The Nelson EVening Mail. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1875.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 44, 20 February 1875, Page 2

The Nelson EVening Mail. SATURDAY, FEB RU ARY 20, 1875.

Wesleyan Sunday f School—Anniversary Sermons will be preached at the Weflleyan Church to - morrow rooming and evening, by the Rev. T. Buddie. In the afternoon, there will be a children's service, when appropriate hymns will be sung. On Tuesday, there will be a tea and public meeting. Nelson College. — In our fourth page will be found the balance sheet and report of the Nelson College. We are glad to find that the number of pupils keeps up to so respectable an average. A great many new pupils we hear are entered on the books this term. Nelaon Regatta — In our advertising columns will be found the distances of the various races and tbe entrance fees at the forthcoming regatta, wbich promises to be the moßt successful yet held in Nelson. We are requested to state that in the Volunteer Whaleboat Race the coxswain as well as the pullers must belong to the corps Mr Leathes, the Secretary, recently wrote to the /-ustralasian asking for a definition of the difference between a professional and an amateur, and has received the following reply: — "Tbe following should be disqualified from competing as amateurs ; anyone who has entered for a race advertised as for watermen ; anyone who has plied for hire on the water ; anyone who has

rowed for a money prize j and anyone eugnged in building, letting, or tending boats." In the Melbourbe Argus of the Bth inst., we find the following telegram, dated LondoD, Feb. 4 : — " Three survivors of the Cospatrick wero picked up by ihe Britiab ship Sceptre." Whether theee are additional to those saved by that ship in the first instance it is impossible now to say. Wool in Hawke's Bay. — Tbe Napier Telegraph observes s — A correspondent iurnishes us with samples of wool, and the return sales of the clip of a merino flock, bred in the Wairurflpa district, province of Wellington. This flock has netted to its owner the handsome return of £400 per thousand, viz., £4000 from 10.000 sheep. The; flock is without any admixture of long-i wool blood, and the run is not above the average of the grazing qualities of the Wairarapa district. The fact of a ; merino flock producing such a resullj shows what can be done by sheepfarmera when tbey confine themselves to breeding a pure stock. I A fatal accident occurred on Wedes-j day, at tbe Moa block, Taranaki. Tbo men engaged in falling timber had half yixi a tree; rain coming on, they retired to a tent close by. The wind blew the 1 tree down, which, falling on the tent,; killed one man, and seriously injured two others. i A raid upon the imported sparrows has been commenced at Christchurch,; in deference to a cry^from some of the householders that the strangers were destroying tbeir cherries. The followJ ing was one of the first observational made : — " Operations have principally been confined to 'nest hunting,' and killing the young birds, or destroying eggs. In some instances the crops of >dieKyoung birds were examined, with i\ . view of ascertaining wLat they had been fed with, and the result in one notable instance may be cited. Mr Jj R. Hill, whose cherries were complete-l ly destroyed this year by sparrows! made a raid on the nests, in his garden! and in a single morning obtained about one hundred., and \fiftv young birds, which, on beTn^^ll)eu,\vttere found t$ have nothing but ttaterpi'nlare, grasshoppers, and other iusfct life in their crops, though a field of oats adjoined the garden. Subsequently another loi of young ones were killed and examined^ with precisely the same result." The traffic on the Hutt railway foi: the month of January (excluding the last day of the month) amounted to £465 2s 8;1, of which sum passengers contributed £411 4s Bd, and goods £53 18s. Tlie correspondent of the New Zealand Herald at San Francisco writes : — To-day a man named Watkins murders his wife and then sulfides. -Gimge: i/ifHh wife's advocacy of temperance nJ^ f forms. You may calculate that from 20 to 30 murders and as many suicides will take place in this State monthly. This will save me writing so much. Just announce a batch every week and y^oo\will be in order. ' A bill pasted on the walls of a country village announces that a lecture will be delivered in the open air, and a collection will be made at the door to defray expenses. At Neuilly, in the suburbs of Paris, there is a harem which the police have inquired into and — left alone. : It is in the home of a Turk. He has 160 wives, but keeps the mass of them at Constantinople, and only brings twelve to Paris at a time. Recently the Paris police issued this funny advertisement : — "There was found yesterday at midday a bride, eighteen years, blue eyes, black hair. Can be obtained on application at Police head-quarters." She wus a country girl, who came to Paris with betbetrothed to get married. Tbey took a cab at the station. On tho way to tbe church the man got out to make some purchase. The driver was tipsy, and instead of waiting drove on ; so • they were separated in the wilderness, and the police found the bride weeping in the cab. We have not yet heard the last of the Greville correspondence (says the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian). The issue of these memoirs has caused annoyance in tbe higheat quarters by the revelations they contain of the social condition ot the upper classes of the last generation, and it is now anticipated in well informed circles that Mr Reeve, the editor of tbe memoirs, will be called upon to resign his post as Registrar of the Privy Council. The grounds upon which ihis expectat.on is based aze that Mr Grtville was sworn to secrecy as an oificer of that Council, nud)tbat in transmitting to Mr Reeve tbe information contained in those volumes about incidents that occurred at the meetings of the Council, and other official matter of a like nature which be discovered by virtue of his office, he was guilty of a breach of privilege; and Mr Reeve is also guilty of a similar breach by the part he has taken in editing and publishing these memoirs. A strange item of news is given by a late New York Herald. It reads:— "Twenty burrels entered as 'salt meat' and ' Australian beef ' were seized at Portsmouth, England, on October 23, and in each barrel was found a corps > of a iull grown negro. They reached England from the. .Uniled States and were intended for disse'cion in Londou; but who sent them, and where did the sender.get tbem?^ fif this is the sort of " Australian beef M that occasionally finds ita way to England, there is no wondei 1 why it should nit be altogether popular.