Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 281, 29 November 1870, Page 4

A Melbourne contemporary states that rich lead ore, containing as much as '80 per cent of ihe metal, is said to have been discovered near Hobart Town. Narrow escape oe the Wonga Wonga from Fire. — A correspondent of the Marlborough Efrpress who was a passenger by the Wonga Wonga on her last trip to Honolulu wrifes : — "About 10| p.m. on the 9th October we were farmed by a strong smell of fire, and it was soon discovered by the steward -who was sleeping on the side of the cuddy that the cabin table Ur«ed by the Mail Agent i«s a sortiDg-room was on fire. The door was soon burst open and the flames extinguished. Mr. Young, the chief steward, informed me that had it not been fouud •out when it was, in ten minutes more the ■whole of the second cabin would have 'been on fire. The fire was put out before -any of thc saloon or steerage passengers were aware of it. The captain, chief mate, and mail agent arrived when the was out, aud all over ; the mail ageut slept in the saloon. There are a good many suppositions as to the origin of the •fire : some say that the mail agent may have had American matches in bis sorting room, and tbe friction by the rolling of the vessel have ignited them, aud so <;ansed the fire. The whole affair seems a mystery. I asked the mail agent what damage was doue, and he replied hardly any ; he admitted at first that there was a mail bag from Wellington much damaged ; others say that he told them that the Government despatches were burnt. He does not seem to be very communicative about it, and it evidently appears they wish the matter to be hushed up. All that I can say is that our Almighty Father was merciful to us in. having rescued us from a frightful death. Escape would have been hopeless, as no hoat could have lived in the sea that was running at the time the fire occured. A Chinese Resignation. — A squatter an the neighbourhood of Albury (says the Banner), while smoking his evening pipe, aad reading his newspaper like a good •citizen, was somewhat amused at the entrance of his wife, who produced the following formal resignation under the signature of Chung How, the station cook, who had probably employed an amanuensis to express his ideas : — " Sir, — Owing to pecuniary difficulties destiny dropped me in, compels me to make known my intention to resign. Therefore I hope, before next moon, you may engage another cook in my place. From your true man Chung How.'

England's Policy. — Although throug the misty horizon on the Continent w can as yet see little if any light, there ar i two facts staling us in the face, froi 1 which there is no difficulty in drawing conclusion. With a nation so powerfu as armed and united Germany has prove herself to be, and a Republic in FraDC( there will be an earnestness in the trans action of Europeau affairs, for which vv are hardly prepared, and to which we ar quite unaccustomed. Action will tak the place of words, and the time ba anived when we must learn to hold ou tongues, unless we are prepared to hoi our own against all comers. We shall nc be permitted to take a seat at the coune table unless we are ready to share th perils of the field. When we see tw nations figh liner, it is very doubtful polic; to dance round tbe combatants screamim like au excited old lady when she see two navvies belaboring each other in th streets. We only gain curses or jeers, ou threats are laughed at, and our advice i disregarded. The truth is we have d foreign poiicy, and in this respect weslau* almost, if not quite, alone among all th nations on earth. A great nation with ; small policy soou ceases to be great, and nation with no policy at all ceases practi cally to be a nation at all. Englaud ma; become a Croesus among nations by sacri ficing everything to rigid economy, bu she will find that she has only barterei her name for money, and that the latte gives her no power without the former In the Europe of the future there must bi in the course of a very few years a con sideiable readjustment in the balance o power. If we wish to have auy voice ii the. questions which either will arise o: await solution — and some of these such as the Eastern Question, as it i: called, are of vital importance to ou: interests — we should at all events retail suoh a position as will enable us to securi ourselves against the consequences of tin ambition of other nations who have highe aims than those of the counting-house Rich and respectable we certainly are but powerful we certainly are not, eithe for offence or defence. — Pall Mall Gazette The European Wae. — In language forcible, if not refined, "John Peery bingle "thus discourses on the war: — I seems hard or. two pious, Christiai countries to say they've been going in fo: wholesale murder ; but I don't see ho\ yoU'Can put it any other way. Ofall thi horrors the world ever knew, Christiai Prussians, and Christian Frenchmen havi turned out the most horrible, whilst othe Christian people have looked od, and sah prayers over these bloodthirsty slaughter men. ln these days it isn't the heathei that fight ; but the lying varlets tha gammon to believe in " peace on earth,' and that sort of thing. They've sen missionaries to convert the Canniba Islanders, whilst they've been inventinj new fashions of murder for one another Black folk have been buried by 'em up t< their black snouts in tracts, and thei: brother white folk have gone down befon their breech-loading cannon, and othe infernal machines. And yet they sing the same hymns, and preach the sami sermons they always did. One cha] tunes up a psalm, sharpens his bayonet aud lets the daylight into his belovec Christian brother, becanse he doesn' t livi on the right side of the Rhine; auothei hero stalks hi& fellow-sinners as we' ( stalk kangaroos, and feels quite cheerful i he bags a goodish lot of game in an after noou, provided thc souls he lets outdon'tbe loug to his mob. All this is glory, yot understand. What a pity it is war can' be ended iu the way au old writer went ii for, " where the two Natural Enemie (say Emperor and King) in person taki each a tobacco-pipe filled with brimstone light the same, and smoke in one another' faces till the weaker gives in !' As for royal persons just now some o "em are down on their luck, and some uj in the stirrups ; but it's rather melancholj ■ to see the French lot (the Imperial women : kind) grabbing the spoons and things, am bolting to the British pawnbroker witl their plunder. Still the most sarcastic c s notions out is when one royal personagi '. lifts up his eyelids, weighed down by th< s sight of blood and gore, and whines ou , "May God help my cause ;" and the othe s chap on the other side likewise lifts uj \ his eyelids, weighed down in the sam ". way, and snivels, "May God help mi i cause ; — just as if Providence smiled oi ; battles, and Ihroat-cutting, and ;s if thi ■ kind of work wasn't the work of th "Devil.