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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 4, 4 January 1878, Page 2

The great German capital, Berlin, is going I I through a terrible real estate collapse. There | are 20,000 houses vacant in the city, J

When the Canterbury Immigration Officer lately made an examination of the local Registrars' of Marriages books, he ascertained that for three years previously 90 per cent, of the marriages had been from the domestic servant class, and he believed that ifc would be found that the proportion was still the same, were a similar inspection made. The West Coast Times notices as an event worthy of record that one of fche local publicans has reduced the price of beer to 3d per glass. Mr Morgan, a coloured gentleman, who came out in the Hurunui, not only conducted divine service on board throughout the voyage, but engaged in an active temperance crusade. As the result, he induced about thirty of the crew and passengers to become total abstainers, and of these some ten or twelve, who remain in Wellington, have joined fche Pioneer Lodge I.O.G.T.— Post. A Wellington paper says :— A horrible case of cruelty to a horse has been investigated by the Marton magistrate. A man named John Bird was riding along the high road, in company with another man, when his horse stumbled. Bird dismounted, and took off the saddle and bridle. In the presence of several witnesses he then proceeded to " hack away at the animal's throat with his pocketkuife," until the poor beast was covered with blood, and was so weak that a slight push from its inhuman owner sent it on its side on the road. The by-standers, who were of course called to give evidence iv Court, said they were so " horrified" at the sight that they were powerless to interfere. Bird was fined £7, or in default two months' imprisonment with hard labour. The miscreant may thank his lucky star for getting off so lightly. He deserved three dozen with thejcafc. A Dunediu paper thus. relates how two men passed a whole night on a beacon:— As the steamer Shag was going from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, a few days ago, and when some distance from the second red beacon, Captain Wing noticed some one waving from the beacon. Thinking that a boat had capsized he steered for the spot, when he found a man and a lad clinging to the beacon. He took them on board, and they told him how they came to be in the position in which he found them. They had gone fishing the previous evening, [and were out in the harbor when a heavy gale set in. They pulled for the beacon, to which they moored their boat, and they got up on the buoy. While perched on this exposed place of refuge the boat's paintei broke, and the boat drifted away, leaving the refugees helpless. Throughout the long, boisterous night the two unfortunates clung to the beacon, where they were found by Captain Wing, at 7-30 on the following morning. Notwithstanding the severity of fche weather, and the somewhat terrifying position in which they were placed, the man and the lad did not seem to be much the worse for their adventure. The latter, in answer to a question put by Captain Wing, said they kept themselves warm by hugging each other, a circumstance which, had there beeu auy onlookers, must have giveu a humorous coloring to an otherwise dismal picture. On board fche Shag they were treated fco a warm breakfast, and as soon as fche steamer touched the wharf they landed and went away apparently as well as if nothing strange had happened' jj