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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 123, 25 May 1874, Page 2

Two and twenty years ago the copper coinage of Victoria seemed to have taken unto itself wings and flown. For several years the nearest approach to small change that one could get up country was a box of matches, which was considered an equivalent for threepence; while instead of sixpence, you might have your choice out of a penny cheroot or two boxes of matches. Coming from the up-country diggings in 1857, through Castlemaine, I was given coppers for the first time since 1851, and ran distinctly remember considering the tender base metal not only a slight, but as a sign that the golden age was passing away. The sight of copper coinage is now, I regret to say, no stranger to me; and he would be a bold shopman who would offer me a box of matches instead of my change of threepence. It would not at all surprise roe to find the farthing coin yet in Victoria, though what would be its purchasing power lam unable to say. Australian Shetcher, The best canvasser in the world is n devoted woman. The wife of an old member, whose name is " familiar in our mouths as household words," and, ns some people think, with the result always said to flow from such familiarity, was abroad a fortnight ago looking for votes. She called on a stockbreeder who owns a very large farm in her husband's riding of tbe country. Her son S. was starting a farm of his own, and she was on the look out for a bull of tbe best breed to present him with. She was taken through the paddocks, and decided at last that a particular bull was the bull for S. " I'll make him come over," said tbe fond mother, " and if he fancies it, you may consider it his at the price you name. By the way, I hope you are going to vote for my old man next Wednesday?" I'll tell S. when he comes over to see the bull," was the diplomatic reply of the cautious Caledonian. A simple story, perhaps, but with a word of meaning in it. — " Atticus," in the Melbourne Leader. " Bell's Life in London " of January 10 has an article on the ' Australian Victory/ in connection with the visit of the visit of the English cricketers, the result of the first two or three matches having reached home previous to the departure of the mail. " Bell goes on to say : — The effect of the decisive victory gained by the Victorian Eighteen will be to make cricket betweeu England and Australia now and henceforth really interesting. Indeed, the time may soon come when a team picked from the whole colony will be able to meet an English eleven

on equal terms with a fair chance of t access. Perhaps we shall have an annual match with Australia. We may eventually see an Australian eleven —not ' blacks '—doing battle at Lords. As our readers have long been expecting the series of articles on Junius, by the Lord Chief Justice of England, wo beg to inform them that, although the work has been interrupted by the Geneva Arbitration, and tbe terrible Tichborne case, it has not by any means been relinquished. A good deal has already been written, and the Chief Justice has spent many hours, won from his laborious weeks, at the British Museum, in collecting evidence. The sei vices of an eminent expert in handwriting have also been called into requisition.-— The Academy,