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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 129, 3 June 1868, Page 2

The mail for Europe, via Panama, will close at the Post-office at 8 oa Saturday morning. The much debated question ' what shall be done with the New Zealand Patriotic E'und?' has at length been solved. A resolution was passed at a meeting of the committee held at Wellington on the 21st uit., which, after eulogising the efforts made by the provinces of Wellington and Nelson in behalf of the fund, states that it has entirely failed in eliciting a response and securing support from the other provinces of the colony, and as the undertaking can no longer be expected to assume a comprehensive colonial character, as contemplated by theoriginal subscribers; moreover, as circumstances have occurred since the commencement of the movement which have "tended materially to affect the views and feelings of some of the- subscribers with respect to its subject and objects, some too thinking that the money ought to be returned to them, the latter course has been determined upon, and all contributions will be returned in full to the contributors, or paid over by the Treasurer, according to their order. The contributors are requested to send in their applications within three months from the 22nd nit., which must be accompanied with a statement of the name of the person to whom the money was paid. The monies will be paid on and after the 4th of July, that being the date on which the funds are realizable which were invested in the Mutual Investment Society. Our attention has been called to an accidental error which occurred in our report of the proceedings in Council on Thursday, Mr Kingdon being reinstated in the office which he occupied so ably last session as Chairman of the Estimates • Committee, whereas Mr Parker's name should have appeared, that gentleman having been selected to fill that office during the present session.

The anniversary of the Wesleyan Church in this city was celebrated on Sunday and Tuesday last, sermons having been preached oh the former day by the Rev. W. Lee of Blenheim, at which a collection amounting to £10 lis. was made, and a public meeting having been held last night, Mr H. Lucas in the chair, at which addresses were delivered by the Revs. J. Crump, E. L. Vickers, and W. Lee, Messrs. Simmonds, Wagg, and Crisp. A collection had been made by the ladies of the congregation towards the Trust Fund, which amounted to £19, and tho proceeds of the tea meetiug with the collection at the subsequent public meeting last night realised £11 lis. making a total of £41 2s. The meeting was enlivened during the evening with selections of sacred music, sung by the members of the choir, and rendered by them in excellent style, to whom a vote of thanks waa given for the services they had rendered during the evening, as also both to the ladies collecting, and to those who kindly provided the tea. The meeting was universally acknowledged to be a great success. The following was accidentally omitted from the manifest of the Algernon yesterday : — 1 box, 5 packages, o. Hounsell. We understand that Mr Crump's singing class will meet to-morrow evening, at 7 o'clock, in consequence of the lecture at Richmond this evening. This afternoon smoke was observed tobe issuing from the premises of Mr Hooper, builder, in Nile Street East, by a gentleman who happened to be passing at the time, and who immediately gave tha alarm. It was t soon discovered that the children had set fire to a mass of shaviugs in the workshop, and the flames had already assumed formidable proportions. Water, however, having been procured, they were speedily extinguished, and a serious loss and injury to property was thus happily prevented. The following case was heard at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning: — E. Baigent v. Joshua Bird. This was an action to recover £16 9s lOd, being damages sustained by the plaintiff by reason of an alleged breach of agreement on the part of the defendant. Mr Pitt appeared for the plaintiff, Mr Kingdon for the defendant. It appeared that the plaintiff had, in February 1865, advanced the defendant £50, to be repaid in wheat in the following March or April. The wheat that year however being not a marketable article, it was arranged that tho matter should stand over till the following year, the defendent paying interest. In March last the defendant offered to settle his account by delivering good wheat at Bs. per bushel, and on his stating that he had delivered it at plaintiff's mill, his bill was receipted, and the account was understood to be settled. The first two loads proved to be very good, the remainder, about 90 bushels, being stinking and of no use for flour. A correspondence ensued between the parties, and on the defendant taking no notice of the intimation that if the wheat was not taken away and replaced by good, it would be sold at his risk, the wheat waa sold on the 12th May, at ss. 6d. per bushel, leaving a balance due to the plaintiff of the amount claimed, £16 9s. lOd. The defendant pleaded that the wheat was all taken from the same lot, and therefore must have been of equally good quality, and also that 12 days had elapsed before any complaint was made. Mr Pitt and Mr Kingdon having addressed the Court, judgment was given for the plaintiff for the amount claimed. The entertainment given at the Provincial Hall on Monday night probably suffered from the meagre number of the audience present, and this was particularly observable in the early part cf the programme. In the last part, however, the various performers' seemed to have recovered from this chilling influence, and the reading of the trial scene from Pickwick, by Mr Anderson, and the performance of Mozart's Sonata _So. 1, for violin and piano, by Mrs Anderson and Mr Kelly, were given with much spirit. Last Friday evening a drunken man — a stranger in the neighborhood came into our office, and after creating some little disturbance, was invited out again. Directly afterwards he was discovered to have got down to the water's edge, by Mr Elbeck, who, attracted by his strange demeanor, had been watching him. Oa going over to the place, he had just time to grasp him by the collar before he slipped into the deepest and most dangerous part

of the river ; on being dragged out he I shook himself, and rolled off without so much as thanking his preserver. — Marlborough Express, May 30. Douglas Jerrold Felicitously said that the earth laughs with harvest when it is tickled with the hoe. The following is the more practical and more Sambonian method of illustrating the same idea: ' I say, Sambo, does you know what makes the corn grow so fast when you [put the manure to it?' « No I don't hardly.' 'Now I'll just tell ye. When de corn begins to smell de manure, it don't lik de fumery, so hurries out of de ground, and sits up as high as possible so as not to breathe de bad air.' i .....