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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 243, 12 October 1881, Page 4

An interesting experiment, that of placing Sydney and Melbourne in direct telephonic communication on a Government telegraph wire, was (the Sydney Morning Htrald statee) made on Sunday, the 4th inst., that day being chosen for the purpose because it is the only day in the week when the telegraph instruments are in any decree at rest. Mr E. W. Pearson, the Amtralasian manager and agent of the Crossley Telephone Company, of London and Halifax, England, who has recently arrived in Sydney, superintended the arrangements at this end. The day was somewhat unfavorable for the attempt, as the very high winds prevailing up the country caused the telegraph wires to vibrate violently, and so created a large amount of what is called " induction," which is always accompanied by a peculiar crackling noise in the receivers of telephonic apparatus. Only very faint sounds of the voice were heard between the extreme ends of the line, but perfeetly audible speech was transmitted between Melbourne and Albury, thus establishing the important fact that even on telegraph wires not specially constructed for the operation of telephones oral messages can be sent a distance of 200 miles. The cocoanut groves in the Savu Savu district are being devastated by a large insect of the Mantis genus called the mimimata. This pest preys upon the leaf until the tree is denuded of every green particle and tbe bare spines sticking ovt give to it the appearance of a gigantic broom wrong end up The top then falls off and the tree dies. The insects are a bright green, exactly the color of the leaf, and specimens Hometimes attain to 9ix and saven incheß in length. They are supposed to possess the power of secreting an acrid fluid which they eject into the eyes of those going too near to them causing the victim of their attention great pain, and often causing partial blindness; but aB boys are employed to climb the trees and pick them off, and no such accident has ever come under general notice, the tale must be accepted with slight reservation. It was to wage war on these peats, more than on the rats, that Mr G. R. B. Towaon recently imported pair of laughing jackasses from Sydney. When the birds reached his plantation they were kept in tbe cage a short t.ime and fed upon these insects. Upon their liberation they went for the mantis straight away, and are now doing all that two birds with moderate appetites can do to earn a respectable livelihood. The experiment has succeeded so well that it is intended to try and secure some more birds for the service. We all know the nursery story of the tailor who pinched the Elephant's trunk when that intelligent animal was soliciting sweets through Snip's open casement, and how the wise beast, on returning the same route soon afterwards, regaled the tailor with a shower of muddy water she had carefully sucked up from the roadside, just to show him that she bore him no special ill, hut that two could play at joking; but according to a note in the Hereford Times elephants can be grateful as well a3 vindictive. Some weeks ago Bostock aud Wombwell's Menagerie again visited Ten bury. Our readers will remember the elephant Lizzie's wonderful recognition of Mr Tinley, chemist, of Teme Street, when on a visit to that town ( about two years since. The animal then went out of the procession to greet him at bis shop door, remembering him as her deliverer from intense pain, caused bv an attack of colic, brought on through drinking coid water when journeying to Tenbury on a previous visit. Mr Tinley, on visiting the menagerie the other evening, was again at once seen and recognised by Lizzie, who

embraced him with her trunk in such a manner as to cause some alarm to her keepers, but an affectionate hug for her preserver was all the poor creature intended. Doubtless her remembrance of her friend •will never be effaced, since this is the second time she has greeted Mr Tinley in such a startling manner. — Land and Water. A history almost as sad and romantic as that of Borneo and Juliet is attached to Green Mount, the well known cemetery at Baltimore, Md. The property was once owned by John Oliver, a wealthy English merchant. His only child, a beautiful girl of twenty, was loved by a young man whose only unfitness to become her husband lay in the fact that a personal feud existed between him and the girl's stern father. They met clandestinely and planned an elopement. The father found it out and gave orders to his servants to patrol the ground by night and shoot all trespassers. Disguised in man's clothing the girl attempted to escape, and was shot dead at the gate. Griefstricken, her father erected a mausoleum on the spot and deeded the entire property to the city for a cemetery. " The Vagabond" is coming back, we hear, to Australia at Christmas. He is now en route for San Francisco. & On May 1 3th the last scetion of the granite for the new Eddystone lighthouse was first fitted together, according to the original plan of construction, and then dispatched from the De Lank quarries near Bodmin. It is expected that the tower will be completely set upon the rock within a month of the above given date, or more than six months before the expiration of the time set down in the contract. Eeaders will remember that the older tower, the remarkable structure which bore the assaults of winds and waves so stubbornly for several generations, was no condemned on account of any failure in itself, but because of the degradation of the rock oti which it was built.