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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 157, 1 July 1878, Page 2

An extensive dealer in confectionery from Donedip lately visited the North, and at Maketu was presented with a petition from Maori Children, of #hich the following is a translation :— " Mr : Greetings to ton. We, the native children attending Maketu School, desire when you go up South that you should send us a box of lollies. This is all we have to sa.y. Signed by the children attending the Maketu School." At the conclusion of a creditors' meeting lately held in an hotel at Wellington, the , creditors and the bankrupt went '' a shilling in and the wiuner to shout," the creditor com* ing "down with his dust" as liberally as the rest. After imbibing, the party separated, at peace with ali the world. It is stated, says the Canterbury Press, that at the next . meeting of the Kaiapoi Farmer's Club a disctission will take place as to the best means of dealing with the sparrow pest in a wholesale way. A practical farmer, who saw his seed wheat being picked up by the birds after a second sowing last season, purchased 5s worth of strychnine and Is worth of phosphorus, which he dissolved in hot water, and caused to be soaked up by a bushel of wheat. This corn, when quite dry, he sowed on the top of his hind, and in a few days after the dead sparrows lay about the farm in such numbers that they could be picked up by the bushel. The poisoned graio, he also discovered, relieved him of a pest of rats which had infested the farm for some years. His harvest corn this year consequently suffered a very small loss from vermin. The Kumara paper says there is one public-house there for every 25 of its population, and that it gives away £4000 a year to itinerant mountebanks and wandering lecturers. The working men of California say that they propose to resist the immigration of Chinese — " peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must." The sporting editor of the Australasian has expressed an opinion to the effect "that the Auckland Racing Club went beyond its powers in disqualifying Falcon." All the particulars of the case were (it 13 stated) laid before that gen^eman, so that the decision i3 a somewhat important on, as he is looked upon as a great authority on all racing matters. Towards five o'clock on Sunday morning a tolerably sharp shock of earthquake was felt in WanganuL The Chronicle says that residents in different localities had sundry articles of crockery and glass broken; but the heaviest sufferer was Mr Sharp, photographer, Taupo Quay, who had about £20 worth of negatives smashed to pieces during the " shake." The Christchurch Press of Monday last says : — The heavy fall of snow on Friday night appears to have extended over the whole district, and our correspsndent3 from all parts write of snow-balling, snowdrifts, and the hardships suffered by stock. Iu many places there was no thaw during the whole of Saturday, and in the evening the snowy sheet was frozen hard. At Kaiapoi a tough snow-balling battle was fought between the residents on the north and south sides of the river, resulting in the northerners, after an exciting struggle for two hours, carrying the bridge by storm, and driving the southerners into their entrenched position at Burnip's Hotel. The last fall of snow which would in any way compare with that of Friday night was about nineteen years ago. The Brisbane correspondent of the Argus writes:— "The case of the young fellow Townsend, who plundered the Bank of New Sortli Wales, has been quickly disposed of, and with a severity that has surprised moat people, and must have been a great shock to himself. He put in a plea of guilty, and in a pithy, brief speech made for him by the Hon Mr Pring, exculpated all his fellow clerk3 from complicity in the crime, expressed his contrition, and his resolve to reform, and threw himself on the mercy of the Court. It was very neatly done, but the ' mercy of the Court ' was not visibly excited thereby. Townsend wa3 brought up for sentence next day. His Honor Chief Justice Cockle never does bis work hurriedly, and in a speech equally pithy with that made for the prisoner it was pointed out to him that claim to mercy he had none. He was neither poor nor ignorant; he had conceived his crime with great circamspectioj, carried it out with great boldness, and baffled detection for a time. When caught he had made a cowardly attempt to shift the actual theft to the shoulders of a fellow employee, and it was only when brought face to face with justice that he expressed contrition.- He was reminded that for an offence such a3 his he was liable to 14 years' penal servitude, but that his Honor thought all the requirements of the case would be met by a sentence of seven years' peial servitude — and seven years he accordingly got. It was generally believed that he would not get more than two or three, but 'the chief thought it a favorable opportunity for making a wholesome example, and giving some of our fast j youngsters a warning, and I think he was right."