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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 245, 14 October 1881, Page 2

A travelling correspondent of the Auck land Herald writing of Patea says:— The soil is wonderful. It ia like soft ehooola>e, and with a little sugar would made graid Epps' cocoa. In parts there is no grit iv it, it is never wet— never dry. It is said to be all the same to the centre of the earth. I have only sampled it about four feet deep. There are no stones anywhere. Many children do not know what Btonea are, and when you tell them it is naughty to throw stones, they give yon a ered at Judtem look, like a Hawaiian when you talk about snowballing. And the mountain in the morning! Rosy pink from summit to waist, bis base dark and solemn, or in midday crystaline white, the lower spurs wrapped iv cottonwool horrid simile)! and from the towering cone a flying pennon of cloud, ever forming dissolving as moist winds sweep by that icy pinnacle; or after sunset, when we give him a farewell look, and upbraid him for not crimsoning a pillar of fire, as the Galenstok and Jungfrau do. These are wild and whirling words. It ia difficult to convey in language the peculiar qualities of light and shade and the strange aerial effects produced here by the distant views. The moral of it all is that you ought to come to Patea, and you will never leave it. The Native Minister at Pungarehu is not bo absorbed in the Parihaka difficulty as to spoil hia evening enjoyment of chess in camp (aaye the Patea Mail). He was playing the other evening, his opponent taking black. Native Minister played white and got badly beaten. He looked glumpv. Bystander chaffed. The Minister got a little off hie temper, and said "Of course lookers-on al ways sees moat of the game." " Oh, yen," said the looker-on, " black always wins when played up here." Minister reflected on the significance of that. But it is said the bUck is going to be checkmated, and all his pawns taken. We shall see. The Minister has tha next move with white. The undertaking which has proved bo exceedingly profitable to American farmers — the harvesting of honey both for home consumption and for export,— is at length beidg initiated in Canterbury. A suitable piece of land for the establishment of aii apiary has been secured at the Sandhills, and a preliminary stock of forty strong hives has been placed on the ground. These hives are being worked on the bar-frame principle, and it is intended to place the yield of honey in the market in the form which has during the last few years been so popular in England and elsewhere. Slight frameß of wood are placed in position in a chamber in the upper part of each hive, and these frames— or sections aa they are technically styled— are speedy filled by the industrious insects with honey in virgin comb. Such sections can be arranged to contain any given weight of honey, — one pound frames being & specially saleable size. New Zealand is being looked to as a suitable field for bee-farming by leading apiarians in other parta of the world. Amongst others, Mr J. Rutherford, of Strathay, Ontario, is causing information to be obtained here with the view of settling in the colony for the purpose of establishing bee-farms upon a systematic basis. The desired information is being prepared by practical bee-keepers in this city.—Canterbury Times.

Government is circulating a large number of copies of the Maori Gazette amongst the natives at the present time, warning them against the small-pox, and urging them to get themselves and their children vaccinated without delay, as there is no knowing wheD the disease may cross over from Australia. It a_o gives a graphic account of the ravages of this terrible malady amongst the North American Indians in 1837, instancing amongst other tribes the Assinboines which numbered 9,000 before the advent of tbe small-pox, and were nearly exterminated by its ravages ; also, the Blackfeet Indians who left 4,000 tents standing, all the inmates having perished. Sixty thousand people were said to have been swept oft" in that year. When poor Marcus Clarke was alive he couldn't borrow money to buy the bong-hole of a cod-liver oil cask without paying his j 11 sheventy-fire per shent" for it. Now that he's dead, however, be can raise a thousand pounds, and in the fulness of time will no doubt receive a 500 guinea tombstone. There is no limit to the ingenious devices resorted to by advertisers to attract public notice. A London tailor heads his advertisement in large letters, " Mr Bradlaugh," and then intimates that "baying witnessed the straggle in which Mr Bredlaugh's coat was uofortunately torn, he will be glad to replace the garment if the hon. member will favour him with a call, Serpent charming in Tunis. — Close by tho gate we passed a naked performer with a charming picturesque crowd around him. Arabs leaning against their camels, slaves sitting on their burdens, negresses resting on their water-pots, mnffied Arab women squinting with one eye through their veils, soldiers with grounded guns, cake-sellers forgetting their trade, boys, girls, women, in dazzling combinations of costume and colour, floating in the mellow, transfiguring splendour of the level sun. It is the exhibition of a big Arab sfrpent charmer, who just cow is sitting down in the midst of his serpents, livid, loathsome. He is approaching the climax of bis extraordinary performance ; one by one lie seizes hi 3 sage-coloured victims, twists them round his brow, his neck, each arm, and, rising to his feet, around his loins and his legs ; ejaculates, denounces, imprecates, standing still the white, then suddenly he commences a series of frantic gesticulations, leaping, writhing, and dancing. Suddenly he stops, stands erect, rigid, as if in the coils of his victims, addresses coaxing tones to them, when suddenly and simultaneously they all uncoil aud quietly drop to the ground. What the shock of his frenzied writhings, tossings, had failed to do, his mere words at once achieved. On the ground, these horrible creatures, ranged in a circle, erect their bodies, raise their heads, open their jaws, dart out their tongues and show all the signs of viperous rage. Then, as by magic, a note of melancholy music subdues them to the docility of a fondled dog, aud, wriggling affectionately over his now crossed legs, they with one accord nestle in hia bosom ! Whether these beasts have natural fangs or are powerless to harm is not to be determined, but it is beyond all manner of doubt that this wild fellow exercises extraordii iry control.— Ralli Stenning, in "Good Words" for August. Lighting the city of Danedin costs over four thousand pounds a year, or a little over one-fourth of the whole rates received. Whilst on her voyage from Rotumah lately, the_ crew of the schooner Jubilee caught a veritable monster of the deep, in the shape of a devil-fish of enormous proportions, the aiiimal measuring about ten feet ni'h a spread of sixteen feet from tip to tip of its wings or fins, and being estimated to weigh at least half a ton. It was secured by means of a hook and secured to the tackles, but in 1 consequence of its struggles it was foucd i impossible to haul it on board, and it was cast loose and abandoned. Probably the meanest man on record keeps \ a boarding-house in San Domingo. Last winter an earthquake turned tf c edifice clear npside down, and the very next morning he began charging the garret lodgers first floor prices. The Sunday school children of Cardiff aeem to have had a good time of it on Aug. 10, on the occasion of the celebration of tb'. birth of an heir to the Marquis of ButtThere were 25.000 of them and they demolished no less than twelve tons of cake, placed at intervals on 3£ miles of tablecloth. Commenting on the English Free Trcde agitation, the New Ycrk Times says that England will hardly be foolish enough to put on the shackles which the United States are preparing to throw off In one grove in California tbere are 1,350 trees none measuring Usa than Bix feet in diameter. A medical journal has found that tbere are from 100,000 to 2C0.000 hairs in a woman's htad. Tbe number of hairs in a maa's head depends considerably on tbe time he ha<? been married. A melancholy accident occurred at Seafortb, near Liverpool, on Wednesday, Aug 10, on which evening a gentleman Darned Pardon, with his wife and daughters, went to tbe sea shore to enjoy the bright moonlight and the high tide. Suddenly a larger wave than usual dashed up the sands, caught Mr Pardon, swept him away, and drowned him in the presence of his family and friends. Statistics show there is one lunatic for every 400 people in France. Well, that's enough. One lunatic, if he can get off all his clothes, and fiad a knife eleven inches long, can f uroi9h very active employment for just about 400 people. Of light weight : A facetious baker put a broad grin lately on the faces of his customers by announcing on a conspicuous placard that he sold yeast of a new kind, which made bread so light that a pound of it only weighed 12 ounces. What kind of paper most resembles a sneeze ? Tissue 1 A female lunatic in the Utica Asylum is a lady of enlarged ideas. She talks of becoming the empress of the world, and using the next rainbow for a waist-ribbon. A medical paper at Leipsic bas been fined 100 marks and the costs of the suit, brougnt by seventy-five homoeopathic doctors, for publishing a lecture deliverved before a Berlin medical society, in which homoeopathy was denounced as quackery and swindling. The Saturday Beview says :—" Since the foundation of tbe Wesleyans we know of no religious movements so fall of life and welldirected energy as tbe Salvation Army." The " soldiers " are increasing in numbers, and their paper, the War Cry, has a circulation of 120,000. While two young men were in a little hush near Outram, Otago, they came across a kiwi, which they secured after some trouble. The Otago Daily Times says that this is a rara avis in tbe district, none of the older inhabitants seemingly baying seen one before, and the cause of ita appearance thereabouts is a mjstery. as regards revealed religion, and arguments against Christianity itself are more common, more immediately addressed to tbe people themselves, and more broadly circulated than at any previous epoch. Nevertheless for one new lecturer on Atheism there are twenty new clergymen ; for one ao-called • Hall of Science' built tbere are twenty churches'.' Ti e early apple catches the small boy. Truth doubts whether the hard work is really telling on Mr Gladstone. He has so wondrous an amount of intellectual energy that what would prostrate most men is to him but healthful exercise. When, the other day, he was laid up, and ordered by his medical advisers to remain in perfect quiet, his idea of rest was to take the New Version of the New Testament ard to collate it with the Greek. Maik Twain's latest good thing ia to be found in the book of autographs presented Jo Mrs Hayes on leaving the White House, in recognition of tbe remarkable success with which she had " run the Presilr-ncv " on teetotal principles. Mark Twain's signature appears among those of others celebrities with this characteristic eulogy of total abstinence : " Total abstinence is so excellent that it is impossible to carry its principle to too great, a length. I therefore totally abstain even from total abstinence." At the funeral of a Mr 3 Jamicson (says the Melbourne Argus), which took place at Campbell's Creek, on August 30, the ancient custom of women carrying the dead was witnessed for the first time at the cemetery. The corpse was carried by elderly matrons from the house to the road, and from the gate ot the" cemetery to tb§ gr&76i

Dr Wallis (says tbe Auckland Star) perpetrated an unmJstakcable bull last night in tbe course of a fervid preoration upon hi< democratic predilections, and though the effects may have been to weaken and disable bim in his oratorical flight, it certainly pr moted good humor amongst the audience. He had been explaining that by birth and ■ traiaiog he was a dentocrat, and that all his sympathies were with tbe working classes from which he bad spvung, and among which he had himself lived and toiled. "I was born in a democratic country," he exclaimed, " my father wp<= a labouring man, and my mother was tbe same." A yell of spontaneous laughter at once interrupted the venerable and reverend spsaker, aud its heartiness was so manifest that after a momentary feeling of vexation he was fain to join in it himself. The chairman (Dr Lee), in a whispered communication suggested, as a way out of tbe difficulty, that although a " woman " conld not mean a " man " the generic term " man " nsigbt be considered a3 applicable to both sexes. Dr Wallis in due course made the explanation, but it only served to stimulate tbe merriment of the meetiDg anew.