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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 44, 20 February 1878, Page 2

The N. Z. Times, a stanch supporter of Mr Pearee, in commenting upon the result of the recent election, says of Mr Barton :— That he had not a shadow of a chance of being elected was the general opinion of Ministerialists. On Saturday au influential deputation of Sir George Grey's supporters waited on Mr Barton and urged him to resign iu favor of Mr Hutchison. But Mr Barton was impervious to their blandishments, and stated his determination to go to tho poll. Yesterday's proceedings must impress ou gentleman of Mr Barton's turn of mind that the deputation were possessed of an astounding amount of assurance. Mr Hutchison, the " staunch" Greyite, polled 264 votes, -whilst Mr Barton, the « outsider" polled 506. The free and independent electors of Wellington flung politics aside, and went in for sympathy. Mr Barton's incarceration in her Majesty's gaol, for contempt of Court, created an immouse amount of sympathy on his behalf. In the eyes of a large number the punishment appeared out of proportion to the offence. A cry of persecution was raised where there was no persecution. People do not pause to consider that in the interest of all, the poor especially, it is highly necessary that confidence should not be shaken in the integrity of thc administrators of the law. The purity of our Courts has been and is one of thc proudest boasts of Englishmen, If the fountain of justice is to remain undefiled, respect for those who wear thc ermine should be maintained and all charges of unfairness, open or implied, should be promptly and firmly suppressed. Judges no doubt are often guilty of tyrannical acts; but iu our opinion no such charge can be made against the Supreme Court Judges who sentenced Mr Barton to a month's imprisoumeut. In the interest of the public wq now feel bound to

say that much. * * * * As Mr Barton was debarred from speaking himself, we reported every word the son said in the father's favor; and Mr Barton may thank his son for winning the election. Almost everybody sympathised with the young fellow as he stepped forward on the hustings and spoke on behalf of his absent father. The position of fche speaker rendered every word eloquent. Now that Mr Barton has been returned, we trust that he will represent the city more than his own grievances, although these grievances obtained for him a large proportion of votes. * * * * It is a matter for regret that Mr Pearee has not been returned; but there is consolation in fche fact that the bost of the other two candidates has. Fiery Mr Barton is more preferable than a political weathercock." Late on Saturday night a house occupied by Mr. Murtagh, at the Hutt, was totally destroyed by fire. Mr. Murtagh was absent ia the Wairarapa, bufc his wife and two children were in the house. Mrs. Murtagh was awakened by the crackling of wood, aud on getting out of bed she found the fire had gained such headway that she aud her children had to escape by the windows. The Melbourne Punch has a cartoon which represents the Victorian Governor disregarding the pleading of a young maiden, representing the " Constitution," and yielding to the solicitations of an ugly old; female called "Revolution." Wife-beaters, larrikins, and other evil doers are pictured as rejoicing at the dismissal of the Magistrates. At the assault-at-arms of the 99th Regiment in England, Staff-instructor M'Kenzie performed some great sword feats, and a la William Tell, placing a apple on his son's head, he took the fruit off in seven or eight slices by sweeps of bis sword from left to right, and then cut another apple in half on the boy'a neck without touching the skin. Having then wreaked his vengeance on a sheep, which he cleft in twain with one blow, the worthy Staff-instructor retired amid applause. Charles Darwin has been made an L.L.D. of Cambridge. The scene in the Senate House beggars description. The opportunity for the display of undergraduate fun was too good to be lost, and from the crowded galleries were suspended monkeys in academical dress, while hurrahs for "Primeval man," cries of "Our original papa," admonitions not to " sit on your tail," were bountifully addressed to the eminent naturalist amid shouts of laughter and the ring of Lord Neaves'a evolution song from a chorus of a thousand voices. The great and steady mortality going on amongst the Maori race is referred to by the New Zealand Herald as being indicated nowhere 30 plainly as iu the number of succession orders that come before the Native Lands Court. Indeed, ifc remarks, looking afc the proceedings of certain recent sittings of that Court, it would seem as if the issue of these orders was now its chief work. A number of Maoris lease a block of land, and it is found that amongst perhaps a score of lessees the death are frequent, and application has to be made to the Court to decide who is entitled to receive the share of those who have died. In very few cases have these natives left any direct offspring, and their property has to go go to distant relatives. Here is another example of how oboriginal races fade away iu the presence of the Au-glo-Saxon. What war has done for the Maoris we know ; but now when peace reigns, when they live in their settlements, no mau daring to make them afraid, when most of them have incomes, and all of them have abundance of fertile land to cultivate they are dying off as fast as ever. The iuformation at our command does not enable us to say how ifc fares with the Kingites bufc this mortality amongst the natives who live amongst us is sadly great. Hitherto the torpedo has been looked upon as paralysing the efforts of the most powerful navies, but recent results show thafc the torpedo has been credited with too much power. On the Danube, after one or two surprises, the Turkish monitors were easily able to protect themselves against the Russian torpedos, though it is true the Turkish Black Sea Fleet has been kept at a respectable distance from Odessa, from fear of hidden explosives. On board H.M.S. Terneraire some important torpedo experiments were recently tried. With every appliance, it was found that the progress of torpedos iu the water was so slow thafc a handy vessel could easily get out of their way, while when fired bow on, as a gentle reminder that the ram was to follow, they zig-zagged about in a very erratic mauner. Iu one case Mr Smith narrowly escaped having a mauvais Quart d heure at the Admiralty. The Temeraire, going bow on, sent a torpedo in front of her againat an imaginary vessel. After going a short distance, the torpedo incontinently stopped dead, and in another minute the ship was over it. Had that torpedo been loaded as in actual warfare, H.M.S Temeraire would have been blown up, and half a million of money with her. It being thus dangerous to fire a torpedo bow on, the only other way is to fire them broadside ; but before a ship could get within a torpedo distance broadside on, the heavy ordnance nowadays would have made it very hot for her. Ifc seems proved that in actual warfare torpedos will play bufc an insignificant parfc ; bnt for harbor defence they are no doubt very reliaable. A French agricultural journal, the BasseCour, describes the result of some experiments m potato growing recently conducted by scienfcific'men in Germany. The principal conclusions to which these sages have come seem to be two in number. The first of them is that the vigor of the potato plant is always indirect proportion to the weight of the tuber used for sets— a theory which certainly finds some support in common aense alone, considering that the young shoots for some time draw their sole nourishment from the mother potato. The second conclusion is that there is a great variety in the productive power, not only of different tubers, but also of different eyes in the same potato. It was found that the eyes at the top of the potato produce a much more vigorous offspring than those in the lower part, and the consequence is that those agriculturists who cut their potatoes in half before planting them are nofc well advised in cuttiug vertically, but should always divide them horizontally, planting tho upper half, and using the other as food for cattle. But the besfc plan of all is to plant the tubers whole, cutting out, nevertheless, all the eyes except those in the top part. Experiments were conducted in a garden soil by Professor Gantz, the amount of crop produced by several different settings of potatoes being accurately estimated in statistical tables. Ifc appeared that from tubers divided vertically only 5 tons were produced per acre, aud from whole potatoes 7_\ tons. The third sort were potatoes horizontally divided, which are set down as having produced 9 J tons. In this particular, however, some of the other professors do not agree with Herr Gantz, but maintain that, other things being equal, the whole potatoes will always produce more than halves, however cut. On the fourth result, however, all agree, and that is, that the whole potatoes from which the lower eyes \ have been cut ont produce l\_\ tons per acre, or more than double the result shown by the sets first mentioned.— Financial Opinion.