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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 67, 8 March 1876, Page 2

In our telegraphic columns to-day will be found London news of the day before yesterday. This is the quickest communication that has yet reached us by cable. The meeting in celebration of the "Wesleyan Church anniversary takes place at Richmond this evening. A good number of persons will proceed there by the special train which leaves Nelson at 5 p.m. There was a good muster last night of the City Volunteers, who went through various evolutions under command of Captain Pitt in the Botanical Gardens. A pull bench of Justices assembled this morning, as is usual on Wednesdays, but the only case they had to deal with was one of cattle trespass. Mb Bbowniwg, who has recently been appointed Chief Surveyor of the province, is now on his way from Hokitika to Nelson overland. Mr Browning was sent by the Canterbury Government to the West Coast at the outbreak of the diggings, and has been engaged in the survey department there ever since, having been at the head of it from the time that Westland was made a province. Mr Passmore, the Engineer for Constructed Railways, arrived at Gcey-

mouth from his enforced trip to Melbourne by the Alharabra last week. The Brunner railway is to be opened shortly. The Ministerof Public Works has telegraphed to the Mayor of Greymouth stating that, as hia duties demand his attendance in "Wellington, he will be unable to attend the formal opening. Considering all the circumstances connected with this peculiar political railway line, we should say that his duties were providential. We (67. JR. Argus) have had the pleasure of inspecting a very interesting specimen of native industry in a violin manufactured entirely from New Zealand woods by Mr J. M'Queen, of Noble's Creek, Grey Valley. The instrument is beautifully finished and artistically constructed, and possesses a very good tone. Mr M'Queen is a miner, and has made this violin during his spare hours. Sinking at the Greymouth Coal Company's! works proceeds satisfactorily, the contractors being now down 185 feet. The rock is solid, and the strata indicate that no disturbance has taken place in the ground, therefore no fault is likely to be found in the seam of toal. There were some most ludicrous scenes at the landing of the pigs ex Wallabi yesterday. The more the boatmen who had brought them over from the steamer wanted to get them ashore the more they wouldn't go, and ono porker, after taking to the river, swam across the lagoon, and on being chased galloped over the beach and ran down into the sea, and was last seen about two miles out steering a good course for Melbourne. — G. R. Argus, A report has reached Hokitika (says the Times) tbat the Okarito district is to prove itself a quartz-bearing locality before many weeks. The rumor is that a miner named John Fitzgerald, who has been working on what is known as M'Donald's Creek, a few miles beyond the Okarito Forks, has dropped across some gold-bearing quartz projecting out of the hill. Describing tbe late earthquake, the Dunedin Guardian, of the 28th ult., sayß: — An unusually severe shock of earthquake was felt in the city at 24 minutes past three o'clock this morning. The direction appeared to be nearly north-east and south-west. In the composing room of this office the heavy cast iron tables, technically known os imposing stones, oscillated very distinctly, and the gas fittings attached to the walls and ceiling were observed to swing to and fro for several seconds. The shock was also felt by tbe night barman of the Occidental Hotel; and three gentlemen who chanced to be standing on the pavement in front of the Empire Hotel, state that tbe effect upon the buildings fronting the street was very marked. The bell attached to the University clock gave forth several peals, and the shake was sufficiently severe to awaken many sleepers. Altogether, it was the most distinct and unmistukeable phenomenon of the kind that has occurred in the city for many years. The sky was clear and the air cool when the shock happened. The receipts of the Titiens Concert at Boston on the Bth ultimo amounted to over 6000 dollars, being the largest on record. In addition to Mddle. Titien's fixed salary of £200 per concert, payable in gold, she receives tbe half of what is taken over 3000 dollars per concert. For three songs at the concert in Boston the great prima donna received £500 sterling, being the highest sum ever taken by any artist. A jury, at Hobart Town locked up for the night, quarrelled about smoking, the non-smokers smashing the windows and hurling a chair through one of them. A cat at Mount Macedon roused her master in the night twice, by pulling the wristbands of his shirt. On looking into a box under the bed, where pussy had three kittens, he found that a black snake had coiled round and killed them. Three Chinamen, named Po Hi, Ah Chong, and Ho Su, prisoners in the Parramatta Gaol, says the Cumberland Mercury, were at dinner together one day recently, when suddenly, and without the slighest provocation, Ah Chong jumped to his feet, and drove his knife into the breast of Po Hi, who immediately fell dead. Ah Chong stood in a menacing attitude for some seconds over the body ol his victim, and, Baying something in his own language, made a rush at Ho Su, and would have doxbtless murdered him also, but for another prisoner, named Frost, who seized him with the garroters' grip, when, after an ineffectual struggle to knife Frost, he was compelled to drop his weapon, and was safely secured. Ah Chong was undergoing a sentence of seven years j for manslaughter. He had previously been sentenced to five years on the roads for wounding with intent. An inquest was held on the body of Po Hi, and the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Ah Chong, who was committed to take his trial at Darlinghurst. He is to all appearance perfectly sane. The Ballarat Courier reports that a death from a snake bite occurred recently. A party of men were in the bar of the Prince of Wales Hotel, Middle Creek, four miles from Beaufort, that evening. A daughter of the landlord (Mr Dunn) told them there was a snake in the diningroom, and immediate search was instituted, without success. They returned to the bar, and the, conversation naturally turned upon snake stories. A German named Wilson, a stonebreaker, said they were harmless, and he did not mind catching them with his :hands.

Miss Dunn at this moment again rushed into the bar, exclaiming that the snake was in the dining room. The party of five or six men entered the room, and WUson, placing his foot on the snake about seven inches from his head, put bis hand down to seize it, and was bitten on the finger. He then toolhold of the tail and lifted the snake, striking its head repeatedly against the door. Afterwards he carried it out of the hotel and trampled it upon the road. Wilson showed his finger where the marks of the bite were visible, but refused to be interfered with. He again walked out, and returned in a few minutes, and fell into the arms of one of the men. A few convulsive struggles and life was extinct. The duration of the time from the bite to the death was from eight to ten minutes. It is alleged that tbe mere rubbina of wet mud over the parts bitten by g tarantnla, centipede, scorpion, or other venomous insect is as certain a cure as can be applied to such a class of wounds. — IVUcannia Times. Talk about women having no voice ,in politics. There was " Fanny Lear," I alias " The Phoenix," alias Miss Blackford, the beautiful but bad daughter of an American clergyman who went to Russia , turned the bead of tbe nobility, and became the mistress of the nephew of the Czar. Having had a quarrel with her Imperial lover, she comes to Paris and publishes his love letters "to her, in one of which he speaks of the Suez canal •'as the road which our soldiers will some day po to take India from tbe English." All Europe reads Miss Blackford's hook, and among the rest Mr Disraeli, Premier of Great Britain. He reads the above sentence of the Russian Prince, winks one eye, says "aha," nnd straightway sends a man down to buy Egpyt's canal shares from tbe Khedive. Russia is forestalled, France furious, England jubilant, all on account of the beautiful American and her book. The best mode of securing newly planted trees having long slender stems and full heads from danger of being loosened by winds is one of some moment to planters. The common method of fixing three stout stakss in a triangle, the apex of which is secured tb tbe stem of the tree by haybands, is decidedly objectionable, as presenting an unsightly appearance. In the'eourse of some plautiog which has been extensively done at Guener&bury, the residence of Boron L. de Rothschild, during the winter, and especially in the case of planting exposed mounds, a simple plan was adopted, which appears likely to answer every purpose, and is carried out with rapidity — an Important consideration when the weather is unsettled, and operations are liable to frequent suspension. Three stout stakes, the width of the hole in which the tree was planted, were sn laid below the surface of the soil as to form a triangle which gripped the stem of the tree just above the collar, and were then trodden firmly into the soil. The stem may sway about with the wind, but there is no loosening of the roots, and by tho time the tree is firmly established in the soil the grip on ihe stem loosens through the effects of rot. A substitute for soap has been found in New Mexico — the soap weed, the roots of which are uaed for washing by the Mexicans. They consider the plant superior to ordinary soap for cleansing woollen goods, as it extracts all dirt and grease, and restores the lustre of the material.— Graphic. ,It is all well enough to say, " Take things as they come ;" but suppose they don't come ?

QFor continuation qf News see fourth pagej