MISREPRESENTATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 61, 14 March 1867, Page 2

MISREPRESENTATION.

To the Editor of the < Evening Mail.'

Sir — I saw in your paper a few days ago a copy from the Melbourne Argus of January 28. It infers that colonial chemists and druggists are in the habit of receiving essences, a few drops of which, it is stated, Avill immediately produce brandy, gin, or rum of "the most perfect flavor." So far lam ready to admit, and I believe awards were made for their perfection in both English and foreign exhibitions. In continuation it states that such essences do find their way to this colony there is no doubt, ond not ouly does illicit distillation cheat the revenue, but as°ists, by means of these foreign poisons, to sow the seed of insanity with all its accompanying horrors.

These are strong assertions, which I presume were made in furtherance of some object, rather than to disseminate to its readers a wholesome truth. It is well known that they are the adjuncts of the gin, rum, brandy, pear, peach, and pine apple di'ops of the sugar boilei-s. Now to sow the seed of insanity with all its accompanying horrors amongst our rising generation would require a national interference instead of a recognition ; they have been recognised by awards, which I think will sufficiently show the absurdity of the statement.

In Victoria distillation forms a branch of industry, which causes the use of these essences, the same as in England, France, and Germany. Brandy is distilled from grapes, corn, wheat, potatoes, beet root, grass, cider and perry, plums, cherries, peaches, the refuse of brewhouses and sugar refineries, which tend to benefit the colony by employing labor and capital. Now to suppose that we use grape brandy, whether from France, England, Germany, or Victoria, would be a great mistake, and I question if the united countries could supply London alone from the wines of their own growth;

The evil attending illicit distillation is simply that they cheat the revenue and injure the traders who pay duties towards the support of a country, by underselling; and as the nature of their occupation forces them to offer their goods immediately after their manufacture, and probably before they are deprived of their imprumatic oil (like arrack and new rum amongst Indiaus) has more likely tendency to produce the effects of iusanity as described, than either the essence or the brandy, Avhen properly prepared in the distillery and rightly matured. The introduction of distilleries into a country is a great preventive illicit of distillation, and the trade in essences is for the former and not exclusively for the latter. Now as to its effects as a poison, may it suffice when I assert that a youth may take a sufficient essence to flavor a quarter-cask of brandy every day in the week without either being intoxicated or poisoned. This will be sufficiently convincing, except like grandmother's tea if a poison, after 70 years taking, she thought it very slow in its effect. If the Tyro would investigate into the retailers of these and other compounds to correct the abuses that are important to life and health, it might probably be more within his capacity thau the above, aud would confer a lasting benefit on the colonies. A subject which is not at present within my province to treat upon. Labobant. Nelson, March 14, 1867.

On the occasion of the Governor's entry into Dunedin, (says the Wakatip Mail) the Corporation of that city erected five triumphal arches. The main structure comprised three arches, a large central arch, and a smaller one on each side. On the top of the small openings were placed respectively a bale of wool, and sheaves of wheat, emblematical, as the ' Daily Times' says, of " the sources of the province's wealth." Nothing seems to have been thought of the gold product, which has been the chief agent in populating Otago, and raising her to her present position in the commercial world. Is it so difficult to drive the true belief into some craniums that mining has been and is our great producing interest and that it gives us an allimportaut purchasing power abroad until we shall be independent of foreign supplies. We would fain believe it was an oversight, for surely the shop-keeping Old Identity element never can have such weight in the capital at the present time as to possess the power to ignore the value of those who made them and theirs — those whose characters they so despicably traduce — the miners. The least the Corporation could do would have been to adorn this principal arch by surmounting it with the emblem of Otngo's chief source of wealth, viz., — an obelisk representing the tAvo millions and odd ounces of gold obtained from her soil during the last six years. A very important decisiou to holders of a Miner's Right (says the Brighton Times) was decided by the Resident Magistrate and Warden in his court on Wednesday last, which was that the holder of a miner's right had no poAver to sell or alienate any portion of the ground he is entitled to work, to a second party. The right to mine on any portion of land which may be allotted does not entitle the owner to dispose of the whole, or any part of it, for business purposes. It is granted for a specific purpose, namely, to dig and search for gold. In the case in poiut, a party of diggers had sold to a second person a portion of the laud on which their claim was situated, and this person had resold it again to a Mrs. Mason, who had erected a public house and dancing saloon on it. The building having been completed, the miners originally holding the ground sued Mrs. Mason for being in illegal possession, but Mr. Broad decided that they had no locus sla?idi in court, inasmuch that the party had no right, under any circumstance, to part with, for business or speculative purposes, any portion of their grouud. The decision of Mr. Broad was therefore tantamount to a judgment iu favor of the defeudaut.

The Brighton Times says : — We desire to call the attention of the Post-office authorities at Greymouth and Hokitika to the injustice which has recently been practised upon the residents of Brighton, in not forwarding supplementary mails by the steamers leaving those places for tbis port, as was previously done. We know of no reason why Brighton should be made an exception in this matter, unless indeed the Post-office servants, who have already little enough to do, are desirous of doing less. The inconvenience which has been caused to storekeepers and others in consequence of not forwarding mails by the steamers, is exceedingly great, and we are given to understand that the matter is about to be brought under the notice of the Postmaster-General. The Kapanga Gold Mining Company have sent up 418oz. of gold from Coromaudel — being the produce of last month's crushing. The whole of the debts due by the Auckland City Mission aud Children's Home have been liquidated in the most generous manner by Mr. S. Rout, the treasurer of the institution. Steam communication has been established between Auckland, Mahurangi, Matakana, and Coromandel. Messrs. Holmes's steamer • Enterprise No. 2' has been placed ou the line. The green crops in the vicinity of Auckland have suffered destruction from caterpillars to ah unusual extent this season. A discharged soldier of the 70th Regiment, named Benjamin Everett, died suddenly at Long Bay, on Saturday, the 23rd February, from sun-stroke. The body of a man was seen floating in the Waipa, between Whatawhata and Ngahiuapouri, by the passengers on board the ' Bluenose,' on her up-passage on the 11th February. It is supposed to be the body of a young man named Mcßride, who fell overboard from the ' Gymnotus.'

An instance of exceeding barbarity (says the Wakatip Mail) has been brought under our notice. A cow belonging to a poor dairyman, located in the Upper Shotover district, Avas, one night last week, hamstrung. The deed was apparently done on the highway, indicated by the traces of blood. The poor beast, which is said to have been worth a pound a week to its owner, is now milkless, and struggles about on three legs, dragging tbe other after it as if it were broken. The more humane course to take, we should think, would be to kill the animal. If it can be proved, as rumor states, that the deed was deliberately done, the barbarous perpetrator deserves greater punishment than, we fear, the law can inflict.

The Geelong Advertiser says: — Mr. Fred Woodhouse, the great animal painter, is now paying a visit to Geelong, previous to visiting New Zealand and the other colonies. Mr. Woodhouse has recently executed a fine picture of Mr. Whitehead's mare Mary Ann, and it must be confessed that this, his last attempt, is equal to the productions which have gained for him so great a name, such as his picture of Zoe, the winner of the second Australian Champion Stakes; Mormon, the winner of the fourth graud intercolonial contest; and other horses of equal celebrity. One of the incidents of the intensely hot weather during the early part of the present summer in Victoria is given by the Daily News, in the fusing of several mantelpiece ornaments, formed of some waxy composition, that have stood on Mr. While's house on the Loddon for seven or eight years ; often in the winter exposed to the heat of roasting fires. A young gentleman who has devoted himself to the interesting pursuit of collecting autographs of "eminent men," has got from Mr. Bright the followiug answer to his application : — "England is like an ass staggering under two grievous burthens — the army and the navy. — John Bright." Hard hits wi t'tongue ar offauce felt ta hurt, war then wot hard hits wi cleucht fists are.