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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 252, 21 November 1876, Page 4

Referring to Mr Maeandrew's recent remarks upon what he considers the harsh treatment that Otago has received the Southern Cross says:—" It is farcical to allege tbat Otago has been despoiled of her revenue by unconstitutional means, as the petition to the Q leen is reported to declare. Her revenue ! Good Heavens ! was there evar such insolent presumption ? Our revenue rather; tbe revenue of tha Colony*, the land that belongs to all of ue, tbe land that was bought with our mouey, our land on which the South has fattened and lived luxuriously for four lustres, while from the North, who bad no land fund, has gradually been taken that which sbe had. Yet, deep as this presumption is, there is a lower depth still, and that is the insolence of proposing that H ir George Grey, tbo ex-Superintendent of the Province, and oi tbe people who have suffered a score of years' spoliation at the bands of the -South should be asked by this sham -Convea.ion to proceed to England, and there, in conjunction with the Arch-

Otago Land-Fundist, present to the Queen a petition seeking, not a remedy for the past wrongs of the North, but that these should be perpetuated. Sir George Grey, the representative of Auckland, is coolly asked to pray that her Gracious Majesty shall decide that the publio lands of the colony still remaining unsold in Otago, and tbat the rich endowments, and the large rents of millions of acres of pastoral lands ih that Province should still be absorbed by its greedy maw, while other parts of the colony possessing a just right in these lands, shall have no share io this common property. Notwithstanding the glamour which the keen-witted Macandrew tried to throw over the eyes of some of the Northern representatives only too willing to be deceived, the veil is gradually being removed. The North has been made a utensil of too long by the South, and this last attempt to make Sir George Grey a party to forward Southern ends, and to perpetuate the deprivation of Auckland, and of colonial rights, under tbe pretext of Otago' s pure love and affection for Auckland, is a little too transparent, and too much of tbe old soldier. "The fowler ia setting his net in the presence of the Northern bird, who is a little too aged to be limed so easily." A notice has appeared in our telegraphic columns respecting the murder by a father of three of his children, at Colly ton, Rope's Creek, on the Western line. The " Sydney Morninr? Herald " reports that tbe murderer is one William Luxford, a bushman. On j Tuesday night while be was (as is believed) suffering from temporary insanity, he went to the bed where the three of his children slept, and while they were slumbering cut their throats, The names and ages of the children are as follows: — William James Luxford, 13 years old (bis eldest child); George Luxford 7 years, and Alfred Luxford four years old. After murdering the children, the father laid them side by side on the floor. On the Wednesday Luxford . onfessed at the Police Station at St. Mary', to the murders of these children, and surrendered himself into custody. In the afternoon an inquest was held before Mr J. K. Lethbridge, the coroner for the district, when, after evidence had been adduced, tbe jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Luxford, who was committed to take his trial at the ensuing sittings of the Central Criminal Court, and he was brought to Sydney by the police, and conveyed to Darlinghurst gaol. Since the death of his wife about two years ago, Luxford (who is in the prime of life), though generally well behaved, had been idle, and, it is said, utterly regardless of the welfare of his children. Although off.rs had been made since the death of his wife to take oare of the children, the father, it is alleged, refused to let them go, and kept them in a wretched state at hiß home. Tbe following facts are narrated in the columns of the Scientific American, under the beading of "Discharge of Sewage into the sea," and may be useful to our city authorities while considering the question of drainage :-— "Mr Adam Scott h_a said when decayed organio matter was discharged into fiesh water, decomposition went on rapidly, by reason of the oxygen in the water, and putrefaction set in. But in salt water it was different ; the salt acted as a kind of pickle, and thus those matters were found floating about for a long time as had been stated. The result was that the atmosphere became charged with unhealthy gases, much in tbe same way as with gunpowder, ready to burst out on the slightest contact with a spark of disease. At Rio Janeiro he understood that the sewage in former times was emptied iuto the sea, and seventy years ago that place was used as a sanatorium for the United States, but, in consequence of this practice, fever became so prevalent that ships refused to touch there if they could help it, and ten or twelve years ago the Rio Janeiro Impr.vement Company effected a deodorising of all the houses, at a cost of £6 10. per annum for each house. This reduced the yellow fever, and since then they had adopted water cariage sewers, but unfortunately these emptied into the harbor, and the result was something exceedingly disgusting, and the effeot on heath very bad. In Naples the sewage waa discharged some distance from the towD, and tbe same result took place. There was a most beautiful extent of sea shore, which had become quite a scene of death; no one could reside there, and many noble villas were falling into utter ruin.

Again, a$ Marseilles, for hundreds of years tbey had discharged .the sewage into tha sea, /and the epidemicis there. ! f ere ! ?f el ! known jin fact it had passed in. 6 a proverb in Franca "that pilots j <fould g& -_nfar._t.j 1 tia.bor id tha thickest j weather, being guided by tho smell alone". .