Untitled

Bush Advocate, Volume XXII, Issue 11, 14 January 1910, Page 4

On page 2 to-day will be found cables ; page 3, wool sales and slaughtermen's strike; page 6, personal; page 7, S.M. Court. Entries are notified for the next Ormondvillo sale, to be held on January 24. The Salvation. Army authorities are about to institute an anti-smoking and anti-gambling league for youths. Dorothy Williams, Rhoda Benton and Harry Allardice, pupils of the Tipapakuku School, passed the reicent Junior National Scholarship examination, a result which must be very gratifying to_ the headmaster-, Mr Quigley, and his staff. At the S.M. Court yesterday, the case Brogan v. Brogan, disobedience of a maintenance order, which was adjourned from a previous sitting, was called, but was further adjourned to allow defendant time to pay the arrears. Judgment by default was given m the case J. Neagle and another v. Eliza Smith, claim £66. The Union Company has decide"! co erect a large hotel at Suva as soon as possible. The plans of eight designs have been combined, and Mr Sa>mond, a Dunedin architect, is preparing the final specifications, and tinwork of erecting will be proceeded with at an early date. It is estimated that the building, which is to be of concrete, will take a year to complete. At the Police Court this morningLawrence Bye Rosenbcck, charged with wife desertion, was remanded to Raetilii, to appear on the 21st inst., the bail previously allowed being extended till that date. A firstoffender was convicted and discharged for drunkenness, and D. Haniion charged with disorderly conduct in High-street while drunk, was convicted and discharged on condition that he signed the pledge before Father Caliill. The annual meeting of the High School Old Bovs' Association was held in Mrs Morgan's rooms last evening, thirty members being present. Mr Walker was voted to the chair. The balance-sheet submitted, which showed a credit balance of £3, was adopted. Mr J. Simmers was reelected president, and Messrs M'Kenzie, Paton, M'Dowell, Anderson and Irvine vice-presidents. Messrs Patterson and Barker were re-elected secretary and treasurer respectively. Some discussion took place as to whether foot ha 11 or hockey should be played this year. It was finally decided to play hockey, and Messrs Irvine, Barker and Rasmussen were appointed a hockey committee. A football committee was also set up to arrange football matters, if it is decided to play the game at a later date. Quite a change from the routine of and drama was the entertainment given by the Belle-Crome Company at the Drill Hall last evening. The hall was well filled, and the audience received the various numbers very enthusiastically, encores being repeatedly demanded. Perhaps the most pleasing items of the evenii.g were those of the soprano vocalis:. Mi ss Maud Jefferson, who possesses voice of extensive range and good quality. The song chosen, "Sing, sweet bird," was executed in a most musicianlv manner, while the encore item, "Coming tliro' the rye," pleased the audience greatly. The xylophone duet "Mandoletta" by the Cronies was very good. The star items—the handbell ringing of the whole company—were carried out in pleasing, tunefulness, and these item., had to l>o repeated. Miss Belle Crome was happy in her first item, the song "You shall live iu a shalet" and the violin solo "11 Trovatoro." receiving well-deserved applause. The club swinging and juggling by the two Arnolds was very attractive, and was interspersed with some merry patter. The comic sketches i;iven hv Mr "Will. Hughes were undoubtedly funny, and as an eccentric dancer this performer takes high rank. The entertainment was one of" the brightest and most pl'easing that has been presented here for a long time.

1 "I don't hold for a moment that you can test anybody's capabilities I i),v examination; the whole thing is ; humbug!"— Professor Hunter at the f Educational Institute Conference. - This remark was heartily applauded. 1 The Mackenzie County Council has decided to consult its solicitor on the question of whether it has the power to prevent residents in the 1 Fairlie township from keeping bees, which cause annoyance to other resiI dents. p In commenting upon the state 01 . the import market during the past ' month, the Trade Review says that t> generally trade has been sound and 3 financial obligations satisfactorily met. The Review remarks that It t seems evident that the tendency •m: the part of importers in the Doiniiir ion is still to exercise caution in nub porting. 1 There is evidently going to be a l warm time in the stokehold of the Nerehana on the trip Home. The ve.ssel is due at .Home 011 a special 3 day in order to be in time for the , wool sales., and to enable the steamer . to do this eight additional firemen have to be employed. Captain Lidstone was in Wanganui yesterday and L secured the services of four men and 5 another four will sign on at Wellington . : Some idea of the immensity of the . rabbit pest may be obtained (says , a Dunedin correspondent) from the ' fact that on the Morven Hills run, an ' area of 'about 350,000 acres, to be thrown open by the Government in ■ February, the number of rabbits L cleared off the ground in 1909 ran into millions, and the annual cost of clearing them off has averaged some- ) thing like £4OOO for the past five ■ years. An individual of the species which ; thinks it an evidence of cleverness to make invidious remarks to women | who happen to pass on the street, got 1 rather a surprise in front of the post I office on Saturday (says the Stratford Post) when a questionable remark to a passing woman earned for its maker a couple of solid punches on the jaw from the lady's husband, whose ' prompt resentment of the insult to his wife was only right and proper. "The saddest thing about a comedian's life," says Mr William Cromwell, of the Clarke and Meynell Comic Opera Company, "is that I'm always expected to be happy or funny. And people express themselves as • quite disappointed with me off the stage, and say that I am quite a solemn sort of young man, with a long, thin face ana a scowl. So would you be—if you had to earn a living by being funny. I once had my pocket picked in Buenos Ayres—of £IOO in notes. The next day I got a letter from the pocket-picker, in which he thanked me for the gift, and said that he klnew that I, being a comedian, would be able to grin and bear it!" ■ - Mr W. E. Bidwill had a peculiar "joke" played on him the other day. A well-known man in Wellington received a letter purporting to come from Mr Bidwill's trainer, Mr Farmer, asking him to enter several of Mr Bidwill's horses in Australia. The letter implied that owing to Mr Bidwill's recent bereavement 110 was unable to personally attend to the matter. Accordingly a cable was sent to Australia, costing about £4, entering the horses. Mr Bidwill was in Wellington and heard of the business, and of course, was very much surprised and annoyed. Mr Farmer was communicated with, but could throw 110 light 011 the matter. A cable was sent cancelling the entries, and now the question is who sent the' letter ? The town of Dungannon, the property of Lord Ilanfurly, late Governor of New Zealand, which has a population of about 4000, was submitted to auction, in lots last month. The property has belonged to the Knox family for two hundred years. The town contains good terrace houses, small cottages, and the usual public buildings—post office, police barracks, bank, markets, rectory, etc., and parks. There was a large crowd present, but the bidding frequently ceased before the reserves were reached. The residences sold at from 25 to 27 years' rental, small laborers' cottages with half acres of land, at £25 to £2B each • the parks at £3O to £4B an acre. The public offices did not sell. A good many lots were afterwards disposed of privately, and it was expected that offers would become numerous when it was seen that if suitable they would be accepted. History is silent (says the Melbourne Age), as to the authorship of the waggish story told concerning . the Geelong gaol, according to which a grumbling prisoner is alleged to have declared that he "would not remain longer in it unless the walls were mended sufficiently to keep cows out." But no less an authority than the Inspector-General of Prisons (Mr Connor) relates an incident scarcely less amusing. Some months ago the sentence of one of the prisoners, who was engaged on some brick work, expired at 9 a.m., but he refused to leave until lie had finished the job. and remained in the gaol till noon. Even then he was lotli to go; but it was pointed out to him that the State could not undertake to keep him longer, and that if he did not at once depart an ejectment order would be obtained against him. The late Mr Seddon used to relate an amusing incident of prison life in the early days of Hokitika, I when the gold fields were "lively." Accommodation was scarce and prisoners were allowed a lot of liberty, but at 8 o'clock the gaoler rang n bell and all prisoners that were not in by that hour were locked out for the night. The ferocity of the sandflies which infest the Sounds country and the virulence of their bites added much to the discomforts experienced by the Waikarc's people in Dusky Sound. The insects were present in countless thousands (says a writer in the 0ta.40 Daily Times), and so long as daylight 1 or artificial light enabled them to locate their victims their attack never ' ceased. The wholesale murder of the pest afforded 110 relief. As one man ' expressed it: "If I squash, one of 'em, about fifty others come to his funeral." More troublesome than w the bite itself was the poison that j was injected by the. insect. This slowly raised large red lumps 011 the , skin, which after two or three days became very sore and irritable. The , hands of some of the men 011 the , Mo lira last week were puffed up and swollen as if blood-poisoning had 1 •set in, while the appearance of their 1 faces suggested that they were suffer- * ing from a rash. The übiquity of the sandfly set a visitor a-wondering. r "Tl : ," he said, "it is a parasite, and lives on blood, as its behaviour sut;- c gests, how comes it that it is present c in myriads in this countrv, where c practically the only living things are a few birds?" , C

Nearly £300,000 worth of articles are pawned in London weekly. Tlie meeting of the Borough Council to have been held this evening has been adjourned till -next Friday. If the dairy industry in New Zealand is to receive justice (says Drover , in the Otago Witness) every eff ;rt should be made towards keeping up regular shipments all the year round, and this could be attained by sowing and cultivating suitable fodder c'rons for winter feed other than turn' is, and by saving our waste feed a.id making it into ensilage or hay. At present we are hardly doing justice to our fine climate and the favorariie conditions Nature lias endowed 1-5 'with. Countries like Austi'a:ia, Canada, and Denmark, under le--* favorable conditions, are doing better than we are to meet the difficulties of the season when food is short. Quite a little romance to be wearing itself round the man Gustav Ericksen, who was found lyin<-; on the vacijnt-'section near Craves and Co's. factory yeste-rd»y- in an e<c hausted condition. Noticing the paragraph which we published yesterday, Mrs Petersen of York-street was impressed with the idea that the mar might be her son, whom she has not seen for 38 years. She accordingly took his photograph to i>r. Reid Mackay, ■fl'ho at once recognised it as th 3 likeness of the man : n questioi. Ericksen is as yet in too weak a cor dition to give an account of his wan. derings or how he came to be wliei'.he was found, but there is in the do •- tor's opinion little doubt that he Mrs Petersen's long-lost son. The keepers of the Paris Zoo noticed a man who, in spite of the pouring rain, was strolling to and fro in the gardens and talking to himself. Suddenly he threw off most of his clothes, and as nimbly as a monkey, swarmed up the bars of a cage containing two African hyenas. Before he could be stopped he had let himself down and commenced a wjild dance before the animals, who quickly retreated in terror. Three keepers entered the den, and not without difficulty mastered the dancer, and carried him off to the nearest police station. Here it was discovered that his name was Auguste Hinout, and' £hat he had been discharged from the lunatic asylum of Villejuif only a month ago. He was at once sent back to his former quarters. Mr Johannes Andersen, who was on his way from Little River to Little Akaloa on Christmas Eve, had what he describes as a practical experience of the troubles met with by the old settlers when travelling in the early days. Mr Andersen got caught in the worst of the storm on Christmas morning, and lost his way after proceeding along the track for some distance. He got very wet indeed, and ultimately retraced his steps along the road, to where he saw a traction engine, „ which was usecf for stone-breaking, and which was covered with a tarpaulin. He climbed into the stoker's place, and, covered up with the tarpaulin, remained till deylight. Mr Andersen, during his walk from Little Akaloa to Little River, saw two or three native cuckoos, which are exceedingly rare.

The historical Maori Church at Otaki, which is now about sixty years old, and until lately seemed doomed to fall from slieer decay, has been thoroughly, restored - under the direction of M: F. de «T. Clere, the Wellington diocesan architect, says an exchange. Originally the walls of this church were built in Maori style by letting gi eat totara slabs two feet wide and averaging six inches thick into the ground. Some of these rose to a height of thirty-six feet, and -t must have been no smali matter, with the simple appliance available, to get them and the three great central posts and enormous ridge pieces into place. After some years decay again took charge, and the Maoris, under a kind of fatalism, felt that the ■ building,' which is sacred to the memory of their fathers and grandfathers, and in which Bishop Hadfield, as Archdeacon of Kapiti, and later Mr M'William, had ministered to their spiritual requirements, was absolutely doomed. There were, however, some people who felt that the y lace be saved, and with considerable effort a large sum of money was obtained. Mr Clere. who has been intimately acquainted with the building for about thirty years, Avas consulted, and under his guidance, concrete foundations have been put in, the roof has been strengthened, and the Avails have been straightened and buttre§sed up, and 110AV the place has a life of at least sixty years more, and Avhereas before the Avork Avas done it quivered so much under every blast that people left the building in alarm lest it should fall, now the strongest gales cannot make it creak. In an appreciation of Sir George Reid, Australia's first High Commissioner in London, "Ithuriel" Avrites in the Melbourne Argus: "The speaker, a portly man, Avith a monocle, Avhich he occasionally used as pa'-t of his equipment for assisting a sally or disconcerting an interjector, Avas standing on a loav balcony in a Sydney suburb on a moonlight evening, addressing' a large assemblage, to the enjoyment of all, himself included, for he evidently re-A-elled in the successful exercise of his poAver to stimulate his friends and dismay his opponents. Just as he Avas at his best, a grocer's bag filled Avith flour, perfectly aimed, struck hi 111 fair 011 the mouth. The bag bursting as intended, distributed the flour evenly OA-er his face. Laugh! Friend and foe joined in the irrepressible cachinnation, Avhicli SAvelled and sank and rose again, sAveeping in AA'aA'cs across tlie croAvd. Then it died aAvay to a sob here and there, i:nd it broke out again time after time, till it ended in sheer physical exhaustion. Meamvhil- the candidate ligtly flicked Avith his handkerchief the flour from his face, and placidly aAvaited the subsidence of the hilarious tern pest. Then, adjusting tlie monocle, and slowly looking the croAvd OA-er f 10111 one side to the other, he said, 'You see that eA'en my opponents are determined to prove Avliat a Avhit-e man I am.' The laughter rose again in magnificent A'olu 1110, but this time it Avas Avith the candi-

date, not against him. It Avas the hit of the eA-ening, and the speecch of the evening Avas continued to its triumphal conclusions' under conditions which ' would have rendered almost any ether speaker irretrieA r ably ridiculous. That incident is thoroughly typical of Sir George Reid'.s temperament and method. The acceptance of disaster Avith unruffled front, the flashing Ayit Avhich turns a dangerous interjection into a boomerang Avhicli smites the tliroAver, the courageous, sanguine spirit, are alAvays manifest." < Go to Etz in time to avoid the rush."