Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 255, 4 November 1878, Page 2

The Bishop of Wellington having ocicasidh to' write to a local paper regarding some Synod matters, concludes his letter by expressing his opinion that the recent defeat of Mr Curtis' bill by a majority of only six in a full House, ''affords strong grounds for thinking that a protest against the present system of. education May Hot be altogether without a benencial result. ij A Mr Jesse Shepp'erd, a medium, who arrived by the last San Francisco 1 mail dtettmcrj is creating • a sensation In Sydney; lie fairly tieWiiders his audiences. A recent Court case in Wellington is thus reported by the Chronicle;— Mrs Barber, an elderly womatt whose tongue seemed to be Hung hi ceh'ti-ej and to Be thoroughly hioncaced, appeared before Air Maiisford, R.M., yesterday, to complain about her spouse. His Worship remarked in generous i tones that he knew Mrs Barber well} he had knowh her for yearsi I'Hat lady tlien proceeded to unfold her tale at the rate of at least 150 words per minute. Mr Allan tried to put on the break, but that swift-paced tongue had bolted, and got quite beyond control. The colonial public grinned, the Bench smiled, the lawyers and reporters tittered, but Mrs Barber's tongue galloped on regardless of them all. .The scarcity o£ school in Otago still contiuues. it is stated ih an exchange that recently a teacher from Melbourne, by the Arawata, was engaged and commenced school work within two hours after landing at Dnnedin. The same scarcity of really practical (eachers is expeiiencedthroughout the Cololl3'. The German Governments (says an American contemporary) appear determined, if possible, to snuff out the Socialists, who are causing tto little trouble and apprehension. In Munich thej' hare become so numerous and troublesome to the Government authorities, that measures have been taken for their Suppression. The Socialists have their preferred houses where they meet, swig lager, and talk Utopiau dreams, and reorganise society, or, rather, destroy it in their cups, and make themselves disagreeable to the authorities. The latter s consequently, have issued orders forbidding the soldiers to enter the houses where the Socialists are in the habit of gathering. It may become necessary, as a State question, to, somehow, get up another war, in order to quiet, for a while, the isms which are disturbing the politics of the Empire. It cannot be denied ! that the people, as they become more and more intelligent and reasoning, grow less and less favorable to the old system of autocracy — of holding millions to the obedience claimed by Kings and Emporers as due to them. France appears to have pretty fully burst up this claim of Kings and Princes, and it is not improbable that Germany may, ere long, act similarly. A Russian lady in Paris wore at the Russian Easterfestival.pinkbiocade embroidered with silver flowers and a girdle studded with emeralds. Her necklace consisted of innumerable rows of pearls, and her bacelets were so numerous that they reached the elbow. It is quite common for Russian ladies to wear a dozen or twenty bracelets at a time. Berlin has a population of 840,000 Protestants, for whom there are but 34 churches and 95 ministers— that is one shepherd to a flock of 3,463 sheep. New York moistened its parched tongue with 690,000.000 glasses of beer last year. At five cents a glass this gives the astonishing total of 35,000,000d015. Mayors in Italy do not appear to command a high price. The Mayor of Fusignano, near Bolonga, was carried off by brigands a few days ago, but was released on paying a ransom of 120 dollars. ' " Death from suffocation through want of fresh air." These are the words of a verdict returned by a coroner's jury in the case of an infant who died recently in an overcrowded London tenement house. A correspondent of the London Times warns ladies against wearing green gloves, and mentions two cases in which blistering and swelling of the hands have been caused by what is supposed to be the use of arsenic in the coloring of the gloves. In Wellington lately a would-be military swell, who went by the name of " Captain," won the heart of a young girl who bad recently taken a situation as barmaid at a leading hotel. She was pretty, and he promised marriage. He gave her a diamond ring and other presents, and induced her to leave her situation. He took private apartments for her. Her parents' consent waß obtained, her wedding dress bought, and the wedding feast prepared. When the morning for the marriage came Lothario did not appear, and it was found, on inquiry, that he had left for Sydney the night before. The girl's papa is going to try and have the bolter arrested in Sydnej r . Commenting on the Railway Construction Bill the Timaru Herald says : — " We have said enough, we think, to show that the Railways Construction Bill is an utterly fallacious and unreasonable measure, and that it in no respect realises the hopes of those who believed Mr Macandrew had devised a wise and practicable scheme of public works. It is impossible now that any amended scheme can be brought down this session, and the best we can expect is that the House will strip this Bill of all its elements of evil, and allow the whole subject to stand over for another year. With their Public Works policy vanishes almost the last claim that the Ministry ever possessed to the public confidence. Their Native policy alone remains. Should that also prove as delusive as the rest — and it will be severely tested during the recess — they will go out of office with the stigma of having failed more miserably than any Ministry who ever held the reins of power." A return of the sums paid to inventors by the British Government hy way of rewards | in connection with ordnances and small arms from January 1, 1860 to March 31, 1877, shows that in November, 1860, £16,000 was paid to Mr Snider, Colonel Rodea, and Mr Wilson for their plan of converting muzzleloading small arms into breechloaders, j From June, 1867, to April, 1868, Major Palliser received £15,000 for his chilled projectiles. In June, 1869, £10,000 in addition to £1000 a year salary, was paid to Captain Moncrieff, for his method of mounting guns. In October 1871, Major Palliser received a final payment of £1500 for improvements in artillery. In April, 1875, Major Moncrieff received a final payment of £5000 for his method of mounting guns. The following letter from a number of the City of Auckland immigrants has been addressed to the Post :— Sir— Would you be so kind as to publish in your newspaper a few words from the shipwrecked immigrants of the City of Auckland, regarding the treatment and kindness shown to us by our noble and brave Dr. Andrews, who never gave us up in our troubles, but stood to his post like a soldier, who was the last leaving the ship and always waited behind to pick up the unfortunate stragglers, who slept side by side with us on sand banks all night, who waded across rivers to his waist in water carrying women across the streams, and worked all along by our side cheering us and telling us we should forget all in a few days when we should see what a fine country we were in ; also by his noble lady who braved all storms, and who for her kindness shall never be forgotten. Wishing them a lougand happy life together.— (Signed by 27 of the passengers).

We ( Westport Times) hear that on Saturday morning last during the heavy thunder storm the electric fluid nearly struck Mr D. i M'Leod's house facing the Nine-inile road. ' A ball of fire fell, as it were, from the heavens, tearing tip the ground within a few yards of the house. This occurred about the time the connecting wires at the Telegraph Office, in Wakefield street, were fused by the lightuing. The San Francisco correspondent of the Wellington Chron'cle wrftes : — Yellow fever hag tried and proved humanity. Here is what the Aualanihc saja ; — "Parents have deserted children, and children parents; husbjitldd their wivesy hut nta wife her husband " This verdict is given ih the very face of death, by meu who know whereof they write. The rich in the stricken cuies have not all been selfish, but many were. They fled, leaving to strangers and less affluent citizens the task of nursing the sick, feeding the hungry, and burying the dead— often a difficult task. In New Orleans tlie fever is abating, but is spreading in the rural districts. A Citizens' League has been formed in Chicago for the suppression of tfae sale of liquor to minors, and the Saloon Keepers' Association of that city is stubbornly contesting every move made by the League. The Illinois Jaw provides that any person guilty of selliug liquor to a minor without the written order of a parent, physician or guardian shall be fined from 20 dols to 100 dols, or to be imprisoned in the county gaol not less than ten nor more than thirty days ; or both penalties mity be inflicted. Iv order to fustrate the working of thia clause, the following permit has been printed by the liquor dealers :— " To any saloon keeper in the city of Chicago. — I hereby consent to the selling or giving of intoxicating liquor of any kind by you or any of your ageuts or servants to bearer (a minor) at any time from and after this date. Signed— (parent), (guardian), (physician)." This form of permiti s regarded by the Citizens' League as an evasion of the law ; aud the contest waxes warmer each day, the saloon keepers, whose profits will be greatly curtailed by the enforcement of the law, being especially interested iv the struggle. Under the heal " Which is it ? " the Lyttelton Times has the following paragraph :— " On a suggestion being made by Mr Garrick yesterday, that the Court 3hould adjourn for lunch, in ordef to allow him lime to look up his notes, his Honor the Judge took occasion to remark on the heavy labor undertaken by professional gentlemen In New Zealand, as compared with that undertaken by their brethren in England. In his Honor's Home experience he had never known the responsbilities of so onerous a case, as that being tried before him, to be accepted by less than two or three counsel on each side. Mr Garrick replied to his Honor's remark that colouial counsel were anxious to save their clients' pockets. His Honor hinted that possibly learned counsel were actuated by a desire to keep business to themselves." Russia has, near the Caspian Sea, an oil well that sends out 10,000 gallons a day, in a solid stream seventy-five feet high. Stanley is pestered with letters from all sorts and conditions of people, who want to go with him on his next raid upon Central Africa.