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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 139, 14 June 1877, Page 2

The eccentric little Lyetl Argus professes to have received the following telegram : A Bloody Battle took place between the Turks and Russians; at Kutthroat euker Both sides won.

Two footpads recently "stuck up" a billsticker on a dark night in Dunedin, with the intention of robbing him. They had just seized their intended victim, when he suddenly contrived to stoop down, dipped his brush into the paste bucket, and dashed a plentiful supply of the paste into the eyes of his assailants, so as for the moment to completely blind them. Then that billsticker made off, and wag soon beyond the reach of pursuit.

Separate railway carriages for drunkards, especially on holidays, are suggested by the Melbourne Telegraph. It points out that smoking is prohibited in the ordinary carriages, and does not see why drunken exhibitions, accompanied by foul language, should be permitted to annoy sober and respectable travellers. What does Air Passmore say to this hint?

A resident of Wellington has a grievance. It appears that he has become the occupier of a well-known hotel, which, though it does a remarkably good business, ia in such a dilapidated condition that ifc needs constant repairing. A few days ago one of the shingles on the. roof got out of order, and. a carpenter was sent for to repair it. After fixing the shingle, he was getting off the roof' when he broke a pane of glass ia a window, and a glazier had to be sent for to make things right. The glazier put a new pane of glass into the window, but in doing so he broke down some gas fittings, and the services of the gasfitter had to be obtained. The gasfitter, having done his work, was about to remove his ladder, which was a very heavy one, when it fell and smashed another window. Then the glazier was sent for again, and after"he had mended the window he was about to depart, but, unfortunately, his foot slipped, and he fell on the roof of an outbuilding, which was very rotten, and went through, and the carpenter has been recalled. The hotelkeeper says the tradesmen are combining to drive him into the Bankruptcy Court.

The sporting correspondent of the Auckland Herald writes: — Turning from cricket, out of season, to football, in season, the main point of interest at present is what will come of the proposition of the Dunedin Football Club, to meet Nelson, Wellington, and Auckland representatives at Wellington, and after the manner of the associated clubs at home, hold a sort of football festival. Had such a proposal come before Auckland had initiated iuterprovincial contests, it might have been well; but now when we have sent not qqly a cricket team, but a football team ajso round the colony without a visit being repaid us, ercept by Canterbury, who are not, it seems, included in the list of competitors, such a proposal hardly comes with a good grace. The Dunedin men owe us a visit, and ought to pay it, for it must be obvious to .ill concerned that it is impossible, or nearly so, for any club to send away its best playing members, owing to the expense ancl time involved in the undertaking. Should the '< tournament " really take place at Wellington it ought to bo odds, looking at past matches," in favor of Wellington, who will be able to bring almost their strongest team against such representatives from other provincial districts as may be able to get away at the time.

In an article which recently appeared in the London Daily Telegraph 'on the subject of acclimatisation, in which special reference was made to Mr Edward Wilson's efforts, it was stated that a couple of green and yellow Australian paroquets which made their escape two or three years back from a cage in the neighborhood of Lincoln's Inn Fields, had bred and multiplied to such an extent as almost to drive the sparrows from that metropolitan oasis,

The H. B. Herald learn3 that Mr M'Rae laie storekeeper at £ayejkick (Hawke's Bay), I by the death of a relative In Australia, .'haa; | inherited a legacy of £12,000, and also a con- j siderable quantity of landed property. Aboufe I nine months ago Mr M'Rae found ifc neces- ' sary to enter into a composition 1 with his' creditors, by.,which they got ifls in the pound. We hear, however, that Mr M'Rae now honorably intends making up the balance There are 15,000 Chinese on the Palmer and Hodgkinson, and at the present rate of arrival the number will soon be doubled or trebled. But the Palmer is already frightfully overcrowded with these poor vetches; nothing nevr is being opened; and the old ground having been worked orer and over again, the prospect before the thousands of these people now egaged in fossicking for a miserable pittance during the next six dry months is horrible to contemplate. All who are adicted to a " wee drappie" will be interested by a curious article in the last number of the Revue des Deux Mondes by M. Richet, entitled ";Les Poisons de intelligence." Says M. Richet, "In England, where alcoholism ravages the highest classes of society, a strange custom has been adopted, which enables persona to drink copiously without getting drank. At the commencement of dinner a glass of oil is taken, and this prevents the alcohol which is drunk being absorbed by fche stomach." It is strange how many new lighta are thrown upon English manners and customs by a diligent perusaVol French periodical litera..ture, ... ? For some Mme past a good deal of agitation has been going going on in America respecting the comparative cheapness of oil and gas as illuminators.: Among other places, the Bohemian Club, San Francisco, haa put the matter to aj practical itesE. The building occupied by the olub has recently been changed. The old one was lighted with gas but as the new building is considerably larger than the former one, and would have required many more burners, the members decided upon giying oil at least a trial before the gas should be taken into the building. The result has been highly-satisfactory, and strongly in favor of the oil. The lamp used is what is known as the. German student's oil lamp, and the experience hitherto obtained shows that t*ie cost of lighting will be about £18 to £19 a month, instead of the £44 to £46 previously paid when gas was used. The light from the oil is as good as from gas, and the cost includes the wages of a man to keep the lamps properly trimmed and in good order. The saving in lighting is thus at the rate of £360 to £400 a year. The lamps are wholly free from any bad smell.

The Adelaide correspondent of the Australasianh&B the following: — " The

, rapid advance in the value of flour, ia u- telling very considerably upon the price of bread, much to the consternation oif householders with large families. Dur- , ing the past month the 21b loaf has risen from 3d to sd, and if fiour happens to touch £20 person, which there seems every probability it will do before long, vl should not be astonished, to see the bakers demand 6d, for those tradesmen have aoonvenieat knack of quadrupling any increase which the millers may charge them with. A lively corres.pondence has taken place in the daily papers on the excessive price of bread as compared with the cost of flour, and

it has been pointed out that we have to pay 25 per cent more for a 21b loaf here

than it is sold for in Melbourne, not- ■ withstanding the fact that flour is.£l ' per ton cheaper here. But the indigi nation of householders is of little avail] There is at present a combination 1

amoDg the master bakers, and we have

no means of resisting their demands] however unreasonable they may be.] The statistics of oar stocks in hand reveal the fact that we aball be utterly unable to meet all the requirements of oar customers this season. We have already exported more than one half o* bur surplus of 80,000 tons. Ii is computed that in addition to what we have already sent, New South Wales will want 27,500 tone, and Queensland 16,000 tons, so that upon the lowest 'computation these two colonies will require all our available surplus, and at least 5000 tons besides. Then South • Africa, Western Australia, New Zea-

land, and possibly Victoria, may appeal Ao us for supplies. In view, therefore, of theae contingencies, the. rapid advaece in the value of wheat from 6s 6d to 8s per bushel is easily understood, despite altogether the condition of the English market. Under such circutn-

stances; also, we cannot look for' any s reduction in (he price -of ' the staff of * "life,- however much we oaay lament (he prq^pec*." ,

The London correspondent of an ladianjoo"rna| writes:— "Among *things ! jnq^ ; generally \ known' I fancy is the fact that .Adeline Patti ia a Cockney bred and horn. Her father, lam told, was a -Hebrew merchant in a small way of! business in the neighbourhood of Mile .End road. . With' the aoutenesa charac-l

. ieiiatio of his race ha soon perceived that hia daughter had a voice that might moke her fortune and his if properly, trained. He resolved to embark his! < iiUieail' in the speculation, first oL all, however being careful to takeßouind: opinion on his venture. Adeline was taken to New York, and the speculation Boon, assumed bo rosy an appearance. that the business in Mile End road was thrown over altogether, and the future prima donna was severed from all the degrading connections of trade. Few, probably, of the quondam neighbours of the .Hebrew tradesman recognise in Adelina Patti, or, rather, Adelina la Marquise de Caux, the « Addy Isaacs' whose precocious musical talents were

"the wonder of the^ittle circle of Eaatend shopkeepers eight-and-tweuty years ago." The Hon. John Young, the Canadian Commissioner to the Sydney Exhibition, is now visiting Queensland. Alluding to the fact that a lurge trade could be 'established between Canada and the Australasian Colonies, including New Zealand, be remarked in a recent speech addressed to the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce :—" There ia a trade now, but CauadV gets no credit for it. Canadian goods and Canadian timber are sent inland from Canada to New York and Boston, and are shipped from there to other ports as American goods. Canada is never mentioned. Why the other day I went into a music itore in Melbourne, and I was surprised to see the name of a Canadian manufacturer on several musical instruments. I asked how these instruments were • liked ? The reply was • First rate,' apd that he had ordered twenty more of them. Then I aeked ' Where are .they from ?' •America,' was the reply. I aaid « You are mistaken ; these instruments are Canadian and. not American.' 'Wo, no,' said the seller, ' I have the bill of lading from New York.' 'That is no doubt true; but there are the words Bournaville, Ontario, and that is a Canadian town, and I know the manufacturer. Canada had, so far, done liitle to ship her own goods from her own ports to Australia. The Canadian manufacturers ought to be able to turn out goods as cheap as those in the United States, and as good, for all raw materials entering into their production were admitted free of duty."

Mr F. A. Weld, in his capacity of Governor of Tasmania, seems to have got into hot water with at any rate a portion of Tasmanian Press. For having granted a defeated Ministry a dissolution, he ia accused of acting not as the representative of the Queen but as* the advocate and- warm partisan of Ministers. The Hobarton Mercury cdncluiies an article on his Excellency with the following sentence : — " We could have wished we had been -spared the unpleasant necessity of animadvert* ing on one whom we have desired to hold in the highest ret- pact. But we owe a loyalty to the colony and to reponsible government as well as to the Governor ; and while respect for him has withheld much that we might/ and perhaps ought to have said, we would have failed in our duty to the public had we in performing the task imposed on us, shrank from what we have saiJ; because we feel the task, to be a pain-' fully unsuccessful one." ; The following appeared in a late number of Australasian : — " An Oatoaru correspondent writes a long letter in re the Fishhook case,; but throws no. additional light apon tha! subject. He complains that the stewards took no evidence respecting: the pulling of the horse. There was no neecessity to do this. If the) stewards were satisfied that tha horse; was stopped, thsy were perfectly! justified in acting as they did. Ia England summary jurisdiction is now' the order of the day, and so it should be here." ■ - ■•: .

Tbe Houghton (Michigan) Mining Gazette says : — " Some five years since a miner from Truro, Cornwall, Eng--land, arrived in this locality. Before 1 leaving home he loved a certain lass, ! (he daughter of an innkeeper, to whom, he proposed marriage but was rejected. Two years ago Harry, who was employed at the Delaware mine, met with an accident by which he lost his eyesight. The news of his terrible misfortune didn't reach the ears of his Truro: sweetheart until quite recently. She thought of the man who onoe told her he loved her, and her woman's heart! relented. She wrote to a friend in; Keweahaw county, and in time got a! history of his.condition and the plight he was in on the distant shore of Lake. Superior. The other evening a quiet! little woman arrived 1 on , the, stage from; L'Anae, and before many hours aha was! at tha house where the blind andi maimed man was stopping. She.came! to take Harry back to England, withJ out any fnaa or noise, and if ha'll allow; her, she intends to oare for him bb his i wife, the balance of his days, Monday's stage took Harry and his oldj sweetheart on their return to Cornwall. She doesn't want to be married until \ Bhe gets home. If there is one seat ; better than another in heaven, we know ' a little woman who will be entitled to ' it when she leaves this world." :