Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 6, 7 January 1879, Page 2

A handsome monument has been erected over the tomb of the late Charles Mathews, the eminent actor, in Kensal-green Cemetery. It bears the following inscription: — " Sacred to the memory of Charles James Mathews. Born Dec. 16th, 1803; died, June 24th, 187 S. Aged 74. 0 bliss when all in circle drawn about him, heart and ear were fed to hear him. How good! how kind! and he is gone. In memoriam." The Commissioner of Agriculture has ordered from Japan a large number of bamboo shootß, which he intends to plant in America, feeling convinced that their culture there could be made a success. He also expects a number of silk-worm eggs to arrive within a few weeks from Japan, and experiments will be made by the department in the breeding of silkworms. Recently, at a social gathering, Bishop Harris was invited to sing. He declined, but told the following incident as illustrative of his talent in that line. During his journey through Palestine, one evening, after he and Mr Spencer, who occupied the tent with him, had gone to bed, the Bishop began humming a tune of the olden time, called New Durham. Mr Spencer joined in, and the two began singing a verse of one of our familiar hymns. Before the verse wa3 finished a donkey just outside the tent brayed as only a donkey in the East can bray. While the hills of Judea were sending back the echoes of this most extraordinary and untimely performance of the donkey, the Arab dragoman put his head inside the tent, and, apologising for* his donkey, said, " Ha, you sing one tune he think he know !" A Melbourne telegram dated Dec. 27, says: The Henderson parody on the embassy has had an amusing ending. It was intended that he should be sent Home by the mail steamer with the other ambassadors, but the agent of the P. and O. refused to receive him as a passenger. The Government had brought pressure to bear on the company, who in view of the fact that the new mail contract will shortly have to be considered, were open to conviction. 1 We clip the following from the Rangitikei Advocate: — "A society with the appellation of the " Anti-shouting Association " has been successfully inaugurated at Bulls, and will hold its first meeting at the Rangitikei Hotel on Saturday. Members of the society are bound under a penalty of £5 not to driuk at a friend's expense, nor to treat a friend. In a country where the custom of ' shouting ' is so universal, that a man when he suffers a bereavement asks his friend to drink as consolation; when he marries is treated by way of congratulation; when up in the world or down in the world' lucky or unlucky, he treats or is treated, it will scarcely be expected that the fundamental principles of the society will be such as to meet with many supporters." Swimming classes have been formed in Melbourne, under the Collingwood Board of Advice, and the other day 750 boys were receiving lessons at the Emerald Hill Baths. PLord Beaconsfield's brother, Ralph Disraeli, is chief clerk to Sir George Jesel, Master of the Rolls, and himself a Jew. Iv case of the Premier's death Ralph would succeed to his title. " Overwork in School/ a letter signed by an ex-iratron, referring to the death of Miss Adams, a school teacher, in the Otago Daily Times this morning, attributs her death to overwork in the schools. The writer says the death of Miss Adams, the mistress of Albany-street school, which I observed in this morning's issue, has filled me with iudignation and sorrow. lam sorry to think that a young lady, one of the best teachers in this city, should have died away from her home and kindred— a stranger iv a strange land lam filled with indignation to think that she — to put it plainly— has been worked to death. I have heard of people who cannot see a joke till it is hammered into them ; but truly there are people who cannot see and understand the tragedies enacted before before them in the common light of day until the final scene is exhibited. How many are there in this city who know the slavery that the matrons of the Duaedin district schools have endured for the last twelve mouths. Rooms are built large enough to accommodate 200 or 250 children, and the matrons take charge of them. Under them they have only three or four pupil teachers to assist them in teaching. All the responsibility rests on the matron, and anyone who is conscientious knows how much heavier the responsibility is than work. The night before the school examination she was engaged iv work connected with the school until long past midnight. The excitement kept her up until the school was closed, then the tension gave way.

A trial shipment of New Zealand soles and flounders, packed in ice, is to be sent from Dunedin to Melbourne. Mr Piini3oll, M.P,, and Mrs Plimsoll are about to make a tour in India for the benefit of the bon. member's health. A man named England bas been arrested in New South Wales, on his confession of killing a man in February 1877. According to the West Coast Times some Maoris caught an eel the other day weighing 9d!bs in the Hokitika river, at Woodstock.