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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 216, 21 October 1878, Page 2

A " New Chum," slightly overcome, walked into the R.M., Court at Wellington the other day and culled for a pint o' beer. t Father O'Maliej', who is about leaving Victoria £0 take up his residence in New Zealand, delivered a. leetara recently at the Fitzroy Town Hall in'aid o.f'a penevoient object. The lecture must have been' _ vei'y comprehensive one, as the rev. gentleman aJlnded, inter alia, to tides, volcanoes, recent discoveries jn botany, the steam engine, electee .telegraph, tele-phone, microphone, and phonograph, ' '* r* '* * . Mr Studholm has sold SOO acres at Waimate which cost hiui 40s per acre, making an original total cost of £ COO He has now received £19 per acre, or £15,200 in all, being nearly ten times the original cost. Thanks . ( to the railways made at the cost of the ' public. ''^he " Loafer in t-he stjreeU? write** in the j 7 ms.-— Tlie Gtibb is publishing a story' jiy Miss Braddon. tt commences" thus—" Dr C-ir/*ick was a man of genius whose life had b .? (?u ,t m ia Jr-" What a number of biographies of pcrsonai f -*ie**d*j I could comnjehce in the same" manner.' 'Genius 13 of very little account. You look 'rouud and ted j^e how many genii there are knocking about iv big* 'positions' here. You could count them iv less' than v .pek'. Opportunity, my boy, is what malces a man, 'and •somehow opportunities arc a bit uncommon r mean wntiug au essay on this subject one ot these days.

■*"""iNii-a-_**ir .■;..■»■. ...,. ii _.n i_ ii-ii i The Auckland oystermen have resolved to petition the House against making the close season longer than two months— January and February— aud especially urging that December be taken out of the close season. Mr Janes Mitchell, surveyor, who was drowned the other day, and whose salary for many years was only £450, left landed properly, chiefly in the Mauawatu district, to the value of of £30,000. A shrewd land buyer was the late Mr James Mitchell. An accident iv connection with the New street tramway occurred in Wellington the other day. A butcher's cart was approaching a crossing at a corner when au engine and car passed along the tramway. The driver of the cart, instead of pulling up, stupidly weut straight on. and actually ran right into the tramway engine, but got much the worse of the encounter, both his shafts being taken off, his horse knocked down, and himself thrown heavily on to the road. On being picked up, he was found to be slightly stunned, but otherwise uninjured, and the horse fared similarly. The cart fared worst of all. Among the items of news by the Suez mail we find the following :— ln the Austrian occupation of Bosnia, after a preliminary victory over the insurgents, the Austrians entered Serajevo, where a desperate street conflict took place, in which men, women, and even hospital patients joined. . Houses were burnt, and assailants suffocated. The insurgents lost 3000 in killed and 700 wounded. The disarmament of the inhabitants was ordered under penalty of death. A large amount of booty was seized", including 27 guns and abundance of military stores. Numerous Turkish officers and soldiers were taken prisoners on the 21st August. General Jouvaniwick _ division, after severe fighting, relieved the garrison shut up in Stolace. On the 23rd the insurgents attacked General Septery's division iv its position on tbe Bosnia river, but after nine hours' fighting they were diven off; afterward thay attacked the Austrian centre, but were effectually repulsed. They incessantly assailed and harassed the Austrians. The loses incurred by the Austrian army have excited great exasperation in Hungary; and the Press indulges in loud upbraiding about it. A telegram from Dunedin says:— Three weeks, ago, a servant girl named Jane Hamilton, twelve years of age, ran from service in the country, and was found ill and weak and almost at the point of death in the city. She complained of ill-treatment by her mistress, and in consequence the police were communicated with aud her depositions were taken. These failed to bear out the allegations of cruel treatment, and the master and mistress were presented with an address by the neighbors expressing sympathy with them. The girl rallied slightly, bat on Saturday died in the Hospital. The Manawatu herald sketches the following point of an eccentric character:— Dr Hewson, of Otaki, is one of the pilgrim fathers of New Zealand colonisation, and looks with contempt upon the fastidious ways of modern travellers along the coast. The worthy doctor's strong point in the County Council is "the ferries," and he is determined to see them, if possible, all put in good order. The other day he was speaking upon his favorite topic, when he launched out against the airs travellers displayed now-a-days. "Why," he said, "twenty years ago I forded the Wangaehu River up to my neok, and thought myself fortunate to get through that way; but now people want caper sauce to their mutton and oyster sauce to their fish, aud are so much afraid of the inconvenience of travelling overland that they go by steamer. I'd sooner get Mr Purcell to give me a night in the lockup than have a night on board one of them." The doctor's remarks provoked the hearty laughter of the Council. The J\ew Zealander of a recent date states: — The libel season is now approaching. It comes regularly as other times and seasons. We have a vicarious case in Wellington, while that unfortunate man in Palmerston North, who edits the Manawatu Times, has one on haud, and two awaiting him when the first is over. The Wananga is' in the same predicament, aud the Waka, Maori may yet put fartlj*. libellous leaves. There is a case pending in ftunedtn >r<| rq ft ny qye***4ije in Auckland. The Sun and the Age haye a Hebrew money-lender waiting for his pound of flesh, and the Rangiora Standard has notice of demand of payment of £50 to soothe some suffering sensibilities. In view of all this amount of litigation, it cannot but he fplt w^at a boon the iner-qber for Chevip.t would bestow on the newspaper world if he would introduce a bill to amend and consolidate the law of libel. An editorial judge and a jury of compositors seems not a bad idea for this kind of oflenoe, as for special cases special juries are are frequently empannelled, and a composing jury would be special enough. \ What constitutes shandy gaff was a question which cropped up at the trial of Cameron in the Supreme Court yesterday morning. It was stated in a portion of the evidenpo that shandygaff is a mixture of •effionade and J-*pe{\ J-#r Haggltt, who did not appear to be up iq teetotal am} blending, adopted that description, whereupon Mr Denniston promptly explained that it was a mixture of ginger-beer and beer. Mr Haggitt replied that it was a mistake of the constable, " who is not supposed to know anything about these things.'" The case then proceeded, there being no doubt on the point that shandy gaff is partly composed of beer, and that beer is to be found in the books, and, therefore, one of those things a policeman is supposed to know about. Dunedin Herald. " fturinga aisG_s3ipu»ttt-*eJ£aiapoi Farmers-: Club on » wool," one member stated an instance had come under his notice many years ago of a bull's head being sent to England in a bale and returned to the colony with the query, "Do you call tlm wool ? " Another member said the identical head was in existence, and could be produced at next gieeting. A third member reported the purchase of a bale frfltn 3. t|e-*cendan,t of a entirety dignjtaty, w(iich he asserted contained a larger proportion of jjo'nes and legs thm anything pise. Member No. 4 was not to be beaten, he had received a bale of wool with a cannon ball concealed in it for the purpose of, as he supposed, turning the scale iv the seller's favor, and No. 5 capped the others, amid roars of laughter, with the announcement of the arrival of a bale containing part of a flax stripper. No wonder alter ItJWa; that i'm cjab should ra-gnjineod that steps b_ t&kfcn to present' f***au_ 'ih" packing WOOI. ' ' ' ' ' ' '•■■■'.>■*! An astonishingly large number of serious accidents were reported in ohe day in "Otago '£l}omas White, a carpenter employed at Guthrie and factory, was killed by a piece of wood flying off the machinery, and striking him on the head. He was a new arrival in the colony, and had no relatives in it —At Naseby three miners were more or less injured through falls of earth in their claims. —At Waipori Thomas George, a stock driver, was rushed by a b'ujUock' which be waa endeavoring to cuto ut from a niob'of cattle.' His hors-Was killed, and he wns'throWn seyeraPtimes into th_ air. When picked up there was scarcely a vestige of clothes on him. He is not expected to recoyer from his in-juries.— At Milton Andrew Miller, jun, was severely (krt* by falling oi2 adray.-!-Alex7Kay, a vet} old Settler dl Tokoniainro/died suddenly in a bouse' he was visiting; ' ' ' ! '' ' •■ Accounts from Russia vii Asia represent a coljisioii wfth the Chines*? 'as |ui-m_Gn|*, many Russian' subjects having lieen tfj-J victims of Chinese cruelty.

No less than ninety-six persons were summoned from Reefton to attend the lata sittings of the Supreme Court at Hokitika. The late Mr JamesFiudlater, of Wanganui, died intestate and left a quautity of lauded property. An inquiry has just been held before the Sheriff and a jury in order to decide what should be done with the property. There was no will. Mr Findlater was illegitimate; had never been married; had neither kith nor kin,— consequently there was nobody to inherit his property. The jury decided that the property should go to the Crown. A Dunedin telegram to the Post says: — On dit that instructions have been transmitted from headquarters to cut-up the Edendale property of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company into farms, and that these will shortly be submitted to public competition. The facts of the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank, and the suspension of Messrs Potter, Wilson & Co, of Glasgow, iv which city the New Zealand and Australian Land Company's shares are largely held, lends probability to this rumor. The "Loafer in the Street" writes :— ln reading of the noble red man of the West as described in the American journals, I am often struck with his great resemblance to the high-souled Maori. Sitting Bull finds his prototype in Titoko Warn and Te Kooti, and Red Cloud has plenty of doubles in the Britain of the Sooth. What coald be more like Maori eloquence than the following quotation from a recent speech of Red Cloud, Esq., made at a conference very similar to that, held the other day at Hikurangi ? — " My friends, I have decided about the couutry I am going to, and I don't wish to have an argument or dispute with you or the great father about it. I look at my nation in thia way. I don't want my great father to spend so much money at oue time. I ask for five hundred cows now, and to go where I say. I can't labour like some people can, of course, because I have not pantaloons and do not wear them." If Red Cloud had been a Maori, the Government, after such a speech as the above, would have scut him 100 pairs of pantaloons. It's sad to think of that haughty savage wandering about without a trouser in his wardrobe. He could do a lot better if he came to New Zealand. I mean quite independent of trousers. The t*ost of Fiiday says :— The was great fun in the Legislative Council last night. Sir Dillon Bell made a little speech against the Government in general, and against the Colonial Secretary, Colouel Whitmore, in particular, on the Customs Tariff Bill. He went through the second schedule, that making reductionss of duties, seriatim, enumerating item by intern the proposed reductions, and he did so in this fashion : — Butter was to be relieved of duty in order to salve the feeling of the down-trodden working man; arsenic was rendered cheap to facilitate the process of poisoning the minds of class against class; bellows were made duty free to enable Ministers to blow about the great benefits they were conferring on the whole human race; paint was admitted free, so that Colonel Whitmore might put on the war paint which he was so fond of assuming, while the remission of fireworks was also for the Colonial Secretary's especial benefit, as he was exceeding fond of such displays in that chamber. Glue was to be made cheap also to ensure that some of the mud the Colonial Secretary threw about so freely ahould stick; photographic chemicals were to pas 3 without duty, ia order that the features of the benefactors of the human race (the present Ministry) might he handed down to a grateful posterity? perambulators were admitted free, to enable Ministers to perambulate the country during the recess, while bushmen would see a connection between taking the duty off " posts aud rails," and reducing that on tea at the same time. To wind up, cheap wine 3 were to be given to the working men, even if their beer was taxed. This part of Sir Dillon Bell's speech caused great laughter, in which Colonel Whitmore heartily joined.

Count Von Molfcke'e first military distinction was won in the service of the Sultan. Grasshoppers are desolating; many districts of Honduras. Crops disappear before them in a day, and the sparsely populated localities are entirely at their mercy. The Times of India learns from Travancore that swarms of locusts have made their appearance in all parts of the country. Afc the time when they first attacked tho crops of Tinnevelley, they swarmed in countless numbers in Travancore and especially in the Peermade hills, where there are many flourishing coffee estates. A colored man living in "West Green street, New York, having admired a colored widow, living in the next block above, bufc being afraid to come oufc boldly and reveal his passion, went to a white man of his acquaintance the other day, and requested him to write the lady a letter, asking her hand in marriage. The friend wrote, telling the widow in a few brief lines, that the size ot her feet -was the talk of the neighbourhood, and asking her if she' could not pare them down a little. The name of the colored man waa signed^ and he was to call on her on Sunday night for an answer. The writer of the letter met the nigger limping along the street, and asked him what the widow said. The man showed him 1 a scatched nose, a lame leg, and a epot* on his scalp whore a handful of wool had been violently jerked out, and answered in solemn tones, "She didn't say nuffin, and I didn't stay dar more'n a minute."