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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 180, 27 July 1878, Page 2

One of the Chicago daily papers, the Evening Post, with a circulation, we believe, of 8000 or 10,000 copies, is now edited and published by women The late editor, Mr Oliver A. Willard, recently died, and his widow and her sister-in-law, after failing to secure other conductors of the paper, have assumed charge of it themselves. They are ladies of culture and ability, and one of them, Miss Frances E. Willard, has won a natianai reputation as a lecturer and labourer in the Woman's Temperance Movement. The new editors give the following outline of their plans :— " The Post will be, as heretofore, and first of all, a newspaper. Eut, as the entrance of women into literature has helped to purify it, we hope their appearance as managers of a metropolitan newspaper may have a similar effect in secular journalism, so far, at least, as their own columns are concerned. Nothing less than the determination to bring with them the amenities and elevating influences which characterise their home life can justify women in entering circles of influence popularly thought to lie ' beyond their sphere.' The Post, then, will be more than a buyer and seller in the news market. It will aim so to outline the story of the world's doings to-day, that the reading thereof will tend to make the world better tomorrow. It will have opinions oa all subjects of public interest ; will address itself to a constituency, located, not^in bar-rooms and billiard-halls, but in business offices and homes; it will warmly advocate all causes that tend to ennoble human uature, and will strive always to express itself in words which a woman might speak or hear. As heretofore, the Post will be a political paper, independent and fearless, lending its influence to such measures only as are calculated to hasten the time when all men's weal shall be each man's care." " A Lover of Piain Speech," writing to the Southland Times, says ; — " A Liberal Government now seems to be a Government which puts money from the public till very liberally into the pockets of its members, if it is true, as alleged, that the present Government in New Zealand started the New Zealander newspaper, and then subsidized it, or to speak more plainly, themselves, by columns j of Government advertisements, to which its j comparatively 3mall circulation gave it no ' title whatever. Such liberality as this reminds one forcibly of the liberality of the ! church attendant described happily by Mr Donald Reid in a recent speech. The gen- | tleman whose liberality was so roused by the sermon he had just heard that he emptied all his neighbors' pockets into the plate." Under the new army regulations every Prussian soldier carries in his left trousers pocket the plaster, lint, and bandage necessary for a first dressing of a wound, so that in an emergency each can help himself or a comrade, i

The specifications as to the payment of contractors for' the Tapanni railway, are, (says the Press) exceptional Jo the history of public works in the colony, being stich a3 can Only suit, contractors who can command a large capif fit. Suspicion is, therefore, naturally aroused, and Questions are asked as. to whether the Public Works department la anxious to throw the contract fnto the hands of some particular Contractors", by debarring other's from tendering. The Tapfdnni cof respondent of the Dunedin Star telegraphs '.— 'Jflbe' intending contractors here are very much di£si*^3^ed with the specifications of the railway. There is no elatiss ioV, progress" payments,two years being allowed for t&e construction of the line, and it is not until sixty days after the. completion, of the line, station buildings, and permanent way that a single payment will be riiJldS, snd then only a small percentage. Contractors vbo »re not large capitalists therefore growl !" Mr J. W. Thomson, the hon. member fo7 Clutha, is celebrated far, among other things, his native wit and his hatred of Wellington. When addressing his constituents recently he gave an illustration of both. He said :— " Now, there is that miserable place called Wellington. (Laughter.) Wellington is said td be the centre of the colony. It is a. place tliat you can only get to and from by sea. A great niirdber of the members of the General Assembly hate lately resigned, and why is that ? t believe It Is on accouut of those long sessions and the isolation of Wellington, and that they can't afford to be buried up there. Now, I think the railways are showing that the seat of Government should be removed. We have Christchurch there. Well, if Christchurch was the seat of Government, members could occasionally get home, and attend in some measure to their own business ; but as the General Assembly is held at Wellington it is impossible for them to leave Wellington' during the session. But I think that the time will come when this question will engage the attention of the public very much more than it doea at the present time." An Aberdeenshire bank agent, who recently attempted to assassinate his partner, has been sentenced to 20 years' penal servitude.