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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 200, 15 August 1876, Page 2

' - I I -1 A very narrow escape from drowning occurred at (xerman Terrace on Monday. A child some three years old, the daughter of Mr Butterworth, had just left her father and toddled away to the dam, about one hundred feet to the rear of the house, when, getting too near the edge, she fell in. She cried out "Mamma," which Mrs Gemmili fortunately heard, and gave Jthe alarm to Messrs Gremmill and Butler, [who were fortunate enough to rescue her, though not a moment too soon, as the child had gone down the last time, and was insensible when recovered. It was at first feared that she was dead, but persevering efforts to bring her round again were happily successful. The dam where she fell in is about ten feet deep. — Westport Times. "jtA writer in the Charleston Herald says:— Yet another example of perseverance bringing its reward. This time it's a bellman. Now, don't start — for this is a fact. I have it on unquestionable authority that the real original bellman of Charleston is at the present time driving his carriage in the old country. A donkey-cart, did you say? No, Sir, but a first-class carriage and pair. The secret of his success is this:— Leaving Charleston, he visited India, and there obtained a splendid recipe for curing corns. [Returning to England^ he Btarted in business as a Chiropodist, and succeeded so well that he now occupies a splendid residence at the West End, London, and that he is patronised by the nobility and gentry may be known by the long Btring of carriages to be seen every day waiting opposite the entrance to his establishment.

The cloud that has overhung several ol the companies in Reefton to all appearance is fast disappearing, several that had to suspend operations some time since are now making a shape, and no doubt when they are once more in full swing they will be in a far better position than ever they were. It is to be hoped that many in this district will profit by the late action of the banks, for in most instances they were entirely in the power of the same, and shareholders have to congratulate themselves that they have got out of the difficulty without being closer shaved than they h&ve.—lnangahua Herald.

There has arisen (says the Spectator) close to the St. James' Park Station of the District Railway within the last year a fantastic building, in a Brobdignagian style of architecture, a dozen storeys high. Here Mr H. A. Hankey has spent, or is spending, a quarter of a million of money to induce Englishmen to abandon the axiom tbat each man's house is his castle, by showing how man had better abide in flats than in either houses or castles ; aud in educating a select number of 'our upper classes in the theory and practice of a refined Socialism. There are, or are to be, 250 sets of apartments, each set distinct, at an average rate of £100 a year but with a common kitchen, common coffee-room, saloon and reading room, servants supplied by the management, and fixed charges lor everything. The experiment is a very interesting one, aud ought to succeed, tried on such a scale, amid a population which affords such an area for experiment as that of the wealthier, unsettled classes of London. The main difficulty will, we imagine, arise iv the organisation of service. The Briton may relinquish his regard for his house, but will hold longer to the wish to have his own household about him,

A movement has been commenced amongst nautical men for the formation of a New Zealand Mariners' Society, which shall make provision for old aud disabled seamen of all grades. The object is a most laudable one, and will no doubt be heartily responded to by those interested.

M. Alphonse de Candolle, of Geneva, studies vegetable physiology from its popular side, but rarely draws conclusions. He has carefully studied the budding of trees. Does old age, which diminishes the power of animals, act upon the precocity of buds, or upon their activity? To solve this question he has travelled over Europe, from Ostend to Pisa, to study the most renowned oldirees ; he asserts that in some cases old age advances the tree's coming into leaf, sometimes retards it, and more often does not affect it afc all. We do not know exactly how mushrooms grow, but we are aware how they are made to do so. Mdme. Petitjean devotes much attention to the cultivation of the mushroom, and her crops are admitted to be abundant and savoury; her beds are composed not only of horse manure, but of the refuse of oats and barley from a brewery, with the addition of cow and sheep manure. She has raised excellent mushrooms from farm yard manure alone.

Avery neat device for preventing burglary has just been brought out in the United States. AU doors in a bank are so arranged that they can only be opened when two knobs or handles are turned simultaneously. Now these knobs are in connection with powerful batteries. A thief seizes one knob, and no effect follows. He then used both hands, taking a knob in each, Imraediately his howls follow; he is unable to let the knobs go because of the violent muscular contractions set up. The torture is fearful, and the would-be robber constitutes in consequence— if he be a man of strong lungs— a most admirable alarm.

About 3,122,000 pounds of horse, ass, and mule flesh have been sold for human consumption in Paris by the butchers there, who deal in that commodity, during the past year. The number of the above animals killed to produce this amount of meat was 6,865. A Mecklenbourg engineer economises one-fifth of the strength of horses, by attaching a kind of buffer, one foot long, to unite the traces to the vehicle. This buffer is composed of alternate ringsof india-rubber and metal, with a curtain rod running through, and all enclosed in an iron envelope. Though applied to artillery, it ought to hold good for general draughting purposes.

A Birmingham printer relates that on one occasion an old woman from the country came into his printing office with an old large print bible in her hand. " I want you," said she, "to print it over again. It's getting a little blurred, and my eyes is not what they was. How much do you ax?" " Half a crown." v Can you have it done in half an hour? Wish you would— want to be get-in' home; I live a good way out of town." When the old lady went out, he sent round to the office of the Bible Society, and purchased a copy for half a crown. " Oh, my." exclaimed the old lady, when she came to look at ifc, " how well you've printed ifc, and how quick you've done ifc ! I never see nothin' so curious as printers is!" F

A Rinking Club has been formed at Westport.

The Prince of Wales took pains to exert a good influence in India, the Prince observed an Englishman pushing a native aside from his standing place, aud he in a very marked way despatched a messenger to say that such conduct was exceedingly distasteful to him. Thin rebuke to the normal selfishness and insolence of the English in India produced an excellent effect. The Prince gave £1000 to the charities of Calcutta. But more important than these inoidents, perhaps is the fact tbat the old restrictions placed upon the women- in India, were related io such a way that they can hardly be so severe hereafter. For the first time the women were liberated from the hard walls of the zenana, and were seen in open carriages unveiled, enjoying with rapture the fireworks and other festivities. The women were given to understand that this unprecedented freedom was granted at the express desire of tho Prince, and he wiil always be regarded by them as their liberator,"

Afc the thirteenth annual dinner of (he Press Fund, beld in Willis's rooms, 250 noblemen and gentlemen were present, Lord O'Hagan, in tbe absence through illness of the Lord Chief Justice of England, presided, and iv the course of an eloquent address said, " It is tbe Press of tbis country which frames and shapes the thoughts which ultimately find legislative expression in the House of Commons. It is said to be the function of tbat Housp, in which, through tbe favor of my Sovereign, I have a seat, to prevent precipitate decisions and premature change. Tt is also a function of the House of Lords and that is the source of safety and strength to that House — to note the progress of opinion, to note the signs of tbe times, to learn when it is right to contend, and when it is right to yield; to discover when innovation, which may have been heretofore injurious, becomes a necessity nnd wisdom of tho time. But, if that [is so, how is tbe House of Lords to obtain information so well as by looking into that mirror of the Press, which indicates the the varying phrases of national j opinion, and presents the form and pressure of the age which ia reflected in it?" ,