MISSING FRIEND.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9941, 21 January 1898, Page 4

MISSING FRIEND.

. Mre Annie Drew, 307 Horneey road, Upper flolloway, London, N., writes to aar follows:—"I have been persuaded *H write to you, in hopes that you, through your valuable paper, could enable mc tafind my brother, Benjamin Corkis, who taft England on Aprit the 10th, 1875, on board the ship Hereford, bound for New Zealand. He was last- heard of at Chriatchurch, Canterbury, sixteen years ago. Being left a widow I should be glad if yon could help mo to find the only relation I have left in the world," We trnat that this intimation may be the means of bringing brother and sieter into communication. A MAORI GATHERING. The Hastings correspondent of thd Ha\sWs Baa Herald writes ;—lt lias beta

grroneously announced that a Maori Parliament is to be held *t Waipatu in March< ■jtfr Henare Tomoana is particularly dejiroiis that this statement should be corrected. A large native meeting will be hold thert, however, on 28th and 29th March, when the Governor and Premier er e expected to be present. On the first day t ,ie proceedings will take the form of a « vreleomo " to his Excellency, and on the day following the Premier will confer with the principal natives upon Maori legislation other matters of interest to the natives.

THE SMALL BIRDS NUISANCE. From all parts of the district we hear {says the Oamaru Mail) complaints of the lavages of the eparrows amongst the grain, the little treats being apparently bent upon conipl«li''t; the work ot destruction begun by the drought. Possibly, as a consequence of the drought huving made other food ■CKTCc, the sparrows appear to be more voracious than usual, and have feasted upon the half-formed grain in the ears. In some places acres of wheat have been completely stripped of grain by the pest, for whose destruction nothing has been done for some lime. IN SEARCH OF WORK. "There was so much talk about plenty of W ork being in Wellington that I came up

here from Oamaru, and then found when I 'arrived here that I could get nothing to do." Such (says the New Zealand Times) was the explanation offered to the Benevolent Society Truces by a man who asked that he ana his wife and four children, who are destitute, should be a«nt back to Oamaru. ••AH that the Trustees can do," said the Chairman, " is to Hend you back to Lyttelton by the boat leaving to-day." " I don't know what I can do in Lyttelton." " You'll be 140 miles nearer Oamaru that you are now." " Oli, well, I'll take that,"' replied the man, and the order upon the Union Steamship Company waa written accordingly. CURIOUS TEST OF DRUNKENNESS. " There's such a lot of drunkenness about the place," was the reply of an applicant to the Wellington Benevolent Trustees when they asked why she had left a home in which she had been staying. "On Christmas Day the woman was singing hymns and prayers all day long." It considerably rtftggered the Trustees to learn that this pas a sign of drunkenness, until it was farther explained that " she was drunk when she did it." "And doee she ning hymns when she is sober?" asked one of the members. " No." This was accepted v conclusive. NEW ZEALAND MEDICAL GRADUATES. The Auckland Hospital Board is, says the ' correspondent of the Otago Daily Timtt, making a new departure. It intends re-

serving the position of two assistant resident medical officers in the hospital for young medical graduates of the New Zealand University or natives or residents of the colony who havo recently graduated elsewhere, and who may desire to continue their hospital practice for a year before entering on a professional practice. The tenure of office will, in every cane, be for •oe year. Application* will be shortly called for in Dunodin and elsewhere. A VIGOROUS PROTEST. The ChvUlian Outlook denounces the conduct of the Hon. Mr Hall-Jones, Minister for Public Works, and the Hon. D. Pinkertoo, M.L.C., and Messrs Kelly, OiUedder ted Morrison, M.H.R.'s, who, with others, accompanied him, in inspecting on a recent Sunday, the Moa Flat estate, and the propoaed railway extension route from Heriot to Roxburgh, aa an outrage upon the rejigioiu conscience of a great portion of the

community. Hie Outlook says it is utterly ridiculous to imagine that the interests of .this railway were of truch supreme urgency, and equally ridiculous to imagine that the time of these gentlemen Wμ. so precious as to require a breach of the law of God. No ddofit; ttfe Outlook continues, the Hon. Mr Hair-Jones, the Minister for Public Works, ie a busy man, and a curious irony of fate has made him ftbo a person of some consequence, but it quotes the opinions of Lord Beaconsfield tad Mr Gladstone upon the value of the Christian day of rest, and it suggests that the testimony of two of the greatest Premiers ef Britain might be worth considering even by a two-year-old Minister for Public Works in New Zealand. HE KNEW THE COURTS. There is an old swagman who now and then (taya the Melbourne Argus) finds his %ay into the Law Courts, where he rests himself in the quadrangle, and peeps fnrtivoly into the Courts, and comes away •gdn. Once he was found sound asleep on a seat in a cool corridor, and wai promptly turned out. He did not know that only jarywon are allowed to sleep in Court, ana though a Judge, too, may be caught " napping " at times, it is downright contempt for a swaginan to snooze in the preeineta. In the heat of Friday the old frequenter dropped into hie favourite haunt, only to be ordered out again. There were no courts opon, he was told by an attendant. *• Man alive," muttered the veteran, as he retreated, " but 1 knowed the courts afore joa wur born. Where's Mr Molesworth? Bβ wudn't order mc out. I knowed his father well, and a nice gentleman he waz. I got my first tivo years from 'm. Luk ye hm% mc roan, I knowd Judge Barry; as Iμ a man as ever stepped in knee breeches. - f gotten year from him, and a nice gentlemanly man he waz. Where's Sir Bryan ? Ah I out he was the man to talk to the iwigw. Order mo out of the coorte! I toowed them coorts afore ye waz born."