Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 239, 6 November 1876, Page 4

The Wellington correspondent of tbe Chridlebureh Press supplies ibe following political gossip, unuor date October 28 :— Sir George Grrey plavel the iast card iu the game of jjrovintisl opposition wilbiu tbe Jiouae to-day, when be moved the second readieg of the Abolition Permissive Bill, and did not win the trick. He spoku of tbe Koyai raca of tbe Sluartg, of tbe Legislative Council, the Kuigbta of Bt Michael and St George, the teatimouinl to Sjr J. Vogcl, nnd equally irrelevant subjects, but said scarcely augbt of tbe advantages of abolition beiug permissive. He was followed, evidently to hia

chagrin, by no more prominent a member than Mr Manders, who rather Btrnined Sir G. Grey's remarks about discontent into a threat of open rebellion, and the Premier only condescended to njuke the briefest of replies. Dr Hodgkinson spat venom indiscriminately. Mr Tole aired his acquaintance with Brougham, Bright, and others. Mr Eees gave, what came appropriately at tbe close of provincial history, a sketch of what provincialism bad done. He and tbe others addressed almost empty benches, but the desire Wi»s apparently to speak through Hansard. Sir G. Grey, in replying, made a ridiculous churga of the Government placing Mr Manders and Mr Pyke iu the rear as a source of aunoyance to him and his party, but the Speaker was rather brusque in ordering Mr Manders not to interrupt when both he and the Premier had some fair reason to do so. Members breathed more freely when the miserable discussion ended, and when the bell rang the absentees lounged lazily in till the number made up to fifty-nine, when twenty-three voted for the Bill and thirty-six against it. Spetkin<* of a woman who recently interrupied a church service at Colac, Victoria, " Atticus" in the Melbourne Leader says: — U I have often the inclinauoa but uever the courage of that woman at Colac. She was attending morning service last week in that pretty little township — theie is mo necessity for naming the church — and bore up bravely for the first hour. Then her feelings overcame her, in the middle of the sermon she cried our, 'I am not a maniac, but I enn't sit still here and listen to you preaching such rot !' The clergyman implored her to be calm, when she told him that she'd give him 'just five minutes longer,' and as he didn't appear to have pleased her at i the end of the given time she got up and calmly walked out of church. A few women of that stamp in every congregation would make ministers particular as io the quality aa well as the quantity of their sermons." Some amusing little dodges are being pme'-ised just^now by ladies and gentlemen of the " loafer '• class to obtain " cheap drinks." There is one lady of doubtful reputation who rushes in a 3(ate of extreme agitution into several successive " pube," earnestly imploring a shilliDgsworth of brandy instantly, for f 'my pGor husband is so bad." .To tbe credit of our humane publicans be it said that she meets with few refusals,. one indeed was so generous that he at o-.uie handed her a whole bottle of Hennessy. We grieve to be obliged to add that tbe lady was found a few hours subsequently reclining on mother < j arth by the side of the Adelaide-road in a state of tofal insensibility, affectionately hugging an empty bottle. Another (rick is for a mun to walk' into tt store with a saw uoder his arm. and np intense hard-working man expres■flfh on his couutenanee, and ask for tbe loan of a sixpence to get the saw sharpened. The eixpenee generally is given, and at once fiods its way to the till of tbe nearest publican.— Post. The Good Templar orgun published in Hotiarton hears the title of The People's Friend. In the laßt number there is some correspondence between Captain Fisher and the Bishop of Tasmania on the Bubjact of " The wines in Scripture," Tbe Bishop thinks the •jj-ouud " often tuken up by the advocates of the temperauce cause untenable." He holds that the wines used by our Saviour were properly fermented wiues, and aeks how men's discriminating power is to be lessened »fter a second or third glass unless the wine were fermented ? On referring to 1 Tim. v. 23 tbe Biahop says : — " Then we have the sanction of the teetotal principle, if the wine were what I maintain it was. For the good of others, th>u he * mijiht not be a partaker of their sins,' Timothy became an abstainer. Nor did St. Paul blame him, even as our Lord did not blame ihe Bapijst for takirig the vow of the Nnzarene, but, adds the Apostle, ' However praiseworthy be your practice, your health is uuder the mark, be no longer an abstainer, use what Divine providence has jjiven you: a litlio wine for thine own infirmiiie?.' The passage touches me two tbiage: 1. That it is a uoblo thing to give up indulgence of a liberty for the benefit of other men 2. That what Timothy gave up wae, if tnken iu excess, intoxicating. The woriis used in these three passages are tbe same : Greek (v), oinon or voiaon; Litin, vinvm (winura); English, wioe. They are ibe eume in ihe three languages. They alike represent a product; tbe use of or abstinance from which is permitted by tbe Giver ; the abuse of which is recoriimaQ'Jed by the devil." The Duke of Richmond and Gordon Las fouad that It is new title has certain iocouvenience?. According to the Glasgow Herald, his Grace had occasion to write (o » lady from the United States who is at, preseut in thia country. Now, ci'.izeus of the United States, both male and female, pride themselves upon their ignorance of British titles and their indifference to etiquette. But 'hia lady had eome excuse for the mislake she made. Seeing the signature " Richmond find Gordon," she fancied that the letter cime from a firm, and slio be<ian her reply with "Gentlemen," and addressed the letter " Messrs Richmond and Gordon." This was an un- [ pleasant surprise for the recipient, who : did not relish a blunder so derogatory ! to hia position; and he is believed to i be lesa proud of hia new dignity than }he was before finding that it could give j rise to stioh a misunderstanding.