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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 188, 6 August 1878, Page 4

A citizen of Troy, N. T., being on his death-bed, is reported to hare called for proposals from the undertakers of that city for conducting his funeral and had the contract made with the lowest bidder. The coal production of China is reckoned at 3,000,000 tons annually. Scales that will weigh a grain of dust are used in the Philadelphia Mint. An autograph letter from General Grant to a distinguished Republican of Knox7ille, says that nothing could induce him ever to become a candidate for President again. Samuel Steenburgh was hanged on the 19th at Fonda, N.Y., for the murder of Jacob S. Parker, on the night of March 17th, 1877. A Times special says there were fully 15,000 people in the village, extra trains having been run, and the farmers flocking in from the surrounding country. Steenburgh at first stoutly protested innocence, and did not give up hope until the last moment, when he dictated a confession, detailing the particulars of seven murders, hinting at several others which he claimed to have committed, aud acknowledging numerous robberies, incendiarisms, and other crimes. Recently several children were at play near the railway, about a mile from Portsmouth, when it was proposed to (t do each other's balk." This style of venturesomeness led them to see how near they could approach a passenger train, when the temerity of oho little boy, Kdward Sarcafa, aged seven, cost him his life, for the engine caught him before he could get clear of the line. He was thrown down, and tbe train passed over him, cutting his head open, and otherwise mutilating him in the most shocking manner. On the eve of leaving England for the United States (says the Otago Daily Time*) Dr. Peebles, the well-known spiritualistic lecturer, gave a farewell address at the Lord Nelson-street Hall, Liverpool, in the course of which be is reported to have referred to the fact of New Zealand having Maori members in Parliament. He considered this an honor to the British Empire, and as reflecting disgrace on the United States, where ",no. Indian has yet been allowed to appear and plead the cause of his unhappy tribes in the Congress of the Republic," A new, and what appears to be a mo3t effective and cheap method of dealing with the rabbit nuisance, has been adopted by Mr A. Dennis, of Irrewarra. The rabbit-holes having been stopped with earth, a small vessel containing bi-sulphide of carbon is introduced into the closed-up home of the bunnies. Theae inhale the poison as tbe liquid quickly evaporates, and are soon placed hors de combat. An Australian contemporary says that this system has been tried with marked success in New Zealand, one small bottle of bi-sulphide of carbon being sufficient for a great many rabbit holes. A matntaoth show, known as "The Deluge, or Paradise Lost," which is described as a " Grand spectacular drama," 13 coming from California to New Zealand and Australia. It illustrates Milton's "Paradise Lost," in a dramatic form, supported by a full company of actors and actresses, numbering about forty. Miss Julia Seaman has from its initial performance represented Satan, and amongst other characters sustained are Abel, Cain, Adam, Eve, Tophet, Ithuriel, Mammon, Raphael, &c. It* scenery is Pandemonium, , Garden of Eden, Satan in Judgment, and also a panorama of the aerial voyage of his Satanic Majesty. The Paris correspondent of the Ly Helton Times writes a3 follows regarding the Paris Exhibition :— The pavilion of the Society for ! the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, begs the Press to view their exhibits, from various nations, as serious. It appeals to children by a display of birds' stomachs, that nest robbing is not far removed from a capital sin ; the stomachs of birds contain insects and such small deer, and hence deserve they well of the country. Some crows die from an indigestion of wire worms, and larks are more valuable for destroying noxious insects than when in pies ; a species of linnet feeds on the terrible winged phylloxera— the only cure for the vine bug not yet, tried. By means of winkers and a bole in the centre, a child can fix a marling bpike, and drive it with a blow into the brain of an ox ; this is equivalent to painless ex-tinction. A Dutchman exhibits 1 a cart for conducting cattle to the slaughterhouse t it is far more luxuriantly fitted up than that in which Marie Antoinette was conveyed to the scaffold. The guillotine has also been reformed, by the abolition of the steps. There is exhibited a special travelling bag for cats ; there are files to blunt the teeth of dogs, and so prevent ihe virus of hydrophobia entering the flesh ; from London there is quite an Oriental process for getting rid of unclaimed wandering dogs. Here they are simply strung up. The new process 13 to invite the dogs to walk into a parlour, like what the spider said to the fly, then allow the condemned to play for a while, and when the animals are dreaming of mutton bones — fishermen dream of fish — tnrn on an extra stream of laughing gas, and in the twinkling of an eye the batch of vagabond friends of jaaa enjoy tbe Bleep tlwt fcnows n9 waking.