MOTUEKA HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 249, 11 December 1880, Page 2

MOTUEKA HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION.

To the Editor of the "Evening Mail.'' Sik, — Your correspondent " Feir Play " < appears to be as narrow-minded as tbe gardener. Ho seems to tbink that people compete at these exhibitions for the filthy lucre only, and tbat because the gardener returned the money, instead of doing harm i he has done much good. He cannot conceive , it possible that anyone can compete for the honor of taking the prizeß, and that an amateur's cbance of doing so against a gardener is very small. If the gardener only wished to exhibit hi 9 productions why did he compete for the prizes, and take the honor of winning them from the country amateurs? Why did ho not send them for " exhibition only ?" I am willing to admit that the gardener had a perfect right to compete, for the prizes ;. all I contend tor. js that he ought not to have done so if he wished to hel p the Society. The Society does hot want th^ money returned ; they, wish-, to encourage healthy competition, not humbug., „ ■-. ■'<■-''■■-.- Yours, &c., Fuchsia Fulgens. llth December, \ BBO. ?

>The Fiji Times publishes some valedictory verses on the depiarture of Sir Arthur Gordon ;f or New Zealand. The first four stanzas, give a fair idea of the>hole :— K_>t.a sigh was heard, not a farewell cheer, As. hjs Ex. gave the signal-for starting $ . Not a toady could squeeze out a crocodile tearWhile they went through the humbug of parting. No concourse of citizenß flocked to the Bfcrand J No public address was presented ; Not a kerchief was waved by a lily white hatid, And there wasn't a soul that lamented. They solemnly bore him away from the shore And the eyes of the people went affcer, But the only expression each countenance Was a broad grin approaching to latighter. It was grief, no doubt, to a cheerful mien Its sorrowful transports subduing, While the moral young persons from prim Aberdeen, Did the whole of the formal 800-booing. The Liverpool Daily Post sa^s :— " A mcl* aucholy death from the iise Of chloroform during a dental operation, happetied in Liverpool. Mrs. Edward Leventon. at HUyton, had previously undergone two similiar operations; and finally, she went to a surgeondentist's, in Mount Pleasant, tp submit to a third.. A lady friend and a. medical gentleman . accompanied her. Chloroform was administered to her, but, immediately afterwards'she gate a convulsive jump oufc ofthe chair and died." Several laboring men who lately quitted Wellington to try their fortune in Sydney, bave written to the Committee of the local Benevolent Institution, stating that they find they have "jumped oufc of, the frying-pan into the fire/being unable to find employment of any kind. ■_ The case of ;Mr E. H. Hargreaves, the first discoverer of gold in Australia, (who, by the way, Avas formerly an East Tamaki settler), saysa contemporary, should be a warning to those who put their faith in Government rewards for gold discoveries. Mr Hargreaves ;W_B voted- by the old Legislative Council £5000— though £10,000 was thesum originally recommended. Of the lesser sum, he has not received full payment,' a balance of £291 still remaining. When Mr Service got into power, prompted by a sense of honesty, he placed that amount upon the Estimates, but bis Ministry was ejected before the Estimates came on for discussion. Mr Berry, on returning to power, ignored the claim, and the matter is again brought forward by a private member. ' When the discoverer of gold went to England it was expected he would be made Baron Hargreaves, and now in his old age he is a suppliant at the bar of tbe House. They are preserving plum-puddings in tins jusfc now at Melbourne (says the Chronicle) and some of the visitors to the Exhibition have brought back a consignment to Wellington. They are in an excellent condition (both the puddings and the visitors), and no forlorn bachelor need spend the coming Christmas unhappily when he can' purchase a real plum pudding, ready for eating, for a trifle over one shilling. What is there in a coronership ? asks a Wellington contemporary. He presides at inquests on mysterious deaths. That's not pleasant. . He gets no fixed salary, but three sovereigns are handed to him for every body over which an inf uiry is held. That is what tbe Christchurch medical profession are squabbling over tooth and nail, and the Press recommends tb the Government the advisableness of giving the office to an outsider. It must be hard oust now with doctors down south. Nothing has yet been discovered relative to the disappearance of bills of exchange and promissory notes from the Bank of New Zealand on Monday last (says the Piji -Times of November. i 7) and, as the matter. at present stands, it is one of the most mysterious incidents tbat has occurred in the town. On the day in question the accountant gave one Of the clerks the bills for discount for the day; representing over £1,500. The clerk took tbem to his desk to execute certain Clerical work, preparatory to taking them in to. the manager. While doing this he left his desk to go to the other side of the banking room and was absent between t.wo.. or three minutes, and, on his return,, the documents had disappeared, The!. most thorough search has been made- in every direction but no trace of them has, up to the present time, been discovered. This occurred about 930 a.m. and before the bank was open to the public, and all are clear that none but the bank officials, a Polynesian messenger, and oue other person . were in the banking room at the time. It seems incredible tbat they could bave been taken for felonious purposes and as equally beyond belief that anyone could have interfered with them with a malicious design. At the request of the bank the local firms are supplying duplicates of the missing documents. The Rev. Dr. Croke, Archbishop of Cashel, has collected £2,766 as tbe subscription for the past year from his diocese, to Peter's Pence. Dr. Croke will himself carry the amount to Rome and personally present it to the Pope. — Not so bad for a famine-stricken country! During the hearing of a case at the Timaru R.M. Court recently, a rather amusing discussion arose, as to what did aud what did not constitute drunkeness. A witness, on being pressed by Mr Hamersley, ; defined drunkenness as the state of a man who is rendered by liquor incapable of attending to his business. Mr Beetham here remarked tbat be had been 20 years on the Bench, and he could not determine what drunkenness was. Inspector Pender (adds the South Canterbury 7iwje.)i amidst some laughter, observed that tbe police definition of the term was when a man could not see to thread a needle. In these days of cheap wines and newfangled vintages ifc is good to read a list like the following. The London Times recently noticed the sale of tbe famous cellar of wines formed by the late Mr W. S. Cartwright, of Newport, Monmouthshire, the well-known owner of racehorses, and which sale brought some of the highest prices ever known. The good old-fashioned port and sherry, with clarets of all the noted vintages, and a few lots of Perrier Jouett's choicest cuvee, 1870, with corks cemented, constituted the. cellar, which had been for the last 30 years supplied by Messrs John Harvey and Sons, of Bristol. The choicest of the old deep gold sherries, familiarly styled " Bristol milk," sold at frbm 110s to 120s per dozen, some of the ■"cream" bringing as much as 2705. About twenty dozen of good old sherry, called "George Frederick," laid down to commemorate the winning of the Derby by Mr Cartwright's horse of that name in 1874, considered to be the finest Zeres wine that grows, brought from 230s to 250s a dozen. The Cockburn's, port of 1847. brought five guineas a dozen; '54 brought 645; and Sandeman's of 1851 sold for 98s. Of the clarets, Leoville Lascazes', 1865, sold for 90s. The same kind of vintage, 1864, brought 200s ; and Chateau Latour, 1858, ' 2405. Of the champagne, all of which was Perrier Jouet, that of 1870, "Carte dOr," sold for 240s to 300 a; choicest cuvee, 1865, brought 3605. Burgundi, Romance Conti, 1858, Maret and Belair, sold for 220s ; and Madeira, choice old Bual, shipped by Leacock, bottled 1862, brought 310s ; and some lots of pints of the same wine realised as much aß*. 160s per dozen. 4^. he, wines all lie in tbe at Bristol, where they were laid. > *'• -- ' '*' Mr Pyke, iv returning thanks for his election io the Vincent County .chairmanship for the fourth time without' opposition^ is reported by the Dunstan Times to have said :— '. He was glad that they. had, done so because it would give him an opportunity of pulling the County coaoh out of the difficulty. He accepted the' honor, but it was at a sacrifice of his own personal interests, as he had had offers made to him in connection with the Press which would much better remunerate him. But he felt that it would be cowardly to,: desert the -ship ih distress. It should not be said pf him that-he stuck to the County in the days of its prosperity and deserted in the day of adversity ; therefore he was willing to. give jariq'ther year to, 'the business of the County.. During that period, he hoped to-be able to extricate -the- County from its financial difficulties, ah-1 that having" [been accomplished, he should retire and ask the Council to elect some' other member as chairman, so that he might be able to attend !to >his own interests. Having then given four years to the public he thought it would be/admitted that he had performed his share j. of local public work."