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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 103, 1 May 1878, Page 2

The largest number of runs ever put together in a one-day match in Sydney was obtained lately in a contest between elevens from the Commercial and Australian Joint Stock Banks. The Commercial Bank players went to the wickets first, and remained in nearly all day, scoring with 16 sundries exactly 500 runs. The I J osl authoritatively denies that the Government intend introducing a measure which would preveut brewers becomiug proprietors of hotels, aud so having the power to compel the licenses to sell their beer, whether good, bad, or indifferent. A Licensing Bill will be introduced early in the session, but even its main principles have not yet been discussed by Ministers, and nothing is yet known of the form the Bill will take. The men of H.M.S. Wolverine have done (says the Bay of Plenty lime<) good work during their stay in Tauranga." The enclosure containing the graves of the men of the Imperial services who fell at the Gate Pah and Te Ranga engagements in 1864, has been neatly trimmed, and the fence round ie painted and generally repaired. Should Mr Guiaess be elected for the Grey Valley constituency (a contemporary remarks), the existiug superfluity of lawyers in the House will be increased by one. As a member of the Westland Provincial Couucil he distinguished himself principally for captiousness in argument. In fact he made the lives of members of the Provincial Government a burden to them, and tormented Mr Woolcock, who wiil be his colleague iv the representation of Grey Valley, to the verge of insanity. Mr Guiness has in him the makings of au effective obstructionist to a Government, but it may be doubted if he will add much to the force of any Ministry in power. His forte lies in small, points and constant interjections. He cau harass much, but seldom convinces. A case of the most brutal cruelty to animals has beeu brought to our knowledge, (says a contemporary) as having occurred a night or two ago. It appears that the bailiff was riding out all day in the discharge of his duties, and, returning after dark in the evening, tethered his horse in a little paddock adjoining his residence in the Swamp. Next morning he discovered that the poor animal had, during the night, been most shamefully illused,actua!ly hacked about the head and legs iv such a manner as to necessitate its being killed. The horse appeared to have been struck on the legs, near the hoofs, with a billhook or tomahawk, and to have had its eyes almost gouged out with some sharp instrument. During the day previous the bailiff had occasion to seize the property of some working men, and it is to some of these that his suspicions are directed. We trust that nothing will be neglected to bring the perpetrators of this abominable act to justice, and wo trust that the police on this occasion^ in the interests of humanity, will not rest until the wretches have been punished as they deserve. A writer in the Otago Daily Times observes :— The Telegraph Office is the only department of the public service in which ladies are regularly employed. There are a considerable number of lady clerks in tbe head office, and a number of operators both at headquarters and some of the principal stations are of the fair sex. Tho Clearing Office in Wellington is, we believe, entirely in the hands of the ladies, and the work is done with great accuracy and rapidity. Some of the ladies also are excellent operators. A lady sends the following anecdote regarding Bishop Selwyn to the N. Z. Herald : —In these day of a growing, selfish, sneering indifference to the interests of others, an incident in the life of the lamented Bishop Selwyn— nobly characteristic of the man, and related to myself by an eye-witness— is worthy of prominence. Some 15 years ago the immigrants by the ships Matilda Wattenback and Hanover (Noncons, as they were called, being all of them Noncomformists, i.e., Dissenters), left Auckland with stout hearts and willing hands, bent on turning the primeval forest into a fruitful field. Cumbering themselves as little as possible for the, at that time, difficult overland route to their coveted 40 or more acres of fern and tea-tree, they left the bulk of their provisions, &c, to follow them in a schooner, which was to reach their El Dorado almost as soon as themselves. But lo ! the winds and waves were adverse, and the vessel was three weeks instead of about three days, in making the trip. As may be imagined, the new-comers were wofully new as to what a life in the bush might mean, and by the delay of the vessel were, in fact, reduced to a greater depth of starvation than the proverbial " potatoes-and-point " liter&lness. Indeed, they had reached such a state of stolid endurance, that when the long-looked-for vessel hove in sight they were too dispirited by. hunger, and their future prospects in the matter of subduing the earth, to help to unload her. Just at this extremity Bishop Selwyn stepped opportunely upon the scene. Taking in the facts of the case at a glance, and bearing in mind the bearishness of the ordinary well-fed Briton if kept wait- \ ing five minutes for his dinner, he didn't preach to the hungry, angry men,— he did far better. He took off his coat, rolled up his trousers to his knees, saving with inspiriting enthuiasm, as he waded'into the mud, to assist in unloading the vessel, "I'm for work! who'll help me?" Of course the poor hungry fellows standing by soon put their shoulders to the wheel in right good earneet. Oh, give us dutyloving, duty-doing men, instead of the sneer ing, selfish apologies for men too of ten met with.

Laud and Water says that in certain En-j---giish counties children are frequently detained Iroill school that theo may lie in bed for. the purpose of hatching goose eggs ! A cow shedding her hide is not seen every ddyj arid we sdppOse many persons will debldre that such a phenomenon never has beeu seen 1 . Wb are assured* however, by two gentlemen who have recently been travelling the country as land classifiers, that at Keilarabete they were taken to see a cow which was shedding her hide in large flakes, and the new skin or hide was growing upon places. The cow was supposed to be recovering from a fever, and was in good condition, both grass and water being abundant. — Bacchus Marsh Express. The following extract from the Auckland R'erdld, of the 18th 5 inst. shows how unfit some mastefs of coasting vessels are to be entrusted with the lives of , passengers. It is notorious that the haiitical knowledge of some of the gentlemen who are addressed as " captain" is remarkabiy small, but such ignorance as this is extraordinary .- — A correspondent calls attention to the fact that the majority of the coasters trading between this pott and the Day' of Islands or' East Cape very frequently proceed to sea without a compass, and those who possess them scarcely can read the poiuts. As it very often happens that heavy fogs are enconntered, and the masters are at their wits' ends, a compass is therefore necessary uuder such circumstances. An incident happened the other day, when a cutter, beirg caught in a fog, and having passengers on board, the master knew scarcely where he was. It was suggested by a gentlemen that the compass should be consulted, but when brought out the skipper could not read it, and the cutter was left entirely to the mercy of the wind and waves. Our correspondent suggests that the owners and insurance companies sho uld insist upon all masters having a thorough knowledge of the compass, and be acquainted intimately with the coast. Not one hundn d miles from Napier (says the Telegraph) there is a bed-ridden native chief, who is thought by some to be dying. There came to bim the other day a lawyer and an interpreter, of course for no other purpose than to soothe the sick bed of the old man. But in the bed-room was another interpreter, and in his presence it was impossible for any Samaritan topeform an office of charity. Conversation therefore turned upon such matters as medical comforts, for instance, eggs, butter, and fly-catchers. The strance interpreter never showed the .slightest inclination to move, and the lawyer had no opportunity of suggesting to the chief the best means of devising his possessions. Time wore on, and the lawyer, baulked in his charitable object, was forced to go. After his departure there arrived another lawyer, and certain papers were produced and signed. Verily where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered together. A curious phenomenon** has been observedat the salmon ponds at Ercildoun. The Argvs states that the ponds have been placed near a spring of bright, clear water coming out of the side of a volcanic hill called The Cardinal, far up a narrow, rocky, and picturesque gorge, named the Rhymer's Glen. This spring when first observed was found to have a never-varying temperature of 53. Fahrenheit, and this low temperature Influenced the choice of this spot for the piscicultural experiments which have in the instance of the Calif ornian salmon been so successful. Some time after the hatching boxes were erected it was noticed that the temperature of the spring had risen one or two degrees, but it was then thought to be owing to the influence of the summer heat. However, the water continued to get warmer, until the temperature had risen to 62-, while the water in the creek close by is only 55- to 57*, although the latter is exposed to both sun and air. It is believed that the increase in temperature is due to volcanic action in the interior of the hill, which has a well-defined crater on its summit, and may possibly indicate an approaching period of volcanic activity in a tract of country which shows very marked traces of having been at one time the theatre of very extensive volcanic disturbances. " I've got a new machine," said a Yankee pedlar, " for picking bones out of fishes. Now I tell you, it's a little bit the darndest ' thing you ever did see. All you have to do is to set it on a table, turn a crank, and the fish flies rite down your throat, and the bones uuder the grate. Well, there was a country ' greenhorn > got hold of it the other day, and he turned the crank the wrong way ; and I tell you the way the bones flew down his throat was awful. It stuck the feiler so full of bones that he couldn't get his shirt off for a whole week."