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Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 30, 9 August 1864, Page 3

Parlour Pastime. — Fasten a nail or koy to a string, and suspend it from your thumb and finger, und it will oscillate like a pendulum. Let some one place his open hand under the nail, and it will change to a circular motion. Then let the third person place his hand upon your shoulder, and the nail becomes in a moment stationary. OciC-'OT Mail Lines. — From various quarters we gather items of news about a proposed increase of communication between Australia and Great Britain, but they fire indefinite and conflicting to an extent which leaves the whole a puzzle. In the nest -..place it geems-to be;. believed that thefSFrench Jkte&xageries Iniperiales will run a branch of their line between Ceylon aftd Sydney, without requiring a subsidy from any of these Colonies. The eompanyf- is heavily subsidised by the French government, but it is not known whetherSliu additional subsidy will be forth coirciLig for a line which would' iiot be very \§ssential to French interests; or whether- she company suppose that 'the development of passenger traffic .will make thj|, line pay without 'a\ subsidy i "Report sMs th at ( thi^liije. . may. pQSsibly ■ be brought. frOnl g -SiTi|a I pore', '>thrcfugK Torres' Ktraits, to Moreton Bay and JSvdney, in which case Queensland would •be the first colony served. Another rumour is to the effect that private negotiations entered into chiefly by the ■ last-named colony with steamship owners in Australia will result in the opening of the Torres' Straits route. The experiment is a bold one in navigation ; but there seems no ■ absolute certainty that it cannot succeed. Then the P. andO. Company seem to press their offer to run a fortnightly service, . asking £50,000 a year as subsidy for the second boat per month, while they receive " nearly £135,000 for the first one. We gather from the Melbourne reports that the Imperial Treasury will not agree to pay half the increased subsidy, and that 1 the Victorian Grovernment have not made 1 up their, minds ; but that the mercantile j public of Melbourre press the acceptance \ of the offer by that colony alone. . With t respect to the fortnightly service of the ; P. and O. Company, also, it has beer ; rumoured that the Torres' Straits route is ; likely to be adopted. However this may I be, it is satisfactory that as an earnest oi their intention to secure themselves in 1 the trade, the P. and O. Company have 1 reduced their rates of fare and freight 1 twenty-five per cent. The New Zealand Panama contract and the French line tc ! Ceylon with the proposal to extend, it tc ; Sydney, ' %p;^9 '■'' ■y&%i&ssot i> wvfch Vtififs advantage3^^iect"f6x,tKe colonies at large. ' — JVew Ze^ldnder. A iSitf&ULAE. Scene. — The Redan de- ! scribes a singular scene. Some cotton 1 has recently been imported into Farring- : don, where the mills have been closed for a considerable time. The people, who 1 were previously in the deepest distress, went out to meet the cotton ; the women wept over the bales, and kissed them, and finally sang the doxology over the welcome importation. Imagine cotton becoming poetical, and people spontaneously raising a Te Deum because asked once more to toil ! If that incident is true as it stands, it would make a better incident -for the painter than ' half 'the v worn-out incidents of dramatic story. iiT»'rrrf**~""-fr— *-*-*cm^" f *^*ftinin '»- .l'iiiiiii) mi in 1111 1 1 lin f nmrmnririrflnririTinnrwin 1