The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1900. HOME AND ABROAD.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9834, 6 August 1900, Page 4

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1900. HOME AND ABROAD.

We have always understood that in connection with ballots for sections of land under the auspices of the Government no interested persons were allowed to take an active part in the details of the ballot. In Napier we know that nothing of the kind is permitted. If the Wellington F/ee Lance is to be trusted, however, the authorities in other parts of the colony, are not so particular as they are, very properly, in Hawke's Bay. That journal asserts that at a recent balloting for lands in the King Country, when nearly forty thousand acres of land was disposed of in that manner the marbles were drawn by a gentleman who seems to have been one of the applicants. The result was a coincidence which, while not proving that the most scrupulous fairness did not prevail, was yet such as to proyoke gossip which would have been impossible if an independent person had been appointed to draw the marbles.

There was a very large number of applicants for the land, and upwards of a hundred of them were present in person to learn the result of the ballot. It turned out to be of a kind to stagger all existing theories of chance. The third section drawn fell to the lot of a female relative of the gentleman drawing the marbles. The fourth section went to that gentleman himself. The fifth section fell to a male relative of the operator. After a brief interval another male relative was announced as the winner of a section, and very soon afterwards for tune allotted to him yet another. Those are the facts as they are stated by the which summing up the results points out that although there were only thirty sections balloted for, among hundreds of applicants, five of them (described as " comprising some of the choicest bits in the block," and as totalling three thousand eight hundred and fiffteen acres) fell to the family of the gentlemau who drew the marbles.

But another wonderful coincidence remains to be noted in connection with this same land ballot. Onr readers will probably remember that a short time ago we published a brief paragraph setting oat how three brothers who were applicants in a land ballot bad each drawn a section, and, marvellous to relate, had drawn sections contiguous to each other, the three areas forming one estate of two thousand two hundred and sixty-three acres- Well, that paragraph was not quite true. Its departure from strict accuracy deserves to be stated. The three lucky persons were not all brothers, the trio being really two brothers and their cousin. So we gather from a detailed account of this wonderful land ballot, wnich turns out to be identical with that at which five sections went to one family a member of which drew the marbles. What can be said in face of facts like these ? Are we to assume that the age of miracles has not really passed ; or are those mathematicians who have written on the doctrine of chances so many noodles ?

The announcement that MajorGeneral French's right wing rests on the Komati River points to an early movement against the Middelburg and Belfast districts, as a prelude to completely cutting off from the Boers all supplies by way of the Delagoa Bay railway. The Komati rises south of the range to the north of which runs the railway from Lorenzo Marques to Pretoria. Belfast is almost exactly midway between the Boer capital and Komati Poort, where the railway passes from Portuguese into Transvaal territory. From Ermelo three roads branch off to the north. One goes in almost a straight line across the Komati to Belfast, the second goes north-westward to Middelburg, and the third north-easterly to Steynsdorp, a small township in the hills overlooking Swaziland. If the Swazis were friendly to the Boers the last named place would hold out inducement to them to attempt a strong stand there, it being exceptionally well adapted for defence. But the sjambok was too much in evidence when_ the Boers ruled for any of the Swazis to render aid to their former taskmasters.

The possession by the British of Belfast and Middelburg would give them command of the roads which lead from those places to Lydenbnrg, where it is supposed the Boers are preparing for their last stand. North of Belfast, and about midway between it and Lydenberg, is a town called Heymau. It stands in a valley through which the Crocodile River runs. This held by the British would enable them to cut off all supplies arriving for the Boers by rail, and would force them to rely upon a long and not very good waggon road which goes in a north-westerly direction irum Komati Poort. All the facts therefore seem to point to an advance at an early date by Major-General French upon or to the westward of the town of Belfast, while Lord Roberts pushes out easterly from Pretoria to make the plan complete. Under the circumstances it appears as if we may expect to hear of the British occupation of Middelburg within a week, unless prior to that time it should he voluntarily evacuated bythe Boers, in which case we might look for a British dash upon Belfast. The game of party government is

evidently regarded from a very low standpoint by the discredited Gladstonians. The latest revelation as to the discovery of letters in Pretoria from prominent politicians in Britain need not therefore astonish anybody. Their advise to Ivruger to grant "temporary" concessions, while await- ' ing a reaction in his favor in the Mother Country, is when put into plain language nothing but a declaration that those responsible for such a semi-treasonable missive look upon themselves as a Ivruger party. It amounts to this :—" At present there is in power a party prepared to force you to reforms you are not willing to grant; pretend to grant some of them, and so delay- matters ; in the meanwhile we may return to power, and then you may do as you please." Well, coming from a section which handed over the Transvaal, a British colony, to a handful of intriguers whose aims have always been a gigantic uprising in Africa as soon as Britain was in difficulties elsewhere, there is nothing to be wondered at.

We can now understand wky some of the Gladstonians have from the first posed as friends of the Boers, thus appearing to court ignominy. Their conduct suggests the workings of a guilty conscience coupled with a cowardice which is prepared to stoop to any humiliation that may take the edge off revelations such as are now being made. By their attitude they have prepared the people of Britain to look upon them as capable of any nn-, patriotic infamy,and consequently to be incapable of surprise with Tegard to them. There has therefore been considerable wisdom displayed by them. Had they remained quiet and given no hint that they were prepared to pose as supporters of and sympathisers with the Transvaal Oligarchy, the most bandit-like combination outside Asia, the discovery of their secret encouragement to Kruger to resist the British demands might have produced a popular explosion in which" they would have fared badly.

As it is they are now only known to be what they were all along suspected to be, and the suspicion had brought about such a contemptuous form of toleration that its conversion into knowledge will barely add to the disgust previously existing. But what of the secret correspondence with which Transvaal officials cleverly made off, when they left Africa in the steamer which took away Mrs Reitz and a hundred and fifty thousand in bar gold, accumulated by her '"' slim " husband as a result of patriotically resisting the tyrannous demands of Britain ? If when the Boers made their collection of papers worth keeping (possibly as an aid to future blackmailing" as well as for material for the historian) they left lying about as not worth consideration such letters as those in the hands of the Imperial Government, may we not infer that some of the documents now in Germany and Holland would be very much more interesting ? The Boer leaders ought to be able to get a high price for them. Continental States on the one hand, and soulless traitors on the other, will doubtless be very glad to pay well for the privilege of burning incriminating papers.

The excuse of the Belgian Government in regard to the so-called " escape " of Sipido does not disclose a very satisfactory condition of affairs. To talk of a well-known ex-prisoner dropping out of cognisance in the manner suggested is not particularly convincing, and that such an event should take place is on the whole encouraging to those gentry who have since Sipido's "escape" murdered King Humbert and attempted to murder the Shah of Persia. Under the circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the Prince and Princess of Wales should consider it inadvisable to visit the Continent just now. With a Government in power in Belgium such as those who have nothing but regrets to offer when a dangerous criminal of murderous tendencies is permitted to fade from view, while supposed to be under the express surveillance of agents of that Government, prominent personages may expect to be attacked. Under the .•irenmstances the Belgian Ministry cannot avoid being a suspected combination, who have allowed the yre vailing Continental hatred of Britain to influence them to a course of action which can hardly fail to have farreaching effects on the Continent itsslf. •

China war nem appears on page two, Transvaal and general cables on the third page, serial on the sixth, and letters from Napier members of the various New Zealand contingents in South Africa and telegraphic on page seven. The Fos 's war correspondent, writing from Pretoria on 12th June, mentions r Lieutenant, Berrfs death, which he says, was due to septic pneumonia Deceased was, he adds, a popular officer, and the officers and men of the various contingents deeply regret his death. At t he Magistrate's Court this niornin ff , before Mr A. Turn bull, S.M., John Henry Brooks was convicted of drunkenness, but having been locked-up eince Saturday DJg ht he was discharged oa condition that he paid 2s cab hire.— William Le Bas and John Henry Trimmer were each fined 2s 6d with costs 7s for having kept unregistered doga. A very old resident of the Meanee district was laid to rest in the Napier cemetery on Saturday afternoon in the person of Mr Jbhn Thomas, late of Boswednack, Zennor, Cornwall, England. Mr Ihomas had resided in this country tor nftien jears, and was well liked by everyone for his uprightness of character. Ihe funeral was very lately attended., and many beautiful wreaths were sent by friends of the family. The service at the graveside was impressively performed by the Rev. A. P. Clarke. \ On Saturday afternoon, after the termination of the football match, a low spring diay containing a number of fqofballei s rau into and severely injured Mr G.»Wrightson, sen., a well-known resident ot Napier. He was crossing the road opposite his residence in Carlyle street, and did not see the vehicle .approaching. • One of the shafts struck him on the head, knocking him down, anrj inflicting a severe wound. He was immediately removed to his house, and medical aid was summoned. Owners of unregiatered doga will be interested in an announcement made at the Magistrate's Court this morning. Air Logan, who appeared for the Napier registrar, stated that te had not previously asked for a. solicitor's fee when any person was brought before the Court charged with keeping an unregistered dog, nor did he do so in the cases then before the Court, but it was bis intention in every future case of a similar nature to make that application. He would do so because a considerable amount of professional work was involved in preparing the informations, etc. Mr Lusk intimated that he intended doing likewise in cases brought by the county dog registrar. A side issue to the football match on Saturday afternoon, and • one which caused much merriment to the spectatois, was enacted without rehearsal. Five men were standing in a high spring dray looking over the tenceat the match, when one felt himself falling. Instinctively he clutched the man who was standing next to him, who immediately clung likewise to his neighbor with the result, that the five men were deposited on the street, in the mud, the lot of them being literally covered from head to foot. The commotion caustd the horses to boh, but they we; c stopped before any damage was done. An English journal guarantees the following io be the latest anecdote about Mark Twain :—" Mark Twain has bee* i living quietly in England for some tim& now, and were it not that he appeared ta given evidence before a royal commission on the question of cogyright, scarcely asoul outside his private and particular friends would have known he was there at all. The other evening he was dining at the house of a friend, and seated next to him vas an American who had only that day reached England. They were, of course, talking war, and the tew comer, wiihing to ki ow the feeling in England in the matter of the future of the Transvaal, asked Mark Twain how he loutd public sentiment in England regaiding the independence of the republic. ' Well,' i said the genial humonst, ' I find the English are paraphrasing a part of the i burial tervice. They are all quietly repeating, 'Mr Gladstone giveth and theN Lord Salisbury hath taken away. Blei sed be the name, of the Lord.'" The Dean of Waiapu prefaced his sermon in the Cathedral latt night with touchiug references to the deaths of the Duke ot Coburg and Lieutenant Berry. The flags flying half-mast high had told the community during the past week, said Dean Hovtll, of a great grief which had failen upon our gracious Queen in the death of one of her sonsl He was sore he gave expression to the feelings of all present when he declared that a great wave of sympathy had swept around the globe for the venerable mother who had once again been bereaved.' It was their earnest prayer that God, the merciful Comforter, would support her in .this time of sorrow and of trial. In connection with the sad news of the death of Lieutenant Berry, the Dean went oa to say that it seemed but the other day since he, aud many of those present, had noted the smart active young officer at the head of the Hawke's Bay Troop of the Third New Zealand Rough Riders, upon the occasion of their official sendoff from these shores. Aud now his fighting days were done. He was, as far as we knew, tho first of the Hawke's Bay men to fall for freedom and the Empire, and the hearts of all were saddened as they til'tight of hi.s aged father and mother, his young wife and little children, so terribly bereaved. • " That God's comfort may come to them," concluded the Dean, "and that He may help them in this their bitter aSfli tion is our most lervent prayer." The following from the Si at o d-upon-<»'ion berald of Friday, June 22nd, will no doubt interest many of our leaders: "Everyone will know how popular was Mi3s Ella Hutchinson before stse became Mrs Dewar, and left Tiddington on her marriage some three years ago. Indeed it may with peifect truth be stated that no family stands higher in the respect and affection of the villagers—the whole neighborhood, in fact—on account of I hfir courtesy, kindness, and general helpfulness. Mrs Dewar, after three years' absence in New Zealand, paid a visit to Tiddington on Friday night last, and warm and kind was the "welcome she received. When her arrival became known the villagers, young and old turned out in huge numbers, and not only scut up hearty cheers but waved flags and showed their enthusiasm in a most genuine fashion. The bells helped the warmth of the greeting, and bunting was brought into use to add to the emphatic character of the welcome. Mrs Dewar was, of course, taken by surprise by such a popular demonstration, and how gratifying it must have been to her parents and n lends goes without saying. This is the proper recognition of acts' of kindneas and benevolence rendered in days Hone by. Mr Dewar, it may be stated, is now- in South Africa as adjutant to Colonel Newall, commanding the Fifth Contingent from New Zealand."

Complete arrangements have now been made for the H.B. Kennel and Poultry Oub's show, which opens in the drillshed to-morrow, and all the exhibits will be to hand this evening. The main hall ■will be lined with dogs all round ; the supper room will contain 40 fox terriers i(the largest number ever brought together at one show in the colony) ; the baad room will be full of dogs and poultry; the ladies' room will

accommodate the pigeons; turke}~s and geese will be exhibited on the stage; and three tables with poultry case 3, double-decked, and in double tier, will run the entire length of the hall. It -will thus be seen that all space available is absolutely required, in fact space could not possibly have been found for twenty more exhibis. The pigeons will by judged by Mr MeKwan, of Dunedin, as .the gent.eman originally selected for that duty, Mr T Parker , , will be other-s-wise busily engaged. The owners of pigeons computing in to-morrow's race are requested to bring all the birds, successful and unsuccessful, ;to the show ■ afer the event, as peus will be provided for them. The judging is fixed to begin at 9.30 a.m., and those of the pub iv who desire to be at the ring side while the dogs are being dealt with, w>ll be allowed access through the main hall. The official opening of the show takes place nt 2 p.m., the -Mayor (Mr G. U. Swan) otliciasiug. ' '