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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIIL, Issue 99, 26 April 1878, Page 2

A very singular phenomenon was observed .by Mr Vye, of Lawrence, on Sunday morning last about three o'clock. A brilliant body about half the size of the moon was witnessed by him for a pouple of minutes, travelling from east to west in the heavens at a speed faster than the apparent motion of the luminary of the night. It was so bright that he could cot steadfastly gave upon it, and the beams it Bpread around were more of the bright sunlight than, the soft silver light of the moon. The Tuapeka Times says that some six or eight weeks ago a similar object was observed by Mr Norman of the Blue Spur. ; A Grand- International Exhibition is to be held in Sydney in 1879, and 10,000 copies of a Government Gazette Extraordinary announcing the fact have been printed for distribution. An American correspondent telegraphs from Vienna to a San Francisco journal that in the course of an interview with a great ■military authority there, the latter said that , Great Britain was the only nation in the world that could bear the strain of a great war for more than a year. . It is possible to ask a lifctle too much sometimes even for church bazaars. One day last week a lady, who is most energetic in canvassiug for donations in aid of a church bazaar to be given not 100 miles from this office at some future date, called at one of our leading drapery establishments and received a prompt and generous promise of goods to the value of £2. She next went to one of the principal Wellington cabinet j

makers, who immediately wrote down his name fer an equally liberal donatS T But the indefatigable canvasser was hot Vet conthe proprietor »^'-' , , customers, but f A »«.i,oi oUte iy sent one of his shopman to show the goods promised. Yet even this was not enough. "Would y™ good as to pack them up for me now ?". "But this proved too much for the patience of the liberal cabinet maker : he asked for the list again, and having erased his name and promised subscriptions handed it back with a courteous bow. And that bow was all that angelic lady got; The London correspondent of the Melbourhe AfgUs has the following •-<=" It is a great mistake to be behindhand with the public intelligence. I did not read till lately j of the cargo of soda Peru, which arrived some days ago in the London docks, with a Peruvian lady embedded in it, with I earrings. It is supposed she got into that unusual position through an earthquake that happened in heir native "Country about 200 JreafS ago 1 , bfaly the soda preserv ed her— that is, as far as it could, for of course she was not alive. I had noticed that soda had gone down in the market, but was unaware of the tea son,- and I shudder to think how much aodawater,.with what Hook called 'too much body in it/ I may have taken within the last fortnight. However, it is an ' ill wind that blows nobody good,' and the Apollinaris Company will probably reap the benefit of it." Certain members of the Westland County Council value their services to the country at no mean figure. Referring to a notice of motion re travelling expenses tabled by Gr Seddon, the West Coast Times says :— Mr Seddon, who lives; about twenty miles from Hokitika, would be entitled to payment at the rate of 40s per day, and 10s 6d for hotel expenses. Beaching here at two o'clock in . the afternoon and returning the same eveniug he would thus draw the tiny little sum of £15 for his week's labors I If a Board of Education meeting was held the same week, he being also a member of that Board, the amount would bear considerable increase. The chaplain of the convict prison at Portland, speaking of the trained thieves who come under his notice, says that he reasoned with a prisoner who was in the hospital of that prison, and besought him to forsake the path of crime, and the man listened respectfully to all that was said, but then stretched out his hand, from which he had lost three fingers, and exclaimed :— " Sir, do you think I can afford to lose the benefits of fifteen years' apprenticeship." Crime was his trade, and h8 accepted punishment as a time of depression which had to be borne. »