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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 68, 9 March 1876, Page 2

With reapect to the scratching of Haricot, the Geelong Advertiser learns that a year's careful attention to this speedy animal, and an excellent prospect of winning for his popular owner, Mr Chirnside, the Geelong Gold Cup, was in one brief minute thrown away by the careless act of an ill-tempered boy. It appears that gomething happening with Haricot's bit, the lad m charge of him was unable to get it out of the animal's mouth as quickly as he desired. Haricot became fidgety, and thereupon a blow on the head was administered, which caused him to rear, and fall backwards, breaking the tip of his tailbone, and otherwise injuring himself. Mr Chirnside would rather have lost £500 than that such a contretemps should have happened, as Haricot was never more fit, and he felt confident of winning a trophy, which he told Mr Tait he would win before he had done, and it was with the Mcl bourne Cup winner he had expected to carry out his promise. On the Tasmanian railways they issue free passes, which bear the following superscription : — The person accepting this free ticket assumes all risk of accidents, and expressly agreea that the Main Line railway shall not be pliable, under any circumstances, whether from negligence of its officers or otherwise, for any injury to the property of the passenger^using this free pass. The rumored gold discovery by a man named Casey in the province of Taranaki has turned out a hoax. The editor of the Patea Mail has interviewed the supposed gold discoverer, who now denies that he ever led anyone to believe that the specimens crushed at the Thames were found in the province of Taranaki. The prices of pickaxes and shovels have therefore declined at New Plymouth. Two thousand acres are ploughed and ready for receiving grass seed on the Katikati special settlement block. A recent Port Chalmers telegram says : — The whaling barque Splendid, owned here, returned this afternoon off a niue months' whaling cruise. She has been very unsuccessful, having only fourteen tuns of sperm oil. She cruised during the winter months amongst the Pacific Islands, and Bince December off the S.W. Coast. The crew are in mutiny irom alleged ill-treatment. The j matter is likely to be investigated in the Police Court. The barque met with heavy weather off the Solanders, and lost part of her bulwarks and two boats. A barefaced attempt was made at Port Chalmers the other day to send a lunatic out of the country by the ship Canterbury. He was sent down from Dunedin in charge of a keeper, who was to see him off and return. The man's antics attracted attention, the fraud was discovered, and the asylum received its own again. The following is a list of the passengers on board the ill-fated Strathmore : — For Otago : Chief cabin — Mr Percy Joslen, Mr Spencer Joslen, Mr and Mrs 1 Alfred "Walker and children, Mr Hylton Keith, Mr Thomas Henderson, Miss Henderson, Mr Frederick Bently, Mr G, P. Crombie, Mr Charles "Wordsworth, and Mrs Frances "Wordsworth. Second cabin — Mr and Mrs James Riddel, Mr James Blair, Mr and Mrs Theophilus Maville (? Mabille), Mr H. C. Simcock. Mr Theophilus Mabille was Eome years ago a surveyor in Nelson and on the West Coast of the Middle Island. He and his wife went, and were on their return in the Strathmore. Under the heading " Hard Times in Auckland" the Coromandel Mail says: — The cry throughout the province at the present time, and indeed for some time paafc, is that thipgs are very bad in Auckland. " Very bad, trade horribly dull, and no money afloat. Couldn't possibly be worse, sir," says Mr Croker. " Things are at a dead standstill. There will be a general burst up, sir, you may take my word." And what Croker says of Auckland, Downinthemouth says at the Thames, and old Dismal wheu he speaks of °oromandel. Times indeed must be very baJ 1U Awklagd when \mte of a

few weeks the people of that utterly shipwrecked city have only been -able to spend £5,000 sterling: in witnessing the performances at Wilson's • Circus, Blondin's rope entertainment, and the laafc sensation drama at the prince of Wales. Auckland must be in a profound state of commercial prostration, for she can only afford to build a second theatre nt a cost of £7,000 or £8,000, and stone buildings, , shops, stores, and warehouses to the paltry extent of £100,000. In Auckland the people find themselves necessitated to live on butchers' meat, and it is only by the greatest economy they are able to obtain poultry and sucking pigs on Sundays. But if A uckland City ia bad, how much worse is the Thames, where laboring men are offered by a contemptible Government 6s a day for road work, which ot course no man can possibly live on. Pour nobblers a day, 2s. Losses at euchre, aay another 2s ; beer, Is ; and just Is left to provide food, lodging, and clothing. Q-oodness preserve ua from such calamities. Better that men had never been born than compelled to submit to such hardships. The Melbourne correspondent of the Geelong Advertiser, writing under date 18th [February, says : — We are strangely forgetful of popular heroes. Some little time since we were all excited about our old acquaintance Sullivau, of Maungatapu notoriety, and anxious to know what country would bestow upon him the honors of citizenship. Reports have for a long time been current that he left us, and that the "thumb trick " would never be exhibited in Victoria again, but these are much exaggerated. Our anxiety to know the direction in which his sea trip has been taken, and how he fares from it, lead us to adopt over hasty conclusions, but as a matter of fact it may be well to know that he still resides at Mr Castieau's, that his health is still unimpaired, albeit the indolence of his daily life causes him to put on flesh, and that his only care is the desire to know when the contemplated maiiae excursion will be provided for him by the G-overnment. In order that our readers may be enabled to draw a comparison we extract the following from the cash price list of a London Co-operative Society published for Dec, 1875. " Mutton : whole or half sheep 9d per lb, hind quarters lOJd, fore quarters Bjd, legs and haunches lid, loins and saddles 10§d, shoulders 10J, neck 9d, breast 6d; Beef: sirloin and ribs of" beef Is, top side of round lid, siverside of ditto lOd; brisket nod tbin flank ßd, shouller riia 9d, aitch bone Bd, soup meat. s^ff, gravy beef, B^d; Pork: legs of pork lOJ, hind loins lO£J, fore loins 9|d, handa and springs 9J, beads s^d; Venh legs of veal lid, loinß lOd, shoulders, necks, and breasts B^d. The Hobart Town Mercury stnteß tbat at Bellerive, on the 15th ult., two children, evidently under the age of 12 years, were brought in a cart to a jetty, to be taken to Harbor Town in the steamer. Their hands were tied together (handcuffa sufficiently small for their wantß not being available, w? Dreßume) and they were seated on the quarried stones on the wharf. In this ignominious and cruel position, dressed in brown hollaod pioaforea, and looking the picture of misery, they became a spectacle for the children of the neighborhood to gaze upon, and as much objects of horror bb if they were a pair of criminals of the deepest dye, and were on the road to the gallows. Upon inquiry it transpired that they were being escorted to Hobart Town Gaol by one of the Sorell police, and that they had received a sentence /or eating apples without the consent of the owner! The hands of (he children were kept tied while crossing over in the steamer, a breach of the regulations for which the constable ought to be severely punished. An old fellow in Trenton got his ear boxed by a mule kicking him, and he was continually annoyed by his friends ssking him what had happened to him co he got a large card and had printed on it—" Got a bußt in the snout by a mule, and this is written for the benefit of jackasses." All who ran in the locality could read, but they did'nt stop to comment on the accident much. Why is " naming the day " like a naval battle? — Because it's a marry time engagement. The bump of destructiveneßS— a railway collision.

{For continuation of News see fourth page.}