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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 7, 8 January 1880, Page 2

The N .Z. Times says •— -A new arriral by the Arethusa — a Scotch -woman — yesterday caused a good deal of amusement in the Supreme Court, where she quickly secured to herself the title of " the positive woman," She was a witness in a case of theft, and was very positive in her indentification of several articles. At length she came to the question of four one pound notes, and she was here quite as positive as she had been in the case of a piece of board. The counsel for the prisoner tried very hard to trip her, and wanted her to inform the Court how it was she could swear to_ four one pound notes when there were so many thousands all alike. " That may be,'' said the witness, " but these were the first pound notes I had seen in the colony, and 1 marked the occasion by making a cross on the back of each of them before I gave them over to the police." His Honor remarked that he hoped the notes in question, if they were the first, would^not be the last the witness would see, and he did not think they would, for she was evidently a woman to get on in this country. On Thursday, 18th September, the Moore and Burgess Minstrels began their fifteenth, year at St. James' Hall, London, where they had up to that time given an unbroken series of 6467 entertainments. The Times, remarking upon their uninterrupted popularity, says : — " The edition of the songs and ballads which is sold in the hall is in its 915 th thousand. Empires have been founded and Republics have taken the place of Monarchies, but the old craving for the form of amusement which is identified with blackened faces survives. It is many years since Christy was popular at the Mechanics' Hall, New York, A band of the Christy Minstrels came to England, and one of the fragments of that troupe settled in St. James' Hall in 1865. At first it called itself the Christy Minstrels, but found it had no exclusive title to the name, so it assumed a trademark of its own, and all the good will which for 14 completed years has been gathering round the blackened vocalists of St. James' Hall belongs to the firm of Moore and Burgess. It was not thought at first that the Ethiopian serenader by any other name would, in the opinion of the public, sing as sweetly, and there has been a good deal of litigation over the right to use the name of Christy. Now, however, that of Moore »nd Burgess has become classical There are still some of the original performers in th« troupe. More than a hundred have passed through the ranks, and 23 have been removed by death during the tenancy of the hall." It is said that Messrs Moore and Burgess are worth over £30,000 each, all made from the profits of their entertainments. A singular cure of a bad case of hiccups was lately effected in Paris. During a thunder storm, lightning struck close to a girl twelve years' old. For a moment she seemed to be suffocating, but this sensation passed off into a fit of hiccups. These became so distressing that after three days the mother took her to the hospital for advice. The surgeon ordered her to be taken to the operating theatre, where, on seeing the medical man standing at a table covered with some awful looking instruments, and surrounded by a number of assistants in white aprons, the child became so terrified that she forgot her hiccups, which did not recommence, and she was thus cured. A publican at Dunedin has been " sold." Hearing that Chiarini's Circus was coming, and believing the Southern Market Keserve the only piece suitable for the site, he leased it from the Corporation for six weeks for £60. He then made known what he fondly believed to be his monopoly to the agent of the company, and intimated that his terms would be £50 per week. The agent, however, managed to secure an equally eligible site from the Harbor Board upon the reclaimed land, and now the enterprising publican finds himself in possession of & " white elephant." The telegraphists' strike (Bays the Post of Tuesday") appears to have practically collaped. We understand that the two Wellington operators who refused to submit to the new regulations have both left the service, one resigning to take an appointment in a mercantile office, and the other being dismissed. The latter, we believe, has the offer of a " billet " in Victoria. Speaking of the late riots, the Timaru Herald says: — The people of this place are to be congratulated on having got through a very trying and critical time, with only the minimum of ill results. The recent disturbance has brought out one fact unmistakeablr, namely, that an overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of Timaru, irrespectively of creed or nation, are heartily attached to law and order, and determined to permit no interference with the public peace, from whatever quarter it may be threatened. It only remains now for the administration of justice to proceed dispassionately in its i regular course, and then we hope that we shall hear no more of a matter, the occurrence of which every right minded man must, deplore. Frank Frayne, an American, who calls himself a " shooting star " actor, has devised a way of endangering two lives at once in his stage rifle feats. He shoots an apple off his wife's head, and the bullet hits mechanism attached to the trigger of a second rifle, from which is shot a bullet piercing an apple suspended close over his own head. Mrs Frayne has only one thumb. The other was popped off by her husband last winter.

. Mr Edison is reaping ,a rich reward in Europe as well. as in tbfs country for ,his wonderful and useful inventions, The EdiSoh telephone Company, 1 of London/ has ordered from the electrical manufactory in this city 2000 of Edison's chemical telephones for use in London, and ia considering the advisability of ordering 10,000 more. In this city they: are everywhere being introduced. All the large wholesale, fthd, manufacturing establishments have Ifle'di, 1 lawyers' talk through them to an office in the ndw Courthouse, and are able to keep themselves instantly posted as to what's going on ; booksellers and others order from each other through them* and a word of trouble ia saved all around.— Neip Torfi. Herald. i It is nothing uncommon this season to. see i grass and corn growing on the roof and in the gutters of the houses, on railway trucks, and other places, but to see rows of salad growing luxuriantly in a tunnel about 10ft under the surface of the ground is almost incredible^ yet such a 9ight was seen by our northern correspondent (says the Press) while on a .visit of inspection in the " hole in the' hill " at the Weka Pass fiotel, used as the cellar to the hotel. Though at that depth, and deprived of the light 6T t&e sun, the salad bids fair to make a palatable di»n within a short time. At the same there is a healthy crop growing above the tunnel, so that the plan of doubling the productive powers of the land appears by this to be feasible". Some soldiers' children were talking of their fathers and uncles who bad been made prisoners of war. Many tales were told of the sufferings of their relatives , the youngsters eviddently priding themselves upon it. One boy, who was silently listening, at length said, " That's nothing; I've got an uncle in prison, and he ain't been to war neither." A congregation, anxious to get rid of their pastor, were considerably perplexed how to dojfc without hurting his feelings. After considerable trouble they concluded to inform Mm they were obliged to reduce his salary. A delegate was appointed to wait on and notify him of the fact. "Brethren," j was the reply, " I have been with you in prosperity and I will never desert you in adversity." Line upon line. — Teacher : " What is meant by sliips Crossing the line ?" Scholar: " When they sail over the Equator." Teacher: " Do you know of any other line at sea besides the Equator ?" Scholar: "Yes, sir; there's the Anchor Line, and the Allan Line, and the Cunard Line, and several others." The Dunedin Star says : —The action taken by one of our local solicitors in the Bankruptcy Court a few days ago has excited immense consternation in certain leading circles. It appears, that gentlemen w.ho have found it convenient to take " the benfit of the Act" are by no means absolved from their liabilities, but under existing law may be called on, if they Lave acquired property, to pay up 10s in the £, at uuy time within 20 years from their bankruptcy. Many snug villas and handsome establishments are in deadly peril, and hungry, long-suffering creditors gaze with malignant eyes at the well turned out equipus>es which bear their debtors to business or pleasure. After the legal vacation it ulny be expected that there will be a stirring up of the dead bones in the valley of financial desolation. An extraordinary find has been made in Stokes Bay, near Portsmouth, where, on the tide receding, a huge object was seen to have been left on the beach. It was first thought to be a whale, but closer inspection proved it to be a good sized elephant. How the animal got in the water, or from what distance the carcase had floated, is a mystery. One of the Government tugs towed the carcase out to sea, and then cast it adrift. The Italian Government have given orders to Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co. for the construction of eight 100-ton breech-loading guns, according to designs prepared by that firm. .These guns are intended to form the armament of the Italia and Lepanto, the two ironclads which were commenced subsequently to the Duilio and the Dandolo. A new hay press has been patented in France and England which delivers the bales in the form of a solid uniform cylinder about two feet in diameter, which may be rolled along by one man. A new mode of collecting honey is being tried in Germany. A small apparatus with wires gives the bees an electric shock, and they fall to the bottom of the hive, remaining motionless for several hours. A San Francisco paper says Fish Commissioner Bedding has procured from New Zealand eight pheasants of the China breed, said to be superior to the European. With these and others which he expects to get, he hopes to be able to stock the State in time. At one of Blondin's last performances in the Exhibition building, Vienna, no less than 35,000 persons paid for admittance. Consumption ia now said to be caused by a yeast plant that flourishes in the blood. The presence of this fungus in the blood is readily shown by the microscope, and now forms the subject of careful study among physicians. Mr Arthur Sullivan's brother, Frederick Sullivan, is said to have died from overwork in playing the part of the Judge in " Trial by Jury." At the Paris Hippodrome, Miss O. Torra (Japanese) mounts on foot a wire stretched at an angle of forty-five degress from the ground to the capital of one of the pillars supporting the roof, add slides backwards while remaining upright, with only a fan and an umbrella to aid in maintaining the equilibrium. Soliloquy by a tippler. — The public always notices when you have been drinking and ! never when you are thirsty.