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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 94, 21 April 1879, Page 4

Writing of current predictions of J bad limes, the Christchurch corres- j pondent of tbe Saturday Advertiser j remarks :— " This time last year not a word was said about such a prospect and yet up to Marcb 8 of the present year nearly 30 per cent mora of grain has heen carried on the AmberleyBluff line than for the corresponding period of 1878, and also the whole receipts on the line show ao increase for the same period of 50 per cent over those of last year. That certainly looks like gooJ returns for ail the money spent we hear so much about. A corresponding increase has also taken place in the production of wool, aod supposing the price to be a little lower, tbat circumstance is not going to break everybody. If anyone wants to see how scarce money is here, just try to buy a decent four or five roomed cottage, and offer caah for it in the hope of getting it cbeap. The way that owner will open bis moutb when naming the price wili cause a stranger to pul up bis hand to feel if his head bis safe, and ho or anybody els 9 won't think the prospect of hard times a very beavy one. An instance came under observation the other day. Au old gentleman, who could afford to spend . £5000, and not miss it, better tban twothirds of the people could £5, was asked why he had uot gone up Nortb for the benefit of his health, as it was supposed he ha^. His reply was, "I have had such wretchedly bad accounts out lutely about the probable price of wool that I feit I really couldu't afford the trip. Now that is what's the matter. Those youths who have the money are ranking every shilling squebk juat now before tbey let it go, and the banks having finished calling in the Sydney three millions, ere doing likewisj on their own account. Tbat the money, or moneys wortb, is in the country few will deny, and tbe "harJ times" notion is more a scare than anything else. i „£ 8 , Respondent saya that since the winter of 1861 Paris has not been, « snowed \up to the extent it is now.

anS,I,S i m. /v e« ies are v°^ n PrhvL» gi* bU V, he f?,,owlD^ To»cbed to excoed lsfw^° « ™'"f[,' • 0? which niS i: 7 The fol,0 ?w* "«*«*; trnSl V?■ ?' !, erTeß , t0 £™ * ■/? tlie courtesies of life do not obtain with StaSST 8- Aladytoldherscrvantgirl l\£vt Co°,Pl,mcn*« <° Mrs So and So, rid^^nr.^^^^w6^?*^l^" Sii 0" tl, me. a l l l wbat f k 'n? of art! cJ e th^ES mg i ' * -^.l? »'? 1°" ■' Promptly enquired, 'Shall I take them m a bag, ma am I' " The San Francisco correspondent of the Auckland Herald writes :—We have the germ of a dreadful epidemic growing inour midst, arrising from the horrible state of the County Gaol. Some time ago I explained the terrible condition of the city prison and branch gaol. Lately the inmates of the latter have been drafted to the county gaol in order to lessen the city's expenses, and now, owing to the over-crowded condition of the place, typhoid fever has broken out. to which one prisoner has succumbed. The doctor of the gaol says that should this close wet weather continue the epidemic will not be confined to that place alone. It is a common thing for seven or eight persons to be throw j into a cell meant only for one person, In one cell two must stand wbile tbe other two sleep, and vice vena. In one cell are four girls which, on being inspected, revealed each smoking a cigarette in a meerschaum holder, and seemingly happy "Awfully jolly, in fact, under the painful conditions -their four mattresses being rolled up in one corner, allowing of little more tban standing room the cell being too small to VH W- v. L v } eing laid evemu^ do™it?!f f e r? of, ce! ,s ar! eDtire,y wi-H ■ r °m 8-X Dd^ air ' ? ni a!1 this horrible misery, with death and disease in the perspective in consequence, in the very heart of th;s enormously wealthy city, which never was so rich as now. I feel so irate at the condition of the prisoners here, that I take every opportunity of floating the shame ti «h« °Ver lh% ™l rli- „ „.. The home correspondent of the Melbourne nZi «£?? 'T • f. CXam? ■ S °f- tb A Benti ' En, Pi! h '♦ %■ ?f hC m Lnd^ y the fc lv 1 ?''h"*?* UP<^ the Glas S°w Bank directors, I will cite a few sentences SIT f ne *£ /X r leadl. ag papers- The limt * declares that the sentences are a great deal ess severe than they were expected to be by the country general y. A commercial fraud of the first magnitude, and with consequences Sii IT* V hat the, imagination fails to tollow them, has been brought home to the guilty parties, and has been visited by no greater punishment that an ordinary case of shop lifting might have been, in which the value of the goods stolen amounted to a few pounds or a few shillings. If a popular vote could have been taken on the question, the result would have been very different Sympathy with the innocent sufferers, iodicnation at the deceit practised npon them and a desire effectually to prevent such illdeeds in the future, would have been noorlv satisfied with the decision the Edinburgh Court has pronounced. The demand would have been for a punishment more adeq uate to the offence, and more certainly deterrent than a few months' imprisonment can be held to be.

Smokers in London have, during the past tw ° or three years, been tempted to purchase P 6"™o ci&ars nt a remarkably low rate. It h^ al ways been a wonder how these could poS9ibl* be 60, dat the P™*> seeing that they were subject to the same duty as prime Havannabs. But the trulia now out. P We learn from the Customs report of the United State 9 thafc in Germany the clippings or refus * of the cigars made in America have reCGDt,y fOUDd a market at 2c to 5c per pound. Formerly these clippings were allowed to accumulate in the cigar manufactories for months, till a speculator happened to come acroes a heap, which he bought "for a song." Not content with selling tbeir own refuse at a profit, mauufacturers have established regular agencies in Canada to collect tobacco " waste," which is shipped in bulk to Germany. It behoves smokers who wish to enjoy " the fragrant weed "to fight shy of German cigars, Marriage is regarded by the Chinese as the most serious event of life, and the idea of marriage is constantly present to the minds of the Chinese of all classes, assuming, as it does, extra importance from their anxiety not to die without posterity. As regards the belief in a future state, few persons in China seem to take thought or care on the subject; but all alike dread the prospect of being deprived of proper funeral obsequies and of the reverential homage which ought to be paid at regular dates by male descendants to a tablet inscribed with the name ofthe deceased, Hence the lack of male posterity is regarded as the greatest of calamities, and celibacy as the height of folly. In order to avoid all risk of leaving no son to survive him, a Chinaman wili, if be can, marry " early and often«" the natural result being that Cbina is over -peopled. This ruling desire of the Chinese must be constantly borne in mind as being a mainspring of their conduct in life, and a principal motive in all their dramas and romances. Apart from the anxiety to provide against the risk of dying childless, or rather "sonless," the Chinese seem not to be generally disposed towards polygamy, and the bird which they bave selected as the etoblem of coWl happiness and fidelity is tbe tea1 ' because teals are a,wa ya to he seen swimming together in couples, and answer each other with a cry which the Chinese cons>'der to be very harmonious. Even when there are more than one wife in a household, the first usually enjoys a distinct pre-emi-nence, and is the legal mistress of the house, But although wives of the second rank themselves occupy an inferior position, their children are placed on terms of perfect equality with those of the first wife, even as regards inheritance.-Sir D. Wedderburn in the Fortnightly Beview. vr n , , **, *.? w Zea *and of the past and New Zealand ? f c Pres, en * are two *«y different things, }.t early.days, when all was prosperity, ■ de J"? en °* «»e forest breathed the Pure ?'* °f HeaveD, the human frame and P 00?"™"" 1 h*& all the chance of robust e 5 f ; t now that thickly populated cities and [o^" 3 have sprung up. with the attendant !?„ JT^t* W,°, rSe draina&e» a iemeAy is «? for <_ 'fc* wIH. c? un teract all the baneful S?. ct? f *h * cx 'sting »nd growing evils, f ,«J? t0 be fo, und at every Chemists' Ask for "Ghollah's Gkeat Indian Cures."