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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 79, 2 April 1881, Page 4

An attempt is. being made in tbe United States to utilise paper for tbe making of tbe barrels in which petroleum and. kerosene arc Bent to this country and elsewhere, Faw persons are aware that the coat of the barrels now used! is comparatively, low ; but the number i used ia so enormous that a saving ;of one cent per barrel would add throb hundred dollars a day to the incotMJ3 of the company. The barrels are mad p and painted by machines tended by two men and a boy, which turns out 1200 as a day* work j at a cost of 1 dol 25 cents each; and es the company makjes 30 000 a day, an economy of onlyj a cent is equivalent to a caving of £60|! Compressed paper pulp, much of wjhich ia made ft oraetewed sawdust, is a material t>f surprising strength, but. if the barrel-makers Eucoeed in their efforts to reduce the cost by , cv r en : two or three cents, .it. remains to be seen wha£ is to be done with tbe J empty barrels. At present the wooden casks 1 are up into washing. Jnbs, and at worst are excellent firewood ;, perhaps the paper barrels will not be so ugefiil here; ..The English Beibery Bill.— Tl c London correspondent of the Argnsi writing on January 14kb, says :— il The Govemooeat. ep^akinar through the Royal speech, proignoflticatea a more than! usually arduous session. In additioajto their own propoaals, q host of private notices of motion are already in the field. The Bribery Bill, introduced by Sir Henry James, is by far the mostj important which has yet been brought forward.. It ia , accepted by. both] tbe Times and tbe Standard as likely to inaugurate * a revolution ' in our electoral system. It makes bribery a crime punishable. by, hard labor as well

as imprisonment:, end it fences the purity of election with numerous safeguards. Whether the Bill may not out too sharply, considering (he dim moral aen^e of the cemmonity on this subject, may be o question, bot it will be seen to cut at the roots of one of our great up&s trees. 'A candidate guilty of bribery will be disqualified for. the rest of his life from representing the same constituency. If a publican allows bribery on his premises, or distributes drink during elections without being paid at the limp, his license will be forfeited. Any voter scheduled by the election judges will be inonpable for voting for ten yearp. The public prosecutor is to send a representative to the trial of every election petition,: to prosecute before the judges any person auilty.ofrcorr.upt practices who has not received a certificate of indemnity, and such' person mays be summarily convicted . and sentenced to six months' hard labor; unless he fleets to be tried by a jury at the Central Criminal CouK Paid canvassers are to be abolished, but one agent and n limited number of clerks may be employed in each polling district of a county, or for every 500 (lectors in a borough, and b persooatioo agent io each polling booth Only one committee room in each dietrict may be employed, and tbat. may not be in a licensed house. The conveyance of electors may no longer be paid for by candidates. A time is to be fixed within which payments by an agent must be made, and these must be declared in a statutory form to be complete. Neglect of any of these rules will forfeit the seat. Not the least important provision of the Bill is a. scheduled maximum of expenditure proportioned Co the b'izq of the constituency." Truth says, /'Lord Beaconsfield is injblgh spirits in regard to the ' situa tion.' His conviction is that the majority at the last election was obtained entirely by Mr Gladstone's eloquence, and by- the successes of the first, day creating an enthusiasm that carried everything before it. The country, he thinks, is awakening to the dangers of a House of Commons of bo radical a complexion as the present one, an<d it would not surprise us were he "to provoke an. appeal to the constituencies by throwing out some) Bill in the House of Lords;? Under the title "Postal Catf?/'_ the; London telegraph says "that certain Dutch naturalists have come to. the sage conclusion that Grimalkin may be utilised as a leiter-cairier with considerable advantage to public interests. These worthies propose to organise a service of post cats, and are at present engaged, by a series- of ingenious- experiments, in testing' pussy's capacities for delivering the^ mails. Selecting Luik for their headrquarteraj they then despatch a number of cats, securely tied up in woollen bags, to the neighboring villages, where they are freed 1 from confinement and turned loose, ' with neat packets of letters firmly strapped to their backs. At once their domestic instincts come into full play, and they swiftly flee homeward with unswerving directness. Of thirty-seven cats thus constrained to serve their country, not one. has hitherto failed to fulfil its postal, function with excellent punctuality. It is feared, however, that when a double service shall be arranged, difficulties and delays might arise from the meetings of post-cats on the high-road., If the feline postman can be inspired with a high sense of duty, overriding personal impulse, all will be well; Failing this, we . apprehend that irregularity in delivery will take place. .-.,, ._•.-.! The Cornish. Te legrap h of January 6th, : gives the following :-—". Among the Dunrobin Castle's passengers ' who landed at Plymouth on Thursday, the 30tU December last, from the Cape, was -a fortunate digger; who, by one stone.alone whichhe lils found, has made a very handsome fortune. Mr Porter Hhodes^waSj workilog successfully, in a moderate; Way, a. claim allotment in the diggings, when- he turried ; up the r -asyet unrivalled, Cape,, gem .that, was brought jbome Jfc»y the ijTnion. Company's. Steamship German. This diamond is considered to ,be the most ; yal\iable that has hitherto; been found in South. Africa not alone from its large' size, j : but ,frpm the pureness and brilliancy of its 'quality, and. ijfc i§ considered , not , to 'bef excelled' by either of tlie historical diamjotids previously known in Europe, Placed on a piece of the most delicate ; white satin, the textile. fabric exhibits, a. yellow- tinge in comparison with the lustre, of the, gem, Mr Ehodes was offered, by a dealer at ,. the. diggings £80,000 for the diamond immediately after its discovery. It was exhibited for a few hours 'at the diggings, at a guinea per head, when Mr Rhodes at once netted 809 guineas.; It;waß> subsequently exhibited at Cape Town at a moderate figure. What will be the ultimate amount at which Mr Rhodes wilipar.t with his; fortunate iind-ia, hot known, but it is stated that he has received an offer of £150,000 for a half 'snare in it. ;

A correspondent of the Dunedin Times made a curious complaint recently about two dogs which were in the habit of fishing in the water of Leith. He says they drive the fish near to the mouth of the Water of Leith, from the deep to the shallow part of the stream, and then catch and make a luscious repast off the least active members of the finny tribe, which were probably trout "not fully acclimatised. ' . John Russ, a brushmaker in business in the Kingland-road, was convicted at the Middlesex sessions of stealing gas. He, hnd made a surreptitious communication with the main supply pipe, by 'which he could obtain gas for a large number of lights without it passing'through the meter. The apparatus, used was most ingenious. The assistant-judge sentenced the prisoner to tie imprisoned aud kept to hard labor for j six months.