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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 178, 27 August 1878, Page 2

The tUeatre at Foriipcii Was recently opened with the following unique announcement :— " After the lapse of more than eighteen hundred years the theatre of this city will be re-opened with La Ftglia del Reggimento. I solicit a "continuance of the favor bestowed on my predecessor, Marcus Quintu3 Martius, aud beg to assure the public that I shall make every effort to equal the rare qualities he displayed during his management." On June 7th Mr Ackers, agent to Dr Gatling, inventor of the mitrailleuse, tried, at Sealand Range, Chester, in the presence of Captain Rogers and a number of officers and men connected with the pensioners now up for training, three new patent Gatling guns which have never before been tried in England. The mitrailleuses were first tried at 1000 yards range, Mr Ackers working the macbiue. When everything had been arranged a signal was given, and the weapon poured out a regular hail of bullets, the majority of which struck the canvas target, and tore it all to shreds, and penetrated quite through the stout two-inch oak supporting the poles. Accurate time was kept by Capt. Rogers, and it was ascertained that the mitrailleuse fired 1000 rounds per miuute, which is 300 or 400 rounds per minute faster than any other Gatling guu. Experiments with the weapon were then tried at 800 and 600 ! yards range, and the way in which the j bullets were hurled at the target, and the marvellous precision with which they struck j astonished every oue present. Sergeant Mayer, who was marking, said a sparrow must have been killed crossing the line of the fire. The bullets which fell a little abort tore up clods of earth as large as a fist, and hurled them right over the target into the j markman's retreat. The opinion of com- | petent judges is that this is the most dea- ; tructive weapon ever invented. An Irish gentleman writes to Truth to say that he has never found a Frenchman who can pronounce this i— '• Thirublerig Thistlethwaite thievishly thought to thrive through thick and thin by throwing his thimbles about, but he was thwarted and thwacked and thumped aud thrashed with thirty-three thousand thistles and thorna f-r thievishly thinking to thrive through thick and through thin by throwing the thimbles about." The New Zealander of yesterday says : — A laughable case, in the strict sense of the word, will, we are told, come ou for hearing in the Resident Magistrate's Court within the next 48 hours. An ex-member of Parliament, it appears, whose bland, benevoleut aspect has gained for him an appellation closely identified with the risible faculties, was passing the door of a local hotel when he overhead himself alluded to in terms the reverse of complimentary. Feeling dissatisfied, he challenged his man, but failed to obtain satisfaction. Thereupon an urgent appeal was made to the landlord, who, it would seem, was equally obdurate. Arriving at this juncture, the ex-legislator had recourse to language which, it is said, could not be found in the Parliamentary vocabulary. Without further ceremony, the landlord struck right out from the shoulder, an operation which left an awkward -looking impression on the aforesaid benevolent countenance. Further remonstrance being deemed inadvisable, redress was sought elsewhere— hence the action alluded to above. A genuine Australian patriotism is in process of development— it is almost needless to say not in politics (writes " JEgles" in the Auslralas an.) A young Australian at one of the English Universities, who is a flrstclass'cricketer, was lately asked to play in a match on a particular date. He wat just about acceding with pleasure to the request, when he inquired against whom the match was to be played, and was informed the Australian Eleven. He promptly declined, on the ground that he would not play against his own countrymen. At a meeting recently held in London in j connection with the movement to provide " Speech for the Dumb," Professor Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, in the course of his speech said, :— To illustrate the purely mechanical nature of speech he spoke of having received, from across the Atlantic a few days ago, one of Mr Edison'* phonographs, and after placing the machine on a table in his Liverpool hotel, aud turoing a handle, his friends, who had brought the instrument, were addressed by name, and thus greeted.— " Once for all, I wish you a pleasaut voyage and happy time in England." These words he said, had been spoken iuto the phonograph at starting, and rendered faithfully at the other shore of the ocean 3000 miles off. " Autolycus " gives the following as an illustration of the servantgalism now rampart in Wellington :— On Tuesday last Mrs Blank of near Tinakori-road was pained aud surprised by her housemaid giving her the ordinary week's notice. " Why, jane," said the lady, " I thought you were well satisfied." " So I was, ma'am," was the response, " but I will not be insulted." " Who has insulted you," was the next query, to which the following answer was vouchsafed .-—"Master has, ma'am ; would you believe it, he passed me on Lambton-quay to-day in company with another gentleman and neither of them raised their hats." The lady excused her husband on the ground of absent-mindedness, favoured him with a curtain lecture, and induced him to apologise. But it was of no avail, even an offer of increase of wa*ea was useless, so now that lady is on the war path, armed with a " Wanted."