NEWS OF THE DAY.

Bush Advocate, Volume II, Issue 90, 1 December 1888, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Mr Westlake's new advertisement will appear on Tuesday. Mr J. Englebrettsen, of Norsewood, is the successful tenderer for the carriage of the mails between Ormondville and Norsewood. >' , ' . tt'ive tons of new potatoes, packed in boxes, are being sent Home from Auckland in the cool chamber of the steamer Aorangi, the freight being l£d per lb. We are informed that about seventy children will be sent from the Makotuku school to the opening of the Waipawa Exhibition. The ohildren will, of course, be under the care of their teachers. Mr W. F. Butler, clerk of the Danevirke Licensing Committee, informs us that Mr J. B. Sebley has been appointed to the vacanoy caused by the retirement of Mr D. Mackay. • < To judge by an advertisement appearing in another column the Makotuku people do not intend the Christmas holidays to pass without having a dance. The affair will we feel sure be well conducted, and is one of those semiprivate arrangements that are always bo enjoyable. A working bee of the Danevirke school committee was held this morning, tp shift the lavatory at the back of the school, before the contractor commenoes work. This is as it should be, and we congratulate the "practical" men, on the determined way they have set about improving a school matter. Messrs Hull and Smith have completed the formation of KusseH's road in a very workmanlike manner. We are more than pleased to see this long neglected road taken in hand, and the conscientious style of work done by the contractors. .Messrs Hull and Smith have their contract on Mann's road well in hand, and are pushing on this work in their usual brisk way. Great preparations are being made for the coming Christmas, and shilling tables are taking up their positions in the general stores in the Bush district. As yet there has not been much done in this direction at Makotuku, but Mr Bobinson is unpacking a lot of new articles that are intended to startle not only the juveniles, but, also children of a larger growth. In a d<vy or two the tables will be in full swing under the charge of the Misses Bobinson, and we will then give some idea of their appearanoe. It may interest those searching for minerals in the Norsewood and other districts to learn that thay can have their finds thoroughly tested on application to Mr 0. M. Whittington, of Hastings atreet, Napier, who . is a metallurgist and assayer. Mr Whittington has had considerable experience in this line in the South Island, and prospecting parties can depend upon having reliable tests from him. He charges, we believe, a guinea for a single test, but when two or more samples are sent the fee is reduced one half. Councillor Brabazon deserves credit for , urging -the matter of the unfenced and dangerous places at the Makotuku and Mangarangiora streams, on the attention of the County Council on Wednesday. Those who have to drive round those places will feel grateful to Cr Brabazon for his action in the matter, and will also feel pleased to see the manner in which the Bush members work together. It is quite time that this important district ceased to be dictated to by a few members, whose watchword seems to be — Waipawa. "Aulus," in the Australasian, tells the following story : — '• I Baw one man on the Derby day who had a piece of luck in a small way. Just before the Maribyrnong was run, he was going down with a friend to back Budolph. On his way he picked up a bead ornament. " What is this?" ' That,' said his friend, •is a necklet. • Necklet ? Isn't there a horse of that name in the race ? By jove, this is a Mascotte ; I'll back Necklet instead of Rudolph.' And he did, and Necklet won,, and he can show the money and the necklet to convince the sceptical." It seems very much like bringing coals to Newcastle when truck loads of cattle are seen coming to instead of from the Bush, but still this may be seen occassionaty, Mr J. Thompson having sent up several loads of fine cattle to stock his Ormondville property lately. There is grass in plenty there, and Mr Thompson had to put stock on his land to make use of the feed. But if this seems strange what can be thought when trucks loaded with firewood can be seen running the wrong way. If the Bailway Department want firewood up here in store one would think that they could get it split here without burning coals in bringing wood to tha Buifci

The Babbit Board have accepted the tenders of Mr G. Green for carting material and fenoing at Oringi and Danevirke, and of Mr M. Brown for four miles of fencing at £70 5s per mile. Large quantities of wire netting are arriving in Danevirke by train. One would scarcely think that it would pay to haul logs from Ormondville to a aawmill at Makotuku, but this is being done. Mr Westlake is having logs carted on a bullock waggon from the. former place to the latter, and he is far too shrewd to do this if it meant a loss. At first sight it seems a little strange though. Another special meeting of the Danevirke school committee, was held in Baddeley's Hotel last night, to talk over with Mr Hill, 8.A., the inspector, the propoied amendments to the plans and specifications. The inspector after hearing the several views of the committee, decided to fall in with all the suggestions re windows, doors, chimneys, etc., of the n«w room and have the plans amended. Two performing bears had gone through their evolutions near the Custom House Hotel, Hobart, when a man old enough to be wiser began stroking one of the animals. Immediately its companion made a rush at him, and gave him a severe scratch on the hand. The animal was of course muzzled, and thus could not use its teeth but the man had quite as much to do to ward off a hug which would have proved the reverse of friendly. Kaiapoi has a cricketer who is a regular ■ " warrior " at the game. His name is Urn, and on a recent Saturday when bowling for the club he broke the middle wicket with the second ball which he delivered ; and in the second ball which was played to him in his innings the force of his blow broke the bat. A Ohristchurch paper says that neither of these articles of the material could be said to be old or weak. The leap year privilege is ' said „to b e 660 years old, having been established in 1228 by an Act of the Scottish Parliament, in these words : " During the reign of her blessed Majesty Margaret, every maiden lady of both high and low degree shall have liberty to speak to the man she likes. If h« refuses to take her to be his wife, he shall be mulct in the sum of £100 or less, as his estate may be, except and always if he can make it appear that he is betrothed to another woman, then he shall be free." Mr -, Groom, of Ormondville, ohanges his advertisement. His shilling tables are very tastefully arranged, and show a great variety of articles that one would not expect to purchase for the low but very useful coin known as a shilling. Work-boxee, children's dresses, boots, hats, belts, tea-pots, large albums, tales and poems, glass/ coolers, jugs, mugs, fancy Christmas cups and saucers, bundles of two-pairs bone-handled knives and Virginia metal forks, spoons, glasses, fancy ties, pinafores in holland and figured muslin, and in fact a general collection of articles down even to buckets . and spittoons, are on the tables, while a large stock is kept in a room behind the tables, in order to keep up the supply. The report on the annual examination of the Ormondville school was received on Thursday evening, and we have been allowed to spo it by the courteous headmaster of the school. By the report we find that there were 78 children presented. In Standard I. there were 22 presented out of which eleven passed ; in Standard 11. eight passed and six failed ; in Standard 111. fifteen passed and four failed ; in Standard IV. seven passed and five failed ; and in Standard V. two passed and one failed ; in Standard VI. there were only two boys and they have both passed very creditably, having' obtained considerably more than pass marks in each subject. The report is a very favorable one, and accounts for the failures by noting the unfortunate time at which the change iv the masters and systems occurs. The excavations commenced by Dr Schliemann at Mycenro are still being energetically carried on, and continue every day to bring to light fresh objects of great archaeological and anthropological interest. The entire terrain around the town (the Athens correspondent of the Standard telegraphs) is full of tombs belonging to an epoch antecedent to Homer. These pre-Homeric sepulchres are cut in the solid rqck, and carefully formed in regular compartments, with an area of from 35 to 40 square metres. In these chambers the dead were laid without being covered with earth, nor were they cremated, as at the time of Homer. Among the numerous objects discovered at Mycenra in the course of the latest diggings are articles of glass, crystal, and ivory, besides precious stones with engravings of animals charmingly executed. These articles throw a flood of light on a civilization dating .a thousand years before Christ. By their generally Oriental character they prove that the ancient Greeks received from the East, not only the raw materials of their first works of art, but the art of symboiio representation itself. The expenses of a Presidential campaign in the United States are very heavy. The cost of an Assembly district in one of these campaigns is 7000 dots., or in New York City about 250,000d015. This is exolusive of the official eleotion expenses, which amount to 290,000d015. for the city and United States officials. A torchlight parade in New York averages SOOdols. per eleotion district, or from 12,000d01s to 20,000d015. A large public meeting costs fromSOOOdols, to4ooodols. Chamberlain Ivins, in his work on the coat of elections in the New York City estimates the total of an average year at 700,000d015., exclusive of personal expenses of candidates. Tammany and the Oounty Democracy are reported to have spent together about 170,000d015., to nominate Mr Cleveland for the first time. Mayor Hewitt gave his whole salary as Mayor, amounting to 20,000d015., to the party, and 4000dols. more, and in the Tilden campaign he contributed as much as 40,000d015. The National committee expect from 1,000,000 dollars to 2,000,000 dollars, though Mr Hewitt said it could be worked for 500,000 dollars, on an economical basis. No National committee ever published a balance-sheet of its expenditure. Taking all the expenses of all the States, it is roughly estimated that a Presidential campaign costs the United States about 20,000,000d015., or £4,000,000 sterling. At a place called Henry County, Alabama, United States, a terrible scene was witnessed at a negro camp meeting on which a descent had been made by a band of white men, all masked. The negroes, it appears, were holding regular services at a place in the early part of this month, and near the residence of a man named Millburn, where there was a well, and where they obtained their water. The water getting low, Millburn removed the bucket, and one negro, who wanted a drink, entered Millburn's house for the bucket. Millburn, it is said, shot the Mian in the neck, and next night, his house was surrounded by about one hundred negroes, who called on Millburn to come out. Millburn would not do this, and the men firada volley of shots through the door, not doing much damage. Next night the service was being held in the camp, when a band of white men appeared. They were all well armed, and at once fired into the camp. Seven of the negroes who were inside were shot dead, and the remainder, without to see who their assailants were, or of offering any resistance, took to their heels, going in every direction, and leaving the white men in possession of the oamp. The white men, however, did not wait, but also made off. It is believed that they were MiUburn'i friends,

Alexander Cameron, a Dunedin gardener, has had to pay 36s 6d for cruelly beating a goat that was eating a live fence. An objeotiqn to the prosecution, of the Palmerston North borough waterworks has been received from Sir James Prendergast, who owns property in Fitzherbert. A special meeting of the Borough Council will be held to consider the matter. Uhe Finnish law is severer against theft than any other in Europe, A few weeks ago a person at Helsinfors, who had stolen some six shillings from the pocket of one of his comrades, was sentenced to thirty lashes, to stand one hour in the pillory, and to three years' imprisonment, with hard labour. On November 10 Mr Fred Henry Hagon, a well-known Sydney tailor and Bporting man, committed suicidejby jumping from the landing place at Busohutter's Bay,while, it is supposed, suffering from the effects of delirium tremens. He had had considerable sporting and other losses lately and had been drinking so heavily as to bring on delirium. Deceased was one of the men who put down £1000 to send Beach home to row on the Thames. During the hearing of a case in Dunedin, one of the solicitors was cross-exam-ining a cabman with reference to an inebriety on the part of of one of the persons concerned in the case. The cabman's reply to one question was this : "We most of us offend now and again ; 1 have carried you home drunk before now." The lawyer subsided, and obtained the protection of the court, for the magistrate promptly rebuked the witness. Some surprise has been, felt at the -apparent -inactivity of the. Makotuku Library committee, but they (the members) are not altogether to blame. Mr Cross has moved in the matter, but until Mr BobJohns gets the deeds of the land on which the hall and library room stand, he cannot give a lease to the library. This seems to have thrown a damper on some membera of the committee, but there does 1 not seem anything to prevent them from working, for even did they not get the lease when they were ready to open the library they would not have lost anything, whereas the longer they wait the more time is lost, and, in fact, there is a strong possibility of the project falling through. According to the Hobart Mercury, Mr H. Crawford is the lucky holder of the winning ticket for the first horse in the great £50,000 sweep drawn annually in Sydney. Crawford is employed by the Victorian Government in the diamond drill department, and his reason for visiting Tasmania was to escape the worry of the crowd who made, a practice of buying up likely candidates, According to his statement he has pursued the same tatics that people usually do when placed in similar circumstances, viz., also that of " hedging," his liabilities including a " monkey " to nothing with Mentor's jockey and two or three thousands with Sydney bookmakers. When everything is settled he anticipates being the possessor of from £13,000 to £14,000. Mr Westlake has been busily engaged for the past few days in re-arranging his Ormondville store. The shelves down the centre of the «ale-room have been removed in order to make room for his Christmas *tables, and the effect is very good indeed. The variety of articles displayed on the tables is so great that the only difficulty is to know what is most?; suitable for Christmas presents, and" pretty card and cake baskets, money and work boxes (plain and shell), toys, dolls, photo frames, views of London, artistic wall plates, children's pretty bags, puzzles, articles in crockery ware and glassware, candlesticks in fancy patterns, necklets, albums, Ac, perplex the would-be buyer, while toy drums and trumpets enough to drive fond parents to distraotion, attract the youthful eye and cause the fond parents aforesaid to thank their stars that Christmas does not last through the whole year. The case of coins, tokens, and medals that Mr Lund, of Makotuku, is sending to the Waipawa Exhibition, contains about 500 coins, ranging in antiquity from Boman coins of Constantino's reign (311 to 337) to the jubilee sovereign. Coins struck in the reigns of Edward 111, Elizabeth, Charles 11, and Queen Ann, recall the many changes through which our nation has passed. Other countries are fairly represented, as Sweden, Denmark and Norway, Austria, Russia, Morocco, India, the Argentine, United States and French republics, as well as coins struck at different periods when this latter oountry was not a republic Even the Emerald Isle and the Isle of Man are represented bg their coinage, and, as if the collection of coins were not enough, tokens, medals, and notes from different countries and different periods have their place in the collection, including 5 giilder notes, 1 and 5 dollar (Buenos Ay res), and the medal struck at Napier while Mr Swan was Mayor.