The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 199, 22 August 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1874.

Baptist Church. — A lecture will be delivered at the Baptist Church, Bridge-street, to-morrow evening, on "The late trial for murder, and the le£_ons it teaches" Richmond. — The meeting advertised by the Good Templars to be held at the Agricultural Hall, at Richmond, on Monday evening <4ast, having been postponed on account of the weather, it will be held on Monday evening next, at the same place. Independent Okder op Good Templabs.— Sixteen candidates were last evening initiated into the Loyal Nelson Lodge, and eleven others proposed for membership. The Suez mail will be due^ according to the authorised timetable, at Melbourne on Wednesday 'next,* b'St we have information that the 'steamer left Galle three days in advance of her time, so that she may be expected to arrive at Melbourne to-morrow. The mail will be brought on by the Albion which should reach the- Bluff about Thursday next. The Tararua was to leave Melbourne for Hokitika last Tuesday, bo tbat she will be due there to-morrow. Standard Insurances Company. — The accounts of this Company up to 30th June last bave been sent to the shareholders, and we have been favored with a copy of them. In reality they only embrace about five months' work, and moreover do not include the business done by the English agents. The figures, therefore, are not large, but the result is very satisfactory. The fire premiums were £5,228, and the losses only £959 } the marine premiums £1,312, and the losses £111. The preliminary expenses for forming the Company were remarkably small, being only £694, or less than 3 per cent, of the paid-up capital, whilst the working expenses fur the half-year, including commissions, amounted to only 20J per cent of the premiums received. With such economical and careful management there can be little doubt as to the future of tbis Company. We notice its investments are yielding from 6 to 8 per cent, and the result of the half-year, after writing off preliminary expenses in full, is to place £3,591 in reserve. At the conclusion of a meeting of the Hokitika Borough Council, two of the Councillors got hold of each otber by the whiskers, and were with difficulty disengaged from their loving embrace. A contemporary says that both the gentlemen were of the " Irish persuasion." An unusually large quantity of powder was lately used in one blast at the harbor works at Lyttelton. It consisted of not less tban 300 kegs, eacii containing 251 bs. of -.powder. They were placed in two chambers, and fired simultaneously, Seventy thousand tons of stone were displaced, and the explosion mada scarcely any noise./ . Y- % yy- ' *._. ,-<-?- - ■