Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 155, 1 July 1879, Page 2

At an auction sale some time ago (says the Oamaru Mail) a collection of lithographed portraits of several Presbyterian clergymen was submitted to' the crowd of bargainhtintefs. The price obtained showed, we presume, in what estimation the, reverend originals were held by a discerning public. The gentleman who supplies the spiritual wanta of the Otepopo district fetched Us 6d. The clergyman at Falmerston smiled mo3t aeraphically from a gilt frame, but had to succumb to the tune of 9s 6d. He of Waikbuaiti met with a purchaser, after some expenditure of breath and gesticulation, at Ba. The minister of St. Saul's, Oamaru, being better known, went up to 17s, and changed hands at that figure. The popular clergyman of^HaHJX Chareh, Danedin, howevery gladdened ihe auctioneer's heart* by running up to 303, notwithstanding the fact of the picture being a bad one, and its wanting a new frame. The London correspondent of the Otago Timet referring to the Queen's visit to Italy says :— ltalian newspapers, in welcoming the Queen to their country, express themselves in grandiloquent language. "We welcome to our land the Queen, Empress of the Indies," says one of them. "From the banks of our lake she may have to sign a treaty of peace with the Zulus of Africa, or a decree for the annexation of Burmah, or some new liberal measure for Canada, or the concession of a railroad in Australia or India, or the concession of a railway in Australia or India, or to put her name to a Parliamentary Constitution for New Zealand— (sic)." It is evident that Italian publicists are not quite as well informed on the condition of your islands as they may be, judging from the last imaginative duty assigned to her Majesty. .Writing on the railway question the Inangakua Herald says s— At the initiation of the public works scheme the early completion of a main trunk line throughout the Middle Island formed one of its fundamental features, and the northern portion of the island in respect to this particular point had good ground of complaint, that its extension should have been so long delayed, so that politically and financially the Government cannot afford to overlook the importance of extending a system of railway communication to this portion of the colony. Locally it is of even more importance than the determia'a^ioa that the northern extension shall be promptly completed, to knawi whether the route selected shall include the Grey, Inangahua, and Central Buller Valleys, or | follow 4n alternative route in which every consideration shall give way to distance. We incline to the belief that the saving of a I few hours of travelling will not be regarded as a sufficient compensation for extending the railway through a country scarcely I capable of improvement or settlement, with the attendant disadvantages of difficult conI struction and costly maintenance, when the alternative line by Ahaurs, Reefton, and Lyell, would combine all the disadvantages which the other route would lack failing that of bringing Cbristchurch and Nelson within I the shortest possible distance. There was an amusing scene in Wellington the other day when a deputation waited upon ! the Council in reference to a certain road. One of the deputation, who stated that he was ajs expressman, said he had lamed one of his horses ; that the engineer who had anything to do with it was a blockhead, and that he should expect compensation from the Council, or otherwise he would take means to enforce it. Another member of the deputation blamed the contractor, Mr Saunders, for the slow way in which he had carried on the work. At present tradesmen refused to bring goods to the street, and there were over twenty houses unoccupied in consequence Others df the deputation also stated their I grievances, one of them saying that he had a large wife and small family. A statement that evoked considerable langhter. The . Mayor said that, speaking for- the Council, he was sure that they sympathised sincerely with the people of Riddiford-street. He would promise that the contractors would be hurried all that was possible, and nothing would be left undone to get the work completed. Mr Wilson said that the deputation wanted something more definite than that. If nothing was done they would move for a separation, and would petition Parliament to that effect. The Expressman who had spoken before, said that he would undertake to take any of the councillors out to the loc&liy in question, and land them in six feet of mud. The councillors present did not accept this offer, and the deputation then withdrew. The" Loafer in the Street " comments as follows on the statement that Tito Kowaru doeanot intend to fight:— "l read so much just now about the Maori question that I feel like the cabman who, after reading nine leaders on the Eyre— Jamaica question, was nearly driving Artemus Ward over the Thames Embankment. - Thus -it is that I cannot quite" recollect whe*e I saw the statement that Mr Tito Kowaru says his crowd of intelligent aborigines don't mean to fight, Whatever happens; This ; is reilly kind |of T.' il It reminds one of the astute servant •who refused to take notice on the ground •tlfatif his master did not know when he had a good servant he knew when he had a , gopdlboss; bat it is just a matter of doubt such a statement redounds niuch to the credit of the colony." coming, as it does, from a gentleman who has 'done the tyrant white race the honor of murdering a few of them. The Kellysare, no doubt, a sweet boon to our Victorian neighbors, but they donffc attend durbahs, nor do they, so far as Iq an learn, influence the Parliament of Vie-, toria" The Belgian bishops have issued a Lenten pastoral condemnatory of the common schools proposed to be established by Government, and prescribing a prayer to.be recited aloud after mass in every church and chapel. "From the schools without God and the schoolmasters without faith deliver as, O Lord," is one of tht supplications enjoined.! 1 «'A ripe old drunkard " is the title o$ a new temperance novel. It moat be something of a mellow-drammer.

His Honor Judge Weaton remarked on the strange anomaly of the present law as shown in a case brought against a once wellknow ti resident of Reefton, in which tfe costs for an undefended action for debt, Came to over £11, while a case that involved important issues and occupied the attention of three lawyers only involved costs a little over £10. The ventilators of the main school at St. Albans, Canterbury, having been rendered useless by sparrows bnilding . their nests in them, the committee had to take them out and cleaned them at a cost of £17. Not Very profitable acclimatisation this. According to Mr Caird's calculations, Britain shall in 20 years number 40 millions of souls; and there is no clear prospect that the hoiHe supply of food will be materially increased. The receipts from hackdey - carriage licenses, now paid to the police authorities, in London, amount to about £25,000 a year. A correspondent of the N. Z. Herald telegraphed from Kihikihi. On visiting Rewi's settlement to-day I found the old man quite well, and in good spirits. He was entertaining a number of his friends in a whare, giving them a minute description of all he saw and the placed he visited when in Auckland. / He seems especially td hate remembered his visit to the waxworks and" dlin-of-war. It was very amusing to hear him describing the figures he saw in the former place. He said Auckland had very much changed since he last saw it. The kindness of the Auckland people to him he will never forget. He expressed a hope that the present Government would continue in office for some time yet. If a dissolution occurred it would put him back in the arrangements he had made with them. He is going to get a fine house built in Kihikihi soon* to contain ten rooms. He says it will be a fine thing for him to entertain European guests as they do him-— meaning the kind way they have treated him. The following paragraph occurs in the New Zealand letter of the Insurance and Banking Record for June :— The fire insurance companies have been been very heavily hit. .during the past four months, not less than £150,000 having been lost by them during that time, and all offices now look very narrowly at any new risks offered. ! Doubtless, heavy losses have been the cause of the collapse of the Hawkes' Bay Insurance Company, and the contemplated retirement of one or two English offices is rumored, the alleged causes being heavy losses and low rates. Were, in fact, fires to continue at the same ratio for a few mojJhs more, as in the < past four months, we would probably have some practical experience of the survival of the fittest of Darwinian celebrity. \ America pays nearly twenty million pounds to foreigners for carriage, or, more strictly, allows foreigners to earn that sum without competition, because she cannot build her vessels cheaply.