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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 163, 10 July 1879, Page 2

The variety of articles which are now made of paper, both in America and in Europe, was well illustrated in the Berlin Paper Exbibition, where, according to a recent description, it was bard to believe that all one saw was paper. " There was paper linen, from the collar to the petticoat, there were paperhangings, from the simplest to the most gorgeous; paper carpets, paper curtains, paper chairs, paper tables, paper chandeliers, paper frames." There were also " paper corals looking like the real zoophyte, and paper ornaments, a jewellery not easily found out as audacious impositions."

The Taranaki News of June 28th says:— We have received from Hawera the following extraordinary disclosure respecting the conduct of one of our fellow settlers, whose name we for the present withhold under the impression that the etory is too strange to be true. The statement is as follows:— "Mackay has been saying openly, and it is confirmed besides, that Mr Blank, a Justice of the Peace of Taranaki, has been to Te Whiti with his submission, and asked him to give him some land to reside on with his wife and family; that he had been elected a Captain of Volunteers, but did not want the office; that he was afraid to remain with hia family at Taranaki, and would rather come under the protection of Te Whiti. The accounts now vary. One is that Te Whiti promised the applicant land, gave him a koka or mat as a token of his submission, and that the applicant has returned to Taranaki for his wife and family. The other is that Te Whiti told him ihat he might remain on his land without fear, and that he would not be injured, his sympathies and good wishes being all that he wanted. Mackay has it further from the natives that Mr Blank represented himself as Irish, of the tribe that shot the son of the Queen, and thai he approved of what Te Whiti is doing. Mr Williams, Captain Wilson, Mr Thompson, Mr White, of the Bank of New Zealand, and others heard this from Mackay, and heard it confirmed by Mr R. S. Thompson, who went with him. Honi Fihama and the natives at Hawera have also got hold of it " All that we can say further about the m tier is, that either Messrs Mackay and Thompson are spreading scandalous reports, or that we have au arch-traitor in our camp.

The " Loafer in the Street " writes in the Christchurch Press:— "lt's a risky sort of game is cattle dealing. The great thing is to know how to buy. You can easily sell. Also you can be sold, as young Fatstock waa the other day. It was his first buy, and a three-cow purchase. He placed the animals amongst some of his own in his paddocks. The fences of this enclosure were not too secure, and he was a good bit troubled with trespassing cattle belonging to bis neighbors. A week or two went by, and riding through the cattle he spotted three strangers. Presuming they belonged to Squiggins, a hardened trespasser, who lived near, he inter viewed Squiggins, and said if the cattle were not removed in an hour he would pound them. Squiggins, as usual, denying all knowledge of them, Fatstock pounded the cows, and was rather surprised two days later to learn from a friend that he had pounded his own animals. I understand Fatstock is occasionally reminded at the yards of this little incident even unto this day."

The London Grocer confidently anticipates that twenty years from now Sacramento Valley, California, will be able to snpply the whole of tbe new continent with tea, and that America will not only not have to send to China for an ounce, but they will be able in the course of time to send large consignments to Europe, and expresses the opinion «' that within our life time the nevelty will not be ( American meat,' bnt in all our grocers' windows ' California tea/ $d per lb."

A Load Lifted. — A badly frightened stranger, whose dress betrayed the fact that he hadn't much ready cash* called at the Central Police Station and complained tbat two men had been following him around for ?< e _Jr al hours with a view of robbery. " Well you'd better leave your money here until you get ready to leave town "suggested the captain. " But I haven't got any— not a dollar," was the reply. "Then how can they rob you ? " «« That's so— never thought of that I" chuckled the man a3 his face brightened. "After they've gone to the trouble of knocking me down and dragging me into some alley, they won't find a red cent in my pockets—ha ! ha ! ha 1" He went away highly delighted, declaring that a great burden had been taken off his mind. " Mamma, I don't think the people who make dolls are very pious people," said a little girl to her mother one day " Why not, my child ?" " Because you can never make tbem kneel. I always have to lay my doll down on her stomach to say her prayers." A curious mistake has occurred at Fielding. A settler having received a telegram announcing the death of a brother in England called on au ickeeper, and asked him to tell a friend who was going to call on him that he could not see him, as his brother was dead. Having a brother residing with him, the Fielding people at once jumped to the conclusion that this was the brother ref erred to, and several of them rode out to the whare, which is about six miles from town. In the meantime, an energetic constable telegraphed to the coroner that his services would be required. Of course the " Comedy of Errors " was soon cleared up. We don't know the feelings of tte coroner (if he is paid by fees), but the st ttlers in the neighborhood have come to the conclusion that " All's well that ends well." The General Omnibus Company of Paris has for some iime past (we learn from Li Mature) made use of electricity for subduing vicious horses. Al a recent seance of the National Society of Agriculture, M. Bella gave some interesting details on the subject. By the process adopted, intractable aoimals given tD biting, rearing, kicking, &c, are rendered inoffensive and submit peaceably to be groomed and harnessed. To obtain this result a weak current of electricity is passed into the mouth of the horse each time it becomes restive. The will of the animal seems almost annihilated. The current is produced by a small induction macbine, of the Clarke system, the wires of which com niunicate with the bit of the bridle. The idea of controlling horses by electrical means found expression in the Exhibition last year, in the Swedish section was an apparatus with this object. It consisted of a small box containing a battery, the wires of which communicated with the bit by the reins. In case of resistance by the horse, the driver had merely to push a button, when a current passed immediately and the animal became docile. The employment of electricity is said to produce a sort of uneasiness or torpor, rother thau pain, and is much less barbarous than many taming methods hitherto adopted, such as those which depend on weakening by deprivation of food, or fatigue, &c. New Zealand bids fair to be one of the largest grain-growing countries in the world. In the year 1877-78 no less than 12,265,000 bushels of wheat and oats were grown ; whilst the yield during the year 1878-79 had increased to 14,427,000 bushels. Victoria, with more than double the population, produced only 8,062,000 bushels. The yield during the past year was 26 bushels of wheat, and 3 1 -6 bushels of oats per acre ; whilst the respective yields in Victoria were only 124 and 193 bushels per acre. These few figures will show the wonderful capacity of our soil, as compared with the grain-growing capacity of the Anstralian colonies. " The Sex of Angels " is the somewhat abstruse subject on which inquiry has lately been pursued in the correspondence columns of the New Zealand Herald. The correspon dence has closed; but the point appears to be still unsettled. An American writer on the state of affairs in Russia says :— "The great Empire of the Czar i 3 something very much like a great humbug. It has a Government that knows how to govern only by brute force. It has a diplomacy which is all fraud. It bas a great army which it is unable to move. It has a vast empire without roads, or schools, or commerce, or inland trade, or resources, and almost without civilization. Its expenditures constantly exceed its revenues. Its debt is enormous, and its credit is hardly third-rate. All other nations — even the Chinese— are making advances. The Russian despotism alone remains stationary, save that it haa turned some 25,000,000 serfs into improvident and worthless subjects. If the power and importance of nations could be fairly rated by the number of their people, Russia, next to China, would be the most powerful and important in the world. But as a matter of fact, the civilized worid would be less seriously affected by the utter destruction of Russia than by the loss of Holland or Belgium or the city of New York. Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio have more railroads, more schools, more inland trade, more banking capital, more of everything that makes one country useful to another country, or a Government useful to its people, than the entire empire of the Russian despot." A terrible sporadic fever in raging in Casablanca, in Morocco, attacking both natives and Europeans Business has beeu brought to a standstill. A canary in Portland, Me., has many of the accomplish meu ts of her sex. She is a beautiful singer, and she faints as gracefully as any lady. When she is frightened or nervous she suddenly sinks to the floor of her cage in a fainting fit, and remains unconscious for fifteen minutes, when she breaks forth into song as though nothing had happened. A bankrupt shoemaker, who, being crossed in love, took to the woods and gradually sank to the level of a wild animal, has been captured in Tennessee, where be is undergoing a process of (raining which, it is hoped, will sufficiently tame him for exhibition. The ex-shoemaker is, so says an exchange, covered with a layer of scales, which drop off at regular periods, like the skin of a rattlesnake. It is to be hoped that his appearance will considerably improve before he presents himself to his late sweetheart. The present depression seriously affects agriculture in England. In Essex alone there are at least one hundred and eightythree farms of ov6r sever iy acres each, for which the landlords cannot find tenants. Such a state of affairs is unparalleled.