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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 190, 11 August 1881, Page 2

la a recent railroad accident on the London. Chatham and Dover railway a boy passenger was instantly' killed. There was nothing on his person by which he could be identified, but a basket containing homing pigeons which the deceased had with him suggested the means of speedily discovering the relatives of the dead boy. An envelope, on which were the words, " Come at once to tha Crystal Palace Btation , something has happened to your son," was attached to each of the pigeons, and they were set at liberty. These birds of evil omen to their bereaved owner socn brought the newa to him, and h8 was ere long standing by the remains of his sod, and able, despite the frightful injuries inflicted on his head, to identify the body. At an inquest upon a lady in Me bourne a few dftjß ago, who had died from tight-lacing, it waa shown by the post-mortem examination that the poor crea'ure had so abused the form which nature had givan her that she had actually two stomachs, like a camel. A Colorado judge recently acquitted a desperado who had committed a murder, but the crowd banged the rascal from the courthouse window, and told the judge that the next time he let a murderer go they would hang him. Thereupon his honor promptly sentenced three other murderers to be hanged' According to the ' Kynetoa Guardian,' Draper, the accountant of the Commercial Bank, who served a sentence in Pentridge for embezzling the funds of that corporation, bas committed suicide in Christchurch, New Zealand, by taking chloral. He was the sen of the Rev. Draper, the Weßleyan micig-rr, who was drowned in the p.a. London, whin she foundered, about titeen years ago. A London hatter adv< rises that Io?d Besconsfleld bought his last hat of fctm,

The absence of any clergyman, priest or rabbi at Lord Beaconsfleld's deathbed seeing to have seriously disturbed the Irish papers. One of them, the "Nation," says :-— " Priest or parson, book or prayer, cross or crescent, symbol or sign of faith, there was nothing to tell whether the dying man thought of Moses or Mohammed or Christ. Unless the published narrative omits some very important particulars, Lord Beaconsfield died as dies a horse. The Cromwell Argus is responsible for the following : — " In the ease of attempted suicide by drowning, in which our J.P. (who, by the way, is reputed editor of the local paper) was the presiding oracle, evidence was tendered by a police officer tnat he saw accused pull off his coat, throw away his hat, and jump into the water, which at the spot was 40ft deep. The learned and astute J.P. gravely asked ' Was the 'air of 'is 'cad wet?' This was the only question asked, and a general titter could he heard through the Court in consequence of the profundity of the d .P\ y s question. It is almost needless to say accused was discharged " From the following telegram received in town to-day by a member of the Bunedin Curling Club from the honorary secretary (says the Danedin S'ar) it appears that the country players were too atroDg for the Dunedin visitors. The match for the medal presented by the Royal Caledonian Curling Club lot Cord petition between the only two affiliated clnbs south of the Line was played this morning at Naseby, and the result was telegraphed as follows :— " Had a sair fecht, and got whuppit. Ower mony gowks (like yersel') in oor Club wi* nae spunk. Score : Naseby, 28; Dunedin, 17. Tarn tae wnuskey duty." A correspondent (of the Auckland Herald) asks, seeing that a meeting has beenheld in Wellington to sympathise with the Irish Land League, whether it would be at all inappropriate to get up a public meeting to sympathise with the unfortunate gentlemen whd. although known to be guilty of wanton agrarian outrages, Siicn rts shooting men and children from behind hedges, terrifying families by nightly visits and threats ariu dlusage. not omitting the slaughtering and maiming of cattle* the property of poor people — yet can find no jury to convict ; and, at the same time, probably a subscription list would not be out of place to pay the expenses of the freight of the infernal machines, dynamite clocks, and other toys imported for the destruction of the base Saxon b who, as in the past so at present, do nothiug for Ireland ! Diphtheria is said to have been cured in Germany, by the use, as a gargle, of a decoction of blue gum leaves and the inhalation of the steam therefrom. Skin-flints do sometimes get bitten. There is a bank manager at Hokitika who has the credit for being as mean as any in the district. Hares are bis weaknes?, and a friend coming over to Christen urch, he thought he saw an opportunity to get one cheap, so he particularly requested one should be sent to him in reply to the usual question " Can I do anything for you over there ?" By-and-by he received a telegram. " Two hares by to-morrow's coach," and, overjoyed, he went to the office on the arrival of the mail. Sure enough there was a small hamper, out of the corner of which a hare's foot peeped. " This ia for me : I'll take it," he said, " Twelve and sixpence to pay," was the reply, and with a sigh he ".parted." Home he went, rejoiced to think of hi 3 cheap luxury, and when on unpacking the hamper, he saw two fat "pussies," he rubbed his hands with glee When the cook went a little later to him, and told him they were only hate's skius, staffed with Bawduet, he took ill He's gradually getting better. — Exchange. Under the heading "An Unemployed Hoax, or Swindle," the North Otago Times of a late date exposes the manner in which an unemployed petition from the Waitaki District, recently presented to Parliament, has been got up. The petitioners declared that they were actually starving for want of employment ; that they were married men with large families, and could not for want of funds go elsewhere seeking for work ; that tney had not previously made public their wants through being ashamed to own their destitution; that through three years of dull times poverty had grown on them slowly, and that some of the petitioners were going about almost naked, while many of their wives and children were ill and could not get medical aid ; wherefore they prayed that if work could not be found for them in the Colony the Government might provide passages for them to Mr Proudfoot's railway contracts in New South Wales, the Government to take their promissory notes in security for a refund of the passage money. The ' Times.' on analysing the signatures to the petition which the Government had referred to the local Borough Council, discovered that scarcely any of them were those of working men, let alone of the unemployed. ' One was the autograph of the genial wholesale merchant in Tyne street, who is certainly neither underfed, ill-clothed, nor married, nor likely to enter the blissful state— at least not just yet. Two of the signatures were those of. gentlemen who have been dead three years ; one was that of a leading draper in Oamaru, another of a well-to-do hotel-keeper ; one that of a veterinary surgeon, one of a blacksmith, and one of a master saddler, a bachelor, now in England. The names have evident! y been cut from some old memorial on some other subject, and attached to the unemployed petition either by way of hoax or swindle. The New York papers are discussing the question, " Can a Judge sit when he is over 70 years old ? " If he is like other men we should think he could sit a dreadful sight longer than he could stand. "My will, not thine, be done," turned Paradise into a desert. "Thy will, not mine, be done," turned the desert into a paradise and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven. It is not often that speculation in highpriced stock is successful, but Lord Fitzhardinge has made a good thing of the shorthorn bull, " Duke of Connaught," for which he gave 4,500 guineas some four years ago. The animal has since brought him £7,500, and has, moreover, got him such stock as had never before been seen at Berkeley, — " Truth "

A case of what is known as "lambing down" baa been Beard at the Melbourne County Court, before His Honor Judge Cope, when Mr Henry Cookson sued Mr A. L. Levy, a publican at Sandridge, for the recovery of £49 10a, which he had entrusted to his care. It appeared that the plaintiff in the month of April last went on the "spree," and entered defendant's hotel with £49 10s in his possession. He gave the money to Mr Levy to keep for him during the time he stayed at the hotel. He remained there for eighteen days, and at the expiration of that term left the hotel. A few days afterwards he sent his wife to Mr Levy to ask him for the balance of the money, when £2 was banded to her. The defendant put in as a set-ofE en account amounting to £48 9s 6d, which was for board and lodging and liquor consumed during eighteen days by the plaintiff. By this account it appeared that the plaintiff had swaliowed the inordinate number of thirty bottles of champagne during the time he stayed there, to say nothing of the unlimited "driDks" of beer, brandy, whisky, claret, &c. On some days his thirst could not be allayed ander nioe bottles of champagne, with a plentiful lot of brandy besides. His Honor considered the charges exorbitant. In his opinion 10s a day for board and lodging, and 10s a day for diinks, was as much as ever the defendant conld have expected. He made an order therefore for the return to plaintiff of £30 of the money left in the defendant's bands. In the Daily Commercial News, published in San Francisco on the Ist July, is published a summary of the business done in Marine Insurance in connection with California for the year 1880, compiled from official statistics. At the end of the report is a table giving the marine premiums received in California during 1880, and the losses paid, embracing the latest official statistics obtainable. In thia table we find two local companies included— the New Zealand and South British. The former is credited with total premiums received 12,081 dollars. The losses paid amounted to 90G9 dollars. The South British is credited with the receipt of 16,413 dollars in the shape of premiums, and losses amounting to 5851 dollars. The list of companies doing business in shipping insurance includes thirty-six names. The total of premiums received is 1,242,5 60 dollars, and the total losses paid 630.563 dollars. What next ? Philadelphia variety iheatreß are encouraging pie-eating matches between big men and wide-mouthed little boys. All the principal light-houses on the French coast will soon be lighted by electricity, and provided with powerful steam trumpets for fog signals, at a cost of £320,000. On the value of Grey coal for gas-making, the Dunediu Star says : — " With respect. to the inferior illuminating power of the gas supplied by tha Corporation during the last few days, the gas engineer informs us that this is attributable to the fact that the supply of Greytnouth coal at the works ia exhausted, and New South Wales coal has had to be relied upon. The Grey bar has been almost closed up to ordinary trading schooners and unfortnnately one of the two that left last week for Dunedin Gas Worka has been wrecked at Wellington Heads. As the illuminating power of the gas from Greymouth coal averages, and has averaged for the past months, 18 candles, the sudden and compulsory change to New South Wales coal alone, which at the best is 16 candles, with good camples, can easily be understood. As so many young men of this city are I making efforts at debating classes to distinguish themselves as public speakers, we give the opinion of tbe late Earl of Beaecnsfield, when a very young roan, on tbe subject. Tbe opiDion ia extracted j from his novel, "The Young Duke":— "Before a man cau address a popular assembly with command he must know somethiug of mankind; and he can know nothing of mankind without knowing something of himself. Self-knowledge is the property of that man whose passions have tbeir play, but who ponders over their results. Such a man sympathises by inspiration with his kind. He has a key to every heart. He can divine, in the flash of a single thought, all that they require, all that they wish. Such a man speaks to the every core. All feel that a master hand tears off the veil of cant with which, from necessity, they have enveloped their souls; for cant i 3 nothing more tbaa the sophistry which results from attempting to account for what ia unintelligible, or to defend what is improper." One of the curiosities of the American census is the return which Chief Numana, the census supervisor in Nevada to collect statistics of the aboriginal tribes has prepared. His enumerators are all Indians, and a single sheet of blank paper and a pencil composed their equipment. Upon this paper the Indian made a circle to represent a wigwam or camp, and within he placed figures to represent the number of persons in a family, the squaws being distinguished by lines representing gowns, and smaller figures to denote children of various sizes. The chief made up his reports from these sheets by taking a number of willow sticks of various sizes, notching those representing females, and sending the sticks in bundles to the census office. King Emanuel Lumm, a barber on Eleventh Avenue, New York, announces his ability to live ten hours with hi 3 nose and mouth hermetically sealed- The individual referred to is a popular barber on the Eleventh Avenue, and is well known alon" 1 the coast as" King Many" Those acquainted with " Many " see no reason why he" should not be able to accomplish what is coupled with his name, for he is able to breathe for a time %vithout the use of mouth or nostrils, communication between his lungs and the outgide world being kept open through his ears. When smokiDg a cigar lie often exhales tie smoke through the same extraordinary channel, to the profound astonishment of those who are unaware of this freak of nature. With that natural love of novelty and aptitude fcr discovering it which, is one of the most pleask'g characteristics of our Transatlantic kinsmen, the New York thief has just invented a new form of robbery which, in the interests of the unprotected public' especially commends itself to notice. According to a number of cases recently tried in the police courts of that city, the " drop trick"— for that is the name of the newidea—is practised as follows :— Two men acting in concert visit a bank, one remaining at the door to secure at any moment a means of speedy exit for his friend. That friend lurks about, apparently busy writing cheques or credit notes, until he sees an infirm person in the act of receiving a large bag of money or bundle of notes. Then is the moment for action. Walking quickly up to the fceb'e one, be drops a piece of paper at his feet and draws his attention to it as something that has just fallen. Not suspecting the trick, the victim stoops to pick up the paper on the floor, when the rogue seizes the money on the counter and makes a dash for the door. It is said that this scheme has proved an eminently lucrative one for the thieves. The following from the N. Z. Times may be of interest to seamen who are ambitious of becoming officers with the least possible amount of trouble or preparation : — " One swallow does not make |a summer," atid apparently neither does one ulira-radical measure suffica for a Parliamentary season. Sir George Grey's Law Practitioners Bill baa been received as a lively joke by some, and by others au serieux. The following draft BiU, picked up in the lobby of the House, sbows that some member, believing that \ imitation 13 the sincerest form of flattery " la numbly following in Sir George Grey's footsteps, either as a jokist or most steadfast admirer:-" A Bill to amend the Shipping and Seamen'B'Act 1877. (l.) The short title of this Act shall be tbe Shippiog and Seamen's Act, 1877, Amendment Act, 1881 (2 ) Notwitstanding anything in the said Act to thecontrary.it shall be lawful for the examiners appointed thereunder to issue a certificate of competency as master, mate, or engineer of any asa-going vessel, to any person of good fame and npulation, who shall pass the examination as in Sections 24, 25 and 2G of the said Act provided, and without requiring any certificate of service or any evidence that sach person has ever had any practical experience among shipping, or that he has ever been to sea." There is no name attached to the document, and cur readers mnat eunnise for themselves who the possible oajrent may be.