The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 19, 22 January 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 1874.

Fire, — A fire occurred at Appleby on Tuesday evening, which resulted in the total destruction of the building used as the District library. Tbe greater portion of the books and furniture, however, were saved by the active exertions of Messrs C. and W. Best, to whom the thanks of the Committee and of the residents in the district are owing for the valuable assistance they afforded. The fire ie supposed to have been occasioned by a lighted match being thrown by a passerby into a neighboring gorse hedge, which at once ignited, the flames being quickly communicated to the building which, we regret to learn, was uninsured. \ The Country and the Crops. — Harvesting operations are being carried on in the country districts just now with as much celerity as the limited number of hands to be obtained will allow, and the face of the Waimea Plain has undergone a complete change witbin the lasjMfortnight, stubble fields and stacks having taken the place in the landscape of waving fields of corn. Owing to the very favorable season the crops are heavier this harvest than they have been for many years past, although we are sorry to hear that in some localities the rust has shown itself, and is expected to very much reduce the "tyrge yield that was expected. Labor is very scarce, and fields of wheat which would have been cut several days ago had hands been obtainable, are in some places to be seen still standing. Barring this very serious drawback, the harvest is one at which no farmer will.be able to grumble except in some instances where, as it always will do, bad farming has been followed by scanty crops. His Lordship Bishop Moran has purchased the freehold of Mr M. Murphy's property in ihe Half-way Bush, a suburb of Dunedin, consisting of between 60 and 70 acres, on which stands an excellent house, surrounded by well laid out and planted grounds. With the property there also go the stock and farm appliances. It is Bishop Moran's intention to make the place a conventual establishment, and to remove the boarding-school from the convent at Dunedin to the former place, while the female day-school taught by the nuns will still be kept up by them in its present place. The ' Southern Cross," of a recent date learns that the Auckland Cricket Club intends endeavouring to complete arrangements for securing a visit of the All England Eleven to New ' Zealand. It thinks the object could be attained in conjecture with the clubs of Otago, Canterbury, and Wellington, aided by the ready efforts of a generous public, who, in matters of sport, are seldom slow in supplementing the means required for 8 uch ventures. A child, the daughter of Mr. William Perrott, has been missing for more than a week. She little girl was sent into the bush after the cows, and must have missed the track and lost herself. The settlers at Manutahi have been out more than once in search of the poor child, but without success. We hear that some portions of her dress have been found, but not the little girl, who, we fear, must by this time have died from exposure. — Taranaki Herald. In advertising the establishment of a preserved milk factory, in Canterbury, one of the Christchurch papers states that the consumption of American preserved milk upon the goldflelds in enormous — probably over £15,000 worth in a year* A Southland paper states that in consequence of the difficulty of procuring hands it is thought tbat a large number of sbeep on some of the stations in that province will be condemned to wear their wool for another year. The wool clip this season on one of the stations in the Wairarapa District is 148,0001b5. In the Napier Province the clip this season is said to be below tbe average weight. The cause is attributed to the exceptionally wet season. For the Melbourne cricket-match between Victoria and England the printing arrangements were that by means of a fast printing machine the score was supplied to new arrivals on the ground, with the fall of each wicket. Printed cards, shewing the state of the game, were also sent at intervals into Melbourne and the various places of resort. The Adelaide correspondent of the ' Argus » reports tbat tbe wheat yield of South Australia this harvest is expected to be prolific enough to furnish an expert surplus of 130,000 to 140,000 tons.

Under the title of " good drinking," a correspondent of the Dunedin 'Evening Star' makes up the following curious statistics for the Caledonian Gathering, which was held on the Ist and 2nd instant: — I see tbat the privilege of selling grog, &c, at the Caledonian Gathering, sold for the very large sum of £204. This means something in the way of drinking. Let us allow the parties who have taken these booths the very handsome gross profit of 200 per cent. Say the nobbier or the glass of beer whioh is sold for 6d costs 2d, and it will be found that before the £204 paid in rent can be got back it will be necessary to sell 12,340 nobblers, that is 34 or nearly 3|, in each booth every minute during six' hours. This will pay rent only; besides this there will be labor, license, and other contingent expenses to cover, and a profit on the whole to be realised. The license is £l, and labor for the two days cannot be set down at less than £3 for each booth, with otber contingencies, making, let us say, another £100, with £100 more as nett profit on the two days' work. This £00 represents another 12.000 nobblers. I may, however, be reminded that men must eat as well as drink, and that refreshments other than drink will be sold in the booths. This is no doubt true. Let us then knock off the half of the second estimate, as representing things eaten, and the result is that at a gross profit of 200 per cent., 18,240 drinks must be swallowed on Thursday and Friday to make the booths pay. If the profit be put down at 100 per cent, (and the doubling of one's money in a single turn over seems a very good thing), then the £304 to be realised out of drink gives the enormous quantity of 24,480 drinks at 63. each, to be swallowed at the Caledonian gathering in two days. Suppose the consumption to start at noon and continue till six o'clock each day, and we have the crowd which will be gathered there swaliowiag 34 drinks every minute during the whole 12 hours. A most curious phenomenon in natural history was brought under our notice to-day.. It affords a remarkable instance of the great law of compensation in value, being no other than a spider- catching fly ! This insect avenger ot his smaller brethren's wrongs indulges in the amiable 1 amusement of arresting all spiders suspected of flymurders, and imprisoning them in soft clay, until at leisure to visit and try them. A piece of canvas cut from the roof of a tent, pitched somewhere on the Wanganui, was found studded with these singular clSy<^prisons, each containing a defunct spider. This is very surprising. We fully expect shortly to be shown a mouse addicted to the hunting and destruction of cats. — 'Post. - ' In a recent issue, the Dunedin ' Guardian ' writes in the following hopeful strain : — "We believe it is quite possible to obtain twenty thousand emigrants for New Zealand, in the British Isles within six months; but we question the capability of the Agent-General's department to do the woik at all, much less to do it satisfactorily. What is wanted is not flesh and blood merely ; we want the right kind of it, namely, skilled agricultural laborers, farm servants, mechanics, and miners. We cannot have too many of these, and so far from being alarmed at the magnitude of the Government's order, we consider that it scarcely meets the requirements of the case." New South Wales, in competing for population and an enlargement of her commerce, is doing so much mischief to Victoria that the banks are beginning to look at the matter in a serious light. The large monetary establishments of Melbourne state that the decline in the deposits of the Victorian banks is to a great extent due to tbe large remittances of money to New South . Wales for investment in land. The amount of capital transferred from Melbourne to Sydney for investment is said to be enormous, and no efforts are being left untried by New South Welshmen to bring jihe trade from across the borders to their own settlements. Whenever the Victorian Government can be induced to make a concession in favor of commerce, New South Wales makes a larger. The two Governments, at no long date, are likely to enter into competition somewhat after the plan occasionally adopted by stage coach and steamboat proprietors, who, after reducing their fibres to an extreme minimum, go a step further, and while one offers to book passengers through without charge, the opposition offers the same encouragement with the addition of a breakfast or a dinner thrown in. The rivalry between New South Wales and Victoria, so long as it lasts, will benefit those who take advantage of it, but what it may all end in or who may be injured, is at present hard to say.—' Herald.' The lyttelton Times' of a recent date says: — "It is worthy of note that a class of wool, of which a large quantity is produced in Canterbury, has greatly reduced in value. We allude to inferior cross-bred wool, for which there does not appear to be any demand at all commensurate with the large supply sent homo; and we would, therefore, counsel our sheepfarmers at once to commence reducing the quantity by exercising greater judgment in crossing, and thereby endeavoring to produce a description of wool with a distinctive character, and having the good qualities of at least one of the breedswhich have been intermixed/ A plan recommended in tbe columns of the Melbourne ' Argus ' in dealing with boy larrikins has been adopted by

the magistrates. In every case where boys are brought before the magistrates for offences of this nature the father is sont for, nnd given to understand that if he chooses to administer a souud thrashing in the court-yard to the satisfaction of a constable, a nominal fine only is imposed. In case of a refusal, the full penalty with costs is then inflicted. The London correspondent of the ' Argus' sayß: — It is probable that the return of MrArch from America will be followed by an exodus of agricultural laborers to that country. He has pdade the tour of Canada, where the Government received him with a hospitality he has never known from English officials. He warns his brethren that tbey may have to work harder, and endure as great privation for a while in Canada as here, but he points them forward to independence as the end of their labor. If the State Government of the Union will do as well for settlers as Canada, Mr Arch says tbat witbin nineteen months there will be 100,000 English ' emigrants making homes in America ! Probably to every 1000 persons who settle in the Dominion, 5000 will go to to the United States. A writer in the ' Anstralasian ' observes: — "In two years the Victoria Racing Club has paid away about £24,000, and its present liabilities are —£10,000 on debentures, and £1,000 to its bankers; so that some good profits must have been realised. Next year it is likely 'that the stakes will be increased, and evennx>w I am told that there is more addedvmoney at our Spring meeting than in a whole year's racing at Doncaster." \ The 'Launeeston Examiner' notices an abominable instance of adulteration: — " A few days since a cooperu*esiding in Wellington-street purchaßedauJOuple of kegs, which had been usedVp a public-house in Launeeston, one to contain rum, the other brandy. On knocking off the head of the brandy cask, to clean it out, it was found to contain the remains of half-a-pound of tobacco ! Curiosity tempted him to take the head out of the rum keg, when, to his surprise, the remains of about two pounds of tobacco wss found! We have often heard of adulteration in the liquor trade, but were not aware that it was carried on to this extent. As the cooper very truly remarked, there is no knowing hqw many poor fellows had bad heads after drinking of the contents of these kiw." A wretch has stared the malicious report that London eonlains two thousand poets. There is sdkie cholera in the metropolis, aod there ikiay be a few cases of small-pox at tbe East-end; but we indignantly deny that we are suffering from such an attack of poets. On tbe contrary, the City is unusually healthy. — ' English Paper. Tbe average salaries of teachers in California is — male 78 dollars per £rißnth; female, 60 dollars. The salaries^in F_ ..stern States are much lower. A recent report advocates the payment of high salaries to teachers, and considers that the amount and character of the work done, not the sex of the workor,\ should determine the amount of compensation in all cases. Blondin has been outdone at Niagara Falls. A Signore Belleni has not only crossed the Falls on a tigbt-rope, which was 1,500 ft in Sength — 700 ft longer than that used by the " hero of Niagara," and "sagged" or bowed down fully 60ft, but wound up his performance by jumping into the flood from the middle of the rope. He waa picked up safe and sound by a boat he had in waiting, and conveyed to his hotel/ amid the cheers of the 3000 spectator^ A Pittsburg coroner makes no chq,|a| where he sits on a young man parts his hair in the middle. He' say* that his personal satisfaction is enotigik without the fees. * The * Lancet" says that an Incremation Club has been established, which already numbers 400 members, each of whom has made a will directing his body to be burned. The ' Lancet ' decidedly approves of the system on the score of health, but thinks that the great objection would be the high price/ of fuel, since so large a quantity would/ be required to satisfactorily consume a human body. / A very silly wager is reported by [a Brussels journal. One of the numerous methods of inflictiDg capital punispment in China is that which deprives the condemned of sleep, and whiah generally proves fatal after ten dayiu Five foolish youug Belgians tried thik experiment the other day with more or less unpleasant effects. They bet that they could remain awake for seven days, on the condition of resorting to every ■•conceivable means for averting sleep. The manner in which they arranged their time was as follows : — The night was spent in dancing and drinking coffee; during the day they rode on horseback, shot, or fenced, taking a cup of coffee every hour. One of the young pen gained, tbe w&ger, but lost twenty-five pounds of flesh j two went to sleep after having been up 30 hours; one was seized with inflammation of the lungs; and the fifth was conquered by sleep on horseback, fell off and broke an arra. A card attached to a floral wreath sent by Her Majesty to lay on the coffin of Sir Edwin Landseer bore the following inscription: — "A tribute of friendship and admiration for great talents from Queen Victoria." The following extract frpm the '^Saturday Review ' on tbe food prospects of Great Britain for the ensuing year will prove interesting tp many of I our readers: — "England's deficit in I wheat is probably 12 million quarters,

and that of France 6, or together 18 millions. England, the only buyer in the past year, has imported from all countries, France included, nearly 13 millions of quarters of wheat. The two countries now require that quantity and fully 5 millions more between them. The question is can this quantity be obtained? It is too soon to give an accurate or a complete answer, but enough is known to enable us to say that, unless America has a crop enormously in excess of last year, the quantity cannot be obtained. America has a good crop —a better crop in the States on the side of the Atlantic than last year, though it is doubtful whether the States at the side of the Pacific have so much; it is too much however to expect America to more than double her exportation of last year. It is improbable, if not impossible, lhat she can do so. Either France or England must then go short. There will be active competition between the merchants of the two nations wherever wheat is to be had, and the result of such competition will be to raise prices. Bread must be dear; certainly dearer than in the past year, and perhaps very dear. There is only one encouraging feature in the prospect —namely, the probability that the potato crop will be the largest and soundest that has been gathered for many years. Nothing reduces the consumption of bread so much as a plentiful supply of this vegetable, and it is to be hoped that the promise that ifc will largely take the place of bread this year will be realised. Whoever goes short, this country wili not starve, but we sball have to pay a high price for our loaf. Advice to Young Couples. —By all means, if you can, Keep pigs. Properly managed, tbey will make you almost independent of you* butcher. " Now then," truly wrote Cobbett, "This hog is altogether a good thing." So he is. You can eat him all up; you can go the whole hog, from the tip of the snout to that of the tail. Thus, by substituting pork for beef and mutton in their present dearness, you make both ends meat. —' Punch.'