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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 88, 12 April 1878, Page 2

Our contemporary, the Poverty Bay Standard, attributes the articles of the Civil Service, which are now appearing in the Otago Daily Times, to the pen of F. J. Mos3, Esq., the member for Parnell. The editor of the Standard has made a gues3 very wide of the mark this time. If; 'is no secret in Dunedin that the articles in question are inspired, if not written, by a Mr Haughtonj who at one time held the position of Undersecretary of Crown Lands, We have little doubt the editor of the Standard has Mr Haughton's history by heart.— Express. At a fashionable wedding at the Goldfields two months ago the camp was gaily decorated with flags, and a string of old boots and shoes was hung to a lofty pole and lowered down as the newly married pair drove beneath it in a cosy new wagoaette drawn by oxen, " J .

ThJe Euabalbbg correspondent of the 1 Hay Standard, writing under the date of 18th ultimo, reports the following shocking accurences : — " bn Friday the 15th ultimo, a tansinker, named James, Johnson, who. was camped about six miles . f rotn Condotjolin, went to that towhsfaipi and le|t agaiii for tlie camp during tne severe thunderstorm raging at that place, and when within 300 yards from the town his horse refused to face the storm, whereupon he took shelter by a large yellowbox tree. After the storm had abated, he and bis horse were found. dead, haying been struck by., ligmjriipgj -which' is stipposed to hate glanced off, striking the unfortunate man and horse dead. On the 14th, a man named Ambrose Glover, who was in the employ of Mr W. Perry, with his dog were travelling: up the Lachlan with sheep, and were struck dead at Kieacatoo by the electric fluid while taking shelter by a box tree. The poor fellow's clothes were torn to shreds, and scattered for a considerable distance aroud where his remains lay; Tue Newcastle Herald says: — " We understand that £150,000 has been subscribed by influential merchants in Sydney for the purpose of starting a new looming paper: The delay in commencing operations arises Irotii the fact that a general business manager and editor cannot be procured in the colonies. Carte blanchehas been offered to any competent man in England. "We question, however, if a 'new chum' will be able to run successfully a journal in New South Wales." The London Post says the Brigade of Guards has been raised to its war strength. There is great activity in the Brigade, which is completing the ■ arrangements necessary for active service. ' All the manufacturing centres report great activity. Thus 600 sets of field ambulance fittings and 300 tons of bayonet steel have been ordered in Sheffield. The Woolwich authorities have purchased 500 miles of telegraph wire for use with torpedoes, and materials' necessary to construct temporary railways for the conveyance of stores and mounting of heavy guns in siege works. The War -Office has ordered that no soldiers shall !be transferred to the reserve until further instructions. The Duke of Cambridge will specially inspect the recruits at Aldershot on Friday. Now that Pio Nono is dead (says 'Atlas '), the gossiper axe busy picking up 'ana' about him. Here is one, which, although perfectly true, is not in general circulation. Shortly after hi 3 election to the Papacy, and when Antonelli held his first office under him, that of Finance Minister, the Romans, meeting their Pontiff in the street, complained to him 'of the tax on salt. The tax was a monopoly farmed by one of the speculators who thrived in earlier days. Pio Nono sent for the speculator. ' I suppose that salt-tax is very valuable to you,' said he. The spectulator trembled, fearing the price of the monopoly was about to be raised and protested that it was a dead loss. ' How much would compensate you for being relieved of your loss ? ' asked his Holiness. The salt-tax farmer named a ridiculously low sum. I ♦ Then,' said the Pope, ' you shall have the 1 money;' and calling for Antonelli, ordered him to pay it. The rogue of a spectulator refused; but ou being informed by the Pope that he would publish the fact that he had offered hira his own price for the monopoly, at last took his money and went away a sadder, a wiser, and, prospectively, a more honest man. The day afterwards the saltwas abolished. The Broad Arrow of the 16th February writes : Russia enters the Conference fully armed, with her guns loaded and her s words ground, and, above all, with the material guarantee of the actual possession of Turkey; and yet there are Englishmen imbecile enough to talk of the bad taste of England also arming herself for the Conference. All Europe, except England, is armed— armed to the teeth, — and it is time that all of vi, Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, should awaken to the suicidal folly of allowing the interests of talk and party to rule England in the hour of danger. The best men of all politics are now agreed on this point. Earl Fortescue, a Whig, says, " First I am an Englishman, next a Liberal." Mr Joseph Cowen, a Radical, says, "What hope can English Radicals have for freedom at the hands of Russian despotism ?" Even Lord Hartington, the Liberal leader, refuses to record his vote. against the credit of six millions ; and Mr Gladstone, whose religious zeal for the Eastern Christian- Church had bewildered his otherwise English sympathies, and overstrained his expectant opposition to the Governmentpolicy, now says, "I will'provoke my enemy no more." We have now, therefore, , little else to do than to arm — arm by sea and arm by land— not as a make-weight, not by way of demonstration, not to overawe, for that idea is preposterous—but to strike— strike quickly and hard, and continuously, remembering that, as Lord Beaconsfield said, Engglaqd is capable of bearing the strain of more than one. campaign. If Russia enters Con-, stantinople, so much the better; the reaction, will be quicker and more effective than if it were possible for her to be moderate in the seeming, and only seeming, hour of her success and triumph. The last annual, written by Mr Marcus Clark (says the Southland 2'imes) is entitled " King Billy'a Beeches," and narrates the difficulties met with by an unlucky squatter in Victoria, who, having some native blacks under his charge, applied to the proper department for a pair of breeches for one of them. The correspondence thereby occasioned extended over a lengthened period, and was only terminated by the death of the unclothed savage; A similar farce is being enacted in Invercargill just now. The Bluff Harbor Board have, obtained from the Government free haulage of stone from Green Hills to the Bluff, but the Railway Department will not advance a step till they know who is going to pay. for the grease for the waggons. -The sea serpent is reported to have been seen by a person onboard the clipper schooner Xeslie.oh 26th February^ when in latitude 38deg. 6min. 5.,. and longitude 149deg. 56miu. -E. The story, as narrated to the : Otngo Times, is that about. 11 a.m. on that day a man named William Mitchell, who was at the helm, observed .something unusual on the port bow. He called the attention of Matthias Werterland to it. They made the object out to be a serpent, in color white as snow, with a flat bnt pointed head, red eyes; in length about 30ft, and in girtth about 6in or 7in. It was about 15ft from the teasel. The Sydney Mail says : " A singular and fatal accident has just occurred by the use of dynamite in fishing. An American subject, who has been a resident here for many years, was lately killing fish with this ' villanous compound,' when from a stray spark or accidental contact with the smouldering brand that he had in his hand, the fuse attached to the charge of dynamite in the other ignited. While, the unfortunate man was watching for a « school' of fish, the charge, which he had near his breast, exploded, of course blowing his hand to pieces. On being examined, four holes were found in his chest, for which no account could be given He was brought into the hospital, but gradually sank and expired. Before his death he stated that he had not lit the face, and that he thought some fragments of the brand had been driven into his chest. On making a. post mortem examination of the body, it was found that he had been (shot) by his own fingers ! The first and more or less of the second joints of the four fingers had been driven into his chest ;with such force that they smashed some jribs,' and injured him iriinternally to such an extent that he succumbed." i

A, Mexican correspondent of the Baslnt Nacbrichte'h declares that an atito-da-te, worthy of the days of Tofquemada and the canonised St. Peter of Arbries, has been recently celebrated in the , village of St.JameSjih thfc district of Concordeo. l?or six.tiibntfcs a tnaii iknied Silvester Zacharias had been oewitc'nea, dhd. hriving driiuk three' glasses of holy water "to drive <Mi tfaef devil," ho denounced Joseph Bonilla and Diega Lugo as having bewitched him. On 19th August last these two persons were denounced to the Prefect, and having been Arrested, Judge Mureno, a member of the Supreme Court of tfu3tice', ordered ,them to be burned alii'e. Ai setei o'clock , in the morning the witch and the wii'ard were bound to the stake, which stood in the centre of a hillock of faggots, about sixty persons, armed with long Mexican knives, surrounding the criminals. "As soon as the fire reached the witches." says the official report sent to the Perfect of Concordeo, "they cried Oiit for their gods to be brought to them" (probably their sooth-saying or conjuring paraphernalia). The fire was extinguished and these " gods " brought. As soon as they had them in their hands denounced they three bther persons as aecdraplices y and these having been compelled to ititirfnt the pile, all five were then burned to death. A most wonderful piece of ingenious mechanism (says the Post) is now ou exhibition daily at the Welliugton Arcade, uuder the title of " The Blacksmith's Dream." It consists of a multitude of figures moved by clockwork, and all engaged in some occupation or other, which they perform with life-like fidelity. For instance, boiler makers are set at work ; one man runs to the forge and brings out a red-hot rivet which he takes to the boiler and holds for another man to hammer in. Again, a troupe of Christy Minstrels are seen (but not heard) singing and acting in their peculiar style. A variety of other employments receives moat faithful representation in this marvellously clever model,- which is well worth visiting. The gum tree is being done to death in America. We thought (writes the Brisbane Courier) that — having discovered it and flourished under its shade for so long ; after having turned it into fences and firewood, and fashioned it Into everything from a bridge to a butcher's block — we know something about it, but we are but mere infants in the nursery of scientific discovery. Where we grope darkly fcr years finding nothing wonderful our trans-Pacific friends at Once let in a flood of light and make a startjing discovery, as for instance, take the following from the San Frocisco Mail : — " At a meeting of the California Academy of Sciences last evening Dr. Behr called attention to a eucalayptus tree standing in the grounds of the old German hospital, on Brannau-street. The ;tree had passed through the fire of August 1876, and exhibited the peculiarity of resisting the action of the flames— a pror perty well understood in Australia. Dr. Kellogg stated that the eucalyptus shingles were in common use in Australia, on acconnt of their being fire proof It was impossible to fire a room made of this material, but all seem to possess this non-combustible proporty to some extent. Dr Gibbon said that the planting of trees in the public streets would be an important means of checking a conflagration, and as the eucalyptus seemed to be peculiarly valuable for that purpose and for building, the attention of the public and timber growers should be called to it." After this we expect to. find the Brisbane Fire Brigade rigged out in eucalyptus fireproof helmets. General Neal Dow has presented to the Temperance Conveantion of Maine a Bill to make the sale of liquor a felony. The Act contains 24 sections, and makes the penalty for the first offence, single sale, lOOdols. and six months in the county gaol ; second offence lOOdols. and one year in the State Prison ; prohibits the transportation of liquor within the State, even for private parties, making parties responsible on whose territory it is found ; apparatus for selling to be deemed evidence of sale ; takes away all power from county attorneys to>nter a nolle)prcs. t this to be j done only by the courts; in default of parties paying a fine, an additional year in the State prison or gaol ; officers having seized liquors nofc to give them up, except by order of the court, the burden of proof to be on the parties claiming the same ; the horse and carriage conveying or drawing liquor to be seized ; persons arrested as common drunkards to be sent summarily to the county gaol for one year, to be let out when the person selling them liquor shall be convicted ; no surety to be received from a person who had been convicted of liquor selling ; liquor runners fined lOOOdols. and one year ia the State Prison; a reward of 20dols. offered for the arrest and conviction of parties; nostayof proceedingsor compromise made at any stage cf the proceedings ; SOOdols. fine and six months in the county gaol for displaying a sign offering liquors for sale or advertising the manufacture ; all other liquor laws to be repealed. The committee have fche Bill under consideration. A number of " drovers and gentlemen in charge of travelling stock " petitioned the Mayor of Glen Innis, Victoria to set apart a day of humiliatien and prayer for rain. The Mayor, Edward Jones, replied as follows : — '• Gentlemen,— I have duly received your requisition signed by gentlemen travelling with stock who obtain grass in the cheapest manner possible. I decline to hold a public meeting under my auspices on the ground that it is a great presumption to' ask the sublime Creator to alter his organised arrangements of what ho has created to suit the convenience, or rather profit, of squatters who have overstocked their runs.— Edward Jones, Mayor Glen Innis."