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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 53, 2 March 1877, Page 2

The Taranaki Heiald contains a letter from a Mr J. Jones to the Premier, in which it is pointed out that numbers of people with j small means are obliged to leave that portion j of the colony owing to their being unable to ' obtain land on anything like liberal terms. Air Jones says he feels convinced that if either of the Australian colonies possessed that magnificent province there would be but few acres of the acquired lands unoccupied in two years. The Waha Maori, in an address to the natives on the scholarship to be established for natives in memory of Sir D. M'Lean, says:— The various professions and pursuits of the Pakeha, and the highest offices in the State—not even excepting that of Premierare as open to you as to them; there is nothing in the laws of the land to exclude you; there is no desire on the part of the English people to keep you back, if you hare the energy and anxiety to rise— on the contrary they %vould rejoice in your success. But remember that without education you can do nothing; you cannot avail yourselves of these privileges, and you must therefore be content to remain in a position of comparative humility and poverty. Embrace then the opportunities which you now possess, and according to the progress . which you.

make in learning will be the desire of the ! Pakehas to afford you opportunities of attaining to higher and yet higher branches of knowledge. After the people had left the racecourse at Napier last Saturday, a man attempts to drive* trap through the gate, and, beUig refused admission, he called on some Maoris for assistance. The Maoris forced au entrance, but Johnstone,. the foreman, went into his house and pointed au unloaded gun at them. The Maoris knocked him down and took the gun away. Fortunately some settlers were on the ground, who, having influence over the natives, got them to desist. A very valuable mineral discovery has been made in Westland. A party named E. M'Dermotfc and John M'Leod found a tin mine up the Mikonitf River. The lode is over three feet thick, the ore is very rich, and a thousand tons of ore can be taken away at little expense. The Lyitelton Times, of the 16th instant, gives the following details of a case of attempted suicide:— Henry S. Legg, a young man who has been boarding at the Napier Hotel for nearly a year, and who is said to be well connected in the old country, jumped off Wilson's wharf into the Waimakariri yesterday morning about seven o'clock, with the intention of drowning himself. Mr S. S. Powell was bathing close to the wharf at the time, and seeing the man in the water, and apparently in a drowning state, went to the rescue. He laid hold of the drowning man, and succeeded in getting him ashore, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the latter to " let him drown." The police were at once communicated with, and Legg was taken to his bedroom at the hotel, upon entering which an alarming sight presented itself. There was a good deal of blood on the counterpane of the bed and on the floor, and elsewhere about the room. A razor, the blade o2 which was covered with blood, was found on the dressing table, and a bottle which had contained 'chloroform. There was also a small bottle with two indiarubber tubes inserted in it through holes in the cork, so that the poison could be inhaled by placing tlia ends of the tubes in the nostrils. This bottle contained chloroform, which had been purchased by Legg from a load chemist on the preAious morning. It appears that Legg first tried to cut his throat in the bedroom, but failing to do that completely, he afterwards went out and endeavored to drown himself. He is recovering. "JEgles" writes in the Australasian:— When Thomas Gainsborough painted that portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire in a broad brimmed hat with plumes, he could scarcely have anticipated the glory that was in store for him. For what fervor of imagination of his would have led him to anticipate that his name— the name of the first of English portrait and landscape painters — should be assumed to designate a milliner's conceit! And very rational and beautiful these hats are. They achieve in fact what hats have for a long time been in theory only— they are coverings for the head. Worn, as they frequently are, coquettishly, the face of the wearer is displayed in relief against a halo— an aureole— so that, as Moyenage says, it looks in church as if the Madonnas had come down from the stained-glass windows and occupied the pews. Mr E. J. C. Stevens M.H.R. addressed his constituents at Christchurch iast week. His speech was almost entirely a review of the last session. Speaking of financial matters, he said that the Consolidated Fund was in a state to cause great anxiety. He did not think the country was in financial danger, but would say that its conduct in relation to loans, credit, and everything in the way of expenditure, had been sufficient to bring any less favoured country on its knees. The consolidated fund, as compared with expenditure, was in an unsatisfactory condition, and if there was not a deficiency next session of the Assembly he would be agreeably surprised. The Colonial Treasurer had over-estimated the Customs revenue pj some £50,000 Retrenchment would have to be practised, and notjunlikelythe subsidies to the Road Boar<?s and Municipalities would have to be cut off. He would support this in prefence to new taxation. He would look to the Government bringing forward a good souud system of finance next session. He advocated triennial Parliaments and an elective Upper House.