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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 285, 9 December 1878, Page 2

In a speech made at the recent show of the Otago Pastoral Association, Judge, Bathgate stated that the crop of grain during this jearwas expected to turn out 15,000,000 bushels. As facts within his own experience he stated that " in the old country a paddock ! of 20 or 25 acres was looked Upon as a very considerable one • a 40 or B0 acre field Was almost Unknown, But in Oatnaru recently he had talked into d growing; (irop 1 of titr, i pamnottUib a 20u-aere paddoCK, and Mad lost himself amongst it. It was :&>e and a half or six feet high, and tbe harvest bad been up to 70 or 75 bushels an acre. (Applause.) And another fact was, that within the last two years an iudustrious settler in that neighborhood had bought a 200-acre farm at what was looked upon as the high price of £15 per acre, but upon his first crop of barley oft that land he had cleared, the ., whole price of his freehold, making a profit ol£tß per acW* , .' _ A large (srowd attended at tile', itelboiirne ' Court 011 1 the 1 9th u!t to hear the sentence- 'i to-be passed on David Henry and William-Ire-: land, solicitors convicted of the offence olVmbracery, or, iu' popular, language," 'attempting..' to bribe jurors, Sortie' prisoners- were sen--tended before them, and when Henry andIreiaud were placed at the bar it.was noticed J that since his. conviction Henry had very" 7 ' much altered fn his appearance jifc frict.was. looking quite 111, When aßked wßat he had to say against' judgment, being pronounced upon him, ifcwas some mpmeuts before he. could be heard to say anything, 'and v . at lasthe faltered out that he had -risgedl his life nine times, aud saved' nine tfyejj. Jrelaudj on the other hand, said in a firm voice that lie had nothing to say. The Chief Justice remarked that the offence was a very aggravated one, for it not merely attempted to sap justice at its springs, but there was an attempt to demoralise a number of citizens, •and make them familiar with crime.- If the punishment was ( to be measured : by the enormity of the crim6,it oughtin. tbia dase to be one of unexampled severity'; buft'tie objectof punishment Vas to deter the offenders and others from committing similar crimes for the future: A fine to a rich man was no puuishment, and Henry was apparently ; wealthy ; Ireland was pdly atool foflfenry, 1 'and therefore there * wonld be a distinction' between the two sentenced, Henry-was then Seritenced to four years' imprisonment, . arid to pay a fine of £500 ; and Ireldrid to two years' imprisonment, and a fine of £50 ; in each' case imprisonment till ■■ the fine was paid, Henry seemed utterly astonished at , the sentence. ,. ; " . . i } : , '.The tiuion .Steam . Shipping Company's present expenditure at otl'r ports (says aeon--temporary) amounts 'to about £20,000 per month, aud although a good deal of the expenditure upon their new line of boats will ;,sti|l be made in Melbourneiirorn tbd'fact of 'its being a terminal pcfft;' yet through the company supplying their- Vessels 'in ' this' colony and repairing them here, a further expenditure of ''£3ooo or ,£4t)oo per /month Avill be diverted into local channels. .: ; The , Inangahua Timea says' that next to news for scarcity at the present time cornea beef, aud after that mutton, for of the two latter commodities there has not beeu a bite in . Reefton for days past, and, as we heard it expressed the other day, there ia not a hoof i iu the^ country from Okarito to "Westport. Fat kibe' and lean kine, + sfnd in ;fast":every kind- of kins have been bought up. and Blaughtered,'and the cj^i'sfsiill Seydon't come. Such a dearth o't-meat liasfnever be--'fore been known oa the West Coast, and the ; / 'united 'lamentation of our butchers is that ' i tßeir Oxiipafcion's gone. 1 ■■:.■. We are indebted to our contemporary the Press for the following interesting paragraph; • •'•*!" As an; evidence of the large traffic' which is springing up in connection with the rail- 1 ■ ways of the South Island, and the very .extensive employment which they give to labor,! it may be mentioned that the railway! employees between Chrisfchurch and Invercargill number no less 2700 persons, of whom 1500 ate employed between here and Oamaru, and 1000 between thi^t place and Ihyercargill, the balance being' made up of servants on thesmair branch lines." With reference to Hdn^rd, Sir Dillon Bell in his speech on the Land Tax Bill said : " lain Kofi goi^ to speak jx( Hausard, for I* wish with all ; rily hparc" that 'Hansard was i abolished •; I think it i^'the mtist unmitigated rubbish in • the - 'whole establishment 1 of Parliament, though 1 I must gudrd myself against being supposed to cast any bl^me upon the reporters, ; beeausa their ' work is admirohly done.' ; The chief purpose ; £fansord has subserved during; tbe great many years I . bave been in Parliament; has been to enable .a member, of the House of Representatives or of the Council on convenient occasions to ; show that an" honorable tuetnber formerly ..heldopiuion"B'"exactly." ! ) 6ppbsite to'thps^ hehas just expressed!" •■■-.- ~ .j--i. . All the Irish national papers publish more or less violent articles on the Afghan question. The "Nation'* commences a leader thus: — " Long; life and good health, success, prosperity, and" happiness to Shere Ali, 1 Ameer of Afghanistan ; niaylhia councils be • wise. and. his plans , perfect; his arm mighty „aad' his gwprd ..keen; to'. resist any uiijust ll nttack that may be made upon him.? >: JThe a jubilant leader, antici--1 bating; war f earful cat'dage, and myriads • of Russians fighting at ithe> back- of the I Afghans, by Stating 'that "the> Cabul ,war seems a small thing in itsselt,bht- sail signs combine to point it out as the crisis of Eng- ' land's destiny.! .;.:■; ;„; 1 : > .■< ■■ Advantage has been taken of the present excitement in Melbourne by the management of the Princess Theatre- to produce a very sensational drama, entitled "Fleeced; or, the Vultures of the Wombat Ranges." Thejre is more gunpowder than dialogue in the piece. Teetotallers and the advocates of temperance generally (remarks the Pall Mall Gdzetle) will be interested- to learn that>a discovery of an important nature ia reported' from Asia Minor. A plant which produces tea of excellent quality has/ it is stated, been found growing in abundance, but in a wild uncultivated state, in the -neighborhood of the city of Trebizond; Tea made frorui the leaves of this plant ia said to possess all the virtues and aroma of tea "grown in China. jTwo thousand ','ekea/' were speedily disposed of id the local market the other day, chiefly to Persians who are great tea drinkers, and, recognising the merits of this Trobizond tea, are buying the produce- of the newly dis- - covered plant and, sending, it .to -Jbheir own l-fcouritry.-.'The tea\vas sbld^at the j eke, but if properly prepared would fetch a much higher price. ■-. > '..-i • • We extract^ .mwe'tqu, irpta a^tiriy&teMetter [-frdm^Sa^' Francisco/ -' The writer iays:— " A move ia^ojtt'toot^to; impose a special ' tax upon /all dnaiirduce., companies including Eastern offices. This would hit New- Zealand offices hard. The underwriters will fight, but they take a more effectual Iplanf of meeting such 'a proposarby making puWe jaud squaring the officials, Tbis

Theifapier correspondent of the,iV r . Z.\ Times. says:— ln many.' parts Jof< Hawke's" Bay wag.e£ are high, -A Shearers 'get^l a hundred, ivyjhicb; was what they got -^out twenty years ago. It has never failen jbdlow 1 7s .fid per, hundred. The large number of immigratrts jhak x not ; lessened the i-afe wages at all materially, because land&wners now employ ao many more hands. One runholder employs 100 men constantly, and another pays wages to about double that number". The Paris correspondent of an exchange says :— A friend of humanity hftß ftd^resseS a prospectus to the members of thii Blind Men's Congress, wherein he advocates that all old maids and very plain girls ought to be married to blind husbands, who are proverbial for their patience, milduess, and docility. We learn from an English paper that at a public temperauce meeting held in Nantwieh in connection with the auniversary of the Total Abstinence Society, one of the local ministers parted' the hymn "Hold the Eort," in order to begnnC_J he time nDtil the comtfiltte aad deptUatioh arrived - The first verse was sliflg bjr the audieJ " e wh .en ihe speakers £iad tbeir. friend*, with t \? e Mayoi^ di Chester ,at thkti t»6ad,- ifetfietged from the anle-roodi 'Utieiv appeaVaVkce wa^ bailed with considerable applause, dad' as ifttijr ascended the platform the melody was t&keJi np with renewed euergy-at the point, "See the mighty host a'dvanclng, Satan leading on." Of course nothing personal was intended, but the incongruity of the incident was apparent, and possibly to some a little amusingi , Captain Garth, of ifte steadier Ariel, in a recent yayoge from Melbourne to Fiji, called '■ at Lord Howe Island, on which he found abort t 2<) inhabitants — men, woriien, and. children— all itild. The island '"is mountainous, of vofcanic ; b'rlgffl, bni weft' wooded, about five miles long, and a mile and a-balf ' td two miles broad, 400 Spiles E^of Sydney. As the steamer approached the island on the west side, wltfc ensign flying, a'Doatcamejoff with two men in it,- and brought tbe vessel to an, anchorage. ; Shortly afterwards a bullock was seen ift Tfarness coniipg towards the beach 1 ; drafting at sledge loaded with fowls, oranges, ban'anstsj eggs; fee,, which the settlers brought off and gave to the captain, without making any. charge of -taking any payment. A blacksmi'thJs shop was given up to the engineer to do whatever he required. The inhabitantSjassisted in cutting wood and getting water for the vessel, and rendered every pdssibiSassistance. Captaiui Garth speask very liighly'of their hospitality. Their.. communication , withike .outside world is very uncertain) formerly whalers called ia often, andg6t";a;BUpj>!yfTpf provisions, but they very seldom do,so -now.. -Ships can get of fresh,. beef;!pigs/or goat|,;|otatoes and onions, fowls* 6c "The 7 "pebpfe'livel id happy coutent, tbeir only , complaint being the want of a school' master and clothing. About five years agoaketch, belonging tothe-island,-left.for'Sydney with eight souls ; oxf boatdj.but was nev'erj heard of. The names of two of them, were Captain Eield arid; Mr Mdqn'cy.* • " . ' Erom.a private letter just, received from a gentleman in San Francisco", on whose opinion we rely, saystheptagoDai/y.'Tiinies/.we make the following extract :— " What apity Dunedfn bought the rotten, gas concern .oh the Flat. Edison has contrived a machine for , the subdivision and distribution .'of the electric light with as much ease as', ordinary gas. Patents iu Europe and other 'foreign countries have been applied for,' and ', gas stock has gone down by the run. Thie cost is a trifle. .It can be usecl'also for "fuel : for domestic purposes. The .old gasfittings will be used for enclosing the wire, and every old woman can make pancakes with Jove's thunderbolts. There is no exaggeration in this. The Californian gas thieves have bolted to Europe to sell watered stocks on manufactured balance-sheets, ibut I fancy Edison is there before, them... <suite a ruffle East, and a convention of gas men in New York has just declared that it is a scandulous inter-ference.-with vested .interests to use the electric light for illuminating purposes."