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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 154, 2 July 1895, Page 2

Oq the fourth page will ba found "Wellington Notes." The abolition of Party Government is the question for discussion to-night at the meeting of the Winter Evening Debating Society. The Rev F. W., Isitt, who has been attending the Temperance Convention in Wellington, is expected to take a run across to Nelson about the end of this week. Mr James Harnian, at one time a resident at Brook street, and who also lived at Wakapuaka, died yesterday morning at Brightwater, where he has resided latterly. Deceased was well known in and around Nelson, and in his younger days was a remarkably strong and active man. The Nelson Football Club will hold a practice in the Botanical Reserve, at four o'olock to-morrow afternoon, According to a correspondent the Waimea Road is becoming famous for footpads, highwaymen, and other gentlemen of the banditti iraternity. He hears of turkeys, fowls, and miscellaneous tucker having been stolen from harmless and inoffensive persons quietly jogging along that road to their innocent homes. A vehicle of any kind from a coach-and-four to a wheelbarrow stopping at any of the inns along the road in question is a special mark for these gentlemen, for the moment the driver and other occupants descend for refreshments the poultry described become hypnotised and immediately fly away. Our informant (one of the victims) says that a petition is about to be forwarded to the Minister of Defence urging the necessity for an armed force to patrol the infested district for the purpose of annihilating the whole gang. The Austra'ian Guards Band of the Salvation Army, a body of' eighteen instrumentalists, who have become famous as excellent musicians are about to visit Nelson. The Band gives a performance in the Theatre Royal on the afternoon and evening of Wednesday week 10th July, Admission adults Is., children Gel, Among other civil cases before the Magistrate's Court to-day was that of W. J. Livesay (of Hope), vJ . Lane, cab proprietor (Wellington). Mr Kingdou, for the plaintiff, said that this was a claim for £13 4s 2d on account of a dishonoured promissory note given for chaff supplied by the plaintiff to defendant, and for 2s Gd interest to date. In answer to His AVorship Mr Kingdon said he could not prove defendant's signature to the promissory note, he could only Bay that the note had been returned through hi* bank marked dishonoured. He thought that the service of the summons would bo suflici'ent proof. His Worship sajd he could not accept the service of summons as any proof to the signature. His Worship looked up the new Act and found that the proof of the signature was not required in such a case as this where judgment went against the defendant by default, and accordingly he gave judgment for amount claimed and interest 2s Id, that being at the rate of 8 pec cent. Costs £1 15s 6d were allowed, The Waimea County Council havo had to take Jegal proceedings for the recovery of rates, but in nearly every instance the defaulters paid up, and the record at the Court this morning, when the cases were called on was. "No appearance, your Worship— case struck out," In the case of the Council against Josiah buttress judgment was given for the plaiulill' for £1 d* 8d and costs 6a. In one or two instances adjournments by consent of the Council was agreed to, A large number of civil cases were set down for hearing at the Magistrate's Court to-day, but the majority of them were either settled out of Court or judgment had been confesseu. In the case of J. E. Dodson and Son v Chas J. Satchell, a (ilaim was made for £1 19a for beer supplied and interest. Mr H. I]. Duncan, a member of the firm, deposed that the amount was still owing. The case had previously been adjourned on the promise of payment. His Worship noted that the account had been running for three years, but be did not think he could entertain the claim for interest, although it was stated on tbe bill head that interest would be charged on overdue accounts. Mr Barley cited authorities showing that such interest was allowed by juries where it had been shown that the creditor had notified the debtor of his intention to charge interest from a specified date. He believed that interest bad been allowed in the Magistrate's Court also. His Worship could not remember any instance of a Magistrate allowing such a claim for interest, On the application of Mr Harley His Worship adjourned the case until 9th July to enable him to look up further authorities upon this interesting point. Some particulars of Oscar Wilde's prison life :— During the first month on the wheel, if put there, Wilde will sleep on a plank bed, a bare board raised a few inohes above the floor, and supplied with sheets. Clean sheets are given to each prisoner, two rugs, and a coverlet, but no mattrass. His diet will be : — Breakfast at half-past seven a in,, cocoa and bread; dinner nt noon, bacon and beans one day, soup another, cold Australian moat another, and brown flour suet pudding another, the last three being repeated twioe a week, potatoes with every dinner. After he has finished his spell on the wheel, ho will be put to some industrial employment — not play-writing, although it might be the most profitable to the prison department— but probably post-bag making, tailoring, or merely picking oakum. He will exercise in the open air daily for an hour, walking with the rest of his ward, in Indian file, no talking permitted. Ho will be allowed no communication with the outside, except by special permission, until he has completed three months of his sentence, Then he may write and receive one letter and be visited for twenty minutes by three friends, but in a visiting cell, separated from them by wire blinds, and in the presence of a warder. The letter and visit may be repeated at intervals of three months, but all those concessions depond first, upon his industry, and next upon his conduot. There is no esoape from the plank bed until a certain number of marks are awarded for work done, and in tbe same way letters and visits are acoorded. On his release, Wilde, if he has worked well, will have earned the magnificent sum of ten shillings, which will be paid to him by an agent of the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Sooiety. In a private letter received in town from the Tatas the writer allvjding to the phenomenal downpour of vaju which, occurred in the Golden Bay district about a W6ek ago and which oaused extensive landslips, states that tbe greatest exoitomont prevailed at tbe time. There was a torribleflood, and "every moment we expeotod the house to bo carried away. The creek was not nearly largo enough to carry off the water, silt and trees and about 9 o'clock on the Monday morning (24th June) the water burst through our orchard and came rushing down with an awful roar, washing the out hou.aos dway/ The kit.qb.en, garden is a thing of the past, and now lies in pieoea down on the beaoh, Two lovely green paddocks

that were, are covered with silt, sand, &o. It is enough to make a man sit down and cry, coming as it did just as evorytbing was in apple pie order. Fences are broken, and the place is a picture of desolation. The children are quite enjoying it, and are amusing themselves pioking eels out of the slush." The Female Foresters' fortnightly social, which was held last night, proved another success despite the wet evening. Songs and music were contributed during the evening, there were about 70 present, and dancing was kept up with great spirit. The Grey River Argus says : — Mr W H Jones is convening a meeting of all footballers over 45 years of age for the purpose of arranginc; for the annual veteran match agaiust Hokitika. A great deal of interest was taken iu the affair lost year, and it is to be hoped Dhat a like enthusiasm will prevail this season, especially as such deserving institutions as the Grey and Hokitika hospitals would be thereby benefited. In a life of the late Mr E. A. Freeman, the historian, lately published, there appears a letter written by him to the Greek Minister in London in 1803, when, after the expulsion of Kins; Otho, the throne was vacant. ' If you cannot find a Greek, or failing a pure Greek, an Albanian, Servian, or Bulgarian, I sbould rejoice to see your choice fall on an Englishman. But then surely it should he an Eneland man and not a ninetenths German lad. Surely some man who has had real experience in Government, some statesman, or Colonial Governor, Mr Gladstone, or Lord Stanley, or Sir George Grey of New Zealand (who I should think would be just the man to deal with any unruly elements in the country), is what you really want, nob Alfred of Saxe-Coburg, or Leuchtenberg, or anything of the sort. It is the most glorious opportunity for throwing aside nil the wretched caste traditions of Royalties and Highnesses, and settling a real anax androti at the head of a nation. I find most English friends of Greece quite agreeing with me." A London paper has been hoaxed into publishing the following in an article dealing with insects : —"In New Zealand, where grasshoppers are more than abun. dant, they are used for food by Euro peans. Grasshoppers are announced a great delicacy in New Zealand when prepared according to the following formula : One bushel of the insects is immersed two hours in half a gallon of pork brine. The insects are then boiled in the liquid for 20 minutes, then thoroughly rinsed in warm water and plaeed in an oven to become crisp. When cold the heads are removed, and they are ready to be eaten. The flavour is said to resemble that of the shrimp," Details are given in a Constantinople despatch of the scheme of reforms for Armenia which the three Powers presented to the Sultan on May 10 :— "lt proposes that onethird ot the officials in Armenia Bhall be Christians ; that the appointments of Governors shall be subject to the veto of tho Powers ; that a High Coramijsioner shall bo appointed to supervise the carrying out of the reforms, who is to remain in oflice till they are completed, and whose j appointment is to lie subject to an ap- j proval of the Powers ; that a commission constituted of Mohammedans, and Christians is to watch over the administration of the Armenian vilayets ; that the gendarmerie shall be recruited from both Christians and Mohammedans ; and that the Kurds shall be disarmed. The three Powers propose to place the administration of the taxes in the hands of the Mudirs, the niontys being collected by officers appointed by the Communal Councils instead of by gendarmes. The scheme also proposes to abolish the farming, the tithes, and other taxes." No mention is made of the control to be exercised by the Powers over the carrying out of the reforms. Letters addressed to Mrs Aloxander, Mr J. Alexander, George Comean, Mr M Moore, Win, Kemp, McCullock, T. Sheldon (live letters), and Mr M. ,'J. Sheehan, received from places beyond the colony, are lying unclaimed at the Chief Post Oflice, Nelson. The Secretary of the West Coast Amateur Athletic and Oycling Olub has writtssn;to the Secretary of the Nelson Education Board stating that at the first sports meeting of that Club a race will be open for schoolboys. Not more than three boys can bo nominated by any one school. Nominations must be from the schools under the Nelson Board. Further particulars as to prizes, &c, are to follow. A Germau chemist, named Oppermann is reported to have invented a new pystem of pnrifying sewage. Relying on the generally acknowledged fact that the mixture of caustic lime and magnesia obtained by calcining dolomito or magnesinn limestone has the propeity of absorbing a large quantity of ozone, he mixes with the ? sewage a certain proportion of calcined ■ dolomite, saturated with ozone, and then adds a small quantity of perchloride of iron. A precipitate is thrown down, which is collected and saved ; and the water flows off clear aud pure, except that it has caustic lime dissolved in it. The lime is, however, gradually precipitated, in the form of carbonate, by the action of the atmosphere, or it may be more rapidly separated by blowing in carbonic acid gas ; and, ic if asserted, the water is then quite pure. " Invention " understands that the cost or the process is very small, it being estimated that 75 cents u day would cover the cost of purifying the sewage from a town of 6000 inhabitants. is a Chinese place-name that isiikely to become familiar to Lancashire ears in the early future. It is becoming more so every day (says the 'Textile Mercury '1, for very frequently we are reading of the despatch of ships from the Manchester ship oanal dooks laden with cotton machinery destined for this town. The machinery is going to the mills established by tho Viceroy Chang Ohih Tung, 'outside the walls of Wuchang Already several mills are at work, and the industry seems to be taking firm root. This is a serious matter for Lancashire. As we have ofton pointed out, Lancashire spinners, manufacturers, and operatives have gone far too much ou the principle and belief that "as things are now they have always been and will ever be " regarding their industry. This is not correct, and unless they realise this fact and begin to advanot>, they will soon see that shut out of Continental and American countries by high '■.arift's, and defeated in neutral mmke's in the East by cheap labour, there wiil be nothing left for them. WnchaDg has not Butl'ereu iu any way from the present war. Messrs Bisley Bros & Co will hold a large sale of hotel furniture and effects to-morrow, beginning at 10.30 in the Exchange Hotel, Bridge Street.