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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 11, 14 January 1867, Page 2

The outward Suez mail, per Wellington, closes to-morrow, at 5 p.m. The mail for the Grey and Hokitika, per Nelson, closes to-morrow, at noon. The mail for the Buller and Grey, per Kennedy, closes on Wednesday, at 1 p.m. Iu the Eesident Magistrate's Court, this morning, Wm. Boyle was find 10s. and costs for drunkenness. Thomas Young charged with being guilty of disorderly conduct, was ordered to be taken ou board the schooner Amateur, the vessel to which he belonged. We notice by the West Coast Times that so inadequate had been the Provision of stamps under the uew Stamp Act at Hokitika that the Postmaster had to telegraph to Wellington on the subject, and received instructions that the ordinary penny postage stamps might be used until a supply of the proper ones was received. Mi*. Dick, the postmaster at Hokitika has according to the West Coast Times, received instruction from head-quarters, to proceed to Pox's River and Pakihi for the purpose of establishing post-offices at those places. Mr Cass, who for many years has filled the position of chief surveyor of the Canterbury province has been compelled by ill health to retire from the service. Tbe Provincial Council have voted him a retiring pension of £400 per anuutn. The Canterbury Government have brought in a special Public House Bill for Westland. It has been read a first time, and ordered to be printed. It does not seem to have occurred to the Provincial legislators soys the G. R. Argus that the new Gold-fields Act necessitates several alterations and amendments in the published rules and regulations of the West Canterbury Goldfields. As they now remain they are at variance with the Act in several particulars, aud calculated to lead miners into errors. It is to be hoped that part of the duties of the Commission, of which so much is expected, will be to frame fresh rules and regulations for the gold-fields. The Argus gives the following account of the Hospital at Greymouth : — lt is quite full of patients, and every day several applicants for adrnissiou have to be refused. The demands on the funds of the institution were never greater, and there never was less apparent interest taken in its welfare by the public. The Christmas season has been allowed to pass without any effort to revive the finances, although there can be no question that under good management a large sum of money could have been raised. At a special meeting of the City Council of Dunedin it was agreed to discontinue the Mayor's Court, iu consequence of the repeal of the 32st clause of the Empowering Act, by which all the fees and fines were diverted from the local to the General Government. A correspondent of the G. R. Argus from the Buller, on the 26th December, says : — On Monday a party of diggers came into town from the Upper Buller, with a parcel of 100 ozs. of gold, which they sold to one of the banks. The prospects of the diggers up country are, as far as I can judge from conversation with several miners, very encouraging. Good accounts are constantly coming to hand from the Mokihinui. By far the largest portion of tbe 1200 ozs., shipped by the Bank of New Zealand for Greymouth, was purchased from miners, from that district. Great confidence in the stability of this place' is felt by all the business people., and large importations of goods are frequently made, Messrs. Hammond and Davies, one of our leading firms, importing direct from Melbourne.

A motion in favor of granting sums of money to religious bodies iu Westland was lost in the Canterbury Provincial council. Mr Barff moved — That a respectful address be presented to his Honor the Superintendent, praying that the sum of £1000 be placed upou the estimates for erection of places of worship in Westland ; such sum to be apportioned as follows: — The Church of England, £250; Catholic Church £250 Wesieyan Church, £250 ; and Presbyterians, £250. Ou the motion of Mr. Bright, the sum of £150 has been voted by the Provincial Council of Canterbury towards the establishment of a library in connection with the Supreme Court at Hokitika. The W. C. Times says the following is a Califomian method of announcing a fatal accident ou a railroad. We extract from the Alta of Oct. 24:— "Mr. Downey was neatly halved by a locomotive on a Connecticut railroad." For terseness and brevity perhaps this paragraph stands unrivalled, and does not impress us with the idea that human life is very highly valued in California. Perhaps it may be advisable to remark that the italics are ours. A volunteer at Beech worth, Victoria, has had a narrow escape from sudden death by the bullet of a comrade. When at the butts, Mr. W. J. Turner, watchmaker, was marking, and a misunderstanding must have arisen as to the signals, for while be was out near the target a shot was fired, and the ball passing close to him, struck the iron target. The ball split, and a splinter passed through Mr. Turner's whiskers, slightly scratching hianeck. An Irish schoolmaster wrote the following copy for one of his pupils: " Idleness covereth a man with nakedness." A London paper says: — Mr. Lowe will have done more for the cause of reform by his libellous and virulent speech iu the House of Commons than any member of Parliament, except Mr. Bright, who took his place there last session. At every meeting of the working men to claim an extension of the franchise ; at every gathering, great or small, for advocating purity of election, this charge of venality, drunkenness, ignorance, and indifference is first indignantly denied, and what follows seems to be a sort corollary from that proceeding. Anybody may understand by this time Avhy Mr. Bright bore with such patient sileuce the covert sneers aud direct attacks which were so freely bestowed upon him during the last sitting of Parliament. We all wondered at the time that he who is admitted to be such a master of nervous sarcasm, and who can extinguish a flippant orator in a casual sentence, should not turn upon the pack of yelpers and lash them back with a thong that cuts as well as stings. Bui he waited ior other occasions, and now he is making use of all those clever and witty gentlemen to aid the great cause of which he is the advocate. Mr. Lowe, as the cleverest and the least scrupulous, but perhaps not the least honest, of the opponents of the people, has furnished a text — nay, a chorus, which will be learnt in workshops, sung to the tune of ringing anvils, hummed in the buzz of whirring wheels, and fiually shouted iu ironical cheers until the day of true reform shall have consigned it and him who first spoke it to oblivion, with those who, following him timidly, neither deprecated both Tories and Liberals, and would do nothing on either side, loving their seats and the chance of keeping them better than either a progressive or a retrograde policy. There can be no mistake about the earnestness of the thousands of the people of the West Riding who held up their hands and shouted at the late meeting ; and the influence is growing fast ; so that if, as Richard Cobden once said, the people of the West Riding could influence England, the people of the West Riding, cf Birmingham, Wolveihampton, and the iron counties, the people of Newcastle and Durham, the people of Glasgow and the west of Scotland, and the people of London combined, will soon effect peacefully and with decent order what their enemies niay wish they could be induced to demand by less lawful and intelligent measures. Never did Mr. Bright make a more earnest, simple, and eloquent speech than that in which he addressed the great meeting at Leeds Townhall, aud he may well have been deeply affected, -for the great-con-course of people assembled there were anxious to do him honor and to greet him as at least the~ faithful Varid consistent advocate of the cause which they had met to advance.

..„ r~ ■ ii-r -i in i ■ To the Editor of the Evening Mail. Sir— l am glad to see your antiquated 'contemporary's favored correspondent, Paul Pry, is still in the laud of the living. k. was afraid, from his long silence, that -bmething serious had happened to him ; I was 'afraid the old potatoes that he got for his dinner, upon his recent visit to Motueka, had disagreed with his digestive organs and brought on an attack of bile or dyspepsia. Poor Paul! I would recommend him to take a change of air, and a douche bath occasionally, especially to keep his head cool, as I have some fears, from his appearance in print, of his sanity not being all right. Hence his solicitude about his old friend, the late keeper of the Lunatic Asylum. No doubt it is natural that he would prefer falling into his hands. Paul is rather ambitious ; had some ithoughts of offering himself as a candidate for the Superintendency. Friends have told him office suit him exactly. Wonderful coincidence between Paul's friends and another candidate for the office, who, _pon a late occasion when a candidate for the berth, said it would just suit him, i.e., is it not rather the £600 a-ycar attached to the office that would suit iu both cases? Paul not very sound in his logic either. Says Mr. Blackett very good fellow, but told us two years ago wasn't fit for the office, and thinks it wrong to force duties upon a man when he says he can't perform them. Two years is a considerable period of time, and it does not follow if a gentleman felt uufit for au office two jears ago, that he should always be unfit for it. No doubt Paul would rather see a gentleman elected who would take care of the public money. But it is a remarkable historic fact that some of these friends _ave taken so much care of otlier people's money that they will never see the color of it again. I would recommend Paul's frieuds to keep a watchful eye upon him, as he may do something desperate. Nil Desperandum. Nelson, January 14, 1567.