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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 280, 24 November 1881, Page 4

Tbe Melbourne Argus speaks as follows of the proposed company to extend ihe capital and workings of the Westport Colliery Company aad to acquire a fleet of collier steamers: — "In oor advertising columns to-day will be found the prospectus of an important undertaking — the Westport Coal Company, Buller River, New Zealand, which, under the Dngpices of an influential Duneiuin and Melbourne provisional directory, seeks to take advantage of tbe present Btate of the roocey market iu t*)is colony to increase its capital by an issue of shares here. Tbe company is projected upon the bad's of uniting the coalfields belougiug to tbe Greymouth and Wallsend Colliery Company under one proprietary, and of expending a considerable amount of eddhional capitol (£100,000), partly ia opening up ntw portions ot the very extensive coalflelda held by the Westport Company, but principally in building new steam-colliers specially adapted to the tra^e, aa the past experieoce of that company has ehown that, until addiiionaL facilities for transport by 88a are.provided, it will be quite unable to supply the . rfcpidiiy increasing local

demand for the coal, or to extend its trade beyond New Zealand, The Government have shown their sense of the importance of these co&l. fields by expending about a quarter of a million of money io connecting them by railway with Westport, End in providing wherves and staithes to facilitate shipment. The present proprietors show their confidence by sicking their present capital, viz., £75,000, in shares of tbe new company, paid up to onehalf their subscribed value, and carrying a further liability of £75,000, and tbe prospectus tffords the fullest information both as to tbe organisation of the proposed company and quality of the coal."

Mr Gladstone received a great ovation ferring to the " Fair Trade League/' he at Leeds, (on the 7th Oct. Eighty-six addresses were presented to him Resaid :— " Some persons complained about the low American tariff. America sent us £3,000,000 worth of manufactures, while we sent America from thirty to forty millions' worth. The Eair Traders wanted America to cease to be our customer to this amount. They were the most unfair leaguers he ever knew. If Sir Stsfford Nortbcroft disapproved of Mr Lowther's suggestion of the corn duty, it was time for him to speak intelligently on the subject. As Sir Stafford Northcroft had other speeches to make soon, he perhaps would say emphatically whether he favored protection or corn duty. He declared that he hetnself would be no party to a retrograde movement." Gladstone spoke for an hour and forty minutes — At a banquet given him in the erening, there were 14,000 persons present. He dwelt at length on the Irish question, contrasting Daniel O'Connell's methods with those of Parnell, much to the detriment of the latter. "Led byPsrnell," he said, "a small body of men has arisen who are not ashamed to preach in Ireland the doctrine of public plunder." " The state of things in Ireland is coming to a question of law on one band and their lawlessness on .the. other." Mr Gladstone warmly eulogised Sir Gavan Duffy for bis pamphlet advocating the grateful acceptance of tbe Land Act, and also claimed Dillon as an opponent he was slad to honour. Referring again to Parnell, he said : "He is very copious in his references to America, but in all these references he has never found time to utter a word of disapproval about the assassination literature of that country, which is not American literature, which the Americans scorn, spurn, and loathe." (Loud cheers.) In conclusion, Mr Gladstone said, "•The Government will rely upon the good sense of the people, because it is determined that no force, or fear of force, or fear of (ruin through force, shall prevent the people from having the full and free benefit of the Land Act. I call upon all orders and degrees of men in tbe three Kingdoms to support the Government." At the conclusion of the speech there was prolonged cheering.

A suggestion recently made in these columns, observes tha Wanganui Herald, as to counteracting the small bird plague by the use of kerosene seems to have proved useful and successful. Mr A. Laird informs us that at his Fairfield Nursery he has found that flower and vegetable seeds, simply dipped in kerosene, will not be touched by either larks (the roost destructive of the feathered tribes), linnets, or sparrows, and as a proof of this he shows a fino bed of turnips which has almost entirely escaped. The same remedy, however, will not do for tree seeds (pignus iosignis and so forth) as they remain so long in the ground that tbe kerosene of course wears off, and the birds only take these seeds when they begin to sprout above the ground. For the private garden, however' kerosene will be found valuable.

jTwo brave young ladies, while alone one evening recently, were rehearsing how they wpuld dispatch a burglar if one were to appear in the room. One of the heroines was aijmed with her brother's eavalry sword and the other flourishsd a hatchet. In the midst ofj the rehearsal a frightful monster, ia the shape of a mouse, ran across the floor, when one of the girls incontinently fainted and the other smashed a mirror in attempting to climb upon the buream. As the mouse has Q<>t been seen since, foul play is saspected.

,The Pope has informed a deputation of Rbman sympathisers that the time might not

e far distant when, to protect the dignity nd independence of the Pontificate, and to ave himself from the party of revolution, he should have to quit the Eternal City. He said to the Italian pilgrims on the 19th, that the state of affairs was deplorable. He therefore asked Catholics to watch and pray for liberty, and tbe independence of the Pope. He added, he was no longer safe in his Palace; that he was outraged in his person and his dignity in a thousand different ways. He closed his address with arms raised to Heaven, as though imploriag belp, It is impossible to describe the enthusiastic cheers after the Pope gave his benediction. His Holiness looked thin, and anxious. A gang of roughs pelted the pilgrims leaving the church, shouting "Down with the Vatican." A^P^'ate correspondent signing himself J. Oker,' after seven months' sojourn in the bush, sends the Wanganui fleraWthe following :— "Sir—Will you kindly inform me whether I am correct in my surmise as to the etymology of the word 'dynamite' now in extensive use for Czar and other purposes. An inventor having discovered a new explosive compound, after experimenting with it upon many substances, placed some in a cheese, exploded the charge, and when he looked round to examine the effect, exclaimed with mingled surprise and mortification, * By Jove there's not enough left to dine a mite V Hence its name." j The insurgents who recently abandoned Kerwan at tbe approach of the French, loaviDg the latter in occupation, are said to be returning to the city.