LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 765, 30 December 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

mj It is understood, says the Taihape Times, that the police made a raid at Raetihi, and seized six cases 1 of liquor, containing 120 bottles of ! beer. A prosecution will follow. During tbe hearing of a case of drunkenness on the railway at the Masterton Court, the magistrate reI marked that it was a pity railway ! guards had no authority to take li- ' quor from persons who carried it on the train and drank there to excess. A remarkably fine specimen of rainbow trout was caught in the upper reaches of the Waikato river by Mr j-. M'(ltae, taking half-ian-hour to land. It -weighs 191 b 10oz, and measures 2ft. 7m. in lengtJh, with a girth of lft. 9in. Several other-fine ' specimens of trout have been caught ' near ihe exit of the lake recently. j John Ma-ddr-ell, a teamster belonging to Oxford (Canterbury), has un- • acountably disappeared from the district. He was chiefly employed oarting timber and firewood from View ■Hill |to Sheffield and Waddington. About three months ago he left his team with a, person in Waddington •temporarily, and be has not been heard of since. i Friday next (New Year's Day) will be observed as a close holiday by tbe Postal branch. Mails usually closing on that day will be made up at 7.45 p.m. on Thursday, and a delivery of correspondence will be made over the counter betwen V and 8 in the evening. The Telegraph branch win open from 9 to 0 a.m. and from 7 to 8 p.m. The Telephone Exchange will remain open all day as usual. For the first four days of the past week 3032 sheep and 745 bales of wool were consigned from the Featberston railway station. On Monday, 350 bales were brought in for consignment, but there was a shortage of trucks. The oat crops in the South Wairarapa flhis season are considered far superior to any seen further north, according to visitors there for the Chistmas holidays. An opthnistic view is taken'of the 1909 tourist season in New Zealand by the general manager of the Tourist Department. Visitors from Australia are expected to arrive in greater numbers than ever before. Te. Aroha and Rotorua were filling up well, and the accommodation 'at j Hanmer, Waikaremoana, . Mount i Cook, and Queenstown was in great • request. There was the usual nunr_. bexv of English tourists in the. do r a _ta _um^_m_mm_mm_m_m_m_m_—_

fl?he Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) was somewhat indisposed yesterday, and his departure for the South was postponed. The big steamer Kaipara left Wellington for London on Saturday afternoon with a valuable cargo of sheepskins, wool, mutton, lamb, beef, tallow, leather, fibre, kauri gum, timber, shell, copra, gold, etc. It is stated that Burns was to receive £6000 out of th© stake in tihe recent prize fight, whether he won or lost or drew, and this was. the only condition on which he -agreed to box It is also said that Johnson s share was £iOOO, whatever the result. As far as the Feilding borough is concerned, there are no cases of infectious or contagious diseases to report for the month. The. town is in a healthy state, which is a tribute to the completeness of the | sanitary arrangements and to the general cleanliness of the inhabitants. During his inspection, tour of the North Island, Lieut.-Colonel Hume Inspector of Prisons visited the tiee planting camps at Wazpa and Waiotapu He reports that operations are being conducted very satisfactorily ofer two million trees-prm-H& spruce and larch-haying been planted dur tog the season. There are my prisoners at Waiotapu and twenty-two at Waipa. It is really astonishing how quickly details in connection with historical events, great and small are fo -gotten Tlidistribution of fcoroSn farthings taking place at lean's Pharmacy this week has naturally, raised the question, "In what "ear was King Edward crowned Of course the date is stamped on all Lhe coins, but many people " » v ß™* their memories a little healthy - cxci cisc by trying. to. correctly .nam .the date before viewing the farthings. The New York World publishes the hVures of the campaign expenses ol cSidafl for tbe P Presidency Irom 1868 onwards. They are as follows.— Y««r £ . •*■ .

Keen rivalry existed between the tliree crows of the boats which did the trip from Palmerston to Foxton on the Manawatu river on Christmas Day (says the Standard), lhe Ripple, the largest of the three "boats., was manned by eight intrepid sailors who cfl'aim to have done the 88---mile journey in 7 hours. The trippers wove delighted with then* experience, and inform us that, though the first ten miles was rather rough going, after Oroua Bridge is passed the river broadens, and is entirely free from snags. Tbe prospect in parts is extremely beautiful, too, the Manawatu finding its way through a delightful variety of country. Mr AY. T. Wood, when member for l'alinerston,' communicated with the Postmaster-General at tho instance of the Chamber of Commerce, says the Standard, in connection with the telephono between Apiti and Pohangina, urging that the gap m the wires, which at present makes communication round-about, be nlled. Mr Wood has now received tlie following reply from the PostmasterGeneral: *'l have the honor to inform you that authority has been given for a telephone line to be erected between Utuwai and Komako. This will give a direct route to 1 almerston North, and relieve the cn*tcuiti ;bctween Kimbolton, 1 eilding, and Palmerston North." Tho Rev. J. I'laiinagan, the London missionary who recently visited Feilding, has been giving to the English press his views on colonial ;a--fairs. "The Australian churches are, to mv mind," he said, " in .a state of flux. They are quickly feeliii"- their way to an even wider unity and a more effective service. In the pulpits both of Australia ai^l " New Zealand thenf is. 1 tbmk, a great lack of what*¥ may term efficient personality^- -1 know no countries whore there is a wider scope tor the application of the gospel to the needs of- the hour. But in both lands one misses the note of passion m the pulpit and enthusiasm in the pew to which we are accustomed at Home. Lieut.-Colonel Loveday, in charge of the New Zealand School Cadets, has received a huge Union Jack, 20ft long by 10ft wide, from the secretary of Lord Roberts's Boys' (Defence) City Schoolboys' Shooting Club, lhe fla«- which is inscribed in big letters, with the words "Loyal New Zealand," is an outcome of the fine shooting made by the boy W. B, Friar oolour-sergeant- of the Uneiiunga Public School Cadets, who represented the dominion in the competition for Lady Guiness's trophy and Lord Meath's shield, and came second in both, being beaten by one point only. The flag is the second so far given out. Natal being the first recipient. In forwarding it to the department, the secretary ot the club says: "Should the idea of a team crystallise from New Zealand in 1909 you may be certain ot a hearty welcome." A ten-year-old prodigy of learning, Wiliam J. Sidis, has astonished the intellectual world of Boston by passin °- the entrance examination into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the highest institution ot its kiud iv the United . States, where the average age of entrants is twentyone. The boy is attracting the attention .of psychologists, who consider that he gives support to the theory of inherited characteristics. His father, Dr Boris Sidis, is a Russian of exceptional intellectual attainments, and his mother is -a physician of unusual skill. The youngster could read and write at two years of age, and at four he spoke fluently and read at sight four languages. Now he is oapable of ho-ld-fng his own in discussions on the nebular hypohtesis, and debating abstruse problems in trigonometry. Our cablegrams referred the other day to another case of Kopemckin<*. The man who is responsible for the creation of the verb to "Kopenick" is Wiflhelm Voight, a cobbler, Dressed in the uniform of a captam of the Guards, he stopped a corporal and file of soldiers in the street and ordered them to follow him to the Town Hall of Kopenick, a few miles trom Berlin. Here he ordered his men to arrest the Mayor and take him to Berlin, while he produced a forged letter and took possession of five thousand marks (about #25/. in the town treasury. With this money he disappeared, and he remained undiscovered for severall days. Eventually, however, he was arrested and sentenced to four years' imprisonment, but he was released after serving about a year and a half. Voight's exploit caused muoh aanusement in Europe, and inspired more than one imitator; in addition, it has supplied the theme for a comic opera. Some results of the top-dressing experiments being conducted oiaider the supervision of the Department of Agriculture have ben forwarded to by Mr G. de S. Baylis. On the plot on Messrs Ellis Bros.' property, at Bulls, the results were: 4cwt. superphosphate per acre yielded 16,7041bs green- grass; lOowt 241bs slag and 2cwt potash sulphate yielded 16,512 lbs; lOcwt 241bs slag yielded' 15,295 lbs ; and the plot with no manure yielded 11, 8561bs green grass per acre. The experiment on Mr R. B. McKenzie's Carnarvon property gave results as follows: 3cwt 321bs superpliosphate and 2cwt. kainit, yielded 8.0281bs green* grass per care; lewt. BOlbs superphosphate yielded 8,101bs; !scwt. 601bs slag yielded 8.9281b5; a mixture of scwt. slag,' 3cwt. kainit, »J()lbs dried blood, of which ,80cwt 401bs per acre was applied, yielded 10,6561b5; and the plot'twith no man. ure yielded 3,0961bs g^een grass per acre. A small section "manured with 2cwt. kainit per acre | gave a* very Slight inorease over no manure. The experiments' .will be fully reported on later, at tbe conclusion of the season, but it will be seen that already much valuabl* information in being m____________m_________w___m_m

Mr John Cobbe announces that his j business premise»,will be closed from i 6 o'clock to-moflffW evening until Monday morning. Pastor Swinerd, who underwent a serioiU9 operation in the Palmerston Hospital four weeks ago, is making such an excellent recovery that he will be able to get up in a few days. Magistrate : Why did you strike tho telegraph operator? Prisoner: It wuz like this, yer honor, I give him a message to send to me gal, an' the feller started to read it. Then I swiped him. Mr Jerome K. Jerome, the English playwright and author, has a ■ grievance, and that grievance is tho label of "humorist" which has always been tacked on to hiuy The reputation of being merely funny has dogged him through life since 'Three Men ih a Boat' started that reputation. "The public takes a narrow view, of humor," h© said to an Express representative. "A man who has nothing but humor is abnormal. Humor is simply the completion of all his senses. Man is a bit of a murderer and a bit of a saint. He is an optimist and a pessimist, a tragedian and a comedian — all mixed up together. And he must be humorous. Otherwise he is not a man. No man ought to be allowed loose in any public capacity without a sense of humor. Mr W. J. McMahon, representative of Canada's crack military band, arrived in Feilding yesterday to make arrangements for this talented aim picturesque combination coming to Feilding. A good deal of interest is already being manifested in the visit of the famous Kilties Band to Feikiing, and judging by the enthusiastic reception accorded them all over the dominion, it is safe to say that success will be assured. The Kilties are a brass and reed band, augmented by tho clan Johnstone troupe of Scottish bagpipers and dancers, and also are the proud possessors of the giant drum majors, 7ft 2Jin and 7ft 3£ui in height. They have been twice commanded by his Majesty King Edward VII — once at Balmoral and once at Sandringham. On the occasion of the second performance his Majesty donned the kilts in honour of the Scottish Canadians. The > Kilties comprise 50 people. The music played is the best. It is full of the sparkle of brightness and carries its bearers away. When its band visited Great Britain, they swept through the country in a whirlwind of melody. New Zealand has much to learn in the way of band music, and there is no doubt the visit to the southern Antipodes will result in profit to bandsmen who go to study their methods. I'resident Diaz, oi Mexico, who has just celebrated his 79th birthday, has worked amazing reforms in his country. The son of an innkeeper, and of mixed Italian and Spanish, blood, General Uiaz has for the past 30 years beon director and the practically uncrowned king- of Mexico. When he became President, Mexico was suliering from a long series ol revolutions, and was practically bankrupt; while all over the land the inhabitants wore terrorised by hordes of bandits. His hrst step was to organise an efficient mounted police, whose pay was so liberal that huu--ctreds of bandits were induced to nilist. The experienced ex-despera-does assisted in hunting down their io rnier comrades, who, when captured, were -shot without trial. In a few years the bandits were exterminated. Under tne rule of Dias the lumbering old stage-coaches, once the principal means of travel, have ben suplanted by railways, and to-day Mexico has -19,000 miles of wellequipped lines. Foreign capital invested in the country has leaped trom £100,000 to the huge total of •t.*ißo,ooo,ooij, while Government revalues hiave increased from three millions sterling to twenty-five millions.

Republican. Democrat 1868 32,090 16,049 s» >§ 1880 235.400 75,9/0 1884 278200 299,600 1888 288 900 182,970 1892 642000 502,900 1896 1,284 000 144,450 1900 3 033 000 128,400 1904 1.070700 267,500