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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 76, 30 March 1874, Page 2

Writing of the candidates for the representation of lhe Grey Valley in Ihe Provincial Council, the Greymouth Star says : — "Judging from their past career, we eee absolutely nothing in these candidates on which to base a choice. All are respectable men; none j owners of any property worth speaking of, aird none experienced in Parliamentary usaqe, or in possession of talents that raise them above the ordinary level of tho class they seek to represent." What may be called the representative plants of Australia and New Zealand respectively, viz., the Hue gum and phormium tenax, appear to bo spreading over tbe world." The blue gum is now common in many parts of the south of Europe, in Algeria, and in Brozil, au<_ has of late been winning considerable distinction on account of its medicinal properties. " The Fever Medicine Tree " ia the name the Times gives it. The New Zealand flax is also frequently planted in the eouih of Europe for ornamental purposes, but it is ia the islands of the Atlantic tbat it seems to thrive best, In the Azores it is being cultivated with success, ond the same, we now learn, ie the case iu St. Helena. The Times publishes u letter appealing for help for this island, which bas been devastated by floods, the letter being signei by the officer commanding the troops, the sheriff, and other lending inhabitants. The writers give a list of the principal products of tho island, nnd among them we find tbe New Zealand flax. Tbia is all the better for us, as the more attention that is given to tbo plant tbe more chance is there of utilising it more profitably than hitherto. It is quite possible thnt tbo problem that hns so i vexed New Zealand may bo solved in some place where tbe plant is exotic. — Herald. Tbe statement that the Frenh Government purposes giving a very importaofc extension to the system of transportation to New Caledonia, aod that the worst class of criminals, who were formerly Bent to Toulon and other places, are now to be shipped to this great southern penal station, is one likely to excite considerable alarm. Some natural anxiety was felt in theso colonies when the formation of a transportation station at New Caledonia was first mooted, and the Agents-General at home took stes>sjbr callipg.the attention* " of the Secretary of State to the matter. Still, as long as the persons transported were merely political prisoners, it seemed prudish to object to the neighborhood of men whom the next revolution in France might lift from the position of prisoners to high place and power, and to the rewards ond compensations of patriotic martyrs. But when we learn thnt the ships, which for some time have been bearing expatriated Communists, are to bring loads of the worst criminals of France to the colony which lies in such unpleasant proximity to our shores, the case is materially altered. A recent cose of some prisoners who made their escape from New Caledonia to Queensland io a whaleboat shows that evasion to Australia is practicable, and every reason that existed against transportation of criminals to West Australia exists, in degree, against transportation of a similar class to New Caledonian. Probably the Imperial authorities may have seen the desirability of protesting against tbe intention of the FreDch Government, but if not, it will clearly become tbe duty of the Australian Governments to make representations to invite the attention and good offioes of the Secrstary of State to this important matter. — Australasian. The disingenousuess of some persons is utterly abominable, says the writer of 'Bus papers in a Melbourne exchange. On Wednesday last a lot of us were tooling home in our threepenny drag, and the conversation turned upon watches. " Speaking about watches," said an old gentleman in whose face truth appeared, to shine out so clearly that his uncorroborated evidence would unhesitatingly be accepted in a sly-grog or a Sunday-trading case — '* Speaking about watches, I recently called at a fashionable jeweller's establishment, and inquired of the proprietor (who happened to be there at the time) what j was the matter with my compensation , balauce lever. Having attentively studied the works for a few seconds through a microscope in deep tnouruiog, he said it simply required cleaning, and that was all. I told him the watch had been cleaued in his own shop two days previously, whereupon he said he had to catch a 2'15 train upon important business, and would attend to me tbo moment he. came back. He b<as not since returned, and I don't thiok ho ever will." Not a single soul in the 'bus believed the tergiversator, though his mcko-up was in every respeot unexceptionable. It is said that an insane Parisian, whose wife lately died, imagined himself transformed into a weeping willow, and went about the streets of Paris with a flowerpot nn his head to announce hia transformation. (For remainder of News see Jour th page.)