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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 117, 21 May 1867, Page 2

The damp is playing havoc with the ■eight frescoes in the upper waiting halls of the Houses of Parliment. They cost the country some £500 each, but are dow literally crumbling away from the wall. Sir W. Hayter's picture of the House of Commons on its meeting after the passing of the Reform Bill, which cost the nation a large sum of money, hasgs in an obscure committee room, where the damp rising from the river daily impairs its coloring. There are plenty of vacant spaces in the building where it would be placed with advantage, and where the colouring would, at the same time, be preserved. Two new frescoes are ready for placing in the peers' lobby, but it has been decided to defer fixiag them uutil the 'Easter recess. The first shipment of South American ■produce to the Australian colonies by the Panama route has been made by the Kai-3suura,-whcih-brought a quantity of Costa : 3Jica -''coffee to Melbourne.