NEWS AND NOTES.

The contractors for the public baths have commenced work.

The borough bye-election is} taking place to-day.

To-day (25th) is the first anniversary of the wreck of the Lizzie Bell off Oeo, when twelve lives were lost.

The net return on the year's operations of the Masterton A. and P. Association discloses a profit of £352.

A North Island contemporary suggests that a list of tbe few men in the colony who are not standing for Parliament be prepared.

There must be an energetic ranger in Palmerston N. During the month of June sixty-four head of cattle and horses were impounded. There are likely to be hundreds of applications for the vacant secretaryship of the Wellington School Commisioners.

Mr W. G. White's many friends throughout tbe district will be glad to hear that his broken arm has been satisfactorily set, and is progressing well. It is hoped that the permanent result of the aocident will not be more serious than a little stiffness in the working of the elbow joint.

A Wellington firm received an order from Australia on Saturday for five thousand hams, and more to follow. The reply went back that supplies to that extent were not to be obtained in the colony. Apparently our farmers are negleoting a profitable industry. — Exchange.

Tbe Palmerston North Starr-Bowkett Society has distributed £6800 among members during the four years of its existence. It has now a bona fide share list of six hundred financial members.

Mr McGregor, of Makaraka (Gisborne district), is driving an engine at his residenoe with the aid of natural gas. The experiment having proved successful, Mr McGregor proposes to utilise this gas for providing motive power in his factory.

Major Steward is asking the Minister of Justice whether he will introduce a bill this session providing for a reduction of the quorum for meetings of Licensing Committees.

Since the Cook memorial movement was started (says a Gisborne paper), many people have visited the Boat Harbour on the Kaiti to view the first landing place in New Zealand of the great navigator. It ia a remarkable fact that until lately some people resident in the district for yeivs were not aware that the landing place was quite olose to the town of Gisborne.

If the number of the surveyors is not

increased on Kawhia lands, the press of work will not be over for 10 years ; that is the opinion of an expert. An interesting return would be one shewing the numbers and salaries of those engaged in the Auckland Survey Office, and the numbers and salaries of those engaged on field survey work. — Settler. The metallic circuit telephone line, Hawera to Manaia, is now working, and it 19 hoped tha^ by this means tbe Inaba people will also obtain a connection at their post office. The new system is much appreciated, as it completely eliminates the

effect of induction, which is so apparent on other main trunk wires, its only disadvantage being the cost of erection, which is double that of an ordinary telephone line. The Manaia subscribers are fortunate in being granted the most up-to-date system. A number of persons have ezpressed themselves most favourably towards the proposal to be put before to-night's public meeting with regard to placing our relief funds upon an organised, and possibly a self-supporting, basis. All interested should attend. It is understood that several speakers will devote five minutes to the subject. In an interview with a Waikato Argus reporter, Mr D. Boss, Stock Inspector, said, referring to the outbreak of anthrax : — "I think the best reply is that there

are practically no symptoms. You see the animals alive and apparently well one hour, and the next you find them dead.

Although there have been numerous cases of anthrax in Waikato, scarcely more than one or two animals have been seen to die of it. The post mortem appearances are not much to go on unless you know the disease. If an animal is found dead the best thing

to be done is to bury it whole and deep in lime, and to lime the place where it fell. If this is done in all cases it will greatly prevent the spread of disease." The death is announced of a remarkable old Maori chief— a link with the wild days of cannibal warfare in New Zealand — the venerable Eewene te Habo, of the little native village of Makaka, on Aotea harbor, West Coast. The old man whs close on ninety years of age at the time of his death, his birth having occurred, judging from the accounts he was wont to give by noted events in his youth, about the year 1813. As a youth, he was at the famous fight at Taumala-wiwi, about the year 1830, when Te Wahavoa and his allies of Waikiito fought a great battle with the Thames and Ohinemuri tribes. In 1835 and 1836 he took pnrt with his musket and tomahawk at Te Waharoa's savage raids on Maketu and Eotorua, when several fights and cannibal feasts on the slain took place. There was a whilf of freshness about the story recently told by a Southern paper of the " tribulations of a fossil-hunter," says the New Zealand Times. The fable was about a whale, which was said to have been discovered in fossil condition on the banks of the Waitaki, near Oamaru, and

the newspaper proceeded to give lucid particulars of the unearthing and shipment of the speoimen, and its ultimate arrival in Wellington. It transpires that the remains were found in tho Waitaki Valley some twenty-five years ago, and instead of being shipped to Wellington at a comparatively recent date, they were brought here almost immediately. That they were not greatly damaged on the way is evidenced by the almost complete skeleton that has been in the Museum here for the past twenty-live years. A peculiar occurrence took place on Saturday night in the Academy of Music, at the Presbyterian Bazaar, Waihi. One of the attractions was a shooting gallery. Without tbe knowledge of those in charge, bullets piercing the guard plate in the end of the gallery cut through the wall at the end of the hall, and entered Willoughby and Graham's office adjoining, where they pierced through a large safe, which prevented the bullets going into the street. A portion of the safe is marked thickly with bullet marks, two making a distinct opening through the iron. Had Mr Graham been sitting in his office chair he would probably have been shot, and it is lucky he was not present. One bullet missed the

safe, piercing tbe wall in the next street. Messrs Willoughby and Graham are the proprietors of the hall, and of the office next doer leading into the hall proper. About a square inch of wood was completely cut out of the wall by bullets entering the office. Escape from a serious aocident is simply marvellous. Sheep dog lost. Bay gelding running on Mr F. Cowern's property at Normanby. ■ The youngsters will be pleased to know that Carpenter's spring chicken is laying again. Holloway'a Ointment and Pills. Chest and- Stomach complaints. The source and centre of almost every ailment is impurity of the blood; dislodge this poison and disease departs. Holloway's Pills exercise the inestimable power of thoroughly cleansing each component part of the blood, and rendering this fluid fit to perform its important functions. They cope most successfully with chest diseases, stomach complaints, liver disorders, and many other maladies which were once the besetting dangers of mankind at certain

seasons. The directions for use enable everyone to regulate the operation of these Pills with the greatest nicety. Chronic invalids, nervous sufferers, and all whom other treatment has failed to relieve, are respectfully invited to try Hollo way's celebrated medicine, which will strengthen and cure them.— Advt.