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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 209, 2 October 1878, Page 2

The Corporation of Wanganul (says the New Zuihtnder) have been asked to pay £3 3s towards the cost of the late Municipal Conference. This arnouut, together with the £\T> paid to the Mayor, brings the total cost to £1 8 :U. In return the Council received half a dozen printed copies of the proceedings— the Mayor had a very pleasant trip — and the burgesses the melancholy satisfaction of knowing that about thirty other Corporations are now finding consolation in thinking themselves not alone in their folly. The following from the Auckland Herald may be of interest to our Volunteers : — Major Derrom received yesterday a telegram from Mr Ilamiiu, M.H.K., stating that the subsidy for the Rifle Association for their annual shooting will be about £2000. This will he available for the expenses of representatives from every part of the colony. But the sum, though a handsome contribution, will only partly cover the incidental expenses, not to mention prizes. It needs to be supplemented by voluntary contributions, if the practice of rifle shooting is to be adequately encouraged as it deserves to be. A cruel hoax (says the Pest) was perpetrated by a SGnsation-monger last night, in announcing that the poor boy Lyall, who was kicked by a horse near the Constabulary Barracks, had died from the effects of the injuries received. Both the morning papers published the announcement ; adding various imaginary details. We are happy to be able to state that, an hour before we went to press this evening, the boy was not only alive, but also progressing much more favorably than could have been expected. The most extraordinary part of the story has yet to be told. The police, rashly taking it for granted that the false account of the boy's death circulated last night, and copied by our morning contemporaries, was correct, actually made all arrangements for holdiDg an inquest at the City Hotel, Ciyde Quay. The Coroner received due notice, and summoned the jurymen and v/itnessess to be in attendance at two o'clock this afternoon, and Dr. Johnston was on his way to the appointed place, with all his official books under his arm, when he was accosted casually in the street by a friend and asked whither he was bouud. " Going to hold an inquest," said the doctor, " on that poor boy who was kicked by a horse on Tuesday.'' '• But he isn't dead," said the friend. "Pooh, nonsense," said the doctor. l< But it is a fact," rejoined the friend. l% Dr. Harding told me only a minute ago that he was alive and doiDg well." " But, good heavens," shrieked the coroner, "ihe jurymen all are there waiting at this moment." " Well then, doctor," responded big friend, " ycu'll have to find 'em another body, that's all. Farewell." And so they parted, the worthy coroner proceeding in almost undignified haste to ask Dr. Harding which story was really the hoax— the " dead," or the "aliye." It is needless to say that any doubts which may still have lingered were speedily resolved. The mania for bicycle ridiug has uot diminished in England. Five years ago the bicycling industry in England was represented by the Coventry Machinists' Company alone, making five bicycles a week; now there are 14 makers iu Coventry, and some 120 scattered throughout different towns. The present weekly wages paid to makers of bicycles in Coventry ranges from £1500 to £2000. The amount of capital invested in plant ond machinery might be estimated at about a million sterling, and the value of bicycles throughout at the country at between .£600,000 and £800,000. In London there are upwards of 10,000 bicycles, and in the country 50,000. Marshal Bazaine is living in Spain in very embarrassed circumstances He has appealed for aid to all of his old comrades, including l^esidont Mfto.Mihon, but in vain.

The Spectator, speculating on the possible results of the microphone, says :— " With the help of this instrument, it should be possible to hear the sap rise in the tree ; to hear it rushing against small obstacles to its rise, as a brook rushes against the stones iu ifc : path : to hear the bee suck its honey f to n tlio flower jto hear the rush of the U«i kI through tlio smallest of the bloodvessels, and the increase of that rush due to the slightest inflammatory action."

A Jlojsio pfi[)<'r says : — A new war-like appliance is hhuhi it> bo iiftrodirced into (he navy, and {will prokibly hk fco'ywn rfs ilio ' 'haiitl-lcrptdo." Like iiie grenades of'Tialf a ecu tiny ago, they are intended to be thrown by the hand into the oneniy's bouts, or over parapets, ov stockades, but instead of being sliSll.i o-w^lndgtl l)y a fuze as the grenades were, they will e6?ris«, entirely or gun cotton pulped and compressed into R eft** or ball of ."•lb or 41b weight. A long cord is aCfflifred to each charge, the other end of which isconnectcd with a kind ofpistoljheld by theoperator The torpedo is pitched into the required position, when a touch on the trigger of the pistol detonates the gun-cotton, and an explosion follows, such as experiment has sbowu to be sufficient to shatter in atoms a five-ton block of granite. One such charge skilfully applied would annihilate a boat's crew, and in the bauds of during tiien might work great destruction by being thrown into large ships. The following items of Japan news have been telegraphed to the Press Agency :— The internal loan of twelve and a half million dollars lias been floated, but it is not considered very successful by Government. There are now 115 National Banks in Japan, with capitals ranging from seventeen million dollars to fifty thousand dollars of the smaller establishments. A noticeable feature about the new loan is that the Governhave been compelled to pay 20 per cent premium for their own paper, while its value iu foreign estimation is 7-i- per cent discount — There is a great apprehension about this season's rice. — A new wharf extension of 2400 yards further into the harbor is to be made at Yokohama, so that ships of airy size may come alongside to load and discharge.— ln a thunder storm in the province of Mino, three men were killed by lightning.—Of the assassins of the late Home Minister, six were beheaded, four were sentenced to imprisonment for life, and eighteen to various terms of long imprisonment.—The infant. Prince Imperial of Japan is dead. This leaves the Emperor childless. — Sporadic cases of cholera are reported from various places among the natives.— The Glatnis Castle, from Amoy for Xew York, with a cargo of tea, got ashore and remained four days aground, but was lightened aud got off after throwing 1300 tons of cargo overboard.— Accordiug to the last census the population of Japan is .%'?,G22,G78 persons, of whom 17,050,521 are males, and 1fi.055,157 females.— An explosion of fireworks occurred on board a Japanese junk off the Island of Awaji. Out of sixteen persons on hoard niuo were mortally wounded, and the remainder seriously hurt. — Sixteen Japanese sailors were taken off St. Peters Island, where they had been cast away for eleven months ])u ing that time they lived on birds, fish, and rainwater. — Heavy Hoods are reported in the interior. Many lives have been lost, and crops and property have been damaged to a considerable extent.

The London correspondent of the New York Hera'd writes under the date of June IG, upon Sqealism is Europe, that it is asserted_' l that London isLhe head -quartersof the Socialists, and that on the Monday following the attempted assassination the Foreign Office in Berlin received a letter, posted in London the Saturday before, warning them that the Emperor, and, if possible, Prince Bismarck, would be assassinated on the very day that the attempt was made. There is, without doubt, great perturbation among the reigning families of Europe, who feel themselves helpless against the terrible peril that may surround them and know not whose turn may come next. At any moment, in some back room/in au obscure London-street, a hand may be dipped into a ballot-box, and the fatal lot drawn forth which consigns some other high personage to death." The following remarks upon the recent solar eclipse, as observed at Denvir, California, occur in a private letter received by the late mail. The writer says:—"Yesterday occurred the loug-talked-o*f eclipse, and it was a sight I should have been very sorry to have missed. The day was perfect in every respect, for which all were glad, particularly as there were a great many scientific men and visitors here to witness it", and take observations. It was over two hours from the time it commenced until the end, but the total eclipse was only 2min. and 59sec. It was a grandly beautiful sight. We did not have darkness, but a most lovely twilight. The effect on the mountains and the clouds, which were of the most beautiful rainbow tints I ever saw, was grand. The whole surroundings were most gloriously lit up, and I could only think of it as a glimpse of Heaven. It seems very tame to put upon paper; one must see it themselves to get anything of a correct idea of it. It was rather laughable to see birds and insects making for home. Even the herds started ia from the grazing ground. There was nothing awful or frightful about it, although, I believe, the Chinese brought out drams and tin pans to frighten it away, according to the custom. Yet it was wonderfully magnificent, and awe-inspir-ing."

Mr Fox last night opposed the beer tax ! He did so upon several grounds, the chief of which were that the tax was one on industry, and that it would fall upon the working man. Taxation, he said, should fall upon luxuries, and not upon necessaries, but nine out of ten working men considered beer a necessity and not a luxury. In short, Mr Fox opposed a beer tax on the ground that it would" slightly raise the price of beer to the working man, and the working man considers beer a necessity; but Mr Fox would close all publichouses, and so prevent the working man getting any of what he considers a necessarv at any price. Mr Fox added that when the brewers' deputation waited upon Mr Ballance, that gentleman argued that the publicans could use smaller glasses. " I'll defy them to do it," continued the hon. member for Wanganui, " for the glasses are so iufinitesinially small already, that it would be a physical impossibility to make them any smaller." Mr fox an advocate for cheap beer and big bumpers ! What next ? An hon. member might well remark, with more force than elegance, that he was " teetotally flabbergasted." — r'us'.

In enumerating the mauy claims that the Maoris had to special representation, Mr Taiaroa (according to the Chronicle) renarked that the native ladies were far better contributors to the revenue than European ladies. They smoked — that was one point in their favor; then they used a week's allowance of sugar at one "go" — they would corsume a pannikin fnl at one meal. The Maods also consumed a large quantity of beer, and gererally used more articles that paid duty than white people. If they got £20,000 to-morrow they would not leave Wellington ii'i:il they had spent it all. If he (Mr Taiaroa) had to travel over the whole of his district he would spend all his money in travelling expenses, which he ought to save for his children. For seven years he had asked for more Maori members, and he had not yet; gained his cause. Ho looked upon the Native Minister as a Maori.

A DunecHu rate payer, who says that within the lust few days lie has paid £84 2s 8d for water and city rates, intimates to the City Couuoil that a very littlo moro rating v. >yJU rate b!in out of Dunedjii ftltagct-bsi 1 . 1 '