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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 20, 23 January 1874, Page 2

_— • | The Marlborough papers teem with letters on a subject which just now dppears to be engrossing the attention of our neighbors, namely, the forthcoming election of a Superintendent. This is tbe first time the people have had a say in the matter, the head of the province having hitherto been chosen 'by the Council. Mr Seymour, the present holder of the office, and Captain Baillie are the only two candidates spoken of, but the contest is likely to be a hot one, althouvh the general opinion, so far as we can learn from private sources, is that Mr Seymour's past services are too well appreciated by the majority of the electors to allow his opponent much chance of success. The ' Express ' does battle loyally foi* Mr Seymour, and the other two papers, the ' Press ' and the -News' take up the cudgels for Captain Baillie. Thought is growing warm already, and if it waxes much hotter, the leading columns of the local journals will contain matter of a cayenne-like pungency. The population of Victoria on the 30th September, according to returns published in the ' Government Gazette* was 785,702. It is computed that in Melbourne no less than three million gallons of water are used for gardening or run to waste every night oyer and above the regular supply consumed for domestic purposes. The ' Progres dv Nord ' (Belgium) states that in a village of Ejelgium an atrocious crime bas been committed. A young girl in service at Brussels had saved a little fortune of 1800 francs. Hearing her mother was ill and required her care, she left for home by rail, and had to alight a league distance therefrom. To reach her destination she would have to pass a wood, aDd fearing the dangers of the way she resolved to pass the night at the bouse of an uncle who lived near. Sbe then knocked up her relations, and having told her story and her fears, wns put into the room of her female cousin, who was out at work. While lying awake she heard a ponvßrsatipu that filled ber wjth horror. Her hosts were planning to murder her for her money. Thereupon she leaped from the window and fled, half naked, until, utterly exhausted, she encountered two gendarmeß. After she had told them what had happened, they led her back to her uncle's house, where a light was observed in a distant part of the garden. The gendarmes approached the spot silently, and found that both the uncle and aunt were, engaged burya bosy wrapped in a blood-stained cloth. The cloth was suddenly snatched away, and the murderers uttered a common cry of terror. The victim was their daughter, who, having come home late, had crept up stairs quietly, so as not to alarm her parents, apd had been killed in n-istake for her cqu.slni The aunt went mad forthwith, and the uncle stabbed himself from remorse and dread of the consequences of his ' crime. j