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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 305, 26 December 1877, Page 2

There are upwards of 3000 gods in the Japenese calendar, and every good person in. Japan must be able to repeat them all from memory. It was very careless leaving the parrot in the parlor Snnday evening, but she never thought anything about it until Monday morning, when he roused the whole house by making a smacking noise and crying, " Darling Susie ; darling Susie." He kept it up all day, too, and the old folk as much interested in the case. One of the latest rumors respecting the reconstruction o£ the Ministry, according to the correspondence of the Southland Times, is, that the Hon. Mr Waterhouse will take the place of the Hon. Colonel Whitmore as the representative of the Government in the Legislative Council. If this be true, the Government will certainly be a gainer. It is no secret that the leadership of the Hon. Colonel Whitmore was not very successful during the latter part of the sesssiou, and there is no do.ubt that the Hon. Mr Waterhouse, as the representative of the Government, would be highly acceptable to a large majority of the Legislative Councillors. Mr R. J. Creighton, formerly of Auckland* and who has for some time past been a resident in San Francisco, writes to a friend here in reference to three new patented machines for gold saving, for which he has secured the exclusive right of use and manufacture for New Zealand and Australia. Mr Creighton says ;— " lam satisfied I have got control of three machines which will save all the gold without any great outlay, on black sand, gravel, tailing, &c., without waste o>auy more water than is necessary to run the engine. The inventions are fast coming into use, and 50,000d015. has been offered for the control of the patent of one of these machines for California. . . The reports of independent and uninterested mining engineers are unanimous in favor of tip •" dry placer amalgamator." Tjjjs macbine would save the Government any further expenditure fpr water on goldfields. The Hon. Henry de Bohun Devereux, of Auckland, has lately been appointed a Justice of the Peace for the Colony, and the Timaru Herald thus discourses thereon :— Mr Devereux is next brother of Lord Hereford Premier Visconnfc of England and is 29 years sf age. The family of Devereu* is one of the oldest families in England, being descended in at least one line from the Royal Plantagenets. Would not Edward the Third have started had he been informed by his private astrologer that a lineal descendent of his own would one day ascend— not to the throne of England, but the magisterial bench of New Zealand ? It only shows what great? ness' may awaj.t even the most humble people if they behave th'emselyea and set their posterity a good example. We hope the Hon. Henry de Bohun Devereux will prove worthy of the eminent position to which he has ac- i coded, and— remembering what he sprang j from — won't be too stuck up about it. Men can't help being mushrooms. That is their misfortune, not their fault. B, ut they ought not to give themselves airs on account of sudden grandeur.

During the volunteer meeting at Wimbledon, the London Scottish, as is the wont of that hospitable corps, gave several dinners to their civilian friends from the North and from town. A witness tells the following —A gentleman in mufti, evidently hailing from the north of the Tweed, wag sitting next to one of the officers. The waiter b: ought round sherry with the soup, and was about to pour some into the guest's glass, when he stopped him, and, turning to his neighbor, asked, " Does ane pay for his lequor here ?" "Of course not, replied the officer ; " you're a guest, and have not to pay for anything." "Heck, mon !" exclaimed our friend, highly pleased, " but I shall get /■«'." (Turning to the waiter.) Aye, gi'e rue sherry, There is a man named Felix Rojas in the ci6y of Tulea, Chile, who has reached the extraordinary age of 136 pears. He wa3 born in 1740. He smokes a pipe, and has used tobacco steadily for 120 years. His eyes are quite weak now, but he has never used spectacles, and is generally able to read large print, He is not a large man, being scarcely five feet five inches in height, and never weighed over lsolbs. Singular to relate, Rojas has lived to this ripe age in defiance of many vicissitudes and habits that are belie ml tO Shorten a man's term of lifeProm the age of 20 till he was 70 he wag a habitual driuker, and for a long period of that time such a confirmed tippler that his health was seriously affected, and it was believed that he could not have survived long. Four figures, which are intended to stand round the pedestal of the gold trophy of Victoria in the Paris Exhibition, have been prepared for the commissioners by Mr Kreitmeyerof the Melbourne Waxworks, They cojsist of a blackfellow and his lubra, a sLockman, and a digger. Both the blacks may be regarded as faithful likenesses of the first inhabitants of this colony. They are clothed iv the conventional 'possum rug, and the woman bears a child on her shoulders. For the typical digger and stockmin, two good-looking men have evidently stood as models. The stockman is noticeable for the excellence with which the sju brown has been wrought into his complexion. The head and arms of the figures have been executed in wax. Should they reach Paris in safety, the Aigus thinks they ought to have a magnetic influence on visitors. The following is an extract from a report given by the Melbourne Argus of one of the disgraceful " scenes" in the Victorian Legislative Assembly :— Mr Lalor referred to Mr Purvea as a " police court practitioner." •' No doubt of it," said Mr Purves, " and iv that capacity I have had considerable experience of such men as the Minister of Customs, and have learned how to deal with them." In reply to some further sarcasms, Mr Lalor interjected, " Say Judas Iscariot at once." " No." said Mr Purves, " for Judas Iscariot carried the money bag, and no one would trust tho hon. member with that." The interchange of compliments came fast and furious, and the result was a continual uproar, the Ministerial side attempting f reqnently to put Mr Purves down by uncouth sounds and crier. We take the following from the Post of Wednesday : — Apparently a sort of political " stumping" tour is to take place all over the colony. Sir George Grey has opened fire at Napier, and presently we shall hear of his speech to the people of Auckland city. Meantime Mr Macandrew has gone down to Dunedin, and we gather from his faithful organ, the Otago Daily Times, that he is to be feted or banquetted, and that a post-ses-sional deliverance is expected from him on the political situation. Seeing that Sir G. Grey has been very vague in the exposition of his intended policy, it would be very desirable that a practical, able man like Mr Macandrew should express his views. His speech would be most " iaforming" to the couutry~if he chose to make it so. But, as it happens, Mr Macandrew is not over fond of speech making, and above all, he entertains a strong dislke to "showing his hand.' ' We are therefore afraid that at the suggested Otago demonstration, he will say as little as possible, about what the country really wants to know. However, time will show. The descent from the sublime to the ridiculous (says a Wellington paper) is sometimes very rapid, as witness the following, taken from our gentle contemporary : "Here and there are smiling homesteads, embowered in trees, and enwreathed with flowers. Havens of rest they seem. Abodes of quiet peace, and we who have so recently left the city's dust aud turmoil behind, feel as tbough he *c we would like to end our days— when, hark! the shrill scream of a punished child assails our ears, and our dream is over. And thus it i 3 ever and anon." All along the route the " spanked " child interferes with the sentiment, and spoils the effect of " the little lambs at play." How very inconsiderate of the mother of bairn. Seven years ago a woodcarter (says the Geelong Advertiser) became iuvolved in financial difficulties, and he sought the assistance of a money-lender in this district. Ten pounds were lent, and a lien was taken over a horse, dray, and harness. The moneylender generously agreed to allow the woodcarter the use of the cart, etc., at a rental of 10s per week. This sum has been regularly paid, the sum received by the lender of the £10 amounting to £182 in the seven years. War telegrams (says a writer to the Press) inform us that in twenty days 15,000 men died in Bulgaria; that hundreds of men who daily die under canvas are thrown into the mud not fifty yards from where they died; that atFratesti, where there were 10,000 sick, there were only two doctors and six attendant to look after them. Any one who is fond of harrowing details can have plenty of them by reading our war news. I expect after this there will be any amojnt of glory flopping up for some half dozen people. Glory is a poor thing after all, I don't believe a man could raise a fiver on the security of a dozen famous victories, aud I really think Mr Bigiow's opinion of war is nearly correct. '• Wut's the use o' meetin-goiu' Every Sabbath, wet or dry, Ef it's right to go a mowin' Feller men like oats an rye ? I dunno but what's it's pooty Traiuin round in bobtail coats, But its curus Christian dooty, This 'ere cuttin' of folk's throats."