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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 35, 10 February 1879, Page 2

The San Francisco mail will be due at Auckland to-morrow. The southern portion will be brought down by the Taiaroa which is now lying at Manukau. The days of that obstruction on the Waimea Road, known as the toll gate, are at la9t numbered, Mr Mabin having received instructious to dispose of it, together with the dwelling-house, fencing, &c, at an early date. The Rev Mr Bavin addressed a large and orderly audience at the Pedestal, in Trafal-gar-street, last night after the ordinary hours for church service. The Town Corps and Naval Brigade will parade for the usual monthly inspection this evening at 7*30. An interesting account of (he Melbourne Retreat for the cure of inebriates has recently been forwarded by Dr. Macarthy, the superintendent of the establishment, to a gentleman in Nelson, who has sent us the following extracts for pubiication :— "The number of patients treated in 1878 was 48, namely, 39 males and nine females, of whom the great majority were voluntary patieuts, but a few compulsory, this being the first establishment of the kind in the British Empire under statute law. Only one death occurred, that of a man who came in with diseased lungs. It is impossible to tell the proportion of cures, but the vast majority appear well disposed when leaving, and some who have been too short a time for cure return of their own accord before they are degraded as they previously had been. The institution in Tiiriou9 ways is getting into favor ; it receives nothing Government, and ray aim is to make it self-supporting. * * I hare no doubt the Retreat will be a great success, it is already doing a great deal of good. * * Of course no man can be cured against his will, but by repose and treatment and time here, the health and will are strengthened, so that when a patient leaves, the drink craving is so much lessened, that resistance to it will not require much effort; but those who deny, or pretend to deny, the truths of Revelation are not likely to be cured, as the moral motive is absent; such a person is like a ship without rudder or anchor. * * There are now in the house seven bedrooms for females, and twelve for males. * ♦ My preparatory work is done, all I now want is the means to admit a greater cumber of patients."

Our telegrams on Saturday announced the appointment of Lord Loftus to the Governorship of New South Wales. The following notice of this nobleman appears in Men of the Time : — " Loftcs, the Right Hon. Sir Augustus William Frederick Spencer, commonly called Lord Augustus Loftns, the fourth son of the second Marquis of Ely, was born in 1817, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Entering the diplomatic service, he became attache at Berlin in 1837; paid attache at Stuttgardt in 1844; served with the special missions at Berlin and Vienna in 1848; was appointed Secretary of Legation at Stnttgardt in 1852; was transferred to Berlin in 1853; acted as charge d'affaires there during portions of the years 1853, 1855, 1857, was appointed Envoy at Vienna in March, 1858; was transferred to Berlin in December, I860; to Munich in 1862; returned to Berlin in 1865; was accredited to the North German Confederation iv 1868; and appointed to replace Sir Andrew Buchanan as Ambassador at St. Petersburgh in July, 1871." Lord Lofrus recently accompanied Earl Beaconsfield and the Marquis of Salisbury to the Berlin Congress as Secretary.