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

The writer of "Entre Nous" in Truth referring to the political situation fa England, says:— "The very corner-stone of the unwritten English Constitution Ja that the monarch in all political matters acts by the advice of her Ministers, and that neither Ministers at home nor high officials abroad, act by the advice of Her Majesty, and this* it ia that makes the throne of England more secure than any other in the. world, and nips in the bud the back stair influence that has proved so fatal to the tranquility of many foreign nations, ■ ; It is said that the city of New York harbours a Perjurers' Club, consisting of about twenty-five members. Their ordinary practice is in the law courts, where they act the part of professional witnesses, ready to give evidence on either side for a conaiderai tion. It is not stated whether they are experts in handwriting, analytical onemiata, engineers, or ex-policemen. Sometimes they resolve to levy black-mail upon an individual, in which event the whole of the members are ready to swear away the victim's life or liberty without compunction, A complete code of signals enables them to communicate with one another, in order to make their evidence tally, under the very | eyes of justice. .

• '.-.VIM- '- 'I , --| , Sespecting Roderick M,Lennan, who has been committed for trial at Napier for wife Kfr "*■ the Temuka &<*der says: — MJ^onan was for aome time shepherd to bir Thomas Tancred, after which he went to England, where he induced a young lady to marry him from the glowing account he gave of his property in New Zealand. On arrival here, the girl, it is said, became aware of the deception and became greatly dejected. He then leased a block of land belonging to the \ v Barclay - After a time he left this —not, however, until he had ruined a young gentleman who came out with him, obtaining hia endorsement on a bill which he left him to pay, to do which he had to make a heavy sacrifice of his property, M.Lennan evidently is a consummate villain, and is well but unfavourably known in the Gcraldme County. The sth Lancers, who are quartered at Brighton, were called upon the other day to supply 62 men for the 17th, to go out to the .Cape. There were 171 on parade, and when the colonel told any to step forward who w^raldhkelo go, the 171 all volunteered, and three setgeants gave up their stripes to go as privates. He was guilty of forgery, and was asked by the Judge, if he had anything to say why. sentence; should not be passed on him, and in ' reply made a speech of great feeling and real eloquence. "I have just said that lam guilty. It was a lie. It was rum that did it. It was not my mother's boy." There were few dry eyes in the court-room when he uttered the words, and strong men shed tears like children. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Some of the natives now at Cambridge are very cheeky. On Saturday a pakeha went into Hewitt's Hotel and asked for a glass of beer; when put down on the couotera Maori standing by snatched it up and drank it, 1 he, pakeha then called for another, Which was treated in the same way, and then for a third, which was forcibly taken possession of. This was rather more than the pakeha could stand, and he let drive and knocked down the dusky " sponge." A host of Maoris immediately set upon him, and he had to rush upstairs and take refuge in one of the bed-rooms, or he would have been torn to pieces. At the Fire Brigades' demonstration a Beecbworth, Australia, 52 Brigades were represented, numbering a total of 1000 firemeir. The Cbiltern Brigade went through the hose practice iv sixty-one seconds, and won the first priae. There was a procession half a mile long, and a torchlight procession. Ploughing (says the Waikato Times) is being extensively carried on at Mr Firth's Matamata Estate, where he has some 55,000 acres of land in one block, three-fifths of which is good level land, and the rest undulating of fair quality. This year, there will be some 1600 acres sown with wheat, and 3600 acres with turnips. Recokoning surface and other sowings, about 6000 acres i have been put down in grass during the past season. At present there is a two : thousand acre ploughing contract going on, which keeps busy 28 three horse doublefurrow ploughs, and, besides these, there are some 18 or 20 teams at work belonging to the estate. The Thames Star gives particulars of a movement on the part of the Komata natives, to procure a supply of gunpowder. A few days ago an Ohinemuri resident heard that some of the Komata natives were endeavoring to "buy powder. He employed a person to ask the natives if they wanted to buy powder— assuming the air of a seller, and was immediately informed by the natives that they would purchase 100 or 200lbs if they could get it, and give a good price for it. From the same source we learn that every member of the Eomata hapu has a fire-arm of some kind. The Canterbury Press makes merry in a leading article on the subject of Rewi's visit to the hot springs at Waiwera. The Press says :-.« The worship of the Shah of Persia was bad enough in its way, but it was nothing compared to this ; the incense offered to his mightiness was not intended as a bribe, nor was the Eastern potentate's position in any way analogous to that of our newly reclaimed bush friend. That the Government have a serioua object in view in their proceedings is evident. They are endeavoring to impress Rewi with a sense of the magnificence which will be within his reach if he becomes the firm friend of the white man. Their desire is to get a foothold on Rewi'a lands through his influence over the tribes. Such an aim is of course commendable enough, but it is quite possible that we may pay too dearly for it. The Timaiu Herald pays the following compliment to Colonel Whitmore :— "One of the worst defects of the present Ministry is that it contains scarcely any businesslike ability; and if it were not for the Colonial Secretary's activity and common sense, the whole of the practical administratioa would devolve upon the Under Secretaries, and would be muddled lametably while the routine of the departments would be neglected. We must give Colonel Whitmore credit, though, for doing all that one man can do to keep things straight. As a politi- > eian he is altogether in a false position as a member of the Grey Ministry, and the only wonder is that he has been able to keep company with his ill-assorted colleagues so long.. Perhaps the main reason why he has been able to do so is that he sticks pretty much to his official affairs, and does not trouble his head about the welfare of the human race, or the manifold vagaries of political economy, in which the other Ministers indulge. He certainly seems to do all the work, and displays cot a little originality in the manner in which he strives to facilitate the operation of the numerous departments under bis control." The Bugle, the regimental paper of the 61st Foot, tells the following story :— A Bengalee clerk had applied in vain for some time for a holiday; he at last thought of writing direct to his superior, and this is his letter :— " Camp, Ali Musjid. 18— Honoured Sir, — Having been amputated from my family for some years, and as I have complaints of the abdomen, coupled with great conflagrations of the internals and prostration of all desire for work with also the disgorging of my dinner, I hope your highness will excuse me attending at orderly room for ten or nine mere days, and in duty bound ahall ever pray for the salubrity of , your temper, and the enlargement of your family." - j K In a recent return to the Registrar-General of a marriage solemnised in the north of England, the clergyman states that the woman married, aged nineteen, is the thirty seventh child of her father, by bis fifth wife. Referring to the position of native affairs at Taranaki the Globe says .-—Even supposing war does not ensue. Will notTeWhiti laugh in his sleeve ? He has become an historical personage, he has put the colony to an enormous expense, and the odds are he will not be called to account for it. As Rewi reviewed the Waikato Cavalry at Kihikihi, says the Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, strange memories must have crowded into the old chief a breast, for almost within gunshot was the site of Orakau Pa, where he had fought it out to the bitter end, and his women and children had sung their death song, " Ake, ake, ake !" Full within his view was the swamp throngh which he fled, wounded and exhausted, from the avenging sabres of the Defence Force, and he must have felt humiliated when he remembered that « a tenner " was all that was offered to the troopers for his body: dead or alive, on that eventful day.

' g3 Professor Baldwin, the expdser of ' &&M1 ualiam, has closed his season in Dunedin, bitfhas promised to return and meet any professional medium who would accept his challenge, and would forfeit £500: if \hff failed to expose him. He denounced Slade** 1 as a fraud, and referred to Slade's refusal to meet him, and the excuse that the spirits would not work for money, when the mediums charged a guinea as the price of admission to a seance. The Spiritualits attacked him in a newspaper, and he replied that if they were half so foolish as their letters indicated, he would undertake to fool them very easily. The Poverty Bay Standard says:— There is s curious phenomenon on the site ot the late flre at the Albion Hotel. There was a considerable stock of coal stored underground at the time of the fire, which was then ignited. Although the event occurred on February ilth the coals are still alight. After rain or frost smoke arises therefrom, notwithstanding the heap is covered with earth." The Poverty Bay Herald says:— "Mr 3?orsyth,a butcher at Port Chalmers, has been receiving the plaudits of the Dunedin press because he was able to show the car(SUje. of a bullock which weighed one thousand: eight hundred pounds. Why do ■people rejoice at so much grease, fat, and blubber which must invest a beast of sach tonnage ? Half of it must go into the melting pot, while what was eatable would be coarse and unsavory." For brevity the electoral address of Henry Pukuatua as published in the Bay of Plenty Times in Engliah.and Maori, may well stand as a model. 16 is as follows :-r-« To the Electors of the Native Eaat Coast Electoral District. Friends, — I am a candidate to represent your suffrages in the House of Representatives, and will do my best for you if returned— Henare te Pukuatua." None of the Wellington papers seem to think much of Mr Mason, one of the candidates for the Hutt. The New Zealander says of him: — He has not a single qualification for the position at which he aims. He is a most indifferent speaker is considerably confusedin his ideas he regards public afiairsf rom a Hutt point of view only, and, as we have already said, his return would be a public misfortune. In this opinion we are not in the least degree swayed by the fact that he would be antagonistic to the Grey Ministry, for it is not in the slightest degree probable that he would carry the slightest weight with him either way, and it would be his single vote that would be in the least-degree valuable. Should no other candidate arise between this and next Monday, when the nomination will take place, surely the Hutt electors ought to have no doubt in their choice, and will return a practical man like Mr Jackson in preference to an antediluvian, no matter how amiable be may be, who, beyond a prolonged residence in the electorate, has not the slightlest claim to the confidence of the electors. The Ashburton Jfat/says : — lt seems that the railway authorities have adopted a disagreeable method of adding to the agony of offenders against the regulations. The names of persons convicted and fined for | breaches of by-laws are posted. iv a con- ! spicuous place at the principal stations as a warning to others. This "posting" is causing an infinite amount of annoyance, and some of the advertised ones have called attention, though the corresponding columns of the Press, to the practice which they ngorously denounce as reprekeusible. If tested by a civil action, we are inclined to think ifc might be found not only reprehensible, bnt rather expensive. • The Wellington correspondent of the Picton Press writes : — The streets are in a regular pnddle, and even the footpaths in several streets in some places are ancle-deep with mud and water. Wellington is, indeed, a nice place to live in. The weather changes here about every five hours— either rain or wind— from one's week's end to the other. On Saturday your correspondent wended bis way towards the wharf, anxious to: see if any damage was being done to the shipping. No sooner had he got on the breaatwprjc than he was minoa his hat, and in attempting to follow it lost his o/ercoafc, which he carried on bis arm. Holding on to a stack of timber till the squall. was over, he could just get a glimpse of the coat a few hundred yards away in Port Nicholson. But he^ was not alone unfortunately ; oh, no 1 Strange as it may seem, but it is nevertheless true, a gentleman taking a quiet drive in the rural district of Evans' Bay was, actually r blown out of his carriage. This is nob the only occurrence of the like nature I could chronicle. The air was filled with hats; small stones, chimney pots, &c, &c. I left the stack of timber without hat or coat, but glad eroagh to escape from the breastwork: Windy Wellington 1 But, alas ! da not tell a Wellingtonian so. .They have not yet realised the fact that it is the most miserable, wretched, windy, and dusty city in New Zealand.