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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 214, 31 August 1876, Page 2

In Sydney recently a child about three years of age, got hold of a blighted orange, and ate it, skin and all. It was immediately taken with convulsions, and expired iv about an hour after eating the diseased fruit. Members of the Assembly who pay their accounts at Bellamy's regularly, are very indignant just now with the House Committee, in consequence of the indiscriminate issue of a circular stating that " the amount of upwards of £700 being outstanding at Bellamy's, members are requested to pay the sums due from them at once; and for the future to pay their accounts regularly once a week," Sir George Grey telegraphed to his Committee in Auckland last week as follows:—" I thank meeting for resolutions passed last night. The people of Auckland may rely that I will lose no opportunity of advancing tho interest of New Zealand generally, and of Auckland. The present contest contains every element of greatness— rights in revenue, and native and crown lands, payment of mauy. millions of debt, of which Auckland's share has been small; all that concerns a young nations welfare and future greatness. Ifc should

be fought to the last. Truth is mighty, . and right will, prevail. The offers of advantages, made to tempt, are just rights, which shall be openly obtained withont iqtrigue." Our^legislators have not yet quite come up to their Victorian brethen in the matter of plain speaking. Said Mr Berry the other day of Sir James M'Culloch.— "I charge him with falsifying the permanent records of ther House, with bringing down a stafe-L ment for the purpose of hoodwinking ] the House aud the country, and with j presenting a finance account which lie | dare not send to the Commissioners of Audit in the shape in which he had submitted it to Parliament. The whole thing is a deception; it is misleading; it is a trick of legerdemain; a dodge and a prevarication. A correspondent of a Northern contemporary telegraphed aa -follows regarding Mr'Maoandre w's speech on the •• Counties Bill":— "Mr Macandrew was more emphatically Otagonian, provincial, and rebellious -than in any of his few speeches of the: session. He said Mr Moorhouse had compared the colony to a stately oak ; if the roots ot Otago and Auckland were dissevered from the stem, and deprived of its sap; where would then be ; the stately oak. As surely as the sun shone in heaven, if Otago were deprived of its laud fund, that ' root would sprout out into a separate tree. •' Let them ndt suppose that 100,000 people were to be coerced into any system of Government, or deprived of their hard earnings against their will. Mr Pyke interposed— " Tall talk." Air Macandrew— lt was not tall talk, but truth and soberness,' and the introduction of this system wouklbe the death-knell of the unity of the colony. Perhaps it waa better it should be so; he was a great believer in the survival of the fittest. The assault on Lady Bowen, which was mentioned. in our Australian telegrams a few days ago, was committed under the following circumstances. Upon Lady Bowen alighting at the door of the Athenaeum Hall, to attend an entertainment by members of the University, a well-dressed woman stepped forward, and addressing Lady Bowen with a most opprobrious epithet, said, " I will teach you to call me an actress." She then struck her ladyship several sharp blows in the face, getting her head under her arm. The woman was at once arrested, and locked up. She said that she was Dr Black's niece. The assault was witnessed by a number of persons, and caused great excitement, Lady Bowen at once re-entered her carriage, and returned to Government House. The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Slat telegraphed a few days ago: — Speaking of opposition recalls an absurd incident in tbe House two evenings ago, when Sir Julius Yogel had a nice little committee of about twenty members in the House to go through some Bills. He was very anxious to pass two or three amended clauses, all that remained of the Rating Bill. He thought all was well. He had just expressed regret that he should have to go on in the absence of the Goldfields members when the door opened and two came in, one hailing from the North, the other South, both friends of the Government. Both had been at dinner, and neither seemed clearly to understand the subject. Sir Julius Yogel referred to the pleasure he felt in seeing them. This was somewhat premature, as one got up directly, and declared, in husky accents, his opinion that " the coalfields were left out." On Yogel assuring him the clause had nothing to do with coalfields, he persisted in a solemn protest, renewed at intervals of about five minutes, that he could nowhere find coalfields in the clause. Whenever one sat down, the other new arrival got up, and hazily expressed his views upon goldfields duties, which were, of course, absent from the Rating Bill also. Poor Yogel, after many distracted efforts to enlighten his wandering followers, gave up in despair, and for the evening abandoned the bill, worn out by an opposition which, if. not logical, was certainly spirited. .