The Bush Advocate. PUBLISHED TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1888. NEWS OF THE DAY.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 38, 2 August 1888, Page 2

The Bush Advocate. PUBLISHED TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1888. NEWS OF THE DAY.

+ Mr E, V. Dixon has a new advertisement in this issue. Tenders for the working of the Mangatera Mills close on Saturday. Tenders are invited for fencing round the Presbyterian Church, Danevirke. An average of 3000 sheep are said to.be killed every week in Auckland, and 150 bullocks. A preliminary announcement from the Danevirke Co-Operative Store appears elsewhere. Bemember the great auction sale at Makotuku on Saturday. Full particulars in another column. It is estimated by the Auckland Starthat the Canadian doctors took £30,000 from New Zealand. Meeting of Ormondville Boad Board and Danevirke Town Board to-night ; also of Danevirke School Committee to-morrow night. A Service of Song, entitled "Beclaimed," is to be given in Skinner's Hall, Ormondville, in a day or two, the connective readings being rendered by Mr A. Webber. An additional attraction will be a Coffee Supper, and there is likely to be a large attendance. It may be mentioned that when "Reclaimed" was produced in. Napier it met with great success, numbers of people being unable to obtain admission to the second night's perform- < ance. - The report of the committee appointed to enquire into the Stock Department is condemnatory of the manner in which the Department has conducted its business, chiefly on account of the more recent outbreaks of disease when it was generally given out that the country was clear. The committee recommend the abolition of the central department in Wellington, and the division of the colony into six stock districts, the officers controlling which will- be immediately under, and responsible, to, the Minister. -. Kajte.O'Brien, a young, woman^ was shot dead at Treorky fair, near Cardiff. She had charge of a temporary erection from which dangled colored balls and other objects, to be shot at by. visitors to the fair. Among the amateur marksmen was Thomas Thomas, who. took aim at a hpttle; but just at the moment when he fired O'Brien passed in front of him to attend to another customer ' and received the charge in her. forehead, .dying almost instantly. Thomas was arrested and taken to the police station. . The Norsewood-.Ormondville telephone line is being- pushed on with great despatch. The poles came up from Wai,pukarau to Ormondville yesterday, and the erection will be proceeded with at once. The terminus of the line at Norsewood will be at the Post Office Store (Mr Olsen's) till such time as the Government office is erected. We understand . that Mr W. C. Smith is exerting himself to obtain the grant for this building. The site has not as yet been officially decided upon, but we should imagine that this question, to a great extent), will be left to the settlers themselves. The new Hall, belonging to the Danevirke Public Hall Company, was opened on Tuesday evening by a ball. There was not a large attendance, only sometwenty couples being present. The ball was, we think, somewhat hastily got up, and as a consequence there was considerable room for improvement in the arrangements. The Hall had only been. taken over from the builderß the previous day, and the cleansing process, to which the floor had necessarily been subjected, left it in a state of dampness that was not pleasant to the dancers. Nevertheless, on enjoyable evening was passed by those present. The viands upon the supper table were of excellent quality, and the music was all that could be desired. The floor, when it is in good order, will be eh excellent one for dancing, as it appears to be well laid and has a good spring, We congratulate the 1 Company on the possession of such a fine building, which, with its large seating accommodation aml}splendid stage room, should prove a source of attraction to theatrical companies. Certainly the Hall will be a great convenience to the Danevirke people. New York is the first American State to substitute death by electricity for hanging. The Governor has signed the Bill -passed by the Legislature, making the change after January Ist next to apply to all crimes committed on and after that date. The Bill provides that_ a prisoner sentenced to death is to be immediately oonveyed by the Sheriff to one of the State prisons, and there kept in solitary confinement until the- day of execution. He is to be visited only by the officers, or by his relatives, physician, clergyman, or counsel. The Court imposing the sentence is to name merely the week within which the execution is to take place, the particular clay within such week being left to the discretion of the principal officer of the prison. The execution is required to be practically private, only the officials, clergymen, physicians, and a limited number of citizens being allowed to be present. These provisions completely abolish the present practice of allowing capital criminals to be visited by the public, to be interviewed by reporters, and j finally hanged jo ft semi-publjo WWTOfr,

The contract for clearing. Mr VV. Henderson's sections was secured by Mr John Ayrton for £40. Much of the so-called ivory now in use is simply potato, A good sound potato mated iv dieted sulphuric acid, then boiled in Ihfc same dilution, and then slowly dried, is all ready to be turned into buttons, poker ' chips, and innumerable other things that ivory was used for once upon, a time. The industrial work" carried on by public and semi-public schools in Paris has great variety and is of a high stage ; in Germany it is carried farther in technical detail, and in Sweden, as ; well as in one or two other countries, it has been more completely incorporated in the general scheme of education. An extraordinary experiment was made at Bone, in Algeria, after the execution of a native who had murdered his brother and the. latter 's wife and father-in-law. As the head fell from the guillotine a doctor took it up and spoke a few words. It is said that the various movements of the man's eyes and mouth seemed to show that the words had been heard and understood. The "Surprise Party," or "Takapau Minstrels," performed at Norsewood last Tuesday evening, but did not meet with the success they anticipated, on account of the opening of the hall and dance the previous night. Several of the performers acquitted themselves very well, and deserved a better house. Mr Harding presided at the piano. After the entertainment the hall was cleared for a hop, and dancing was kept up till 2 o'clock. A man was knocked down by a cab in the Strand the other day arid one of his legs was fractured. A member of the Ladies' Ambulance Corps who happened to be passing, promptly bandaged the injured limb with a handkerchief, a stick, and a parasol, which she borrowed from bystanders. Her dexterity was eulogised by the crowd. .When the sufferer was raised, however, it was ascertained that the wrong leg had been set. Becorder Smyth, of New York, says that the real first-class bank burglars are nearly all English. The Irish are essentially fighters and violaters of the excise laws. They rarely use a knife or pistol, but catch something handy, like a club or a chair, and hit hard. . The American ia the smartest and brightest of all criminals. He is the forger and shrewd fraud. The Germans are the most peaceful of criminals, the Hebrews generally get into trouble about fraud or stealing, and negroes are liars, thieves, and fighters. It is a compliment tb the Scotchmen that Recorder Smyth has nothing to say about them. A French paper tells a story of Masini, the Italian tenor, who, while travelling recently in Turkey, sang to the Sultan's harem in Constantinople. Of course the beauties were all hidden behind high screens, but as he finished his great air from the " Hugenots " he was astonished to hear a lovely female voice follow it with Valentine's song. When the tenor made inquiries he found that the fair singer was the daughter of an official in the Turkish Court, and had studied at Rome for the operatic stage. On her return to Constantinople she had been compelled, greatly against her will, to enter the Sultan's harem. There is said to be a farmer in Bridgeport, Conn., who has not spoken to his wife for thirteen years, nor she to him, although the two are on good terms. It appears that one morning in June, 1875, he came into his house and asked his wife to hurry up breakfast- In her hurry she dropied a plate and spilled some hot coffee on him. A row was the result, and it ended in her saying that she would never speak to him as long as she lived and he swore he would never speak to her. ( Since that time they have never exchanged ' a word. Their children do all the talking for them, and each one is waiting for the other to give in first. It is bound to come in time, and then one niay well imagine that their talk will be an interesting one. A remarkable case has been tried at the Assize Court of the Seine Inferieure. The accused were a woman named Hardel and her daughter, who murdered an old man in his cottage and then robbed him. Hardel kept a place which was called in the locality "La Maison dv Diable." The victim, a farm labourer, was strangled by the women, and his body was then suspended by the neck from a hook in the wall, so as to make the neighbors believe that the deceased had committed suicide. The women said that they wanted something to eat, as they were starving, and on that account they resolved to murder the old man and steal his money. It was proved, however, that the younger woman had money in her possession at the time of the murder. The mother was condemned to penal servitude for life, and the daughter to imprisonment for 20 years. Last Tuesday's north-going afternoon train ran into a mob of horses about halfway between Kopua and Takapau, killing two outright and maiming another by breaking one of its hind legs in several places. The slaughter happened about mile peg 60. . The train was coming round a cury§ onto a small bridge with considerable speed down an incline, and the horses could not be seen till it was too late. Two of them were caught by the. cowcatcher, carried across the bridge, and at last got bo firmly lodged in a mangled niasa under, neath the cowcatcher in front of the engine's first pair of wheels, that the train was brought to a standstill. It is a wonder that the engine was not derailed, As it was, |t took fully half an hour to dear the naseous obstruction of reeking gore. The cowcatcher had to be unscrewed and the train backed before the mangled remains of the animals could be hauled away. The Colonies and India, commenting on the movement in favour of technical education in the colony of Viotorta, saya it will not be the fault of the Victorian Government if technical education is neglected, as there is a i'eeljng in the Cabinet that if the country is to progress the rising generation should have the advantage of technical teaching. The Minister of Public Instruction has issued a minute on the policy of founding a Victorian Technical University, which is a digest of some of the evidence given before our own Royal Commissioner on Technical Instruction, Mv Pcajson estimates the initial expenditure involved }n thg fou/i. dation of a separate technical university at from £500,000 to a million, besides a yearly endowmont of at least #30,000. The latter sum appears out of proportion to the average endowments of such institutions in Europe and America. It is not doubted that the money required will be froejy voted, The powers of the Indian snake-charmer are regarded by some as almost verging on the supernatural. A fatal incident reported from Mazagan does not, however, show the craft in a favorable light. A boy of six was attacked by a cobra, which bit him on the foot ; he died an hour afterwards, IConrtajeepNinibQQJee, who united the trade of a goal laborep with the avooa r tion of a snake-charmer, was summoned. He began a series of incantations, and, capturing the cobva, seized it by the tail and head. He argued that, as the first bite had killed the child, a second would bring him to life again, and so for a considerable period tried to compel the cobra to bite, the bfidy. The snake, tired of the performance, found an opportunity of twisting its head round ancjL bitjng X.on; dajee on the index finger of the left hand. In less than an hour the poor snake? charmer died— a victim to ggobsr obs ignorance and. superstition,

The death is announced of Sir Duncan Cameron, colonel of the Black Watch, who was commander of the iorces in New Zea-' land in 1863, with the rank of lieutenantgeneral. There are m&ny indications of an early but premature spring in country districts, (writes the N. Z. Herald) owing to the. extreme mildness of the winter, the willow trees in various places being already out in leaf. The Telegraph says it has been decided, as the result of Mr Washbourne's inspection, to extend the drive in the Maharahara copper mine. The drive is in 160 ft, and if necessary it will be extended till the crest of the spur is pierced. It might interest sporting men to know that a son of the winner of the first pony race ever run in Bangitikei. has just died at the ripe age of about 30 years. The manner of his death was this : — He was feeding in a paddock, when a load of chaff was passing along the road, at which he took fright. He galloped a short distance, and fell down dead.— Manawatu Standard. An Auckland export of a somewhat unusual character was made by the s.s. Wairarapa f or Sydney, for transhipment to India, in the shape of 400 boxes (20 tons) of potatoes, which were shipped by Messrs D. N. Nathan and Co. to an order in Calcutta. It is to be hoped that this consignment will be the forerunner of many similar ventures, and that a new market will thus be opened. The Hon. Mr Miller, r M.L.C, speaking the other day in the Council on the Custoirs Bill, observed: ."lt is a rich and good colony, and if we can only make certain that we have finished once for all with this damned extravagance ■." The Speaker : " The honorable gentleman must be more careful in his language." Mr Miller apologised, and said that he meant condemnable. Mr Pharazyn afterwards opined that it would be blotted out by theßecordine Angel, (< as my unole Toby's oath was. A good story is told of Dean Burgon, who, on a certain occasion not long ago, was expatiating on the nature of man. He pointed out that one great distinction between human beings and the lower animals consisted in the capacity for progress. "Man," exclaimed the dean, warming to his theme, "is aprogressive being; other creatures are stationary. Think, for example, of the ass! Always and everywhere it is the same creature, and you never saw a more perfect ass than you see at the present moment." Writes the Waikato Times .—We cannot close our eyes to the fact that pauperism is on the increase in the colony. The blot on our political body sprang up with the progress of the Public Works policy, and has been left a shameful legacy to the taxpayer as one of the penalties for a prodigal career. The Charitable Aid institutions, by whose means the State legalises pauperism, degrade the people, stifle the phflanthrophic instincts in the human breast, and check the efforts of private charity and benevolent enterprises. A writer in the Wairarapa Standard says the most fearful and exasperating talker in the House, next to Fisn, is Mr Seddon, member for the mining town of Kumara. The following exordium was addressed to Kumara Seddon the other day, but has not as yet had any appreciable effect in silencing him : — "Attend ! you erstwhile sturdy digger Seddon, You who from mines to politics were led on By mere exuberance of thy most leaden - jaw, You've ceased to bore the holes, yet still the whole you bore." The " Watchman " in one of his contributions to the Wairarapa Standard, gets off the following : — " The ' janiale ' Tommy Bracken, poet and pressman, is at present engaged in the Press Gallery of the House reporting the ineffable gush of our Representatives in Parliament assembled; Asked the other night whether Samuel (New Plymouth) had spoken in a certain debate, Tommy made answer and said : ' Yes Samuel spoke either at Endor beginning of the debate, I don't know witch. That Said I know. Thomas still lives. This story has been told before, but incorrectly.. So, in order to preserve the proper version for the use of posterity, it is here again given. The Auckland Star grows glowing hot over the scant courtesy shown by the New Zealand Government to Captain Whitney the cartridge maker, compared with the enthusiasm with which his offer to start a factory in Viotorla was reoeived. The Victorian Government will give a site valued at £14,000, and a bonus of £5000, and agree to take all the ammunition they need from the local factory at English prices, plus cost of freight and delivery, and South Australia has agreed to buy all she wants on the same terms. The Star says Captain Whitney has spent £7000 on his Auckland Factory, has got the very best maohinery from Home, and the Government will give him no encouragement. The Star's indignation has borne fruit, and the Government has come to an arrangement with Capt. Whitney, The annual sales of New South Wales stud sheep were commenced at Sydney on the 10th instant by Messrs Griffiths and Weaver, at the stores of the New Zealand Loan and Agenoy Company, when 148 stud rams and ewes from the flocks of Messrs G. H. Cox, J. D. Cox, Cox Brothers, Hume, Lackey, Wallaoe, and Mills, Jas. Lee, Geo. Rouse, H. C. White, and and F. B. White, all of New South Wales, were disposed of at satisfactory prices. Mr Griffiths wielded the hammer, and the biddings, .though slack at first, were spirited, there being considerable competition, the highest prices obtaine4 being for a Birraganibal ram, owned by Mr G. Rouse, 71 guineas ; and three of Mr H. C. White's Havilah rams, which fetched 63, 52, and 50 guineas respectively. A Polish officer named Lubicz Kur* kovski has just died at Makoff at the age of 116 years. This is a case of centenananism authenticated beyond doubt. Born in 1772, Kurkovski fought as a private sgldier under Kosciuszko, was an officer in the Polish Legion which wont with Napoleon to Moscow, and greatly distinguished himself in the Polish insurrection of 1831, when he was already accounted a veteran. As the last survivor of the period when Poland was an independent kingdom, Kurkovski's death has attracted great attention, and his funeral was attended by Polish gentlemen from all parts qt GftUcia. The , walls of Cracow and Lombevg haye been placarded with large, black bordered notices announcing the venerable patriot's death and recount, ing his exploits. At the Kilrush quarter sessions on June 13, the County Oourt judge told a farmer named O'Donnell, who was being examined, that at first ho thought him an houest man, b«t* oW}ng tQ hfs ayasjye evidence ho considered him ai'ogue, "The witness strongly resented the remark, and told the judge that he was as capable of telling the truth as he or any judge that ever sat on the bench. The judge here threatened to commit him for contempt. Q'PpnneU declared that His Hgnor had no right to call }iim a rogue, and point blank refused to g{ve any f qrther evidence before him, and jumped off the witness table. Amid groat exoltement the judge ordered the police to bring him baok to the table. Four policemen tried to carry out this order, and a struggle ensued, but O'Donnell was the victor. His solicitor then induced him to answer several questions pqt by himself, but he. would not answer, any fmestfqns put by % judge, and his refusals and attitude of cpritempt for His Honor caused great amusement tQ vbe solicitor fttyd visitor jq oom^t.

It has long puzzled Europeans to ascertain what use the fungus shipped to China from New Zealand is applied to, but the Celestial has not yet, disclosed this. It is evident, however, that it is in great demand there, as the export ie a growing one. As showing that the matter is oi some local interest, we may mention that a Chinese firm in Palmerston last week sent away about six tons of dried fungus. — Times. The Financial Neios, discussing the last New Zealand loan, says this colony has about reached the end of her financial tether, and it sums up as follows : — " A sharp pull has to happen sooner or later, and the staving it off by new loans can only make it so much the worse for New Zealand herself and her creditors. The plain and palpable fact is that the colony has already more debt than she can stagger under, and adding to it can only aggravate the inevitable crash." The San Francisco correspondent of the New Zealand Herald states : — " The Etruria has just crossed the Atlantic in six days one hour and fifty-five minutes. The Aurania takes eight days and upwards, so you have here alone a loss of two days in the through transportation of your mails. The Etruria covered 503 miles in tM r enty-four hours, and averaged 470 miles per diem for six consecutive days, maintaining a speed of almost 20 miles per hour throughout the whole voyage." It may now be presumed, saya the Dunedin Evening Herald, that Jonathan Roberts has got away clear. We shall doubtless hear, of him hereafter as a prominent member of a syndicate in Sydney, or a bank director in Glasgow. There must be weeping and wailing on the part of the prisoners who declined his invitation to go off with him, and who now regret their faint-heartedness. In these days of retrenchment the best thing we can do with a prisoner is to lose him. It is very unlikely that he will begin to practice his profession again in thes6 islands. We are saved the expense of his bed and board, not to mention the item of his guard. The annual cost of the Prisons Department, it must be remembered, is the pleasant whip with which to scourge the taxpayer, because the individual has taken to bad courses. It was animated by the sentiment of economy, no doubt, that the Government immediately made Captain. Hume bombadier-general (the title may be inaccurate) because he let Jonathan Roberts go.