The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 170, 18 July 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1879.

! We have received the following telegram from a correspondent in Wellington: — "A deputation of Nelson and West Coast members waited on the Minister for Public Works this morning to learn his intentions re Nelson and West Coast railway. Mr Macaudrew expressed disappointment that tenders had uot been called for before the 30th June, and a determination to press on the work, to replace the £60,000 on the Estimates, and also a fair proportion of the new loan for further extension " We are pleased to hear that the fact of the tenders not having been called for prior to the 30th of June has been a source of such grievous disappointment to Mr Macandrew, and should be still more pleased by his promises to study the interests of Nelson in the future, did we believe them to be reliable even to a small extent. On reading the telegram a well known couplet suggested itself to our minds,* and we commeud it to the notice of our re presentatives — 11 When the devil was sick, the devil a saint would be; When the devil was well, the devil a saiut was he." Mr Macandrew, in common with his colleagues, is just now very ill, sick unto death, in fact, and, in consequence is full of promises of repentance. But we must remember tha since last session he has been full of health and vigor. We know how he treated us then, and we know what we may expect in the fntnre if he should survive his present attack. It 13 for our representatives to see that he does not do so. A collection of eight exquisite pictures is being forwarded by Mr Gully to the Sydney Exhibition. The largest of these represents a winter sunset on Lake Wakatipu, and the artist has been very happy in catching the various tints on the snow clad mountains. It is a thoroughly cold wintry scene, such as if viewed in reality would cause the spectator to look to his stock of firewood, for he would know that a bittar night .must pass before ;he saw the sun again. By all who have seen it this is allowed to be Mr Gully's masterpiece. Higher praise it would be scarcely possible to award to it. There are six views of the scenery on the Christ-church-llokitika road, and the other is a portiou of Milford Sound. From the inspection of any of them the most aesthetic of connoiseurs might derive a considerable amount of gratification. Mb and Mrs Fritz repeated their entertainment last night. This evening the learned pig " Prince," is to take his benefit, and tomorrow evening the Company will appear at Richmond. The members of the Stoke Rifles are reminded that the annual meeting will be held to-morrow evening. A large number ot his friends attended the funeral of the late Mr R. W. Stewart yesterday. A requiem mass was sung over bis remains in St Mary's Church, which was draped with black, the deceased having been for a long time a prominent member of the choir. At the close of the service the Rev Father Maboney referred in feeling terms to the exemplary life the deceased had led The funeral procession then proceeded to the cemetery, where the last obsequies were performed. Tiie following tenders were sent in for the removal of the buoy rock in the harbor : —Richard Martin Crabb £280 (accepted); Bray and Mitchell £355; Atkinson and Wise £485; T. R. Hackett £850. The area of the rock to be removed is over three quarters of an acre, and the depth varies from 7ft 6ft downward*. I A scratch match will be played by the Town footballers in the Botanical Reserve to-morrow afternoon. A meeting of the Club will be held at the Masonic Hotel in the evening. An inquest was held at Dovedale on Tuesday last before G. W. W. Lightband Esq., J.P., on the body of Adah Lee Eban when a, verdict was returned "that the deceased hung herself while in a state of unsound mind." It was noticed that she had been strange in her manner for some days past, and on Saturday she left home and went towards the bash, as her friends thought, to look for eggs, and when the body was found on Sunday evening it was thougnt that she had died from heart disease, but on examining the body on the day of the inquest a deep red mark round her neck showed too plainly the cause of death. On examining the place where the body was discovered a small rope was found attached to a tree which at once cleared up the mystery of her death, the rope apparently having broken allowed the body to fall to the ground. Thebe will be a lively time in Wellington during the next week or two, which will probably be occupied in the no confidence debate which is to be opened to-night, according to the following telegram which we received this afternoon from a correspondent: —"The attack is to be opened on the Government to-night on the address in reply to the Governor's speech, not m opposition to their Liberal policy, bat on account of their maladministration and general unfitness to carry it out. The Opposition count on a I majority of eleven, including all the Nelson members except Mr Reeves, but two of their men are absent, namely, Messrs Green and Stewart of Otago." A new and powerful explosive, discovered by Nobel, and pronounced by Austrian military authorities to be highly suitable for military purposes, promises to become useful in arts of peace. It is called blasting gelatine, and is formed by dissolving collodion of cotton in nitro-glycerine in the proi portion of ten per cent, of the former to ninety per cent, of the latter. The temperature at which it explodes is 204 deg. C. when heated gently, and 240 deg. C. when heated suddenly.