The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 271, 22 November 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1878.

It ftiust hivte faeett Vety gratifying to the City members At the hieeting on Wednesday night to find how completely in accotd tbey were with their 'constituents. Mr Curtis' rapid little sketch of the session, in which he alluded Ito (lie absence of any attempt on the part of the Premier to substantiate the charges he last year preferred against the late Government, thus affording the clearest proof that no foundation for them existed: to the unfulfilled promises with regard to electoral tefornij, arid the readiness displayed by thfe Ministry to drop a tnedsure that Was ttt plafcte febiiib thousands of white rileh Oh the ft)U, because tbey could hot get tW6 votes a-piece allowed t'd soibe oi[ their Maori friends; to the miserable little change in the incidence, of taxation, of which such loud boasts had been made, represented by taking a halfpenny a pound off sugar, and twopence off tea, and making up a portion of the deficiency by a very unsatisfactory- description of land tax— Mr Curtis' allusions to these, endorsed as they were by Mr Sharp, were favorably received by those present, who evidently were not disposed to place that implicit confidence in Sir George Grey which tbey were willing to give to him at the time of his late visit to Nelson. The business like manner in which the railway question was alluded to by Mr Graham, and the way in wbich his suggestions that pressure should not be removed from the Government until the work was fairly entered upon, were received afforded ample evidence how earnest are the people of Nelson iv this matter. It is needless for us to say how heartily we are witli them. Mr Sharp alluded to the valuable assistance afforded by the I'ress in the late struggle to obtain justice for Nelsoo, and we can assure him and the residents ia. this part of the colony who are so deeply interested in this question of railway connection, that the aiu which proved of such value in the past will not be wanting in the future. A letter has been addressed by Mr Patterson to Mr Fletcher, the captain of tbe Salvage Corps, requesting him to convey his thanks to the members of the corps for their exertions in saving bis property at the late fire, and enclosing a cheque for £3 3s towards the funds. A Scotch paper to hand contains au account of the launch of a fine steamer of 1800 tons, named the Keilawarra, intended for the Melbourne and Brisbane trade. Mr James Lowe, son of Mr Lowe the second pilot here 13 coming out in her as third engineer. Au appointment of this kind to a fine steamer like the Keilawarra shows that Mr Lowe, who left here as a lad a few years ago to study engineering at home, has made good use of his time. The benefit tendered to Mr T. R. Gilpin by N. H. Thornton and Company comes off to-night. Mr Gilpin since his first appearance here has made himself a great favorite with Nelson audiences, and has been very painstaking in the rendering of the various parts he has appeared in. This, combined with the programme, ought to ensure him a bumper house. A sPEdAr, London telegram to the t>tst says:— "The rejoicings at the escape of the King of Italy from assassination have attracted many members of the International Society to Italy, and a secret movement, which was totally unsuspected, was carried successfully into operation in Florence, where some Internationalists attacked, a loyal-procession in the very heart of the city, and threw a bomb into the midst of the peopl* Ai fearful explosion ■ followed, ' killing"' and wounding a large numbeir of persons.' We have received from the Press Agency a telegram stating the insurances on the " Tuba| Cain," from which tre infer that a vessel of that rtame has been wrecked somewhere, but of thfs we are told nothiug. In our supplement to-day are published tbe amended by-laws which have been agreed to at a meeting of the City Council, and will be brought forward for confirmation at the Council meeting on the 20th December next. An interesting account of the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank will ba found iv the supplement published with to-day's issue. Mb. Scott announces that be will to-morrow night walk and perform a number of difflculfc feats on a wire stretched from Menary's Hotel to the opposite building. A meeting of those interested in Messrs Smith, Harley, and Co.'s copper mine was held at the Council Chamber last night, Mr H. E. Curtis in the chair. Ifc was announced that of the 45 proposed shares at XI I 5s each there yet remained twelve unapplied for, and the meeting was adjourned until Monday evening next, when, if the shares are not all taken up, the present negotiations will cease, and the matter will be brought before the pablic in a new form. We understand that applications were {received this morning for four more shares, leaving only eight in ihe market. A cordial reception was accorded to the Australian cricketers on their arrival at Auckland on Tuesday night, when they were entertained at a champagne supper, at which the Hon. Mr Whitaker presided. The following telegram was received from Sir George Grey :—" The arrival of the Australian cricketers at Auckland gives me an opportunity of assuriug them of the interest witb which their success in other parts of the world has been watched by the inhabitants of New Zealand, and of the great pleasure with which we welcome them: to our shores. — G. Grey." The Wanganui Chronicle says :— lt is commonly reported, says an exebapge, . that Mr Weld, the present GpTernor of Tasmania, i a

to succeed the Marquis of Normataby in tbe Governorship of New Zealand. Mr Weld was one of the pioneer settlers of Canterbury . and was at one tiibb Rteraier of New Zealabd. It will be a noteworthy coincidence if We have at one and the Same time in New Zea> land a Premier who was once its Governor and a Governor who was ouce its Premier, as we should have in the case of Sir George Grey and Mr Weld. A Dunedin telegram or Saturday last says; —Yesterday the coach from I'ortobellb was capsized by,t,he wind a short distance from the city. There SVeie eigiit paSsebfeers, aiid cne woman had her shoulder dislocated, another suffers from concussion of the spine. Refering to the late Volunteer demonstration at Dunedin, a telegram from there says:— Some of the small volunteers have been conducting themselves in a very disorderly manner, firing off blank cartridge in the crowded stteet; and. taking, advantage of a dust stdrbi, to ibsiilt ladies in tbe biibiic thotoligiifat-es. SeVerdl BitiSenS have expressed their determination to suppress this kind of lc rri'j-.'«-'. ' • « ...., \~ '....»«».iii3uij uy severely noggmg mv noDle defenders.— About fifteen hundred volunteers attended the big review. The spectacle was a gtatid cnej but the atfcendAhcb of sftfebtatofrg fas .hot ver£ great. The fight oftjy respited In tne s^utfshing {be f features of d small boy, who accidentally tried tii, lo'qfe. tilrpugh, tlie rhuZzle of a big gun at the niomeui of firing , The 7 ww ii. ife? aid thus describes a caricature which wadeits appepniuce during tlie Session, tbe (subject bemg the dual Maori l vote :— " A sable dog, witli head erect and limbs stiff with, pride, stalks haughtily along, "' waving two tails in the air. Behihd him creeps a miserable-looking white tyke, with his one tail depressed between his legs, and his whole air tbat of dejection and inferiority. The first is marked "The noble Maori houud," the second "The poor Pakeha cur," and the whole picture is called " The dual Maori vote, or, as proud as a dog with two tails." A curious discovery (saya the Post of Friday) was iliade yesterday on Mount Victoria, an old Roman coiti, apparently of Julius Cassar's period; having been ttuearthed some 2ft. beloW the siirfabe of the giround. ' Several imprdbable occurrences iiiightbe inferred for this numismatic discovery. It might be argued that the Romans landed in New Zealand during the reign of Julius Cassar, and possibly founded a colony in Wellington, but subsequently was either blown away by the Wellington winds, or swallowed up by an earthquake. We do not think, however, that this hypothesis is, strictly speaking, a tenable one ; The London tJorresponctent of the Melbourne Argil! writes : — "lt will be an in-»; tercs.ling piec,e of ne\v§ to ydu to hear that Sir G. Bowen's conduct in making himselE the tool and ally of the Graham Berry Ministry has, I have reason to know, giveu great dissatisfaction to the authorities at Home, who, however reluctant they may be. to interfere in questions of colonial politics, are unable to recognise the part which their agent ia Victoria haa played as consistent with his obligations to his sovereign, and to the law as established in the colony." During a storm of lightning, thunder, and fain that came upon Philadelphia, on a recent Sunday, the gospel tent of the Rid»c * Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, nortb- ' west corner of Thirtieth-street and Ridge AVenue, was struck by the eieefcric fluid and several persons were killed and others injured. The School Board of Lheeme9s were recently discussing the subject of corporal punishment. Two of the members got so excited that one of them broke his umbrella over the other's head, and was in turn kicked down stairs. German and Austrian law forbids the sale of dead fish. The fish are brought from the sea and rivers in tanks, and are killed after being sold A vessel bas just been built at Odessa to dive 12 feet uuder water and swim there 20 hours. Inside is a man who steers at will, and takes his breath from an air tank... The Masonic Hall at Brunswick, New Jersey, built in 1873; at cost of £2 iflOD, was sold uuder foreclosure for £16,800. The bull-lighting season is over at Madrid. There were 13 performances— four poor, four' passable, two good, and three very good — and 90 bulls and 143 horses were killed, II other horses recovering from tbeir wounds. The sale of Queen Isabella's jewels yielded 14,425,426, francs to be exact. The celebrated diadem was broken, and the brilliants were sold by weight to Mow. Blanc, widow of the gambler-kiug of Monaco, for £6664. The success of wholesale heating by steam at Lockport, N. V., where during last winter a large section of the city was comfortably warmed by steam distributed through street pipes, has led to the formation bf a company with a big capital for the introduction of the system in New York city. In 1835 the quantity of wool sent from tbe whole of the Australasian colonies to .England amounted in round numbers "to - about 20,000 bales ; aud in 1875 it had reached the. enormous quantity of 850,000 bales. The number of changes which may be rung on a peal of bells is very curious.: The changes on seven bells are 5040; on 12,: 479,000,600, which, at two strokes a second, ■ would require 91 years to complete. Matilda Stanley, late queen of the gypsies., in the United States, was buried at Dayton, O. She died ih Vicksburg last winter, and her body was embalmed and preserved until the present time for the funeral. There were 25,000 people in attendance upon the cere-' monies. A new style of purse has been coutriyed for European tourists. It appears }like an ; ordinary portemonnaie, but there i 3 in one side of it a spring which drops a trigger, and the other end of it opens the muzzle of a , revolver. ' ; At Coblentz and Saariouis t)*e ! police ; recently prohibited smoking iv ■ the streets by youths under 16; and at Treves a by-law of 1857 has just beeu brought into force, which imposes a fine of from three 1 to nine marks, or imprisonment in default, on , boys under 16 who smoke in the streets and in places of amusement. Such ii restriction might with advantage be introduced inio " New Zealand. As curious a liquidation of an old bill as any is that of a young man of Shelbyville, Indiana, who has hauled wood to pay Dr. Robins for attending his mother when he was born, twenty years ago. The centre of gravity wns so nicely calculated at the raising of Cleopatra's Needle that, when they got its iron jacket on and it was raised by the truunions, it balanced exactly, and one man could awing the great mass of two hundred tons. A kind father of Southboro, Mass., a man well-to-do, took bis sick son toadoctor last week, and told him if he could cure the boy for less than the cost of a funeral to go ahead, but if he couldn't the youth must take his chance. Without counting the works constructed by the Government, there are over. 5000 miles of water- races in New Zealand, the estimated cost of which is about half a million. ' Near harvest-time tbe greatest destruction is done by hares in New South Wales. They eat the joints of the stalk, and thus cause the graiu in the ear to fall, jto the ground. A novel bive has been adopted by some Yorkshire bees, according to the Live Stock journal. Two hives of bees were being taken along a street in Leeds, when a swarm flew out, and took possession of a street lamp, from which all attempts to dislodge tkeni have hitherto failed.

$be impress of Austrk wears a'Hraift^Ofeet long.; i „ '-; \ / V -' vr{ .'l'he liirges.triour mill ih the w§rki is being'built at the Niagara Falls. Ifc ca^cl'ty witf be hbolit lfeoo barrels ber day. ;- l : i We learn from the Dunedin $tar th&isitip worst fears v respecting . the effects v of "ths recent floods on the new Beudigo bridge at Rocky Point seem likely to be realised. A gentleman who was up "at the structure on Saturday informs the Cromwell Araux that already two arches Of the bridge are high and dry; apd the onl£ stream running ufider the ; span, of the structure is apparently gradually Shallowing! The ntiain body of .water "is a long way this side of tbe flett bridge, to reach whioh it is feared two or three niore bridges of magnitude will be necessary. Instead of Clulha being, as hitherto, confined to one . Reporting the captnre of a devil-fish the Timafu/^aWohie fth a a y 8 i-«ode ox* those ,d|sgiishn£Jabidng out IhleftstiM M was caught ,q£ the ..breakwater , yesteftfa* moi-mbg: It placed in a tuft' of salt water by a gentleman into whoss#as£&tioft it eam'e,' and was interviewed during the afternoonby a number of people. Its armsj of which it possessed half a-dozen or so,= ranged'f rom a foot to neatly tbree feet in length, and were armed with tfcfe fosual Stfcfcfefg, Its round jefff-lfke, h'tidf wa(s~ a'bont a foot ioftg, by eight ftfchfo ft maitietet-y la tfie tti'b itj was particularly HVely, and MSMiti Irritated it would discharge it.spout of water of clfrtfd of sepia 5 gifeat fofce. r "Several oi these devil-fish,- or ottopi,' h'av£ b'e^iV.f brown up on the .beach' here lately, and! th&y,,inust be pretty numerous inHhe roadstead." . A notable feature along the Clatha line (says the Viiaedm Herald) i 3 the number of rotten sleepers which have been lifted from under the rails. These decayed sleepers are ; to be met every few yards, .and iat -softie 'points they qre stacked np till they resemble a small timber yard. The timber is all Oregob, and these piles of sleepers form a monument, though not au enduring one,: of engineering foliy. '"•-' The Notmiean correspondent of the- Sydney Morning Heral-l writes*' {—Many singular ;facts are related showing l the intrepidity of "the New Caledobian savage. At the commencement of the te Volt it is said that a band of seven, chained together,- were being conducted by their capturers .to the nearest post for judgment. Many are the hills and ravines in tbis country of mountains, and where roads are made deep and precipitous are some of the embankments. Arrived at one of these embankments, overhanging a woody knoll, the seven blacks, at a preconcerted, signal,., gave a simultaneous bound ; into the depths which promised shelter and escape below. The chains snapped and all got free a Way; the ohly trace found of thera was, a day or two later, the body of onehang= to a tree, a supposed traitor to the others. >>n the East Coast there is a rock called " Neapear or Nepia," its name having been given it in consequence of the, following tragic event. A war had broken out between two tribes; the victors towards its termination ,; had driven a band o£,their foes' before them 1 until they were hemmed in on all glides but one I a sheer pracipice^ The few devoted gathered ; together on the rock's brink, and when all . hope was fled they took the fatal leap into the arms of certain death, lurking in the. huge boulders upon which the bodies crashed as, one after auother, they bouuded through , the air for one brief iustant, then all ,was;) over. Many are the interesting tales tqld of. this singular people— so intelligent, yet so.i fiendish; so courageous, yet so, traitorous. ~,