Local and General.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3297, 16 August 1911, Page 4

Local and General.

The members of the Poverty Bay Rowing Club held a most enjoy a ole “assembly” dance in the clubhouse last night. About 40 couples were present and the floor was in excellent order for dancing, which was Kept up until an early hour this morning. Mr A. J. Strong supplied the music, extras being played by Mesdarnes West, Ledger, and Misses Haycock and Gedye Messrs J. Corbett and E. Roche acted as M C.’s. The bachelors’ ball in connection with the club is to be held on the 29th inst., and is being eagerly anticipated.

Three young men whose names were given as' George Brown, Thomas Habgood and Charles Stewart, were yesterday brought before Mr W. A Barton, S % in the Magistrate s Court, charged with breaking and entering by nigut the premises of one, Caroline Lrcadhurst, with intent to intimidate her. Sergeant Hutton applied for an aajourmnent until JMonduy. ajid. the Hp—plication was granted. Bail was allowed in one surety of £SO, or two of £25. On a charge of having, with menaces demanded food from one, Caroline Broadhurst, a similar adjournmerit was asked for. This also was granted, and bail was fixed at one surety of £25 each. After being blind for twelve years, a woman eighty-seven years old-v Mrs Bovland. of South-street, Taunton, has received' back her sight. It was just after her husband’s death that her eyes began to fail, and soon she became totally blind. Yet she has continued to pray that she should regain her sight, and about a month ago she could see a glimmer of light. Gradually the blindness lias disappeared and she can now see what time it is by the church clock ICO yards away. She saw a motor-car for the first time a few days ago. Hie Okitu Butter Factory lias a special announcement in this issue in which the manager intimates that the factory is prepared to purchase fresh separator cream in large or small quantities from dairy fanners on the railway line and others. The Okitu Butter Factory paid the very high ’-rice of Is 2d per lb for butter-fat to its for the month of July last. This is*believed to be the record price ever paid for butterrat in this district.

In the Magistrate’s Court yesterday a man named John Laurenson was convicted of drunkenness and fined 10s and 2s costs. He was further charged -.mu having broken a pane of glass, the property of Mr Currie, and he pleaded guilty, and was fined 10s and 2a costs, and was ordered to make good the amount of damage done. The efficiency of the weather-fore-casting system conducted by the Government Meteorologist was highly praised by Mr. Clement Wiagge in a ioetuie at Auckland. He said that Mr Bates’ work was remarkably well clone, especially in view of the rather meagre data with which lie bad to be satisfied, but it was a pity .the forecasts were not localised to a greater extent. They should be made up specially for separate districts.

There will be no skating to-night at the Garrison Hall, on account of the hall being otherwise engaged for military purposes. The Te Rau students and a number of their friends assembled at the college last evening to farewell Mr. Tom Cotton, who leaves to-day for Oiaki, where he is to be ordained by the Bishop of Wellington on Sunday next. His work will be amongst the Maoris at Wanganui.

Mr. J. Clark, secretary of the Auckland Plumbers’ Union, is at present in Gisborne endeavoring to form a branch of the union here. The local plumbers have been working under the Auckland award for some time past.

The “Gisborne Club Night” at His Majesty’s Theatre to-morrow promises to be a great success. In addition to a special picture programme, the committee have arranged a very attractive programme of popular music, songs, and choruses, and will be assisted by an orchestra, numbering over twenty, under Mr. M. L. Foster. The club have taken the whole of the circle and the first five rows of the stalls, leaving all the rest of the seating available to" the general public at the"usual prices. The Borough Council met in committee last evening to consider matters in connection with the sewerage installation.

An episode reminiscent of a miniature Knyvett case occurred recentlv in connection with one of the local Territorial companies (says the “Southland Times ’). One of the company’s members, as the outcome of a difference with his 0.C., wrote to headquarters with regard to the matter and with a view to obtaining his discharge from the company. This in military circles constitutes a serious breach of military discipline, and amounts to insubordination. The delinquent is said. also, to hai e been impertinent to bis eommandmg officer. At a recent parade he was to have been drummed out of the company, but remained away. However, he lias been discharged in disgrace. It is understood that no steps are to be taken in the matter of a court-martial.

i le -« recently communicated vuth Mr W . S. Short, Under-Secretary tor Loads and Bridges inquiring when tne award in connection with the Wainiata bridge would be announced, and ho has received the following reply: Y\ arrant apportioning cost of Wnimata bridge will bo "published this " ee.c s Gazette. Copy will be posted ton with copy ol Commission’s report.”

, 1 shifting of tlie Ivaitaratahi grab or edge will be completed this week, and uoi k will be commenced in trie new pit at once.

Adi ice has been received tlint the Daimevirke Cadets’ football team to piffiY Garrison on Saturday, will arrive •'Saturday morning’s steamer. Thev will be entertained after the match anil taken tor a drive on Sunday.

r Gisborne High School Rugbv loot bull team met the Napier High ' 100 l t <>a ] n A a pier yesterdav and u eie defeated by 11 points to 6. * Lis at- as an orator was as tactful as se had been in the role 0 f pacificator. Addressing hts audience of fifty, he said: Ladies-:-and gentlemen” (there was only one lady present). “1 think that you have had enough music. Allow me to ask you to take a little snper with us.' Alter a few seconds the invitation was accepted, and Liszt and ituhim entertained the audience to supper at their hotel, which cost them twelve hundred, francs. When the guests -separated, the hosts thought the affair had been a joke, about which no.ly jnore would be heard, but they decided to give their concert as advertised oil the following night. To their astonishment the hall was packed. 1 here was not standing room. The whole town had turned out on the off chance of an invitation to supper!

“A peculiar thing auout this great Empire, of which we are all so rightly proud,” said Mr. Wragge in a lecture at Auckland, “is that money can be found for all sorts of things except for scientific research. It is not so in the United States. You can’t get. it. You can go hat in hand and beg, but you can’t get it. You can’t raise the wind,' however much you whistle.” And he proceeded to recount his own endeavors to raise funds for prosecuting the study of weather conditions, and the meagre response that had been made by wealth .■yad commercial interests and Governttppts, compelling him and his conmires to work under extreme hardships, while supplying the people with highly valuable information. British navvies working on the North Auckland Main Trunk line have expressed considerable dissatisfaction owing to the fact that there are many Austrians employed on the works. Owing to the stagnant state of the gum market, many Austrians have deserted the fields, and have become rather expert on the railway works. It is claimed that they get better working conditions, and by reason of the cooperative conditions are enabled to work under better money: making conditions. This system is roundly ucnounced by the better class of Britishers, who assert that if by increased exertions they succeed in earning over 8s per day, men of inferior physique are put into the good gang, and the conditions leavened. By reason of their language, the Austrians are able to obtain a certain amount of racial segregation, and they thus secure better conditions for making money.

The individuals who rush from a concert five minutes before the majority of the audience, whether the programme has been long or short-, received a pointed rebuke with the printed programme at the Wellington Professional Orchestra’s last concert. There was less rushing for the “last car” than usual, and the cause of the self-res-traint was probably the following “special note” at the end of the programme : —“Patrons who do not intend to remain to the end of the concert are asked to kindly leave before the last item commences, and so avoid a repetition of the disturbing leave-taking on the occasion of the last concert —a procedure both disrespectful to the rest of the audience and discourteous to the orchestra and its conductor.”

The president of the Victorian Methodist Conference, the Rev. A. McCallum, delivered an address entitled “'The Church and the Marriage Question” in Melbourne last week. Mr McCallum illustrated the deplorable levity with which so many young people treated what should be the most solemn moments of their lives, by narrating an experience of his own, in which he had been flippantly asked to “run the thing over in the house,” because the bridegroom was too drunk to attend the church. He had refused, but he regretted the day that some disgraceful man in a black coat was found willing for the sake of a fee to thus degrade his holy office as a minister. Mr J. D. Rockefeller is forbidden by his physician to eat anything which has been cooked, not even bread or cakes. His diet is confined to uncooked meat, With eggs and vegetables. Amongst the most treasured possessions of Harry Lauder are a cheap watch which lie won in a singing competition as a boy, and the old pick which he used when he worked as a “collier laddie.”

Lecturing at the London Camera Club, Dr. Adolphe Abrahams said that with practice a high-speed photographer was able actually to see events before they occurred. He showed a photograph of the finish of a race, but with the tape unbroken, and he said that he was prepared to make an affidavit that he saw the breaking of the tape before he released the shutter. The anticipation of vision, and of hearing as well, was a phenomenon which' was well understood ' among psychologists. The most rapid photographer had his latent or reaction period, during which the necessary stimulus was conveyed from eye_ to brain and brain to hand. This period covered about one-tenth of a second. Exposing at the moment he really saw an event happen, the photographer was able by anticipation of vision to catch the incident on his plate by the time it actually took place a fraction of a second later.

A fine display of double and singlebuggies and gigs is at present being made by Messrs Graham; and ICrebs, coach and carriage builders, of Gladstone Road. „ A “Premier” double buggy, in particular, is a fine specimen of the wheelwright’s art. The body is beautifully varnished from the natural mottled kauri, picked out in mottle lining, edged with chrome yellow. The buggy is trimmed in maroon leather, and is mounted on concord springs, with an elliptic spring at the back. The back seat is removable, which makes the back- of the vehicle adaptable for carsying parcels. A smaller buggy is fashioned on exactly similar lines, and is also beautifully finished.

A correspondent 'of the Wanganui “Herald” writes:—So Parliament is n,t likely to do anything important til] Sir Joseph Ward returns. In the name of goodness, why? Is it a oneman Parliament, or just a one-man Ministry, or is it just because; we are a one-horse country, -without sufficient spirit to kick? two years ago Sir Joseph did the same thing. He caused the country’s business to be hung up till he retained from spreading himself at the Defence Conference. And now our poor, spiritless Liberal, party, and the poor, spiritless country, allow him to do l ' the same again. Have they done that in Australia? Fisher, McGowan and Murray have been away in England, hut they arranged for the business of Australia, New South Wales and Victoria to go on, and their respective Ministries have gone ahead with much important work. So conscientious was the New South Wales Ministry that it has gone ahead with what it believed to be right, even to its own defeat. And Mr McGowen (all credit to him!) has cabled acquiescing in its resignation. But then, he is only a Laborite, not a baronet. No fear of iSir Joseph Ward allowing tiro Cabinet to go ahead, especially if the portfolios were in danger!