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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 267, 18 November 1878, Page 2

A Dunedin telegram of Wednesday says: — An extroardinary disappearance of a passenger has been reported to the railway authorities. As the special train from Christchurch was approaching Rakaia on Saturday night, an alarm was raised that a man had fallen off one of the carnages. Two of the passengers who were standing on the opposite platform witnessed his disappearance . They at once gave the alarm, and lost no time ia communicating with the guard, but before the train could be stopped, a distance of fully three miles had been travelled over. As another train was due at Ashburton shortly after the arrival there of the special, it was impossible for the latter to go back any distance, but fully a dozen people weut back to the spot where the man fell, and could discern no trace of him. One of the gentlemen who was on the platform opposite to the man who fell off says that it was bright moonlight at the time. He saw him fall on to a heap of stones ond he appeared to lie there doubled up. We are told that no bat or other article was^found. As there was a horse very near the^place some passengers conjecture" that the man jumped off intentionally. The New Zealander aays that during the gale on Sunday the 10th inst., the foretopraaafc of the Storinbird then lying at the wharf was snapped. Now the timber or which that mast was made came from Auckland, and the question to be decided ia whether the cause of the mishap was the windines of Wellington, or the rottenness of the Auckland timber. This question was discussed on the wharf yesterday by tv?o sailors, one belonging to Auckland, and the other to Wellington, and the result is thst they are bow both in the Wellington lookup.

A writer in Mayjair says :— I understand that Sit Stafford Northcote has had it suggested to hitfi by a•• financial adviser " that if next session he fiuds it necessary to impose any ue\v taxes, he ought to increase the duty oh tof/a'eco, and Impose a stamp duty bn photographs. This latter tax ought not to be unpopular, ami it Cannot fail to be remunerative. Nobody wfll sympathise with the grievauce of the cad if, when be bays a carte of Mrs Langtry, or Mrs CornwaUis West, in order that he and his friends may I gloat over these fashionable beauties, he is mulct for the benefit of the State. Mr Edison's very latest invention, says an American paper, is so simple and of such immense utility, that it is strange that it has not been thought of before. It consists of making an ink which leaves a raised mark on paper, with which the blind can easily communicate with each other. It is in the form of powder, which becomes fit for use lon dissolution iu water. When this flows from the pen it leaves elevated letters on paper, which can be readily traced by the sensitive fingers of the blind. It is singular that sanded letters hare not suggested this I even to the bliad themselves. It certainly promises to prove a great blessing and joy to the hundreds of thousands to whom is denied I the light of day. Says the Syeney Morning Herald of October 3lst:— To the upholders of woman's rights I on the ground of their possessing qualities of fortitude and courage equal to and surpassing those of the generality of men, we commend the following — On the shores of the harbor, a few miles from Sydney, a lady returning from ' a sketching ramble, and ascending the steps to a higher terrace on the grouuds, espied a snake swiftly darting across her path; close to her feet, and towards a .'.hole, into which the 3nake was vanishing, when the lady promptly placed her foot firmly upon the tail about two, feet from the end. She now held the snake in durance; but what to do next was the question. She tried to pull the snake back, but, fortunately perhaps for her, the snake was too vigorous to have his will to escape baulked in that fashion She then banged the snake about with the back of sketchbook, with some damage to the book, but none apparently to the snake, who only wriggled his tail about her foot with renewed activity at each application of the unique weapon. The lady cast her eyes about for a stick but none was within her reach. She would not give up the hope-;of victory, and bethought herself at last of a small penknife in her. pocket. Action quickly fol'evred the^ thought, and the lady's foot still holding the' snake fast, deftly and bravejy the animal was severed in two by the knife. As a trophy the tail was brought home at once, and the following morning the head portiou was found outside the hole ; and the parts being placed together, the snake was found to be over five feet long, and of the brown species. The other day we recorded the fact that in Dunedin a youngster of ten years of age had been bound over to keep the peace towards a little girl of ten summers. But here is something more astonishing still. The hoys attending the State school at Westport have formed themselves into a mutual protection society against the master of thd school. The other day he was caning a member of this league when he was. knocked down L and soundly thrashed with his own cane by the victorious juveniles, who danced a war-dance around and over his prostrate frame. What will be the next development of New Zealand precocity ?