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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 175, 23 August 1878, Page 2

The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Star writes -.—There was a most humiliating scene in the House when the item "Bellamy's," on account of the establishment, .£250," was discussed. Mr Eox said the place was simply a restaurant or private grog shop. Members ought, uot to guzzle at the expense of their constituents. If present prices did not pay, let Bellamy's charge another three half-pence on beer, and something extra ou wine.— Mr Stout said in New South Wales no liquor was supplied to members within the precincts of the House but only sandwiches and coffee. Here uiauy honorable members were observed pulling wry faces, and two went to get drinks. Mr Stout went on to say that the true remedy was to abolish Bellamy's. Did any member imagine that tradesmen did work as the House was doing? Did tradesmen go away from their work every half-hour to some public-house and take a drink ? Yet that was the case in the House. (Oh, oh.) -Mr Shcehau said he would support the item. In the Auckland Provincial Council when there was no Bellamy's the whips had to search club and public-houses at intervals during debates in order to get members up for division. If there were no Bellamy's, members would make one for themselves. The members of this House were not free from the ordinaryfrailties of humanity. (Sarcastic " No, no," and a voice, " Oh, dear, no, not at all.") He believed the abolition of Bellamy's would impede business. He spoke from experience, for he had to keep a little Bellamy's of his own in the Auckland Provincial Council in order to keep his party from staying away and being absent from divisions. Mr Fox (sotto voce) : That was a very bad school for a young politician. Some little little insight into the career of an aristocratic patron oo the turf is given by the following paragraph from an English newspaper:—" Sir Charles Nugent, of Saddington Hall, came before the Leicester Bankruptcy Court for public examination recently. He stated that his total liabilities were £12,000, chiefly incurred by turf losses. Up to last year he kept racehorses, and had as many as seven or eight. He considered he had lost £69,000. Bis assets were £20, but he did not think the creditors would get even that amount. His position he attributed to having become surety for other people, And trying to get money to pay interest on debts which he had incurred. He began to borrow money when he of age, and eventually contracted debts to the amount of about £50,000, when he made over his estates to his mother, on condition that she paid his debts and allowed him £1000 a year. Subsequently his father-in-law paid £40,000 for him. He frequented races, and lost as much as £5300 at a time. The bankrupt stated he could not make any suggestion as to the discharge of his liabilities. The Registrar said the bankrupt's conduct had been reckless, but held that he was entitled to pass the Court.'Dr Schliemann is building himself a house in Athens. He has given his little daughter the ancient name of Andromache, and the two family maid-servants are called Penelope and Briaeis. A singular anniversary is to he held at Pompeii next year— to celebrate the destruction of that city and Herculaneum 1800 years ago. -An exchange says that a new way of fastening ladies' hats is to bore the tops of their ears, put in gold loops, and have the hat-strings through them. Thus step by step we tread the pathway to perfection, and ere the darkness of death envelopes all the world, man will have utilized his nose in lioidiug up his pants or pulling off his boots. A fresh face will shine from the American lecture platforms next winter-^-that of Mr Alexander Eorbes, the famous war correspondent of the London Daily News, who will tell what he saw of fighting between the Russians and Turks. As a describer of gore he has no superior.

Cleopatra's Needle ia preparing to take an upright position. Six hydraulic screw-jacks of 100 tons power, aud two of 50 tons power, will be brought into requisition for this purpose. An artesian well at Pesth, Hungary, which supplies hot water, has now reached a depth of 1000 yards, and, when completed, will he the deepest of its kiud. A curious fea'ure of the well is the use of automatic machinery in boring, the water-power being supplied by the well itself. Ifc is Edmond About Avho does us this little encomium ; "At the age of twenty-five an American has tried a dozen ways in life, made four fortunes, a bankruptcy, and two campaigns, pleaded a cause, preached a religion, killed six men with a revolver, enfranchised a negress, arid conquered an island." — American paper. In a restaurant— a gentleman und a Paris snob were seated at the same table. The snob is just finishing his dinner, the gentleman just beginning bis. The snob lights a cigar and blows a cloud of smoke over his coffee. The gentleman rises and says in the politest tone : "Excuse me, sir, will it annoy you if I eat while you are smoking ?" Hoedel, the man who attempted to assassinate the Emperor William, had hi 3 photograph taken in Berlin a week before this event. It is said he advised the photographer to make as many copies as possible, saying that in a week he would be dead, but famous all the world over, and people would want his likeness. The past career of Hoedel does uot do him much credit. The late Duke de Saldanha, Portugese Minister to England, left a will ia which this beautiful tribute is giveu to his wife : — ''All his effects in England, and one-third of his property, which he is entitled to dispose of in Portugal, he leaves to his wife and dear partner— to the angel whom God in His mercy sent to him to be the support and consolation of his old age." The fan alone of a Parisian actress in Dumas' new play cost 20,000 francs. The works of the Paiis Exhibition and adjuncts will not cost less thau forty-five millions of francs. Cardinal Manning, in a recent sermon, defined " society " as a '* conspiracy of fools, fashion) custom, mutual ilattery, eating, drinking and refined hardness of heart." One of the most attractive aud popular features of the Paris Exhibition is the display of the superb Pulman palace aud sleeping cars in the American section. The Cincinnati Commercial having seen a reward of five dollars offered for the best treatise on " How to make out-door life attractive to the mosquito," issues this elaborate treatise: " Camp out." In Warsaw certaiu ladies of high rank, have organised an Economical Dress Club | Among other rules adopted is one discountenciug the constaut changes recommended by dressmakers and modistes, when these lack artistic vaiiie. A long and angry correspondence, bitter and injudicious on both sides, has occurred I between Mr George Vcsey Stewart and Sir ' Julius Yogel on the subject of the agreement and arrangements of the former for bringing out high class settlers for the special settlement at Kati Kati, in Auckland Province. It extends over Ho less than 29 pages of printed foolscap, aud had much better never havebeen printed, or rather should never have been written. Mr Vesey-Stewart bad not completed all his anangements with the Government before starting from New Zealand on his way to obtain the now settlers; there was no specification of the land which was to be given, neither were some of the technicalities a3 to certificates, frc , fully complied with. Sir Julius made objection, stuck to the strict rules, both lost temper, and delay and inconvenience aud trouble to both parties resulted. It seems like the story of the cynic about marriage; both appear to have started with a little mutual aversion, or rather not a little, but it is a. weariness to the flesh to read the correspondence, with the continual reiteration of the same complaints and the same persistent and red-tape objections. Evidently each suspected and disliked the other, and were ripe for opposition, but 29 pages over such a subj ct is too much for any placid tempered reader who feels compelled as a duty to pf ruse it. However, the last letter is a good one. In it Mr Macaudrew throws oil on the troubled waters, ard is to send the Hinemoa to Auckland to convey the immigrants to Kati Kati, and he heartily welcomes them in the name of the colony. We are in receipt (says an exchange) oj particulars of another sheep-shearicg machine, The news comes from England, and with the assurance that "the thing wanted has been reached this time." As in former machines of the kiud, the cutting power in this one is obtained from a circular shear-like knife working in a disc that ia applied by the operator to the sheep. The cut is made on a principle similar to that of the reaping machine; but for sheep-shearing each cutter makes from 300 to 800 movements each minute. Compressed air, supplied through flexible tubing to the cutter, supplies the motive power. The knives, we are assured, cannot possibly cut or wound the animal, and so great is the cutting power that " an ordinary Leicester or Cheviot sheep is stripped of its fleece perfectly clean in six minutes." It remains to be seen whether the denser wool of the merino can be taken off with equal facility, or whether the machine is suitable for Australian purposes. The inventors say they will have competent hands here during the next shearing season.