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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 177, 28 September 1866, Page 2

The seventh animal meeting of the Kelson Building, Land, aud Investment Society took place at tlie Fleece Tavern last evening. There were very few members besides the committee present. Mr. G-. W. Pauling was voted to the chair, when the Secretary read the following- report : —

The seventh year of the existence of the society having expired, the Managing Committee beg to lay before you the balance sheet and profit and loss account for the past yu;u\ The necessity of craploving l!ie surplus capital of the Society, as expressed in last yc:;rs' report, has been carefully considered by thb Committee, and they have endeavored to so far further the interests of the Society, by k-nding it v.-herover practicable, and the sum of £800 has been advanced on special loans, in addition to the sum of £SOS lent before Ist September, 1565. The Committee finding that there was stiil an accumulation of capital for which there wa3 no demand, either by the members or otherwise, have had under consideration the desirability of compelling members who had not realized to withdraw, and in October last, called a special meeting of the Shareholders for the purpose of considering resolutions to that effect. A meeting was accordingly held, and as you are aware, resolutions were passed allowing realised and unrealised shareholders to withdraw their shares at their then value, the former paying the balance clue to the Society on obtaining a release of their properties. At the ordinary meeting of the Committee in February last, a resolution was passed, to the effect that the profits of the Society should be made up every six months, and that Shareholders withdrawing should ba entitled to all profit up to the last balance. The effect of these resolutions bar, been that fifty-one realised and seventy-two unrealised shares have been withdrawn during the last four months, and the ap plications for withdrawal under these regulations, a - present exceed the amounts received by the Society .t Twelve and a half shares have been realised during the past year, the bonus on which amounts to £.3 only. The number of shares in the Society are — realised 226, unrealised lfiS ; total 394. The resolutions allowing lealised Shareholders to withdraw have had the effect of reducing to a considerable extent the profits of the Society, and it being almost impossible to calculate the number of shares that will he withdrawn (realised and unrealised) before the termination, of the Society, the Committee are unable to form an opinion as to its probable duration.

On the motion of Mr. Webb, seconded by Mr. Thornton, the report was adopted without discussion. Four of the retiring directors — Messrs. Webb, Coook, Thornton, Stringer — were re-elected, and Mr. Darby elected for the ensuing year. The same auditors were re-elected. Some discussion ensued on the advantage of bringing the Society to a close as soon, as possible ; but the subject was left to the deliberation of the committee. It was stated that, with all the disadvantages under

•which this society labors, Jt will terminate in two years — one year less than that calculated on by its projectors : thus forming favorable contrast to its more recent competitors. In the Resident Magistrate's Court to-day, Lawrence Murphy, captain of the ship Lord Clyde, charged two seamen named Henry Pratt aud Vv'illiam Harcourt, with desertion. The complainant, ou being asked by the Court to produce the log-book, said he had not thought it necessary to bring it, nor had he made any entry of the case in it. The magistrate replied tbat, in the absence of the log-book, he must discharge the men and they were forthwith discharged. The men said they were willing to go to work again. The captain left the Court with the understanding that if the men did not return to their work, he might enter the fact in his log-book and bring them up again. In reference to the telegraph wires the M. jNews says : — Wheu a wire is stretched through about forty miles of bush, barely enough of which is felled to clear a passage, -with here and there an odd tree thrown down that looks to be in the last year of its age, it cannot be expected to survive the most ordinary wind when the trees are made ■heavy with rain. And yet what can be done? If it is taken through a wooded country at all, on poles, there is no remedy for it but to fell all the timber for at least one chain and a half on each side of theiinc, otherwise the telegraph is practically worthless. Experience has proved that until this work is doue the line cannot be depended upon ; and as the line must inevit.ably : be cleared, the sooner it is done the better. The M. Press, complains that the removal ■oi' the Chief Post-office from Picton to Blenheim is final. The G-eueral Government have weakly succumbed to the representations of Mr. Eyes aud his coadjutors, and have, without scruple, insulted, gratuitously and unnecessarily, the most numerously peopled district of the province. They have done what they could to perpetuate that feud between Blenheim and Picton which has destroyed our last hope of modifying that senseless animosity which has so long existed between thc two districts, and are apparently disposed to help Mr Eyes to carry out his threat of making Picton, although the unrepealed capital of the province, not only a village, but a deserted one. This nefarious purpose may succeed i'or a time, but all the parties to the agreement may yet find that they have reckoned without their host, and henceforth war is inevitable. The Southland Times states : — It is with satisfaction we learn that the Stewart's Island fishing company are persevering, aud that the exports to Melbourne and the West Coast are increasing, and another consignment of between- twenty and thirty casks of lish will be forwarded to thc West Coast by the next vessel. Maories are chiefly employed iu this enterprise, and we understand that they are making good wages, and that the company is likely to prove a success. We learn from the Evening Post that Mr. Deck has been lecturing at 'Wellington on '■' The Coming Crisis." tho immediate subject of the discourse being Christendom, or the last daj's of Grentile dominion. - Mr. Deck went more fully into the signs of the limes than on the previous occasion, aud, by referring to different portions of the Old and New Testaments, proved how all the ecclesiastical corruption of the age was foretold by the prophets cf old. The marked difference between the opinions held by the lecturer and many earnest good men who sincerely believe that the end of the world is not far off, is as regards the spread of religion. Instead of arguing that the age is increasing in godliness, Mr. Deck asserts that it is getting worse — more infidelity, more dissension in the church, and more corruption of the scriptures; and that such was foretold to be the case as the end approached, he most clearly proved from the epistles of St. Paul. The Hokitika Star says : — A l.usus natural of the truest kind was discovered lately by Mr. Drummoud, of Beale y-street, in the shape, literally of an underground fish. Mr. Drummoud was working in a small garden at

the back of his house, and wishing to put some of the small growth that had been cleared away, he dug a hole about two feet six inches in depth. At that depth he met with a clayey loam, and found a hole in the soil about a foot in length and an inch and a half in diameter. This was cut out to the end and then a perfect fish was discovered in the most perfect health. We may premise that the ground was by no means marshy, but comparatively dry. Mr. Drummond put it into water, and it immediately swam about lilce any ether lish would, and on a piece of meat being put into the water it seized it eagerly. It may be thus described: — Its length is about five inches, its color a dark brown with mottled black spots. It has two pectoral, one dorsal, and one ventral fin, all of which were laminated, and looked like threads slightly held together. Its gills are like those of any other fish, but set slightly back, and it has two snail-like horns projecting from its snout. The head is rather fiat, but not peculiarly so, aud the eyes are bright, whilst it possesses all the activity of an ordinary fish in its new home. South Australia appears to be in an enviable pecuniary position, judging from an article in the Melbourne Argus, which says : — Although it has not yet been officially put upon record, the fact has become public in a sufficiently authentic shape to be thoroughly relied on, that the surplus sum at present in the hands of the South Australian Treasurer has swollen to half a million. The steamships Tararua and Salamander came into collision a short distance from Cape Schank. The Tararua received some damage to her head gear and lost her figure head. The Salamander was struck on the starboard side, just by the fore rigging ; her bulwarks and covering board received slight damage, and three of her shrouds were carried away. One of the seamen was jammed between the Tararua's bowsprit and the Salamander's rigging, but fortunately escaped with a broken arm. The poor fellow was taken on board the Tararua, and brought on here for surgical aid. — Melbourne Age. The following is from a lato number of the Eallarat Post : — A paragraph, which was evidently supplied by some malicious person for a wicked purpose, appeared a few days ago in the Daylesford Mercury, and was thence transferred to many other journals. The paragraph stated Mr. George Graham, whose wile was so foully murdered in Daylesford some time since, and who is now resident in Ballarat, was lying on his death-bed, and had confessed to being the murderer of his -wife. This story is utterly false aud foundationless— a purely devilish invention. Mr. Grdiam, who is obviously a young mau of quiet and retiring disposition, is in perfect health, and is daily following his occupation as a miner. He has not been ill at ali lately, much less been brought to his deathbed ; and for thc rest, we had supposed that the execution of the murderer Young, only after sufficient time had been given to exhaust every conceivable means of testing the value of the man's plea of innocence, had for ever extinguished all doubts as to his guilt. It is a frightful wrong to an individual, and a most atrocious abuse of the liberty of the press, when false and maliguant accusations of the kind we are now exposing arc allowed to go into circulation. The Daylesford Mercury has, by doing so, perpetrated an act of outrageous and cruel injustice on Mr. Graham, for wdiich we hope it will now see the necessity of making some atonement.