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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 122, 23 May 1878, Page 2

It is said that as soon as Ministers are all in Wellington very extensive reductions iu the Civil Service will be made. It is rumored that considerably over 100 officers aud clerks will receive notice that they are no longer required. Among the departments in which important alterations will be effected, the Treasury, Audit, Stamp, and Native departments may be mentioned.

A Napier telegram to the Ptst, dated last Thursday, says:— The Wellington and Napier passengers by coach had a narrow escape during the last trip. When the coach from Masterton reached Ekatahuna a perfect hurricane was blowing and trees falling iu all directions. There was also a fresh in the river, so ifc was deemed advisable to wait some time to enable the flood to go dowu. A little before midnight the river was crossed, and then further progress was stopped by the road being blocked iby trees that had fallen down. There were twelve passengers in the coadi, including eight ladies. It took four gentlemen and the coachman from midnight till eleven o'clock next morning to clear the road of the obstacles. The passengers, of course, had nothing to eat, and had to work hard through the night before they could hope to obtain breakfast. It was impossible to go back, as the river behind them hud again risen. In consequence of this delay, on arrival at Woodville, the coach for Kopua having started, a night had to be speut there. Next morning, yeaterdaj', a start was made, the ladies fortunately remaining behind. The final accident occurred as follows: — The horses, which were by this time completely knocked up, appeared too weak to turn the coach round a corner of the road, and keeping a straight course, de liberately drew the vehicle over the side. An inside passenger, perceiving [the peril of the position, succeeded in jumping out, but not without getting a severe shaking in the effort to recover his feet. He looked over the edge and saw the coach sliding down the precipice. The horses had turned their heads straight for the bottom. Tht earth was very soft, and the animals, borne down by the weight of the coach, had fallen, aud their bodies, acting as a sort of drag, prevented the vehicle being dashed to the bottom. Marvellous to relate, beyond every one being severely shaken and bruised, nobody was much hurt. The coach-pole broke, and one of the horses was seriously injured. Considering that a little above where the accident occurred a bullock lost its life in making the same descent, the wonder is that some or all of the passengers were not killed.

An aerial railway scheme, such as has been talked of for the Mersey Docks, is now being carried out on a bold scale in New York, where, after a good deal of litigation, a company has acquired, by a decision of the highest court in the laud, the power literally to override the rights of others in a manner rather astonishing to Old World notions of fair play. Notwithstanding that what the New Yorkers call " franchises" have been granted to street car companies over certain routes, the new overhead railway company has managed to obtain the power of planting rows of pillars in the roadway, and carrying their railway lines right over the whole vehicles. Here, in London, many } bu3 proprietors have had to submit to seeing themselves superseded more or less by the tramways, but in New York it is the tramway companies who have been thus dealt with after having invested capital in the construction of their lines. Nor have the property owners along the lines of route received much more consideration. They are to have a constant service of railway trains from early morning till late at night whistling aud rattling by their firßt floor windows, and those of them who are shopkeepers may, if they happen to be located between the stations, have the satisfaction of sitting upstairs aud watching trains full of somebody else's customers, running to and fro. In a free country like America, of course, the man who does not lite it need not stay, but it seems just possible that so novel an enterprise may seriously disturb the value of the property 111 New York, and, indeed it has all along met with a great deal of strenuous opposition. The entire scheme, now actually commenced, comprise*, it is said, three miles of single line arid six miles of double line railway, a large portion of the system being constructed on irhat is known as the " one-legged plan," the line beinjj supported on single pillars, aud many of the thoroughfares of New York seem likely to present a very singular appearance. An English paper says that Adelina Patti is having a stirring time of it at Naples. When she arrived they declined to receive h«r at the Hotel Royal, so she had to go to the Nobila. She was in high dudgeon, refusing to rehearse, ami in consequence found an audience at San Carlo as cold as a stone. In less than an hour she sang the whole house into Warmth, enthusiasm, frantic delight — it was the " Traviata "— and next morning the papers made positive excuses. Nay more, the committee of the theatre came to pay her the usual honor of a visit in state. She refused to see them. Expectation was on tiptoe as to her reception next night. It was feared she would be hissed. Not at all. She sang the " Barbiere," and with the same effect as befoi'e, her voice acting on their premeditated sulkiness like the riling sun on the mist. In the scene in which she has to spell the name of Eosina, she kept one high note po long that the unhappy baritone who accompanied her — and not a bad one either — had to stop three times for breath, she mocking him with a look the while. Naples has now given up all idea of resistance, and has taken up its old position at her feet. She receives £500 a night, with a right to half of the surplus when the receipts exceed 3800 dollars. On the night of the "Barbier " they took £1200 at the doors: she therefore received an extra £200, or a total of about £600 for the night's work, not counting her bonus of revenge.

The following is the opinion of an old man-of-war's man on the advisability of employing Indian troops in [a. Bulgarian campaign :—" Why, confound them," he said when conversing with an old settler on the subject, "it would take the British troops all their time burying them; they would Ihave no time to fight." It was, we believe, f ouud to be the case that the negroes sent by the Khedive, though fine active men, died by scores aud fifties in the Balkan passes. ]S Tever cast aside your friends if by any possibility you can retain them. We are the weakest of spendthrifts if we let one drop off through inattention, or let one push away another, ov if we bold aloof from oue through petty jealousy or heedless slight or roughness. Would you throw away a diamond because it pricked you ? One good friend is not to be weighed against the jewels of the earth. If there is coolness or unkinduess between us let us come face to face aud have it out. Quick, fceforo the love grows cold. Life is too short to quarrel in, or to carry black thoughts of friends. It is easy to lose a friend, but a new one Avill tot come for calling, nor make up for the old one. A correspondent writing from the interior of Russia states that the news that the Russian army had entered Constantinople caused there intense enthusiasm, together with a bitter feeling against the English for sending their fleet to the Boaphorus. This latter feeling has since been so strongly displayed in some places that the English residents have been in constant fear of insult. At Saratoff the telegram announcing the news reached the town during a public performance at the theatre. The manager at once stopped the piece and read the intelligence to the audience, which manifested unbounded-enthusiasm. The National Anthem was sung three limes in succession • then every individual connected wsth the theatre being brought upon the stage, the hymn was sung several times more. It was fully understood by the audience at Saratoff, as well as by the people in other Russian towns, that the alleged entry of the army into Constantinople would in all probability lead to war with England ; but thi3 had no other effect than to make the measure all the more popular, a conflict with England being regarded with as much delight as the outbreak of hostilities was with Turkey this time last year. The bitter feeling against the Turk has entirely died out. The English alone are regarded with enmity and dislike. When a man's premises get on fire in Paris, the law holds him liable to make good the damage resulting to other people's property, aud he is compelled to pay, up to a certain limit, for the loss which his fire occasions to hia neighbors on just the same principle that a man is everywhere compelled to pay the damages caused by his horse which runs away and destroys a property, or his bull which gores his neighbor or his neighbor's ox, or his cattle which break into aud destroy the crops of another. There may not have been any evil intent on the part of the owner, he did not design or desire to have his horse smash things, or the bull push the unruly horn, or his fire break forth aud destroy his own or his neighbor's goods —the intention has nothing to do with it; the fact is all that the law takes cognizance of, aud in France they treat the fires that way. Of course, this system induces very great carefulness to prevent fire3 occurring, or spreading when they do occur, and causes owuers of property to build in such a way that the erections are as nearly fireproof as they can ordinarily be made.