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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 243, 12 October 1881, Page 2

We lesrn from the Westport Times that Mr J. B. Fisher, M H R. for the Bu'ler, has decided to leave Westport, and enter into the practice of his legal profession at Christchurch. He informs onr contemporary that j he will not, at present at lea9t, offer himself to tho Buller constituency for re-election By the exercise of a little ingenuity, the names of the placed Derby horses were conveyed across the Atlantic in the form of a single word— of nine letters only. It was arranged that the first three letters of the successful horses' names should be cabled and the message therefore ran " Iropertow." This was readily translated into Iroquois, 1 ; Peregrine, 2; Town Moor, 3; Mr P. Lorillard had a special message in this style forwarded to him from the grand stand. The big official "bandbox " at Wellington was always thought the biggest wooden building in the world. It seems that it is about to be " capped " The Japanese papers report that a new residence for the Mikado is about being built at Yeddo, which will be entirely of wood and will cost 10,000,000 yen (nearly £1,120,000.) There will be, however, a grand reception hall, in which al! grand State ceremonies will be performed, wbicb h to be built partly of tiles and partly of wood, at an estimated cost of 170,000 yen about (£34,000.) A letter in the Press professes to give the opinions of a Christchureb. resident, who has been in New Plymouth for the last two yeas. Though a lady, she has been a very close observer of the course of events in that district. She says : "If war arises, it will be In consequence of acts of white men residing in or near New Plymouth, certainly not of the Maoris, By all means enlist constabulary to any extent, and send them to the front. They are good eating and drinking customers. Ab to the yarns about Daniells and other settlers being frightened from their sections of the confiscated lands, if, the '■ matter could be properly sifted it would be '. found that New Plymouth white men have 'employed the- Maoris to alarm the new .chums, so that they may be driven into ( town and sell their properties cheap. I could add several other items showing the i sharp" practice and peculations of our white : Northern brethren in their dealings with the Maoris, as also with any greenhorn who may come their way." "Atlas," in the "World," has the following fashion paragraph :—'« The dismay so generally expressed at the appearance of the crinolette is somewhat unreasonable. In the first place, it was sure to happen, as the feminine* petticoat has collapsed and expanded with great regularity for . something like 200 years, and an inflation was just due; in the second place the crinoline projected hideously at the side, whereas the crinolette will only^ stick out at the back, in a doubtless artificial, but not inelegant manner. What is more serious is the threatened abolition of the fringe. Now a fringe on a jvulgar head is as disagreeable an object as fashion has ever put before us ; but a fringe on the brows of a graceful lady is a. thing of ■beauty, and we must prepare to see many fair faces look bleak without it. Lady Florence Dixie, who when last heard of was in the camp at Bennett's Drift, camping out and cooking her own rations with the help of Sir Beaumont, has re established the somewhat damaged reputation of her countrymen for jshooting. There was there a Dutch Boer— one of the four told off to guard the Boer leaders attending the Royal Commission. This Boer talked very big about his shooting powers and very small about those of the English. Lady Florence challenged him thereupon to a trial of skil 1 . The match was arranged- . The Boer shot with a Martini-Henry rifie, Lady Florence with a Winchester, at bottles placed at a distance of 200 yards. ..To the delight of the onlookers, Lady Florence bit her bottles one after the other as if they were elephants, ard the Boer went away signally defeated, and with the conviction that if all Englishmen can't shoot, some Englishwomen can.