The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 132, 4 June 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1874.

Steamer PjatceßE.— A telegram received just as we were going to press states that the Phcebe crossed the Manukau bar at 10 a.m. yesterday. She may therefore be expected here this evening, and will sail for the South by the same tide. Resident Magistrate's Court. — James Stringer, charged with assaultiug Bordera Torquetti, an Italian, fisherman, was fined 5s and costs. Perseverance Company. — A meeting of shareholders will be held at the Odd-Fellows' Hall at 7'30 this evening for the purpose of passing a resolution to wind up the Company, To-Night's Council — Mr Shephard has a notice on the i'aper to-night of a resolution to the effect that it is desirable to proceed with the construction of roads in the Buller Valley put of the funds agreed to be advanced by the General Government. This is in direct opposition to the determination expressed by the present Government not to accept tbe advance of £20,000 on the terms proposed by the General Government. — Mr Donne is to move that the new system of responsible government renders it necessary that a permanent officer holding holding the appointment of Deputy Secretary and Treasurer's Assistant shoo Id be provided for. The non-arrival of the Phcebe, which, we presume, has been bar bound at the Manukau, has put an end to all hope of a supplementary ma'l by her catching the Tararua at Wellington. We understand, too, tbat it is doubtful whether the Alhambro, which is loading witb grain at Oamaru, will arrive in Melbourne in time for the outgoing mail steamer. A settler in Otago is said to have as many as forty-six bee-hives in his garden. The Wellington Independent of Saturday last says : — The members of the Wellington Football Club will play a match to-day on the Basin Reserve, sides to be eho.en on the ground. It is hoped tbere will be a good muster, as the match with Nelson, which is now regarded as an annual event, will shortly come off. A valuable addition to the stud stock of tbe colonies has been made by the importation to Melbourne of four Arab entires. They arrived in the Pera. One is a flea-bitten grey named Moonbeam, which bearß a great name in sporting circles in India. The others are chestnut horses. All four are very handsome animals. In the Superintendent's speech at the opening of tbe Marlborough Provincial Coujcil we find «he following: — " The General Government have offered to rent from us premises for the conduct of their Land 1 ranßfer Department if we will provide tbem." In Nelson we do provide offices for the General Government, but what about tbe rent? The mercantile community of. Dnnedin are in terror regarding the safety of their safes. It is said that about ten days ago the workshop of a locksmith was entered, and a quantity (four dozen) of steel block safe keys were stolen therefrom. Many articles of far greater intrinsic value were lying about, but these were untouched. The inference is that the blocks were wanted for burglarious {purposes. No clue to the abstractor of the blocks has yet been discovered. A charge nnder the Licensing Act, of selling liquor on a Sunday, waß heard on May 23, at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Auckland. The principal witness was a little girl of eleven years of age, who made one statement to the police and another before tbe Court. The magistrate, in dismissing the case, said.:—" Tbe Act should be so amended as to utterly prohibit publicans from selling on Sunday; or alter the law so as to permit tbem to sell on Sunday. As the law stands at present, it is most conducive :to perjury. I say unhesitatingly that it is far better to alter the law so that tbe publican can sell on Sunday, than to leave the law as it is; for now we have two sets of crime*— first, selling on Sunday*, aod secondly, perjury. There is not a doubt about it, that there is selling on Sunday, and when the police get a case, it is generally met by the abomination of perjury. A very peculiar point of law has cropped up in Victoria. A wife sued her husband for maintenance, and obtained an order for tbe payment of ±>50 per month. As he resided in England, although his property was in Victoria, the wife applied to bave a sufficient amount of his property seized, so as to guarantee the payment of this monthly sum.- The necessary capital amount was fixed at £16,000, and for that amount an order was granted. The effect of this is to place a man in this position. While he is alive his property may be seized and taken out of bis control to provide for the maintenance of hi_ wife, but at his death he may will this property away, without leaving his wife anything. Thus he can control his property more after death than during his life. , ' We (Post) wonder whether the Premier bas fully realised thß~Consequences which may result from his proposed limitation of the number qQff»mi-

grants. It seems that many people at home are wonderfully anxious to emigrate. At least we read in a London paper that, '« at the Bow-street Police Court a young man named Henry Parchment was brought up a few days apo, charged with attempting to commit suicide, in consequence of hie having „' been rejected as unfit to be received as an emigrant for New Zealand. His desire to go there was very strong." If pressure of this kind is put on, tbe Government can scarcely remain obdurate. The following episode is described as having occurred in the Port Chalmers Borough Council :— -At this stage of the proceedings, his Worship the Mayor made a few. remarks' regarding the manner io which leases of portions of the town-belt were acting, and said they were " pilfering " the Corporation property. Whereupon Councillor M'Kenzie rose from his seat, and demanded of tbe Mayor if he meant that term to apply to him in common with others. He then marched up to the Mayoral chair in what appeared to be a pugilistic attitude, and again pressed his question, upon wbich John M'Dermid, the Mayor's son, stepped forward, and dared the Councillor to strike the Mayor, bis father. The Clerk then requested Mr. M 'Derm id to take his seat in the hall, and remonstrated with Councillor M'Kenzie, who also retired to bis proper position, and again pressed for an answer to his question ; and, the ' Mayor refusing to give the answer, he asked him, if he desired to retain the same meaning, to alter the words in which the idea was clothed. The Mayor still adhered to tbe word " pilfering," and more passed, in the height of which Councillor M'Kinnon rose and said, ** This will not do ; I move that the Council adjourn." Councillor M'Kenzie : " I second it ;" nnd the motion wbs carried by these Councillors rising, and leaving only two at tbe table." The Southern Cross advises the Inspector of Nuisances, iu Auckland, to render himßelf liable to an attack of typhoid fever— not more so, though, tban the inhabitants would appear to be from his neglect. Our contemporary remarks: — " If the Inspector of Nuisances is the owner of a good, appreciative, and useful nose, he had better take a walk up the right hand side of Short-land-street. Hamlet tells the King he can 'no6e' the body of old Polonius in tbe corridor, and everybody has heard of ' Sweet Edinburgh,' tbe odor of wbich was brought freshly before the mental nose of the dying exile. In Shortlandstreet there will be no difficulty in following- tbe scent. ..It follows you; surrounds you ; and for a time you carry with you a sort of invisible halo of concentrated essence of sewage and miasma. Nay, it is something visible to the eye ; nor does the taste always escape, for as the bluish-black liquid putridly exudes from the partially covered drains, and meanders slowly down the kennel, tbe passenger sees a reeking essence distilling from the ooze, and feels its presence in the polluted air, which fills his mouth as well as his nose with an evil flavor, and makes him quicken his pace to get beyond the immediate reach of the noxious exhalations." Tbe Fall Mall Gazette keeps a vigilant eye on magisterial decisions and sentences, and ih the case of a brutal father, convicted of beating an infant, thirteen montbs old, thus satirises tbe conduct 1 of the provincial Bench :— The very foundations of parental authority are sapped by such severity as that displayed towards an unfortunate man named Thomas Vernon, who, at March, in -Cambridgeshire, on Friday, was actually committed to prison for one month for correcting his own child. From tbe evidence it appeared that poor Vernon, with his wife and child, was refused admittance at certain lodgings which he was anxious to occupy. There can be little doubt that this refusal Was caused by the inconsiderate conduct of young Vernon, . whp, although thirteen montbs old, had not the tact while lying in its mother's arms to suppress those senseless lamentations in which infants are too apt to indulge when they encounter the unavoidable evils of life. Mr Vernon, therefore , displeased at the child's want of consideration and good feeling, applied epithets to it which are perhaps hardly fit for publication, as they might not be understood by those unaccustomed to family worries, and remarking tbat but for tbe child he and his wife " could get lodgings anywhere," administered to it a little wholesome chastisement, striking it in the face with his clenched fist five or six times, till the blood gushed from its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, and then, haviog grasped it by the throat, hitting it again. The injuries do not appear to have been very serious, at least the infant was not killed in its mother's arms, as no doubt it might have been, had ita father not kindly moderated his just resentment. Tbere were, of course, marks about the child's face, breast, and under each ear. There was also a swelling on its throat, ard its arm was broken ; but although according to the medical evidence its life is in danger, it is not actually dead yet, and to deprive Vernon of his liberty for a whole month for a trifling assault df this nature* committed on a mere child belonging to himself, seems monstrous in these days when loving mercy is extended to even the most ha&ened criminals by tender magistral^ « Great astonishment," it is stated, was .expressed at the sentence passed on the prisoner, &_d indeed, it is a marvel that he wasf not embraced '.by the Bench. . yr>