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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 154, 30 June 1879, Page 2

As an example of the value of any sort of breastwork against numbers otherwise overwhelming, Truth gives the following :— I remember talking about Inkerman with an officer of the Guards, who told me that while our men were keeping their position week after week on , the heights in that dreary Crimean October, General Pennefather ordered that the men should be amused and occupied in collecting the big stones on the hill-side and forming a low line of defence. The men were amused with their work and laughed over it, calling it "the General's folly," but it was done. Dull grey November morning came, and with it the swarms of grey-coated Russians. Oar brave fellows of the Guards ru3hed out to meet them, but they soon found ifc beyond their pluck or power to stand against the advancing wave of fire and steel. Then they thought of "the General's folly," and back to it they went, swearing that they'd stand against the whole Russian army; and they did. The Wanganui Herald does "not waste compliments on the Georgia Minatrels, real darjaea though they be, but describes their music aa indifferent, their humor as of the dreariest and slowest description, and their chief " stage property " the mouth of one of the minstrels Describing this extraordinary mouth the Herald says : "When open it is a cavity of alarming dimensions, and the proprietor of it makes the best use of hia property. That mouth must be seen to be app'reciatedIt not only reaches from '• year to year " but a month or two beyond, and it can only be properly taken in by continuation numbers. The owner of the mouth in question sang " Early in the Morning," but it was a painful ordeal. The usual " gags " between the songs were only passable. "Bones" displayed a dry humor which was irresistible at times, but his confrere trusted to that awful mouth to carry him through." The Otago Daily Times says:— "Most un- j pleasant rumors have been current daring the last few days regarding numerous defalcations on the part of an individual who has occupied a good social position !in Dunedin. We sincerely hope, for the sake of the individual in question, and the parties whom he is supposed to have heartlessly victimised, that the rumors we have alluded to may prove to be exaggerated. ; The following is an extract from a leader on the native difficulty whieh appeared in the New Zealander of Friday :— From the tenour of telegrams published within the last fortyeight hours it is evident that though good counsel has prevailed among the Hawera settlers, they are at length getting excited and inclined to resent any further aggression by vigorous reprisals. It i 3 a dangerous influence and not easily kept within control. There ia still little reason for supposing that even if an appeal to physical force results to-day between the settlers and natives, that it will be of any very dread significance. ! If a stray bullet, by some happy chance, went whizzing through the very cracked cranium of Te Whiti, it would be an auspicious dispensation, but we incline to the belief that there will be no powder burnt juat yet. The settlers no doubt will drive the natives across the river again, but this successfully accomplished does not end their trouble. They at once will realise how much they dwell in the midst of alarms. A state of constant watchfulness must be maintained ; the brave will fret, and the timid may wail, at the perpetual uncertainty and suspense in watching for what may next ensue. It is here that the Government will give most effective service, in furnishing with all possible ex pedition, men and arms to meet any possible emergency. A distinguished leader of Russian society -.Madame Rimsky RorsakofiV-died recently t 11 T ICe ; He P aß9i °n was for fancy-dress *l s ; . one given at the French Ministhr of Marine some years since she appeared as the Queen of Sheba ; she was literally covered with precious stones, and made her entry on a camel gorgeous with coloured trappings I

•;. Several farmers in the neighborhood of Gwynedd, Penn, are reported by the Bucks Country Intelligencer es having lost their potato crop last year by planting seed Athat | never came up, on account, as was afterwards ascertained, of the tubers having been sprinkled with salt by a dealer or shipper to prevent their sprouting while in his hands. The New Zealand Tablet says :— " The reconstruction of the French Ministry since the acdesion of President Grevy to the preaidental Chair has placed the entire government of Trance in the bands of Protestants and Freemasons. The Premier M. Waddington, is an English Protestant." The Avoca Mail says * — "We have good authority ioi stating that land in thi3 district for which £d 17s 6d per acre was refused twelve months ago, is scarcely saleable now at £2 7s per acre ; and this seems to be about the proportion of the depreciation which has occurred all over the Colony of Victoria. Referring to the publication of the speeches j of Sir Hercules Robinson, the Syd> ey Morning Herald states that " a volume has been specially bound for presentation to the Hon. Lady Robinson, and will be despatched to New Zealand at once. It is bound in fine French calf , beautifully gilt and ornamented, and inside the cover are the following words: — ' Respectfully presented to the Hon. Lady Robinson by the printers, Gibbs, Shallard, and Co., Sydney.' Taken altogether, it is one of the most beautiful specimens of printing and binding that has ever been produced in this colony. It is enclosed in a satin-lined caee, bearing on the outside the monogram of the recipient." The following gentle hint appeared ia the last issue of the Wairarapa Standard;— "lf any of the old , subscribers to this journal should not receive their usual copies on Tuesday next, they will be reminded their subscriptious have been long overdue, An Indianapolis special to the Cincinnati Gazelle says : — "Last night, at 7 o'clock, Herman Roemer, baker, at 104 South Illinois street, began the feat of drinking 1000 glasses of , beer in consecutive hours, for So dollars: Roetter ia to' pay 5 cents for each glass as he drinks it, and 4l days and; 16 hours will be taken up in stowing away the beer. In case he wins, John Bernhart, prop.letor of the Marmount Hall saloon, where the drinking is to be done, is to pay for the beer, which will be even 50 dollars. Thus, if Boenier wins, he simply gets the beer, and Bernahart loses, in fact only the retail price of the beer, which, by the keg, will probably cost less than 35 dollars. And this disgusting spectacle is expected to draw many drinkers and spectators. The Wellington Chronicle says :~A good story is told of a commission agent seeking business from a client recently : — " Oh, no," said the client j " You're a decent fellow, and all that sort of thing, but I've made up mind to do business with Mr ." " But," replied the commission agent, " ha only filed his schedule three weeks ago." The client : "That's just it. You see, I know exactly how much he owes now ; but I don'fc know pour financial position." Moral— Assign and make a fresh start, A correspondent, writing the New Zealand Herald, thus describes the Maori style of conducting public worship : — " Happening to spend a Sunday in a mission statio n, not fifty miles north of Wanganui, I thoug ht proper to attend church service there in the afternoon. Everything went on quietly enough until three or four Maori curs, who had meanwhile been peacefully slumbering under the seats, became aware of each others' presence. All of a sudden they made a violent rash at each other, the sacred building echoing again with their yells. However, this was more than the congregation could bear. A youth, of giant proportions, rushed to the scene of action, and after five minutes exciting steeplechase over the seats, managed to clear the church of the intruders, amidst the cheers of the congregation. However, the joke does not end here. A man, with a large family of boys, who happened to be near the door, i seeing the plate taken round, deemed it | advisable to make his exit. Just as he had 1 .gained the door, the parson, seeing the I clever little move, shouted out at the top of | his voice "Stop ! stop 1" The parson was determined upon securing the usual contribution, and dashed through the church, and, I amidst the laughter of the congregation, triumphantly brought his man back. The Maori style of conducting public worship beats everything. Picture to yourself, gentle reader, an old fryingpan suspended from the end of a ti-tree pole — the said fryingpan being used as a church bell to summon the wily savages to prayers. On one occasion, I remember, immediately after church service was over, the natives broke into a grog shanty owned by a native. The whole mob got beastly drunk, and vented their spleen on an unfortunate young Maori woman by throwing her to the ground and then bastinadoing her with a stick. So' much for the Maori religion." Lord John Manners, replying to Mr; Goschen, in the House of Commons recently, said that since 1874 when the new mail contract came into force, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company had made 117 late arrivals, incurring penalties amounting to £32,000, as the result of the absolute penalty system now in force. Had the premiums for early arrival of mails j within the same period been retained in the present contract, and calculated, as in the former contract, at half the amount of penalties, the company, who had made 644 early arrivals, would have been entitled to receive £92,403. ; - .