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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 47, 23 February 1878, Page 2

| We clip the following from the Charleston Herald :— lt is our pleasing duty to annouce that our townsman Mr Denis Collins is likely to drop in for a good thing iv the shape of a large fortune, through the death of a lady by j the name of Sarah Colling who died intestate not long since in the city of London ; and who ii supposed to be of the same blood as Denis Collins. This week Mr Collins received a letter^ from Messrs Uniacke and Co., 83 Collins St., Melbourne, advising him of the matter, and telling him how to proceed by tracing, if possible, his family pedigree as far back as his great grandfather, and great grandmother. The amount left is £250,000 sterling, and Mr Collins having had aunts and ancles in London for the last forty or fifty years is quite hopeful of being able to establish his claim. The " Loafer ia the Street" writes in the Christchurch Press :— "The telephone has beeq engaging much attention in these parts lately. I have taken part in two experiments. The first was in another province where the trial was scarcely a big success to the majority. This wa3 owing to the fact that a lady and gentleman were at one end of the wire, and the other scientists at the otfoer, Th,e operator at one end. declared he heard nothiug but electric kisses. And then as they didn't forward any one way the telephonists disbanded." According to Mr Firth even the robber sparrow is not wholly bad. At the last meeting of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society he stated that he had been informed by several farmer* that owing to the increase of the sparrows in the country districts, they were n.pw able tp. grow wheat in large quantities, where in previous years the ground had been useless in consequence of the large number of caterpillars always to be found. The, sparrows were carrying on a war of extermination against the caterpillars. A writer in the Christchurch Press says : —It is reported that in a district witlnn the boundries of our late province the farmers made up their minds to net the sparrows in clap nets. They accordingly set to work, and at the end of the morning's work along ftljqe of gorae fence, computed they had secured about 150 braoe, which farmer No. 1, on hii side of the fence, had disposed of by wringing their necks, while farmer No. 2, on the other side, had killed his birds by tearing their heads off. During the afternoon, two Maoris passed that way j the one who proceeded aloug the path of No. 1 farmer finding numbers of dead sparrows with their necks wrung, the other, along the path of No; 2 farmer, picking up many headless birds. In the evening, the fact was diseased at the Maori pah in reference to the large find of dead sparrows and the particular mode in which the birds had met death at each side of the gorae fence in question. Finally a meeting was held at the big house, when the Maoris therein assembled came to the unanimous conclusion that the sparrows must have fought a great battle, and that the Russians had decapitated the Turkish dead. This decided, the question was asked whether the dead were fit for kaikai (food). This was about being decided in the negative, when a tatooed chief with much dignity of bearing suggested that a' trial ought to be made. There was an elderly native lady in a whare ' close to, approaching that bourne from which no traveller ere returns, and she might decide the question j if she lived, the sparrow would be good kaikai, and if she died it would be no matter. This proposition was agreed to, some of the birds were cooked and served up to her ladyship, who seemed if anything to revive after her meal, and now the Maoris of these parts are ou.the look out for sparrow kaikai. I heard another good child's story the other day. My cousin Barbara is au old fashioned mamma, and always goes into the nursery before dinner to hear her children say their prayers. Last week after Jack and Harry, aetat four and five, had said theirs, Edith, aged three, began. She was a very long time before she had finished ; she wearied Jack, who gave her a punch in the back. Edith accordingly turned round in the middle of her devotions and said, " lam not going to cry until I have said " Amen," mi wtwo stw bad said « Aiaoa" she aid cry.

On the 15th December the Queen paid a risit to the Earl of Beaconafleld, at his seat m Buckinghamshire, where she; remained over two hours planting a tree in commemoration of her visit. The Prime Minister has thus had all the honours paid him possible for any man to desire, and her Majesty's visit is a worthy crown to his prosperous and remarkable career.