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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 171, 19 July 1879, Page 4

A novel presentation is thus recorded in an American paper : — Just as Miss Clara Morris appeared before the curtain in response to the calls of the audience at the Grand Opera House in Cincinnati on last Wednesday evening, a man emerged from the box carrying n. Shetland pony. It wore a red halter, and around its neck was a wreath of flowers. The man approached the actress and aaid-r " Miss Morris, on behalf of Mr John Robinson, I am instructed to present to you this noble animal." At the same time he padsed the red halter into tbe hands of the actres3. Miss Morris was quite taken aback by the novelty of the present, and said as she retired, " I must write a card of thanks to Mr Robinson, for 1 can hardly express my gratitude at this time." Under the heading " Extraordinary Ex- ' periments " a contemporary gives the following :— When one of Pizarro's warriors received an ugly wound from an Omeguan spear, the Spanish leech took off the knight's coat of mail, put it upon an Indian prisoner, put him on a horse and drove a spear through the hole in the armour. Giving the Indian his quietus, the surgeon opened hia body, and seeing the heart was not injured by the spear thrust, concluded the knight's hurt was not mortal ; so he treated it asa common wound, aud soon set the patient on his leg 3 again. A similar method of diagnosis was practised by the French surgeons when the eye of Henry 11. was pierced by a splinter from Montgomerie's lance. In order to arrive at a knowledge of the injury inflicted they cut off tbe beads of four condemned men and thrust splinters into the eyes at the same inclination as that at which the fatal silver had entered the King's eye. A Napier paper says: — A very fair hit was made last night by Mr A M'Cartney, the secretary of tbe Taradale Ploughing Committee. In response to the toast of his health, he said progress was very good in its way, but there was such a thing as going ahead too fast. He noticed that the year before last one speaker described the ploughing as the best ever seen in the province; last year the ploughing was described as atill better, while this year it was said to be better than any ever seen in. the colony, and as good as any io the old country. Goodness only knew what their next year's work was going to be. (Laughter.) Mr M'Cartney'a rebuke was very humorously and effectively worded, and should have a good effect in moderating praise that sounds, to say the least, rather fulsome. The St. Petersburgh correspondent of the Cologne Gazette says that when anyone is arrested by the police the fact is kept secret, and every one who calls at the arrested person's house is also put under arrest. The practice has in some cases led to lamentable consequences. One of the persons arrested was a physician in good practice; and it so happened that at the time he was captured a child was taken ill in a family which be was in the habit of attending. During the night the child's illness became so alarming that the father went to fetch the doctor; but on arriving at the honse he was seized by the police and carried off, in spite of his protests. . The mother waited a hour or so more, and finding that her husband did not return, went herself to the physician's bouße, where she too was arrested. Meanwhile the child remained alone in the house, and on the following morning it was dead. Russian agricultural advices are much more unfavorable. Besides bad weather, the crops are said to be suffering from the ravages of a small insect, which propagates very rapidly.. 16 is tfic same insect for which two;years ago a reward of ten copecks was offered for every quart collected, and ten thousand roubles were paid on Inaccdrdance with this offer. One third of the eutire wheat crop in southern Russia is now threatened. Very little is yet known of the habits or customs of tbe insect.

Police Inspector Feast must be an able ca3uiat. The Globe states that, when asked on an occasion by the Christchnroh Resident Magistrate what he thought of the evidence of a notorious liar, he answered, "He may be speaking the truth, sir ; but, Lord bless you, there's no knowing what his motives may be ! " The Rev. Father Lampila writing to a Wellington paper in connection with the native difficulty, says :— Te Wniti knows the Holy Scriptures very well, as did also his' j predecessors, Uua, Tepeneha, Matene, &c, who in 1863 and 1864 did such a vast amount of harm to bcth Europeans and. good friendly Maoris. Well, all these prophetic leaders were guided by the same inspiration— that is, by the individual and perverted interpretation of the Word of God. AH of them perished the wretched victims of their own delusions. Matene, who went to Wanganui, where I was living, to disturb our quiet tribes, was at the head of about 400 combatants (May, 1864), recruited mostly from .the. very same tribes that are now causing such anxiety, to the settlers especially. He frequently used to say to his followers : " Fear not, my friends, your 9kins are proof against the bullets of your enemies. You have only to invoke Hau, our God, and instantly he will paralyse your foes ; the guua wiP fall from their hands, and then you will only have to cut their throats." Poor unfortunate fellows, they eagerly swallowed { these silly promises, and boldly relied on them as truth straight from Heaven. Happily onr Maoris soon proved to them that they could pierce the cuirass of their bodies; for in the terrible conflict which took place at that time, in less than fifteen minutes , fifty Hauhaus were slain and many mote wounded ; on our side, we lost fifteen Maoris, and my friend, a Frenchman, who was tomahawked at my side. Iq the present cirdumstances, the situation of the settiers in Taranaki, Hawera, Patea, &c, &c, is not only precarious, but imminently perilous, both for themselves and their property, so long as Te Whiti is left with impunity in his place to fanaticue the people whose idol he is. The freedom of New Zealand from snakes and venomous reptiles is a matter of great rejoicing; but good people of New Zealand look well to yourselves, and see that no lurking serpent is nestling within you. You may be neglecting the stealthy encroachments of some deadly serpent in the form of insidious disease. Take the antidore ere it be too late Whatever stage of disease you may be suffering, those marvellous medicines, " Ghollah's Great Indian Cubes," can save you.