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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 204, 27 August 1879, Page 6

Australia, like Canada, is taking measures for colonial defence, and committing herself to a large expenditure in doing so. Commencing with tbe naval armaments, we have the Cerberus, 4 guns, Nelson, 31 guns, Victoria, 1 gun, with Naval Reserve, costiug, with pay of crews, stores. &c, £26 027Volunteer staff, £3770; Volunteer force] £17,044; Artillery Corps, £14,2u9 ; Torpedo Corps, warlike stores, contingencies, &c, £27,303, make up atotalof £C2,357 expended on the laud forces. In addition, ».he Victorian Government have purchased Swan Island, with a view to erecting batteries for the protection of the western channel to Port Phillip.

We (Lyttelton Times) have been informed that the Duke of Manchester, who owns 3ouie property at the Waikari, has forward a sum of .£IOO towards the erection of a parsonage at the Waikari. A dreadful accident has occurred in a Circus near Bordeaux. One of the horses took fright during the performance, jumped into the midst of the spectators, killing one woman, severely wouudiug many others, fracturing the leg of the man who rode the beast, and doing incalculable mischief. A writer in a Home paper says :— There are thousands of people in New Zealand living aDd enjoying life, who would have been in their graves long ago had they remained in England. A ' special ' ship is to start from London for this colony in September, for the express purpose of affording superior accommodation for farmers who may wish to avail themselves of such an opportunity of proceeding thither. An English paper says: — New Zealand is jnst now attracting more attention, probably on the part of all classes of English people, than any other Colon}'. Thousands are seeking recent and reliable information on the subject. Homo readers are informed in a recent description of New Zealand, that an Englishman, ou first landing, discovers to his surprise that he cannot well judge of distance. His eye needs to be educated. The air is so clear in New Zealand, that he imagines distant objects to be close at hand. The New York Times of April 16, reviewing the proceedings of the forty-ninth Conference of Mormons at Salt Lake, says : — " At various times during the 46 years since Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon, it has been thought by close and careful observers that this monstrous delusion was on the point of collapse. None of these expectations have been fulfilled. The whole system of Mormonism remains intact, and apparently impregnable in every part. Not only so, but, under the inspiration of the success of the party now in power in Congress, it is even proposed that Utah shall be admitted into the family of the States. This is the present aim of the Mormon leaders. While the Mormon Church remains merely one of the peculiar institutions, subject wholly to the direct legislation of Congress, and governed by appointees of the National Executive, there is no hope for the absolute independence of the Church of the Latter Day Saints and the xMormon hierarchy. But those who think that the Mormon leaders are depressed, or are relaxing their efforts to seeure permanent foundations for the little empire, deceive themselves." The object tbat Mr Mort of Sydney struggled during many years to accomplish —to bring fresh meat by rail to Sydney instead of driving the cattle there over long stretches of poor country— ha3 been carried into practical effect in California, as well as in New South Wales. San Francisco, through the agency of the Californian Fruit and Meat Refrigerating Company, is being supplied with fifty carloads of fresh meat per week from Reno, in Nevada, a distance of nearly three hundred miles. The process followed by the company is almost identical with that devised by Mr Mort. The cattle are killed at Heno. The carcases are cooled down to about 10- above freezing point, it beiug one of the features of the Refrigerating Company not to freeze. The meat, in sides, is then put into the refrigerating cars —padded and ventilated conveyances belonging to the company. A carload is ten tons of meat, one ton of. ice, and a sufficiency of chloride of calcium for the journey. The ice is placed at the bottom of the car ; the chloride is employed to aid in keeping the air dry and cool. The journey by rail to San Francisco occupies about thirty hours, and no single "miss" or mishap has occurred since the company commenced operations with meat early iu 1877. The cargoes are sold from the cars in Townsend-street, San Francisco. Fifty cars are now employed in the business, and, on occasions, the meat is in stock for several days. The estimate is that it can be kept sweet and safe at the refrigerating temperature for forty days, aud then be as good as when killed. This looks like a solution of the transport of meat question, in so far as supplying towns in the colonies is concerned. The gloomy fortress of Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg promises to play a prominent part (says the London Globe) in connection with the revolutionary movement in Russia. Founded by Peter the Great, it early began au evil career as the State Prison of the unfortunate Czareitch Alexis, whom, rightly or wrongiv, posterity believes to have been done to death by the hands of his despotic parent. Afterwards it became the regular place of detention for prisoners of State, and, perhaps for one hundred and fifty years, the cells have never been without their complement of inmates. Iu Catherine's reign the dungeons were more than once so overcrowded that whole batches had to be removed by boat to the Schlusselburg fortress, higher up the Neva, and just at the present moment swarms are nightly smuggled away from its grim interior and despatched in hooded carts to Siberia or Saghalien. As to the number of victims that have lived and died within its limits during the century and a half of its existence, nothing with certaiuty is known, and probably the world will always remain in ignorance of the sufferings of the unfortunates who have rotted in its noxious underground vaults or perished in the lower cells during the frequent inundations of the Neva. Random estimates have placed the number of 20,000 individuals, but this can only be a guess. In winter, roads across the ice connect it with the Winter Palace opposite, and in the summer a sloop-of-war is mostly anchored iu the river to preserve communication between the fortress aud the imperial quay. While the army remains loyal to the Czar the fortress will always keep thc city in subjection, as from it3 portals could issue at any moment a force I sufficient to quell the fiercest street revolt, i

The Sydney Telegraph, commenting on the increasing prevalence of drunkenness, in that city says : — " No less than 50 persona of both sexes, found drunk and disorderly^in the public streets bf the city, were dealt with by the Magistrates Central Police Court recently." Such is the appalling announcement made ih our police report of the following day. But to grasp the significance of the circumstance we must.__ake- allowance for those who had similarly e^^eede^/ Jhe bounds of discretion and yet escaped' arrest. It is fair to estimate thit for evetj drunken man taken to the lock-up half -a-dozeaaVbid the exposure ot a public prosecution; and, basing our observations upon this proportion, we have the spectacle of 300 persons intoxicated in the • streets of Sydney in a single day!" ... . •,;:■ 1,.* A ghastly story comes from Dunedjin, about an exhibition of a human corpse. Soipe years ago, it seems the birth took place in the neighborhood of . Dunedin, of a feffoheaded infant. The : child was still-born, ov died shortly after its birth, and the doctor who attended the mother was allowed to remove the body, which he preserved as a curiosity in spirits of wine. Upwards of twelve months ago the doctor died, and his effects, among which was the /___.« nainrce, were sold by public auction. .The human remains, to the scandal of the community, were knocked down for about the price of an old cow to a well-known betting man, and it was subsequently rumored that they, were intended for exhibition on the racecourse, in conjunction with the sea-elephant and two headed calf. Mr Abraham Doodeward, the purchaser, has recently been exhibiting the mortal remains, and he has got into trouble in consequence. He applied to the Mayorof Dunedin for a license to exhibit, asking that ' the expense he had incurred in connection with the same might be considered;' The Mayor, however, declined issuing the license, and the police took proceedings agaiust Doodeward. At a meeting of the City Council recently, one of the members names^i-Bh,' contended that Doodeward having paid £40 for his ' flesh/. had a perfect right to exhibit it, notwithstanding the objection of the child's relatives, and after some discussion the Council resolved to withdraw the prosecution. ..'._ g The Bible-in-Schools Association in I)ahedin has issued a manifesto regarding 'lhe forthcoming election. They enlarge on the feeling in favor of Bible reading in schools, as evidenced by the resolutions '<2. school committees, and urge upon the" electors"' tho necessity of supporting candidates who will pledge themselves to an amendment of the Education Act in that direction. - /The Association do not intend to put forward a ticket owing to the divergent political views of Bible-reading candidates. : ; - --''- -' •: The other Sunday an Auokland clergyman took occasion to make some strictures on the practice of interlarding the common phrases and things of daiiy life with fen^ious.Sayinga. He thought it was - calculated to .taring religion into contempt with a large class of men, rather than to inspire a feeling •of devoutness. For instance, he thought a meeting would be nonetheless likely to eventuate without the mystic symbols "D.V." "tfcan with them. . _ ,_ : The lyttelton Timet, referring to the recent epidemic of fires in Christchurchj '. says":— " ' Are we all to be burnt in our beds ?' jfa a question which people-are beginning to -aak themselves with considerable anxiety. ■ The form in which the query presents itself to the minds of insurance agents is slightly different. They are beginning no doubt to wonder if the insurance companies are destined to be shortly swallowed up in the gulf of bankruptcy. Without in any way reflecting npon the finances of these corporations, we can unhesitatingly assert that they have great reason to fear considerable losSQf profit. The fact can no longer be disguised that a conspiracy of incendiarism is actively at work in the city. \Vhether the conspiracy consists of one conspirator, whether that conspirator is a fiendish villain or*a dangerous lunatic, or whether there is an organised hand of ruffians, it is nnhe"cea|ary to inquire. The fact is dreadfully prominent that the crime of arson is rife, and that^the first necessity ia to grapple, with it promptly and effectually. "" "" J " * „"" " Few of our local appellants : agaipst the land tax valuations have .been as fortunate as the Hon. W. J. Clarke^ of Victoria, , in their appeals. ■ That gentleman haa supr ceeded in casting the Government in £86 ,ps costs, and reducing his land taxes by £1800 per annum by his action. His estate, of 136,561 acres, in the county of Bourke, was placed in the second-class, but after a hearing extending over several days, 'the counsel for the Crown expressed' :h'ims-lf^_^_i_&ed that the Government classification could not be sustained, and the estate was accordingly reduced to the third-class, with the result above stated. .._ ''...' „ v A