Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 140, 13 June 1879, Page 2

The Christchurch Press reports " a mysterious disappearance "as follows :— A few days ago three bullocks were placed in a closed cattle truck at Addington, for conveyance to Amberley, but ou arrival of the traiq at that place it was found that only two of the beasts were together, the other one by some mysterious means having vanished. A thorough search was made along the line, but without any sign of the missing animal. As the owner held the receipt for the three bullocks from the railway authorities, and they were unable to account for the disappearance of the animal in question, they paid over the value of the beast, and the matter so far ended. In addressing his constituents, Mr Stevens is reported to have said:— lam of opinion that an appeal to the country should be made and that at an early date. lam not a strong partisan, nor have I any strong party feelings. I would give my to any Government which will bring you in electoral reform, solid finance, fair taxation, and other measures of minor importance, such as will ensure that advance of the colony which every one must desire to see. But, Sir, I regret to say— and lam bound to do ao after careful consideration— that I am not able to place my confidence in the present administration. (Cheers.) Much as I deplore changes of Ministry, much as I deplore the shortcomings of the late Ministry— for governing is no light task— l must express a hope that we shall have a change, and that kii t e the year ia over ' (Cheera.) I shall feel that lam doing my duty to the country if we succeed in getting something which is free from the stain of the past, and rree, bir, from the very great obloquy of the present (Loud and continued cheers.) One day Dickens Waa being taken by a photographer, the result being the wellknown one in which he is shown writimr The artist told him he did not hold his pen right, and said, « Hold it as if you were writing one of your own novels, Mr Dickens " " I see," said Pickeaa, « AH -of- 'er-Twwt "'

Several of tbefa-mers in the Northern district of Canterbury have commenced a new raid upon the sparrows with a view to thinning their numbers before sowing time. The poison used is strychnine, \ ounce to a bushel of wheat or shelled oats. This quantity of strychnine is dissolved in a spoonful of vinegar or muriatic acid, which is added to about two or three quarts of boiling water, and the grain allowed to absorb the liquor. The grain ought to be then dried in the sun, and next spread on the ground feeftire eatly morning. That must have been a sharp passage-at-arms between Chief Baron Kelly and the Attorney- General of England which culminated iti this dialogue :— The Chief Baron : " I defy you to show it— l wish to use a strong expression— l defy you.' The At-torney-General (hardly quickening one degree the pace of the pendulum-like manner with which he reads"a statute or cites a case) : "If your lordship means that it is impossible to show it, I take up the glove, and I think I have already shown it. If your lordship means that you defy me to satisfy your mind, I despair of doing so, and will say no more." The collection of lace belonging to Priucess Beatrice can hardly be equalled. It contains part of that AlenCou which was found in a lumber room some years ago in St. James's Palace, and which is reputed to be worth about £20,000. It dates from tbe time of Henry the VIII. The Middle Island native difficulty is assuming a shape which will necessitate its being dealt with in one way or another. The lessee of the Oaraarama run on the Upper Waitaki haa applied to the Waitaki County Council to have his rates reduced by one fourth, the Maori invaders having fenced in as much as they chose of the best land on the run, and treated all efforts to remove them with contempt. They number one hundred and twenty, aud keep sixty dogs, which frighten all the sheep avay from the neighborhood. _he case was a novel one to the County Council, aud it was resolved that the Chairman should write to the Government about it. It happens that the Chairman, the Honourable Robert Campbell, M.L.C., has himself been a great sufferer for the last year or two, through the confiscation of part of his property by Maoris; and we have ao doubt that, in writing to the Government about the Oamarama caae, he will place the whole question in ,a very strong light. — Advertiser. There is an American invention known as Clarke's non-explosive Kerosene Powder, intended to deceive simple housewives, in the belief that it will prevent lamp accidents, &c. Dr Hector's annual report, just to hand, gives the following as the result of the so called Kerosene non-explosive : — " This powder, when tried in various ways, proved to be absolutely useless for the purpose it is designed to serve. It need not be urged here that a powder which is vauuted to perform that which is alleged of this one can only increase the danger it is purported to remove, and this both by tempting people to use inferior kerosenes, and to use them without that extreme care which is necessary." In a paper in the Contemporary Review, on the alcohol question, Dr. Wilks says :— " I strongly prohibit the use of alcohol in the early morning ; in fact, those who then wish for it have imbibed too much. I always suspect people who require ' something ' about eleven o'clock in the morning. Indeed, tbe man or woman who has an acute consciousness of the hour of eleven is being both physically aud morally lost." Twenty minute sermons are announced in Chicago* Is the West always to get ahead of New York in advisable enterprise? — New York Herald. # We hear on all sides complaints of " hard times " and the expression that " money is tight" is frequently used. The following extract from a Sydney paper is applicable :— A young married woman asked her husband what she should wear at a fancy ball. " Oh, but Harry, do tell me what I am to wear ; you say you don't like dresses that are too much ou the ground and not enough on the wearer, and you don't like the female Robinson Crusoe style or the Amazonian soldier dress, or Zazel, or any other light and inexpensive dress of that kind ; so what am Ito wear, dear ?" " Bother the fancy ball in the first place, and in the second (said that wretch, Harry Hardup) wear a coat of paint, or a possum rug, or a a sheet of brown paper tied round with string and labelled ' to be carefully handled '—or stay, I have it ! go as an overdraft, my dear, with a nice little trimming of dishonored cheques and unpaid bills forming the flounces, and a coronet on your head emblazoned with the letters 'N.SF., refer to the drawer.' There, that will be novel aud truly emblematical of our position in society. Eh; my dear ?" The brute laughed and beauty was left in tears. Edison is quoted as saying, in response to a question as to the progress he has made in his scheme for electric light. •' Well, I am, as you may say, non-committed ; but if there is anybody hereabout for whom you entertain a particularly vicious spite, unload your gas stock on him, aud be quick about it, too. Further than that I bave nothing to say," "Phairest Phlora," wrote an amorous youth who ia smitten with the phonetic craze, " phorever dismiss your phears and phly with one whose pherventphancy is phixed on you alone. Fhriends, phamily, pbather—phorget them and think only of the phelicity of the phuture ! Phew pheilows are so phastidious as your Pherdinand, so pheign not phondness, if you pheel it not. Phorego phrolic, and answer phinally, Phlora." " Oh, Pherdinand, you phool 1" was phair Phlora's curt reply. Nevada is the State of surprises. A lady going through one of the jails on a tour of inspection, discovered her three brothers cosily tucked away in cells, when she thought them in Boston in the milk business. — Detroit Free Press. The w close season " for European monarchs has not yet set in it seems, although the sort of marksmen detailed to thin off the crowned heads of Europe would not make ten cents a day shooting at gophers iv a Santa Clara potato patch. The Czar of Russia was shot at and missed four times in one day this month, and the impression is gradually but surely gaining ground that this astute potentate, rather than entrust his regular assassination to some bungling and irresponsible person, has made a yearly contract with a sort of " property " regicide some sharpshooter who can be relied upon to harmlessly clip off a button or a whisker once out of a possible every time to the entire discouragement of all unofficial score makers whatever."— San Francisco Weekfo Post. y A Russian newspaper states that there is no interference with any one in St Petersburg, reports to the contrary notwithstanding. This is not surprising, inasmuch as the publication of anything else would be followed by the suspension of the newspaper, aud banishment of its staff. Last summer some Danish explorers attempted to penetrate into the interior of Greenland. They started in July and struggled against stormsfof ;snow, hail, and thick fogs for 23 days, after which the weather cleared, when the ascended a mountain about 40 miles inland and could penetrate no further. Ice in all forma extended aa far oa the eye could reach, and the travellers willingly left the shore of that Greenland where not a bit of green could be described. The late Duke of Newcastle is said.to have insured his life in different offices to the ftitoniflbing amount of £500,000.

London Truth, in an article giving anecdotes of the Prince of Wales, says :— " He 1s fond of late hours, but no matter how late he may go to bed he rises early the next morning. He is a keen sportsman and a very fair shot. At whist he plays an excellent hand. And whether the occupation of the moment be whist, sport, or dancing, he enters into it with a hearty relish, which contrasts strangely with the Wa.«e airs of the golden youths of the day. His constitution is an excellent due. He rarely has a day's illness, and he is A living proof that ho amount of tobacco can enfeeble either mind ot body. I believe that lie was the inventor of the flow popular drink, " lemon and soda' " Thirty years ago the profession of mining engineer was almost unknown iv the United States; to-day the American Institute of Miniug Engineers numbers over 700 mombars. A Massachusetts telicher writes to the Nat.onalJournal of Education describing an I experiment in the schoolroom which seems j to be successful. Instead of facing his pupils he has his desk behind them, aud thus overlooks them to great advantage. The naughty little ones, not knowing when his eye is upon them, dare not whisper or play. "They have," he says, " so frequently conic to grief in attempting to calculate chances, that tbey have concluded to make a virtue of necessity and give up playing in the schoolroom as unprofitable, costing more than it comes to Another decided advantage of this system is that it completely isolates classes reciting from the rest of the school ; the recitation benches being iv front of the teacher's desk, : between him and the school, and the backs of the pupils being towards each other, communication by look or sign is out of the question. The only special rule is that pupils shall not look round." A well knowu advertising agent in London has just purchased an important invention. If street placards are printed according to the newly-discovered method involved in this invention they will gather as much light from the sun during the day as to make them self-luminous at night, and thus they ' can be read by night as well as by day. This is an important scientific discovery. As evidence of the prevailing depression ia the rural districts, even as affecting grass | lands, the Mark Lane Express states that grass parks are being let in tbe north, of England at a reduction of from 14 to 20 per cent on last year's rents; and the pasturage around Hamilton Palace, amouuting to 1400 acres, was let lately for a fraction under £2450, a reduction of £500 on the rent of last year. The Superintendent of the Shoeblack Brigade in Liverpool took 300 packs of cards from the boys last year. They play games called " bank " and " ribbon," and according to Mr Peers, " the amount of money laid in bets is enormous." i A Paris correspondent tells the following capital story :~" About four weeks ago a young man threw off his coat at Asnieres, plunged into the Seine, and saved the life of a girl aged eleven. To protect himself from cold, he entered a draper's shop to buy a muffler, but found his purse gone. His pocket had been picked while he was in the water. The shopman viewed him as an impostor, and insisted on his going to the police office for spoiling the muffler. A young girl, an assistant, came forward, said she believed the story, and offered to pay the three francs, all that was iv her purse. Next day, the gentleman, a merchant, arrived in his carriage to pay the three francs, and yesterday he was married to the pretty shop girl." King Oscar, of Sweden," ia about to circulate a reply to Pope Piu3 IX.'s attacks on Freemasonry. The King of Sweden has long been a distinguished Mason, and proposes to prove, by facta connected with the history of the craft, that the Pope's attacks are groundless, and need not be observed even by faithful Catholics. It is suggested by a shrewd man in Portland (Me.), who has deeply studied the subject, that a new Life Insurance Company should be started on a new principle. Hitherto it has been the custom of the companies to insure the strong and healthy, and to refuse the week and sickly.; but this, the student says, is altogether wrong, and if a company were formed on his idea, a gorgeous fortune would reward its . originators. The robust man is to be shunned as a. deception and a snare. You cannot count on him, for he has an offensive habit of dying, when by all the rules of medical science, and all the calculations of actuaries, he ought to be in the prime of life; while the feeble youth, whose death it seems may be pleasantly anticipated before he is thirty, deceives his acquaintances by living to somewhere about niuety-four. If the Queen of England visits Canada, the New York Times thinks that, as a political move, it would unquestionably be sound. Nothing could give our Canadian neighbours half as much satisfaction, and it would probably do her Majesty a great deal of good by entirely taking her out of herself, and infusing fresh ideas and interests into her mind. The voyage itself would be enjoyment to the worthy Queen of * the : greatest maritime people,|for she never knows seasickness, and delights in the aea. If she should come to Canada, she would, of course, cro3s the St. Lawrence, and the only drawback we can anticipate to her visit here is the appalling display of flunkeyism it would inevitably elicit from certain classes of our citizens. It is safer to bear a hug than hug a bear.