JOTTINGS.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 3, Issue 148, 2 October 1895, Page 3

JOTTINGS.

A new paper, the WaiM Miner, is announced to muke its appearance at Waihi shortly- Mr J - Galbraith will be the editor*and Mr T. Collins late of the Buy of Plenty Times will have charge of the typographical department. "Daybreak," a becomingly modest little journal, " written by women for women I nbout women," and published in Wellington is to hand. It is edited by Mrs L.I Adams, printed at the New Zealand Times office, and its mission seems to comprise mild dissertations on politics and the discussion of the corset question. Mr Lilian showed us the other 'ay a peculiar looking specimen of what is called by the natives totara tapu wai, or totarii growing in the water, the habitat of which lies between Maketu and Motiti or Flat Island. Others name it totara moann or sen totara. The natives allege thai there is a growing forest of this peculiar shrub on the sea bottom between the points named and that they frequently find it entangled in their fishing lines. The wood is hnrd and very brittle but possesses siirns of recent vitality. Rumours continue to float about of the existence of auriferous stone in the neighborhood. Although there is every reason to believe in the presence of payable reefs id Horo-horo and elsewhere, underlying the pumice, it is as well to remember that it is not all gold that glitters. Some time ngo what looked to inexperienced eyes like a piece of gold quartz, brought from near Taupo, was submitted to the experts :it the Thames School of Mines and pronounced to be mundic. Miners, however, term mundic "the mother of gold." Te Whniti, one of the Urcwera chiefs who accompanied the deputation to Wellington, states that the Premier informed him that as soon as the business of the session was over he, and the Hon. Mr J. Carroll, would pay a visit to this district. Mr Scddon also stated that an expert would be sent up to examine and report upon the gold-bearing reefs which the natives assert exist in the Urcwera country. This course, Te Whaiti states, is entirely in accordance with the wish of his people, and he adds that he himself has discovered ;i big reef in the vicinity of Buatahuna. The following is extracted from a recent issue of the British Australasian, the journal en which the Colonial Treasurer pins his faith : —" A recent visitor to the Hot Lakes District of New Zealand states that the Pink and White Terraces, | which were recently destroyed.are rapidly re-forming, but thai the Maorics express the opinion that it will be ten years before they will rival those which were destroyed. It is expected that the formation of the new terraces will lie nenrer perfect than those which now lie buried, but it is doubtful whether the colour will be other than a dirty grey." The September number of the " Helping Hand." the journal published in connection with the Helping Hand Mission work in Freeman's Bay is one of special interest. The terrible outbreak against the missionaries at Kucheng is the subject of the leading article and a short biographical sketch with portraits of the victims lias a mournful interest, as has .also a letter written by Miss Nellie Saunders, one of the massacred party, a few weeks before her death. Letters from Sister Blakeloy, Kiangsi Province, and from Mr Murphy, japan, show how mission work is progressing in these places. The contents generally justify its claim for consideration as a non-sec-tarian religious journal. We are in receipt of the current number of the Journal of the Polynesian Society issued in Wellington, Tt is full of interest not only to the student of ethnology or philology but to the general reader who may have no pretensions to such knowledge. MrShandcontiuueshispapers on the "Traditions and History of the People of the Chatham Islands," and the Rev. J. B. Stair has another artie.le dealing with Snmoan settlement. "The Ancient Methods of Bird-snaring amongst the Maorics," by Tainati Ranapiri and translated by Mr Percy Smith contains much curious information concerning the catching or killing of the kaka, the tui, the kiwi and the kereru before the deadly fowling piece was brought into requisition. Various illustrations explain the ingenious methods adopted. " A native of Andalusia," writing to n Wellington paper, under the name of a " Friend of the People," and who accompanied the co-operative laborers on their trip up to Galatea, relates an interesting episode of the journey. Two incnit appears, got last, and were not. found lill the third day. " when they were nearly dead, having hail no food all the time." One of them, the correspondent farther ingenuously remarks," was a great explorer in Australia in the early days, having worked his way from the Yarra to Torres Straits. working by dead reckoning, having no compass and only stopping to skin a kangaroo by the way." To a man capable of strolling a couple of thousand miles across the Australian continent, and of subsisting on a solitary kangaroo the while, a day or two. more or less, in the New Zealand bush should have been no inconvenience. Mr A. T. Higgiason, of Montreal, who was in Rotorua the other day, relates an amusing incident of travel in which the Rev Mr Hawcis, lately lecturing in Auckland had a share. They were fellow-pas-sengers by the Miowera and after dinner niie day a conversation arose in reference to the adaptability of a. certain tract of country in Arizona for sheep-raising purposes. Knowing the nature of the vegetation there Mr Higfjinson denied the possibility of its being utilised for such a purpose, as sheep would be unable to graze over it, not being provided with teeth in the upper jaw. The rev. lecturer and the genial Captain Stott, of the Miowera, SCOllted the idea of such being the ease, and averred that sheep bad as many teeth in their upper jaw as Mr Higjrinson had. The Captain offered to back his opinion to the extent of £'l2oo, but thought he had better strengthen his position by having the authority of the ship's butcher on the point, and despatched a steward for the verdict of that worthy. His assertions, however, and those of Mr Haweis, as to the completeness of the gentle ruminant's masticatory equipment were some what modified on hearing the butcher's dictum, that " every blamed fool save a parson or a sailor knew that sheep had nary a tooth .on the upper jaw, only ginndcrs." With such innocent persiflage was the tedium of the trip wl|il/;d away.