Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 67, 19 March 1877, Page 2

We (G.R. Arqui) learn with very deep regret indeed that G. H. Tribe, Esq., M.H.R. has been for some time dangerously ill, and that his recovery is very doubtful. His health suffered seriously during the last session of Parliament, when he caught a severe cold and did not take sufficient care of himself. A private letter from Welhngton, from one of his friends, states that unless a much altered state of things occurs in his case he _s hot like to survive long. The Dnnedin millers have sent a circular to the produce dealers in the city and suburbs stating tbey will not support those who import flour, oatmeal, and other breadstuffs from Oamaru or elsewhere^ and couclude the circular thus:— "The object and fairness of this wilt be apparent." It appears they have bound themselves by a penalty of one hundred pounds not to infringe this compact. The Guardian is very severe upou this, and calls upon the millers outside of Dunedin to open agencies and break down the monopoly. ; A Dunedin telegram of the Bth inst. says: — The Waste Lands Board has under consideration the question of how to deal with four runs, the leases of which empire early next year. The Chief Surveyor reported the country as very rough and unfit for agricultural settlement, and proposed that the runs should be cut up into five for the purpose of re-leasing. Mr Green dissented, pointing out that the land was very close to the coast settlements, and some within a few miles of Dunedin. He was certain there would be a good demand for it, and that it would realise more than £1 an acre. It included many fertile valleys. Strictly speaking it could not be called fit for agricultural settlement, but a great deal of land between Dunedin and Waikouaiti was originally not much better, and rough country about Blueskin, which afc one time it was said would be taken up for cultivation only by lunatics, wss now occupied by prosperous farmers. The Board did not come to a decision, and the matter stands adjourned for a week. A " rummy " temperance anecdote, used hy an ex-chaplain of the Duke of Buckingham in illustration of the evils of drink, really deserves immortajising, even though it was too rich to be true. Tbe r.ev. gentleman stated at a recent medical conference, that within one hundred yards of the Sailors' Home at Liverpool, there were fortyseven public houses, and the publicans actually strewed sawdust on the pavement in front of them, and sprinkled rum over it so that tbe smell of the spirit might decoy sailors wifcLun their doors. This beats even the proverbial pinch of snuff on the bird's tail, . . '

The railways (says the Lyttelton Timed of the 10th instant) are now becoming' very busy in the conveyance of grain, which is/ coiuing to hand with perplexing rapidity?-. The railway extensions w which have = been ' opened since last season jiave added very greatly to the traffic, ahd tbe number of trucks not being increased.inanytbing iike\ the same proportion, the strain vfill'he Ve"ry severely felt. Ere long the lines will have to be worked night and day, and it is doubtful if the grain can be moved away even then as fast as could be desired. To give some idea of the amount of grain traffic, ,it. may be stated that last week one train ar-^ rived in Christchurch with 65 truck loads bf ; grain; while on another occasion no less than 92 truck loads of grain were brought in from a single station (Longbeach) in one day. As the trucks would on the average hold 70 sacks containing over four bushels each, the 92 loads might fairly be said to make in all 26,000 bushels. in an article on the timber trade of Auckland, the flerafd says:— The Wangape forest, of 21,000 acres admittedly the finest in the North, was originally secured by Melbourne Company, was afterwards purchased by Mr Thomas Calcutt, of Dunedin,' and.isubsequently leased by him ; to rMr H. M'Lellan, to whose enterprise and 'determination is mainly due the solution of jwha. ' was deemed by many an impossible matterL'-L During the past three months over 1J500;000 feet of magnificent timber, in -seven vessels, have been shipped from this forest, thus spreading directly and indirectly a large sum throughout the district and /cityj. not; only in the price realised for the timber, but in the employment of vessels fitted for the service required. We wish every success •to the pioneers of such useful ''enterprises,;, to the men who find the sinews of war, ' and to those who have the flrmriess to carry rout to a successful issue an undertaking fraught with immense ultimate interest ;;tx> Auckland and her surroundings. .. 'X ; L Miss Clugston, :of Glasgow, established a Home for Convalescents at Lenzie, : having raised £7000 at a bazaar; also/a SjckjChildren's Hospital and pever Convalescent Home for which she raised £5000; a' Convalescent Home at Dunoon, foprwhich'a bazaar produced £8500; and," lastly,: a Home for Incurables, for which tie munificent, sum of £15,000 was raised at a bazaar. '""'" The chief signal officer of the /United States of America in his annual report states that during the last fiscal year over 88 per cent of his "probabilities" of the weather were verified. He thinks that an average of 90 per cent is attainable. Owing to lack of appropriations, the receipt of signals from the West Indies has been suspended. There . are 145 signal stations in the United States. " Bell's Life " records the following most remarkable example of that system of modern fashionable slaughter, denominated battue shooting :— "H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Duleep Singh, with six other guns, recently killed, in three days, 6000 pheasants, besides other game. One cover yielded, in the short space of 40 minutes, 1030 pheasants. Some time since (the Rackkampton Bulletin relates) the Post Office receiving box on board one of the coasting steamers was relieved of its contents^ and among the purloined letters there were two— one of which, from a clergyman, contained a cheqde which might have been cashed; the other, from a gentleman named P , contained a crossed cheque, which was valueless to the thief. The robbery was reported to the police, wbo failed to unravel the mystery, but not long afterwards the rev gentleman in question receired au auonymous letter, apparently from the thief, who returned the cheque, and wrote as follows:— "Take a fool's advice, and don't post money loo_e on board a steamer. I thought to make a haul, but only got your cheque and P 's crossed cheque. AU your friends' letters fell into my hands. (Signed) 'Here's Luck.'" ■ __-.._ . — — — — - IU (For continuation of Newt see fourth page)