The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1877.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 140, 15 June 1877, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1877.

In the last session of the Assembly Mr Reynolds moved that each Parliamentary return presented to the' House should bear upon its face the cost of preparing and printing it, but the resolution v/as rejected, many members who are so fond of moving for these documents disliking, probably, that it should be known to the colony how much ! money they had been the means bf wasfciug. It is much to be regretted ihat Mr Reynolds' motion was shelved, as, if carried, it would probably tend to place a check ou the appetites of those who are constantly craving for information supplied in this form, useless though it frequently is. In England it is the practice to publish the cost of these returns, as will be seen by the following exI tract from the Glasgow Herald:—" Constitu- \ cdts, if they seek after edification and a little ann*g3uient, had better straightway irip vest 2id in a Parliamentary paper just issued, showing the cost to the country of the returns moved for in the House of Commons during the session of 1875. We find thatduring the session referred to close upon .£14,000 was spent in the preparation aud priuting of these so-called returns. Private members are responsible for nearly one-half of this expenditure, and the Government for the other. Among the farmer, §ir George Balfour shines as a star of the first magnitude. Ia the one year mentioned, he himself

cost the country no leas than £1009 17s 6d for printing; and as if he had been actuated by a generous spirit of emulation, we find Mr Charles Lewis ranking rext in precedence, he having found it necessary to enlighten the ; jworld to the nandsotrie extent! of £856 Is 6d. ; o rie ijiaiJec.a|ne, N whidh Sir- G^orf»:e\;aused to. ; be priritea, cost the respecta'Dle"" stim of £412 y9s 9d. True, it related to population, and . ought to hare been interesting as well as usefiU; but we find on looking into the instructive document which supplies us with our facts, that the number of copies sold amounted :_to fifty-on^^andftfie total sum realise'd"by their sale was a madest-lfe. 3d. For \ybose _.■ benefit, instruction, and enlightenment are theseenormous arrays of figures collected, the preparation. of which entails very. often the necessity of employing an extra staff of clerks?" In accordance with a resolution passed by the members of the Naval Brigade that they should hold a church parade every alternate month, the company will assemble at the junction of Russell-street and the Pert road on Suuday morning next at ten o'clock, when they will march to Christ Church, rwhere they will attend divine service. -The Blue Jackets will appear for the first time in their new uniforms, which Were made too late for last summer, since which, time-the Brigade has not had an opportunity oCfcurning out in them in daylight. ' ■^ I ot» Adhere disappears from Nelsoit'the last rehem Provincialism. Some short time since circulars were ,sent from Wellington to tbe^Exeotrtlve officers in, the various districts asking them tfhen they would be in a positron; to 'Kandj l affai»'ovef"to the Ueaexal GK)vernment,.atia Mr jCufcfcis' reply was ? tTiSt he would be prepared to dip so on the 15th of j June, so that-nbwjfch* district is leftentirely •Co figsai management; thei? being nq longer any'connecting link"with' the Government at Wellington. "-I ■ '■■f , .' ■ -- • • ':• 'The members ofcfehe Neison-Eootball Club are informed"' by advertisement that their new uniforms, are now ready, and cain be obtained at Messrs. Hqdder and Co.'a shop in iTrafalgar-street. •■,*/ . > Messrs Scj&nders & Co. quote Oamaru flour, Hay &J3atr's best silk dressed, in sacks at £21 per ton; '' ; , We. understand that the Insurance offices shave 1 receivedlnstructions to discontinue ttie on freights for England which have recently been charged. ; Whether this is in. i consequence of later European news than has yet reached us, we are unable to say. Iteferring to the extraordinary muddle of names of places that is made in the war JelegramsJhe X)tago Guard/an, .gays:— "..We., shall find at the end of the war that it has made; sSdih^voc'in the rauk of the iiewspaper profession in New Zealand. Many editorswill have committed suicide, and the re,st will haVe-'becbnie' inmates 6f Lunatic Asylums." ( , '•;'. Some idea of ttie yieldof gold from the Reef ton mines may be gathered from the . fapt that the N. Z. Bank recently forwarded ' from that place to Greymouttf 850 ozs from the H6peful, 9i)2 ! dzs from the "Golden fleece Extended, 654 ozs from" the Just-in-Time, 425 ozs from the Wealth of Nations, and 225 ozs from 1 the Alluvial: • The National Bank also forwarded gold during the week, but the amount is riot published.

Among the miscellaneous items mentioned in a schedule of charges for passengers, &c, by the. New Zealand railways, gazetted on the Ist of this month, appear this :— "Corpses Is per mile, .minimum, £1." So many sheep and cattle hare been destroyed by the engines on the Hawke's Bay railway that it is said,' says the • telegraph, thst three of the railway engines are to be re-christened. The "Eel" is to be named " The Cleaver," and the other two are to be termed repectively, "Sausage Machiue," and " Butcher." -, A son of Dr. Hitching, the coroner at Napier, aged 12 .years, while playing on the ' "trucks on the. reclamation works, attempted Syhile |^ey were ia motion, to get from one truck to another, and fell between them. Three kfaded trucks passed over both hi? ;;legs, fearfully .bruising and mangling them. He is not expected to recover. '. F^ Otago Times says that at preset Dunedin is like a worm with either end cut off The ends wriggle in great form, but the. centre is motionless, arid if nothing is done will, we are muchafraid; die. In all seriousness, the situation is becoming very critical. Every owner of property in Dunedin is inieresteaiii getting: the railway com munications of this town with' the interior completed and - unless something ' is promptly done, farewell toithe commercial supremacy of ; Duriedia for ever;' . „ h Governor Cald well's able-bodied and highly profitable labor gangon Bell Hill (say3°the Otago Hwirdiin) narrowly escaped a wholesale burial without any funeral service the oiher day. :,;. They were just returning from their dinner on the line of march a few minutes before 1 o'clock, when, without any percoptible warning, the mass of rock at ..which they had been at work suddenly gave ; way from the -surf ace, ! and over f a hundred tons of bliidstone rolled down. Some of the pieces were half 'as' big as a private boardinghouse, and weighed many tons; and so greal was th&.cf ushing weight that two trucks be- . neath were literally ground into iron filings and sawdust. The afternoon was spent in clearing away som^ of the debris, , but days will elapse before the whole of the detached rpek will find its way to the harbor wall on , which the prisoners are diligently engaged. The following story about a monster shark is told by, .the Auckland Herald: "There has been placed in the Museum the jaw of a large shark, recently captured by the harpoon of the whaler Magellan Cloud, It has ' been sent to the Museum by Mr James Macfarlane, of the Bay of Islands, where it was caught. It affords the best illustration that could be seen of the immeuse power and destructive capacity of this marine brute. The 'maw measures two feet by twenty "inches, even now that there is no muscular ■ •elasticity in the maxillaiiy bones. This hole is quite wide enough to admit the carcase of one of the largest sheep exhibited in Mr Dornwell's or Mr Fisher's shops. The teeth are two inches in vertical length, and one inch broad at the base. They are gerrated at the edges, and would do frightful havoc upon any prey that would come within their reach. The length of this enormous shark was twenty-two feet. When he felt Ihe harpoon in him he rushed at the anchor chains, which he got firmly between his teeth and held on till the teeth were forced from their connection with the jaw bones, and bent inward. This unamiable fish could have provided in his interior for the stqwage of a whole County or City 'Council, with ihe corporate seal, the letter-press, and the Mayor, or Lord Mayor, in his robes of office; unless, indeed, some of the members should be intractable and refuse the adjustment once appropriated by a minor prophet." The Fo.t adds:—'- It would have been an enormous benefit to society at large had some of our Wellington City Councillors been entombed in the interior <tf (feat s-iharkV?

The Directors of the Dispatch Fouudry Company at Greymouth, have offered to supply the Hokitika Corporation with cast iron lamp posts at; £7 3s' 8d each. A littie boy was severely hurl in Auckland last tf eek, by a blcjw on the temple from a stone .thrown by^aiiother bpyl He has Ids the use of his eyesight, arid the whole of hisH face is very much swelled. This should act as a caution to other boys against throwing stones. It may not be generally known (says the N. Z. Mail) that in 187 1 Colonel (now Sir WiHiam)*;7ejvois.devrsed plans by which thef por^tspE Auckland, Wellington, Nelaon, Lytk telton, and Otago can be placed in a position to resist the attacks of privateers and vessels not.being.irpnclads, at a cost of 4>i4,000, "Atlas," in the World says:— A rather curious story is.told, apropos of the.boat race,, about an did gentleman who, for the last 12 years was in the habit of taking 1000 to 1 againstrtbe chances of a " dead heat/' This ■ bet has been yearly laid him by the same individual (who annually received a P.0.0. for £1). The poor old fellow died this year a fortnight before the race. Commenting on the wheat-growing capabilities ,of New South Wales, the Sydney Momivff jHera/e^ remarks: — "It is no cause for rejoicing that the outbreak -of ' war between Russia" and: Turkey should have raised the price of wheafin London by 25 per cent. ,But is a matter for congratulation that Australia is tb'come 6i the' help of Europe in her time of need^and bur awn farmers have now the opportunity oscotMsbutingto the general' 'good, and atjLhe same time advancing 1 flheir r own prosperity "p ■ J '—■'..' > The LyelPcorrespondent of the Insngahua' Merald writes:— The Biiller beaches,- which v were prdlitably forked a few weeks ago, .yielding the minets a poundlper day^fcM to 'US abandoned owing to the suddeii rise of r the river'to its wtnEerJevel, there being now six feet <ff wate£where mining operations ■were actively ca^nedon a few weeks. since. "" r - -;The Spectator concludes a paragraph dis-" fussing military; matters in the folfowing words:— Within twenty! years there will be; an average of half a million men nvthe- ; British Isles, all Hffderforty-two, who "have been thoroughly pdrillecl as regular,, soldiers; a defence againafi' Invasion of whichjt is difficult to.over-esjtinjajie the value. ! The lugurance'h^^ite, a periodical- .very great uptin .longevity in general and wonderful cases in particular, produces a paragraph that it is good, not only to marry, but to repeat the operation as of ten as possible (we presume as often as it is legitimately possible.) A Frenchman died at Bordeaux in.1772 at the age, 101 years,, haying .been married seventeen times. A Scotchwoman died in 1765, at the age of 106, having been the relict of thirteen husbands. It is asserted in , the same paragraph that "bachelors and maids rarely attain extreme old age, while great longevity is often observed in people who ;hav© been niarried not much, butinany times/.'. We pause -fossa definition or " not much." '..,' . , The following appeared in the papers of a midshipman undergoing examination at Portsmouth for his :— "Q. , Demodatrate the resistance 'developed' by & galvanometer when connected Wish a Daniel cell., A v The dimensions ., of this .most, re-? markable/state pri^n'h^e nbt'Wh handed down to "posterity. It is, however, generally supposed to have been 40ft x 30ft x 20ft, T and filled witty ;iion?, , How. the, lions got there will probably rierei* be exptaihed. K is one of those things^nb person' 'can understand, and isfoireinaekabie proof both 'pf^thle courage aria the scientific knowledge of th^ae beathens.i-The/ lions are dead. So are the-fdlk who pht them there. Sic transit gloria neW«." The student was plucked— which seems to us hard lines. ' ' When the City of New York was about leaving San Francisco, the " Britishers " who were coming by her were "somewhat " chaffed " by the ships of war, and it wassaid these were the cruisers which were soon to come down upon the. colonies, capture their ships, and bombard their towns. There was no appearance of any force which England had to oppose, but an answer wasat hand/ On the first day after passing through- the Golden Gate, the passengers on board the steamer had a close look at a British man-of-war, which was cruising at a convenient distance from the coast, and all on board ' had to acknowledge that 'she looked strong 'enough io tackle several of the Russian vessels. Next day another was descried, andon'the third yet another* the last being attended by a gunboat. -Thus it will be seen that the British in the. Pacific' ate not asleep. Doubtless the Admiral has means of obtaining the earliest possible information respecting the position of affairs in Europe, and the movements of the fleet which it i3 hia. special duty to watch. A Dunedin telegram to the of Saturday says:— Walker's meeting last night was crowded, Charles' Bright occupying the chair. The morning papers rather lean to him; but the Star comments on the proceedings, saying : " Believers in spiritualism were evidently/in the liijrgc majority} and they backed ; the medium up with applause on , every possible occasion. Especially wa.s this noticeable with a knot of ladies and gentlemen' near the platform, who were once addressed by the chairman as; *• the committee;' and it was interesting to notice how they sat! with open mouths ani beamiug faces as, Walker poured out a glowing description.. of the 'Life of coutiru ;d • pleasure ' that r awaited human beings immediately on their death, and also how they relished and applauded every scoff or sneer levelled at the Bible." When some of the, audience at the conclusion of. the lecture' asked' ' the medium" questions, ' no fmatter what Walker answered, the stamping of feeb and clapping of hands was great, as much as to say that the -medium had completely .confounded the, sceptics.: Walker said in the next world, musicians will congregate together and continue their occupation; that policemen, instead of having a cessation from their, wearisome duties, will be massed in one enormous posse; ,that doctors will continue to operate upon patients who, although it .was previously, stated .that they would leave their physical bodies oq thja earth, are apparently to tyke their diseases, deformities, or wounds into spirit land. The Dunedin correspondent of the Sun tells the following, story:— A fearful mistake was made here by two doctors, and endorsed by a chemist a few days ago. . A fine infant boy belonging to a .frienii of tnine had a severe attack of bronchitis. ' Two doctors, were called in, and wrote a prescription fof a iniment, which was made by one of our leading chemists. It was to be applied on a felt pad. The father, when putting the liniment on the pad, noticed that it was very strong, but the nurse-girl remarking c < That smells like, the embrocation," any suspicions he might have had were lulled. The stuff was; applied, and the ch, jld began fp, cry. Iph.p mother endeavored tq bush, it iq ljer arms, but the more she pressed it to hep bosom the more the child cried. At length the poor litte thing fainted, and thinking something was wrong, the father cut open the bandages and took off the pad, when the whole of the skin, from the collar-bone to the stomach, came off with it, and a fearful sight there was. In extreme haste the doctors were called in, when if was dispovere4 t4wt *J}e Hniment wot nitric acid pure and simple. The doctors were horrified, aud the chemist was sent for, but he produced the prescription. When asked why he had sent it out of his shop, he said he had only followed the prescription. I am glad to say that the infant is now believed to be out of danger, but for some lime his life was despaired of. If death had ensued, what then? Certainly, Dunedin has reason to be proud, oj its medical me.fy

A correspondent of an Australian paper say3:— -I may state that human hair, placed in rat holes, or laid about the premises, will banish these yermin. Any barber will gladly give ; it away, j Chloride of lime is also effica- • cioug.i i■ | ; • '" - \ ' \ N^e>Weftl@g|^nApeople^8 r fty3 the;Wairarapa^fawrfare/yappdar to 'flavor a MlriistYy of > which Mr Travers and Mr Gisborne would he members; but though the substitution of those gentlemen for Mr Whitakor and Mr Reid would gratify Wellington, we qucHtlon .whether it would prove equally, as autlnfuc-;tory-to the v two 'extremities of the colony. -And-this is a point which it will'bo well for Wellington to bear in mind. The conciliation of Auckland and Otagn is a matter of more importance to Wellington than thdr having one or more members of its own in the Ministry. There is an admirable opjior- ■ trinity now afforded for accomplishing tlilx object, but we doubt whether a now Ministry would be more likely to do this than the one at present in office. There is no knowing what combinations may be effected after Parliament meets on the 19th July. A writer in the Duuediu Star seems to consider that Corporations, should be made as much responsible for the water which they suppljr as a^e the vendjora of milk or of stronger He saya:— •" The Cpuih cil have exacted tsrtjb against the adulteration of bread, alcoholic drinks, See, but they eeom to labor 'under the* idea that they can, act with impunity in respect to the quality of ; the 1 articsS witlnw&ich they supply the puh-' lid, antt ojstr frhieh they hold the monopoly^ to.witj thd g£s and waterworks: I should tMnkJsirvth^ public would! be quite as (well justified Ifliref using] to pay:. for adulterated water as ( jtorj any, other adulterated' article 1 , . and hive as muoh heed of r& law td protect them |n $ae sis the _<jth^r, and J am $ot alone in thiakipg; ttse edn&uctof the Codnctl, to say tHe lease of it; i3 quite tiujuitiftablej when a small .expenditure would enable tjiem to^eudply7ihdcity with pure inter ift pTaco 6% theTunbeallihy r aiixture we are now forced to imbibe/,' f (}) : ! ?