Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 134, 7 June 1881, Page 2

Anders Janaen, whose miraculoui recovery from the bush was described in our recent telegrams writes aa under to the Manawalu Timts : — I am very much obliged to the men who went to look after me, a 'so I am glad that the Government authorities did not bother themselves about me, tor I travelled too quickly for them to overtake me in the bush. I left the Hit or Miss Company's diggings on the first of May, 1881, and had no matches, no tobacco, and no blankets ; neither bad I a morsel of food, and had to climb a rata tree and remain there for two hours to escape from the wild cattle. Then it came dark, and for the first fourteen days I waa wet through, and I m&rktd my natne on several trees in case any person might come that way. On the 23rd I croseed the Manawatu at about 4.30 p m., there baing about four feet of water in the river at the time, and shortly after that I reached J. Jacobsen's camp, about 4or 5 miles from WoodTille, on Mr. Ormond'B property. I ate nothing from the Ist to the 7th, but then I commenced to eat the fern tops." A contemporary learns from a reliable source that Mr Thomas Russell, formerly of Auckland, now in London, is known to have made a profit of £750,000 by speculating in the rise and fall of Turkish bonds on the London Stock Exchange. The operation ex tended over two or three years, when the Eastern question was active. " Jacob Terry" (Mr. R J. Creighton), in his interesting American notes, has the following: — "I know New Zealanders take a hint kindly, even though they never intend to profit by it. Now, as you are trying to make both ends meet and pay your taxes, and as you have not a very large market for your produce, would it not be well to establish manufactures when you can ? In the State of Maine, for several years, there was no demand for potatoes, but the farmers did not give up growing them. Co-operative starch factories Were established to convert the potatoes into starch, and there are now twenty-two of them in one county; alone in that State. • These factories run ninety days each season, and will use three million bushels of potatoes, at twenty cents, or lOd per bushel. This provides a local market for the potato crop of the country to the extent of £120,000, creates labour, and encourages the farmers. Starch will sell when potatoes are unsaleable. Why not try it ? A correspondent supplies the Melbourne Argus with the following information concerning the London daily paper which figured bo prominently in the libel suit tried there a few weeks ago:—" In the late libel trial of Lawaon v. Labouchere it waa elicited that the Telegraph had been purchased about 20 years back for less than £5000, by three small capitalists of the Jewish race. It was the first of the penny dailies, and had been a loss to Colonel Sleigh, who started it. One of the trio of purchasers lately died, leaving three millions sterling as the value of bis property acquired by such purchase. The daily advertisements were said to be nearly £600 in value, and the day's income from sales to be something over that amount. An interesting specimen of porbesgh thark (Lammi Punctatd) was caught recently off Great Feek, L. I. It was a female, and wa« sent to Mr E. G* Blackford, of that city, who says : "When I received her she had not been dead more than seven hours. From the immense size of her stomach I thought she mußt have awallowed a barrel or two of moss bunkers, and to gratify my curiosity I opened her. Imagine my surprise when, instead of moss bunkers, I found ten little sharks, evidently her offspring, and all the same size — exactly two feet long, I should say they were about six months old, for a young shark when hatched from the egg measures about four inches. It has beea a disputed question among fishermen for some time, whether young sharks in time of danger, do not Beek safety in their mother's stomach. I think this case; proves that they do, for the little ones were perfectly sound ; there was no mark on them as if digestion had begun, and I have not a doubt but that if the mother had not been captured, as soon as the excitement was over, the little ones would, have worked their way outiuto saltwater again, and in due time become big enough to give some unfortunate fisherman considerable trouble." The specimen measured six feet in length, and was captured in a school of moss bunkers or menhaden,— Scientific American f

Zola contributes a long article on Eussia and the Nihilists to the Paris Figaro. He ridicules the idea that it is possible to found a republic in Eussia in the present state of Eussian society. The 60,000,000 peasants forming the greater part of the nation are ignorant, isolated, and wholly devoted to the Czar. The populur clamor in the towns is powerless for revolution, and if the Nihilists continue their policy of blood and violence we may some day witness the spectacle of an infuriated peasantry rushing blindly to the resctte of their " Little Father," The London correspondent of the Argus says t-~" If it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, l'ain siiotlld be advantageous for some people. A milkman convicted of selling milk with 20 per cent of water in it has taken this principle for granted, and grounded his defence upon the late prevalence of wet weather. ' Some rain water,' he thought, ' must have got into the cans.' The simplicity of the suggestion so well harmonising with the Arcadian character of his calling would seem very touching, yet the brutal magistrate only said, ' Forty shillings ; call the next case.' " We are told by a southern contemporary that Mr Moody, with bis faithful lieutenant Sankey, has conquered San Francisco. There has long been a vague popular belief that the Pacific coast offered only stony ground to the missionaries. Owing, perhaps, to the veracious pictures of Mr Bret Harte, the untravelled American is apt to regard California as peopled solely by bonanza kings, heathen Chinese, and gamblers of a murderous but sentimental character who offer an unhopeful field to any evangelists. The secular papers in San Francisco, however, state that the result of the present labors of Moody and Sankey in that city are not only startling but promise to be permanent. "No evangelists," they say, "since the days of Whitfield have seen more immediate or important effects of their labors than these two men." Not only did the Chinese possess coins at a very early period, but they were also, it is said, the inventors of bank notes. Some writers regard bank notes as having originated about 119 B.c , in the reign of Emperor Ou-ti. At this time the Court was in want of money, and to raise it, Klapreth tells us that the Prime Minister hit upon the following device : — When any princes or courtiers entered the imperial presence, it was customary to cover the face with a piece of skin. It was first decreed, then, that for this purpose tbe skin of certain white deer kept in one of the royal parks should alone be permitted, and then these pieces of skin were sold for a high price. True bank notes are said to have been invented about 800 A.d.. in the reign of Hian-tsoung, of the Thang, and were called jeutsien or "flying money." Enterprise of a thoroughly legitimate kind is occasionally evinced in odd ways. When the Prince of Wales visited Niagara, the New York Herald had pre-arranged all tho telegraphic wires, so that that paper might have a monopoly of the intelligence for that day. But it so happened that His Eoyal Highness waa some hours behind time, and this threw the Rtrald staff somewhat out of their calculations. Mr House, their chief reporter on the spot, wired to the editor : — " What is t.t be done to keep tbe wires in our hands?" "Telegraph the Book of Genesis," was Mr Bennett's reply. It was done — at a cost of seven hundred dollars— and still the Prince was not come, " What now," again wired Mr House. "Book of Revelation," replied Mr Bennett. This was iD«tantly begun ; but happily, in the course of its transmission the Prince arrived, and the Herald's triumph was secured. The London correspondent of the N.Z, Times writes: — Considerable interest is being centred in the volunteer system at the present moment, not only on account of the 20,000 men of all branches who have been reviewed this Easter at Brighton, but also because many people think that in this system may be found a plan for relieving the regular army from its home duties, and occasionally also supplying a regiment for foreign service, in this way adopting, by purely voluntary effort, some of the best features of the Prussian system without the abomination of conscription, which under no circumstances could ever be permitted to take root in this country. The enormous influx of Chinese into the Hawaiian islands, which has been going on for the past two years and which still con - tinues with no apparent signs of cessation, is looked upon with alarm by the white residents of the islands, and the greatest public indignation is expressed by them at the rapid increase in the number of Chinese in the kingdom, which threatens to overrun the island with them. According to recently compiled statistics, it has been ascertained that there are more Chinamen in the kingdom than there are of adult males of all other nationalities put together. The chief of one of our principal telegraph offices (Bays the Wanganui Herald) possesses a fair voice and some knowledge of music, and he is accordingly in request at concerts for benevolent objects. He is also popular with his subordinates, who can venture on alittle joke with him. Their latett idea is to Attend the concerts in full force When the chief comes on a tapping is heard at various points of the hall. The public cannot under stand the tapping, but the singer can. Pie knows that the telegraphists are signalling to each other, and that such messages as '•What a mouth he's got." "Do you see his tooth in tbe upper starboard tier ?" are flying about in the air, and he finds it difficult to keep his countenance.