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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 157, 24 June 1876, Page 4

j The contemporaneous presence of Mesdames Simonsen and De Murska and their companies in Wellington (says the Post) apparently has sent the musical world of this city opera mad, and even at church we still rejoice in reminiscences of the mellifluous strains. At a certain church last Sunday the Te Deum was sung to the music of the love-duett " Yieiii fra queste" in Bellini's opera " I Puritani," and it produced a highly original effect to hear the words " We praise thee, 0 God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord," chanted to the music so recently sung in this city to " Gome love, come,' let these arms enfold thee, my dearest, my only treasure!" From a diary kept by Mr. Charles O'Neill, we {New Zealand Times) extract the following, which shows the almost incredible manner in which oysters have been destroyed in the Province of Aucklnnd : — '♦ In 1870, while visiting Mahurangi, with the view of examining the country between there aod the thriving farming district of Port Albert (about 40 miles distant) for railway purposes, I observed a large heap of live oysters, about 5 feet high, resting on pieces of timber, plaoed in layers to the height of 2\ feet, with upright pieces here and there through the heap, the whole measuring at the base about 3 feet long by 20 feet wide; the intention being to fire the pile and reduce the oysters to lime— in short, it was an open-air lime-kiln. It was sup* posed that the yield of lime would be about 1,300 bushels, the, price of which was 9d. per bushel on the ground, or 15d. per bushel landed in Auckland, the cost of carriage being about 3d. per bushel. The oysters were obtained from small creeks, tributaries of the river Mahurangi, and it was considered by the owner of the heap that live oysters made muoh stronger lime than lime made from the shells of dead oysters." The total amount of capital invested in the eight London gas companies is £1,000,000. In mid-winter -some of the largest works have to send as muoh as 17,000,000 cubic feet of gas in the course of a night, the gross quantity oonsumed during the year being 14,000,000,000 cubic feet, or about 38,000,000 feet per day. To produce this 1,500,000 tons of coal are required, each ton of Newcastle coal yielding on an average 10,000 cubic feet, and 2£ bushels of coke to the cwt. The coßt of coal alone amounts to £1,770.000, and the value of residual products, such as coke, the breeze, the tar, and ammonia liquor is as much as £700,000 per annum. The gas " rental" of the entire metropolis is nearly £3,000,000, including £250,000 paid for public lamps, so that about £2,770,000 are paid for the gas supply. The lengths of the streets is 2,500 miles, and the total number of mains throughout London 6,000 miles. The numbar of street lamps is slightly over 50,000, or one lamp to every eighty yards of roadway, the gross cost of which is not less than £135,000. The street lamps consume 1,000,000,000 cubic feet during the twelve months, at a groei cost of £150,000.

'• " iEgles," in the Australasian, Bays: — " The auctioneer's advertised reasons for selling are ordinarily simple enough. The furniture is usually the furniture of a gentleman about to visit Europe, or giving up housekeeping. •No one ever announces that he is selling his property because he wants the money. That is a contingency too .absurd to contemplate. In this week's papers there is, however, an example of real candour. The advertiser takes the world fully into his confidence. He throws open the closet and introduces you to — his mother-in-law. This is how he prefaces his desire to sell his brewery and malt house>—' The owner being about to Leave the Colony on Account of the Estrangement in his Home that has' been Caused by the Contents of a Letter addressed to his Wife and fallen into his Hands, and also to get rid of a Mother-in-law and her Family."' ; A statement has been published at San Franciaco,oo semi-official authority, asserting thjit frauds on the Customs, amounting to from 5,000,000d015. to t,000,000d018 per year, have been perpetrated there. A large portion of this has been accomplished by exchanging goods shipped from San Francisco to New York on the arrival of the steamers at Panama. It is also stated that a large amount of Mexican wool enttrs the country free from duty, being landed on Catalina Island,. off the southern coast, where there is a fine harbor and no Customs officers,' and thence shipped as the product of the island. It is estimated that by these and other means the Government is annually defrayed of nearly 50 per cent, of the revenue.