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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 135, 8 June 1881, Page 2

Mr Gladstone (says the Home Newi) was one of the first persona in the metropolis made acquainted with the assassination of the Emperor of Russia on the arrival of the news. It happened that ah bottr or two after tbe receipt bf the news the right hon. gentleman walked down from Downing-street to the University Club, where a number of members were reading the Sunday papers and lounging about. Tbe Premier remained in the readingroom for some time examining mapa of Greece and Turkey, and then took his departare without addressing any one. Just as he was stepping into the street he informed the hall porter that the Emperor of Busiia had been assassinated ! The man told hig fellowservants, and the intelligence soon ip'read all oxer the club. " But how do you know that it ia true? " exclaimed the members in an excited manner ; to which the ball porter replied, " I had it from Mr Gladstone just as he was stepping into the street." The Premier had never informed any of bis friends at the club, but reserved a piece of information— the importance of which has convulsed tbe world — for the private ear of that hall porter ! The Taranaki Herald's Urenui correspondent writes: — The native prisoners returned here laßt week, after an absence of close on two years. They are remarkably sleek and fat to what they were when taken from here. They all say they were treated very well in Otago, in fact, not like prisoners. They left here on Monday for Faribaka with the other natives, and I do not think they will be back here for some time, in fact, as one of them said to me, "We now live at Parihaka." The prisoners are going to build a large wbare at Parihaka. They seem to be anxiously expecting ,the return of Hangi Puananga, the head man of the Te Whitiites, but be refused to return as long as one man remains in gaol. When he returns, something extra in the atua line is to take place—what, your correspondent does not know, nor the natives either. The natives are waiting for land claims to be settled and the land given them, for which they have held scrip thirteen or fourteen years. They keep asking me, When is tbe Royal Commissioner going to sit down this way?

The Duke of Manchester, accompanied by Mr. Lof tvs and Mr. W. Laidley, recently paid a visit to the rooms of Mr. Milner Stephen, the Sydney healing medium, and sat there an hour watching him heal some ladies and gentlemen of sundry diseases of long standing, and amongst others deafness . According to the Sydney Evening New*, his Grace thereupon asked Mr. Stephen if he thought he could cure him of deafness in one ear of 12 years' standing, which the Duke said had been caused by a fall while hunting, which had also affected one eye tosuch an extent that he was obliged to use an eye-glass to bring it to the same strength of vision as the other, Mr. Stephen made the reply that, as the Duke had witnessed two persons receive their hearing, who, by a curious coincidence, had both been deaf the same number of years as his Grace viz., 12 years, he might reasonably expect the same successful result. The Duke accordingly submitted himself to be "breathed upon," and in about three minutes he put Ilia watch, to his ear and; with evident delight, exclaimed that " he had not heard it 'tick' before for 12— aye 20 years. In another minute he took up a newspaper, to try his eye, saying that "he could see much clearer with it." The Duka pressed Mr. Stephen to accept a fee, which he declined, on the ground that his Grace had come as a visitor, and he must allow himself to be treated as such. The Duke had the opportunity of witnessing the phenomenon of clairvoyance— a little girl of 13 or 14 having examined (with eyes closed) two or three patients, about whose cases the doctors had differed, and the girl's diagnosis appeared to state each patient's sensations.

There is in London a Cinderella Dancing Club. As the name indicates, all the dances break up at the hour of midnight. But to belong to this fraternity, or sisterhood— for ladies are eligible— you must first establish your character aa a proficient dancer by showing your ability to waltz up the - ballroom, bo as to never deviate from one plank. Then you have to perform the same feat, doing the reverse,

A Constantinople telegram of May 2 states that the retreat of the brigands who captured Suter, \the English journalist, and demanded a ransom for him, was cut off on the land side by Turkish troops, and by sea bygnßboats. A Turkish gunboat recently chased a barque which was believed to bo manned by the brigapds, and having several times vainly summoned her to stop, sank her. It is feared Suter was on board the barque.

An Olago paper has received a poem (on cardboard) concerning the wreck of the Tararua, with an accompanying photograph of the vessel in the act of breaking up (an imaginative scene, of course). The poem is by George Scott. Our contemporary does not know who is responsible for the spellibg — Mr Scott or bis printers-!— but '<Morn Zealandia, morn for thy sons," iB scarcely up to the recognised standards A gigantic railway scheme is on the tapis in Australia. It contemplates the construction of a line connecting ull the capitah— Briabane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, It ia Bald that capitalists are prepared to undertake the Venture if they can obtain certain concessions in the shape of grants of land. It is corisideied that with the provinces thus linked together the federal Sentiment will become areality, and that the various Colonies will seek that closer union which is desirable for the proper development of their resources and the attainment of a national position. A gentleman twelve months ago (says the Adelaide Ohierver) sent to England a case of colonial wine, with instructions to an agent there not to open any of the bottles, but to re-pack theni in a case with the Madeira brand, and send them back to South Australia. This was done, and on its return the owner said he had just received a consignment of the best Madeira) and invited his Mends, including come connoisseurs, 1 to sample it. Their commendations were eloquently expressed, and just before the company broke' up, the chief of the cpnnoisseurs remarked. " Superb wine. - Never be. able to come within (looey of it in these colonies." Then the host explained. " Let me have another taste," said the somewhat confused connoisseur, and then with a deprecating gesture, " H'm, there is a colonial twang about it" after all." A horse at) Faribault,' Minn, turned loose in his master's dooryard, saw a basket upon a pole alout seven feet from the ground. It contained a pet cat. The horse walked to the basket, put his nose up to investigate it and the cat gave the intruding nose a likely scratch. The horse turned round, looked over its shoulder, as though to take aim and measure the distance, and cat, basket and all, Bhot into the air like a rocket. The horse watched tha success of the shot, then gave a low whinny of delight, and then walked away. A wedding cake of unusual dimensions, and upon which more than ordinary care has been bestowed, tfaß 0n vie* in Mr P. Laing's shop yesterday. It consists of n?e tiers, which are surmounted by a rose and a bouquet of white flowers. The whole structure ii covered with flowers and delicate pale green leaves. The weight is 85lbi, and the height 4ft Gin, but the careful arrangement of the various details* gives it the appearance of being much lighter. The cake will be packed in order . to be forwarded to Canterbury, where, it ia almost needless to say, it will play an important part at a wedding in high life. The gentleman who ordered it for bis daughter* nuptials has further entrusted Mr Laing with the production of a fac-simile, which will be sent Home in order that his friends there may obtain a fair impression of the style in which the ceremony was carried out. — N. Z. limes.

During Mademoiselle Sarah Bernhafdt's recent starring tour in the United States, that gifted actress receired many solid, as as well a> complimentary, recognitions of her dramatic talent from the American public. Upon one occasion it would appear that an enthusiast successfully besought her to accept a massive golden parure^ somewhat clumsy in fashion^ out of a weight which, from a practical point of -view, more thaD atoned for ita lack of artistic elegance.. Upon examining it closely Mademoiselle Bernhardt discovered that the donor bad forgotten to attach the tiny price ticket, and was not a little gratified to observe that individual appreciation of her merits had found concrete expression in & tribute worth 5000 dolt. Shortly afterward!, in conformity with. the practice adopted by her of periodically lightening her luggage by turning superfluous gifts into money, abe offered the parure in question to a leading New York jeweller, who examined it with care, and, having applied the usual tests to its surface, informed her that its intrinsic value was exactly 80 dola. " How can that be ?" exclaimed the lady. "Simply because it is mainly composed of copper, not over thickly gilt," was the reply. The Timaru Herald has a sultry article on Mr Speight, M.H.R., Sir George Grey's avant-eourier, in the cowrse of which it remarks (—" We need hardly say that like all the rest who came in under the Bamc auspices, be was an utter failure in the House. He had not been there many minutes before be began to talk, and be went on talking, with brief intervals, a3 long as he remained there. Mr Rolleston satirically remarked of him that he had been announced as the working man's champion, but had turned out only the champion talking man. He talka more and says less than any other speaker we ever suffered under. Of course nobody paya the slightest attention to him in the House. His rising, indeed, is alwayß followed by a stampede^ and he seldom has more than a dozen of Weary listened. Sir George Grey, however, sits him out in well affected rapture, with his fine old grey head ou one side, and his hand to his ear, as if dreading to lots a word of such eloquence. That is part of Mr Speight's wages."

In his speech at Marton, Sir William Fox pat rather neatly the relation between the cost of public education and the necessity for a property tax or its equivalent. He said:—" With almoat manhood suffrage, and a pure democracy, tempered only by responsible Government, they would never be safe for a day if their institutions were not worked by educated men. Uneducated men would be tbe tools of every political adventurer who had his little newspaper, for every person who had the gift of the gab. The people must be educated ; bub the question was to what extent out of the pockets of the State. The £300,000 which education at present costs, really came out of the property tax, which was paid by a comparatively small number of people, because without tbe cost of education there would have been no need for a property tax. As to the coßt of education it was hypocrisy to say that they could not afford £300,000 a year, when every man who drank a glass of beer per day threw away bis share of the tax, ten times over into tbe pockets of tbe publican or the merchant. New Zealand was quite rich enough to educate the children."

The Oamaru correspondent of the Dunedin Morning Herald telegraphed on May -Slst as follows:— The condition of the unemployed in North Otago is very bad, and the need of doing something to relieve their hardship is urgent. The number of men wanting worknot of the kind who ask for a job and pray they won|t get it, but of men steady, intelligent, and respectable— is almost incredible On Saturday the hands at the small railway extersion at Ngapara were paid off. and work stopped. Men lately have teen coming to the Ngapara earthwork formation at the rate of twenty.and thirty per day, begging fora job, tramping from Oamaru on the chance of getting something, and leaving without being able to get taken on. So disappointed, they have had to beg their bread in the neighborhood, as they have no money in their pockets, and the farmers can give them no employment. Some of the men paid off from Ngapara have left their tents .behind them and taken their swags, going in search of employment. From ' various 'quarters I hear that shearers and harvesters have exercised more care with their earnings — saving more and spending less — than in past years, but they have had to live upon their earnings, and married men especially are badly off. Steady men who can do any kind of hard work, and whose departure would be a loss to the country, say that if employment does not offer quickly they will have no alternative but to go to Sydney, provided they can raise funds for the passage. It is deplorable to see so many fine men reduced to such straits, tramping the roads almost aimlessly. This telegram is written after flye days' observation,"

A correspondent gives the following information to the Dunedin T<mes regarding the Wellington Lunatic Asylum.:— The showerbath of infamous notoriety in Mount View Lunatic Asylum ha 3 been entirely removed ; like other relics of barbarism, when brought under the light of a health public criticism it will no longer serve as a terror to. evildoers among the insane of that establishment. Hall, the patient kept eight months in a strait-jacket, now goes about like any other inmate. His form of insanity is dementia, with occasional periods of temporary excitement. Whitelaw was the round peg in the square hole. He had the merit of being an excellent gardener, and laid out the Asylum grounds and planted them with ornamental trees. Had Lord Kinnttird limited the eUlogies he bestowed on the son of his housekeeper to his talents as ft landscape gardener, the peg might have been made to fit elsewhere. To make a gardener or railway porter into a manager of mentally-diseased persons were ludicrous, had the consequences not been so disastrous. Liquor is no longer given in Mount View Asylum. There used to be a liberal distribution either to patients or officers, most probably to the latter, so there was no great-harm done except to the Treasury and to the tempers of attendants. There is a quieter tone existing, and no appearance of restraint, despite its previous alleged necessity." , , . A stroke of luck hai fallen on a lad who until a short time ago was employed as a cash and eri'and boy at the establishment of Messrs. T. B. and W. Cockayne, Sheffield. Altogether unexpected by him, he snddenly became aware that he was the recipient of a fortune of jeiO^OOO, which had been left him by an uncle at Manchester, after whom he had been christened. The boy has been sent to school, in order that he may receive an education befitting the possessor of a fortune. His mother, who is a widow, has also been remembered in the will

A Cairo despatch to a New. York paper says :— Maspero has just opened some more pyramids of the Sakkaro, inclosing the tomlis of kings of the fifth dynasty. The mortuary chapels of: each contain about sixty square 'metres of the smallest and most closely-written texts, giving precise details of the religious belief of that age. It is a complete coup de grace to the Osiris Masmic ttieory, and all previous conceptions are entirely upset. Except the finding of the Rosetta stone in 1779, no discovery in Egypt equals this in scientific value. . The entrance passage is difficult and dangerous on account of the loose blocks that encounter it. An American Egyptologist and a correspondent are the only persons allowed to visit the interior with Maspero. The latter explorer returns to Paris next month, and will publish the discovered texts. All the Sakkaro pyramids, about sixty in number, will be opened as soon as possible. The Otago Daily Times says :— " As regards the nature of the Government insurance risks, that office has effected large and extensive insurances on the class of hotelkeepers in the colony. The largest and oldest Australian Company, after a fair trial, has for some years past refused to insure this class at all. This shows a certain recklessness on the part of the Government and it is probable the same want of prudence exists in other directions." We may add to this, that this class of tradesmen find itvery difficult in the United Kingdom to insure their lives at all, the principal offices refusing to take such risks on any terms. The most deadly trades are proved to be less fatal to those engaged in them than the occupation of retailing intoxicating liquors,