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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 86, 13 April 1877, Page 2

A wealthy resident of Stawell (Victoria), named David Constable, was recently flnod .£2O for sending indecent Valentines through the post office. • Sheep are selling in tl(e western district of Victoria, at from 7d to Ud per head, and in Adelaide at 2d. This ia owing to the ' scarcity of feed and water. I At Eaglehawk (Victoria) a young lady has sewed ai apprentice as a watch and clock maker, and opened a shop. A selector in the district also boasts that his six daughters can fence land with any half-dozen workmen in the country. , Judge Williams fined several Grand Jurymen at Dunedin the other day for nonattendance, amongst others Mr Jago, his father-in-law,

A Mr Sibbald, while working on his land at the Caledonian Flat, Inglewood, dug up a mass of living creatures, which he soon ascertained to be no ! less than sixteen black snakes, the longest being upwards of 7ft 6in, and the smallest 2ft. Mr Sibbald killed 1 every one. Our Wellington friends (says the Westport Times) are going in for oyster culture with a vengeance. A local tradesman has purchased the hulk India, with the intention of breeding oysters, he having got permission of the Government to sink her in one of the small bays off Evans' Bay. His intention is to introduce both drift and rock oysters, so that the public can be at all times supplied with oysters fresh from their beds. The Wairarapa News says: — The demand I for fat cattle for the Southern market is at present very great, the supply being far short of the demand. One stockowner alone in this district, Mr T. H. Murray of Te Ore i Ore, received an order from one of the firms ! in Dunedin for as many fat cattle as he can j supply between this aud the end of June, at a sum of 30s per hundredweight delivered ! freeaon the wharf at Wellington. • ' -The accident, by which Bannerman was disabled when playing^in the v Australian match' is thus- described by the Argns:-^ .Suddenly a most lamentable accident hap~ pened, for Bannerman (whom .the English* ; men could not;,bqwl, and who "would not give theni catches^; was disabled, .and had "to quit i the ground injgfeat painT A ball from Eni,mett; whose terrific speed is his great.characteristic, hit the unprotected middle finger of •fhetbatsnian'a right hand, and split it to the bone. Banneraian had gloves on, but froto the Jast joint ,bf the middle finger the india> -rnhber was gone.i Attention was promptly" : given to, the hurl; by the medical gentlemen in the pavilion, and the damage. found to be "serious 'enough "to render it necessary for Bannerman to' give up all play for the day, iis avell " as to. leave it doubtful whether he "would be able, to do further work in the ; cricket match. . : . _ The Dunedin. correspondent of the Lt/ltel:ton'Times tells the following story,-— A res'peetable young man some months ago bought a pair of unmentionables from a tailor, the ..tailor immediately after became insolvent, ' ana his estate was placed in the hands of; a wholesale firorin Dunedin.- The firm sent the customer-an<accdunt for the article supplied; the bill was'proniptly paid, and to the firm's collector. Judge of the young man's surprise when, on coming to the office one morning, he, on opening a letter addressed to him in the senior partner's hand-writing, found it to contain a memorandum- from Messrs, the liquidating firm, to the following effect:—" Mr Senior Partner— Mr Blank, in the employ of your firm, owes the enclosed tailor's account. Will you kindly see that it is paid." The young man so treated was naturally very irate. He had paid his bill, and immediately showed his employer the receipt in proof of his assertion. But even presuming a case in which payment had not been made, the sending of a trumpery account to ari.employer is a practice that canj not be too strongly reprehended, and iv this case thejictim of the practice determined to administer some stern treatment. He demanded that a written apology be at once forwarded to his employers. This was declined, whereupon. he punched the head and ! wrung the nose of the person who gave the ! refusal. The police were sent for, but, as the matter did not take place within their range of vision, no arrest could be made. The head ef the liquidating firm, the person who ordered the letter to be sent, he met in | the street, and publicly squirted tobacco juice into his teeth. A lawyer, whom he accused of putting the firm up to the course adopted, he met in the bar of a hotel, publicly charged him with haviug given such advice, and then gave him a quid of tobacco juice between the eyes. The compliment was calmly taken; a receipt paid on the 9th of the month for money claimed through the employer on the 24th. together with the libuidating firm's letter to hia employer has also been shown round Dunedin. So far, the person so dealt with, has been unsuccessful in getting the parties he has publicly insulted to take him to Court, but at the present rate a crisis will soon be reached. The Canterbury police do not allow the close season to be broken by sportsmen inclined to anticipate its termination. The Lyttelton Times says:— Two bags of native game were taken possession of by Sergeant Willis at the Amberley station on Saturday afternoon as they were being put into the train en route for Christchurch. They were addressed to a well known Northern resi- ; dent. In the face of recent experiences Nelson tradesmen will perhaps agree with .the following suggestions made by a northern contemporary:— "What we demand on behalf ' of. those who 'pay as they go' is that there ■ shall, be. a marked distinction mafle in tljejr- ; favor, as against those wlio. take long credit, ' or do not pay at all. Let those who have j heretofore done what is known as 'booking ; business ' make it clearly and emphatically i understood thathat the cash price for goods ' is so much, and the credit price is so much • more. Traders will soon learn how much the ' principle is appreciated, and how many will; only be too ready to avail themselves of such '■■ an arrangement. There should be no evasion on the part of those who sell, and no excuses for departure from the rules laid down by those who buy—' So much for cash payment • so much for credit.' " In a speech recently delivered at Kilmore Sir George Bowen, the Governor of Victoria' had. the temerity to talk on -the subject of religious differences. Sir George told an anecdote about the visit of his " noble friend the Duke of Abercorn, the able and popular Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to the annual show of the Royal Agricultural Society at Galway," when he was met by two processions carrying the rival orange and green flags. "Men of Galway," said the Duke, " believe me that your prosperity depends on the color of your crops far more than the color of your flags. If your crops are green i.i spring and orange in autumn you need not care about your flags." The veneration which Musselmen entertain for the Koran has been forcibly dwelt upon by Eastern travellers. A case which lately came before the Court of Petty Sessions at Glasgow illustrates this. We quote from the Glasgow Herald of Feb. 9th:— On Wednpsday we reported that in the action at the instance of some Turkish sajlors against the owners of the Silistria, at present lying iq Leith Docks, the men were sworn to tell the truth o.i the Koran. Suitable preparations were made in the way of providing water, with which the witnesses might wash their hands before taking the oath, and the reason why water was not used only transpired yesterday morning. It seems that Mohammedans will nou take the oath with a. priuted copy of the Korau iv their hands, aud "it was consequently necessary to have a manuscript copy. The niaujscripfc copy of the sacred book was borro ved from the University Library in order to overcome that difficulty, and in reference to it ifc may be interesting to state that it formerly belonged to Tippoo Sahib, from whom it was taken in the early years of the present centuary, and subsequently presented by the East India Company to the University o£ Edinburgh. Having thus got rid of this difficulty about using a printed copy of the Koran, a fresh difficulty arose. The Korau had not only been handled by 'infidel Christians/ but had been placed on a seat lower than a man's breast and thus, in the eyes of the Turks, been defiled; and for this reasoi they dispensed with the customary ceren ony on such occasions of washing their hands."

The Thame3 Advertiser, in-reporting an. excursion trip by steamer, says?:— "During the spaasage across,, the Excursionists visited ,by a member of the fittny tcibe, although belonging to a description unknown 1p all, who3e advent a : qa6ngst\ thecrf itfas of the most unceremonious^ chlifra^er.^^iirvap-' pears that Captain May wag'engaged'in quiet intercourse with one of the excursionists rear the stern of the vessel, when he was suddenly struck on the shoulder by some heavy object, and the unwelcome intruder uext slapped the face of the gentleman whom he was in conversation. , The two tf ere startled, but still more surprised to see tnat they had both been struck by a strange looking fish, which had jumped after the, vessel with such force as to fall some distanc above their heads and alight at their feet. The fish had the appearance of a shark about the body, which was two and a half feet in length, and had a tail over three feet^re^ sembling a sword or the elastic band of a driving shaft. In its fall the fish tore Captain May's unmentionables to a very unpleasant length, and made him feel uncomfortable for the remainder of the trip. To unsheath a knife and plunge it into the monster was the work ofj a moment, and the fish was afterwards handed over to Mr Targett, the fishcurer, of. Shortland, who will exhibit it to the ptiblica't his premises..". The Auckland Start thiis relates an interview between Maori ;an£, European : Mr Brodie, the energetic Chairman of the Thames County Council, has tfeeni holding an interview, or "korero," with the rascally stonewaller Tarakino, and'; has found his match. Mr'Brodie exhausted all the powers of his persuasivy eloquence upon'the obstinate old savage, but simply wasted his sweetness on the desert air. Evidently, Turakino is a man ;of deeds, not words, ? aud distrusts fine speeches.,. The length of a speech, he said, made no difference to him, his grandfathers jhad ho roads, and for the life of him he could jSee no good in such new fangled innovations. Turakino is a Maori^of the old school, with a decided prejudice against metalled roads which cut one's feet, and_he has a horror of toll-bars -and' rates. '$fi .Mitchell, with his customary tact, came? to Mr Brodie's rescue by suggesting that his horse might get bogged, and that therefore Turakino might so far overcome his prejudices as to allow a few fascines to be put in to stop the holes. But the wily eld : stone-waller clearly perceived in this the thin cud of the wedge, and cut matters short by the reply, •« when you get bogged there will be time enough to talk about that." Seeing that Mr Mitchell's wellmeant manoeuvre had failed, Mr Brodie again had recourse to a little diplomatic sympathy in order to soften the obdurate heart of the old Cerberus. He cast a sop £6 him by remarking that he believed him to be "a inuchw_onged man " in the matter of the Komata dispute, "abd greatly sympathised with him." Turakino eyed this delicate morsel askance, and replied that he was ndt aware of any difficulty, nor did he need any sympathy. Messrs Brodie and Mitchell had played their last card, and were fain 1 to retire from the contest in discomfiture, but, before leaving, they made a final and forlorn attempt to enlist the sympathies of Te Hera, who dismissed them with a benediction. A new light is said to have appeared at Edinburgh, namely, an ex-soldier named McKelliu, late of the Scots Greys, a man 43 years of age, and nearly 6ft 2in high, He is said to have walked 250 miles in 70 hours/ 49 minutes at Edinburgh, having done 110 miles on the first day (with only 50 minutes rest) : and 182 miles in two days, flue last mile is reported to have been walked in Bmin 30sec, which sounds incredible unless he had been resting for it. >