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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 299, 26 December 1878, Page 2

The Rev. Mr Eifccbetfc says a Duuedin telegram has resigned the Wesleyan pulpit, and has been offered ordination in the Church of England. Should he accept it, he will probably take the incumbency of All Saints, rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr Standford, who has founded a private school. Yesterday (says a Dunedin telegram to the Lhrotwle), a young gentleman residing in the City Hotel, who had imbibed too much sauce with his pudding, had to pay 50s for tearing a button off a policeman's jumper while ia the lock-up. Encouraged by this another constable applied to tbe Bench to-day for £3 because his tunic strap had burst while he was dragging a drunkard along. The Police Inspector admitted that the damage was frivolous, and he was ashamed of his subordinate The Bench considered the charge ridiculous, and it was withdrawn. A clergyman up north has got into trouble tor reading the prayer for rain in his church. The matter is thus alluded to by the Poverty Bay Standord-.-Pmyers for rain have been offered up by the Rev Incumbent on the last two Sundays in Holy Trinity Church. It is not our province to enter into a theological argument, if so it may be called, on this subject. Prayer is undoubtedly the "Christian's vital breath," since by its means he makes known his requests unto God; but the prayer of selfishness, begotten by considerable disregard of the wants of others, sureiy is not a Christian's doty; nor can it be acceptable to the Almighty. True, our water tanks in the town are empty, aud we want a fall of rain to fill them; but what would be welcome to us would be extremely unwelcome to those who in the country are engaged in harvesting, crop saving, sheep-shearing, and 'other branches of outdoor industry. The rain that would spring tho grazier's grass would spoil the farmer's crop. A pluvial visitation just now would lay the dust oa the streets of Gisborne, and so it would the thousands of pounds' worth of grass seed and grass being converted into bay in the country by means of that solar orb, whose rays some implore our Maker to obscure with clouds of rain and so take from us the very blessings He has \ given us. %The natives of the interior of New Guinea are described as "cannibals, but peacefully disposed." A shipload of Chinese were wrecked on their way to Australia a few years ago, and were taken charge of by these "peacefully disposed" islanders. They were fattened and cooked two at a time — those in best condition being taken first. In this way the whole of the unlucky Celestials were disposed of. A French apprentice who happened to be on board contrived to escape and made his way to Queensland, where he lived to tell the tale,

An Englishman boasting to a Yankee that they had a book in tbe British Museum which was once owned by Cicero, " Ob, tbat ain't nothing," retorted the Yankee ; "in the museum at Bosting they've got the leadpencil that Noah used to check off the animals tbat went into the Ark." A sceptic, wbo were badgering a simpleminded old man about a miracle and Balaam's ass, finally said : " How is it possible for an ass to talk like a man?" "Well," replied the honest o\A believer, -with mea-Ding emphasis, " I don't see why it ain't as eaay for an ass to talk like a man as it is for a man to talk like an ass." Two working men, residing at Williamstown, Melbourne, claim to have discovered a material with which meat; and fish may be preserved perfectly sound and fresh for any leNgth of time and in all seasons. Thia process consists in placing the food in a solution, which is said neither to alter the flavour of the flesh operated upon, nor to cause discolouration. In Cuba, tbe milkman drives his cows round instead of a cart, and milks at the door the quantity of milk required by each customer. About 1 ,000,000 men are employed on the canals of England and Wales, and on the boats also live 70.000 women, who, with their husbands and children, make np a " floating" population pf nearly half a million. It is fashionable now-a-days if a man tells you a lie to apeak of ifc as Russian telegram. A London firm advertised recently for a collector, work hard and wages low, and received over 1800 replies, nearly all from men of apparently good education and character. A Dunedin telegram to the Chronicle says: —Mr Leary, the retiring Mayor, was presented to-day with a silver cradle in commemoration of the birth of an infant Mayor during his term of office. The presentation was accompanied by lachrymose speeches on the part of the Mayor elect, but tbere was no champagne, and tbe guests were disappointed. From Fiji we bear that a remarkable escape from at least a serious accident happened to a Fijian boy at Wai Tovu. He, with others, was assisting to round in some cattle to Mr Sinclair's slaughter-yard, when a bullock made a rush at him, and the boy uot being quick enough in getting out of the road, the animal, to the startled onlookers, appeared to have gored him and carried him otl on his horn, but it so happened that tbe boy bad on a strong leather belt, which caught over the horn, and the bullock went tearing about with the boy ao fixed. After running about one hundred yards the horn broke short off, and the boy fell one way and tbe bullock another. The former was picked up insensible, but, beyond a few slight bruises, was nothing the worse for his dangerous and involuntary ride. What will be thought of the United States sending plum pudding to England, potatoes to Ireland, oatmeal to Scotland, toys to Nuremberg, and lager beer to Germany ? Yet such are tbe facts. , The Rev. Charles Clark will shortly commence a series of farewell lectures in Melbourne, prior to settling down in England, where he intends to resume his ministerial laburs. The New York Herald says -.—Truth, and sometimes very sad truth, comes from the lips of childhood. The best criticisms of tbe times in which we are living waa involved Xrom the inner consciuosness of a small boy. "Well, my child, what profession do you propose to follow when you grow np ?" He looked thoughtfully for a moment, but all at once his eye brightened as be replied, " I shall bea trustee, sir." It seemed a somewhat indefinite selection for the boy to make. but tbe boy's mind was running on a straight track, and he knew precisely what he was after. "A trustee ? And why, mvsou ?" " Because, sir, ever since father has' been a trustee we're had puddings for dinner, and before that we had none." The Utica Herald is about to aid tbe spelling reformers by dropping the silent letters. Tbe following are a few specimens: — " LM, articl, wer, ar, ther, alfabet, telegraf, hay, wil, peopl, altho, hiccof, fals." An American paper says:— "The Second Battalion of the Fourtaenth Regiment, which did some hard fighting in New Zealand recently, where it lost its Colonel aud many officers, haa been ordered from the camp at Curragh to India. Other battalions at home station will doubtless be drafted for active service. War will be popular in (he Euglish army just now. Promotion by purchase being abolished, a sharp Indian campagin would open the higher grades of the Bervice to young and capable men, wbicb was not done by either the Abyssinian or Ashantee wars. The Indian army ia reported to be enthusiastic " We get some queer new chums in this colony occasionally. A young man named John Hutchison came out to Wellington in the Jessie Readman, got a passage to Wauganui on the pretence that some resident there would pay the money, lived at several o£ the best hotels on the fat of tbe land without paying a shilling, and finally attempted to obtain several hundred pounds worth of goods from Wanganui tradesmen. He has come to grief now, as the Wauganui R.M. has given him three months for trying to obtain goods on false pretences. Pick and shovel exercise will raise his moral tone.— Chronicle. It is a singular and melancholy coincidence, which has generally escaped notice, that the lamented death of H.R.H. Princess Alice occurred on the seventeenth anniversary of the death of her father, the Prince Consort who died on 14th December, 1861, and Princess Alice on 14th December, 1878, almost at the same hour. It may he recollected, as a second curious coincidence, that when the Prince of Wales was so dangerously ill with typhoid fever six years ago, the crisis of the disease was passed on the same day, and about the same hour, the passing of the ominous date being watched for on this occasion with a natural degree of suoerstitious dread. The 14th December thus "becomes a day of triple mark iv tbe history of the Royal Family of England.— Post. A fierce correspondent warfare is going on in the Age between Charlea Bright, tbe Freetboughtist, and Green, the champion of Plymouth Brethren. The latter has challenged Bright to meet him on the platform. An American writer in the New York World, describing a tour through the yellow fever-stricken district in Tennessee, says ■— • '* Many towns are quarantined with pickets to prevent communication. Along the road for 200 miles is a ditch strewn with lime, with barrels at regular intervals, from which people take wbat is required. The restaurants are closed, and many villages are completely deserted. Many towns had fires of turpen--1 tine and tar to purify the air. New Orleans did not look so bad, but great destitution prevailed, the town being quarantined, and all trade being stopped." In tbe Court at Napier on November 30th John S. Ballantyne, a schoolmaster, was convicted of unlawfully assaulting and beating Albert Hnrfifc, the adopted °son of one William H. Gollop, a boy under the age of twelve years. The boy assaulted gave evidence as follows:— "Mr Ballantyne held the pointer used for pointing at maps in his hand. He had hold of the thin end and struck me with the thick part across the forehead and arms. He told me to go away, and I went home. The blow made a big lump on my my head. I was cleaning a slate to do my spelling. I told bim the clock was wrong." This evidence was corroborated by other witnesses. TheMagis- | trate fined the defendant -fOa, and costs 345. J

A San Francisco telegram dated November 25 says :— A negro and his wife were lynched recently in Mississippi for murdering a white child; it appeared subsequently that the mother of the child induced the negress to do it, as by its death she would become the direct heiress to considerable property. A Cincinnati man of forty had a sweetheart of sixteen, and because she persisteutly associated with persons of her own age, he followed her to a party and killed her. Dc Glenn, of California, -with eight headers, 24 waggons, and several threshers, cut and thrashed 1000 acres of -wheat in two and three-fourths days. Yield, nearly thirteen and a half bushels per acre. No wonder they have a plague at New Orleans. The Times, of tbat city, says that 4000 loads of kitchen garbage, which had been hauled to the dumping-grounds by the city carts, have been brought Jback by the contractors aud used to fill up streets in the front part of the city. This i 3 said to have happened within the present year, and was in progress at the time of the breaking out of the fever. The Sultan has handed to Sir A. H. Layard, for Her Majesty Queen Victoria, a magnificent album, richly bound, containing his own potrait and those of the Imperial family. A woman can't put on any side saddle airs when she goes iv swimming. She has either got to kick out like a man or get drowned. A teacher at Somerville, Mass., is said to punish children by tying strings round their ankles so tightly that the skin is burst in places. The Russians are erecting at Erzeroum an enormous monument to the memory of the soldiers of the garrison who fell by the sword or disease during the Turkish war. The cat of a farmer of Oro, Ontario, being given a nest of rabbits of tender age,.by way of a bonne louche, killed all her owu kittens and adopted the rabbits in their stead. The Grand Central Hotel at Omaha, Neb., was destroyed by fire on Sept. 4, through the carelessness of a plasterer who left a lighted candle on the top of the elevator. Loss, £40,000 and five lives. The Sheffield, Eng., authorities are building a new workhouse which will cost .£IBO,OOO when completed. The building will cover 30 acres of grouud, and afford accommodation for 1,800 inmates. " Twelve pence make one shilling." said the schoolmaster. "Now go on, sir. Twenty shillings make one -what ?" "They make one mighty glad these times," replied the boy, and the teacher, who hadn't got his last month's salary yet, concluded the boy was about right. In oue of the English colonies a competitive examination was lately held for the purpose of appointing fit persons to some of the Government offices. One of the candidates inadvertently spelled the word Venice with two n's thus : Vennice. The examiner, a clever man, but not always a correct speaker, sternly inquired, "Do you know, sir, that there is but one hen in Venice ?" " Then eggs must be scarce there," was the ready reply. The candidate passed. The inundation which carried away the dyke en the Damietta branch of the Nile immersed 60,000 acres of land, oa which were 15 villages. Next June, if ail goes well, the golden wedding of tho German Emperor is to be celebrated with great pomp and ceremony in Berlin and Potsdam. Mdlle. Sarah Bernbaret, the actress, has her own coffin, lined with black satin, in her bedroom, ready at a moment's notice aai is at present sculpturing the marble for her tomb. Among the wonderful effects of the Otago floods this may be chronicled. It is said that Mr Harvey's barn, which floated away when the river was at its highest, has been found at Oamaru, stranded on the beach, so that it must have been driven out to sea, and then driven by the current aud wind along the : coast to the point indicated. The bags of grain inside, says tha Clu'-ha Timts, were ! found with Mr Harvey's brand on them. We give the statement as it was received by us. Another less remarkable item is that the achoolhouse which was removed from Inch Clutha during the flood has occupied an upright position at Saddle Hill. Referring to our new Governor, the Timaru Herald says :— We understand that Sir Hercules Robinson is possessed of considerable means, and that, though relinquishing a much more lucrative government than that of New Zealand, he is uot likely to give any cause for cavil on the score of too guarded an expenditure. In all other respects, too, he seems to be calculated to make us a capital social Governor, as well as an able administrative one. He is a keen sportsman, and an advocate of out-of-door amusement; and his idea of what the head of a. Colonial Governor ought to be may be summed up as a powerful official combined with a hearty country gentlemeu. We have sanguine hopes that he will do a great deal of good during his sojourn in New Zealand. Tho most lovely women are those -who have been carefully attended to in their childhood. . Mothers of families would do well to regulate the health and beauty* of their children, not only by the dietary watchfulness and open-air exercise, but by the occasional well timed dose of the Aperient Mixture of "GnoLLAH's Great Indian Cores." Sold by all Chemists.