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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 38, 13 February 1878, Page 2

Charles Darwin, author of the " Origin of Species " — otherwise of the missing-link fclieory— is to be made an L L. D. His health is said to be not very good. The statue to Captain Cook, which, with a laudable desire to do homage to the great navigator, the Government of New South , Wales intend to erect at Sydney, is lapidly progressing towards completion. Mr Woolner, the eminent sculptor, to wnom the work i has been entrusted, has already modelled the statue in clay, and it is now being subjected to the usual process of conversion into the plaster mould preparatory to its being cast iv bronze. It will be one of the largest statues England has seen, save and except the Achilles statue in Hyde Park. The design is worthy of Air Woolner's artistic reputation. Captain Cook, in a characteristic naval uniform, is represented with arm raised on high, as though he had just discovered laud— proud of the privilege vouchsafed to him of adding a new continent to the known world. General Grant is making a tour of Italy. Russia and Turkey are cancelling orders for military supplies in England. jj

It is thus that the editor of the Timaru Herald denounces the atrocious capabilities of our New Zealand Assembly Hall, and sobs over its discomforts :— " We have home the privations of the country accommodatiou houses ; we hiive often made ourselves cosy enough in a good dry tent, for a week at a stretch ; we have shared many a humble home in various parts of New Zealand. Any sort of a domicile, though directly antagonistic to health or peace of mind, as the Parliamentary Buildiugs at Wellington, we certainly were never called upon to occupy. For uoise, draughts, fleas, stenches, dust, tabacco smoke, lack iv privacy, and general wretchedness, we are prepared to back that forlorn establishment agaiust all the world. The ' apartments" consist simply of Bellamy's— a cold, ugly, square dining room, with an open bar in one corner, and a screen to hide the waiters and dirty crockery at one end ; a lavatory about twelve feet by teu, with eight basins and the same uumber of brushes and combs, amongst a hundred and thirty dusty people ; a long, shabby, and very leaky passage, where two persons meeting jostle one another, and up and down which the winds of heaven sweep incessantly ; a draughty smok-ing-room (which is also a waiting-room and reference library) ; a small and well desolate " tea-room" which has theadvantage of being the only place where no one smokes, and, finally, a nasty, cocoa-matted, grubby chamber, called the " Strangers-room," which is usually occupied by Moaries. and into which no one with a drop of the milk of human kindness would invite a bailiff. A serious affair occured at the Catholic picnic at Woodville South Australia. In a race tbe riders started without any course being made, and ran into the crowd at the other end. The foremost rider knocked down the children, and one was seriously injured, and is in a precarious condition. In spite of every effort to stop him, the man went round a second time, and knocked down another child. He was racing round for the third time when he was arrested by the police. Prof. Agassiz says that among certain Indian tribes, on the day of a marriage, whi'e the wedding festivities are going on, the bridegroom's hands are tied up in a paper bag with fire ants. If he bears this torture smilingly and unmoved, he is considered fit for the trials of matrimony. An English paper received by the last mail says:— A public park, twelve and a half acres in extent, has been presented to the burgesses of Jedbugh by Mr. John Tinline, a native of that town, now in New Zealand, aud other members of his family. Ou the 4th inst. the bells rung, aud in the evening a large bonfire was kindled at the Market-place in honor of tho occasion. There was a rumor afloat (says the Nap er Telegraph) that the old supporters of Sir Julius Yogel were sending a pressing invitation for him to again come to New Zealand and take an active part in its politics, in the full belief that he would again gather such a party together as would be able to carry on , the Government of the colony. It would ) appear as if there were some truth in the rumor, for we find the Otago Daily Times, Mr Macandrew's organ, urging that he be re-jnstated in his office of Agent-General at the end of his term of that office at the end of the year. A man has been fined £5 at Greymouth for being drunk at Brunnerton railway station, jumping into the train while in motion, and travelling without a ticket. A railway portership is not a pleasant billet, if incidents of the following character are of so common occurrence:— An incident took place at a Victorian railway station very much to the consternation of the person principally concerned. It seems that some months ago a small tin box was found in one of the passenger carriages, and not having been claimed, it was opened two or three days back, and the contents found to be of a soapy appearance. One of the porters took a small portion with him, and i proceeded to wash his hands therewith in a bucket; but no sooner did the substance touch the water than an explosion took place as loud as the report of a gun, fortunately, however, without injuring the porter. The box was subsequently taken to a chemist, who pronounced the contents to be sodium. Our Roman Catholic readers and others will be pleased to learn that the Bishop of Brisbane, Queensland, who is at present staying at Waiwera (Hot Springs) for the benefit of his health, continues to improve. On Sunday, the 27th ult., his lordship celebrated mass iv the uew and spacious diningroom of the Waiwera Hotel ; after which he delivered an impressive and learued discourse, which was listeued to with marked and eager attention by the congregation composed of representees of all Christian denominations. The altar wa3 elegantly prepared and decorated for the occasion by a young gentleman who is staying at the hotel. The Australasian, referring to revivalism, styles it " a wild, emotional piety, stimulated iuto existence by unnatural fosterings, and with no intellectual ballast." The rage of the moment in Paris is for Japanese jewellery. Fancy jewellery of olive brown metal, with designs in gold, chatelaine-vinaigrettes, belt buckles, agraffes for cloaks— in a word, everything in Japanese. A hundred stone-cutters left New York city lately for England. They were engaged to work ou the new Law Court Buildings in London, in place of the men on strike. It is said that the patronage of the Church of Scotland has largely fallen into the hands of its female members, they numbering in voting power 24,000 to 16,000 males. Some American farmers are getting into the habit of setting aside an acre of land to be cultivated at odd hours, so he called th. " Book Acre," the proceeds to be invested in books on farming. Cotton is now being successfully cultivated in California notwithstanding the high price of labour there. Colonel Strong, of Merced, last year cultivated 100 acres of cotton on his estate, and obtained therefrom 40,0001bs of clean gained cotton, an average of 400lbs per acre; which is a larger yield than was obtained in any of the most noted cotton growniug States of the Union. Here is an alarming fact for wine drinkers as^certified to by Mature :— The chemists of Berlin have been occupied lately in analysing the wares of the wine merchants, and no little excitement has been caused by the discovery that the entire stock of one of the largest houses dealing in wines for medicinal purposes consisted entirely of artificially prepared mixtures of spirit and sugar solutions, flavored with various herbs. " iEgles," in the Australasian, says : — " I am told that there is au order in the colonies from the British Government for £140,000 worth of timber, to be used in the erection of barracks at Port Said, the Mediterranean mouth of the Suez Canal. The order is a conditional one a3 to price, aud I presume is for red gum or jarrah, as softwood could be had from some nearer point. The siguifi- ' cance of the order is that it indicates British military occupation of at least a portion of i Egypt."