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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 234, 31 October 1876, Page 4

Mrs Bravo's solicitors have announced through the English newspapers that they are quite unable to acknowledge, much less answer, the many hundreds of letters of sympathy which their client has received since th<. enquiry. It is to be hoped the unsavoury Bulj-ct will vow receive decent bur-i.-l. Once more (says Public Opinion) we have to r.cord another "accident" to ironclad., which haß occurred at Besika Bay, in the shape of a collision between the Monaich and the Raleigh, just escaping by the merest chauce a repetition of the costly Vanguard experiment! It seems lhat the squadron whs iv three lines, steaming at about five knots an hour, aud a signal was made to alter the course, but from somo unexplained reason the Triumph and .nviucible eteered across the bow of the Monarch which vessel in order to avoid "fauiraiuti" .he Invincible, stopped and reversed engines; whilst this was (akii g pluce, tho Raleigh, just a.teiD of ib*-- MuUirch, kept on her course, not uoticiug wbat the Monarch was about, aud the quarter-boat ought the spanker-boom, iiie ship yraziog along the Hlarbo.rd quarter. Fortunately no one was injured, but our heart was in our mouth us we rend, and past "accident} of a fcifaiiar kind rushed lo our memory! It must be particularly encouraging and amusing to the foreigner to note the continue! proofs of tf c extreme haudi-iess ami great strength of our improved modern ironcla*!_, and their peculiarities of management. jSome ol our contemporaries nre announcing that the Antelope ran ashore in the Dardanelles, but they are rather late in th. ir information, a. this mishap happened somo fornight eince. Whilst recording, with a deep cense of humiliation, tho various mishaps an-_ tiisasiers which now seem to be tho order of tha clay with the (.hips und machinery of our fleet, the Navy soys lhat we may here state that the engines of the Groutes have broken down off Holyli_nd, the ship requiting to be towed into port. This vessel is required for foreign service, and had a regiment of eoldiers on board, and it is most fortunate that this mishap did not take place off a lee shore in a gale of wind, or titer, might have been another catastrophe to bo added to the mauy which -have already happened.

Two men have recently been arrested in Melbourne for being about to fizht a boxing match with each other. The prisoners were allowed bail in the sum of £400 each. A correspondent of the Argus givea the following particulars of the capture of a salmon grilse of three pounds weight at New Norfolk, Tasmania:—* ,f Doubts having arisen aa to whether the Tasmanian salmon would, take the artificial fly, it may interest your angling readers to know that Mr Matthew Seal, accompanied by another of the Tasmanbu Salmon Commissioners, has brought into Hobart Town a beautiful female grilse, weighing three pound., caught at the falls above New Norfolk. It was taken fishing from a boat, with a email, rather dullcolored salmon fly. After trying unsuccessfully all the morning with the artificial minnow, it was determined to try the fly, as many good-sized fish were observed rising, sometimes two or three together. A fly-trace was accordingly fitted with one bright and one dull fly, the rod used being a medium single-handed trout rod. For a short time nothing stirred, but suddenly the eyes of the flsbero.au were delighted with the flash and the splash which almost invariably accompany the rise of a grilse, and away went the fish twenty or thirty yards down Btream, finishing with a breach iuto the sunlight, exposing the side like a bar of siker. After two or three leaps th'steady strain began to tell, and in a few minutes tbe first salmon grilse taken with a fly io Tasmania was lifted into the boat." An important and novel addition i 8 to be made forthwiih to lhe royal navy, in the shape of six steel corvettes. Steel it appears, is much less liable to fracture than iron, and for some lime has been regarded with a favorable eye by shipwrights These corvettes are designed especially for cruising in the vicinity of our colonies, and will prove a very formica le class of vessel. They are to measure 2300 tons each, carry foutt.en guns of different calibre, and, besides the steel casting, their bulwarksare to be covered with two thicknesses of teak. Their Bpeed is to be twenty miles au hour, the object being to enable them to pursue and destroy tbe swift, torpedo boats which are vow being introduced in large numbers into ihe European natvies These useful ahd powerful ships are to be built on the Clyde, and ready for service within two years. A Baiclutha correspondent supplies the following information to the Daily Times :— Your readers will know ail about our public meeting on Saturday night, last, and how we advised the Superintendent to take a plebiscitum (I wouldn't like to tell you what our Mayor called it when he read the resolution). We were unanimous in the belief that Otago was New Z inland — " for i( it isn't," one speaker ask**>d, "I'd like to know what is New Zialand?" (Applause) And the sentiment that "Otago must set up the flag of liberty, and paddle her own caQoe," was hailed with acclamation. The speakers were all innocent of argumeut, and guilty of more than the usual amount of flowery assertion. It is questionable whether the audience would not have followed a good speaker like a flock of eh.ep. The meeting appointed a committee, composed of gentleman from all parts of the district, to watch political mattere, and let us know when '-'our rights and privileges" are next iv danger. ' At; Wyndham (Otago) a lad named Stalker died from gastric fever superinduced by water from a creek in which were the carcases of several dead sheep. The "Wellington Argus of Friday says:—" Scarlet fever is slowly, but surely, taking the proportions of an epidemic. Yesterday another death occurred from that disease— a child of Mr Norms', in Tinakori-road. We have been informed that one of Mr Reynolds' children in Molesworth~st. is dying. It is only a few days ago siuce Mr Eeynolds buried one of bis children, who died from scarlet fever. Fresn cases are reported in Sydneystreet and other parts of the city!" This is scarcely to be wondered at, "for in another paragraph of the same issue of the Argus we find the following : — "It may probably startle some of our readers to learn, as wrs reported by the Public Works Committee to the City Council last night, that coffins containing the bodies of children who have died of scarlet fever and other contagious diseases, have recently been carried to the Cemetery iv licensed cabs. Yet such appears to be a fact." Tbe Post of Saturday says :— " The Assembly has very properly refused to grant the extra vote of £2,750 asked for by tbe Gr overnmeut ou behalf of Sir Julius Yogel, to defray the expenses of his missiou to England. It appears from the figures already published that be has already received a sum of £0,127 14s 5d for his salary, allowances, and personal expenses during his sixteen months' tour, and the members of the Assembly probably thought that sum quite enough without giving him £2,750 more. The audacity of demanding the latter sum is simply astounding, aud tbe way in which ' Dear Pollen and Dear Vogel ' tried to carry through the little arrangement will long be remembered as one of the coolest pieces of impudence imaginable. The Assembly, however, has frustrated the scheme, and decided that the Government shall not be permitted to waste a large sum ot public money iv ministering to the extravagance of Sir Julia. Yogel."