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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 274, 19 November 1877, Page 2

The local Times reports an extraordinary case of larceny afc Kumara Detective Brown noticed an elderly man, with a long flowing beard, enveloped in a noticeable plaid, steal a Crimean shirt from the verandah of fche Cash Palace. The detective followed the man to the Empire Hotel, wbere he was stopping, and arrested him. When the man was searched a bag was found attached to his belt, which contained 116 sovereigns notes £18, silver Bs, and a deposit receipt for £556. The prisoner is an Italian, but speaks English perfectly. He says he had been hawking through the colonies, partly in Queensland, and that he walked fco Kumara from Nelson. He will be brought before the Resident Magistrate to-day. On Satnrday last (says fche Picton Press) some gold-bearing quartz was shown in Picton from the prospecting claim afc Golden Point and it rivalled in richness the produce of the most celebrated claims on Nuggetty and Eagle Hawk Reefs, Tarrangower, Columbian Reef, Inglewood, or the Cross Reefs, Pleasant Creek, Victoria. Higher testimony than this cannot be accorded, but the specimens shown fully deserve all the good thafc can be said of fchem, for some of the stone appears to be jusfc hanging together with bands of gold, and it is hard to determine in some pieces whether gold or stone most predominates. The proprietors of the claim allege that on the face of the quartz as left at the latest working the gold appears as thickly studded as it does iv fche valuable specimens obtained. We have no reason to doubt the correctness of this assertion, and may readily believe that the ta'ue ot the find has not been exaggerated, in which event the proprietors of the claim may be congratulated upon being the possessors of a most valuable property. We take the followiug from the Post of Wednesday last:— There appears to be a growing feeling that the Opposition ia beginning to show indications of collapsing, and t iat the present Governmen. will weather the storms of the session, and glide safely into the still waters of the recess This opinion may be well founded. Time has been fighting for the Ministry. Then members are becoming sick of the length of the session, and would fain be away homewards Assuming that Opposition were abandoned.' it would be possible to bring the session fco a close, and prorogue Parliament in something like ten days. s The New Zealand Stsn, of Ist November, hasthe following item from the Rangitoto Silver Mines :-« Our correspondent from the Mount Rangitoto Silver Mines states that fche road to the mines has been progressing very slowly; it will take five weeks yet to complete it. We hear that the new manager is satisfied with the appearance of the ore, and that he has comme iced a re v tunnel, in which he expects to strike the main lead within six He says, from the bearings taken ard the general indications, that he considers Jumself perfecly justified in thinking that his supposition will prove correct. Shares still keep above par.

The following is Voltaire's views of ' a Turko-Russian war :— A hundred thousand mad animals, whose heads are covered with hats, advance to kill or to be killed by their fellow mortals covered with turbans. By this strange procedure they want to know whether a tract of land, to which none of them has any claim, should belong to a certain man whom they call the Sultan, or another whom they call the Czar— neither of whom ever saw or ever will see the spot so furiously contended for, and very few of those creatures who thus mutually butcher each other ever beheld the animal for whom they cut each other's throats.

An Auckland telegram to the Pott says:— A yound man with highly respectable connections has been committed to the lunatic asylum. He was found in the early part of the day in a wild state in Cracrof t-street, Parnell. With much difficulty he was taken to the police station, where he was examined by two medical gentlemen. The young man recently received a £2000 legacy under his father's will, who for many years was a tea merchant in Fenchnrch - street, London. The sudden possession of so much money had a disastrous effect upon his mind, and introduced him to certain friends and companions, who had not proved to his advantage. In one week he exhausted £250 in treating women and tippliug, regardless of consequences. The unfortunate man is a descendant of a noted Derbyshire family, several members of which are clergymen of the Church of England. One of his great uncles, the late Recto .* of Witney, in Oxfordshire, was distingaisl ed as a great scholar and theological writer. He was also an instructo- of no mean abilities, and among his pupils were Dr. Sumner, the late Bishop of Winchester, Mr Tytler, historian of Scotland, and the late Hoi and Eer. John Baptist Noel.

The Thames Advertiser considers the telegrams from native chiefs to the Government simply " hypocritical longings for the loaves and fishes of the Native Department, by means of which a horde of land parasites have been supported for years past. A policy of firmness and not flattery is the only safeguard for the future." The Advertiser notes the gradual but sure concentration of the Maoris in the King country, and adds : <'We feel more than ever the necessity there is on the part of the settlers to fear the department • and keep their powder dry,' for recent events and correspondence between the King coutry and the Thames point to trouble in the distance. Depend upon it the struggle, when it does come, will be « short, sharp, and decisive.' "

A suit was going oa when the last mail left, in the San Francisco Law Courts, in which a boy, through his guardian, sued a Tramway Company for 50,000d015. The boy was crossing the street, got run over, had his leg broken, and it had to be amputated, so that he has became a cripple. Yet something like £10,000 is heavy damages to claim.

To be read with two pairs of spectacles.— When a man leaves our side and goes to the other side, he is a traitor, and we always felt that there was a sub^'e something wrong about him. But when a man leaves the other side and comes over to us, then he is a man of great moral courage, and we always felt that he had sterling stuff in him.

The working jewellers of Dunedin are petitioning Parliament for an additional tax upon importations in their line. Greenstone jewellery is now imported from Germany. The Colonial born youth are looking up in Auckland, and have offered to find a team to fire against all competitors of all nationalities from any part of the Colony. The Colonials have some capital shots among them, who have proved their skill at the targets in many matches, and it will take a good team to beat them.