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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 8, Issue 379, 18 February 1864, Page 1

the rare position of 'these remains of a monster mammal. Eleven feet of gravel were found above the tusk, and this gravel was very angular, showing it to belong to the classical drift; below was a thin stratum of white Keuper sandstone and below this another stratum of marl, containing nodules of gypsum. The tusk itself was of the usual curvilinear shape, was about nine feet in length and two feet in circumference, and consequently larger than the specimen in the British Museum. • A clergyman in Carlisle preached a sermon to children, last Sunday in words of one syllable ! Metals produced from British minerals and coals in 1862. Total value of British metals, £14,281,453 value Coals, . 81,631,338 tons, 20,409,584 £34,691,037 Earthly minerals, such as barytes and lime, salt, and the more valuable clays, are estimated at £1,750,000, and we find by a return compiled by Mr. Robert Hunt in 1859, that the value of building-stones, slates, “ Ac., amounted to £7,954 075. We learn, therefore, that the actual wealth added to the national store, as obtained from our native rocks, amounts to nearly £45,000,000 sterling. It is expected that the Yelverton case will come before the house of Lords early after the meeting of Parliament.

Ancient Inheritances. —The interesting and often-quoted statement, made some time since by Lord Palmerston, respecting the uninterrupted descent for nearly eight centuries, from father to son of a small estate in his own neighbourhood in New Forest, relates as is well known, to the family of Purkiss, the limeburner, who picked up the body of William Rufus, and carried it in his humble cart to Winchester to receive the last sad rites. But we can place upon record a case of still longer descent of a small property among persons in no way allied to rank and fortune, and who have never risen above the condition of yeomen ; .while we believe, they have never fallen below it. At Ambrose’s Baru, ori the borders of the parish of Thorpe, near Chertsey, still resides a farmer of the name of Whapshot, whose ancestors have lived without a break up, on the same spot, ever since the reign of Alfred the Great, by whom the farm was granted to Reginald Wapshot. There are several families among our untitled gentry—the county aristocracy—who can trace their names and possessions in a direct male descent back to the Saxon times ; but below that rank we are not awai'e of a more striking instance of permanence among chauge than the past history of the Wapsliots.— Once-a- Week.

| Our Chinese Policy. —The following curious passage from a private letter, written, by a gentleman of much acuteness fno.v in the English service in China, will at once support the conclusions we have steadily pressed on our readers as to the issue of our present policy there, jand illusti-ate the modus operandi. |“ China,” he says, “isin a frightful state only held together by English assistance. . . . We can’t go on fighting for ever and the moment*we cease to supply them with men and ships the whole vast empire will break up, and it is not improbable that you will some day hear of me as Governor of a province five times the size of England. . . . Cruel fate, is driving us to acts we all deplore. Here for instance, is a city with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, and the Governor comes trembling to me on any alarm, and trusts entirely to my action to defend his walls against rebels and pirates. If the gunboat placed here for the protection of our interests went away, the rebellious Chinese would bombard the city. Eaucy a letter like this :— ‘ Shih, of the great pure dynasty, Intendant of the Diss trict, comptroller of Customs, &e. &c., to the great English officer, —Whereas I have been informed that rebels infest these islands, to the destruction of harmless traders, will the honourable officer who loves thejpeople as his own children direct the senior naval officer to go out and puuish the guilty, so shall security be restored on the coast 1 ’ On which I -the honourable officer, go on board, the gunboat, and steam down to the islands, where, in the midst of scenery like paradise, pirates abound. We go into a quiet nook, and find ten juuks, which open fire upon us from all their guns. Our sixtyeight pounder is run out with an eightinch shell in it. A great crash, and up goes junk No. 1 into thin air. Another discharge of grape sends the pirates on shore, when the country people come down and poke at them with long spears. Tne junks are taken into port, and sole I, the honourable officer, have cleared the seas and have had a delightful trip The week after the pirates are all back again in other junks. The Chinese do simply nothing. The English must rule Chinia before long, on the t oid tprinciple that nature “abhor* a vacuum. ’' — Spectator.