CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 204, 27 August 1880, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor op the "Evening Mail." Sib — I request a small space in your paper for the purpose of stating a great injustice done to a very large majority of the people of Takaka by the Inspector of Post Offices on bis last visit to this district. The facts are as follows: — The Waitapu Post Office has been established for about sixteen years. A few years since it was considered necessary to establish another post office about eight miles further up the valley, and when the mail arrived it was opened at the Waitapu Post Office, and any letters for up country were immediately forwarded to the upper post office. This plan gave general satisfaction. Now all the business people in the district and five at mills out of the six use the Waitapu Post Office, and the result is that about 100 letters pass through the Wai tapu office for the ten that pass through the upper office. When the mail arrived here this morning the business people, mill owners, and others were indignantly surprised to find that the Inspector had arranged that all letters Addressed to Takaka were to be s@bs

to the Upper Takaka Post Office, and all addressed to "Waitapu were also to be sent to that office. Now there is not one correspondent out of a hundred who writes the word " Waitapu " 'when writing" to Takaka, ondthe result of this stupid arrangement is that the people from the lower part of Takaka have to travel sixteen mile 3 for their letters, I mean eight miles there and eight back. In fact, the Waitapu Postmaster had to travel that distance for his own letters today. It is to be hoped that the Inspector of Post Offices will Bee the error of his ways, and immediately rectify this great blunder. I am, &c, Shamrock. Takaka, Augusfl9, lßßo.

s • July (says the Home News) isj the season for cricket. Crowds flock daily to/Lord's and the Oval, and the great matches of the year are now being played.. To Oxford and Cambridge will soon succeed Eton and Harrow, while Gentlemen and Players, Zingari and Household Brigade, will carry on the. game till autumn. .With all; this excellent cricket in process, regrets become more and more frequent andlloud that there is no hope of seeing the Australians play a properly matched game. According to all accounts, there is but little chance of our visitors showing us a touch of their quality upon any of the great London grounds Apparently there is still an unpleasant feeling between the great English Grickieters and their Australian cousins. The recollection of the treatment our own people received on two occasions on Antipodean, cricket grounds i still rankles, and they will not be mollified. It has, nevertheless, been well pointed out that, although "the dispute^ in Australia were disagreeable enojugb, something might have been gained by showing the. Colonists that on a Wellmanaged English cricket ground Buch scenes of disorder are impossible." ! The same writer goes on to compare Australian with English country cribket, where the same sharpness of temper and disposition to wrangle is oftenj displayed, and regrets that our jbest elevens "prefer to avoid the Australian players rather than meet them in a spirit of determined good-hunior." Never were the Australians in better form, and never, probably, could there have been a better chance of seeing most excellent cricket: ■ The Chinese have long regarded telegraph wire as a very convenient source of tea box nails, while some of these child-like individuals caught in the act of cutting down the posta have been known to plead that they thought they grew there, The Celestials bave hitherto shown a peculiar spite Bgainet the telegraph,; both cable and land line, and it is satisfactory to learn that they are now much better disposed to it,: the telephone having opened tbeir eyes to its advantages. The fact ie, they; did not understand the former telegraphs, and thoy were unsuited to the Chinese language, which has no alphabet. But now the telephone enables them to converse, and transmit with peculiar fidelity the metallic twang of their monosyllabic language. They 'are vastly delighted with it, and have just discovered for the firat timethat it iwaa originally Chinese, having been ' invented in the year 960 by Kung Foo Wbing, an announcement which will satisfy their self-complacency without disturbing the equanimity of Professor Bell. ; The Inangahua Times of Saturday says : — We are glad to be able to chronicle a very healthy improvement

in the tone of the share market, the poise of which had almost ceasejl to beat for nnny months past. The splendid prospects and achievements of; the United Alpine, Lyell, have, no doubt, done much to hasten this improvement:, as well indeed (hey mii<ht, for it is not foo much to say that no finer mining property has ever been seen in New Zealand. The shares are now quioted at 14s, but it is doubtful whether they can be bought at that figure. Were it not for the prevailing depression,; the seme shares would no doubt be marketable at double that sum. Coming nearer home, Welcome shares^ which three months ago stood almost nominally at about 345, have advanced to ,45a, nnd are now bard to procure even at that price, as the certainty is that they will continue to rise steadily during the next three months. Again, Golden Fleeces, which only a short time ago were bought in thousands by those who bnd (heir weather eye open at 6d, have now risen to 7e, and need seeking* for at that. The best feature about these improvements is that the inorease is not at all due to delirious speculation, superabundance of capital, or to any of the causes which in times past ! ran interests up so wildly and extravagantly, but is the result of sober calculation. The addition of this extra wealth to the community cannotbuS prove beneficial in many ways, and as the share market is the barometer by which we test the general condition of the mining industry, its present reading affords both comfort anJ consolation. When you see a man come down town now-a-days with an expression of sublime ecstacy on his countenance, a glance of disdainful triumph in his eye, and a smile of self-conscious superiority over his fellow men as displayed by some recently achieved victory, playing about the corners of his mouth; when he draws a'handful of glistening twepties from his pocket, and, unasked, chucks them over to you with the remark^ "Pay me when you like;'* when he writes you oat unsolicited orders for a new suit or bat; when he inquires affectionately bow you'd like to go to Europe if he put the coin; when, in' fact, he has the general air of an Alexander, a Hannibal, a Ca33or, or a Napoleon, flushed with victory so great as to make all mundane things seem pigmies to his giant intellect, do not thiuk he has made a sudden million in stocks, has discovered a diamond mine in his back yard, or won a lawßuit of ten years' standing, that his wife ; has just presented him with twins, that some distant relative has just died, leaving him a bank account at Rothschild's; do not think that any of the great occurrences- in life, usually supposed to bring untold joy to the heart of man, have happened to him. You will be wrong if you do; "What, then can it be ?' you will ask. Step aside and

we will tell you. He has done the 15 puzzle.— San Francisco News Letter. A Reef too paper of a recent date says : — lt was the custom of the ancient Thracians to weep at the birth o$ a child, and to commemorate death with a festival. Our civilization has taught us to reverse this order, but John' Chinaman goes a little further. In order to keep Blive his grief at the loss of a defunct kinsman, be repairs to the grave, or is enjoined by bis religion to do co at least once a year, there to reopen the flood-gates of his sorrow. It is not always that Chinamen are sufficiently well off to keep up the jrHe,- : but when they are it isnever neplected. Thursday last was the day fixed upon for the celebration of the ceremony in the Reefton cemetery, and the Chinamen gathered in from far and near. The fatted pig, bolus-bolup, and beautifully roasted, wes brought out of the hamper and deposited on a epank new table-cloth spread in front or the grave. The pig was yet smoking jhot, having just been taken out of the oven, and, notwithstanding the solemn,surroundings, diffused a grateful and 4 appetising odor of roast pork. Further dives into the hamper produced roast end boiled fowls, all tastefully trussed,, and lathered over with fish-oil. These were set round the pig, and the wjhole, having been, so to speak, fenced in toitbA bottlejLof wine and _brandy, the. table was laid. Another of the number then produced about half-a-dozen pounds of candles, which he lighted and stuck in the eart'i over the grave, aa also a number of Chinese candleß. Everything being ready, the Europeans present expected to see the Chinamen " fall to," upon the good things provided, and more than one had an especial eye upon the three-star brandy. Much, however, to the disappointment of all present the Chinamen did ! not " break bulk." bat merely knelt before the repast and bowed three times. The whole having in turn gone through this performance, the edibles were; returned carefully to the hamper, land borne homewards. The bottles of wine and bracdy were, however, left behind, and having been beheaded by one of the Mongolians, were hospitably circulated amongst the spectators. The celebration being over, and -the last Chinaman having passed out of the cemetery gate, the lighted; candles on the grave were immediately confiscated by the larrikins, who next proceeded to drain the bottles. A Hint to ottr Farmebs. — The Argus learns that the low rate at which wheat acd other cereals have been ruling lately has caused some farmers to turn their attention towards sowing other crops which may perhaps prove more remunerative. One farmer, Mr A. M. Tickner, of Biirrum Burrum, near Rupanyup, last season, as a trial crop, put in about /our acres of land with canary seed. The seasoD was rather dry, but . the average .yield per acre in this instance was from eight to nine bushels. According to the home papers, the current price of canary seed in Mark-laue/i8 from' 52s to 62s per cwt., thus allowing a good margin for profit to tho grbwer. The price per cwt. in Ballarat ia from 24a to 255. The cost of the seed will of course be greater' than t'h&t; of 'wheat, but the same expense is incurred in. putting in the crop. , The trouble ,of cleaning the seed is doubtless greater, but the matket price is more than Buflicient to make up for these little extras. We -have deen ; assure^ that there is a good market for jthis product, and higih prices ialmost always rule]; Mr Tickoer, at any rate, is well satis* 1 ; fled with .his. trial crop,, aud has this year put in about fifty acres of it. >

A New Mbasttbin g Instbume^t.—A remarkable machine. was dejscrjbfed at a recent meeting of , the Spcie'te q'Encouragement pour I'lndustrie Nationale, at Paris, called profilograpby because, when in use, it traces mechanically on paper- the outlines of i the ground over which it travels; \ it is described in one of our foreign contemporaries as a small carriage mounted on two wheels, (drawn by 3 one man,' and attended by another, who marks 1 the levels at the proper places ; and underneath hangs an iron rod with a large ball at its lower end, serving as a pendulum. This pendulum maintains a constant vertical position, while; the machine inclines in one direction or the other, according as it ascends or descends a slope. To the upper erjd of the rod is fitted a pencil, which marks on a sheet of paper the ups and downs of the country Ira versed, whether on an ordinary road or across trackless fields. The exact profile is thus recorded to a given scale. At the s.ame time, one of the wheels, acting thejpart of chain- bearer, measures and indicates the distances travelled throughout' the survey. For surveyors and others! engaged in levelling operations, jthis machine would-appear to be eminently serviceable, and; ithere/ns ;talk of its being made tise of in a new gerieral survey of France cdnteniplated by the Qovemmetat. A very remarkable coihmerciU "operation" is, according to the British Medical Journal, now goiog on. An Anglo-American Syndicate, controlling very large funds, is purchasing all the medicinal opium in ' the world. About 4000 oases are known to be in existence, of which the Syndicate have, bought half; and they intend to buy the coming short orop from Turkey, estimated at only 3000 cases more. As opium is an article of prime necessity ia medicine, end is Consumed at the rate of 6000 coses a year, they calculate on raising the price from 18a a pound to 48s, and indeed have raised it already in New York to 265. The, 'profit, if they succeed, will be enormous; but they run one or two serious risks, of which one is that a high price may check the consumption of laudanum for purposes other than medicine, and the other ia that science may utilise India opium. That drug at present is too refined and too weak in narcotic properties for medicine; but if the doctors want it, a second find much stronger extract could be made and forwarded to Europe. The trick, however, is constantly played with quinine, and occasionally succeeds, the speculators getting double prices. The price of corn continues to rise in Germany, so much so as to alarm the friends of cheap food and arouse the suspicion that by the new protectionist tariff the duty may have been raised beyond what is safe and advisable. In view of a fresh advance of the price by three marks the wispel (nearly five quarters) the popular agitation for a repeal of Prince Bismarck's " corn law " has revived, and is rapidly gaining ground. Sir Hugh Allan, the millionaire shipowner of Montreal, began life as a dry goods clerk with a capital of lOOdols. He is now worth 10,000,000d015,, is,. 70 years old, and may be seen at his .office busy with the details of his business frbm 10-o'clock in the morning until late in the afternoon of every working day.. At the time of the French revolution, an aristocrat, coming out of a theatre, said to somebody: servant^' " There are no. more Ber,vants," said a citizen sternly, "we are all brothers." "Then call your brother," observed the swell dryly. Artemus Ward's idea of a regiment of Brigadier-Generals was quite laughable, but Russia has enough. Generals to form a large regiment, and enough officers to form thirtythree, regiments. Frankfort-on-the Main will offer a great treat during the .current .month to all admirers ol athletic sports. Thisyear's General German Gymuastic Festival is appointed to be. held ijhere, on which occasion 20,000 athletes'-from all parts of thejempire, as well as .from Holland, Austria, Belgium, and America, will exhibit their prowess.

" Our 'French, racing' friends," soys the English i*' Licensed Victuallers' Gazette," " have 1100 horses in trailing in fifty-eight different stables." Sport improves in "La Belle France." In the province of Galicia, in Austria, there is a petroleum field some 400 miles long by 40 wide. The most westerly of the districts in work produces about 400 barrels of oil per day, the wells varying from 500 ft to 800 ft, and theioil being refined on the spot. An old angler says a fish docs not suffer much pain from being hooked. Of course not. It's the thought of how t his. weight will be lied about that causes him anguish. , It is said by the Boston Herald that a New York young lady beipg.questioned as to her opinion of Miss, Neilson's , beauty replied : "On the stage she is wonderfully handsome, but I shouldso like to see her with her face washed."