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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 207, 12 September 1879, Page 2

The Inangahua Time< in reporting a meeting of Mr Reeves' says :— Mr Brennan put the following question to the candidate :— Are you prepared, if elected, to sever your connection with the Grey Ministry, to go into Parliament a thoroughly independent representative, allied to no party, but pledged to support that party alone which promises faithfully to construct the railway from Amberley to Brunnerton, with extension towards Nelson, through the Grey, Inangahua, and Buller Valleys ; aud who will let further contracts at the Amberley end of the line and at Brunnerton, Reefton, and Foxhill early in the coming session, and out of the present loan. Furthermore, in the event of your constituents finding that you have disregarded your promises in this matter of the railway, are you prepared to pledge yourself to resign, if called upon to do so by a majority of your constituents ?" To these questions Mr Reeves gave an unequivocal assent, and Mr Brennan expressed his satisfaction with the reply, announcing that he himself withdrew from the contest. On the motion of Mr John M'Gaffin, seconded by Mr Collings a resolution wo9 unanimously carried that Mr Reeves was a fit and proper person to represent tbe electors in Parliament. Mr R. C. Reid, a candidate for Westland, received the following unique but characteristic letter from Sir George Grey :— " My dear Sir,— l understand you are likely to stand for Hokitika. I shall be glad, indeed, if you do bo. Myself and all others whom I have conversed with on the point would welcome your advent to the House. We admire your principles and we feel satisfied your abilities and presence in Parliament would prove of great utility to the Liberal cause. —Very truly yours, G. Ghey." The following strange paragraph appears in the Kumara Times of Monday:— For the information of electors, we may state that a supplementary sheet has been'added to the Electoral Roll of the Hokitika district, containing the names of 38 electors, amongst which a dozen under the cognomen of Murphy are reinstated in the privilege of the franchise. We shall allude more fully to this subject on another occasion. One hundred and eighty-three coottn-milla have been built in the Southern States of America since the war.

The Ashburton Mail tells the following pitiable story of what it justly terms an "unfortunate family ":—«« Some families are born to misfortune. The circumstances of the Wren family are most singular. It is not many months ago since Richard Wren, a small settler, occupied a comfortable homestead with his wife and children. Bad crops brought poverty, and the old proverb, 'When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out of tbe window,' was realised. Mrs Wren, with a child only a few days old in her arms, appeared at the Magistrate's Court ono cold inclement morning, to demand separation from her husband. A few days later she was found wandering about among the tussocks, and committed to the asylum for lunacy. A week or two elapsed, and at the request of the father, three young children— what remained of the family— were sent to a charitable institution. The other day the misfortunes of tbe family culminated in the father himself being committed, on the certificate of two medical men, to the same institution where his demented wife resides. Thus, within the space of a few weeks, a family, comprising father, mother, and several young children have had to be consigned to the public institutions of the Colong— not for any crime— but the victims of misfortune. An order has been made that the remains of their little fortune shall be devoted to their maintenance so long as it lasts." The following cheerful paragraph appears in a Sau Francisco paper :— About half-past ten o'clock the other night, unknown parties took Tom Rodgers to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad bridge, spread tar over his head, liberally smeared a tittle on his face, and scattered a few feathers over him. He was horsewhipped and driven out of town recently for giving squaws whiskey, and other indecent practices. He threatened to return and kill some of our citizens. He is about towu to-day. A large and important preliminary meeting was held in the Town Hall, Hokitika, last week, for the purpose of insisting on tho construction of the railway between the East and West Coasts. The Mayor, Mr M'Lean Watt Jack, was in the chair. The Hou. James Bonar made a speech pointing out the advantages of constructing the line. A quantity of new and valuable statistical information was placed at the disposal of the meeting by a number of merchants and others present, showing that this railway would he as payable a line as any in the Colony, while the West Coast possessed an asset in the unsold Crown lands of the West Coast, that of itself would more than pay the cost of the railway. It was stated roughly that there were 100,000 acres of land between the Teremakau and the Grey River alone, which if the railway was made, would easily realise from four to five pounds per acre, or a sum more than sufficient to defray the whole cost of the line. Carefully prepared estimates were given, showing that traffic amounting to several thousands of pounds per annum had been altogether omitted, or under-estimated in Mr Blair's report. Energetic action to get the railway made was determined on, and it was resolved to ask Greymouth, Christchurch, and other towns interested, to co-operate earnestly. A strong league was formed to insist on having the work carried out. The Jewhh Messenger says that "If an American Jew died ot one tenth of the late Baron Rothschild's wealth aud iofluence, his funeral would probably have beefc a gorgeous display— flowers, plumes, casket, pall, all of the richest and most magnificent order. It adds tbat the simplicity of the Baron's obsequies was strictly Jewish in character, and is incomparably preferable to the display that more liberal brethren, on this side of the Atlantic, would have insisted upon under similar circumstances. ' Here lies the wealthiest Jew of modern times, habited in no richer garments, enclosed in no gaudier tenement than his poorest co-religionists, and this equality of all men in the presence of eternity, this levelling of rank on the threshold of Heaven is grand in its simplicity.' " The Haw key e on the old songs : " Take back the heart," as the man said who drew one when he wanted a diamond. "Gum, gum away to the pearly fountain," was sung by the man who dropped his store teeth into the creek " A loan in the world," was given with great effect by the man who had to raise 300dols. by Saturday noon. " Dream, baby, dream," was sung and said very energetically by the man who patrolled the floor while the colic patrolled the baby. " Goodbye, sweet tart," was chanted by the dyspeptic man wbo couldn't eat pio. " Somebody is waiting for me," was wailed out by the man who had been to the lodge, lost his night key, and could see the shadow of his wife's mothers night-capped head on the curtain of the sitting-room. Her Majesty's judges were entertained recently at the Mansion House, London, by the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress. The LordChief Justice, in responding to the toast of the evening, spoke" of the difficulty which the judges had in interpreting Acts of Parliament, which were couched in the most bewildering language. No man, his lordship said, seemed to be satisfied with the decision of one court. He appealed, and the more appeals, the more tribunals, and the more tribunals the more judges. One appeal court upset the decision of the others, and no one knew who was right. The manner of observing the Sabbath in Rome is thus discoursed upon by the correspondent of the Philadelphia Bulletin : " Sunday is the central day of the week in Rome in social and civil, as well as in religious life. Parliament, or Congress, sits on this day, as on any other. Most of the shops are open, although the attendance at Church is good It is, in fact, a mystery to me where the people in the churches come from, as the streets are full and the town busy. Political meetings are generally fixed for Sunday, although there are not many of them. The fresh cartoons appear on the walls and in the shops on Sunday. It is the visiting day, and the day for putting on cleanly - washed clothes among the poor people. It is a brilliant day on the Corso, that lively little avenue being crowded with equipages, and blue and scarlet with uniforms. In the evening there is always the opera of the week, and in the private houses balls and receptions. This social use of the day is not confined to Italians or Roman Catholics but holds amongst Protestants, and English and Americans as well, who readily fall in with the social usages of the couutry, and give their dinner parties and receptions according to its customs, It is a national or continental, not a religious characteristic. It is to be said for the Italians, if we would present the question fairly, that while it is perfectly natural aud a matter of course among them to use Sunday for tbeir pleasures and recreation, it is also perfectly natural and a matter of course with them, as it is not with us, to go to church and worship devoutly on week days. Service is going on all the time in the numerous churches here, and fairly well attended. You can hear a sermon every day in the week if you want to. Some people here perhaps do. A good number hear mass every day, and a vast number enter their churches daily for personal and private prayers. If the Italians carry their pleasures into Sunday, as we do not, they also carry their religion into tbe six week days, as we do not." Leprosy has made its appearance in several parts of the Spanish province of Alicante, and the authorities, alarmed by the number of cases and the mortality, have taken steps to establish a special hospital for lepers. In the Province of Valencia 116 cases were re- I ported last year, of which 71 proved fatal. I

A man coming out of a Texas newspaper office, with one eye gouged out, his nose spread all over his face, and one of his ears chewed off, replied to a policeman who interviewed him, " I didn't like an article that 'peared m the paper last week, an' I went in ter see the man who writ it, an' he war there!"