The Neson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 12, 14 January 1874, Page 2

The Neson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1874.

The Tararua arrived at Hokitika last night, and is now on her way to Nelson where she will probably arrive by the early morning's tide to-morrow. Charles' Panorama. —We remind our readers that the entertainment at tbo Oddfellows HaU to night is to be given in aid of the widow and orphans of tbe late Michael Campion, and trust that there will be a bumper bouse. Perseverance Shareholders. — A number of the shareholders in the Perseverance Company were summoned to appear before the Resident Magistrate this morning on account of uupaid calls. The greater number settled the matter out of Court, and those who did not were ordered to pay costs as weli as calls. The deepest shaft in the Colony of Victoria is that upon the Magdala Company's mine at Pleasant Creek, which is now down 1125 feet. The deepest level is 870 feet, in the claim of the North Cross Company, at Pleasant Creek. Those who travel in the early coach to Tokomairiro (says the ' Otago Guardian ') have an opportunity of seeing dogs who assist to dispense literature. They are mostly of the spaniel or retriever breed' and they wait on the road for the morning papers, which the coachman chucks to them as he passes, and they then convey to their masters' residences, in many oases some considerable distance off. It is to be noted that these dogs perform their work in a sedate and responsible manner, aud with none of that trickiness which dogs frequently betray. This is doubtless due fco the character of the papers they carry.

In 1871 the number of children receiving education at aided schools in Canterbury was 3691; at the present time, according to the 'Press* the number is 7695. In 1871 the average ilnily attendance was 2565 ; it is now 4915. The number of teachers employed in 1871 was 79 ; now ie is 206. Some splendid quartz specimens hsve been again brought down to Westport from the Halcyon claim, Mokihinui. Negotiations are pending for the immediate erection of crushing machinery. This is the way they do up an Enoch Arden romance in Oshkos, Wisconsin : — * ' The Western Arden did not come back nnd gaze through the window nt the felicity of green and yellow melancholy business ; not any. He kicked tho new husband • out, sorted over the children and sent his brats after hira, and then, after thrashing his wife, settled down into a peaceful, happy head of the family." In a Western novel — "Robert Greathouse "—an amusing instance is given of that tendency existiug in the uneducated mind to confound profanity with the solemn taking of au oatb. Jack Gowdy, an ignorant stage-driver, desiring information about an affidavit he wishes to make, asks a lawyer: — "Is the swearing very tall? Is the swearing such very hard swearing that it takes a scientißc man to dd it? Suppose a gentleman, not, a professional man in such matters, nor yet a scientific man, but say a man that never swore much, except privately, on his own acconnt, at stablemen and ostlers, and faro-dealers when they did not pull the cards square, and abolitioners and free niggers occasionally in a general way; suppose, I say, such a man as that should commence work, and he should keep it up steady, without interruption, till to-morrow evening at 5 o'clock, do you think he could fetch it up to the notch?" " Yes." " Then it would gratify me very much if I could take a swear at thera thtie documents." Heroic treutment has to be resorted to when snakes are in question. A youth hired to a squatter on the upper Goulburn for twelve mouths wanted to leave, but his master wouldn't hear of it. The next day the poor lad was bitten by a snake. He went to the home station and showed the marks of the fangs in his legS; imploring them to send him at once to the hospital of the nearest town. The squatter was away, but the overseer got over some men from the woolshed, who held the patient down while he excised the bitten part with a clasp-knife, and applied a cautery in the shape of a. flat-iron fizzing hot from the fire. Every howl of the patient's was smothered in doses of brandy and ammonia, and he was half-drunk when the operation was over. The squatter then came in, looked ut the leg, and declared that half enough hadn't been cut away. He had him held again, and took away a few moro slices of flesh, pouring a tablespoonful of gunpowder into the cavity, which he managed to explode with considerable difficulty by meauß of a red-hot poker. By this time the lad had consumed nearly a bottle of brandy, and drowsily smiled at the worst they could do. But he must be kept awake till the doctor, Bent for from twenty miles at the first news of tbo accidenf, had come. He was trotted up and down between two lusty shearers till he threatened to go to sleep in their arms. The humane squatter, watching his Bymptoms, and dreading the fatal effects of sleep, had a rope put round his waist, aod with a "one, two, three, and away," he was Blung head over heels into the icy cold water of the river. He came out wide awake and nearly sober, and every timo sleep appeared on bis eyelids the ducking was repeated. The doctor came some hours afterwards, and strange to say found him alive. He still lives, though rather tender about the calf, and tearfully declares ho will never prick himself with a pin again to make people believe he was bitten by a snake. He was an ingenious youth, but he didn't get the discharge he sought. — Melbourne ' Leader.'