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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 147, 22 June 1881, Page 2

What may be regarded as encouraging in respect of our meat export prospects is the iollowing memorandum from the London meat markets, dated April 7:—" The steamer Paraguay, fitted with refrigerators, ba3 arrived from South America with 19,0(0 carcases of mutton in good condition." Writing of the above, a London correspondent, under date April 8, says that they "are being sold at4|d per Ib. The carcases average 361 b each, and are little mote than black-looking skiu and bone." There was an amusing occurrence at Government House yesterday (says the Poit). The mover and seconder of the Address in Reply, together with tho Speaker, members of the Ministry, and a large number of "Representatives," left tho Parliament^ Buildings for Government House, where the Address was to be formally presented to His Excellency. They were all ushered into the reception-room, where they were told to be seated nntil Sir Arthur Gordon could attend. While they were sitting in silence and awe, looking eagerly towards the closed folding doors, they heard a step and pricked up their ears. It sounded nearer and nearer, and then the doors were suddenly fluDg wide open. The Premier and all the assembled wisdom at once rose and mado a low obeisance, their heads bowed to their knees. When they raised them again, and their eyes became level with the doors, they beheld to their dismay not the Goverror but — "little" Shrimski, who was somewhat late in arrivin g. Annoyance was depicted on the faces of some, but others enjoyed the joke immensely. When the Governor did arrive he was ictroduced to each member present, shook hands cordially with them, and made them welcome. Gilbert and Sullivan's " new and aesthetic opera ," in two acts, entitled " Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride." was produced at the Opera Comi(j[ue, on 23rd April. The libretto, it Is stilted, contains some love ballads of: poetic beauty. Mr Sullivan's music is not strikingly original. It has lots of ' go,' and some of the ballads are extremely pretty. A sextet at the conclusion of the first act, " I hear the soft note of the echoing voice of an old, old love long dead," is exceedingly sweet; Mr Sullivan has added a quantity of jingle; but it must be admitted that Mr Gilbert's words demand this. There are some pretty dances and taking dance music, but altogether the music is rather disappointing. One scene of the opera, where the colonel, major, and lieutenant enter in wthctio dress, one holding a sunflower, another a tulip, the third a lily, and drill in aesthetic attitudes, as made popular by George Dv Marnier, is supremely funny. " Patience" was received with much enthusiasn and many recalls by the audience, whose feet frequently pattered to the jingle of the music and its rhymes. The air of New Plymouth was lhick lately with rumors of an attempt to blow up tht Town Hall. An auger hole was found under the Towu Clerk's office, carefully covereo over by the door-mafc, and was declared by an " expert " to be juat the proper diametei to admit a good-sized fuse. The police wencommunicated with, and at their instigation the matter was kept very quiet, a strict watch being maintaioed over the premises. Suddenly all the excitement and myster3 were cruelly dashed to the ground by the naive confession of the librarian that he himself bored the hole in order to let the water escape which came in at the back door in wet weather. The Taranaki people breathe freely once more, and, as the Herald reraarkß, certain individuals felt themselves " .awfully sold." The work done by the Lower House during the first working week of the session just brought to a close is considered very satisfactory by one section aud equally unsatisfactory by another. Certainly there has been more practical work done during this week than there was during the first five or six weeks last session. Those who grumble are the members who hunger and thirst after burning questions and long for Local Gorei-n---ment and financial debates. Some of these assert pretty plainly that the Government are only trifling with them— keeping them amused, as it were, with small matters, so as to hold back as long as possible the larger questions, over which there is a probability of " trouble." To use the words of a certain orator, they " smell a rat— they see it floating io the air," and .they wind up, as did the orator in question, with the bold assertion that they " will nip it in the bud." Post A certain well-known member of the House of Representatives, representing" a Northern constituency, who, whatever may be his faults, does not lean to tho advice given by Polonies to his son on the subject of dress, determined to give up his lodgings this session at his favorite "pub," and seek " quiet lodgings for single gentlemen." Last week the Senator under notice called at a boarding establishment on the Terrace, for the purpose of taking furnished apartments. The landlady, apparently not liking the apparel of the legislator, who was by ro means neat or gaudy, blandly suggested that before " taking him in and doing for him " she would like to have a reference from some respectable person guaranteeing his bona fides. This insult was too much for the by-no-means equable temper of the hon. member, who had not deigned so far to state his name or position. Said he, as he directed a withering glance at the dignified hostess, " Good morning, ma'am 1 You won't do for Billy — ,"— "Asmodeus," in the jV Z. Mail. One more instance of the narrownegs of the world Most people are aware that Messrs. James M'Ewan and Co., of Melbourne, sell steel key-guards, numbered, the owners being duly registered in a book kept for the purpose. Mrs Day, a lady resident at Levuka, Fiji, bad one of these guards. A few days ago her bunch of keys was transmitted to the firm (in accordance with a request attached to each guard), having been picked up on Russell Beach, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, by the wife of Captain Grant, of the whaleship Horatio — the acknowledgment to be sent to that lady at New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ! — Melbourne Argus. The said of a ranch and stock in Mexico for £80,000 is characterised in the American papers as the largest stock sale " that has ever taken place in the world." Whtt, asks an Australian contemporary, would our American cousins say to the quarter of a million paid by Sir Samuel Wilson some yeara ago for Ercildoun, the smallest of his Australian pastoral properties.