POLICE OFFICE, NELSON.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 18, 9 July 1842, Page 71

POLICE OFFICE, NELSON.

On Tuesday morning, a man of the name of Samuel Florence was brought before the police magistrate, charged with having stolen two pieces of linen and one of mousseline de lame from the store of Mr. Williams, his brother-in-law, in whose employ he was. On Monday morning, Mr. Williams missed the goods out of the window front, and saw that one of the panes of glass was broken. He came to the Police Office to take measures for discovering the offender, and, while there, was met by Captain Guard, who, having heard of the robbery, came to give information that the prisoner Florence had given him the goods in payment of an old debt, and some further consideration. So little time had elapsed between the robbery and the sale, that there was no cause for doubt as to who was the criminal; and as the value of the goods was stated at less than five pounds, the prisoner was enabled to take advantage of the clause in the ordinance empowering the magistrate to convict summarily on confession. On being called on for his defence, he confessed to the robbery, and was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and hard labour.

Church of England.— -It is the inefficiency of the clergy as public teachers, the hurtful influence they have exerted on national affairs, and their inertness in the promotion pf measures of general utility, that induce men to begrudge the immense revenue expended in their support, and dispose them to a reform in our ecclesiastical establishment. To the Church of England, in the abstract, we have no weighty objection to offer; and should be sorry to see her spiritual functions superseded by those of any other sect by which she is surrounded. Our dislike originates in her extreme oppressiveness on the people, and her unjust dealings towards the most deserving members of her own communion. To the enormous amount of her temporalitjes, and abuses in their administration, we particularly demur. It is unseemly, we think, an 4 inconsistent with the very purposes and principles of Christianity, to contemplate lofty prelates with £20,000 or £40,000 a-year, elevated on thrones, living sumptuously in splendid palaces, attended by swarms of menials, gorgeously attired, and of priests to wait upon their persons, emulating the proudest nobles, and even taking precedence of them in all the follies of heraldry. Beneath them are crowds of sinecure dignitaries and incumbent!, richly provided with worldly goods, the wealthiest not even obliged to reside among their flocks, and those who reside not compelled to do any one act of duty beyond providing and paying a miserable deputy just enough to keep him from starving. Contrasted with the preceding, is a vast body of poor, laborious ministers, doing all the work, and receiving less than the pay of a common bricklayer or Irish hodman ; but the whole assemblage, both rich and poor, paid so as to be a perpetual burden upon the people, and to wage, of necessity, a ceaseless strife with those whom they ought to comfort, cherish, and instruct. — Black Book.

Striking Remark. — The existence and operations of mind, supposing it to exist, will account for all the phenomena which matter is supposed to exhibit. But the existence and action of matter, vary it how we may, will never account for one of the phenomena of mind. We do not believe more firmly in the existence of the sensible objects around us when we are well and awake, than we dc in the reality of those phantoms which the imagination conjures up in the hours of sleep or the season of derangement. But no effort, produced by material .agency, ever produced a spiritual existence, or engendered the belief of such an existence ; indeed, the thing is almost a contradiction of terms. — Lord Brougham. Whitk Teeth.— The ancient Welsh, who were very careful of their teeth, preserved them by constantly rubbing them with green baud, probably the leaves or bark, and cleaning them with a woollen cloth; they, kept their fefth V white as ivory ; and, to preserve them still more* they abstained from every kind of hot fifed. '