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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue XV, 18 November 1880, Page 4

The'Ediviburgh Scotsman gives a somewhat detailed account of a li erary discovery recently made, which— if accurate, as we suppose it to be— more than confirrhs' certain rumors which have been abroad. It is nothing less than the finding of a new early manuscript of the whole of the Gospel of Matthew, 4nd the Gospel of Mark/with the exception of its last six and a half verses •j—the final leaf, as we suppose, being, as it iB so often, missing. Its appearance, the style of the letters in which it is written, and all the other criteria by which its age must be judged, assign it to a date not far from A.D. 500; which exalts it to an antiquity exceeded by not more than three or four among surviving manuscripts of the New Tes tament. The discovery happened in this wise. Two German scholars, Oscar V. Gebhardfc and Adolph Harnach, known as having successfully edited an edition of the "Apolostic Fathers," went in March last to Southern Italy and Sicily on a search for manusczipts. Hearing of a monastery afc Rosßaiio, on the Gulf of Taranto, said to contain important manuscripts, they Went thither, to find no traces of such a monastery now existing, but discovering in the palace of the archbishop thia fenerable copy of nearly the whole of the first two Gospels. Its leaves are of purple parchment^ the writing being in silver, except the first three lines of each Gospel, which are in gold. It 188 leaves) is Written in uncial characters, two columns to the page, yiith. no space between the words, no breathings nor acceints, and only the slightest attempt afc punctuation. The jinders state thafc in general ifc bears a striking resemblance fco the ofcher only known manuscript on purple parchment -—four leaves of vihich are in London — •pd that, with some unique readings, it ] rather goes with the later manuscripts where the Sinaitic and the Vatican nianuscripts differ from them. Special interest attaches to the manuscript jrotn the fact; thafc it contains a number pf painted miniatures illustrative of jcenes in the life of Chrisfc, which must pc among the very earliest of such works of art extant, and which are done with fair skill and much animation and pxpression—some being historically suggestive, as that portraying the distribution oi bread and wine at thei Eucharist.

At the Hull Police Court recently, the case of Emil Poulsen, upon whose farm at Cottingbam 52 bales of smuggled tobacco, weighing in the aggregate 3000lbs, were found, was removed to the Court of Exchequer on a writ of capiat. Robert and Erederick Poulsen, sons of the above-named, were found guilty of having in their possession 1541bs of tobacco, and were each fined the treble value and duty, £123 4s. An old man named Maw and a boy named Arthur PouU Ben, a relative, were each fined £2545 1 6s, treble value and duty. William J. Adams, ship's steward, was charged with being concerned in the importation of 2100lbs of tobacco, and was fined the treble value and duty, £1370 13s. The Magistrate inflicted the alternative of six months' imprisonment, (the full term allowed) in each case. The fines amounted in the aggregate to over £7000. A correspondent at Hokianga, writing to the New Zealand Herald of the death of Ranagatira Mouefcura, says: — 'Ranagatha was ninety years old, and was, I believe, the last survivor of those Northern chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitanei. Before his death, his people had bis coffia made, and bought large quantities of food ready for the tangi. I wonder did they show the old chief wbat a lot of kaikai they had gofc ready.