NEAR AND FAR.

Evening Star, Issue 14044, 27 April 1909, Page 1

NEAR AND FAR.

The .Prime Minister will deliver *i policy-speech at iOTercargill on..Satorckij Sir Joseph is -expected to deal with thl.financial. position of the ,coimtry as dis closed at March 31. So far .the, account!* have-not baen made-public-in *b© Gazette ' but it is understood that wHile -tho jb : vcnne- of the- cotirr r is entirely eatisjiad tory, there has n a caasidsEabie crease.in the ey- liraro. The.Pr&jij Minister-.is exjr tailed .statemt) 1 regard to-the"xq trte-depaEtnamtsras^ the thai 'will resnlt .frap th& operation of -the' Government's' dd [ cision. j As a result of a disagreement, wiijf I Alfred Eccies.-thoaccxninLant. for th&>Dnri j;.edm,Engineering and Steel Company, Wil' I'Lam Wilkinson (secretary of the--conf | party) -was: convicted yesterday of-.ha.vinj" coannifcd .a technical assault. ' Ecclej | asked Wilkinson for custody of, a-ceitarj cheque in the ordinary way of" business ! Wilkinson told him to leave his'priwas- - office, and- caught him hy tho shoulder-^ assist him am. Ecdes reseated this^a tho tune by throwing Wilkinsonj.and'-tha brought the. action to vindicate bis posi tk>n. The Magistrate, coaamtsitrngion^th' strained relations between tho partiesusail that the- case ought not to ha.ve b&f brought to-court. He inflicted mo fax bnt:o£dared Wilkinson-to ,pay costs (27sj Mr Ilanlon appeared for J3ccfe&--and.3fl Stephens for Wilkinson. .Tome wonderful stones ,ai©.-±old in :S1 gard to. the- number of hlack.swans-ia&.^i I Chatham Islands. These birds -were -tj| fa-cduced on tho islands about fifteen yeai ago, and they a;e now present in coimtk^ nambcre. A gentleman -who visited th' islanda-jracently was told by anathe-r visit*? that he- had seen the hiiids sitting nirt j deep in a great continncsis v line ©avera | miles long. It is stated that last yea I 20,000 swans', eggs.-were -exported-from* th Chathams to Kesr Zealand. Influenced by the fact that the londci Scottish Volunteer -during a rassra marc 1 , out with,, plenty of bagpipe anasis-did sir;l towards recruiting " JecritoTiEJs" in Loii I don than anything du9 T the Welling!--,} Highland Riiies have decided to foSoi suit. The pipe band of tho corps is nq yet praperJy dressed, its new oinßorms no j-having come from the tailors. "When I,l* kit is- delivered the carps intends to ttn^ j out., its idea being to stir up pa&lic' feel ine"to.asense-of. th&; necessity of 'imiveißa m Hilary - service. Speaking of th© Friroley orchards, i| Ha.wke"s "Bay, to a ■'Dominion: 1 are-presentii tive, the-inanager remarked: ""The. ecasoi has been one.of plenty. Tins is especiallj the caeo with regard to peaches, apples qainees,tand, in fact, all and gooseberries, in which there has bed a shortage. Peas Jiavo- been a great jprq duction. Once wo considered ihsb -wj | were-doing.-well'by tenting: out ,700 case! | of a season,.hut-this year'-we-'baari taken in 3,C00 • eases,-.eaual to 'oOjfXXMad and sold out. As For'peaches, - we teri gone through twice-as-many thisseasoiuaj in any two previous years. I should pu! down the output at 20.000 cases, wbicl means 400;0001b in weight."' There aie| about 100vmiles-of -peach- tuaes-'-in the .Erina ley district, and th© yield therefore caij be€stimated:at-4,CGfllb-of -peaches per<mtliei The Auckland ' Herald' rays that itii findings of a- moa .skeleton-in. .a at Penrose, in- the Mr John_Atti wood, of'Te Awamutn, is conclusive- proof that the moa survived the glacial period] and lived, if not' Tmtil very recent times, at least- till the latter end of the; post! pliocene period. The later volcanic formal tion of Eden County, ha-sfcates, is deasdy of post-plioeene times. There is not q shell on the hilltops, nor in. any ofhaa! part of the series, that is-,not in.existence on either-kid© of the istbmns, and neachjl every shell that occurs either in- the Waifo mata or Manukau has iUJossil from one end of the cerics to the other, Th« skeleton was found in a cave, craeka caused by the Tetraction of lava on cook ing, similar-to-jnany other fireures-inr which nre dozens- of isEinan bones in- no better elate of preesr»ation. f

Professor A. W. Porter explained, hi live conree of a lectors at the-London | Working Men's College, that ■ lightning cracks the air, and that th-e visible ''form of the flash, follows the cracks. It xnaghfe bj thought that the air wzs not likely thing to crack, said Professor Porter, b'jfc neither was c-obblers' wax, the liability of which to split uixkr a sudden blow was well known. They had all beard the crack, i of the carter's whip, but which was it that cracked, the whip-or the air? He thought it was the air. A report -emanating from this Agricultural Department (says a. Washington correspondent) states that Ohio- farmers are encountering difficulty in getting -wives-i Country girls, they say, leave the* farm and! go to the city, hoping to escape farm* drudgery. Another factor operating! against the faOTse-r. is iaternrban. cats,! which transport the conntry girls to the! city to mingle in society there. At the Jvfllingion Cbucfr yesterday-d! Maison and J. MaTsden,b<jok4 makers, w-ese each-feed 35 for betting] with an infant. William. Stewart Bate,! hotelkeepe-r, Kilbirnie, wns fined £5 ozrdi costs for .eedling liquor daring- prohibited'! hours. Three-j>en3cns were each fined-Si' and costs for being-in Ban's Hotel duringprohibited .hours. Eight charges against persons of eelling t copies of a- newspaper! | containing immoral-matter-were adjoaxne«t| till next Monday. James HennEingjray^ | was remanded till May 5 -on a. charge of* ! breaking into the--General Post-Office, audi stealing goods, .money, .and stampe-of- a 4 total value oi -over £IOO, besides a iargei number of cancelled bank notes. The action of the Hospital and Chari--taale- Aid Boaid in turning the. BowotoiuV. Sfseet- Old Jfen's Home into a lever hos-j pital some- time ago came in for a- warmj time of it at a meeting of South InvereaM gill householders last right (-wires " Ourij Own"). The cliainnan {Mr "Andrew Bain)'V laid stress on the proximity- of -the homei to the South School, and pointed out thatthe aatbaritaes bad been panted the tern-! porary.nse. of it onjy. u e thooght ■ that i the meeting ehonld protest- strongly, as already 6speral childrea had contracted, fever therefrom- After some, interesting discussion the meeting resolved—"That a. 'strong' letter be eeat to .the Boawl expressing extreme displeasure at the establishment of a fever hospital at the Bowmont Street Home, to the danger of the" children attending the South School." The Appeal Court gare jndgment yesterday in the case of the Palmerston Ivoiih Hospital " Board v. the Hawera- Board. i The Cosrt held' -unanimously that section 74 of the Aet of 1885 applied- only to indoor relief, and not to outside relief.' The "entered the institution" in that section: wave inapt- wopds to describe outdoor relief, and applied only to ielief - afforded in some buildir» ; -r euch as a ho ' pitel or offljerolent .- -h.m. Tha' wovtis "nert'bsfarer'''iit'iii.T tion meant- immediately beaoTC, -and oforo the appellants* canid naf-rar jom any indoor relief. Thovrappea! dismissed, witu •, and as.irom a distances'