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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 253, 25 October 1877, Page 2

Five sheep exhibited at the late Agrictural show at Napier -were killed in order to decide a bet aa to their weights. These were found to be 120, UO, 149, 149, and 150lbs. At a meeting of the creditors of James M'Dowell and Co., drapers, of Wellington, the liabilities were stated to be £32,000, and the assets £41,000. The premies of Henry Guthrie, shipping agent, Crawford-street, Dunedin, were broken into on Saturday or Sunday night. The iron safe was smashed open, but it contained no money or valuables. The burglars, disappointed at their want of success, wrote "sold" on the lid of the safe, aud left a sledge hammer and other tools behind them. During a thunderstorm in Sussex recently, the lightning entered Blatchington Battery, and struck a knife with which a soldier had just cut a piece of bread. The knife was cut completely in two. The man escaped unhurt. The Clutha Council has been terribly puzzled to fix on a suitable seal. AH manner of designs have be«n submitted, but one Councillor, after devoting a lot of time to thinking the matter out, believes he ha3 hit upon the right sort of thing at last, and intends to submit the following triumphantly at the next meeting: -A rabbit patiently eating a Scotchman (thistle), and "Laud Tax " for a motto. Mr Wakefleld has introduced a Public Libraries Bill, repealing the Act of 1869, and providing that any Library Committee which shall have received voluntary contributions to the amount of £lo shall be entitled to receive an equal sum from any moneys appropriated by the Assembly for the purpose. It is currently rumored (says the Herald) that a memori&l, signed by forty-two residents in the city of Auckland, charging an official in Auckland, who, for some time, has been holding rather an important position, with intemperance and other delinquencies has been forwarded to the head of his department here, praying for an inquiry iuto the alleged matter of complaint. A Canadian ox weighing 400 stone (s,Goolbs) was recently exhibited at the Surrey Gardens, London. He occupied a marquee on the lawn and was the observed of all observers. Among those who attended his court on the 15th July last, was the Prince and Princess of Wales, who expressed their admiration of the wonderful beast. He is one of the four animals sent over to England by Messrs Reeves, of Toronto, and which were exhibited at Liverpool. A New South Wales teamster reoently planned the death of his daughter by offering her poison. She was, however, alarmed, and averted a horrible death by her natural wariness. Her father, finding that his act had been detected, resolved to put himself beyond the reach of the law. He took a draught of the poison he had procured for his daughter. In a few moments he was seized with spasms, and shortly afterwards expired writhing in agony..' A return has been made of the expenditure in the Tichborne prosecution. The total costs, charges, and expenses of the prosecution amounted to over £60,074 I9s 4d, of which £23,696 odd went in counsels' fees, £18,712 6s to witnesses, agents, &c, £10,268 I as (kl to law stationers and for printing, ' £3637 10s 4d for shorthand writers' nqtes' j and £3780 to the jury. { The owners of the steamship Great j Eastern (says a London journal) are consider- I ing the expediency of converting their huge slap into a refrigerating chamber for the conveyance of fresh meat from America to England. The rapid development of this trade, not only with the United States, but also with Canada ai*.d Brazil, will, it is thought, generally ensure the great vessel a full load. The aggregate importation into the ports of the United Kingdom during the first three months only of the current year was 477,598 cwts., valued at £1,273,232 of which the United States contributed about three-fourths. The Taupo correspondent of the Bay of Plenty Timts writes :— " The Maoris generally are busy planting their crops and at Tokano they are extensively cropping, snaring birds, aud procuring other dainties, in order that there may be a right royal feast for the Maori ' king,' who ha3 been invited by tbe Taupo tribes to visit the Lake, and his majesty it is said, has accepted the invitation, lt is expected that the great gathering will take place some time this summer, we are alao told that the dusky potentate has issued a proclamation to the effect that tlje present gtate of political and social affair's will terminate eighteen months from the present time, and that the Maori poople will be especially favored at that period." With reference to the proposed visit of the Prince of Wales to the Australian Colonies, the Melbourne Telegraph says.*-— The latest telegrams received on the subject are from Lord Carnarvon to his Excellency Sir George Bowen. They state that H.R.H. has quite decided to visit Australia, and that he is especially anxious to be present at the opening of the Melbourne Exhibition. The Prince, however, is reluctant to make the trip without the company of the Princess who is as anxious to come as her husbaud' himself, but who is equally reluctant to leave her children for so long a period as the tour would occupy. Though it is by no means certain, therefore, it is just possible that all Australia and New Zealand may be gratified by fhe visit of the Princep and some of her children at least, as well as of our future king.

— 7 ._. ( „ The following paragraph is from the Grey River Argus-.—The boasted liberty of the Press has never been more disgracefully abused than by the New Zealand Sun, a paper which we confess we are surprised should have allowed its columns fco be prostituted in the manner which they have been. The subject of our comments is an article enjoying the prominence of the leading' columns of fche Sun, attaching to the Resident Magistrate at Reefton an accusation that in regard to his committal of Harry Smith for trial, he was influenced by private considerations. A more shameful breach of the few respectabilities that are still maintained or are supposed to be maintained by the public 1 ress of New Zealand, we never came across. It is nofc our purpose fco discuss the matter, as ifc is one which must inevitably come before a court of law. The following which speaks of the strength and ferocity of the large species of hawks have been supplied to the Ballarat Star by a well-known Ballarat gentlemen:—" Driving into Ballarat a few days ago, and when near the old Ascot mills, my attention was directed to the movement of a rather large hawk i (nofc an eaglehawk). The object of the bird seemed to be fco dine off one of a number of lambs scattered over a paddock. Makiug a swoop, fche hawk seized one, and, apparently, without much effort, flew off with its priza t0 a fiel «i some humdred yards away and alighting, at once commenced preparations for the feast. Meanwhile I had requested a man passing along the road to pursue fche bird and recover the lamb. This was done, and scarcely half a minute elapsed from the time the hawk alighted on the ground to the appearance of the man on the spot. The bird flew off, and the iamb was picked up and brought to me. It was split open down the breast and abdomen from end to end as clean as if the butcher'a knife had been employed to do the work." Some interesting information concerning the effect of the reward offered by the Government for the capture and destruction of sharks in Hobson's and Port Phillip Bays is contained in papers recently presented to i the Legislative Assembly. The Inspector of Fisheries, in a report dated July 25, states ! thafc he found from enquiries made from I fishermen thafc for years past the supply of I edible fish had been gradually declining, while the number of sharks seemed to be on the increase. In the winter months the large sharks go to deep water near the Heads, while the younger ones, Tarying in size to 6f fc remain higher up the bay, and consume a large quantity of small fish. Before the reward was offered the fishermen could not afford to spend their time in shark-catchin***-bufc now many of them have taken it up as°a business. At first large numbers of sharks were taken high up the bay, but now the fishermen have to go below Morningfcon and along the St Leonard's side in search of them. Atthe Brighton station over 2000 sharks were produced, and only one. a "tiger" shark exceeded sft in length . The following amended scale was submitted to the Commissioner of Customs on behalf of the fishermen:—2ft and under, 3d each; to sft, 9d each; to Bft, 8d per foot; to 10ft ls per footover 10ft, 2s 6d per foot. A singular case was being tried at Beechworth when the Arawata left. Mrßillson a member of the House of Representatives, brought an action against a man named Brown for slander, and claimed £1000 damages. The case arose through the defendant having circulated a report, backed up on in- :? rm , a ,M? a 3wora before him *» * magistrate, thatßiUsonwasa « lag," thereby prejudicing his candidature in the contest for the Ovens election The plaintiff gave a complete history of his life, and proved beyond a donbt that he had never been in a chain gang in Tasmania nor had he ever been before a Courfc of Justice. Tl\e PantheiP de I Industrie, published in Pans, in its number of the 10th July gives an account of the remarkable excaVations used as cellars by the champagne establishment of 1 heophile ßoederer and Co, at Reims ihey cover the wonderful area of ten acres' and they date back to an unknown antiquity -probably to the time when the Romans held possession of Gaiil. The floor is in places 30 or 40 feet below tbe surface, and numerous galleries with arched roofs make a network of tunnels with an aggregate length of many miles, aud room to store 10,000,000 bottles. Thebed rock is of a chalky nature, noe unlike thafc at Sonoma, where the Buena Vista Company has a cellar made by running tunnels into the mountain side lhe mildness and uniformity of the temperature in the deep excavations at Reims are said to be among the chief causes of the superior excellence of the Roederer champagne which, within a few years, has obtained a leading position in the markets of the United States, England, and Russia, which pay the highest prices and demand the best. It is said thafc fchese cellars in the chalk are entirely' dry, bufc that remark does nofc apply, we believe, to the tunnel cellars of Sonoma, though we presume, dryness could be obtained I !m* uhe V lllO rema ins two years in the bottle before being sent to market, and this long ripening is, doubtless, one of the causes of its superiority.