Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 237, 6 October 1877, Page 2

We learn from the Wellington Post that the Hon. H.R. Russell has given half of the £500 damages he obtainedin the Waka Maori case to the Inland Hospital. We (Otago Daily 2'imee) hare been informed by one of the directors that the Standard Insurance Company have decided to issue their unallotted shares (50,000.) Mr Sheehan has been asked by Government what he wants to settle his threatened libel action against the Waka Maori. Ha has replied that he will be satisfied with full apology, Jand £100 for some charitable purpose. Probably he will get both, as Ministers are not likely to risk another trial. It is now said, on good authority, that they will have to ask for nearly £6000 to cover the costs of the last one. The plethora of labor existing in Clmstchurch, Duuediu, and Auckland, is not geueral in the colony. The Fielding correspondent of the Kangitikei Advocate says the contractors for 200,000 posts required by the Government will have to import labor. Another contractor for some bush felling went all round Halcorabe and offered 7s per day, or a share in the contract, but could obtain no men, and finally had to throw the contract up. The Wellington 4rgm of the 2nd instant says:— Mr Kennedy has passed safely through the ordeal of the Disqualification Committee. It appears the company to which he belonged was registered, but it dwindled from the legal seven shareholders, the number required to form a company duly incorporated, down to two or three, and on that ground he would be disqualified. But thera is a flaw in the Act. Clause 7 says that Government contractors "shall be incapable of beiug summoned to or of holding a seat }n the Legislative Council, or of being elected to serve as a member of the House of Representatives during the time he shall execute, hold, or enjoy any such contract or argument." The omissiou of the words " or°of holding a seat iu," as respects the House of Representatives, being interpreted as rendering a person disqualified from being elected, not disqualified to sit after his election. The Adelaide correspondent of a, Cauterbury journal writes :— " The more your New Zealand oats are used the better they are liked, and as they can be laid down here at about 3s a bushel, we are good for 100,000 bushels a year, even in a good season here. Your cheese is to be seen on everybody's table, and it is like better than English in many households. I believed that, as our population increases, the demand for all kinds of New Zealand produce, except wheat, will be considerably enhanced, and that a steady market for cheese, bacon, oats, oatmeal, and barley, especially will be fouud here. Butter, such as it i3, we seem to be able to supply ourselves with." An amusing anecdote comes from the East Coast to the Wellington Argus, showing the contempt the natives there have for the Magistrate's judgments, and the Queen'a authority. It appears that one Ahiwera te Hau was recently sentenced by Mr Campbell to sis months 1 imprisonment for breaking J '<

into Mr Jones' store at Tokomaru. The sentence was evaded and a warrant issued for nia apprehension, which was disregarded the prisoner's brother, Herewini, stating his willingness to undertake the kindly office to shoot anyone who offered to take the prisoner Captain Porter being at Tokaomru at the time, heard of this, obtained the warrant and, happening to meet with Mr Ahitvera told him he must consider himself his prisoner, shoot or no shoot. Immediate possession was requested and politely granted, one brother, the shootist, being told off to keep the other in custody, which, it appears he did faithfully for four days. When Captain Porter returned to Gisborne he undertook the safe delivery of Ahiwera, and handed him over to the police yesterday Captain Porter says his prisoner came with him like a lamb; attending to his horse sleeping unguarded, and otherwise submissive. This episode confirms our belief that while the natives refuse allegiance to a piece of paper, they are generally susceptible to a little reason, backed by the quiet determination of a man like Captain Porter. The London Times has recently published a leader warmly advocating federation in the Australian Colonies, and pointing out that the longer it is postponed the more difficult it will be to accomplish it, as divergent interests will keep the Colonies more and more apart as they progress to maturity I will interest our readers to hear that a Mr Vernadski, a JRussiau writer on political economy, has just published a work in which he speaks of English ambition being a menauce to the world. After recounting all her territorial gains of the last two centuries' he thinks the time has come wbeu her power ought to be crippled at her extremes In the first place, Mr Vernadski thinks it would be a good thing to take away her Australian possessions, though he conceives this would not do her irreparable injury. The book is attracting some attention, and may be taken as an indication of the sentiments the Muscovites entertain towards us. It would appear from the following paragraph in the European. Mail that the New ( Zealand flax plant has been successly acclimatised in Lincolnshire :— We (European Mail) are indebted to Mr Edmund Turner, M.P., for specimens of of New Zealand flax' in flower. The plants were raised from seed brought by Mr Turner from New Zealand in 1865, and though they have previously shown sigus of flowering they have never thrown up fully developed flower-stems till this year, when on two plants there are eight or ten flower-stems, six or eight feet in height— about their average height in their native country. Mr Turner's experience in the cold climate of Lincolnshire points to the conclusion that age has a great deal to do with the flowering of the plant. In any case the fact of its producing flowers hi the open air in Lincolnshire is very interesting, aud the more sa as the plants are in no way protected in winter. Mr Turner remarks that should any of the leaves turn brown and die after a severe frost, they are equally serviceable as bast for tying purposes. "So near and yet so far" might well hava been the exclamation of Captain Stewart, of the schooner Duuedin, wheu, after having worked hard all day to secure a fine whale, he was compelled to abandon his prize. The schooner was on her way to Dunedin, from Havelock, and came to an anchor one Eriday evening under Capo Campbell. Next morning a large black whale was seen disporting ittelf about the schooner, and, desirous of improving the opportunity, the doughty skipper manned his boat and started in pursuit. Twice was the fish harpooned, and twice got away, taking the irons with it, but eventually, after a chase which lasted all day, the whale was killed (shade of Captain Bunker) by a well directed prod with acrowg bar! By this time the boat was miles from the schooner, night was closing in, and, as there was no towing the fish with one boat, and no means of anchoring it, whilst the men had been without food since morning, they had to cut adrift, very much, as may be imagined, against their inclination. The whale measured 60 feet long, and was esti mated as a seven ton fish. The feat, for it was undoubtedly one, says the Otago Times, of Captain Stewart and his men deserve to be placed ou record, if only for the unique mode of giving the coup de grace, for whoever before heard of killing a whale with a crowbar! A man named Gilligan died in the Liverpool (N.S. W.) Asylum on September 6, at the advanced age of 107. At Oamaru recently a workman named David Jamieson dropped down dead. The cause of death was heart disease, Three similar cases of sudden death occurred in the same week from the same cause in different parts of the colony.