OTAKI NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 79, 5 April 1910, Page 8

OTAKI NOTES.

[3T ItttOBAPn— 9PECXAI, TO THE *O«T.) OTAKI, This Day. Harvest thanksgiving services were held in thu Anglican churches in tho district on Sunday, wh^n the cougiegations were large. The supply of vegetables was very limited, aud the Rev. Smith, during the course of his sermons, lef erred to the farmers of the district as being indolent. Various rumours continue to come to hand relative to the escaped prisoner Powelka, and on more than one occasion the police have been on wild goo*e chases. A man, said to answer the description given of the one that caused a bensation near Foxton, is reported to have performed a somewhat niinilar act at a residence ou the main road between Otaki and Manakau. He called und demanded a laige supply of food from the lady of tho house, und this not being forthcoming ho flourihhed a couple of revolveis. He made no threats, however, but lingered about the house for home lime. He eventually moved on without making further dinturbance. The Fresh Food nnd Ice Company (Wellington) is obliged at the present time to refuse some 200 gallons of milk daily from this district, the quantity received being in excess of tho city's demand. Cookery clashes for adults are to be commenced by Mbs Macintosh, tne cookery instructress under the Wellington Education Board.

The Postal authorities advise that tho Manuka, which left Sydney on Saturday, has on board an Australian mail, whk'h is due here early to-morrow afternoon. A man named Boyd slipped on tho stairs of the Theatre Royal last evening, and sustained concussion of the brain. He waa taken to the hospital Ho had not recovered coiiHciousuesui this afteinoon. The injured man was fnimurly a fireman on the steamer Wakatu. Now that Powelka, the escaped prisoner, is said to have been seen iv the Manawatu district, reports are leaking out that he was seen last week in the suburbs of Wellington. Rumours arrived from Day's Bny, on the one fide, und from Ixland Bay, on the other shore. In the latter suburb it is stated that a man Answering to his description purchased some bread and butter and other necesnaries. It is also alleged that two houses in the same vicinity were broken into and money >tolcn. Some fine field* of i-nedu turnip* in the Tokornniriro difhitt die hopelessly blighted, ieport« the Otiieo Daily Tiim*i>, aud whole paddockn will he list-lets fur winter feed. Tho Wellington Mini*teis' Association N tendering a public welcome to Dr. Henry, Mr. C. A. Potts und party on Wednesday evening in the Kent-terrace Church. Revft. Dr. Gibb, J. J. North, and S. J. Serpell have been pelected as speakers, aud tho Rev. J. K. Elliott will occupy the chair. At the V.M.C.A. Rooms oa Thun-day afternoon the New Zealand Alliance executive und their friends will tender a welcome tea to Dr. Heniy and his p a| iy. So far as the Thames Valley is concerned, the conliguration of the country nnd the character of its natural drainage aro iv themselves siilbVieiit to account for its liability to floods, sayi the Auckland Star. Flood* there certainly would be from time to time iv such a country, if tho riveis were left entirely to their own devices. Hut iffrom 40.000 to 60,000 tons of mining debris ore poured into these streams every mouth throughout tho year, how is it possible to avoid the conclusion that the beds of the streams will bo raised, and as mkhi ns ever the channels are called upon, to carry off an unusual rainfall, thu water wiil back up over the low -lying banks and inu'Klnte the adjacent land?" The journal hopee that the Royal Commission now set up to investigate th<> tilting miestiou will direct iv attention particularly to the connexion between tlio prt*-ti<-«*of dumping nriuing debrib in the rivers mid the periodic recurrent* of then dtitructive flood*.