The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 102, 30 April 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1878.

We were expecting to receive to-day some exciting news from Constantinople of the proceedings there on Sunday last, when there was to have been an entry of • Russian soldiers, not for hostile purposes, but with a view to attending divine service in the Greek churches. It was scarcely likely that such a proceeding would have passed off quietly, and the telegrams of that day were looked for with more than ordinary anxiety. We learn, however, from a cable message that appeared in the Wellington morning papers yesterday that " Russia foregoes the intended entrance of officers and -men into Stamboul on Sunday to attend the Greek churches." Another item in the message is to the effect that twenty British ironclads for the Baltic squadron are now ready for service.

+ ■£, n^. lia< ty Barkly will convey passengers to tollingwood oi the occasion of the sals • " *l . aPm Company's proper ty 5 leavinglvelson on Tuesday ne£t at two 1 p ffi: Thb Arawataj with the Suez mail, arrived at the Bllig this morning, but owiDg. to thfe line working badly we did not receive her telegrams in time for publication to-day. . There have been fearful hurricanes iti the New Hebrides. Houstes were demolished, &nd some sheets of corrugated iron were tarried half a mile; trees were uprooted and crops destroyed The natives are starving. The Charybdis, an Auckland vessel, is a.total wreck. The Ebenezer, schooner, wfeut ashore. We have received Jhe first number of the Neio Zeal&nder, which yesterday entered 1 on thb troublous sea of newspaper life in Wellington, and as the imprint tells us is printed and published for the Company to which it belongs by Henry Manning Moor. It is the same size as the leading papers of Dunedin and Canterbury, well got up, and plentifully supplied with news* It is a supporter of the present Administration, and is likely to prove a formidable rival to the New Zealand Times. The A^. Z. Times says that Parliament will not be called together before the 19th of July. TheJV. 'Z. Times publishes a rumor that Major Atkinson intends retiring from the House of Representatives. A Sydney telegram of Sunday last gives the following results of the various events at the Randwick race meeting : — Randwick Handicap— Janitor 1, Woolstone 2, Macearoni 3. Rons Handicap— Pardon I, Black Eagle 2, Martindale 3. Jockey Club PlateChester 1, Cap-a-pie 2, Dean 3; Chester won easily in smin. 42sec. Steeplechase—Elinders 1, Goulburn 2, Juggler 3. Nursery Han dicap— Sir Andrew 1, Napper-Tandy 2 Emily 3. Regarding hops, the Australasian of the 13th instant says:— Very little inquiry exists for hops, the temporary excitement consequent on the advent of the new season having subsided, New Tasmanian range from Is Id to Is 3d. Ordinary qualities of Victorian new, Is. Kent hops are neglected; quotations range from Is 3d to Is 6d, according to quality and quantity.

A meeting of the creditors of Mark Sommerville, grocer, Auckland, has been held. The liabilities are stated at £31 76 ; assets, £1410. An offer of 5s in the pound was accepted. The Victorian papers abound with tales of strange doings at the recent election for West Melbourne. The contest was between Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, the newly-appointed Attorney-General of the Berry Ministry, and Mr Francis, at one time Premier of Victoria. The former won the victory, but it would seem it was not altogether an honorable one. Writing of the polling, the Melbourne Daily Telegraph says :— "ln the St. Patrick's booth a most impudent attempt at persorjation was exposed ; but Dr Knapps allowed the culprit to go free. It appears that Mr John Spence, merchant, of Flinders-lane, voted early in the day. Mr Spence being personally known to the scrutineers, the fact of his having voted was easily remembered. When, therefore, some time afterwards another Mr John Spence, merchant, Flinderslane, applied to vote, he was immediately challenged. He smilingly acknowledged he was not the man, and turned to walk away, as though he had just missed perpetrating a good joko. Mr Francis' representatives demanded that he should be arrested, but the returning officer positively refused to give him in charge. In striking contrast with this was the treatment by Dr Knaggs of the vote of Mr Thomas Loader, the well-known and respected merchant. When Mr Loader demanded his ballot paper he was insolently asked if he had not already voted in some other division. Being annoyed at this Mr Loader, after marking his ballot paper brought it open to the table, and showed* that he had struck O'Loghlen'a name out. One of Sir Bryan's scrutineers objected to the vote being received, as Mr Loader's act meant iutimidation, and preposterous as it was the returning officer allowed the objection, and pufc Mr Loader's ballot paper among the protested, ones. Thus, for an offence utterly unknown to the law,; a reputable citizen was insulted and disfrahchised,',while an offender, who was detected in perpetrating the gravest crime known to the electoral law, was not even told that he has done wrong." i A correspondent writes that speculation in land in Wellington is very rife. Anyone who owns property is diligently cutting it up in small sections, and the district round Wellington has many imaginary townships— Wallaceville, Bartonville, Vogelton, Kilbirnie, Kensington, and others. Speculation in land is looked on as the high road to fortune. At every sale land fetches fabulous prices. Land in certain streets fetches over £100 a foot. In Wanganui, too, everyone is talking of the fortunes to be made in land. People talk of little else, and are ever talking of how A made £5 an acre profit, or how B made £2500 out of his last transaction. The Chief Secretary of Victoria stated that in the case of any portion of the Volunteer Force being asked to go into the barracks in order to drill with a view to field service, the men will receive commensurate pay. A meeting of the Star Boating Club (saya the N. Z. I'imes of Friday) was held on the 10th mst., at the Pier Hotel, to consider its financial position, at which meeting it transpired that tbe accounts of the treasurer, Mr John Gandy, were in complete confusion. The committee, after going through his accounts, made the unpleasant discovery that he had failed to account for the large sum of £130. As the discovery had then oniy just been made, the Club considered that Mr Gandy should have an opportunity of ex-., plaining matters and making good the deficiency. It was therefore decided to allow him a fortnight's time for the purpose ; and it was thought that he might possibly be able to give a satisfactory account of himself, and the meeting deemed it hardly right to publish the state of affairs just then. The time allowed, however, having elapsed without any attempt on Mr Gandy's part to explain his deficiencies, a second meetiug was held yesterday evening to consider this and other matters. It was reported that Mr Gandy had left the colony, and it was resolved that the Club should lake no further steps in the matter at present. The Government have entered into negotiations with a Clyde Shipping Company for the establishing of direct steam communication with the colony, and there is good reason for supposing the proposal submitted will be favorably entertained. The Hon. Mr Macandrew has for many years advocated the project, and as Minister for Immigration i3 engaged in promoting it with all his energy. It is hardly necessary to say that a monthly steam service with the United Kingdom would completely revolutionise the present system of things, and be the means of imparting fresh life and vigor to the colony. The passenger traffic alone might be calculated to go a long way towards rewarding a company for its enterprise. Altogether, we have heard of no measure more likely to promote the prosperity of the colony, and we shall await the issue of the negotiations with the deepest interaat.— New Zealander.

Furiher orders for war material have been transmitted by telfegfaph by the Victorian Government to England during the last few days, and otherwise tlie authorities are manifesting activity in placing the Colony as far as possible in a condition of defence. The' battery of heavy guns at the Heads will soon be completed. The Hobarfc Town Mercury states that the Government intend at once to take steps to raiss a corps of 300 rifles and 150 artillery in Hobart Town, and 150 rifles and 50 artillery in Lancestbn. The Constantinople corrssptindent of the S: A. Rtgiste* writes:— Baker Pasha, I may men-' tion in passing, has fully borne out the reputation for great ability which he possessed in England. Ifc might have been an unfortunate thing for the Russians had the Turks given him a command in the earlier stages of the war. Fortunately only on one occasion has he had the chance of distinguishing himself, and that has been during the last mofath. When t last wrote he was with Sulieman Pasha, the Comnlandef-in-Chief of the Ottoman army. Sulieman from a military point of view has done more to bring about the collapse of Turkey than any Other general. When he was at Sophia, Baker had a command under him at Kamarli, and was surrounded by a bold manoeuvre on the part of the Russians. By a still bolder, Baker succeeded in making his escape, and wiih the knowledge that he was pursued by a victorious army boldly entered the Rhodope Mountains, with the certainty that he would lose his cannon and a considerable number of men. For many nights all had to encamp on the mountains and in the snow without any shelter whatever. Military men of various nations speak in the highest terms of the masterly retreat which he effected-a retreat as creditable to him as the passage of the Balkans is to General Skobeloff. Were Baker placed in command of Constantinople — as from his position at the head of the gendarmerie lie ought to be — we should have little fear of disturbances. As it is, we are now left, as Bismarck said of Paris, " to stew in our own juice," and we have apparently raorie of. the ingredients fora nasty mes3 than even Paris had. The pectoplume, or feather-picker, is designed to pick or pluck the feathers from poultry of all kinds in proparing them for market. It will pick 200 fowls per hour. The last sitter at a private dinner at Edinburgh, who had at length made up his mind that it was time to retire announced hi3 intention to the butler ; and, fancying that he saw something like a smile on the servant's face, he turned gravely round, saying, " Ah, John. I think I'll go to bed ; but I'm no fou, John, mind that— l'm no 1 the least fou— but I'm just fatigued wi' drinking 1" A well-known Boniface in Ross has adopted a novel test of a man's inebriety by making him stand on a bottle laid lengthways on the floor. If the customer cannot maintain his equilibrium on the bottle then no liquor will be supplied. Osman Paiha, now a prisoner in Russia, who has seven wives at home, is said to enjoy foreign captivity hugely, In fact Osman is having a regular holiday. A correspondent says :— ln order to understand the Russians it is necessary to know them. The ordinary Russian gentleman is amiable, and, as a companion, agreeable. He will even go out of his way to do a service ; but his peculiarity is. that he is utterly devoid of the self-respect which characterises the ge?itlemen of other countries. Honour is a word that he has picked up, but he never distinctly comprehends what it means. To blame him for this would be as cruel as to blame the blind man for not being able to distinguish colours. Personally, I rather like Russians, but I should never dream of trusting one of them. Club gossip (says a London paper") is busy, of course, with the names of the Generals who may be expected to come to the front if we are drawn into war. For a long time Lord Napier, of Magdala, stood high in the betting ; but a stronger favorite now for the chief command is Sir Linton Simmons. Sir Charles Ellice, under him, might get an army corps, so might Sir John Garvoch, but he ia unfortunately senior to Simmons, and his chances are thus reduced to a minimum, even if he waived his rank. Another probable corps commander is Sir Thomas Steele. Sir Garnet Wolseley can hardly expect more than a division ; he is still only a majorgeneral, although high up on the list. Perhaps he would prefer the onerous and deeply important role of Chief of the Staff. A writer ia the Paris Constitutionnel says: — -" At the opera the other evening attention was attracted to a colored lady in one of the boxes very elegantly dressed, and surrounded b/ a number of other persons of ebony complexion. It was the Princess Celia, daughter of Soulouque,, once Emperor of Hayti, and her family. This descendant of the soverign who was the first to place the Imperial crown on his woolly head-covering usually resides in England. It may be remembered that Soulouque, having declared himself Emperor of .Hayti in ] 849, created among the negro population 480 nobles, of whom four were princes 59 dukes, and 12 marquises. The others were counts, barons, and knights. He also created two orders for men — one military, that of St. Faustin; the other civil, the Legion of Honor; also two for women— those of Sainte Madeleine and Sainte Anne, of whom the two daughters of the Emperor were Grand Mistresses. Soulouque could not write more than his signature, and he could only read print." Readers of Mr. Bates' charming " Naturalist on the River Amazon" will recollect his account of the great bird-eating spider of Brazil, and the incredulity with which his statements wo-.e at first received. It is not, however, necessary to go to Brazil to find a bird-catehing— if not bird-eating— spider, as many bushmen can testify who have fourd finches and other. small songsters ensnared in the toils of the great white epeira that spans the glades of the forest with its web, anchored with glutinous cables of a strength and tenacity which the most firmly planted "cabbagetree" or " Panama " has sometimes been unable to resist. A remarkable instance of the exploits of this or some similar spider was witnessed (says the Maryborough Chronicle) by Mr. N. E. N: Tooth lately. Passing the primary school on his way home from town, his attention was drawn to two swallows that were' fluttering about. the balcony of the building in a state of apparent consternation, and seemed unable to get away. The building was untenanted at the time, but Mr. Tooth managed to. find his way in through an unlocked door, and on reaching the balcony found that the birds had got entangled in some of the strands of an immerse spider's web, which bad wound themselves several times round their wings, and prevented fieir flying more than a couple of yards out ironi the balcony. Under the leaves sat the monster artificer, waiting for the struggles of the affirighted captives to subside, ao that it n-^ht proceed to repair the portions the^ had broken, or perhaps ulterior views of a salmi d'hirondelle an naiurel. Mr Tooth, with some little difficulty, managed to unwind the stic :y cord that secured the birds, and the latter, with a chirrup of gratitude, flew on tbe!r way rejoicing. They were, he sa~s, still young, but quite strong on the wing, and tr-c'r detention was e/idently not due to weak-: s. s.