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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 167, 12 July 1878, Page 2

The War Office is perfectly pestered with applications from officers -staff and regimental — for permission to_ volunteer for active service ia South Africa, "provided their regiments are not required to go to the East." One promising officer, who served with distinction in the Ashantee campaign Brevet-Major Buller, 60th Rifles has just thrown up a lucrative staff appointment, with its chances of promotion, and sailed for the Cape, where he will assuredly gat more hard knocks than glory or prize-money. Hundreds of officers are animated by the same spirit, and ready to make the same sacrifices. Notwithstanding all that has been said of late years about " the nation of shopkeepers " there appears to be no faliing-off in tie martial spirit of the British army, or of aspirations after legitimate distinction in the profession of arms- and so long as this is so there need be no reason to fear England's ability to hold her own against the " blood-and-iron" go-aheadistn of her Continental neighbors. j The Auckland Herald says:— lt may surprise many people to learn that from this

office, vfhiah! is .the hosd^vktieii 6i f&gdfoar. sion Department for New Zealand,; &sUai6i ■£40,000 in distributed, annually, and alHfiift ; coraes oat of. the pockets of British taxpayers. Teariy £3,000 is annually thus paid away by the Imperial Government in 'Auck>\ land. We. learn 1 that -there, are in N various parts of the colony nearly 1,200 Imperial I pensioners, who have settled in New Zealand from all parts of the Empire. The | number is still increasing, many retired I officers and pensioners being attracted from abroad hf the geniality of tbe climate;: and the facilities fot 'settling families. ~ At Mem's meat-preseTfiflg factory at Christcburch, two thousand mutton hama are turned out weekly. Twelve hundred and fifty sheep per week are needed to keep the factory going. We have heard from well informed quarter:*, &.J6 the Thames Star, that the Natives have ran through {he fft&ft A* their money. Thi3 may be true as far as the greater number of them are concerned, but there are a good few who have their pockets well lined yet. Two or three instances which have come under our notice must suffice to prove this. One old chief with about fifty members of |us .tribe., drank~aad paid for., in the space of thre6 or foaiTHours no, less than thirty bottle's of ,btafldy, besides soda, lemonade, &c.,;fof making ''-i&i and 8.," !*. greased lightning cocktails,'' and similar mixtures. Another native " knocked down" a cheque for, some thirty and odd poands in less than two days, did not seetifr the least impecunious af terwardsj &n$ was ileard to remark he had " plenty more;.'* AndtbM instance and we are done ■ A ragged old 'waihina called on a. person to whom she owed 183, and producing a cheque for, £20, she said she would pay the debt if she Could get; "snange.^-- vl House property afc v esstfemaine, Victoria, does not appear to be a "Hi? profitable investment just now. \ -The Mount Altmtider */«/ says > :rT-" ! Th^,freg.nen^' annoyances to which owners of unoccupied, houses are subject are not conducive to sweetness of tecaper Boys think it afirat duty to smash in the windows, tramps to break doors, and loose characters to carry off mantelpieces, doers, and ovens. Then the collector for the borough calls for tbe rates, and another col lector presents his little bill for water. None of these sources of drainage are agreeable to an investor. A new mode of destruction ha 3 been discovered by some boys about Hargreave-street, who have taken away as many bricks out of the main wall of a house belonging to Mr Edwards as make a hole large enough for the body of a man or a goat to pass through. Thia Is the beginning of destroying the wall, and rendering the whole building insecure." , . ;