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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 195, 16 September 1878, Page 4

Since the beginning of the current year £1,691,200 in sovereigns and half sovereigns have been coined at the Royal Mint. During the year 3,746,000 -Australian sovereigns have reached the Eank of England. Campbell, the Scottish giant, who died lately, was buried at Newcastle. The coffin, which with the body weighed nearly a ton' measured 7ft in length, 3ft Gin in breadth' and a yard in depth, ' A young lady was inquiring of her old nurse, the widow of a pensioner, how she got on. " Badly enough, darlint, only the Government intends to do something for us." " And what's Government. Nora ?" "Is it jokin' ye are, Miss ? Sure, every child knows what's Government. It's a half a dozen gentlemeu, and sich as they may be, that meets and thinks what's best for themselves, and then say that's best for \is— and that's Government."

A monster court-martial is summoned to take place shortly at Odessa, when 300 functionaries belonging to the Kussiau Intendance will be tried for corruption. Among the accused are 40 officers bearing the rank of colonel. "Atticus"\v'rite3 in the Leader:— "There are few people who are fortunate enough to read their own obituary notices. Such a sensation, however, has been afforded to the exQueeu of Spaia by the liberality of a Melbourne moruing paper. A few weeks ago a column was given to a record of her numerous vices under the mistaken notion that she was dead, while it now appears that the deceased was Mercedes, the young consort of King Alfonso. The terms in which Queen Isabella was spoken of were the reverse of complimentary. She was described as vulgar, salacious, and profligate : the paternity of her children was doubtful ; and she was a great want divided into two— a want of every virtue that should have belonged to herself, and a want of every shilling that belonged to other people. Now it was all very well to speak in this way of the dead. You can say what you like of a corpse without any fear of the consequences; but constituted as Melbourne juries are, it is rather risky to do so of the living. It might afford Her Majesty a pleasant and profitable holiday trip if she came to our side of the world and got her reputation whitewashed in an action for defamation of character. If an ex-executive councillor would ask £10,000 for the damage done to his reputation, an ex-queen might well ask for ten times the amount." The following forecast of the weather ap peared in the Week's Neivs, a London paper, on March 10 last -.—"'The present year appears likely to be in every sense a stormy one. Earthquakes and tidal waves have been creating general alarm in Peru, and along the Southern I'acific coast strange and unaccountable phenomena, by latest accounts, continue to occur. In the meantime, one of the Chilian papers mentions some truly uncomfortable predictions of atmospheric changes made by Dr Falb, a famous weather, prophet, who has lately visited that country. Great atmospheric disturbances may, according to Dr Falb, be expected on the following dates : from March 16 to 18, August 26 to 28, and September 24 to 26, and possibly two days previous to the foregoing. This prophecy does not apply exclusively to Chili, but to the whole globe, though the nature of the disturbances will necessarily differ according to local conditions. Thus, while tempests, heavy rains, snowstorms, with thunder and lightning will occur in some places, earthquakes may be expected in others. Even where local peculiarities may so affect the weather that no noticeable influence may be observed, the pressure of the disturbance may be clearly distinguished in the atmosphere by clouds driving in opposite directions. In the mountains of Europe and the United States Dr Falb confidently predicts that the first snow will fall between August 2C and 28. In the meantime the extraordinary behr ,-iour of the Thames on March 8, when the tide rose until it threatened an inundation and then suddenly ceased to flow, seems to show that there is a ' screw loose' somewhere, and that Dr Falb may not be far wroug in anticipating a few freaks of I n ature-"