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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 122, 25 May 1891, Page 2

One of the inebriates fined at the Napier Police Court tbe other day proved himself to be quite an orator. After pleading guilty he aaked permission " to make a few remarks," which he proceeded to do at oousiderable leugth. Taking off a pair of spectacles ho struck an attitude and '' waded in." The burden of hi 3 tale was that he fell into trouble while engaged with a dear t'rieud of his youth in searching for a missing " pornuanfcoho," an i that he wished he possessed tho eloquence of a Demosthenes, and the logic of a Cio ro (aof b "q" ia the good old-fashioned style) to help him to persuade tho Magistrate to let him depart in peace this once He would nob tlittor bis Worship by saying he had the wisdom of a Solomon, but the fact of his being in his present position proved him to be a wise nnd good man, and he begged of him to give the unfortunate before him one chance to prove that he was hot a man worthy to be stigmatised as a drunkard, and let him go forth into the world blessing the wisdom, the olemenoy, and tho discretion of the Napier iMagistrate, With a " dull thud" ojme the response -" ten shillings and costs or 48 hours' hard labonr" and John Burke O'Brien " went up," The Auokland correspondent of a con* temporary writes :— Some of the members of the oivil service who huve beou retrenched, and who are within a year or 18. months of their pensions have no intention of sitting quitly under their grievances, but intend to petition Parliament, und thus raise the whole question as to the power of the jovemmenfc to 80 not towards them, They contend that; having been discharged through no fault of their own, the oolony ia bound to fulfil the conditions under which they entered tho service. There is a great deal of. foroe in their contention that the Government should be juat as well as eoononaioal, and guard tho fair fame of the oolony from even the suspicion of bad faith and meanness. A Government whioh expeot3 loyalty from its servant* must ia its turn be loyal to its public engagemeuts to the oivil servioe. The Melbourne Telegraph of May 2nd has the following :— Yesterday, after much tiresome negotiation and muoh vexatious delay, the reduced rates for oable messages between Australia aud Europe oame into operation, As anticipated, the first day has shown an enormous increase of tnibineas. We are in a position to state that tho cables lodged in thq Melbourne offloe Bhow an increase ol over 100 per cent. This cannot, however, beiaqoepted as a oriterioa of what the actual legitimate increase will amount to, as it ia within the knowledge of. the telegraph officials that many senders have been holding their meeaages for a lew dayu in order to Beoure the reduoed rate, and some little time must necessarily elap3e before auy definite returns showing the result of the change of rate o»n bo given. The increase of bußinnßs transacted at the dyduoy 011100 is cv n more marked. On 30th April only about a dozen messages wete despatched, whilab yesterday the nuaibur amounted to over 200. But no doubt tha same onuse of such an enormous increase operated there as here, viz.. that sonderß have bsen holding baok in order Jo reooive the benefi'. of the reduoad ohargos. Mr Wall, of Biverside. has informed the Wairarapa Standard that a two year old ateer has lately been killed on his property by atagg It apposrs tbat (be beast bad aaoideotalij got its horn knookad off and it is supposed that the blood attraoted the stags. The ateer was found dead in a oreek, greatly emeared with blood. Mr Wall being at a loss to understand what had killed it, had it skinned, and to his surprise found the whole of the body a mass of bruises and olotted bldodf A couple of stags were seen on the. previous evening at the spot where the beast was found. On examination of the ground round about tbe dead animal, numerous prints of the stags' hoofs oould be Been. Mr Wall can in no other way aooount for the ateer'a death, and feel's doufldeut fcuat it ma the yiaUm'of an attack by stags.

A. Staffordshire physioian has been reminded in an eminently unpleasant way that it ib not always safe to oall a man " a oonviot simply beoause he baa at som,e time boen oouvioted of a orimjnal offence, The libelled person, in thiß oase, though at one time a respectable oountry eolioitor, had it appears, more than once boen sentenced to terms ol imprisonment, but these had expired, and the peccant solicitor was therefore not a conviot in the eye of the law at the time when tho defendant wrote referring to the defendant's wife "and her conviot husband." The result of the case, which waa tried before Mr Justice Day at the Martobeater assizes, is that his ignorauco of the law has involved the Staffordshire physioian in the obligation to pay £40 damages, with costs. There i8 no need now to say that German ladies are behind tho times. A olub has just been started in Frankfort on-Maino by several of tho principal society ladies in that oity. The olub rooms are at present in. the villa of one of the ohief members,' and the rules are modelled on those of a similar booiety once started in Beriin, No person is eligible as a member who has at any time been ongaged to tie married, and if any member is so weak as to wish to marry she must at once send in her resignation, and in addition to this pay down a fine pjf £100. It need hardly be said that, man— the common enemy— is Btrio.tly excluded from all entertainments got up by tho olub. The building contains reading rooms, billiard rooms, card rooms, and smoking rooms I It starts with nineteen members, whq if ihev all go the way of the " Spinsters 'Olub" in Berlin, will have to lay down £1 900. Tennyson was oace, a magazine writer tells üb, asked to supply a dozen birthday poems of eight lines eaoh for a thouamft guineas. The poet refused I, , *vj - Lady (at dharity bazaa,r) i.H Count, wotft you bur this ro^ f* !t,iV one guE' Count : Jery sorry, but it is rather tdo'dlar or f?,' « Lad y kißße s the. rose): "And now ?.:» Count (retiring with * lo W te*F;' " Now it ib priceless | " ! "Z*""'^