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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 85, 9 April 1878, Page 2

We take the following regarding the Wakamarina from the Marlborough Express of Saturday : — A practical miner who returned from the new goldfield yesterday, called iv to give us the latest information respecting it. His statement was as follows : " The deep shaft talked about in young Daimant's claim is only 44 feet. On Monday uight, when working, and the atmosphere dull before it commenced to rain, the men had to come up on account of foul air, which prevented their candles from burning. I went down to see whether it was foul air or ] fire damp, and found it was foul air. On Tuesday I went back and found they had been trying to abate tho water, and had got no dirt up for three days. I recommended them to put down a wider shaft, so as to enable larger buckets, say 25 gallons, to be used, or they could use canvas buckets ; at present they are using seven gallons only. If they do not they cannot bottom for the water. I have not the slightest doubt that there is plenty of gold there, but it will be costly owing to the difficulty of getting it for the water and the length of tail races required. They have already. chosen the best ground for one, and any others will cost infinitely more, owing to the additional length required. My own claim, which I have now abandoned, is about a mile lower down, would take six mpuths' work and an expenditure of £500 to bring down the water. There is no occasion for men to go down there that can make 4s a day here. During the three days alluded to when no 'dirt came up, but water, there were three shifts working night and day." j The hall given to his Excellency the Governor and his suite at the Thames (says the New Zeahvd Herald) was not only successful in itself, but it was entirely unique. The Maori residents were the givers of the ball. It was entirely their own affair, and although they were most liberal in the distribution of invitations, they firmly but politely insisted on preserving their positions as generous hosts and hostesses. There was little characteristic about the ball except the excellent taste in which the Maori ladies and. gentlemen were dressed. They were good dancers, thoroughly up in ball-room etiquette, and were exceedingly proud of the position which they occupied. All the visitors, including his Excellency and suite, the Minisj ters, and the officers of the Nymphe, heartily, enjoyed themselves up to a late hour in the morning. We are informed that the Thames natives have been looking forward to the display for a long time, and they have been most industrious in preparing themselves for the dancing and other etiquette of the ballroom. One Maori lady who occupied a prominent part in the affair, deserves credit for the trouble she took in the tuition of her friends. For five months, some time was devoted every day to practising the figures of the quadrille, and in consequence on Thursday evening all the Maori ladies were thoroughly au fail. For the most part, however, their partners were puzzled in their endeavours to pour "soft nothings " into the curs of their dusky companions, but all seemed to enjoy themselves nevertheless. It is the first ball held under Maori auspices in New Zealand, and none more enjoyable has ever taken place. Impudence, or something like it, is the leading trait in the most successful men's character. All the nice things that have been said in favor of modesty, fail to stand the test when brought into the pull and haul of daily life. Bold assurance, while it may often disgust us, will win in nine cases out of ten. We all of us praise modesty, but our praise is only a kind of pity, and pity will ruin any man. Man will live four times as long on abuse and get fat as he will on pity. There is now and then a man who is modest, but intensely in earnest, and such meu sweep everything before them. The character of the modest man is a good thing, and beautiful to frame and hang up in a private apartment, but experience teaches us that if we wait for our turn in the world, our turn never seems to come round. The cheeky man never enjoys these delightful aensations which arise from having yielded to others, his logic is that the early bird catches the I worm, and regardless of all delicacy, he goe3 in for the worm. — Exchange. It is always imprudent says the Post for a creditor to send a stamped receipt to a debt or before receiving the actual payment of the sum due. Human natnre is weak, or rather at times it is too strong, for honesty to stand much chance of contending against it. Some months ago a certain tradesman in this^city made a certain article for a certain gentleman in the country— we abstain from specifying the particulars more minutely— and in. course of time sent in his account which was returned for correction. On sending it out the second time, the tradesman was confiding enough to forward the bill receipted and stamped. He expected of course to receive a cheque for the amount (some £16) by return of post. He has been expecting that cheque ever since. He is expecting it till.

The following paragraphs, intended to have been printed separately, were by sotfe blunder so arranged that they read consecutively in a Paris journal : " Dr. has been appointed head physician to the Hospital de La Charite. Orders have been issued by the authorities for tlie immediate eiten--sioh of tie Cemetery of Mount Parnasse ; the works are being executed with the utmost despatch;"-^ The Pharmacist The proprietors of tlie Melbourne Age have been served with a writ, at the instance of tne n O n. Alexander Fmser, for having, at the request of the Illustrated London News, copied into the Age an advertisement announcing the decease of the Hon. Alexander Eraser's brother in the llolboru Workhouse, aha Commented on it as calculated to seriously damage the reputation of the colony in th 6 person of a Minister of the Crown, "who also drew Mtiti a year as a member of the Coiihtiil during a twelve months' absence in Europe. Damages are laid at £IQ,uOO. The owner of Wool bag (writes "JEgles " in the Australasian) is famed for his riches, for, the ex.tent of purchased lauds he holds, tind for his keenness in discovering stray stock, which quietly £nds its way to the pound. He patrols some portion of ilia rae nearly every night in search of trespassers for grass. He was on duty, as usual, lately, when he came upon a lot of cattle. "Ah ! my good fellows," he soliloquised, " I've got you nowl" and with the assistance of his man, started the mob for Maulbank, where a i pound has been lately established. Delivering them to the ponndkeeper without waiting for daylight to enable him to count them and take their brands, he told the official to do that, to charge mileage for driving, and Is pet head for trespass^ and to send the same to the home station. The pounUkeeper followed instructions, but also scut a claim for £16 for poundage on stock which he held in custody^ awaiting payment before releasing them. That estimable old gentlemen never made quicker time than he did that day, in order to discover that he had in the darkness carefully impounded a lot of his own stock. The Sydney Evening News says :— " We understand that Mr. W. H. Lock arrived here from Melbourne within the past few weeks for the purpose of taking to England, with the-permission of the Government, Wra. Creswick, in the Parrarnatta Lunatic Asylum, who is supposed to be the veritable Arthur 1 rton. With a view of carying out this object, Mr. Lock is possessed of a power of attorney from Chester Orton, the brother of the lunatic Arthur, otherwise Cheswick, of whom he caused portraits to be taken some months ago, and forwarded to England. This resulted in placing at his disposal the sworn testimony of 40 or 50 persons verifying him as the Orton whose name obtained notoriety in connection with the celebrated Tichborne case. It appears that Mrs Jury, who was here, and visited the. lunatic in the company of Mr. Lock, Orton as being the person wanted." The state of Virginia, finding itself compelled to support gaols, hospitals, lunatic asylums, and a plentiful supply of paupers, owing to the liquor traffic, and perceiving that repressive or prohibitory legislative failed, conceived the idea of taxing drink 3, and compelling topers to support the criminal and charitable institutions. Accordingly a tax of two cents a drink was imposed. The liquor dealer was compelled, under a heavy penalty, to nse a bell punch, which registered each drink sold, in the same way that the bell-punches register fares in street cars and check the conductors. The law came into operations six months ago, and Richmond, a sober city of 70,000 people, paid 150,000d015. on single drinks during that period. It has been estimated that a similar tax iv Chicago alone would yield four million dollai-3 yearly aud one million dollars would be be raised in San Francisco and Oakland. It is certain that sufficient revenue might be raised for all purposes of Government by the expedient of taxing single drinks. This is , an idea (says the correspondent of the Daily Times) which your Permissive Bill might adopt. It would come to the relief of the temperate, and could not be objected to by anyone, inasmuch as the payment of the tax would be purely voluutary. A modern Sculptor.— Brown and Smith, two gentlemen well known to every one who walks the streets, were out a few days since, when they were met by an overdressed individual, who appeared as if he thought he was somebody and wauted everybody to know it. ' Do you know that man Smith?' said Brown. ' Yes, I know him.' • Well who in the name of sense, is he V ' Why, he is a sculptor.' ' Such a looking chap as that a Sculptor .' surely you must be mistaken.' *He may not be the kind of one you mean, but I know that he chiselled a tailor out of a suit of clothes last week.' The proverbial bull in a china shop recently became a too vigorous reality in Edinburgh. In the evening an infuriated bull entered a china shop at the Haymarket, and on the girl in charge coming out of the back shop to see what was the matter, it knocked her down. She was rescued in an insensible con- . dition, and her recovery is still doubtful!. As for the shop itself, the bull, before it was got out. smashed a great quantity of crockery, and also, in some way not explained, made a large hole in the floor By the time the intruder was disposed of the shop, as might have been expected, was converted into " an almost indescribable scene of confusion," to quote the Scotsman's words.