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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 261, 1 December 1876, Page 2

The Wellington Atgua understands that the bakers hare anticipated the rise in flour, and atuck on an extra half-penny per 21b loaf. Even with the present high price of flour 5d the 2lb loaf is excessive, and if bakers can maintain that figure they will indeed be fortunate. Wanganui (says the Post) always goes in for a big thing. Monstrous cauliflowers, brobdignagian gooseberries, leviathan dockweeds, and other monstrosities it has produced in abundance. The latest thing out, however is an enormous tapeworm, which, according to the Chronicle, a resident there was recently relieved of. This tapeworm, our contemporary gravely asserts, measured 33 feet in length. Now, for length, breadth, depth, and general massiveness, that is a lie which we never yet saw equalled. The Chronicle will never beat that. The following Christchurch telegrams appeared in the Wellington Argus of Monday last:— By the death of Mr G. A. E. Ross, son-in-law of Archdeacon WiUon, and some years ago Provincial Treasurer, Mr Wilson, seed merchant, comes in for a life policy ol £1000. The latter purchased it a short time ago, and clears upwards of £800 on the transaction. — A considerable amount of want of employment exists here amongit the laboring classes and mechanics of all trades, This time last year a certain builder employed forty-one hands, and now has only one. It is a significant fact that a great deal of household property is being pushed into the market for sale. The general impression is that the last session of Assembly did a great deal towards shaking public confidence. Masters do not look quite so gloomy, however, since intelligence was received of the advance in wool. Mr Gladstone has been credited with a great joke which he had let off at a Cottage Garden Show at Hawarden. Mrs Gladstone distributed the prizes, and Mr Gladstons had to acknowledge a vote of thanks to her. He hesitated at first, but at last he had to rise. " I was in hopes," *aid the right hon gentleman, " that on this occasion my wife, after all the compliments she has received, would have risen to return thanks. My opinion is, that she is perfectly equal to it, and that it is a very hard case for the husband, who has not had this vote of thanks, to be called upon to do that for his wife which she is fully able and competent to do herself. Howevi r, there i 3 nothing but submission for a quiet life. You are all aware of that, and lam perfectly willing to do it." And he did. But Lord Lyndhurst, when placed in a similar predicament, paid a still more piquant compliment to his wife. "I wish you could induce Lady Lyndhurst to make a speech," said the brilliant Chief Baron, '« instead of asking me, for if she would only talk to you as she talks to me sometimes, she would make you a speech that you jwould not forget." The Indian authorities have peculiar notions as to their own responsibilities, and the use to which the Australian colonies may ba put. The captain of a ship writes :— " The authorities here won't allow me to discllarge the groom 3 who came up in charge of the horses irom Melbourne, fearing they might become vagrants, and the latter are obliged to return by the ship. But, at the same time, they compel me to take a distressed British subject (a native of the West Indies) down to Melbourne, where of course, he will be landed penniless and in ill-health. Surely that ought to be enquired into. I don't see why they should shunt their paupers on the colonies." Our American cousins are the inventors of some very ingenious money boxes. One is in the form of a frog. You put a penny into its mouth ; it gulps it down, and at the same time rolls it 3 eyes about as if swallowing coins were a very pleasant pastime. Another consists of a box with a slit attached to a miniature race-track. When the penny is dropped into the slit, two or three tin horses at once proceed to race round the track. A third represents a portly individual seated in a chair. The coin is placed in his hand, ! whereupon he pockets it in the most natural manner by inserting it in a slit placed in the position of a coat pocket. While laborers were digging a hole in the Huron Siver, at Ypsilanti, Michigan, the other day, to get a better water supply for an engine, they found about sft under the river bed, an old pair of gold-bowed spectacles and a flask full of whisky, well preserved. The oldest inhabitants say that some 30 or 40 years ago an old doctor was drowned in the river near the spot, and they have no I doubt that the flask and spectacles belonged to him]

Mutton of the best quality is selling at 2a per half carcase in the Melbourne market, and at Id per lb in Sydney. ; m At Ceylon, the headquarters of pearl fishing, the shells are sold by the thousand to small speculators, who either open them themselves or retail them to all who are inclined to try their luck, a general sale of fish taking place every evening when the boats arrive, as there are few persons at the fishery who do not speculate more or less The Adelaide correspondent of the Melbourne Argus says :— The late rains have wonderfully improved the prospects ofthe harvest throughout the country. They were too late to do much good to the hay crops, which will be extremely light ; but the wheat plant has benefitted amazingly, and now farmers are talking in the most hopeful strains of reaping 8 to 16 bushels per acre. A few weeks ago they did not expect to get half that quantity. It is estimated that the last two falls of rain will increase the general average by from one to two bushels per acre. It ia evident that the squatters will be the worst sufferers this season, for from all directions we hear of heavy losses among sheep and cattle, and a terrible diminution 1 in the clip as compared with late seasons, i That there has been a vast amount of overstocking is apparent from the large numbers 1 of sheep that are now being forced upon the market, one good effect of which has been a considerable fall in the price of mutton, 1 much to the joy of the common consumer. [ A capital anecdote of the late Sultan of Turkey is told. He was very.fond of gossip, and sent for the banker, Abraham Beg, to t learn the scandal of Pera and Stamboul. As . Abraham was being conducted to his pre- | sence by the Master of the House, that % functionary begged him, should the Sultan question him on the subject, to say that the funds were thirty, his Majesty having been so informed by hia Ministers. Poor Abraham , consented. He had not been long with Abdul Aziz when he was questioned as to the funds and replied as he had promised. To the horror of the banker, the Sultan expressed ; himself delighted, and handed Abraham a l large bundle of bonds to sell for him. Abraj ham sold at twelve, and paid Abdul Aziz k thirty. It is not often a Jewish banker > tumbles into such a pitfall. k {For continuation of News see fourth page.)