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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 252, 31 October 1878, Page 2

Lord Beaconsfield wants to retire, and Mr Gladstone says he will offer no opposition to his doing so. The Empress of Austria is ouiy thirty-two years of age, and yet she is a grandmother. The Prince of Wales has beeu elected an honorary member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston. George Leasard, aged §1 , one of Napoleon's Veterans, was married in Montreal the other day to a blooming widow of 50. He maj r not find her Lessard to manage than his master did her British forefathers. The official list of the bridal presents received by Mrs Capt. Paget (late Miss Minnie Stevens), occupied a column and a half in the Court Ciicular. In includes four clocks, three hand mirrors', one hundred and eightyeight pieces of silver plate, eight fans, eight bracelets with diamciiis, and three lockets. The Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince of Denmark, her brother, and the heir to the Belgian throne, are all of them deaf. Mr H. M. Stanley is said to have accepted a proposition made by the King of Belgium to defray the expenses of another trip across Africa. The sickly sentimentality (says the Napier TeUgraph) that usually pervades all the speechesjof Sir George Grey, aud the lC gush" that generally garnishes his most trivial actions, have met with an appropriate response. Mr Fitzory, in the House last night, gave notice to ask the Premier if he has declared the independence of New Zealand, or intends to do so, and if so, at what date; also, by what authority he intends to supersede the National Anthem of Great Britain by that of Thomas Bracken, of Dunedin, and what will be the cost of supplying copies to the schools. The Clutha bridge which was partially washed away by the late floods, was built in 1867, «t a cost of £1 7,000. From an exchange we learn that the work of unloading the Hyderabad, that was wrecked near Otaki, is progressing moat satisfactorily. The manner in which the cargo is landed is as follows : — A wire rope is attached from a mast of the ship to a pole placed beyond high-water mark, and each article is fastened thereto and sent ashore, very much after the fashion of the working of a punf. In all probability the cargo of the City of Auckland will be landed in the same way. Respecting the purchase of privateers in America, an American correspondent writes : —When it appeared probable that war would ensue between England and Russia, " that splendid ass," the Czare witch, appealed to " all the liussias " to subscribe to a volunteer fleet to drive the British flag off the high seas. All eyes turned to America, and here the anti-British war spirit rose to fever heat. Everyone who had a rotten side-wheeler to sell, or a craft of any kind or size, or who thought he could make five dollars by way of commission on such sale, talked " privateering," wrote "privateering," and succeeded, by a process of advertising (in leading articles and on the rostrum) peculiarly American, in persuading the Czarewitch to send agents to America to buy and man a volunteer fleet. Well, the agents came, and the trade began. Whether it was Russian obtuseness or Yankee cuteness no one can tell, but it now transpires that the agents stole two million out of three million five hundred thousand roubles subscribed to the navy fund ; and that the 1 ,500,000 roubles paid to American ship-owners might as v/ell have been pitched into the tide, the purchases being valueless for naval purposes. A Dunedin telegram of Monday says : — Sir Julius Yogel, replying to the Mayor's congratulatory telegram re the opening of the railway, says — " lam greatly pleased to hear that a work has been completed which links together cities with so grand a destiny before them as Dunedin and Christchurch have a right to expect. Wheu I think of what they were when I first knew them a few years since, and consider there present position, the wildest dream of their future progress could scarcely exceed the reality of their past advancement to those who, like myself, look upon the towns of New Zealand os merely adjuncts to the requirements and development of country districts. It is especially gratifying to know that the prosperity of Dunedin and Christchurch is not artificial, but that their progress has literally kept pace with and denoted the progress of districts of which and to which tbey are the outlets. Their connection by iron roads must greatly aid in producing the commercial industries of the cities themselves, and of the districts which separate them, and I am at no loss to imagine the heartiness with which their union must have been celebrated at the banquet of which the telegram tells me. Whilst I share with you all the satisfaction which the completion of the work has occasioned, I have to thank your thoughtful kindness for the special and not to be exaggerated pleasure which the knowledge has brought to me that in the midst of your rejoicing you have found time to think of one so far away, and to credit him with a share in the result. Public life entails much anxiety and care, and not a few sacrifices; but the memory of one and the reality of the other are lost in the reward which a public man feels he has received when he is honored with the approbation of those in whose service he has labored. Your telegram brought to me thi3 reward, and has exceedingly rejoiced me."