THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 197, 19 August 1879, Page 2

THE COMING ELECTIONS.

The writs having been received, the lieturning Officers have fixed the follovrin.' dates for the nominations and polling in the various districts -.— District. Non "nation. Polling. City of Nelson ... Ist Sept. fith Sept ur)3 2nd „ sth „ ' Motueka 3rd „ loth W»). mea , sth » 12th 2 Coliingwood 3rd „ nth „ Further particulars as to the polling places, &c, will be found in the advertisements' The first meeting in connection with the elections will take place in the Provincial Hall to-morrow night, when Mr Curtis will address the electors. Mr Adams, we believe intends meeting them early next week. Mr Shephard will open the campaign in the Waimea district in the Chora' Hall at Wakefield on Saturday night. We understand that an influential deputation waited upon Mr Pitt this morning with a request that he would allow himself to be nominated for the city, and, although he gave no definite promise, that he was not altogether indisposed to comply with their wishes. -«•- ... •»■.,■«,,„„„« , — j^Hfc The pertinacity with which those who carry about requisitions pursue their object (says the Aew Zealunder) is a sure sign of a very warm election. One elector, who had made up his mind tc sign no requisition, and to p.edge himself to no candidate, informs us that no less than five of these documents were presented to him for siguature— one of them no less than three time.4— during one day He is beginning to think that his vote is of unusual importance.

The following letter from the Bev. J. C. Andrew appears in the Picton Press-.— Sir,— Ageneral election is at hand. I hope that none Oi the tr-^y -^d industrious settlers in the Sounds will give a vote for a Government in <i minority— will allow themselves lo be.. Cajoled, deceived; and r»iilc!:M % Sir n eor£c Grey and his following, i, ml or the pretence of the " interests of humanity," these gentlemen appear to possess and exercise a despotic power which would ha™ satisfied the late Khedive of Egypt. The Land Ta£ Act enables them to appoint valuers, and to name and remove at pleasure the sole -tudfTfl of the Assessment Court, beyond which tiiere i3 no appeal The, i-esiilt in practice is what might be expected in Turltey or worse governed countries. A fancy price is put upon land by the valuer, and there is"little chance of getting th's vaMe substantially reduced. ■ Okukuri Kim. Arapawa Island, whir.h I purchased for a friend some years ago for xiOOO (one thousand), and which my friend, by the last English. Mail, expresses his hope to be able to sell for tb'e. same. , sura "if times should mend," is valued at net -ralne for much more than this amount. There must be a vast depth of wisdom in your K.M. here. A place with all. the improvements — the grass laid down, the feuciog, the buildings, the flock of sbeopj and other stock and plant —is bought for iIOOO when time;? were better, is hoped to be sold for the same when times shall mend, and yet the Judge of the Appeal Court decides that the selling value, less the stock improvements and plant, is more than the capital value, that which can be realised for the whole concern— that the part is greater than the whole. I write with the less scruple, as 1 have no personal interest in this patticular decisiou. A meeting was held nt Wellington the bther evening for the purpose of protesting against a continuation of immigration, when it was clearly shown that the time had arrived for putting a stop lo any further iuilux of laborers. The proceedings were very orderly np to a certain stage, when they became rather lively, as will be gathered" from the following extract from one of the newspaper reports :— The irrepressible Mr Thurgan continued to smile beamingly in a very provoking manner at the audience, and shook his fiuger impressively at them while he told them that they knew they were never better off in their lives than they were now. The hisses and uproar generally then became tremendous. The chairman and other mem- j hers of the committee endeavored to quiet the disturbance, and to induce Mr Thurgan to retire, in obedience to the yell3 of " Sit down," which arose from the audience. Their efforts were in vain, however ; the uproar continued, and Mr Thurgan, in a spirit o£ bravado, stuck a cigar in his mouth, and to the cries of the audience, again and again renewed, of " Sit down,'" merely replied by a smile and a knowing shake of the head. His provoking coolness was too much for some of those standing near the platform, and presently a rush was made for him, and he was pulled off into the crowd. The reporters just had time to see Mr Thurgan receive several blows in the face, which he returned indiscriminately, straight out from the shoulder, when he disappeared in the vortex of a free fight, and the " Gentlemen of the Press " found it expedient to retreat hastily lest they too should be involved in the " scrimmage." A rush was made to the platform to view the scene, but a crash betokened that some of the planks had given v.-ay under the unusual strain, and another hasty stampede was the result. Meanwhile the " vortex " already referred to eddied its way to the door, and Mr Thnrgan ultimately found himself in the street, with a grca't deal of reaeon to repent of his rashness. New South Wales telegrams in the Melbourne Argus report a terrific gale and sea at the Solitary Islands on July 3 The isla'ids are situated on the coast of New South Wales, a little north of Port Macquarie. During the gale the waves rose 100 feet above high water mark, and washed over the Island, on which a lighthouse is being erected. A landing crane, with iron guys, was washed away, a large storehouse taken out to sea, and a 70,000 gallon dan: was demolished; a blacksmith's shop and sfabling- were biotvn away, and three boats stove in. A Wellington paper says :-The public require to be cautioned against the indiscrimiiißte use of what are known as pateut medicines. On Tuesday night a little child in this city had a narrow escape from poisoning, by having administered to it a medicine which was prescribed for colds by a local chemist. The mother very incautiously save the child more than the presc.ibed quantity the result beiug heavy sleep and stupor', from which neither she nor her friends could rouse the child. Emetics were administered without effect, and just before midnight the child was taken to the Hospital, where it was pronounced by Dr. Gillon to be under the influence of poison. The evil effects were, however, by this time passing off, the escape from death being a very narrow one. The bottle out of which the medicine was given was labelled ■« Balsam of Horehound and Linseed," but as soon as it was examined by Dr. Gillon he pronounced it to contain laudanum. Have you in New Zealand (asks the Sydnev correspondent of the Ota<jo Daily Times) "a Matrimonial Chronicle? We have, and it is to Tumut, a remote southern town, we are indebted for this phenomenal specimen of journalism. Its prospectus is addressed to those " with no one to caress or to be caressed by," and it is proposed to ameliorate that state of things by " rendering every assistance to persons contemplating matrimony, and to treat of such subjects as will tend to make home happy " <Jn referriuo' to the official directory, I find that at the last census the population of the district was .",321, while there were but 1G marriages iu the year, which, from a caressible point of view is not much. A couple of advertisements—there are eight in the first issue -. live for wives and three for husbands— will suffice to show the value of this iratrimonial medium :— Wanted, a Catholic husband, by a servant girl, sixteen years old, and has saved £200. She is not very good-looking, but I defy anybody to be a better cook or housekeeper." " Wanted, a wife, by a young man in the country with a home and £500 a year." The Vail Mall Gazette says:— Every man of the reinforcements last despatched to South Africa wan provided with a bandage for binding up wounds, and a large number of the bandages have, it is stated, been ordered for future issue. The idea of thus supp ying each soldier with the means of roughly dressing or binding his own wounds , or those of a comrade was, we believe, first put into practice iu the Austrian 'army. During the late operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, it was found that it is of comparatively little use to provide materials unless the men have been previously instructed how to use them. In the campaign in the occupied provinces men on several occasions bled to death because no one on the spot knew how to apply a bandage as a tourniquet; and equal ignorance was displayed when other dressings might have been applied, to the great comfort of wounded men. Although, therefore, providing men with the materials necessary for bandaging wounds is undoubtedly an admirable precaution, it would be well to supplement it by giving every soldier some instruction in their use. The English line soldier has abundance of spare time ; some of it might be profitably employed in learning how to apply such simple dressing as can be given in the field to different kinds of injuries." Mr Leopold de Rothschild 13 said to have won £49,000 by the success of Sir Bevys in the Derby.

By the arrival of the brigantine Mee 1 Mer nhes at Auckland w fe hive newfof tE massacre of a boat's crew frothThe Auc£ land schooner Agnes Donald at i'enteSt Aslnim. lhe A<rnes Donald returned to Levuka from a labor cruise ui: ?he 2nd inst., arid the 'jp.pta^H reported that while at Penlecost Island a boat's crew landed, and the men were attacked on the beach by the natives. The crew of the boat were under (he charge of the mate, a young mm named George Simpson, who was well known iu Auckland, froth 1 whence be came. He fired hf s revolverand wounded one of his assailants. He was struck qri the head and Knocked back on the &>ai*V ab^ was killed. Threei natives who composed tiie £*6v* were literally torn to piece3. Simpsou was a youngf man, and his wife «nd infant are in Auckland. In an article on w Th«s progress of New Zealand " the Scotsman says :— Evidences of henl thy growth and progresamong ourantfpbdean colomefhsre jfever been wanting of late years, and NewZealarid,crn6'of the youngest.,, is perhaps one of the most euefge^G and 1 progressive among them. Less than itiiif jerirs hare elapsed since New Zealand achieved separate OTlonjal existence, and she has not yet enjoyed the pVii^lege of selfgovernment foe a quarter of a cerrf«fyj : yet already she possesses as highly developed & social system as any community in the Old World: The transition of this colony from infancy to vigorous manhood has been wonfully rapid, yet substantial evidence is furnished in the yearly volumes of statistics issued by its Government that this growth has uot yet been of the mushroom order, but rest9 on a solid basis of orler and general prosperity, ■o« which a permanent superstructure may safely be reared. The Sydney Atorning Herald says : — " Sir George Grey, Premier of Sew Zealand, would seem to be a politician of unusual resource. Judging by the tenor of the cabled message we published on ThuYsdatj when his influence wanes in Parliament he is not disconcerted, but merely accepts the fact as j an indication that he must turn his attention elsewhere, and bring new levers to bear upon the throne. The constitutional dogma that Parliament represents the people he defers to so long as Parliament agrees to maintain him iu power, but when the majority appears disposed to reject that essential rule, Sir George discovers that the machine is working badly, and boldly falls back upon first principles and simple processes. Distrusting the result of a Governor having a chance of effecting his fate, he invites the proletariat to govern the Governor. It will, of course, be easy for a man so prominent to raise a multitude by stattiping his foot upon the ground; and it will be equally easy to induce the multitude so raised to applaud anything he chooses to tell them about their right to over-rule their rulers. But such a resort will be an effort of statemanship, but of desperation. A cfowd is not a nation, and clamorous endorsement of ons*9ided resolutions has nothing in common with the deliberate conclusions of constituencies. Sir Hercules Robinson is not likely to treat contemptuously any legitimate expression of public opinloßj but, at the same time, he is as little likely to be terrified by a mass meeting in Wellington as by a thunder-cloud on the top of Mount Egraont." The following are additional particulars of the Lancefield bank robbery:— The accountant had just opened the doors when the affair occurred. The manager was in the garden, when two person? Suddenly thrust revolvers iuto his face, and told him to bail up or he would be shot dead. He refnrned inside, and one of the bushrangers seized and gagged him, aud they then proceeded to search for coin; but they oh]jr £ot the loose cash, after which they decamped. While the bank was being bailed up, a custoni&r named Newstrey entered with, £200 in his pocket. He was bailed np, but not robbed. It is believed the men ■frere Scott (alias Captain Moonlight) and Nesbitt. News received by the Torres Straits mail I reports a shocking case of miscarriage of justice in China. Thirteen Chinese prisoners, charged with murder, took refuge in an English settlement, where they were discovered by the Chinese officers, and handed over by the English to be dealt with by the Chinese authorities. After undergoing a form of trial, they were sentenced to death. Previous to their execution they were tortured in a most barbarous manner with the object of extracting a confession from them, but in vain. Further inquiries have since been made into the case, and it is now stated that they were innocent of the crime with which they were charged.— A fearful visitation of cholera has occurred in Japan. No fewer than 3100 Japanese were swept away by the awful disease in the space of a few days. The old saying that cats have nine lives, has had recently another exemplification. In the news received from China by the Press Agency the fact is recorded of an eagle swooping down and taking possession of " pussy," and carrying it away into the air. When however, a considerable distance in its aerial passage had been reached, the cat gave a strong expression of its disapproval by sticking its claws with great vigor into the breast of the eagle. The result was that the latter came to grief and to earth simultaneously, whilst " pussy " went on its way rejoicing, as if nothing serious had occurred. The poet Longfellow has been presented j with a curious pen by an admirer. The pen itself is made from the iron fetters of the famous prisoner of Chillon, Bonivard, and is placed in a massive gold socket, set with three of the rarest gems known to the mineralogist— the white phenakits of Siberia, the yellow zircon of Ceylon, and the red tourmaline of Mafne. The holder is a piece of oak from the old frigate Constitution. Mr Jas. Grant, who for the last half century has been well known in the world of literature as author, journalist, and editor, died recently at his residence iu Bayswater, London. Mr Grant was born in the town of Elgin, N.8., in ISO2 In 1850, Mr Grant was appointed the sole and responsible editor of the Morning Advertiser, a post which he retained until he resigned it some seven years ago. Mr Grant was also the author of about 45 volumes in general literature. " Silver Pen," the San Francisco correspondent of the Auckland Herald writes :— Nothing is infra dig here. I declare the i letter-carriers are the most intelligent gentlemen we have ; that is, those who are gentlemen, and there are dozens among them. It is funny in a ball room to meet a face you know but fail to place. " Ah, you don't remember me out of my grey suit," is the often heard reminder of the men with whom you are conversing. " Don't you know, I bring your letters ? " " Yes, that's so " you reply ; and then drift off iuto an intelligent chat about Eastern society, interlarded with no very friendly encomiums of San Francisco ditto. A remarkable occurrence with reference to the photographing of a church weathercock at Tenby is reported. At the time nothing was observed by the artist but the object upon which he was engaged ; but on the development of the plate the outline of a boat with bunting flying fore and aft, was dis- \ tinctly visible about two-thirds up the spirein a reverseposition. The photograph was taken at a quarter past six, and about that time two gunboats were launched at Pembroke Dock. It is thought that it is a mirage of one of the gunboats soon after launching. — Lancet There are now ten well appointed four-in-hands leaving Piccadilly, London, every morning, a fact which represents a nearer approach to the old coaching days than people would have once thought possible.

A glass muff, white and curly" ? giaas mats for ladies, with glass feathers ; gfass wool no< to be distinguished from the gennine r and quite as warm. — being a non-coudneto» •, glaSfi taifpet s, cutfs, collars, veils and dresses are the flofeflies introduced by Mr A. Prengle, glass artist and spinner, Vienna. . The people of the United States pay 700,606,000 dollars for liqnor, and only 95,500,000d01. for education, and 48,000,000 dollars for religion. We are sorry, says the Baltimore A'etos, to see our South American neighbours ejgaged in cutting each other's throats, but it assuages onr grief very much to kno.v that Che material for this fratricidal spore comes front our factories and armories.