NEWS OF THE DAY.

Bush Advocate, Volume III, Issue 213, 19 September 1889, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Mr Orallan met with a painful accident at the Tamaki mill on Tuesday, the top of his left thumb being taken off while working at Ihe saw bench. Tenders for road works in the Umutaoroa Block, close at the lload Board Oflioe at 6 p.m. to-morrow. The plans for the new bridge only provide for a 10ft. Gin. carriage way. It is generally thought that this is too narrow and the widtli of the bridge should be increased another 18 inobes,

We understand that a petition will be presented to the Ormondville Town Board praying that Castles street be formed. The ratepayers residing on that street have no means of access provided to their homes, and as the amount of expenditure required to remedy this is only trifling, it is hoped that the petition will be granted. As showing their needs, it may be stated that one gentleman residing there tried to get some firewood, but was unsuccessful, • the carter refusing to take the order, even at double the usual price charged. The late rains have rendered the tram to Mr G. Grant's sawmill at Ormondville impassable, a land slip having come down ' and buried one portion. A couple of 1 days' work will remove the obstruction. Mr Leach is making preparations to \ leave the Ormondville Hotel and retire to ' his farm, the cottage on which is undergoing complete renovation. A Mr Boul- , ston (not the licensee of the Terminus , Hotel), of Napier, is to be his successor at the hotel. The petition to the Waipawa County Council— mentioned in a : former,issueasking for a bridle track between Ormondville and Kopua, has not yet made its appearance. This track would be a real boon to the district, and the want of it is so keenly felt that it is rather strange , those entrusted with drawing the petition :, have lost so much time. The surveyors are laying ofl the new road at the back of the Ngamoko block. , As this road will open up 15,000 acres of first-class land, the faster the work is pushed on the better. It will not only give labour, but will also increase the population by at least 100 families. The rain that has fallen during the past few days has caused a certain amount of flooding in the Ormondville drain, and this has had one good result. The stagnant water and filth have been swept away, and the drain will not be quite so much of a nuisance for a few days to come. The London Dock Strike has ended. The men gained the victory, but it cost them- £2,000,000, while the stock of the dock companies depreciated another million. A mining exhibition in London next year is talked of. The London tailors have received an advance in wages* Smith and Slavin will fight for £200 aside. Costello, who murdered Alice Thornton in July, has been executed in Melbourne. A Sydney telegram states that a drover named Eppel was shot dead by his mate, Riley, near Wagga. The murderer was captured after an exciting chase of over four miles. Sir Wilfred Lawson, M.P., the wellknown temperance advocate, who has been in a precarious state of health is recovering. Mr Dillon leaves Sydney for New Zealand on 30th of next month. He speaks at Napier on Nov. 11. The Governor has gone to Nelson. Queen Charlotte of Tonga is dead. She visited Auckland sometime ago. A young lady, Miss Doyle, a daughter of Mrs Doyle of Nelson, was on a visit to Colling wood, and while at the house of a 1 friend there, on Monday night, she suddenly fell down dead. She was shortly to i be married. The Colonial Bank has declared 7 per cent dividend. The Maoris who abducted a girl near Auckland have been captured, and the girl has been returned to her parents, Her abductors have been remanded for a week. In Greymouth £85 has been collected for the dock strikers. A carpenter named Roberts fell off the roof of the Sunnyside Asylum (Canterbury) on Tuesday. The distance was 40 feet, and he was seriously injured. Lord Onslow will visit Dunedin about the middle of November and remain till the end of January. The Grand Pacific Hotel at the Ocean Beach has been taken over by the Exhibition Commissioners, and will be fitted up for his reception. An Early Closing Association (about the tenth) is being formed in Dunedin. A public meeting at Napier on Tuesday evening " sympathised " with the London strikers to the extent of £18 lis 7d. We have to acknowledge, with thanks, receipt of a complimentary ticket for the opening ceremony of the Dunedin Exhibition on Nov. 26. The Napier breakwater is now out 870 feet. Messrs Mahon and Carmichael have finished their contract on the Tautane JRoad, and returned to Dauevirke. At Remuera, Auckland, the other day a funeral took place, and when the cofiin was laid in the grave the sexton refused to fill in the grave on the ground that he never made it a practice of working on Sunday. Consequently the coffin was left exposed to the elements till next morning. Referring to the Metropolitan Racing Club business the Wanganui Herald considers that now the town v. country question has been raised, the Hon. George McLean and his coterie will not be allowed to have matters all their own way. The Christchurch Press learns that a private cable message has been received in that city from London, stating that arrangements are being made for great extensions of tonnage for frozen meat, equal to all the demands for next year. The Press was also informed that the gentlemen who control the shipping interests in New Zealand had represented that six new cargo boats would be needed to meet the requirements of the trade of New Zealand next season. On Thursday morning (says the Southland .Times) a settler at Tuturau named J Joseph Burgess, whilst clearing bush, l struck the limb of a tree to which a \ lawyer was attached. The creeper sprang j up in his face, and, as he made a sudden , movement to avoid it, one of the formid- J able thorns tore one of his eyes clean out i of the socket. Mr Burgess suffered ] greatly over night, and was sent on to Punedin by Friday's express, t

The annual meeting of the Danevirke Lawn Tennis Club will be held at Mr Baddeley's Hotel to-morrow evening, at 8.30. As the new officers will be elected and consideration also given to the proposal to enlarge the lawn, it is hoped there will be a good attendance of members. A clergyman in Wanganui, in the course of a sermon the other Sunday, said he knew many clergymen in his district who had to borrow money at 10 per cent, in order that tradesmen might not have to wait for the settlement of their accounts. A London correspondent says that Buffalo Bill has made arrangements to go but to the antipodes on very advantageous terms, and will almost certainly visit New Zealand, as he will spend a considerable time in Australasia. We have been requested to mention that refreshments will not be charged for at the final dance of the Ormondville Quadrille Club, but will be included in the price for admission. We direct the attention of carters to Mr G. Grant's advertisement, inviting tenders for hauling timber on his tram to the Ormondville railway station. Mr Fothergill has secured the services of Mr W. L. Siddells to manage his Makotuku butchery. The rumour mentioned by a correspondent at Makotuku turns out to be correct, ' Mr C. Baines having been appointed manager of Mr Bell's Makotuku sawmills. Mr Lycett will proceed to Australia to push trade, as soon as his present engagements permit. The steamer Gairloch 'went ashore at the mouth of the .Waitara river yesterday. She will probably get off to-day. Two men, Hawthorne and Hopkins have been arrested at Tenui charged with stealing two horses and bridles from Taradale. They are alleged to have sold the i animals to a publican at Ohanga, and were making* their way down the country when arrested. The manufacture of waterproofs is about to be commenced by a firm in Dunedin. About £30,000 is spent annually in New Zealand in this kind of clothing. The Taeri Advocate states that two young children belonging to Mr Moßae, bootmaker, Otakia, had a narrow escape from death by poisoning last week. The children had been drinking water from a tank into whicn some poisoned small birds had fallen. Dr Cuttan was sent for on their becoming ill, and was able to bring them round. Writes the Otago Daily Times :— "lt is 50 years ago this month, and the beginning of next month since the New Zealand Company despatched the first five ships with settlers for New Zealand. The Tory, with the preliminary expedition under Colonel William Wakefield, according to Mr J. H. Wallace, of Wellington, left England on oth May, 1839, the Cuba, with the surveying staff, following on Ist August. The Aurora, the first vessel with passengers, reached Wellington on the 22nd January 1840, the 50th anniversary of which will no doubt be fittingly celebrated at our exhibition." There are some very bad traoks on the West Coast. The Grey Eiver Argus of Monday says : — *' James Maher, one of the men in the Roaring Meg Water Race Company, met with an accident while felling a tree on Friday evening. The tree fell on his chest and ankle. The injured man was brought to town by the Brunner train on Saturday evening and taken to the Grey River Hospital. It took 46 men from 8 o'clock in the morning till 4 o'clock in the afternoon to take him from the scene of the accident to the Grey river (a distance of seven miles). The track is simply abominable, and the proposed foot track will hardly improve matters." An old New Zealand resident, Mr Francis Woorell Stevens, described as late of Dunedin, and now of Buxton, England, has petitioned the Imperial Parliament claiming that he, and not Rowland Hill, was th« real inventor of the penny postage system. The petition was presented in the House of Commons by the Marquis of Carmathen on the 17th of June last. It sets out that the petitioner is now 83 years of age, and that in the reign of William IV., when Lord Althorpe was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he devised the scheme and submitted it to that statesman. Petitioner was then 26 years of age, and kept a school at Lang ton, in Essex, and Rowland Hill, who was ten years his senior, was engaged by him as teacher of French. He communicated his ideas on the penny postage scheme to Hill, aud showed him the official correspondence, and Hill asked permission to write a pamphlet on the subject. It was not till after the petitioner had boen many years in New Zealand that he learned Hill had published the pamphlet claiming the scheme as his own, and that he had been rewarded by Parliament and the Crown for the invention which was really that of the petitioner.

A large lump of phosphorus was found on Monday night in the middle of the road between Danevirke and Mangatera. Speculation is rife as to how the phosphorus, which scared one or two people, got there.