The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1875.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 221, 2 September 1875, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1875.

The Sisters Duvalli made their first appearance in Nelson last night, the entertainment consisting of the comedietta entitled " The dream of a life," and the amusing farce "The Shah of Persia." Both pieces were interspersed with a number of songs, but of the --singing we cannot say much. The acting, on the other hand, was remarkably good, especially that of Miss Rosalie Duvalli, who, as Fanny the maid of all work, and then disguised as the young sculptor, entered into her part with considerable spirit, and kept her audience highly amused. Mr Coutts as "The Shah" was very comical. The chief feature of the

entertainment was the dancing, and this was far above anything of the kind that has been seen in Nelson, especially the Spanish dance with castanet accompaniment by Miss Heloise. The jokes, on the whole, were above the average, and the costumes of the young ladies in their various characters were exceedingly handsome. To-night there will be a change of programme, the first piece being the " Lakes of Killarney," and the second the " Highwayman's Holiday." James Tibbett, of the Thistle Inn, was this morning charged by his wife with using threatening language to her and threatening to knock her brains out;. Defendant was bound over to keep the peace, himself in £20 and ; two sureties in £10 each. The Xnspec- \ tor of Police said that he had a report I upon the house to make to the Licensing Bench, and the Resident Magistrate warned the defendant that in all probability his license would be taken away. ? The ratepayers of Nelson and of all ■ other borough towns will, we believe, be glad to learn that for the future the Mayor is to be elected by themselves instead of by the members of the City Council. This will in many ways prove advantageous. It will place the Mayor in a far more independent position than he can possibly hold under the existing system, and it will alsolftw^t the office with greater weight and dignify.. The change will, without doubt, be generally acceptable. For the information we are indebted to Mr Dodson, who has received the following telegram from Mr Curtis: — "Government have at my request consented to amend the Municipal Corporations Act, so as to make the election of Mayors by the ratepayers universal throughout tha colony." " Intelligent Vagrant " in the N. Z. Mail writes : — This is the age of steamboat enterprise. Everyone is going home and fetching out new steamers, and the latest obtained is, we are always told, "superior to anything previously seen in these waters." But I think no one has as yet informed the public of the latest thing in the way of steamers which is about to be sent out by our " enterprising fellow-townsman, Mr John Martin " (my quotations are from the press of the perrad). Mr Martin is about to send out i steamer containing this improvement upon all others, that she will make the trips between the different port of the colony without giving tim« to the passengers to eat anything. < The ingenuity and economy of way ;of doing business, it will be seen, is characteristic of Mr Martin's enterprise. ' The Inangahua Herald publishes statistics showing that during the space of five months the gold! production of the Inangahua was^ 15,000 ounces, or upwards of 700 ounces weekly. The close of the year will show an improvement upon this, as the Ajax will swell the returns, and both at ' Boatman's and Larry's we may expect an improvement upon recent crushings. A fourteen-year-old girl in Sandy Hill, New York, eloped with a schoolboy, got married, and returned home with him to be forgiven. She was soundly spanked by her mother, and the husband on the way out of the house was kicked eighteen times by her father. They had never read anything like that in novels. A woman's idea ot getting on in the world is illustrated by the following anecdote in the Dunedin Saturday Advertiser : — Meeting with a young female immigrant by a recent ship who brought news of acquaintances of " auld lang syne," we happened to &sk after one we had known in day3 of old as a young dissipated scapegrace. "Oh!" said my friend, "Jamie's getting on real weel. He has ten bairns, an' he's a Good Templar, and has gotten a hoose o' his am o* the Building Society." A Cincinnati gardener named Louis Vollmer tried to kill a cat one day with a double-barreled shot-gun. After firing one barrel, and only wounding kitty, he proceeded to fiuish her by clubbing her with the butt-end of the gun, when the other barrel went off, sending the entire charge into his thigh and severing an artery, from which he bled to death in a few minutes. Vollmer was married and lather of a small family, the youngest of whom was born but a couple of hours before the accident. &* ' Eour hundred and forty-five ounces of amalgam were taken from the tables and boxes of the Wealth of Nations Quartz-mining Company, Inangahua, on Friday, the 27th ultimo. This quantity of amalgam, together with what was in hand, was retorted, and produced 4650zs gold for the four weeks' crushing. At the meeting held at the Company's office on Saturday evening, a dividend of four shillings per share was declared payable oof*n f * and after Tuesday next. — G. R. Argus. The Oineo took to Melbourne the forge shipment of 10,9590zs 12dwfcs 18 grains of gold from the West Coast, Grey mouth contributing 72460zs 13dwts 6grs, and Hokitika 37120zs 12dwts 12grs. Mr Justice Hargrave at Sydney passed a very severe sentence upon Thomas Woods, found guilty of extorting money from Captai* Thomas Stackhouse by threatening to accuse him of the commission of an unnatural offence. The prisoner had followed his victim about and persecuted him most villainously. His Honor commented on the cane in very strong terms, and said in his sentence he should first determine that while in gaol prisoner should occupy a separate cell ; that he should bo occupied in certain work |

separately from all the other prisoners ; that when the warder should pass him . he should turn his face to the wall, as he was not worthy to speak to any human being. He should sentence the prisoner to be kept to hard labor on the roads or other public works of the colony for fifteen years. The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Herald telegraphed last Saturday.— The talk of the day is last night's division. All the waverers went with the Government. It now remains to be seen who of the majority will leave and assist the minority in preventing the passing of the bills. My belief is that, except perhaps three or four, the majority will remain consolidated, and will insist on carrying the measure through. It was thought this morning that the Ministry might be inclined to give way, but I am informed they are as determined as ever to resist by all expedients to the uttermost. The other side say the simple and only effect of this will be to prolong the session without having the slightest influence on the result, and that the merely factious and obstructive opposition of the minority will prevent them doing any good in improving the mea- . sures, and will lower them in the opinion of the country, and spoil them at the next elections. "We (Auckland Star) are most happy to record that the rumor current yesterday respecting the death of Captain Casey was wholly unfounded, the Captain being rapidly recovering his wonted health. But there is a little characteristic incident in connection with the affair that is too good to be lost. It appears some fifty people had called during the day anxiously enquiring respecting the health of the invalid. In the evening he was sitting up in company with Mr Lewiason, muffled up indeed, but cosily enjoying a good tumbler of toddy, and rubbing up a pipeful of tobacco, preparatory to a comfortable smoke, when tap, tap, tap, came another caller— Mr Dixon. One of the young ladies met the visitor, received his name, aud announced him. "What; Mr Dixon?" inquired the captain. The young lady went out, and obtained the requisite information : " Mr Dixon, the undertaker." " Umph," replied the worthy captain: " Tell him I'm not ready yet* I'm having a glass of punch." The offer of Mr Tooth's runs, Alford and Cient Hills, Canterbury, by Mr Gs Clark on Thursday week excited considerable interest, as the result was looked forward to as a test of the marketable valufe of Canterbury runs. The two stations .comprise about 66,000 acres leasehold, I^oo acres freehold, and are carrying 29,000 sheep. The first bid was £30,000, and without much delay £33,000 was reached, when the auctioneer declared that the property was not sold. It is believed that had the runs been offered separately a sale I would have been effected, and it is understood that this course will now be adopted.— G. i?. Argus. Mr Barton, of Dunedin — that is, Mr Gr. E. Barton— is apparently sometimes anxious about the future, as well as about the present, state of witnesses. Lately, whilst examining a witness concerning the quality of a building, and after vainly endeavoring to elicit all he wanted to know about certain scaffolding—whether, in fact, it was not so badly constructed that bricks and other material had a habit of tumbling on to the heads of the workmen— he told the witness that he would not ask him any more questions, because he did not wish to Imperil his soul more than was absolutely necessary. Subsequently, when questioning the same witness as to whether a range— a Scotch range, he called it— had not been set in an hour, Mr Barton bewailed the fact that he and his learned brother, the Provincial Attorney-General, had been engaged the whole day, at only a guinea each, and had not succeeded, up to that time, in setting the defendant's range, or anything like it. The N. Z. Times, of August 24th, aaya: — " A special meeting of the members of the Wellington Typographical Association was held at the Oddfellows' Hall on Saturday evening, for the purpose of taking into consideration the question of the importation of coraposi/ tors, which was brought before tMe. House on Friday last. ■ There wofe a good attendance of members, and after some discussion* it was resolved that a deputation of the members should wait upon the Hon. the Minister for Immigration, and explain their views upon the question of the proposed importation of printers. It was also resolved that a petition should be presented to the House of Representatives on thY same subject." 7 Is there to be an Imperial inquiry as to the conveyance by a Queen Vsnip of the epidemic which swept off a third of her Majesty's loyal and most latelyacquired subjects in Fiji? This may, of course, have been a pure accident. But what lam about to relate looks like heartless carelessness for which there is do excuse. The infected Dido Cook on board 200 islanders, whose' labor contracts had expired, in ordej/fco distribuf 3 them to their various frames in the Pacific archipelago. And we shall probably hear, after a time of other islands being devastated by meash a contracted on board the Queen's ship, and sown broadcast over the Polynesian communities. — " iEgles." The American papers publish daily, both in the morning and afternoon, the " probabilities" os to the weather fat) the different sections of the eastern hffl of the United States. These announcements are now singularly accurate, tha per centaga of error being

little more than ten or twelve, and c«nstautly diminishing. It is unpleaeant to have to remark that the announcements of the authorised weather prophets in New Zealand are the reverse of this. Our local prophet is partitieularly unfortunate in hia forecasts of the weather. If ever he ventures Jo predict the near approach of severe storms, the weather remains obstinately mild and serene for weeks, and by the simple announcement thai fine weather has set in, he can, like Prospero on the enchanted island, summon howling tempests at will.— PF. C. Times. There is an old saying that one should always look before he leap (says the Pastoral Times, Victoria), and the truth of this waa never better exemplified than by the dilemma in which a would be burglar found himself one night recently at Jerilderie. It apoears that Mr Brasch, the storeman in Messrs Monash and Co.'a store was awakened by bearing a noise in the room used as an office. Now in this room there is a chimney, and in the fire-place there stood a large case containing crockery. Mr Brash struck a light and went to the room, but all was quiefc again, and he attributed the sounds be had heard to the vagaries of some erratic cits. He returned to bed, but some time after he heard "a row among the china 1 ' again, and on going to the room a second time he was surprised to see the bare feet of a man resting on the case of crockery, and more surprised to hear a voice from the chimney beseeching him in piteous tones to go for the sergeant of police to get him out of the chimney. The police officer was sent for, and subsequent inquiry showed that the man, whose name is Conley, had descended the chimney into the box of crockery, and as this effectually closed the opening, he could neither get up nor down. He waa removed to Jerilderie lock-up, aud was brought before the Deniliquin Bench and committed for trial. He was tried at the Quarter Sessions and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

(For continuation of News see jourth paye.)

Tbe Sultan of Zanzibar (writes the London correspondent of the Auckland Star) has been prowling around here for some time, and baa been put through tbe usual mill of tbe London Lions. Of course he has expressed enormous astonishment^ and what wild Digger wouldn't, at the wealth and jollity ot England, aud he hes been immensely fetched by the Prince and Princees of Wales and their pretty children. But what has pleased him most is the account which he has received in the course of bis wanderings amongst our-. old relica, of the career of that excellent and virtuous monarch Henry the Eighth, of memory dear to ladies. That King of England, says the Sultan, would have been the man after bis own heart, and he wishes he could have visited this country during the happy days when he ruled her destinies. He feels sur6 that he might have been tbe means of sparing a good deal of uahappiness, as he might have taken some of Henry's superfluous wives off his hands from time to time if they were anyways gook-looking. By the way, they have asked the Sultan's sister over to see him from Dresden, where she is living for the sake of her children's education. Bhe is the heroine of a little romance, having eloped from Zanzibar with a German clerk years ago, aud having been baptized and become quite civilised she is a widow and said to be very beautiful, so of course there is quite a little stir about her and her arrival. It is reported that the Marquis ot Lome and Princess Louise intend making a tour through the United States.