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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 100, 28 April 1879, Page 2

Englishmen, with pardonable national pride, are wont to lay the flattering unction to their souls that our soldiers are still, as they have proved themselves ia time past, invincible, j U9t as Germans, Russians, French, . and other people are taught by national traditions to regard their own soldiers. But if the following lugubrious extract from the Army and Navy Gazette is to be relied on, the days of England's supremacy in the field are at an end. The Gazette of February 22, says : — We are creating a Reserve at the expense of the active army, and to bave a second line we are destroying the first, The newspapers may say what they please of the good spirits and youthful enthusiasm of the pale-faced striplings who have gone out to retrieve tbe fortunes of tbe campaign in South Africa, but officers who know what soldiers ought to he have no confidence in the endurdnte fot war f*tiirpoae9 of such material. The Zulus can cut-march the best traiued men we have, burthened as the latter are with necessary arms and ammunition, and they would laugh to scorn any endeavors of over-weighted lads to come up with them in the open, and would quickly master them in any melee. Some idea of the ruinous expense of maintaining an army in Natal and Transvaal may be gathered from the following list of bona fide prices as they are now in some parts of the. Transvaal, now garrisoned by Her Majesty's troops :— The necessaries of life — White flour, ls 2d per lb ; Boer's meal, 8d per lb ; eggs, 3s per dozen ; butter 6s per lb; bacon, 2s 6d per lb ; bread (Boer's), 8d per lb ; soap, (blue mottled), 3s per lb; tobacco, (Boer's), 3s per lb; tobacco, (American), 10s per lb ; matches, 3s per dozen boxes ; beef, 8d per lb ; mutton, 8d per lb. Luxuries. — Hollands, ls per glass; Cape brandy, 9d per glass ; brandy, lg 2d per glass • old torn, ls per glass, ale, (quarts), 8s per bottle; sardines (large size), 4s 6d per box; pickles, 5s per bottle; potatoes, 60s per 140 lbs; vegetables, almost unobtainable except at fancy prices. Mrs Clara S. Folz is a lady who, is practising law in San Francisco, and who, judging from report, has gone about her busiuess in a practical and reasonable manner. She is described as sitting in her ofllce at a table covered with legal works — a bright, fairhaired, rosy-featured, cheerful, matronly woman, neatly attired in a dress of dark material, over wbicb was worn a most nonjudicial checkered apron. To an interviewer she said : " There is nothing to be said about me. I originated from the cradle, the washtub, tbe sewing machine, and the cooking stove. I have educated myself and little ones by practising law, and I mean to succeed, and that's all there ia to be said of me." — New York Tribune. The statement filed by Mr R. J. Duncan of Wellington shows the following liabilities: —Secured, £10,738; unsecured, £8192; total, £18,930. Assets— debts owing, £3977 ; do doubtful, £2502, taken as £500 ; property, encumbered, £6430 ; do unencumbered, £430; deficiency, £5593. The debtor accounts for his deficiency as follows : - Bad debts, £4439; doubtful debts, £2502, taken as £500— £2002 ; loss on New Zealander newspaper 3hares, £175; making a total loss _f £6616. A Herald telegram from Waikato says both Tawhiao and Manuhiri declined sending formal invitations to the Premier and Native Minister, though solicited by many leading chiefs to do so. It is reported that Rewi bas invited both up to Puriri previous to the meeting. If Sir George Grey and Mr Sheehan do not go to the Kopua meeting no other Europeans will be allowed. Two thousand natives are assembled at the Kopua meeting. The Marlborough Teachers' Association held an extraordiuary meeting on Saturday, the 19th iust. The attendance of members was good. The following resolutions were carried : — l. That the Hon the Minister of Education be requested to introduce a clause into the Education Act empowering bim to appoint a Court of Appeal similar to that suggested by Professor Pearson for tbe investigation of teachers' appeals against harsh decisions on the part of Educaiijn Boards or their officers. 2. That an intimation of the course taken in the foregoing resolution be given to kindred associations, or leading teachers where uo association exists, with the view of securing their cooperation. 3. That the Education Board (Marlborough) be requested to assimilate as closely as closely as possible the subjects for scholarship's examinationa to the ordinary advanced work in schools. 4. That the Hon the Minister be asked to place a sum on tbe estimates for tbe payment of bonuses for classification, since the present vote is only sufficient to pay for the lower classification. — A resolution was proposed requesting the Board to inquire into the classification of its teachers by the Department. This proposal met with no support, but, on the contrary, a decided oppposition on the ground that it would prve the way to local influence and convert the teachers into place hunters and I oadies. Some of the speakers bore the highest testimony to the courteous and liberal j spirit in vhich they had been treated by the ' department. — The questions of a " Uniform examination tor all the schools of the colony" and tbe discontinuance of the present mode of " reporting on individual schools," were discussed at great length, and, though no resolution was proposed, both measures were deemed highly desirable. The number of miles of railroad constructed in the United States in 1878 waa 2688— exceeding any previous year since 1873. Minnesota, lowa, Missouri, Colorado, and Kansas made the greatest progress in railroad bnilding.

A recent Napier telegram says: — An attempt waa made to-night to set fire to the newly built Napier district school. Two heaps of paper and shavings, saturated with kerosene, were piled against the wall in the back yard, and were found blazing by a man named Dean, who was passing by. He stamped the fire out, and then found tbat the wall was much charred. There was no one about at the time. Not long since (says "The Loafer") a traveller up North entered an hotel and called for a glass of Blood's Stout. He drank the fluid handed him by the barman, and then said placidly, " This is not Blood's stout. Show vie tbe bottle." "Oh yes, sir, it is!" replied the barman, "we get ,it direct from England." "Scarcely so," said the traveller; " I happen to be an agent for Blood. This i 3 colonial porter, and horribly bad porter at that." You are only the eightyninth man I've bowled out using our labels." By which it would appear that we don't get English beer and porter quite so often as we fancy. The forging of bottle labels of all kinds (including Mr Hennessy) is becoming one of the leading colonial industries. I understand it is highly reniuner'2-tive, but I think I prefer other industries. A curious admission (says the Chronicle) was made during the hearing of a case at the Resident Magistrate's Conrt to-day. In cross-examination by Mr Allan, the master of tbe barque Clan Campbell admitted that he had told his sailors that if the ship were bouud for Africa he would " slog it out of them," but that as she was bound for Wellington, where there was a magistrate, he would have to be more careful. The old system of treating sailors like dogs seems not to have yet died out, and it is well for Jack that he has the aegis of the law to protect him. A Wellington paper says : — A meeting of solicitors, the object of which, it wag uuder- | stood, was to have been kept quiet, has been I held to take into consideration the appoint- ! ment of Mr Forwood, to the Magistracy of Wellington. The legal gentleman, however, after a short discussiou, determined to let the matter drop. They did wisely. Mr Forwood possessed high credentials for tbe post, and has been highly recommended for the office by the Minister of Jsnticej The salary is £500 per annum. The " Loafer in the Street" writes:— "At the Bnninyong police court, a young man has been fined 20s, with £3 3s cost, for kissing a woman he had been living near, and had beei on intimate terms with from childhood. The reason assigned for tbe action was that defendant kissed the lady and squeezed her so hard as to make her ill siuce the occurrence, in tbe beginning of January last." Mr Tennyson observes, iv reference to Queen Guinevere, that — * " A man would give all other bliss, And all his worldiy worth in this, To waste his whole heart in one kiss Upon her perfect lips." Very likely, but not in times like these. No man, I don't care who he is, can afford to give £4 ds for a kiss in tbe present financial crisis, at least not as a regular thing. Such a price is simply prohibitory. Any man continuing in such extravagance must break, and the kisses wouldn't show out anyhow in the assets. An ingenious defence was set up in a casein the R.M. Court, New Plymouth where a defendant was charged with allowing a cow to wander at large. He pleaded not guilty on tbe ground tbat the cow was not wandering but knew perfectly well where she waa going. An extraordinary statement is reported to have been made by two gentlemen iv Sydney. Tbis consists of a scheme whereby live animals can be reduced to a state of petrifaction by a freezing.process, and, in this way, without destroying the principle of life, conveyed by ships or steamer 3 for thousands of miles — say Australia to England, and after their arrival at their destination, by being put io. a warm bath, and getting a drop of something stirring — probably whiskey hot — injected behind the ear, they are restored to a state of activity, and skip about as lively as ever, not a bit the worse for the temporary suspension of their vitality. What a chance for one wbo wishes to live for a thousand years ! He has only to get frozen up in an icehouse, say for 250 years, with instructions to his indefinitely great great grandchildren to see that he is always kept well frozen up, and at the expiry of that period released by a souse in a warm bath. A case at Halcombe is referred to by the Rangitikei paper, in which ten persona— an elderly couple, a younger ditto, a youth, a young woman, and four children— have been living together in a two-roomed house. The Ballarat School Board of Advice have initiated a fund for the encouragement of pupils attending the State schools. They propose to offer upwards of £70 in prizes for the year 1879, under the following conditions: — For uniform diligence and exemplary conduct, both in and out of school, during the year, there are 36 prizes, averaging 10s each; three money prizes, of £15 each, as a scholarship or apprentice fee, open to all pupils in the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes, who have passed in these classes at' the inspector's examination of the school; one gold medal, suitably engraved, value £3, to be called the " Ballarat State School Medal," to be awarded, in addition to the prize of £15, to the [pupil having tbe highest number of marks at tbe competition for prizes in class II; one special prize, value £6 6s, for excellence in geographical knowledge. The Central Pacific Railroad Company employs 1 1,800 white men and 1300 Chinamen. Those regularly employed are paid as follows : — Machinists, ls 3d to Is 9d per hour ; blacksmiths, ls s£d to ls Sd; helpers, llfd to Is ljd ; boiler-makers, ls OJd to la 6d; carpenters, Is o£d to ls s£d, painters, ls OJd to Is 4£d; engineers, £22 to £22 8s per month; firemen, £14; passenger conductors, £22 to £23 ; freight conductors. £17 to £18 ; brakemen, £13 to £14 ; labourers, 8a 4d to 9s 5d per day. Tbe Lord Mayor of London pays half the cost of the Lord Mayor's Day banquet and the two Sheriffs divide the remaining half ; the Corporation however, pays £200 towards the cost of lighting. About 60 per cent of tbe bill is for decorations, music, attendance, printing, &c, Including the procession, the expense to the Lord Mayors and Sheriffs during the past seven years has been as follows :— 187:2, Sir Sydney Waterlow, £3605; 1873, Sir A. Lusk, £3828; 1874, Mr Stone, £2228; 1875, Mr Cotton, £3555; 1876, Sir T. White, £3707; 1877, SirT.S.Owden, £3826; and 1878, Sir Charles Whetham, £3500.