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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 294, 23 December 1879, Page 2

An English journal states that the Rev. W. Muncaster, of tbe Wesleyan body, has resigned the ministry under peculiar circumstances. He contemplated marrying a lady who obtained a divorce from her husband for misconduct and cruelty, but tbe Weileyan Conference not approving thia step, Mr Muncaster was called before the committee, who failed to induce him to believe that such a union was forbidden by Scripture, and, rather than forego the marriage, he resigned. A good story is told of venerable Judge H. The other day while holding the Circuit Court, he grew weary of the endless tongues of attorneys, and, calling to a bailiff, said, huskily, ' Go over to the ' Hole in the Wall,' and bring me a drink of whisky.' The bailiff disappeared, and reappeared shortly with an inch and a half of corn juice in a glass, enough for any Christian man, but not a sufficiency for an Alabama judiciary, system. 'Go back,' growled the judge, ' and tell Hagerty to send me a drink— a drink of whisky.' The bailiff disappeared again, and reappeared a second time with a tumbler brimming full. ' Ah,' said the wearer of ermine, ' that, now, is a drink ! But what,' wiping his lips with the cuff of his coat, ' did he say V ' Oh, he didn't say anything, youc honor,' answered the bailiff, blushing. « Oh, yea, he muet have made some remark. Now, what did he say V ' Well, I don't like to tell you, sah, your honor.' ■ 'Go on and tell me exactly what he said,' demanded tbe judge. ' Well, sah your honor,' drawled out the bailiff, ' he said, I sent him a drink of whisky at first ; I didn't know that the old fool wanted to take a bath !' Uncle Dick,' says an American' paper, weighs 65 tons, and he is 60ft long from his head-light to the rear end of his tender. He is the biggest locomotive in the world, and has been turned out of the Baldwin Locomotive Works for duty on the precipitous inclines of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. A boiler 21ft long supplies steam for cylinders 20in by 26in, and gives motion to eight 42in drivers, while a large tank surmounting the entire structure not only carries a water supply, but heips to give Uncle Dick a tighter grip on the rails. His driver will have control over three independent systems of airbrakes, and can bring to bear at once upon his wheels a restraining force of 75 tons, which is none too large, inasmuch as a ' shoe pressure ' of 5 0,0001 bs is required to keep him, when standing still and alone on the steep road over the Rutton Pass, from surrendering to gravitation and rushing down hill by his own weight. How heavy these grades are cau be understood when it is noted that one end of Uncle Dick will often stand more than three feet higher than the other, so that in travelling his own length he will do the work of lifting about 250 tons a perpendicular foot. And yet this monster, rejoicing in his strength, will rnsh up the flank of the the Rocky Mountains with ten loaded cars behind him.

The Liverpool Post states on good informa ltion that the enormous richness of the old goldfields on the Guinea Coast baa not been exaggerated in the reports received during the last ten months. To one of onr African merchants, who has had a mining engineer at work for upwards of 12 months, a prize has fallen of probably untold value. Sir John Glover's statement that he had travelled , over districts where one might dig up gold • like potatoes is all but literally realised in these recent discoveries, which give the enormous yield of £120 per ton of quartz at a depth of 50 feet, while their extent is practically unlimited. Among the various objects deposited the other day under the foundation of a gchoolhouse in Massachusetts is a specimen of Mr Sankey's voice. It is not In the form of a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal, but phonographical ly preserved in tinfoil. A thousand years hence the antiquary may be astounded by hearing " Hold the Fort," which is the specimen selected, proceed out of that hole in Mr Sankey's best manner. One has read of "sermons in stones," but a hymn in granite is quite a novelty. The Ballarat correspondent of the Melbourne Argus writes:—" Johns, one of the young fellows of Moonlite's gang, is a Ballarat lad of respectable parents, who are living here. He was for some time in the employment of Mr Lonjr, while Mayor of Ballarat East, and bore, I am told, an excellent character. It is presumed that either by attending Scott's lectures, or by becoming an associate with him in some way though it was not known that he had done so, he had become fascinated with the idea of a criminal's life, and had thus been led into bis present deplorable position. His parents believed, until very recently, that he was leading an honest, industrious life in the country somewhere." The Poverty Bay Maori Haka Company has turned out a ruinons venture. Although the Company drew pretty well at Sydney, the expenses more than swallowed the receipts.