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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 171, 11 July 1876, Page 4

A carious discovery has been made by a large number of consumers of gas in Melbourne. Lately, the old companies have been driven, by the intrusion of a new company into their field of operations, to reduce their price from 8s to 5s 9J per 1,000 feet— a very substantial reduction. But the customers of these companies write to the papers to complain that, though the price of gas is lowered, the amount of their monthly gas accounts shows no diminution. Whether it is that the Company '* water the gas " — it certainly gives a queer yelloiv dim light— or that some mysterious process goes on in the gas meters, no one can tell. The result is there. It is not a satisfactory one, nor one tending to exalt the public ideas of the honesty of tradiDg Companies. If honor is due to the brave (says the Pall Mall Budget) it is certainly due lo the memory of a man named John Chiddy, on whose remains an inquest was held recently at BrislingtoD, near Bristol, and who met with an "accidental death" according to the verdict of the jury. Chiddy was foreman of a quarry close to the Great Western line between Keynsham and Bristol. He was superintending the stacking of the atones alongside the line, when he found that a large block of stone he.d fallen on to the metals of the dowo line. There was no time to be lost, for rushing towards the spot came the " Flying Dutchman" express, described by the driver who gave evidence at the inquest, sb <( the fastest train in th<3 world." One second more and a tragedy would probably have occurred, but that Chiddy, forgetting himself and a large family dependent on him, and thinking only of the danger of tbi) unconscious passengers in the train, leaped on to the Hoe as it dashed out of the Bristol tunnel, and, seizing the block of stone in his hands, was cut to pieces as be rolled it from the rail. The witnesses for the railway company took a more cheerful view of the matter than that held by Chiddy. They "thought the lifeguards of the engine would have cleared the rail." The coroner reminded them that the life-guards might do so for ninety-nine times, and yet fail the hundredth, and that this failure might came one of the most lamentable catastrophes that had ever happened on the railways. He further expressed his opinion that it was a most dangerous practice to stack blocks of stone so close to the line without any protection. Such a proceeding, however, is entirely in accordance with the "happy-go-lucky" system upon which railway arrangements are so successfully oonducted.and which gave Chiddy the opportunity for his noble aot of selfsacrifice, A terrible accident (says the G. R. Argus) happened at the Greenstone on Friday, by which a miner, named Phillip Barber, has sustained very very serious injuries. Not far from the township a party of men are working a terrace claim on the east side of the road, and their tail-race ia carried in a culvert underneath the road, thence for a short distauce to the edge of a deep precipice, down which the tailings fall into a fiat below. It appears that, on the day mentioned, this culvert got stopped up at the face, and one of the men went up from the lower end with a pole to open the stoppage. Of course it was- known that ac soon as the obstacle was removed the accumulated water would run irresistibly

through the culvert, and another man, the man Barber, stood at the lower month ready to catch his mate as the water swept him before it. What was expected happened; the man in the cniverfc was washed to the mouth and caught and pulled out by Barber, who, however, in doing so, slipped into the race himself, and was carried away like a straw by the torrent, right over the precipice. From where he fell to the place where he was picked up is 150 feet, and he fell at least 50 feet perpendicular. It is a wonder the man was not smashed to atoms, as large boulders and masses of debris were carried along with him by the stream. He was badly crushed on his head and sides, but hopes are entertained of his recovery. [From later advices we learn that the poor fellow is since dead.] At Gundagai, N.S.W., there is in existence, according to the Tumbarumba correspondent of the Border Post, "a cat which is said to have attained the extraordinary age of 100 years. It was brought from England in the Golden Grove, one of the three storeships that accompanied the first fleet of convict ships, which oast anchor in Botany Bay on the 20ih of January, 1788. This vessel may be charkoI terieed as the Noah's Ark of Australia. She conveyed thither — one bulf, four cows, and one calf ; one stallion, three mares, and three colts; one ram, eleven sheep, and eight lambs; one billy-goat, four nanny-goats, and three kids; one boar, five sows, and a litter of fourteen young pigs; nine different sorts of dogs; and seven cats, including that of Gundagai, which is supposed to be the sole survivor of the magic number of 77 quadrupeds brought by the Golden Grove. The cat passed into the possession of a pensioner of the Imperial Government, who settled in Gundagai in 1839, and who was drowned in the local deloge of June, 1852. Since then — twenty. four years—this wonderful cat has subsisted on pork sausages, and will not touch aay other diet." "Atticus," in the Melbourne Leader " thinks it would be well if all chemists kept on hand a stock of mild poison, manufactured expressly for the use of young lovers who wish to destroy themselves. Last week, two lives were saved by chemists in different parts of Victoria taking this precaution. A young man at Brunswick, «nd a young woman at Maryborough, tried to destroy themselves by respectively swallowing doses of laudanum and of arsenic. Each had to undergo the unrumantic operation of the etomach pump ; and each had the anguish of hearing, after being pumped dry, that the poison they swallowed was not of a strength sufficient So cause death. It is to be hoped that a kind fate may yet bring that young man and young woman together, so that they may be able to compare experiences on the subject of the stomach-pump." There is some idea of manufacturing gas from timber in Masterton. The local paper says ; — " Although never before attempted in New Zealand, the generating of gas from timber and forest refuse is, to a considerable extent, practised in some of the other colonies. In the application a percentage of coal is made use of, the bulk of the material being the debris above mentioned, and we are assured that, when properly treated, the gas produced is as strong and pure as it is when wholly generated from coal. The matter ia under consideration by a body of gentleman belonging to the place. So impreaBed are they with the intrinsic merits of the scheme that steps are already being taken to get a bill passed through Parliament, so as (o form an incorporated body to bring the project into operation. The intention is to work the affair on the joint-stock principle, so that shareholders and consumers may eDJoy the advantages of a conjoined interest." A novel form of advertising was adopted the other day in Belfast, by Messrs Dunville the well-known distillers. They had a procesaion of 32 drays laden with 203 puncheons of whiskey, through the town and similar processions in Liverpool and Manchester, the latter being the destined place of consumption of the whiskey. A remarkable quarry accident has just occurred at Auckland. An immense quantity of rock fell, estimated at 150 tons, burying a horse and cart, but only grazing the man in attendance. Young people of the present day are going a-bead in the matrimonial line. Here is an item from a Colifornian law

court which beats oreation, and leaves the precocity of the Melbourne larrikin hopelessly in the rear:— -•• Yesterday a girl thirteen years of : age filed her petition for a divorce a vinculo tnatximonies. This is somewhat an paralleled in the history of divorces. The pair, owing to the tender years of the girl, and the consequent objeotiona of her parents, went to Tennessee, where there are no restrictions, to procure the tying of the Gordian knot. Tbey were married in April, 1874, the bride consequently being only twelve years of age. In one month after their marriage the husband abandoned his wife child aad went to Tennessee, and abandonment of one year's duration waa the Gause of the divorce." The Chinese have built a man-of-war, and christened her The Terror to Western Nations." Her career, remarks the Times of India, up to the present time baa not been fortunate. There was a difficulty in launching her, because the Chinese officials declined to allow sufficient grease for the " ways," When fitted with engines the steam would not come oat properly, and she could not leave the docks for the very excellent reason that the engines could not work the screw. When the last mail left the Chinese were wondering how they were to get her to start on her mission of terror. The only solution the Celestials can arrive at is that the vessel is bedevilled, and that accordingly they must wait for the devils to leave her.