NELSON MUSEUM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 113, 13 May 1881, Page 2

NELSON MUSEUM.

To THE EdITOK OF THB "EvENINO MAIL." Sib— A writer in an essay on the " art of putting things " saya :— •" It seems to mo tbat, in the case of many of tbose fine thiogs I which stir the heart and bring moisture to the eye, it depends entirely on the way in which they are put, whether they shall , strike us as pathetic or silly, as sublime or ridiculous. I cannot but think, Mr Editor, ;that the paragraph in reference to presentations to the Nelson Museum in yonr issne of the 7 tb inst. (so unlike your nsaal way of ;" putting things ") was furnished by a member of the Committee of the Nelson Institute, wbich held a meeting on Wednesday, the 4th inst. To cover the ungracious act of rejecting the presentation of an old settler, the reporter devised the plan of .giving an hyperbolical air of silliness and, at the same time, a boorish attempt at wit in the minutes of the proceedings of that meeting. Now, Sir, it is not so much the intrinsic value of any article exhibited in the Museum as the many associations, or ths circumstances in connection either with the giver or the gift which may render the said article interesting to the public. For the life of me I do not see wby a threepenny flower pot, the first made in Nelson, should find a favorable reception and a place of deposit, and the first bedposts turned in the Province by pne of our oldest and most respected settlers be sneeringly rejected. If the Committee are justified in refusing presentations, who, 1 would ask, will go out of tbeir way to send any curiosities or interesting specimens to the Museum ? A feeling will influence the would-be donor that his gift will only lead to a silly and childish exhibition of would-be Wit in the churlish rejection of his offer. If I am mistaken in my surmise that tbe minutes of the meeting above alluded to were furnished to you in a somewhat hyperbolical manner and certainly silly in their tone, and the undignified discussion did actually take place, then I say that the memliers of the Committee might have been much better employed.-— I am, &c, Fair Plat. [It is our reporter and not a member of the ( Committee who must lie under the serious • charge of havicg " devised a plan of givj ing an hyperbolical air of silliness and, at 1 the same time, a fcoorlgb attempt ftt wit."-** jEp. N.E.M/j -

The following letter re the Chinese invasion has been received by his Worship the Mayor of Sydney from one of the oldest and beet respected nativea of the Colony :— "Dear Sir,— Pibroch of Doneil Dbu, Pibroch of Donald ; Wake thy wild voice again, Summon clan Connel. I, as a humble citizen, call upon you to gather tbe clans together— English, Irish, and Scotch, and their descenden.s, and let us join as ono man to stop tho Chinese invasion. We hear what they havo done at Singapore, in California, and at Honolulu. Aro we to fold our arms till they bring disease and death to our shores ? No, no. Lot i;s bestir ourselves and see what can bo done before it is too Inte. The report of the Superintendent of the Insurance Companies' Fire Brigade in Sydney for the pasfc year has recently been issued, showing tbat tho btfgado has been called o,ut 30? times during rhe year, but only 79 of the alarms led to good honest fires, the remainder being chimney scares, or something even Icsh tangible. .Of the fires only IS resulted in total destruction, and 4 in serious damage—a tery favorable piece of treatment; for such a large city to reoeive at the hauds of the relentless fire-fiend. The Sydney correspondent of the N.Z. Times saya j— The " Heathen Chinee " has been getting into trouble. Whether thd said trouble ia to bo traced to the late heavy influx I know not, but certain it ia that twentyseven of the almond-eyed Celestials are in durance vile. Aud all this bother was over an innocent little game of the lottery or monster consultation class, known by the very euphonious title of •' pak-ah-pu.'-' Thh game bas only recently been introduced here, and aboufc tbe first drawing came off about two nights since. : The detectives getting wind bf the affair surprised both the lambs and the shearers, and lodged twenty-seven of the company in the watch-house. A bill will be laid before Parliament during tbe ensuing session, the object of which is-to found an Institute of Surveyors in New Zealaud. The bill provides for the establishment of the association as a cor-porate-body, the election of officers, the Appointment of a council, and tbe examination of candidates. The council is em powered to make all necesaary rules and regulations, and to fix upon tbe standard of qualification which will be required from surveyors desirous of becoming members of the Institute. The measure, if ifc becomes law, should have a good effect in improving tbe status of tbe profession, and affording the" public a means of securing a thoroughly qualified man wben tbey wish to call in the services of a surveyor.— Post. In a long, descriptive letter, written by a passenger (Mr Geo. Warburton) on his way to England, he refers to his brief view of tbe Bay of Islands District. He says :— " I was much, surprised to see so little improvement generally, knowing this to be the oldest settlement in New Zealand. When we had finished cottlihg, we returned to RusselL We took a stroll into the cemetery, where the sailors and marines, who fell ih Heke's war, wgre buried ; then walked roiind the settlement} which seems devoid of life, excepting when & steamer arrives, the settlers then wake np and rub their eyes, until the departure of the vessel, then the settlement gradually returns to its sleepy condition. In evidence of. the truth of ;tnis st-A'.flraent, I may say, they import all their food, potatoes, grain &c, from the South. I suggested that, as the land was in a state of nature* it would be quite possible to grow anything if a little labour wa3 spent upoa it. The settlers ehi'tig-gedl their shoulders, and considered that it was cheaper to import, and co I left them;" A Chicago J'oung than broke into tbe room of the girl he loved, to carry her away, as she refused to marry bim. She was ab sent, but had left tbe bull-dog asleep on her bed. Tbe room was dark. The dog didn'i bark, but -worked. , In about seven minutes the remains of the young man came out, and said he wouldn't marry that girl for £20,000. In an interview with Dion Boucicault on the Iriah question, in the Boston Traveller . the actor is made to say i " You mu?t remember that the Irish people are nofc a theatrical people. The Irish drama in America is more supported by Americans than by Irish. The Irish are too fond of acting themselves, even in their own theatri cal entertainments. Tbis is so much the fact tbat in Dublin I have been obliged, on more tban one occasion, to ask the audience on which side of tho foot-lights the performance was going on, and whether I was not the spectator and they the actors.'' Acomparative statement, recently publish' ed in Sydney, discloses a wonderful diversity of opinion among Colonial Governments as to tbe value of their pastoral lands. In New South Wales the average annual rental per iquare mile paid by pastoral tenants is 15s. 7£d« » South Australia and Queensland show much below this at 4s. Bf . and 7«. 10Jd. re»pecrively ; Tasmania and Victoria oharge higher rentals than New South Wales, their , ratea being respectively £2 12f 10|d. and £3 18s. Id., while New Zealand comes next ' (Jongo inter villo) at £5 Bs. 9|d. per iquare mile. ; The Auckland Corporation accounts for tbe half-year show the city funds to be satisfactory. The total liabilities are £237,000, the assets being valued at £278,000. Arrears , of rates amount to £3152. Bismarck is still grappling with tbe Socialist. A Berlin telegram of April 2nd aays :— "ln the Reichstag to-day, during a discussion of Bismarck's schemes for the compulsory insurance of workmen against accident, Herr Richter vehemently attacked the Bill, which he Baid was merely a set-off ; against the anti-Socialist law. He warned the Reichstag against the dictatorial proceedings of Bismarck, whose prestige, he declared, was fortunately on the wane. Bismarck replied that tbe Bill was not a Socialist measure, bufc one furthering practical Christianity, and it should be judged on its merits, not with the watch-cry, " Away with Bismarck." Mr James Brown whose writings ■ under the nem de plume of " Snyder" have made him well-known throughout New Zealand has had the misfortune to fall foul of the "J" Batter/ of Artillery Volunteers afc Poverty Bay. He published in the Poverty Bay Hera d some severe. strictures on the discipline maintained afc the Volunteer Easter Encampment in that district, and in retaliation the Volunteers burnt him in effigy. In a subsequpnt letter to the Herald Mr Brown humorously states the case thns :— ' ' When the effigy of myself was duly completed, I was taken out, hung up on a sour apple tree, to the tin whistling of * Old John Brown.' I was>afterwards fired on by a volley, and then carried round the encampment, the - tin-whistlers playing the « Rogue's March.' From this I cannot have tbe.least reason to donbt but ■what the strictest discipline was enforced, and martial law rigidly insisted oh. And so we live and learn. We learn that while officers and men are on military duty, and in presence of Her Majesty's Colours, and further, presumed to be in the vicinity of an enemy from whom they may expect an attack at any instant, the strictest discipline is being enforced nnd martial law rigidly insisted on, whilst hanging, shooting, and burying an editor simply because he wrote of things, which he would never have known had he not been informed by the Volunteers themselves. Keeping up till three o'clock in the morning afc canteen work and slaying an editor in ei&gy I now come to know as ' strictest military discipline.' God help üb— the longer a man lives the more he learns. When the history of Volunteer Encampments oomes to be written for the benefit of future generations, wbat a vast fund of valuable instruction ifc will afford. Gentlemen of tbo "J " Battery, I have been charged by somo two or three among you with having written from malice and vindictiveness. The charge is altogether a wrong and mistaken one. Mosfc of you have been long personally known to me. Many have been my personal friends. Some I have been on visiting terms with. I have dined and suppered with you, have offered you the hospitality of my bouse, and have received yours in return. I have drank with you; have borrowed your tobacco, and have during our acquaintance and friendship " made " a few knires, and I hope yet, when in your cooler and less angry moments, you come to understand that it was the system I attacked and not yourselves tbat we shall oaee more resume acquaintanceship and eater typon , former f clenflly feelings,"

The Japanese keep grasshoppers in cages as domestic pets, treat dogs and cats wifch distinguished consideration, provide horses and oxen with straw socks, regard it as a high honor to own a donkey, revere the fox, and almost worship the rabbit. The "Pirates of Penzance " by the latest accounts is still running afc Home to crammed houses, and the samo may be said of ifc at Sydney, judging from tbe following :— "There was a great bouse to witness the 37th conßecu( ive presentation , of the " Pirates of Penzance," at the Theatre Royal on Saturday, and it does not appear to bave loßt favor iv any way. In pOiut Of fact, fche music of tbe Pirates, though nofc nearly so catching as that of Pinafore, grows on the hearer, and it will always remain a favorite." Whafc an appetite for gore the man must possess into whose brain the idea first entered of burning petro'cuni for repelling hostile fleets from harbours. "A hundred thousand barrels of oil, suggests this apostle of homicide, poured upon an outflowing tide would cover a large area of water, and when set; on fire* would sweep a fleet with a torrent of destruction that nothing could resist. When a stream of burning oil ran down the Alleghany River last Avintor the flames sometimes leaped up nearly ahundred feet, and threw out lateral tongues of _ fire terrible to see. Such flames round an ironclad fleet would asphyxiate all on board. Another plan would be to link together long lines or rafts of oil barrels and send them against the fleet by small swift steam launches that could be exploded and the oil fired by the same agency afc the proper moment; and if necessary, line after line of the fire rafts could be drifted or driven against the enemy, until every vessel was destroyed. Such an application of floating fire might also be used to protect a system of torpedoes in a ship channel, by making it impossible to operate any counter system for exploding or removing the torpedoes by men in small boats. Obviously, tbis plan would not do to rely upon generally, though in certain emergencies it might be resorted to witb terrible effect." There died recently at Bayview Asylum, New York, one of the mosfc singular persons that had ever lived— a female with a woman's head and the body and arms of a child. Her name was Katie Dashields. She was received in the old country alms house in 1832 with her mother, During all the time she was in the institution her head grew with each day and year, until it became the head of a woman, but below the neck nature was at a stand- still. She occupied to the day of her death the child's chair she occupied in 1832, when three years old, and slept in the same crad'e. Her arms and hands were beautiful, and tha would show them with great pride ,to ea< b visitor. This vanity was about the only womanly trait she exhibited, and with the exception of being alive to remarks complimentary to tha whiteness and perfection of her hands and arms, she seemed to be insensible to all else passing around her. Tbia singular creature was subject to epilepsy, and this is whafc caused her wonderful condition. Sbe ate and slept well and seemed in her nsual health up to fifteen minutes before her death, when she was ; seized with an epileptic fit, from which she never reccf ered. Katie was 48 years of age at the time or her death. A certain gentleman living in the neighborhood (say. the Timaru Htrald) waa summoned to appear as a witness in a civil case. ! Before giving his evidence he asked for his expenses, and was assured by a solicitor appearing in the case that he would see he got them. Some daya s^seciuent this gentleman being in town and meeting the lawyer said, "Oh, by the way, how did you get on with the case in which I appeared asa witness? Did you get the money?" The legal gentleman said he bad gained bis case, and parted without on offer on his parfc to pay the witness' expenses. Some days after this gentleman beiug in town again accidentally met the lawyer, who accosted him, saying he bad a little account against him. "An account against me?" said the person accosted, " Why I have had no dealings with you whatever; you never did anything for me: (what do I owe you an account for?" "Do you remember meeting me in the street a little wbi c back and asking me if I had gained a certain casein Court?" "Yes, but you surely are not going to charge me for that simple question?" " Certainly I am. You asked me a question, and I live by people asking me questions." "What tben is your charge?" « Ten and sixpence." " Well, if that is so, I have an account againßt you, namely, my expenses in Court guaranteed by you at the time of the hearing of the case, which iB likewise 10s 6d, which I never intended to ask for," and bo the matter was eventually squared, the gentleman frora tbe country vowing thafc the leas one had to do with lawyers of snch a class the better. i i ii mi — - -_■— n— - — * ' ll * ,r "