well adapted to the strange, and weird words of the well-known poem, and as considerable attention has been devoted to the practices, a concert of unusual excellence may be looked for. Resident Magistrates' Court. — Judgment was given this morning in the Happy Valley pig case, which occupied so largo a portion of yesterday's sitting. His Worship said: — The evidence is so conflicting that I find it impossible to come to any conclusion in this case. There are more discrepancies in the plaintiff's evidence than in. the defendants', that is all I can say about it, The plaintiff must be nonsuited with costs, £1 3s. On Saturday last, says the ' Inangahua Herald,' 279 ounces of amalgam where scraped off the plates at the Wealth of Nations battery. This splendid result of one week's crushing excels any before obtained, and, judging from the appearance of the plutes, this week's yield will be fully equal to that of last week. A penny free-and-easy is one of the ins'.itutions of Auckland. The first pile for the new railway pier extension pier at Port Chalmers was driven on Saturday ctternoon. Th'i3 extension will be 1,000 feet long, and havo three lines of rails. Tiiu work is expected to te completed iv about fifteen months, A Napier paper records the first Customs seizure under the new tariff as having been made there of a portion of the Amherst's cargo, from Sydney, to the value of £300, Tie seizure was made in consequence of the agent for the importer making .- d^chratiou of value founded on false invoices. No other particulars are given. A somewhat similar seizure has, we be* lieve, been made at Wanganui.

The ship Halcione, now loading at Wellington ior London, will take awxy an unusually large cargo of flax, having not less than 1800 bales on board. Of this quantity there are 538 bales of very superior flax, from the Opunake mill, which ceased operations pome two years ago on account of tho difficulty of getting the prepared article to & chipping plnce. Good news has been received at Charleston from the iush at Eazorhack. A large number of men iiio on the ground, and they all seem to think well of the prospects. Some heavy parcels of heavy shotty gold have beet! brought io. The track to the workings is rough and dangerous, The Lyell Argus reports that excellent stone is being procured from the Monte Christo and Maruia claims. At both blocking out is being j.roos-eded with. The quartz that was obtained from the former 1 claim contained the richest specimens ; but for size and regularity the lafcter's leader eclipses every ollu.-r on the hill. Preparations are Lei.tnr nmle for a large export of timber from li.v Bailer district to Melbourne. The Wanganui ' Chronicle ' says that the Goverr.or is about io make au unofficial tour up the West C =arit of (he Province of Wellington. The fVestport limes gives the following later particulars of il.o Hokiiika fire : — Nearly the rntire contents of the Bank of New Zealand were destroyed. Mr and Mrs lioberts had hardly time to escnpe with the children; Mus Brady, governess, was saved from the second storey. The Town Hall, alongside, and the Empire Hotel, on the opposite fide of the street, caught fire two or tliroo times, but with wet blankets, and iho energy of the Brigade and public, the spread of the fire was prevented. Little or uoihing was saved beyond what was in the strong room. Household furniture mv\ private effects belonging to the Manager, all went with oiDce papers, voucheis, and forms, except such as were in safes. The building and furniture were insured for £2,500. Amongst oilier things desfnyed was Mr Roberts' collection of specimens ::rd r l.lier New Zealand curiosities, which it will be impossible to replace. A writer of odds and ends in the Westland Register says: — Aspirants for the offico of .Superintendent c;f the future Province of Wtstland arc springing up in all directions and in &lt quarters, and the claims put forth for them by their friends are extraordinary. Oau gentlemm is epokeo of as a candidate because he is about to lose his appointment, another because he had never had one and ought to get. one, a third br-coufie he holds the scales ni justice tolerably well balanced, a fourth because he held a good position in Westlatid a few years back, a iiflh because be happens to h-i of convivi;' habits, a snth because nobody else will have anything Io do with him, aud soon ad infinitum. One thing is pretty clear, that; a hot contest will take place. A good story is told, vays the i: Cross," about the general managj-rof the Telegraph | Department. Lookiu;; in upon an opera--1 ting room ho heard a chatty telegraphist, 50 miles away, detailing (he gossip of the town for the edification arm amusement of his fellow-clerks. Going to the instrument, Mr Lemon ordered the operator to attend to his business, but was met with a cheeky reply. "Don't you know who I am?" telegraphed tho irate general manager; I'm Mr Lemon." The operator, thinking a brother clerk was poking fuu | at him promptly responded, <: If you are Lemon, you had butter go and be squeezed." "It is stated (says (be Grey Valley Times), on pretty good authority, that the present member for the Grey Valley in the Houae of Representatives, Mr W. H. Harrison, intends to retire from the representation of this constituency, and will, at the ensuing election, offer himself as a candidate for the district of Wanganui." A Napier resident has suggested to the 'Hawke's Bay Herald ' the desirability of the wild pigs, which are so largely killed in the colony for n few pence per tail, being "utilised commercially. The bristles, he says, might be disposed of for several shilling per pound, and the skins, when properly salted, would, when tanned, be each worth iv England £l find upwards, acI cording to quality. The death of one of the oldest settlers ' in Canterbury is thus recorded in the < Lyttelton 'I iraes ' of the 13th September; — " Yesterday, a man named Frank Woodham, who is perhaps ono of the oldest settlers in Canterbury, died atWoodend. He completed his 91st year in April last, and has been a resident in Canterbury for above 40 years, having been for a long time engaged in whaling. In his younger days he served in the Royal navy, having been at the battle of Copenhagen in March, 1802." A Taranaki paper states that as a cutting of the Waitara railway, at Sentry Hill, had to pass through a spot where the bodies of a number of Maoris killed during the war were buried, Mr Parris has lately had the remains exhumed for the purpose of having them transferred to another resting place. We hear that several of the skeletons raised wtre iv a very perfect condition, but after bcin-r exposed to the air for two or three days the bones, on being touched, crumbled away into dust. I The Maoris, must, we imagine, have been ' much disgusted at this violation of the tapu. A remarkable lusus natures has been | reported to a Tarauaki paper. A Maori j cirl of thirteen years of age (daughter of Pitt, a chief who fought with tho Europeaus during the late war) has given birth i to a monstrosity in the Bhap» ot" an infant with a head on it something resembling a turkey cock, the comb being quite perfect. It had no eyes or ears, and the mouth was pointed like that of a mouse. It was an awful sight, and even frightened tho girl's parents, who quickly destroyed and buried it,

Amoagsit the papers published by the New Zenland Institute is one by Captain Fraser, «?i?iDg a description of the Earnscleugh Moa Cave, from which it may be remembered the neck ot a moa with the skin intact upon it was some time ago rescued. His visit to this curious cave, and the cave? itself, are pleasantly described by Captain Fraser. The floor of the cave, he tella us, is covered with an impalpable dust, groping among which he found several bones and rolls of what he imagiued to be the inner bark of a tree, but which proved to be "reddish brown Moa skin." When he and his companion were on the bottom of the cave, the latter, " who was fossicking about with a piece cf totara, 1 ' which he picked up in the cave, suddenly exclaimed, " I have found a nest," and from under a ledge ho drew out grass and the remains of the eggs and birds. An Amalgam aud Quartz Stealing Protection Association has been formed on the Auckland Gold-fields. Its name sufficiently explains its objects, and the Herald says that there will be such a well arvnnged system of espior.a«e ramifying throughout the whole of the Thames and Cororr.snd?! Goidfieids thafi escape wilt be next, to impossible. The Association intend sparing no expense in attaining their object. As showing the need <hat exists for such au organisation, the Herald says that if ha;; been ascertained beyond all doubt, by those thoroughly competent io inform themselves, that, one mouth with another, quite 2,0000zs of poM are surreptitiously abstracted from the Thames mines anJ crushing machines in excess o; the returns Pent iv from the various batteries. The Raglan correspondent of the Waihalo Times, writing on the 30th ultimo, alludes to the severity of the storm experienced sit that place, an.l says: — Early on Sunday morning a steamer was seen bearing up for our harbor. The bar at the entrance was one mass of white foam ; looking through » glass one could see the heavy sea which was rolling- outside. The vessel turned out to be the Government steamer Luna, bound for Wellington, with a portion of the outward English mail, which of course is too Jate to catch the steamer at Wellington. Ereryone who knows the captain will be satisfied that, tl-.e weather must indeed have been had when ho ran in here for shelter. During Saturday night the two rasu at the wheel were thrown down. One of them was seriously hurt in <ho arm; it is to be hoped no bouts were broken. Writing on the Nelson Exhibition, the Grey River Argus says: — Nelson has been demonstrative in advertising, though within a somewhat limited circle, all that U desires to attain, and al! tlie arrangements which it is making arid to make with that r-n--?; and certainly, whatever may be the ultimate value of their performances, the inhabitants &re to be complimented upon the magnitude and excellence of their intentions. In horticulture, industries innumerable, fine arts various, and iv mineralogy, geology, and natural history, exhibits are invited, and in all these departments special prizes for excellence or peculiarities are offered by gentlemen who must bo congratulated upon the possession of means, a liberal disposition, and eccentric varieties of taste. The industrious, for instance, will find appreciators of their skill iv the production of Nelson leather, tweed, flux, soap, tobacco, wines, and bottled fruits, or of engraving, or stereotyping, or designs for a verandah, or models of a music hall or theatre, etcetera, down to a pair of lady's clogs. And ladies themselves may compete, among a variety of other things, in the manufacture of hats of native material, or in " specimens of darning," which must be done by spinsters, or. in a half-dozeu gentleman's shirty, on which — base insinuation! — "the buttons must be securely sewn." Curious collectors are also invited to present specimens of coal or other minerals, of timber or other medicinal plants, of beehives and bees, and of many other things too numerous to ineutioD, while those of a literary turn may compete in the composition of the best tale, or, in caligraphy, in the illuminated writing of a stanza of "God save the Queen " — the loyal prize-offerer for tha latter being the Rev. Father G-arin. Then some may win a wedding-cake, though it might prove a white elephant, and all may win the approval of others or of a mind conscious to itself of right by aiding a work which is calculated to inform, to instruct, and to improve. Where its promoters have fallen short of their duty is in the brevity of the announcement which has been made, and its limitation to the Iselson district, instead of throughout the Province, although the scope of the exhibition is something more than Provincial. New York's latest criminal sensation is the murder by his son of Mansfield Walworth, a prominent author, and son of the iate Chancellor Walworth. Mansfield Walworth had quarrelled with and separated from his w iff, and the son, Frank H. Walworth, who took the part of the mother, shot the father at Sturfcewart House, and then gave himself up the police. The prisoner is a youth of nineteen, and considers that he did a meritorious acf. He says his father attempted to shoot him. The high position of the parties attracts great attention to the case. The following novel cure for insanity was communicated by a correspondent of a New York paper, and has a touch of romance iv it. In June last Peter Oliver, a handsome young Irishman, of 24 years, was taken to the Bellevue Hospital, a raving manias. Ho was thrust into one of the cells iv the lower part of the building, and with great difficulty pinioned to his bed. Ho yelled and struggled at such a rate that he was ordered to be put into a straight jacket. On. Thursday morning while iha physicians were trying to devise some proper treatment, garden Brennan sent ior tha young man's sweetheart, and ia an hour's time a pretty, blue-eyed Irish girl, blushing and laughing, came to the