Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue XVI, 28 July 1881, Page 3

The pigeon race, in connection with tbe annual show, from Timaru to Christchurch, (nearly 100 miles) was won by Mr Macqnarrie's Pilot, which took 2h 52ming. 57seca. on the way. The second bird waß only 1 minute behind. When Laycock was in Paris he wanted a pair of glo«es. Oo entering a shop to make the purchase the tradesman polite'y requested him to call again in a week "Mais pourquoi ?" inquired the aquatic hero. "Veil, sare, I'ave none one 'alf large enough. I vill kill a kid to-mr rrow and make you a pair. Zat ia eef I can find a kid beeg enough." An amusing instance of the working of the laws of succession is afforded by a letter from the Public Trust Office, published in the New Zealand Herald explaining why tbe fall amount found on a deceased patient in the Auckland Hospital had not been paid over to hi 3 relict. The Public Trustee \ informs the widow, with the usual official circumlocution, that as there were no children by the marriage " the law only allows me to pay you one-half of the residue of the estate ; tbe remaining half must be claimed by your husband's nearest relatives. I therefore enclose a cheque for £3 6s 6d, which, as shown below, is one-half of the fund remaining in the Department. Received from the Hospital, £10. Paid funeral, £2 lls ; paid commission and postages, 16s ; total, £3 7s — £6 135." What wilt it be likely to cost the "husband's nearest relatives " to make good their claim to the magnificent residuary eßtate of £3 6s 6d ? The Wellington correspondent of the Christchnreh Press wrote on tbe 18th inst.: —I don't know how to describe the "scene" x>f Thursday ninbt and Frilay morning. It was j not like anything else I have ever spen in the same line. It was too Bad to be called grotesque, and yet it was so very hd accountable in some of its featnres. After the splendid retort of Sir William Fox to Mr Pyke, there waa very little laughter, and very little cause for kughter, and the whole Houae seemed fairly nonplussed by the position it fonnd itßelf it. Mr Pyke's first onslaught wr i nothing different to what tbe House had often heard before from him at that time of the night, and Mr Reeves had only exceeded himself a little in coarse vulgarity. But the whole thing assumed a more serioos aspect when the Premier with more valour than disereiion flncg himself headloDg into the melee, and was left at least an hour at the mercy of the wolves without any one coming to bis rescue. Pyke, Reeve?, Sheehan, and George all had a tear at him, and to the naosement of every one were backed ap by Dr Wallis and Mr Weston. The Premier, 00 doubt, felt tbat he bad thrown his pearls before swine, and his friends thought tbat to " meddle ia such a strife " would indeed be "taking the dog by the ears," and thus both sat still and heard the cervoQß, courteous Premier accused of the most unheard-of crimes ; ana amongat the rest of " f rothen at the monf wi rage." He could no more use tbeir weapons than they could use bis, and he probably understood them as little as they understood him. In taste and reflnenjent tbe accusers and the accused were as widely separated as a mob of Australian Blacks are separated from the members of the Philosophic Institution. In the course of the sbnsn of the Premier, and incidentally of Sir W. Fox, the rowdies paid tbe Chairman a few compliments tbat be must have felt more galling tban any censure would have been. The troth is, Mr Seymour is a fair-weather pilot— an excellent chairman wbeu all goes smoothly. Nothing could exceed the quick intelligence with which he picks up the moat clumsy or complirated amendments, and makes the work easy to the most timid or inexperienced member. Bnt rows of any kind are not at all in his line. They seem to paralyse him, and he never nip 3 them in the bud, as tbe Speaker always does.