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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5525, 14 May 1889, Page 2

DrrjiiN!> the year ending 31st March last the New Zealand railways earned £997,000, an increase of nearly £3000 over tho previous year, while tho expenditure was only £647,000, as against £687,000 in 1888. The returns, on the whole, must therefore be considered fairly satisfactory. During the year the Napier railway earned £65,35-1, on an expenditure of £34,009, the expenditure amounting to 52 per cent, of tho revenue, a ratio which is lower than any other line except tho short Westport railway of nineteen miles. The latter lino cost £11,700 per milo, while ours only cost £6700. These two railways are tho only ones in the colony that pay the interest on tho money borrowed for their construction. The former returns 6J per cent., and tho latter nearly 5 per cent on the cost of making them, while the general average for the colony is only about _-J per cent.

Tho Munmer Manapouri, which carried on the sou'hern mails aud passengers from hero on Sunday, arrived at Auckland yestetday at 3.30 p.m.

The banking returns for the March quarter exhibit a decrease in advances as compared with the December quarter of £315,000.

Tho sale of work in aid of the organist's fund of All Saints Church, Taradale, will be held on Wednesday and Thursday of next week in the local Oddfellow's Hnll.

The jury at the inquest on the body of the infant child of Mr G. Jenkins, of Taradale, after hearing the evidence of Dr. Preston, returned a verdict of death from natural causes.

A child of four or five years was run over in Emerson street last evening, but fortunately escaped with a few cuts about the head, which were promptly attended to by by a doctor.

The handicap mile skating race will take place at the rink this evening, when the winner will reoeivo a handsome silver medal, a creditable specimen of Mr. Clarke's workmanship.

The whole of the country round, which a week ago looked like a sectiou of Sahara, is now beautifully green. If tho weather continues mild, thert- will bo plenty of feed for the winter.

Tho Wesieyau Debating Society mot last evening, when tho syllabus drawn up by the cummittoe was approved by morubors. Next Friday week thero will bo elocution, and an addiess by the prcsidout.

The extremes of temperature in the North Island this morning were Auckland 61, Taupo 50; in the Middle Island, Port Chalmers 58, Bulclutha 37. It was drizzly weather at Timaru, and overcast at '1 auranga and northward.. At all other stations the weather is reported fine.

To-night the Federal Minstrels appear in the Theatre Royal. They play two nights for their own benefit, and as they have contributed largely to oharhit _ during the last six months, the pul.lio will bo sure to putroiiiso them liberally. The programme prepared promises a capital entertainment.

Our Wellington correspondent wire, as follows :—" Tho New Zealand Pacific Lodge, No. 517, E.C., tho oldest English >.a_ouic Lodge iv tho colony, lust night passed a us ilutiou in favor of tho establishment of a United Grand Lodge. Tho Fortitude Lodge, at the Bluff, No. 2301, E.C., has also pussed a similar resolution."

The exports from Napier for the March quarter included 669,U00 feet of timber, valued nt £2504 ; butter of the value of i 1156; cheese ot tho value of £172; hides, £305 ; preserved meats, £1893 ; sheepskins, £717 ; tallow, £6337 : wool, £287,512 ; frozen meat, £67,874 ; barley, £1467 ; potatoes, £1072 ; grass feed, £1703.

For the Napier Poultry and Canary Association art union some vuluable prizes are offered. A suite of furniture, incubators, sewing machine ; high class poultry, pigeons, and cauaries aio all prizes worth winning. A number of valuable prizes are also offered for the children's art union, and as tho tickets for the art unions also admit to the show, already there is a good demand for them.

For the four-weekly period ending 31st March last the Napier railway earned £5983, while the expenditure was £2924, as cumpared with £5253 aud £2613 respectively for the corresponding period of 1-888. iJui-ing the four-weekly period there was an increase in tho pas.unger trutlio and v lirgo increase in goods. There were large increases in the firewood, timber, and grain carried.

Tlio Rev. Isaac Rooney and Daniel Tomokait, a native of New Britain, who have come to the colony in conuectioii with the Wesleyan Mission Fund will bo in Napier shortly. Mr. Rooney on Friday evening next will deliver a lecture on the mission work in the Pacific Islands, and no doubt there will be a largo attendance in Trinity Church to hear the lecture, which commences at half-past seven.

The Hawke's Bay Philosophic nl Society hold its first meeting of the session last night. Dr Spencer, tho president, occupied the chair, and there was a good attendance of members. Tho President road an interesting paper on the n orvous organisations of sensitive plants, but, perhaps, tho most enjoyable part of the proceedings was the projection of microscopic mounts "on a sheet by means of a magic lantern. The Eev. W. Colcnso, F.R.b., read a paper giving a resume ot newly discovered plants in New Zealand.

We aro pleased to notico that tho promoters of tho flower shows held with such success under tho auspices of the Working Men's Club have determined to try and form a Horticultural Socieey, which shall be self-supporting. This is a step in tbo right direction, for, with such a number of professional and amateur gardenors in our midst, sufficient members should be obtained to successfully carry on ono or two shows a year, without resorting to that objectionable practice of running from door to door soliciting donations. Wo hopo that thers will be a large attendance, _nd that intending members who may not b. able to attend the meeting will not fail to send in their names to the secretary.

" How will you be sworn P" said the clerk of tho Court this to an almondeyed Celestial as he stepped into the witness box, at the same time handing the Chinaman a box of matches and a Bible. The one from the Flowery Land had been naturalised, and therefore considered himself entitled to be sworn a VAnglaise. He smiled as he kissed the book, aud a solicitor sitting at the table ejaculated, sotto voce, " He's a converted one."

The agricultural returns, as published in the Gazette, dealing _-th the different provinces, if the figure, were reliable, should give valuable information. Accepting the figures as correct, we find that Hawke's Bay had the best average yield in wheat; in oats only Canterbury and Nekon had lower averages; in barley Hawke's Bay was an easy first, white iv potatoes, in whioh crop we generally headed the list of averages, this time we are lowest of all. We have in this analysis taken no note of Westland, because the figures there are so small that they are not worth dealing with.

The Public Works Committee last evening agreed to recommend the Council as follows:—1. That the following private streets be declared public streets according to law : France, Lincoln, and Roslyn roads. 2. That a footpath be formed on the north side of Colin street. 3. That Lucy road be repaired, but that it be olosed for vehicle traffic according to a previous resolution of the Council. 4. That the tender of J. Griffin for the removal of nightsoil and rubbish be accepted. 5. That the salary of the receiver of rates be fixed at £200 and that of the valuer at £100.

It will be remembered that last year many Hawke's Bay market gardoners asserted that cabbages could not be grown in this district, and" consequently we were dependent on Wellington Chinamen for the supply of that vegetable. Mr Snell, of Taradale, has shown us a sample, weighing slbs, of several hundreds of cabbages grown by him as a second crop. At the latter end of last August he put in a crop of potatoes ; before Christmas this had been dug and sold ; the ground was then ploughed and reworked, and Mr Snell sowed it with vegetables, and this well-growu drumhead cabbage is the result.

A correspondent has kindly furnished some particulars in connection with the s.s. Tarawera on her last trip to thi. port. He says, " when the Ahuriri went alongside of theTara wera, Capt. Creagh asked the captain of tho Tarawera to tranship tho mails in one of his (Tarawera's) boats, but tho reply was " Bring out a whale-boat." The Ahuriri was then iv danger of being crushed under the Tarawera, and steamed back to the wharf. Captain Creagh could not obtain tho services of a boat's crew, the men not unreasonably saying that if the Tarawera would not risk one of her own boats, it was not good enough to try and lower a surf boat from the Ahuriri.

A six-inch telegram concerning New South Wales politics appears in a prominent position in the London Daily News of 13th March.

The Wellington Acclimatisation Society has sent Home for a supply of English partridges, which are to be liberated in the Wellington district.

Three Volunteers, named Coatello, Butler, and Thornton, were charged at the Auckland Police Court with the larceny of an nco>r«lion and a jar of brandy from Porter's hotd at Mercer on the oocasion of Easter encampment. Tho cases were remanded.

Tho population of tho United Kingdom is 30,000,000; pauper percentage, 2-90. Tho population of France is 37,000,000; pauper percentage, 35. The population of Germany is -16,000,000. We have no figures concerning the pauper percentage ; but the expenditure is known to bo high in Prusnia. The population of Belgium is 6,000,000; pauper percentage over S per cent. The population of Switzerland is 3,000,000 nearly ; pauper percentage, 5. The population of the United States of America is 61,702,000 ; pauper percentage, 6 per cent.

In tho course of a recent argument a question wag put to Sir H. James as to tho legality of tho trusts and syndicates being formed in England. Ho said :" I have looked at some of them—the salt trust for lustancc—but I do not know enough of them. All I can say is, if these syndicates carried on their business in America they would have very sharp justice shown to them there." The Master of the Rolls: "It does not striko me as clear, if there is a combination to buy all the salt in tho kingdom for the purpose of raising the price 70 per cent, beyond what it would bo, I do not feel at all clear that that is not an illegal combination." Sir H.James: "According to tho common law of America and our common law it is illegal."—Law Times.

A Home paper states that at Kilmainbam Gaol, on tho ltJth March, a prisoner named John Bradley vehemently resisted the order to prepare for the bath, "and with tears in "her" oyes protested that "sho" was a woman. Thy warders called in the aid of a female warder, and her statement proved to be correct. , Sho was forthwith sent to Grangegomrah Prison. She is 2_ years of age, and says her mother, a laundress, brought her up as a boy. She does not remember' ever to have been dressed as a girl, or to have borne any other name than John Bradley. Tho reason for the deception, she believes, was that some porson was paying the mother a periodical sum, which he would rather pay for a boy than a girl. She had a good addrenn aud )jl«aniiigr voico, but seemed awkward in the clothes in which sho was dressed at Gormanstown.

Tho peoplo of Manitoba aro struggling with a prob!em in social economy of the highest importance—to them. Iv 1881 the population of their part of the Dominion was reported as 122,400. The population at present is found to be 132,624. The increase of 10,000 is not ro bad of itself, but their immigratton statistics show that since 1881 219,112 personshave emigrated thither. None havo left, so far as known, and neither war, pestilence, nor famino has walked at noonday or at midnight. So that tbe peoplo who are actually there and counted want to know what has becorao of the two hundred odd thousand who came but can't be counted. It is a very unusual tiling for two-thirds of tho population of a nlace to disappear without lotting the other third know of it in somo way. This is on the assumption that the enterprising Census and Immigration Commissioners haven't lied. If there bo any doubt as to the correctness of the figures, then it is useless to speculate further, and bets are otf.

Tho Rangitikei Advocate has the following :—The melancholy fatal accident at F-irdcU, by which the little daughter of Mr. Henry Harrison met her instautaueous death, ought to be a warning against the wicked and perilous practice of throwing ftones, which is so common among New Zealand boys. The girl who was aged nine years and ten months, was riding home from school behind her little brother, who was about a year younger, when somo boys began throwing stones. One of these struck and startled the pony, which threw the girl head foremost to the ground, and broke her neck. Mrs Chapman and Miss Davidson, who witnessed the accident ran to the spot, but when they reached the poor child sho was quite dead. Tho only movement she made alter her lall was to stretch out one of her hands. It is said that the girl, as well as the pony, was hit by a stone. An inquest was to have been held to-day. Parents and teachers ought to sternly repress the vile habit of stone-throwing, and tho police should take cognisance of it on every possiblo opportunity.

The "corner" in sisal which has caused an enormous demand for New Zealand flax iv America is referred to as follows by the " St. Louis Republic":—"A gigantic trust, which will probably cost tho peoplo of America about §20.000,000 this year, has been formed in tbe rxw materials from which binders' twiue, rope and cordage are manufactured. It is « combination of 32 Eastern manufacturers of binders twino for the purpose of cornering and controlling the raw materials out of which twine, roping and cordage are. made. They havo bought up all of the sisal fibre in the world, and all of tho manila fibre obtainable, the two fibres being the raw material from which these articles are made. Manila fibre is grown only in the Philippine Islands, and sisal fibre only in Yucatan aud in ono or two other portions of Mexico. The trust has a capital of from #15,000,000 to $20,000,000, and so far has successfully carried out its aim. Ropes and cordage havo advanced in the past three months abont 4 cents per pound and are steadily advancing. No man knows to what price tho trust will raise them. Durina: the year 1889 it has the power in its own hands, tho country will be squeezed for several millions on rope and cordage. All that the country can do, for the present at least, is to dance to tho music of the National Cordago Company or go without rope, cordage and twine."

A new theory of tho fire at tho Melbourne Bijou has been "raised. It is suggested that the fire may have been originated by the accidental contact of tho telephone and electric wires. Slight outbreaks of fire from this cause havo been alarmingly frequent of late ; and it in anticipated that as the electric system is extended accidents of this nature will increase in proportion. Out of tho numerouß cases of tho kind which have been reported one may bo cited. Tho telephone of a largo business firm, carrying on business in Elizabeth street and at South Melbourne, has been twice destroyed by the sudden fusing of the wires. On each occasion a jot of flame fully 18in. in length shot out from tho instrument, and the woodwork of the telephone at each end was instantly destroyed. Had anyono been using tho instrument there can be no doubt that the effect would have been immediately fatal. A complaint was made to the telegraph authorities, and a reply was received that tho fire was caused by the wires of the Electrio Lighting Company, which, by contact with tho Postal Department, aro carried overhead on the telegraph polos with tho telephone wire As tho department had a permanent contract with the Electric Lighting Company no remedy was possible. Mr. James (geueral manager of the telegraph branch) admits that this account is substantially true. There have, he says, been several similar outbreaks since the electric wires were first put up, somo months ago, and i there is always a possibility of fusion wherever the two wires cross.

HORSE COVEIIS.—John MoVay con J tinues to make Superior Horse Covers, which possess the following advantages :— 1. The materials are better. 2. They are made better. 3. They fit and wear better. 4 And they are far better value than any other Covers made in tho District. Prices run from lls 6d each. Thousands of thera in use. Hastings street, Napier, aud Waipukurau. ' ...-"'