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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 182, 1 August 1879, Page 2

The Argus reports that "there has been of late a marked increase of crime in Melbourne and the suburbs. Burglaries, robberies, and thefts of all kinds are of the commonest occurrence, while the depredations are daily becoming more serious iu character." Colonel Prejevalsky deserves (a&ys the Friend of India) to ba known henceforth as the Livingstone of Central Asia. He returned to St Petersburg last summer, after a fifteen months' sojourn in the desert in the conrse of which he marched 2 500 miles with only a single companion, six Cossacks' and a few interpreters and guides. Before long, he starts again on his travels. According to the Chicago Tribune a colossal scheme for cattle raising on 100 000 acres of land in Colorado has been set on foot by Mr Yanderbilt and others, Mr Eastman, the well known exporter, having a share in it. This, and the prospectus of the AngloCattle American Company (Limited), appears to indicate that "big things" will be the order of the day. Some practical jokers encased a carcase of a horse in red flannel, set it afloat in the Ohio, just above Moddiaon'a, Ind., and passed the word by wire down both banks of the river that Boynton was coming. Skiffs shot out for miles along the rirer as the dead steed drifted down, and at Madison the entire populace crowded to the wharves. The "sell" was a success. " Atticus" in the Melbourne Leader says : —It is not often that people complain of the generosity of those with whom they transact business. I see, however, that one John Free of Newcastle, in New South Wales, gives the following reason why he was forced to become insolvent :— " lam and have become insolvent owing to tradespeople giving me too much credit, whereby I have contracted more than I can now pay." The Shenandoah, the notorious privateer of the Southerners in the American civil war, now lies " fathoms deep " off the island of Socotra, in the Arabian Gulf. She was purchased for the Sultan of Zanzibar. After remaining idle at Zanzibar for some years she was sent to Bombay for repairs, but foundered off Socotra, all hands being lost except one Englishman and a few Lascars. * It was said of a lady who had just completed her two-score years, and who plaved very loudly upon her piano, but never spoke of her age except in a whisper, that she was forte upon her piano, but piano upon her forty. r An English authority says a hundred British farmera are forced into bankruptcy every week by the importation of Amencau meats and grains.

tM befdre the cibse of the flevisidn Coqrt at Duoedin, the otijer day, an excited ihdmdnal rushed in and protested against being, struck off " merely because he was dead," which he assured them he was not. . The Revising Officer being apparently satisfied of hia vitality, restore the applicant's name to the list and recommended him to sue his objector for the funeral expences. During the thirteenth century the wages of farm hands in England were is per week. Ib the heit cefalury they had advanced l\d, and continued; to, advance slowly until in the last century they had reached la 6d. Tlie The average for farm labour in the same country is 15s per week. Wheat in the thirteenth century averaged 2s lOd or 8 J days' labour a bushel. Now wheat is worth at wholesale in England about 6a a bushel, or two days' laboirf. in si* centuries meat has nearly tjreb'led in tirice, while wages nave increased more than seven fold. SOine idea of the systematic afcS gigantic scale on which France . is reforming her military system, and putting {he nation by degrees through a course of military discipline and drill may be had from trie following statistics :— The number of men subject this year to service is thus stated : 479,100 in the active army, 2850 officers and 144,570 privates of the first reserve, and 6820 officers and 117,800 privates of the second reserve. The following list of articles, manufactured of paper, displayed at the Berlin Exhibition, will give our readers an idea of the many and varied uses to which tbat material may be applied j— Animals, wash basins, dishes, water cans, carpeting, bonnets, a ship full rigged, lanterns, hat9, masks, skirts, clothes, full suits, straps, handkerchiefs, napkins, bath tubs, buckets, bronzes, flowers, urns, window blinds, asphalt roofing, material for garden walks, coral jewellery, window curtains, shirts, lade, belting, and a house made of pine, with not only one roof, ceiling, cornice, and interior walls of paper, but all the furniture, blinds, curtains, chandeliers, carpeting, ornamental doors, numerous mantel and table ornaments, and finally a stove of asbestos paper burnißg away cheerfully, and not consuming itself, as might be expected. All these things indicate some of the possibilities of the adaptation of paper. The question is—Where will these possibilities end? A lady at Kyneton, Victoria, paid a doctor a guinea for prescribing for her tom-cat, which the medico said was suffering from a disease which is common among the feline race, known as bronchial pneumonia. It is stated on good authority that wheat will absorb sufficient moisture between here and England to increase its weight enough to pay a very large portion of the freight. Mr James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald, has broken up his hunting establishment at Melton Mowbray, and has sent hia stud to Tattersall's Next season he will go in for tiger-huuting in India by way of a change. The following testimonial of a certain patent medicine speaks for itself:— "Dear sit — Two months ago my wife could scarcely speak. She has taken two bottles of your ' Life Renewer,' and now she can't speak at all. Please send me two more bottles, I wouldn't be without it." Drunkenness (says the JV. Z. Times) is always a bad thing to define, especially by the person who has been under the influence of the "rosy god." Tnta t Nihoniho, a young chief from Poverty Bay, who was a witness for the Crown against Brodie.at the Supreme Court yesterday, was asked by Mr Buckley whether he had been drunk on a certain occasion. Tuta replied in an off band sort of a way, that he was not— that he was only jolly, and that he had all hi9 tenses about him. This did not satisfy the legal gentleman, who replied with some more questions, to which Tuta replied that he was not " teetotally drunk." Mr Buckley did not further press the matter— he retired quite satisfied. Advertising is a good thing, says an American paper, but when a prominent grocer recently carried to a funeral an umbrella on which was painted conspicuously the business of his house, and held it over the clergyman's head while he read the prayers, the bystanders thought he was running the thing into the ground. The Cape Argus, which has been quoted so frequently for its outspoken opinions on the Zulu War, published a deliciously cool note in its issue of April 22nd. " We had hoped," it says, "to give today the despatches published in the last Blue-book on South African affairs, and the debate in the House of Lords on the motion of the Marquis of Landsdowne, but " — not a great battle, or any other important incident from the seat of war prevented this intention from being carried out, but—" the races have interfered, and we have had to hold over the despatches' and reports 1" When a leading paper can postpone the publication of State documents of such vast importance to the colony, and inserts a horse race instead, it is impossible not to believe the reports current that the colonists generally regard the Zulu War as solely an Imperial one, and that they are endeavouring to make fortunes out of the English who are pouring out their blood and treasure iu defence of the hearths and homes of these Colonial patriots. A poultry speculator in Warren country, Pennsylvania, buys chickens in the country and writes out a receipt for the farmer to sign. The point of his pencil invariably breaks oft just before the signature is reached, and he produces a fountain pen from hid pocket. The body of the receipt is written in pencil and the farmer's name in ink. When the speculator goes to town he erases all the pencil marks and writes out in ink a promissory note for 100 or 150 dollars, and has it discounted by a Bank. In the United States (says the Evangelist), Wardßeecher and De Witt Talmage are making on an average about £6,500 a year by preaching and lecturing. The former has already a fortune of £200,000. The question is being asked, ' What will he do with it ? What a different style of man is that grand man of God, Spurgeon, who, in spite of the tens of thousands of pounds that have passed through his hands, is as poor now as when a mere boy in a round jacket, he walked from Cambridge to •Waterbeach, to begin his marvellous career by preaching in the little Baptist chapel there. The German army horses are now fed on biscuits of three parts each of rye flour, oat flour and dextrinated pea flour, and one part of linseed flour. The biscuits are made with a hole in the middle of each, so that they can be strung on a cord and hung to the saddle bow, or hung by the trooper round his waist. Each biscuit weighs about two ounces, and seven of them are broken up and given to the horses night and moaning, and twelve at noon. Officers generally agree that these biscuits are better thau oats, and each trooper can carry thirty pounds' weight which will furnish his horse with full rations for eight days. According to several of our American medical contemporaries (says the British Medical Journal), Dr Leidy, of Philadelphia, has announced the discovery that cucumbers are liable to be infested with tape-worm. At a meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences he exhibited a specimen of tapeworm, taken from the inside of a large cucumber. It is said to have had all the characteristics of a true tape-worm, but belonged to an unknown species, the peculiarity being that the ovaries, containing the round yellow eggs, were confined to the anterior extremity of the segment. A Mount Gambier paper considers that Gately, the hangman, ia destined to play an important part in the deeds of violence that are to inaugurate the reign of terror in Victoria.

Some idea of the growth of the business of the Post Office Savings' Banks in New Zealand is afforded by the fact that whilst during the year 1868 there were only 13,014 deposits, amounting to £193,534, last year there were 69,908 deposit^ amounting to I £762,084. The Zurich tribunal was occupied in April last for three days with a case in which a butcher and an inkeeper were charged with the sale of veal from a calf suffering from typhtifj. The meat was consumed by the members pf a choral society, six of whom i died, while. , 643 suffered more or less severely. The innkeeper hsfs teen acquitted, but judgment ha9 Hot yet been givefl as regards the butcher. About 400 of the j sufferers claim damages against him. A correspondent writes from Bridgewater to an English paper as follows : — Some of yottf fibrfespondents wish to know bow the eucalyptus bsts fated in various parts of England during the fate hard winter. I therefore write to give yon the fate of mine. I had three which had been planted out as seedlings six years ago, and which bate been 3tce then, unprotected ; they had attained a height of from 21ft to 25ft, and were perfectly healthy last autumn 1 . They ate now dead, and I hare cut them dowtr, the bark being alive two inches under the surface of the ground. lam surprised at the destruction of the eucalyptus, as I have camellias which have not been injured by the rigour of the late winter, though they have had no shelter. One has been for the last six weeks covered with hundreds of single pink blossoms, and the double camellias are come in, others coming into blossom. I have also a Dractena indivisa, about 18ft high, which has stood unsheltered for the last 10 or 12 years, and which was crowned two years ago with a mass of blossoms. I am, therefore, surprised that the eucalyptus cannot stand this climate, and should be very glad to hear how it has fared .elsewhere " The Rev J. G. Wood, of natural history celebrity, has been lecturing on rat pie, and making the subject so popular that "he receives a thousand letters a week " on that exciting topic. Of coarse his correspondents want the receipt of the dish, and he gives it them : — "Rat pie is made in precisely the same manner as rabbit pie, the only difference being that in the case of the rat pie the result is far more delicious. The cook should he careful to procure as fine rats as possible, cut off their tails, skin, dress, and wash them, then cut them into four pieces, and add a few morsels of pork fat. When cooked and cold the pie is full of the most delicious jelly. He (Mr W.) has often been dining with his friends when they had the most exquisite viands on the table untouched, while every scrap of the rat pie had been devoured." Mr Wood may be quite right, but such is the unselfishness of my disposition that so long as there is cold mutton to be had I will not encroach on his favorite dainty. I think it would have been more judicious if he had begun with a less sweeping reform, and suggested mice instead of rats. Poetry has already lent itself to this idea in that famous glee, " They all ran after the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife." Why should she have cut off their tails if 3he had not intended to cook them ?— English Paper. There is no saying what the people will take to, there is no foreseeing what music will become popular or when, says the World. We will take two striking instances from the very last season. A publisher, a Bhrewd and experienced man, refused to buy a ballad offered him for £5. He was sure the sale would not pay for the engravin g. For certain reasons, however, he undertook the publication on sharing terms. This ballad has up to the present time brought in over £3U0O; it is called « Nancy Lee." Certainly it is not a model of classic music, but the publisher refused to buy it for £5 because he thought it would not bring as much. Again, " H.M.S. Pinatore, was given at the Opera Comique. It enjoyed public favor so little that the receipts went down to £46 a night, and the salaries were lowered. Suddenly the public took to it; to get a seat became a favor; and at this moment the publishers font queue, and wait their turn to receive the number of scores ordered. To get cheap dancing lessons, let the servant girl drop a flat-iron on your bunion. Nearly every town in America, from San Francisco to New York, has its skating floor for roller skatiug, some of the rinka being capable of accommodating over 3000 people. They continue using the rollers during the whole year.

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A native of Howe's Group, lately arrived in Sydney, starved himself to death because ne was accused of stealing two loaves of fcread. The farmer who sows his P's, keeps his U's •warm, hives his B's, kills off the J's, reniemoers what he C's, takes care of the V'a, pays •11 he O's. teaches his wife not to T's, and takes his E's, may truly be called a progressive farmer. Hip pockets for lap-dogs are the latest innovations in ladies' dresses. With a dog in her pocket, a seal on her back, a bird in her feat, and kid on her hands and feet, the welldressed lady is but little short of a walking menagerie. Jonah in the whale's belly was safer than those who, being swallowed up of" sickness and disease, yet neglect to take the only remedies that can save them. It is an indisputable fact that " Ghollah's Great Indian Corfs " ate the surest restorers to health of any medicines ever yet discovered. Persons who had been ill with Rheumatics and Gont for over 20 years have been cured by these meritorious medicines. Sold by all Chemists —see testimonials. Valuablb Discovery for thb Hair. — I your Hair i« turning grey or white, or falline off. we" The Mexican Fair Fenewer." for it awfl positively restore tx every ease Grey or Wiite hair to its original coleur, without If avfog the di»a?reeab?e pmell of moat 'Restorers ' It makes the hair charmingly beautiful, as veil as promoting the growth cf the hair on bald apota where the gUnd' are not decayed. Atk your nearest chemist for <> The Mexican Fair Benewer," prepared by Henry C. Gallop. 493, Oxford-atreer. Londoa/snd aold everywhere at 3a. 6d. per bottle. Flosilinb I— For the Teeth and Breath — A few drops of the liquid "Fiorilfne" ■crinkled on a wet tooth-hrupb produce a pleasant lather, which thoroughly cleanses the teeth from all parasites and impuHrirs hardens the gums, prevents tartar, stops demy, '{rives to the teeth a peculiar pearly wMtenen, and a delightful frasrranre to the breath- It removes all unpleasant odour arMng from decayed teeth or tobaccr smoke. a ThB Fragrant Floriline." being composed in part of honey and nweet herba. ia delicicus tothetaate, and the greatest toilet discovery of the age. Sold everywhere at it. 6d. Prepared by Henry G Gallup, 493 Oxford-street, London. Adviob to Mothkbs !— Are yon broken in your rest by a sick child suffering with the pain of catting teeth ? Go at once to a Chemist, and pet abottle of Mr* Wioslow'a Soothing Syrnp. It will relieve the poor •offerer immediately. It ie perfectly harmleea'and pleasant to taste. It produces natural quiet sleep, by relieving the child from pain, and the little cherab awakes "as bright as a button. It aoothea the cbilo, it •tftrns the gums, allays all pair, relieves triad, regulates the bowela, and is the beet known remedy for dysentery and diarrhosa. whethrr arising from teething or other cauw. Fold everywhere at la. ljd. per bottle. Manufactory 493, Oxford-street, London.