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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1152, 20 September 1882, Page 2

We have been favored by Messrs H. A. Downe and Co., with a sample of preserved spiced corned beef, prepared by Mr James Great, of Wellington. Mr Great is a family butcher and meat preserver of that city, and holds a special appointment as purveyor to His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. He has also secured for his preserved meats prize medals at the Sydney Exhibition of 1879. the Melbourne Exhibition of 1882, and the Dunedin Industrial Exhibition of 1881. We can testify to the excellence of the beef in question, and we have no doubt that os soon as it beuojnee known it will have a very s»le.

The “Otago Daily Times” says:—The total produce of the celebrated Hamilton sale was £332,858. The following paragraph in addition to what has been already published, gives an idea of the prices realised : There were many splendid specimens of silver and silver gilt, the best being a cup and cover, less than a foot high and very light, that sold for 301)0 guineas. This is probably one of the finest pieces of silversmith’s work of its kind in the world. The furniture brought in enormous sums. A small Louis XV. commode, of parqeterie, went for £3OOO guineas : and a Louis XVI. commode, of colored marqueterie, and bold but coarse metal-work, sold for £2200 guineas. A very curious urn-shaped Louis XVI. clock, with entwined revolving serpents, which point to the hours, was bought A correspondent writes to a Home paper for the purpose of removing the widespread impression that if the Suez Canal were destroyed it would imperil the safety of our Indian Empire. He appends a list of 29 steamers, belonging to four Atlantic lines, any of which, he says, could reach Bombay under 32 days, and Calcutta under 34 days, with an average of 1500 'troops on board. The writer, ventures on the assertion, “that if naval architecture continues to develop as it has done for the last three or four years we could safely concent to the neutralisation of the Suez Canal, and its use solely for commercial purposes, as we could send our troops round the Cape in vessels of deep draught as quickly as the lighter-draught vessels would go through the Canal. We are already within four or six days of this.” This is a matter which it is well not to lose sight of now, when the British Lion is expected to tremble whenever a Bedouin Arab approaches the banks of the Canal. ”

The old Black Ball liner “ Marco Polo ” is offered for sale in Liverpool. This ship made some of the most remarkable passages on record to and from Australia. She must be more than thirty years old.

Mrs. Plimsoll, wife of Mr Samuel Plimsoil, late M. P. for Derby, died at Brisbane on the 17th August. for £903. Four ormolu candelabra, 41 feet high, realised more than £5OOO. About the grandest things that weie sold in the second portion of the Hamilton sale were two Louis XVI. armoires, by Buhl, 9[ feet high, They were almost entirely covered with tortoiseshell, inlaid with engraved brass, and they were enriched with ormolu mouldings in high relief. Nothing of their kind could well be finer; but still the £12,075 for which they were sold .eenied a great deal of money for them. Vatican was over, the Defiance coach was full of undergraduates returning to their respective colleges; the day was cold, wot am] miserable when a well-appointed dray drove up to the White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly. “Have you room for one inside to Oxford r" asked as pretty a girl as you would wish to see on a summer’s day. “ What a beauty !" exclaimed one. “ Quite lovely !" said another. “Perfect!” lisps a third. “Quito full, miss,” replied tho Coachman, “inside and out." “ Surely you can make room for one" persevered the fair applicant. " Quite impossible, miss, without the gentlemen’s consent." "Lots of room!" cried the insiders. “Wo are not very largo; wo can manage to take one more." If tho young gentlemen consent said the driver, who was one of the best tempered fellows on earth, “I have no objection.” “We agree !" said the inside quartet. “All right, responded the driver. The faro was paid and the guard proceeded to open the door and let down the steps. “Now miss, if you please; we are behind our time." Come along, grandfather cried the damsel, addressing a most respectable looking, portly, over-heated, elderly gentleman ; the money is paid ; get in and be sure you thank the young gentlemen, at the same time suiting the action to tlie word and with a wicked smile assisted her respected grandfather into the coach. “ Here's some mistake ; you'll squeeze us to death," cried the astonished party. But at this moment "AU right" was heard, and away rattled the "Defiance" at its best pace, drowning the voices of the Crestfallen Oxonians.

The Lowell “ Courier” says:—Miss Frances Cobbe, who has identified herself with the cause of anti-vivisec-tion, called on a distinguished man of science to endeavor to gain him over to her cause. She had an ostrich feather in her bonnet, a bird of Paradise on or near her muff, and an ivoryhandled umbrella. The man of science replied as follows:—“Madam, charity begins at home. When you have given up wearing ostrich feathers, which are plucked from the living birds; causing the most exquisite pain, and birds of Paradise, winch, in order to enhance their beauty and lustre, are skinned alive ; when you have abjured the tusks which are cut out of the dying elephant’s jaw—then, and then only, come and upbraid me with the cruelty of my operations. The difference between us is, madam, that I inflict pain in the pursuit of knowledge and for the ultimate benefit of my fellow-creatures ; you cause cruelty to be inflicted merely for your personal adornment.