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

Sir George Grey the other day did a graceful thing in a particularly graeeful manner. He informed the House that certain salmon ova arriving in Melbourne in transitu, a request had been made that 3000 might be left there— that Mr Macandrew, who took a warm interest in the matter, had authorised this retention, and that be, as Premier, had confirmed it; that the Government of Victoria bad applied to know what they bad to pay, and that he had informed the sister colony that the ova were to be regarded as a gift from New Zealand, and that, in acknowledgment of this, the Victorian Acclimatization Society had voted him its silver medal. Sir George Grey added that if credit belonged to any individual in the matter it was to his colleague, Mr Macandrew, and that he himself could net possibly accept the gift, but that lie had deemed it best, to deposit the medal in the Colonial Museum, as showing the gratitude of one colony towards the other. The Premier's speech elicited hearty applause from all sides of the House. —New Zealander. India is said to possess a convenient tree called the " kapas," which is used as a telegraph post. When cut down, its branches partially removed, and stuck in the ground, it readily takes root, thus checking the ravages of the white ants and becoming a living telegraph post. Our American cousins still continue to improve the trotters, and have yet another "fastest on record" for 20 miles. The match was for lOOOdol. a-side, a well-known trotter named Controller having been backed to beat the scythe-bearer, aud for the stakes at issue his owner undertook to trot the horse 20 miles within the hour. The horse, had previously trotted 10 miles in 27min. 27£sec, and as he was in capital form odds of iio to W were laid that he accomplished the 20 miles within the specified time After jogging round the track a couple of times, he was despatched upon his journey. During the first portion of it his driver allowed him to take it very leisurely, and he was 30min. 7sec. accomplishing half the distance; but the horse was then roused up, and when he had traversed 15 miles he had been only 44min. 25sec, thus being 35sec. ahead of old Father Time, and, as the Yankee reporter observes, "goiuglikea good-natured steamengine, that never in its life required a governor to check its onward movement/' The horse trotted the succeeding miles in 2min. 56sec, 2min. 51sec, 2iuin. 49sec, and 2min. 50sec, and the last mile in a jog, the whole distance having been traversed in 58min. 57sec. Controller pulled up quite fresh after this splendid feat.