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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 286, 10 December 1878, Page 2

Says the Auckland 5/ar:--T!iree distinguished indivduals were conveyed to ±»lounfc Eden gaol lbs morning in the prisoners' van, viz., Dr Gilbert, of the Thames, sentenced to three morths for habitual drunkenness; Captain Pellars. charged rwith acts of getting money nsder false-pretences, and " Doctor ■' Colli aon for a month, 1 convicted of stealing a magpie. The Auckland Herald says j— • Probably not not less than a hundred of the small ft} which swim or float about the --mud-larkibg" portion of the city, were engaged on Saturday in their usual avocatiou of rescuing pieces of floating wood from hungry Neptuners grasp, or in removing chips from beneath the adzes of the shipwrights. Youngsters of. the kind are to be found every day in almost inconceivable numbers at tbis kind of work. No school, no home culture, no religion, no God, in so fur as they are likely to find out! All of these children cannot be sent out- to " forage " on account of downright pauperism of parents. It is much to be feared that utter neglect and carelessness ou the part of progenitors is the cause. If so, what is the remedy? Let our clergy and philanthropists ?peak on the subject. Surely, there must be some method of putting a stop to or saving the necessity for the continuance of operations which cannot fail to result in' the manufacture of " hoodlums." Would a committee of visiting ladies be any use? Would more frequent visits of the clergy tend to be of service? Would compulsory education be of avail? . If any or all of tbem, how are they to be carried out? Let an answer be given, to these queries by those whose place it is to do so. A passenger' on board the Taranaki when sbe was wrecked writes to an Auckland paper:— The fog, as I have said, was primarily responsible for the accident. The secondary cause I take to be the miserable system on which the boats of tbe company arerun. A rigid adherence to the time table is almost insisted on. The time tables make no allowance for exceptional circumstances. They barely allow of the work being done when everything is most favorable. A captaiu who does not keep his time-table is looked coldly on. lam confident that, had it not been from over-anxiety to catch the tide at Tauranga, and so save the time-table, so careful, prudent, watchful, steady, and cautious a commander as Captain Malcolm would never have thought of moving a foot iv such a fog. Fogs are always dangerous afc sea, far more so than storms, but to have anchored and missed a tide would have deranged the timetable. As it is, the ship is lost with thousands of pounds? worth of property, aud 110 human lives were in deadly peril I hope the disaster will prove instructive. A man came fo the late Duke of Wellington with a patented artiqle. . 4 What have you to offer ?' « A bullet proof jacket, your Grace.' ' Put it oo.' _ The invputor obeyed. The Duke rang ..a bell. An aide-de-camp presented himself \ ' Tell the captain of the guard to order one of his men to load with half cartridge.' The inventor disappeared, and was never : seen again near the Horse Guards. No money was wasted in trying that invention. ; Tho Bidler N<eics has the following regarding the Buller County Council :— The new Councilset- to" "work in ..earnest,' and speedily gave promise' of" better things in future^ Truei-theold.Chair'man still maintains his position 1 , ahd wii;h' no , better grace than formerly, (but this is an evil . which lean be tolerated, and indeed mu3fc be, from 'the peculiar circumstance that no.other Councillor, excepting one even 'less to be trusted, could be induced to accept the 'office. Of course, under a Chairman who uses his ruling power unfairly and illegally by calling speakers to order when not out of order, and otherwise infringing upon their liberty of speech held by virtue of their office, and necessary for the good conduct of business, it: is impossible for Councillors to respect the ruling of the Chair, but self-respect will, we doubt not, prompt them, as a body; nofc to exceed the latitude of courteousness" With this one drawback, the new Council. has commenced a healthy and vigoroiis'existence. A newspaper correspondent happened to be on Peckham Rye Common the other, day when a temperance advocate was holding forth. He described himself as " the funny cabman," and a " rough customer." After au attack on the " Government pets," (as he styled the publicans), he said, " A short time ago. l was coming from Aldridge's, where I had to buy ahorse for my cab.; I saw, a woman lying dead drunk on the celiar-flap of one of the neighboring public-houses; so I walked into the bar, and said to, the landlord, "One of your signboards has tumbled down." The gouty old publican and his pot-boy, who was rather older than his master, came outside, exclaiming " Where!" " There," I said, pointing to a heap of rags on the flag. " Why don't you take ifc.inside, and put ifc in your wiudow, like other respectable tradesmen do with their goods, :and label it, "Our own Manufacture," . instead of ..leaving ifc here, as if you was ashamed'of it?", The : following quaihfc apology appears in a late of the Lyell ArgusA— l< Our up-country readers will excuse the ' buster ' this week; as the editor has been packing spuds for the starving population of Lyell. Recently in the Supreme Court Wellington. Mr Justice Richmond said— l hope the time is coming when the criminal' may be heard in his own defence. I may now, call myself a criminal judge of some experience, for I have presided for something like sixteen years in criminal courts, and my own opinion j is that such alteration would tend in favour of the innocent and against the guilty.