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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 102, 30 April 1874, Page 2

Private letters from Fiji states that H.M.S Pearl was to leave on the 10th for Queensland via N^w Caledonia. The "jetsam" from the Margregor had been a godsend to the Fijinns along the coasf, and they have been revelling in preserved salmon, which tlißy highly appreciate when thus cast upon their shores. It is agreed on all sides that except for tbe assistance from the Pearl, the Macgregor must have been a total wreck. Su^ar planting is proceeding vigorously, and Melbourne companies are buying upland tor the purpose. A planter on the Rewa river has been offered £7 per acre for all his level land on the river bank, and refused it to one of these companies. It is, of course, satisfactory to learn, say 8 the Australasian, that the 53 boxes of tea which have been lying unclaimed in the banls of the Customs since 1870, and which, after being sold the other day, were found to be extensively adulterated with " quartz and iron filings," are not likely to come into general consumption. It is, however, by no means satisfactory to ri fleet how much tea of similar composition may, in the course of a year, pass unnoticed into the shop of the retailer, and be bought over the counter as fragrant souchong. It was only by a mere accident that the fraudulent and unwholesome condition of the tea was discovered. There is reason to doubt, and every reason to believe, that large quantities quite as deleterious escape all supervision, if, indeed, there is any to escape, and are consumed by unsuspicious purchasers. Tho eircumstauce strongly illustrates tbe need for some regular inspection as a check on the adulteration wbich is so unscrupulously practised, so that the detection of such rascality might not be the affair of chance that it is at present. The English fire insurance companies begin to complain of the heat in the United States. They have found it warm — and expensive as well. The privilege of takiug fire premiums in America isn't nn unmixed joy. The Liverpool, Loudon, and Globe Company has, according to a New York journal, paid for the fire losses, in two years, £2,240,243 ! But then they are largely patronised, for the assured find that British fire companies pay and look pleasant — that is, as pleasant as they can under the circumstances. "It was Yankee ingenuity," says a northern contemporary, " that invented wooden nutmegs and converted a cargo of shoe-pegs into oats during a demand for that grain; but another genius has arisen, who has shown us how to metamorphose two-inch battons into ' D.y and Martin's blacking p»6to, for exportation.' This genius, like the inventor of tho time-piece, however, has handed down to posterity his invention without bttaching his name to the article; or perhaps we should say, unlike him he handed down his invention and generously attached another person's name thereto. Yesterday, a domestic in the employ of Dr Nicholson, having occasion to polish up tho understandings of that gentleman, made a purchase of si_pennyworthof what purported to be the celebrated Day and Martin's polish for the purpose. Ufion opening the paper containing the cake, hp\vevor, and.finding the blacking more than ordinary hard, she used $ knifo (p break it up, whep a al'ce poroipg away disclosed the fact that the 'cake' was only a doctored piece of timber. An examination of the article shows that it is' a piece of wood, cut exactly to the si-bo of a cake of blacking, which, to perfect the deception, had first been dipped in liquid blacking.,- and ttion enveloped in the ordinary way, in the u.ual wrapper bearing the label, ' Day and Martin's Blacking Paste, for Exportation, §7» High Holborn.' ■ Messrs Day .tnd Martin would doubtless be obliged if the improver upon their patent would send them his address." The Colonge Gazette of January 2 has tb© following j -r- " At Collier's manufactory of bells in Berlin, three church bells bave just been finished, havipg been cast from guns taken from tho French in the late war. The Emperor of Germany has presented the guns to the Christoin body by which the bells were ordered. Tbo total weight is 18 cwt. 55^ lbs. On the largest bell is the head of tbe Emperor in relief, and the following inscription : ' Wilhelm 1., Kaiser von Deutschland.' On the other side this inscription appears: 'Fur dieDeutech-evangelische Geraeinde, Christcburoh, Canterbury, $ow Zealand.' 'Ihe second largest bell shows the head of the Crown Prince, with the inscription: 'Friedrich Wilhelm, Kronprinz von Deutschland.' The third has tbe head of Bismarck in relief, and below it, « Furst von Bismarck Reiohskanzler des Deutschen Reiches.' '