The Nelson EVening Mail. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 279, 25 November 1874, Page 2

The Nelson EVening Mail. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1874.

C*ur<nnAx Minrbku.— We refer oar waders to the advertisement announcing a performance to-night by the members of this company, assisted by Mrs Woodroffe, and one or two other* who enjoy a local reputation. The programme is an excellent f . one, ioclodiog soogs and cboiutes, dances sod farces, and muiscal selections by the orchestra, on the piano, and on the banjo. f*«J» cnoHß^ Cll P t « nEd "fo. the bead of the Meteorological Department at Wellington, telegraphed across yesterday at soon :— ''Expect you will hare sooth-west fate in before night, accompanied probably by hail." The prophecy fortooately proved incorrect, although the sky did look threatening a little before sunset, and the thermometer was not so high as might have been expected at this time of the year. MoTUiKiu— The teachers of the tfotueka Sunday School hare made arrangements for a public tea meeting, for the purpose of welcoming the Bithtp of Nelson, to be held at the lnsUtate r to-morrow afternoon, at four o'clock; HojmcuLTuaAL Show.— The show, which has for so bog been looke^J forward to. wiil iake place to-morrow, commencing &t one o'clock. The Hall w,U also be opea in the ereniog, and, arrangements hating been made for moaic, it will be a Tery pleasaut, though, we expect, a Tery crowded promenade. The • recent c Id tqoa U hare not been farorable to ,tbe appeannceo! flowers grown in toe open air. bat still a rery excellent show is looked for! .. We «re glad to learn that considerable into e»t i* taken in the matter ie the country disttict* fromwhieha4arge number of vUitori may b* expected. We are requested to state lhat tfte thuliog takers will not admit' to the ereningas well as the afternoon show, but that charge* tor sdmiwioo will be made on m

both occasion*. Family tickets will admit to both the spring and autumn shows at any and all times. ■ Tax : _We liogtpn, . with the American Ptatfop 'or Jlte San Francisco mai 1 , arrived from the iVfanukau ~t})is morning, aad sailed for the Sou 1 hby the same tide It appears that no English correspondence for NewZealand was forwarded by the mail steamer, the whole of the month's mails having been despatched via Suez. Nelson Aiitizans' Association.—Members of this Association are requested to attend a special meeting this evening at half past fcven. j "~ The Thames- Advertiser contains a threecolumn report of a native meeting at Ohineinuri that w>s conveyed to it by a carrier pigeon. Whilb we are paying such enormous prices for potatoes, it is hard to le'ieve the statement that in the Newhain and Rochtord districts. Australia, where the farmers are ompiiinirgof thsscircity of labor, at least 2COO jtqns of potatrcj remain uadug, of which a large proportion will have to rot in the ground. Thb following advertisement referring to one who is not unknown in Nelson, appears in the Lyttelton. Times :— " William Adam Chapman, well-knoirn. as .conjuror and anti-sj-iriiist, and travelling whit a person known >8 Miss Ida Bonn tf on- will you write to your i w ife and child ; they have received no communication for eighteen months. Write Jninkdia-ely, tt* Etoity Ada Coap'man, Bowea 'VUlf,3Buntlfoad, South Yarra r Melbourne." The Grey River Argus gives as an ore dit, that Eugene O'Conor, Esq., had a practical but rather unpleasant illustration last week of the necessity of spending at least some portion cf the famous £50,000 at a place where it is badly required The Dictator, was travelling between the Lyell and Christy's, aud by reason of his horse stumbling or,, shying, Mr O'Coror, a' though he iaan, eicvjlentiequestrian^ wai unceated j and landed 10 a hole r early a fathom deep in tKe middle of the "main road." It is statrd at the Ahaora that the - provincial Se< retary ,on extricating himself from his perilous position, " shook the dirt from his feet " as energetically as he did on a former celebrated 0 caston in the- Grey VaM^ , , The Licensing Act is causing great trouble in all the provinces; but it afflicts Qtago with greater severity than any other tfewj orciiy of the two island* The question now at issue in Dutediu is, whether a licensed victualler may have rWe than one bar,, and, if so, under what circumstance-? One RM. gives the interpretation of the Act one way, and a second ano' her, while a third disputes ' either, and insists upon his own rendering. On the 3rd instant, in Dunedin, thre^ jeading note -keepers came up to hear judgment upon ' charges mad? against them for cnaintaing more than one bar on their own prerois g, when Mr Bathgate relieved him elf of the following deliverance, which, pedispg, entitles him to the credit of taking a very commonsen«e view of c'au?es so intricate and little understandable that only a lawyer could have framed them. Mr B^hgate says:— '• I have looked into this question* and have come to the conclusion that the prohibition in the Licensing Act, 1873; hs to more tban one bar being on the premises, only applies to ' public bars.' These are defiped to mean any room, passage, or lobby in any licensed public-house, open immediately to any, street, highway, or thoroughfare, wherein the public may enter and purchase any spirituous or * fermented Kiquor a.' The pMu meaning of this definition is that the room, passage, or lobby, where the bar is placed, must open to the public street without anything between it and the street. The word 'immediately' signifies literally without a' middle, that is, without anything between or intervening. If, therefore, a bar ia situated inaroomi passage, or lobby wh ; ch does not open immediately to the street, it is not a public bar in the terms of the A> t> I find that in none of the c«ses brought before the Court is the second bar go-placed as to be fairly within the Statute as a public bar." — Herald.

The Oiago Daily Times says: -" We shall be sorry to see the day wheib a poor-house, supported by rates, becomes a necessity in our nridst, but unless the reasonable claims of tbe Benevolent Institution upon tbe purses of the pub-' 'lie "are" freely recog nised^by— that body, we caconly expect that, a movement to get some such inatit'uiiori established will be the natural result." The single girls by tbe Duke of Edinburgh, the Canterbury ' papers report, appear to be of a very superior class. A novelty occurred during the voyage, in the form of a sewing competition, in tiio ariangements of which tbe matron was said to be ably seconded by the surgeon-superintendent, sod by tbe captain and his wife. Twenty prit^s were offered, ranging from one pouod to ten shilling?, and over sixty piects of work were sent in for competition^. In addition to this, prizes were offered for knitting socks and for fancy work. ; Five men havo been hanged in Louisiana for murdering a New York flat boat trader. One of the murderers named James Robertson, feeling his caee almost hopeless, adopted a curious dodge to obtain a respite and possibly a chance of rescue or escapp. Ho got his counsel to address to the Governor the following letter: — *'Paincourtville, Parish of Assumption, July 18,1873. To His Excellency William P. Kellogg, Governor of the Slate of Louisiana: — Sir, — Jame3 Robertson, now incarceratci in the jail of my parish, and condemned to death for the murder of E. E&atwood, wishes me, as bis attorney, to inform your Excellency that he knows where there is, in the State of Louisiana, a most valuable gold-mine, and this is only known to htm. lie told me that before be dies he would like to show tbe place where tbe said mine is situated. He is prepared to go handcuffed (if necessary), and under a strong guard, sent by your Excellency, whether of Stale or United States soldiers. I wish you, Governor, to understand that I comply simply with the last request of this man, James Robertson. Now, should he really possess this knowledge, which, if found correct, would be of great interest to our Stttte, it is a matter worth enquiry into. Tour Excellency would be so kind us to give me nn immediate andou r, as I promised Robertson to in. form him of your decision in the matter. I have the honor to be, Go* vernor, your most obedient servant, Albert Lauve." The bait Was wot taken, and the execution was ordered | to proceed.

The intimation that spurious halfsovereigns h»ve found their way into circulation within the past week will no doubt come in time to save a pood many busiucss people, from being victimised. The first of the counterfeit articles wns palmed off upon Mr Marshall during the rush to the moneytaket'a office on the evening of Madame Goddard's opening concert, and since that time the experiment has been successfully tried upon several tradespeople, whose suspicions were not aroused, although the spurious coin isa very clumsy imitation of the genuine article —N. Z t Times. The Canterbury Press illustrates the woiking of Provincialism in the North Island thus— -•* The inhabitants of the cities aad suburbs, from, theit superior numbers, the greater, activity £ and energy which are characteristic of town life, as well as from the facilities for combination and the pressure they were able to pat on a Government always resident in their midst, drew to themselves all political power, which they used with exclusive regard to their own interests. The towns and auburhari districts were fostered; 'the country districts were loft out in ihe cold. The former monopolised all public expenditure; the latter were neglected and starved. We may quote as a notable instance the expenditure of an Auckland Provincial loan of £500,000 raiaed professedly for public works necessary for the development of the Province. Opt of ; the total half aitlltou no less Ihnn £407,500 was spent in Auckland itself, or in its immediate neighborhood ; while to the country districts was allotted only the infinitesimal pittance of £500. - „ : i "' :, % v" i. In the Christchurch papers of the ,28th ult, there were 28 cases of bank: ruptcy ! get down for hearing. The correspondent of a Southern journal, writing \<rpm; Christcburch says :— Without by any means wishing to be considered a croaker, lam inclined to endorse the remarks of one of our morning papers, when it states that "there is 1 considerable want of coofijdence with regard to money; and though the bills due on the 4th were, with, very few exceptions, promptly met, yet there is a feeling that the , wor^t has 00$ yet passed . over." Fofr there is no gainsaying the fact that there has been, a considerable amount of over- trading in almost every branch of business, and somebody must suffer. Public works employing plenty of labor and Material paid out of public loans are well in their way, but there is 'a" 'liability to n fietfrfo'us sense of confidence engendered therohy, and unless I am mistaken it is just this false, confidence that is beginning to totter. The spring will give matters a freeh impetue, but, it will be only temporary, in fact, prolonging ihe agony so to speak, until a deal more caution is exercised in private as well as in public undertakings, and until this caution has been learnt in more ' tbian one "instance by hitter experience. The Fiji postage stamp, having n Crown with C.R. (Cakabau Rex) beneath it, reaches us now, since ttio cession of the Island, with the letters C.R. obliterated by the Royal V.R. ■ stamped over them in black. "iEgles" writes in the Australasian', — Here is an example from real life of the temptations put in the way of thoae who serve lour over-liberal j employers. A family living in a handsome mansion lately advertised for "a visiting governess, eldest pupil 12 years*" Numerous applicants received letters appointing interviews. The duties required were punctual attendance from 9*30 to 135 on five days per week — two girls, aged 12 and 8 years respectively, to be taught English, French, music, and drawing— a girl of 7 years Eoglish only— all three' all kinds of plain and fancy needlework boy of 11 years to be taught English, Latin, French, and drawing, so as to .go into the senior department, of the Scotch College without passing through the junior classes — another girl attending day school tot be given four music lessons and one in singing per week. For these duties the teacher was offered £24 per year — at a stretch, to a very desirable person, £30! Now, if instead of being competent to teach four or five languages and liberal accomplishments, this teacher pretended to understand laying a dinner-table and black-leading fire-places, she would have been entitled to board and residence in addition to the splendid stipend offered her No wonder, writes an indignant lady to me, that the Tarra and the Tarra Bend receive so many victims of despair God help the poor girls who fall [into the merciless clutches of such . But I mast stop; my gentle correspondent uses very strong language indeed. The Cape Argus of the 10th October containa ihe following:— "Considerable excitement was caused thorlly after sundown yesterday, when a communication was made down from the si gnalhill that a ship's boat full of passengers was standing into the bay. About six o'clock the steamer Gun put off with the view of rendering assistance, and it was learnt that the Oliver Cromwell, with coals, from Newcastle to Aden, had been destroyed by fire on Sunday, the 30ch ult. The fire seems to have broken out in some unaccountable way, and baffled all attempts at extinction. The only hope was to escape in one of the ship's boats, and after a Dine days' perilous voyage, Table Bay was made. It is satisfactory to learn that no lives were lost.'

Major Palmer, who is now at Burubam station, has published a letter on the subject of the risk to the observations of the transit of Venus by bush fires, aadasksthe residents between Burnbani and the hills to use all the precautions in their power. While smoke, he sajs, would be detrimental to eye observations, it would be absolutely fatal to the photographs of the transit. It is Id be hoped that settlers everywhere, in the neighborhood of the observa tories, will regard Major Palmer's warning. ~. A young Australian was somo time ago placed upon a sheep-station to acquire that general knowledge of pastoral pursuits which is presumed to follow a position of this kind. The young fellow's doting mother wrote to the resident owner of the 6tation to know how her dear boy was getting on. He replied to the following effect : — j "Tour son is getting on wonderfully. *I am quite struck with him. In respoese to a direction I «aye him he offered me a civility which he called a wipe in the mouth. To my remonstrances against this courtesy he responded by carrying out his threat, and extended his politeness to my eyes, out of one of which I can just see sufficiently to reply to your maternal anxiety. I don't think you need be uneasy about your son. He ia sure to get 00. From this neighborhood he has got off." Tha views of some people as to tho nature and value of evidence, says the Australasian, are peculiar. The oiher day, in an equity suit, a barrister had conveyed to him in court, Irons a female witness whom he proposed examining, a large Bible, and a note to the following effect:— "My dear Sir, — I am much too ill to come to court today; However, I send you the family Bible. I have kissed it twice, and have sworn to whatever you say." Could anything be--more-accommo-dating ? Wouldn't this method save a good deal of time expended in examination, crosa-exaroioatioß,- and reexamination ? . , :; :