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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 64, 15 March 1877, Page 2

, Mr Robert Borrie", who was drowned during the recent floods at tha Taieri, left a will, duly executed, by which he gave to the Missions of the Presbyterian Church the insurance upon his life, amounting to £500. The other day in Christchurch some of the lata arrivals on passing,- \Cathedral square were heard tp express their astonishment at what they considered the ancient ruins of the city. . Christchurch , people.' have had many hard hits over their cathedral. that is to be. • •■-.■•■.. A Winton (Otago) correspondent of the Guardian says:— ".Winton haa'ati old Crimean veteran. ( He is also an : - Indian, Burmese, Sumatriah, Dbunybrbbk, and X X X veteran —especially the latter. He has had more lead shot into his body, and passed more liquor through it than most men. He had one of his anniversary days lately, and filled himself pretty well up to the chin in honor of the occasion. Winton has also a chnrch, which has a spire terminating in a finial of a somewhat glittering and gorgeous effect. Thia caught his eye as he was carrying his liquor home. Raising his arms, he spoke as follows: ' See the good auld flag under which I've sarved for twenty-one years, and Queen Victoria, and I'll do it again, and, they can't wash me out of Winton.' With all due admiration for heroism, the Wintonites are prepared to contribute liberally to have him washed out. Flans aud specifications to he seen at the Town Clerk's oifice." A well-^pown journalist, writing in the Dunedin Saturday Adtertiner, says that the first thing that strikes a Dunedinite on his arrival at Christchurch is the peculiarity of the conveyances. Instead of the smart Albert cars which ply through the streets of Dunedin, there are numbers of easy going hansoms, with sleepy-looking horses and drowsy drivers. There are also several superannuated 'busses rolling along at a quiet jog trot. As Shingles and myself were walking away from the railway platform with our carpet bags, we were accosted by the driver of a hansom, whose rich, racy, oily Leinster brogue smacked strongly of the Liffey. There could be no mistaking the fact that we had .'lighted on a genuine Dublin carman. So acceding to the generous invitation, «' Jump up, gintlemin," we seated ourselves in his comfortable trap, and desired him to drive us to Warner's Hotel. On arriving at our destination, I enquired the charge of cfibby, when the intelligent and discriminating Jehu put on his most insinuating smile and replied, "Surej I'll lave it to yourselves, . yer honor." " But," remarked Shingles, " surely you have a regular fare." «Ay coorse we have, : for common people," responded cabby, " but whin gintlemen thravel we always thrust to their ginerosity." There was no getting over the compliment— it had struck a tender chord in the breasts of • Shingles and myself, and we parted with two shillings each, and left the Milesian flat-catcher in the best of spirit,

A late telegram to Dunedin reports that . Mr \ Huggensson's Bill : legalising colonial* marriage with deceased wife's sister, witf'" passed in the House of Commons- by a majority of 5 1: . "'• > Even in Wellington there are plenty of the ," won't work" classy says alocal.ph.peri l Tile .* wharf is a favbrite*' resort' of these kind ofY people. They prowl about it apparently looking for employment, but praying to heaven they will not get any. A few days ago one lazy fellow was observed squatting pu-some bales of wool for several^.hours, smoking apd amusing himself by expectorate ing irt" a "circle, and otherwise whiling away the tedium of the morning. Workers were wanted, and he was offered a job to remove some luggage. He looked up into the f ace** of the would-be employer and smiled, said he. .did want a job, but he was not brought up to lugging boxes about. He was, of course, left to pursue his meditations. Today several of these wharf rats were" squat- ; ting about the pier, complaining about not being able to get anything to do. Instsad of searching for employment, they doubtless expected it to search.for them. One of the men was subsequently offered. wosv and had to he literally coaxed to/the;jbb.^ Such unmitigated loafers deserve a diligent! application of the '? cat." y -r " Ip is stated in the Liverpooi-k/ta/i that a young man 'wrote to Mr, Gladstone asking him to f urnjs.h a list of books the best calculated in his opinion to. supply .acknowledge of history Bearing upon political questions of the present time, and .'has received -the following reply.*—" Sir--Among the books you might read with advantage are 'Green's Popular history of England,' «:Hallara's Constitutional History, of England,' 'Ranke's History-- of England,' 'Guizot's History of the Great Rebellion,' 'Sir E! May's Parliamentary History bf England.' " These works are generally free from the spirit of partisanship. But let me observe that no one can effectually stndy History for present' purposes without also examining into the accounts of other countries and of ancient times.— Your faithful servant, W. E. Gladstone." j The London Telegraph: says that' a news- ' paper, named they ourndtdeLuneville, gives an' account of astrange incident which occurred in its locality recently. A.gentleman, dressed in fashionable style, went 1 td a leading establishment of the place and asked for a hot bath, j Before undressing, he sent the waiter for it number of articles, of which he gave a list, written on a piece of paper. Amongst other things, he ordered a bottle of white wine, some whiskey, red pepper, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, and onions". After pouring the liquor into the bath, he cut the vegetables into small pieces, sprinkled the pepper over them, and then turned on the kip of boiling water. When the bath was filled, he undressed, and crying out " Goodbye, I am going to cook myself in the American fashion," plunged in. Suspecting some strange conduct, the attendants burst open the door, and found the man almost boiled, to death. An investigation proved that he had suddenly, gone mad. It was evening. Three of them were killing a cat. One of them held, a lantern, another held the cat, and the third jammed the pistol into the cat's ear and fired; shooting the man in the hand that held the cat, and the one holding the lantern was wounded in the arm. The cat left when he saw how matters stood, and that ill-feeling was engendered. A Japanese paper, the Akebono Shimbu-n* relates an extraordinary phenomenon which took place in the Province of Tosa, which forms part of the Kotchi Ken. On the 31st October, in the Department of Hitada, about four o'clock in the evening, after a violent rain storm and thunder, one of the neighboring mountains commenced to frumble, and in a moment parted asunder with a terrible explosion. It sent forth enormous torrents of water, which swept away the crops, and a number of people were killed and wounded. At the afternoon performance of . Bailey and Cooper's circus, at Stawell,' Victoria, a man named Fraser, who said he knew how to tame lions, put his hand iv the lioness's ca°*e and she seized it .witli her ptiw, completely stripping the skin and flesh off. Fortunately, the trainer was near, or the lioness would have drawn the man's whole arm in. The incident caused a great sensation amongst the audience, which numbered over 4,000 persons. "Put not your trust in Princes," is a saying which has just been painfully exemplified. Sic Charles Dick, the tenth baronet of his line, has just died little better than a pauper at Brighton. Sir William Dick, a direct ancestor of the receutly deceased baronet, not only lost two hundred thousand pounds by espousing the Royalist cause, but lent, in addition, .fifty thousand pounds in hard cash to Prince Charlie. That noble young-prince ,on his ascension to the throne, with characteristic generosity—that is being liberal with what was not his lown— caused an Act to be passed granting to Sir William and his descendants a pension of £132 per anriurn, "until such times as his Majesty could take .course with the principal." ' Those times, it is- needless to add, never cathe. The Dick family from generation to generation; have, with each successive Parliament, lived in the hope that their claims would at lastberecbgnised—that horrible hope which deferred maketh tbe heart sick. Alas! the only recognition their claims received was that", in the beginning of the present centuriy; the wretched pension of one hundred and thirty two pounds per annum was cancelled altogether. For some time the late Sir Charles Dick received a pittance ascuratorof a small museum in Brighton, but some years iigo even that miserable barrier wherewith to keep the wolf from the door went with, the disestablishment of the museum, and the aged baronet in his last days was a dependent on fie charity of friends. The present and. eleventh baronet is a young clerk in a local bank at Brighton. ••** *^ ! ' -*"*"'"' Ty*— ujai.'^.»a>. || i?— «»^wm^w^___m.