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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 136, 9 June 1879, Page 2

«M-»»WBg»ni3 ■J'L'Ji.iiJL'Ul H^ij!J.'_i_H.J ■■■"»■.!■.'■■_!■.. nmt An enormous shark measuring 15ft. Sin. in length by 12 feet in girth was caught by some fishermen at the Bluff last week. A much-used receipt.— For making fools, idiots, madmen, murderers, thieves, robbers, paupers, orphans, and widows, use " Solution of the devil." Sold by all publicans.— Quoth the temperance editor. j The Pirate (says the G. It. Argus) brought | a nice little cargo from Auckland to this port yesterday, consisting of 400 cases of kerosene and 520 kegs of blasting powder, quite sufficient, if a fire had broken out in her before she was discharged, to lay Greymouth in ruins. ' The New Zealand.tr says : — The feared 4th | of this month has turned out much better than expected. By far the largest portion of the paper due on Wednesday was met, and things commercial are beginning to turn round for the better. This is hopeful, and we trust that many months will not elapse I before business will have fully resumed its healthy tone, and be generally all the sounder for the severe crisis from which the Colony is now emerging. Ordinary working hands inWellington get Bs. per day, and in the present unsettled state of the labor market do not much repine at getting employment at that rate of pay. On the Greymonth and Hokitika railway, where special arrangements have been made to give the unemployed means of subsistence, j the men getting 9a. per day have struck for" 10s. The cost of living and lodgment on the Coast is no higher than in Wellington.— N,ew Zealander. ' A Samoan papers states as follows: — For some time past a large fish of the stingaree species has been regularly noticed in the vicinity of Salelologa. Mr W. Robertson determined upon its capture, so ordered special gear from Apia. The fish when secured required the whole of the town, which is not a small one, to land, him on the beach. This monster was estimated to weigh not less than two tons ! In order that our readers may be enabled to form some idea of the size of the fish, we are informed that the flesh between the eyeaand mouth weighed 26lbs. However incredible thig may appear, it is vouched for by parties who not only saw the fish, but ate some of it. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. We are informed that two or three other .terge fish of the same species have since been caught in the same place, but they fell a long way short of the first one in weight. . . Documents of a treasonable character were discovered on an Irishman who was recently sentenced to a raonth9 imprisonment at Newcastle-under-Tyne for assault. One of the papers contained rules and regulations for the management of the North of England Division of the 1.R.8., and referred to the formation of a military organization, the secret arming of member*, and the secret accumulation of war materials. Another document issued by order of "The Executive" had a foot note directing its immediate destruction after perusal, and contained the following paragraph :— « Let the universal satisfaction at our enemy's recent humiliate ing defeat by despised opponents stimulate us to exertions which shall hasten our op-; portunity to strike also. A Cetewayo with' unarmed followers would never have Biaggered the prestige or curbed the insolence of England. Arm Ireland, and a 'Rorke's Drift nearer home may shake the Empire to Us base." The ; magistrates ordered i the paper* to be sep* tp the Borne Secretary'.

The electric light is now working very satisfactorily at the Exhibition buildings in Sydney, enabling the men to work all night. It is estimated that 900 of the New Guinea rebels have been killed, and 1100 captured .and banished since the comniencement of the revolt to the latter end of February, TherS was not one death in the Borough of Itokitika or" the Westland Hospital during last month.

There were 13 applications for the appointment of heid master of the Kumar i State Scnool, ffdm (iueenslaud, Tasmania, Victoria, and New Zealand*.

Prom Wellington comes the following curious story:— Tn the hall of the Occidental Hotel there was a very fine earthenware model of a dog. AMr Cheswickwas admiring this the other day, and patting it on the head, when his own dog got jealous, flew savagely at the model, and bit oft one of its ears. The landlord now claims £15 damages, and a Court case is likely to be the result. A terrific correspondent of a Western paper affirms in the boldest manuer, that Senator Chandler of Michigan haa an " intense hatred of England, and never loses an opportunity to swing the British lion by hi3 tail." Dear ! dear ! Can nothing be done ? That tail will certainly give way, if this - kind of thing is allowed to go on ; and 'then what will become of Chandler. The following resolutions regarding the removal of the duly dn timber were discussed at a recent meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce :— " 1. That in the opinion of this Chamber the removal of the import duty on timber last session has already seriously injured the timber and shipping .trades of this part of the colony. 2. That a large amount of capital is invested in these trades, which grew to their present proportions under the late tariff, employing some 3000 men, and circulating about £400,000 yearly among the working classes. 3, That a number of vessels heretofore employed in . the trade are now being laid up, .already between 600 and 600 men have been disChatged, and a still greater number of ships and men are likely to be shortly thrown out of employment iu consequence of the removal of the duty. 4. That an injustice has been done to those persons also who have invested large sums in the timber trade, on the supposition that the duty would not be disturbed, and who must now suffer heavy loss unless the duty be re-imposed or compensation be made to them. 5. That the amount of compensation which would be required to meet the case would be so great as to be practically beyond the means of the Government, add that therefore the import j duty ought to be re-imposed, and if, in the interests of the colony as a whole, it be '■. deemed desirable to remove it at any time hereafter, it could be done more equitably as regards the owners of capital invested, and with leaa injury to the working classes of: this community, by a gradual reduction extending over a period of years. In his recent address to his constituents, Mr Gr. McLean thus amusingly described the perplexities which beset some Government supporters. during the late session :— "I was a supporter of the Government during the last session— at all events I called myself such— (laughter),— and I dare aay I was a better supporter than a great many amongst their own friends. But we could not get the Premier to indicate into what lobby he was going. He always went out and would not commit himself ; but I followed the other members of the Government, except on their Bills of policy, until one day after I had goue into one lobby I found a majority of the Government had gone into another. I objected to this one day, saying, • It was really trying to a Government supporter,? and I could not see my way to do it any longer. On another day the Treasurer spoke on behalf of the Government in opposition to a motion— very rightly I thought— and I assisted him, but I made the mistake of going into the lobby first; because, on looking over, I saw that the majority of the Government were in the other lobby (Laughter.) I then said that I was not going to oe tricked in that way any longer. The next time I would sit in my. seat till I saw which way the majority of the Government went, and if I went with them I might be right. (Laughter). This caused Sir George Grey to get angry, and to say, " From such a supporter good Lord deliver us." On the subject of the difficulty which the Government supporters have in finding excuses for the Native policy of their patrons, the Dunedin Herald has the following caustic remarks :—'• That the Government have some sense of the gravity of the situation is evident from the fact that their supporters are at their wits' end to find excuses for their blundering incompetence. The blame is placed now here, and now there. Sometimes the complications are ail owing to something that one man did, and sometimes to something that another man did not do; j the very dead are not spared, nor the living, wnom these sages declare to be (politically) , dead. A drowning man, as we say, will clutch at a straw, and there could not be a more striking example of the truth of the aaying than the latest invention as to the origin of the Waiunate Plans embroglio. It seems it is all owing to the fact that Mr Fox refused point blank to build a redoubt or something of the kind after the conclusion of the West Coast war. At least, more than one settler told somebody who had been staying some time at Hawera, who told the Ministerial journal, that told the public, that this was actually the case. After all this tale-telling it cannot possibly bufc be true, especially a3 we are gravely informed that it is one of the things not generally known." The Christchurch Press says.— During the hearing of an application for the renewal of an hotel license yesterday iu the Licensing Court the Commissioners took the opportunity of expressing a very decided opinion on the urgent necessity of the police having the power of causing an analysis to be made of the beverages sold in some of the city hotels. In the case in question both the chairman and the Inspector of Police cited more than one instance in which a glass of ale sold was of ao deleterious a nature as to show that it must, accidentally or otherwise, have been adulterated with some noxiois drug. The chairman regretted that no steps could have bee n taken at the time to test the purity of th e beer, and Inspector Hickson said the police were powerless to interfere for the public good. A very severe caution was administered by the Bench to the applicant, and they trusted that the publicity which would be given by the local press to the ease would have a beneficial effect for the public good The Heutz Female Minstrels, who had been dancing the can-cau .in Sab Francisco to crowded houses, were arrested on a charge of violating. public decency and morals, and were heavily fined. " ■ An English baritone singer is said to have received £2000 for singing three solos at a soiree given by an English titled lady.