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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 262, 2 December 1876, Page 2

fl——_)-W-M-— ■_W____g____ MM— ———MM. At a meeting in aid of the Wesleyan Home Mission fund, recently held in Auckland, the Rev J. Brown gave an interesting and amusing account of his experiences among the natives of the islands. The I following is an extract :— He described a custom existing amongst the natives analo- | gous to Free Masonry. They take young chiefs of 14 or 15 into the bush and feed [ them upon pork and turtle for a time, and when they came out they were not allowed to eat the same kind of food for the rest of their lives. They were initiated into certain mysteries. So strict were they afterwards that even when starving for want of food they would not touch pork, and the young man whom he had brought with him would not touch taros which had come over in the same vessel with the pigs. When the natives go into mourning they blacken their faces. Whenever a native was inflamed with feelings of revenge against another he would not wash his face until he had gratified his spite. When a woman quarrelled with her husband, or any other relative, she would go to the bush and place herself in the way of the wild tribes so as to get killed, in order to spite her friends. This was their way of commiting suicide. The natives were great believers in the efficacy of love philters. They believe that certain plants, prepared and administered in a certain way, would captivate the affections of any young lady, and even the affections of a married woman could be transferred from her lawful husband to another man. A snake's tail was supposed to possess this property in a peculiar degree. A Wellington journal states that an extraordinary feat was witnessed in Molesworthsfcreet this morning. A man on horseback was riding pretty quickly down the street, when a little toddling child attempted to cross right in front of the horse. It was impossible for the man to pull up sharp enough to avoid an accident, and with great presence of mind he applied his spurs and tightened his reins, the result being that the horse jumped clean over the child without injuring or even touching it. The little one had a wonderful escape. A Maori, named Meihanu Rotu, got drunk last Wednesday at Marton. Then, along with five other Maoris, he rode out of the township and tumbled from his horse. His companions .thought it best to let him sleep off the liquor, and so left him by the roadside. :Bye-and-bye a settler found that Maori and discovered that he was dying. Iu a little time he did die, so that was the end of Meihanu Rotu, another victim to the fiery genius of the nobbier. There is a report that the natives had been quarrelling, and that the deceased was subjected to violence, but this is not confirmed.— Post. The Timaru Herald says that on the return from the Christchurch races, the train was so crowded that many having first-class tickets were compelled to travel second-class, and goes on to remark :— A curious thought suggests itself here. Suppose a Member of the Assembly, returning from the races for nothing on the strength of his first-class free pass, was to be crowded out and have to travel second-class; would he be entitled to receive the difference in caah between the first-class and the second class fares? If so, members who are fond of races and travelling might make a very good thing of it. Lightning recently struck a telegraph pole and ran along the wire into an office iu Indiana, when the clerk seated at the instrument excitedly telegraphed back, "Don't send so fast." ii niin t— »-. iin in ii <_»« a -_CT«-««M-.»--- F (For continuation of Newt see fourth page.)