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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 58, 8 March 1877, Page 2

The Napier Telegraph says: — " Owiug to the floods iv this district, last week, the price of potatoes has risen considerably. We hoar that ou Saturday as much as £1 per cwt was asked by farmers." It is satisfactory to notice (says the G. R. Argus) eveu with the limited number of vessels calling here for coal, that no less than 4000 tons have been brought down from the Brunner mine and disposed of during the months of January and February. The editor of the Lyell Argus is evidently pining for fresh fields and pastures new. In one column of his paper he hints that the District Road Board is about to destroy all the Scotch Thistles in the district, and iv another he writes thus:—" Leading ArticleThere is none this week' for reasous best known to ourselves. There arc it would anpear two distinct parties in the Lyell, and

when they shake hands aud go to work. in earnest to improve the place, we will do the same; in the meantime we are open for engagement. As well try to please a Woman, as two party's of Village Politicians. We have always done our duty fearlessly. Wo have only one end in view, viz To do good to those around us, if we cannot do that, then we shall gravely and calmly say good bye." A correspondent of one of the Christchurch papers complains bitterly of the ravages of bares, rabbits, and imported birds, and thus concludes his letter:—'' I venture to predict thafc before many years have elapsed, the curse acclimatisation societies have been to New Zealand will be fully recognised. It seems intolerable that men otherwise harmJess, indeed useful colonists, should have banded together to attain au object thafc is fast destroying the resources of the colony, and yet have rendered themselves liable to no penalty, while poor John Smith for such a trivial offence as losing his equilibrium is fined 20s, or the option of forty-eight hours. It may be taking somewhat too utilitarian a view, but nevertheless I think the Legislature should (if ifc does not see fit to abolish these societies), pass a law forbidding the introduction of anything thafc eats graiD, fruit, or grass, unless it produces something of a marketable value commensurate with what it eats. One cannot predict what mad thiugs even land owners will do. There is some excuse for Cockney sportsmen who wish to keep their game on other people's land. For instance, I have got a crotchetty neighbor, whose proper sphere of life is that of an owner of a menagerie, who once brought two live foxes on to his property, with a view of turning them adrift; but fortunately just in a time that was forbidden by law. He next procured a deer, but thafc fche. neighbors ate; so that was all right. Just afc present he is concerting measures to obtain a fresh supply of deer, also half a dozen pairs of hares. A man like this is worse than an incendiary; and so the sooner the liberating vermin is prohibited under a heavy penalty, the Ifetter for the colony." The Auckland Star tells the following sad story:— Connected with the death of the unfortunate girl Poulgrainiu Chancery-street last week, there is a most melancholy story, showing the steadiness of the downward course. The family lived in a street off Manukau Road, Parnell, owning a little cottage on unclaimed land. A few years ago the family seemed respectable and industrious, bufc habits of dissipation have completely wrecked it, until two of the members have met with dishonorable deaths and the resfc are left homeless vagabonds. Three months ago the mother, after a protracted fit of drunkenness, died suddenly. One of the daughters had previously been in fche habit of going to service for a period and then returning home for a spree with the rest. The other daughter has been a familiar habitue at tbe Police Court, for all the offences that are usually connected with such a life as hers. The fate of the mother offered no warning, bufc rather seemed to sever the only connecting link between the quiet happiness of the past— if there ever was such a season— with the wretched misery of the present. The daughter abandoned j all hopes of industry and plunged unrestrainedly into the vortex of the vilest and most abandoned habits. The father occupied the same house living upon the infamous earnings of his own child. The daughter, whose sad end formed the subject of a coroner's investigation, did not live with the others, but seemed to have dipped even deeper in the moral mire. Finally, all other means being exhausted, the father sold his house to an expressman for £5, which was speedily expended iv a druuken orgie. The daughter took refuge in a neighbor's house. When his money had run out the man returned to his former home, where he demanded admittance, and was allowed a night's lodging. Since then he bas slept 011 the Mechanics' Bay reclamation. A more painful picture In a colony where industrious men aud women might obtain ample and remunerative employment it is impossible to imagine, yet the case is but a sample of the many which daily provide work for our Police Court.