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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 86, 14 June 1866, Page 2

According to the Southland Times, the Bluff Harbor and Invercargill Railway is approaching, completion, and we shall soon have the "iron horse" in full trot between ho re and the Bluff. This will be an achievement of which all may rejoice, inasmuch as it will tend to increase communication and trade. In a recent trial at Invercargill, Von Hammer aud wife sued Hanan for damages caused by the lady falling over a plough lying in front of defendant's shop. Defendant made light of the matter, and woun^l up his remarks to the court with the following effusion : — The erring step of her fantastic toe Would fail entail on me a greater woe. The Resident Magistrate awarded £5 and costs. We (Star) are authorised ito state that the New South Wales Government have agreed to the Time-table of the Panama Route approved by the Government of this colony, but that the mail steamer, Kaikora, will leave Sydney ou .the 15th, instead of the Ist of next mpnth ? and Wellington on the ,23rd, instead of on the'Bth. Several passages have already been secured hi Dunedin, aud there

is every probability of the first trip of the first steamer by the Panama Route having a full complement of passengers. The Dunedin correspondent of the Grey River Argus furnishes the following piece of information : — "A case which has caused a lot of talk has occurred :— « A well-known auctioneer and an equally notorious brewer quarrelled the other evening over a game of cards. The brewer told the other that when he 'tame to the colonies he was thought so mucb>of by the Government that a guard of soldiers took care of him whenever lie went about. This produced a rather uncomplimentary allusion to the former's wife, whereupon the brewer seized a bottle and knocked the "knight of the hammer" down. A melee ensued, and shortly both rolled on. the floor, hiting at each other's nose and ear. Eventually, a compromise — "If you let go, I'll let go" — was arrived at, and the parties separated. The Post Office at Wanganui is most economically conducted, if we may bejieve the Times : — We would respectfully direct the attention of the Postmaster-General to the fact that one lad is not sufficient assistance for the Postmaster at Wanganui, even upon ordinary occasions. In no other department of the public service is a parsimouious policy so injurious as in that of the Postmaster-Ge-neral. The men under him in the various post-offices throughout the colony are the hardest worked and, iu general, the poorest paid of any in the public service. No man can do justice to the public as Postmaster of Wanganui with only one lad to assist him. Mr. William Lyon of Wellington, pretty well known as au amateur geologist, has been elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. The Evening Post states that the P.N.Z. and A.R.M. Co., , and the N.Z.S.N. Co., have now commenced to run boats under the new Inter-Provincial steam subsidies. The first company will be represented by the steamships Claud Hamilton, and Phoebe, and the fleet of the N.Z.S.N. Co., will gain no discredit when represented by the two fine steamers Weltington and Taranaki. This latter vessel and the Phoebe will perform the West Coast, and the Claud Hamilton and Wellington the East Coast service. The Wanganui Times of Ist instant says : — We regret to find that our favorite steamer the Wanganui, will be laid up for a few days. It has been found necessary to overhaul her machinery, and make other slight improvements, which may detain her here for the next five or six days. The Wanganui Times reports the formation of a lire brigade. The committee will add no names to the present list, but those of men whom they believe can be thoroughly depended upon, and men in whom the agents of the fire insurance companies, and the public in general, will have confidence. The Southern Cross says: — "A gentleman who returned from the Thames district recently, informs us that in the neighborhood of Mercury Bay there are natives who individually gather as many as 3 bags of gum, of (3 cwt. each weekly. This is equivalent to £1 per day. The gum is very plentiful, autl of good quality, in this district ; aud it may be found on Crown land in the neighborhood as readily as on native territory. There is therefore room enough for many of our unemployed laboring population, and the certainty of making good wages, if they only turn their attention to this occupation. A simple yet ingenious invention has just been patented by Commander F. P. {Van-en, R. N., having for its object the stoppage of leaks occasioned by collisions at sea, or arising from other causes, in any part of the hull of a vessel which can be reached by the agency of a diver, or by other means. The process is inexpensive, may always be at hand, and, judging from past experiments, would effectually stop the rush of water even in cases where ships have received serious damage by collision at the water line. It is said emigration has increased so much lately that the fare to America has been raised from £4 to £7. The report that two of the constabulary had been arrested as Fenians has been contradicted by the sub-inspector at Fcrmoy.

Mr. Halliwell has offered one hundred guineas for a certain copy of "Love's Labor Lost," 1598, 'which was sold by auction in, 1826 for £2 6s. i The Glass Manufacture.— No branch of; industry has profited more by free trade than the glass manufacture. The exeise duties on glass were abolished in 1845; and Sir- R. Peel's prediction has been justified hy the vast increase in the trade. Here, as in many other things, our national tendency towards production, without due regard to quality, is very appai'ent. We make enormous quantities of glass — 140,000 feet per week, . selling at 2d. a foot and upwards, instead of 3,000 feet, at from 20s. to 255. a foot and upwards, which was the total amount made in England in 1819. We use glass for flooring, and find it more durable than stone pavement ; Ave are even beginning to use it for sbeating iron ships ; but we are neglecting the finer kinds. From France and Belgium we import weekly some 16,000 feet of the very finest description of plate glass. This is not as it should be. Some years ago our fiuer kinds of glass were superior to those made on the continent. There seems no reason why we should cease to make thiugs well because we have begun to make so much more of them. — Reader.