The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1876.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 56, 28 February 1876, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1876.

A Postoffice notice to-day states that on and after Wednesday nest the mails for the Postofnces on the line of railway (including Waimea West) will close at Nelson at 2*30 p.m., and arrive from the same offices at 11 a.m. A picnic, at which about 120 were present, was given to the officers of the cable expedition on Saturday, aud this afternoon a large party was entertained at lunch on board the Hibernia. They were conveyed to the steamer by the Murray, which was kindly lent for the occasion by Mr Symons. understand that the cable steamers Hibernia and Edinburgh are likely to remain 'here until Friday or Saturday next, when the Hibernia will sail for Sydney, and will proceed thence to England, but the Edinburgh will remain in Sydney for three years, with a view to making any repairs that may be required in the cable. "j&A sermon on the laying of the cable was preached to a large congregation at Christ Church last night by the Bishop of Nelson, who took for his text the Sofch verse of the 38th chapter of the Book of Job : — " Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are ? " From a late Wellington paper we learn that the Volunteers of the Empire City are bestirring themselves, and are actually thinking of having an occasional church parade on a Sunday. Their brothers in arms in Nelson could give them some information regarding the manner in which it should be conducted if they are really desirous of initiating so startling a novelty in Wellington. The home of the earthquake appears to be shifting from the north to the

south of these islands. In former years a shock was scarcely ever felt below Christchurch, but from our telegrams it would appear that on Saturday it was the northern boundary, of the convulsion that has »o start lea our southern neighbors. In Dunedin and Oamara the shock seems to have been unusually severe. The Phoebe this morning brought ten likely-looking horses from New Plymouth, which will be sold at auction by Mr Augarde on Friday next. The trustees of the Nelson Savings Bank will meet at the room, Hardystreet, to-morrow afternoon, at four o'clock. In the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning judgment was given inthe case of Hustwick v. JFarrelle, the legal points in which had been argued at length on Thursday. His "Worship decided that the hiring was [a weekly one, and gave judgment for the defendant for a week's wages, £4, and commission as might be agreed upon, each party to pay his own coßts. — The Albion Coal Company sued G-. R. West and W. West of Dunedin for £20, due as calls on shares held by them. Judgment for plaintiffs with costs. A most determined case of suicide is reported from Marahau, the unfortunate man being an elderly Maori generally known as " Old Charley." It appears that he had been bantered a good deal by the natives in the district about dealing in witchcraft, and was accused of having caused one or two deaths. The old fellow took this to heart so much that on Friday at the dinner hour lie went away, and was not seen again until the evening, when he watt found dead, the manner in which he had deprived himself of life being such as to show the greatest determination. The ; warre was a very low one, and there was a beam a little more than three feet high. To this he had tied a noose of flax, into which he must have placed his neck, and then leaned forward upon it until he was suffocated, as he was, when found, resting on his knees. An iaquest was to be held. A coheespondent, who has neglected to comply with our rule that no letter will be published unless the name of the author is given, has written to us in the matter of the excursion train on Wednesday last. He states that on that occasion as well as upon many others on which he has travelled on the line he has met with uniform civility and courtesy from the officials, and our own personal testimony, if required, could be given in the same direction. It appears to us that a very small molehill has been exaggerated until it has assumed the proportion of a very big mountain. The gravamen of the charge is that a guard, when having to deal with an unaccustomed crowd of passengers, was not quite as amiable as on ordinary occasions, and if any one of the travellers by the train feels aggrieved thereby we would suggest that he should, in imagination, place himself in the position of the official referred to and consider how, under similar circumstances, he would have comported himself. We are all of us human, and consequently liable to err, and it might be as well if we were to bear this in mind when criticising the conduct of another. It is quite time that this storm in a teapot blew itself out, and we shall decline to publish any further correspondence either on one side or the other ou so paltry a matter. The " Lightning Calculator " drew a crowd around him on Saturday night, when he spun his yarns, made his calculations, and sold his books in a manner that must have been satisfactory to all concerned. His appliances are not very extensive. In addition to hia stock of books they consist of a small platform, a blackboard, a piece of chalk, and a torch, but with these he appears to do a very fair business. He will hold forth to-night. The spotted boy, the little woman, and the clever dog are still on view in a tent in Mr Stallard's paddock, where they attract a considerable number of visitors. Smith's Combination Tr»upe gave another performance, with an entire change of programme, on Saturday night, when Miss Lane was even in better voice than on the two previous evenings, and delighted the audience with her ballad singing. Mr Carey sang well, and Willard was more amusing than ever in his character delineations. Azelia's performance on the trapeze was graceful in the extreme, and the mauner in which she performed the feat of walking across the ceiling called forth repeated applause. The programme will be repeated this evening, when an hour or two may be very pleasantly spent by thoee who enjoy a little recreation of this description. A small pamphlet, containing an interestaccount of the life of Mr Smith, is to be had at the Hall. The Westport Times of Tuesday says: — A fatal affray took place at No Town on Saturday afternoon last. Two men under the influence of liquor fought. The one was named Samuel Johnson and the other August Corsden, both foreigners. In the fight the former was killed, and Corsden is now under arrest. A post mortem examination has been held on the body and an inquest as to cause of death. Unpleasant intelligence has been received from the Cape. Mr A. J. Van Breda, the Assistant-Treasurer- General, was arrested for the theft of £52,567, which, it is alleged, he abstracted from the Treasury, and 'flent" to friends, most of them officials, and some of them in the Treasury. Defalcations are possible, of course, in other places as well as the. Cape Colony, bufc it came

out in the investigations thafc theclefalcations extend over a peril d of fifteen years, that the books are so badly kept that' the examining accountants appointed by the 1 Government were six „ months hunting out the facts, and that'*the Treasurer-General never has the keys of his own department in his possession. JSTo kind of thorough audit appears to be attempted. The affair was revealed, apparently after years of silence by an accountant in the office. Mr Van Breda was held to bail in £10,000, but is reported to be suffering from mental derangement. An Auckland telegram to the Post says : — A young man named Percy Nowell, recently from Wellington, where he married eight weeks ago, and living in Grey-street, alarmed the neighborhood by discharging a revolver in his bedroom. His wife went out yesterday for a ride with some one else, and during her absence the young man got drunk, fell into a deep slumber on a couch, and on being aroused in a half dreamy state, let " fly," in common parlance, with the revolver, that had lain by his side, . Nowell was charged to-day with attempting to shoot a Mrs Skirving, but we believe there will be no evidence forthcoming to bliow that such was hia intention. It is supposed to be merely a drunken freak. A couple of Mormon saints who are * on. a missionary tour through the Australian colonies, with a view to obtaining an influx of converts — especially females — to the Salt Lake City, have not met with much success in Tasmania if we are to credit the following from the Hobarton Mercury :— - Messre Swan and Burton, the two Mormon elders, preached again yesterday afternoon, at the Oddfellows' Hall, Harrington-street. The attendance of the public was not very large. It would seem, indeed, that these two missionaries are not meeting with any great amount of success in Hobarton. For this, many reasons, more or less plausible, migh be put forward. One or two may be thrown out here. In the first place, the community are on the whole tolerably well-to-do in the world, are rooted to the place, and have no need or desire to seek a livelihood in a strange and far-off land. Again, the theory of the Mormon religion, so far as it has been unfolded by Messrs Shaw and Burton, is not nearly so attractive as that of some of the so-called effete systems of Christianity, in the usually accepted sense of the term. , But the prime objection is that the system embraces polygamy, on which subject the elders are not so communicative aa might be wished. Women object. to it because they want to have a husband to themselves ; and it is repulsive to men because they find, as a rule, that one wife is enough (and often too much) to manage at a time. The Auckland Evening Star of the 25ih inst. publishes the following, relative to the United Order of Eree Templars, a lodge of which was recently established in Nelson : — "■ A quarterly meeting of the United Order of Free Teroplars took place last evening in the Christian Meeting House, Cookstreet. There was a large attendance of members. The Secretary in hie statement said that ' the first lodge of the Order was instituted on the 16th • September last, when eleven members joined. After its formation we found great difficulty in bringing to our aid such help as our cause required. But the times have ohanged. Many of the real friends of temperance who stood aloof, or doubted the propriety of a connection with us, are rallying to our aid. The returns from the out districts give the most gratifying assurance of increasing prosperity and ultimate success. We now number nine lodges, having 1056 m«mbera.' The Secretary then read letters from Waikato, Nelson,' Napier, Gisborne, and Fiji for charters to open lodges of the Order in these districts." A certain Captain Hamilton was re- . ceotly sentenced to five years penal servitude for fraud, remarking upon whose case an English paper says that it was his determination to begin with nothing and end by becoming a millionaire. In view of this, he agreed to purchase un estate at Lancaster Gate for £320,000; and according to his own calculations he was to borrow the £320,000 at £5 per cent on mortgage of the property, thus paying £16,000 a year as interest, while the propetty itßeif wns to bring him in no leas than £64,000 a year. The surplus, £48,000, was to be set aside as a sinking fund, and it was consequently as clear as . figures ever can be that in some five or six years the estate at Lancaster Gate would have belonged to Captain, Hamilton in feo simple, and would have transformed him from a penniless adventurer into a millionaire upon a small scale. Unfortunately for the " floating," if we may so term it, of this ingenious scheme, various petty disbursements were required, and in the course of the negotiations to which these small pecuniary difficulties gave occasion the captain being of a sanguine tempermen t, made statements which as judged by the cold grey eye of the law, were false and fraudulent. Had he only had a few hundred pounds to meet the necessary expenses of "promoting," his scheme would, in all probability, have succeeded. As it is, there is nothing left for him except to patiently bide his five yeare,and then burst upon the world as the contractor for a foreign loan. In such a case he will not be tho only contractor upon a large scale whose antecedents Justiciaries, to use the exact words of the report of the Foreign Loans Committee, are not alto-, gelher equal tp strict investigation.