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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5416, 24 June 1879, Page 2

We are not aware whether tho Municipal Council purpose repairing the seawall at the end of the Coote-road, but there can be no doubt that it needs looking to without delay, and indeed so does the sea-wall at the other end of theparade, which appears to have been very weakly constructed. Altogether there appears to have been a great bungle made of the construction of the Beach-road and its sea-wall. The road is the only good promenade the citizens have, and the Council should have it fit for use for that purpose, besides which a good sea-wall is urgently needed as a protection from occasional incursions of the sea into the town. We trust that at the next meeting of the Council the matter will receive attention.

The annual ploughing match at Taradale takes place to-morrow, when some keon competition may be looked for. The money prizes exceed £48, in addition to a prize of a three-wheel plough and several special prizes by gentlemen in Napier, Taradale, and Meanee. Mr W. J. Wilson, of Koropipo, gives, we notice, one pound of the best Barrett's twist tobacco for the " worst " ploughed ridge.

We notice that Mr Hooper, of Hastingsstreet, has effected a considerable improvement in lighting his premises by abandoning gas and haying recourse to kerosene. The illuminating power of the gas supplied in Napier has become so popr of late that we should not bo surprised if other tradesmen were speedily to follow Mr Hooper's example.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, Jeremiah Murphy was charged with lunacy and remanded. W. Middleton failed to appear in answer to a charge of drunkenness and indecency, and his bail was ordered to be forfeited, a fine of 10s and costs being also inflicted. David Nelson was charged with horsestealing, and was remanded for a week. William James Imrio was sentenced to three months' hard labor for obtaining goods under false pretences from William Morris.

The Petane road is in a disgraceful state. Two settlers who last night attempted to come to town were unable to get their horses through the stiff quagmire by courtesy called a road, and they had to put up at the Maori pah. On the last trip of the mailman up the coast his horse and the mails were all but lost in a swamp. The so-called "road" has never been properly formed or metalled, pegs placed along the track being the only guide as to what part of the land is road, and what part is swamp. . The road is within the Hawke's Bay county,

and is looked after/ or rather is supposed to be looked after^ by,the County Council. Unfortunately none of the County Councillors live in that direction, and the road is little used by residents [of this /county, so it has been left to itsejlf, becoming worse yeaiytby, year. . The road' is. the chief outlet to' the Wairoa county, and' it is chiefly used by Wairoa residents, who have small influence on the Hawke's Bay County Council. Complaints have been made, time an&ageiin, without any appreciable result, and, the road ia now worse than ever, a - disgrace to our county. Perhaps thebesfrplan would be for the the Wairoa people to get up an agitation for an alteration, of. the county boundaries, so that the roadj.might be included in the Wairoa county. _ , " At , present the rates frdni the 1 properties along the Petane road go towards keeping the other county roads in good y order, but if the district were include, d.iji " the . Wairoa county the money n_ight^e, more fairly spent. -

; A special telegram appearing in the Evening Post Under date London, 19th inst., says : — ln the wool market prices .show, a [general advance of 5 to 10 pef'cent7|['a's;c6mpared with previous sales. . /, Qre&jsy' ' qualities are,! however, flat. -_ '„./, 7,i-A f. • '. ' . . :

' A Ger'taittiilady in Lyttelton being ■rather' more 5 fond- of somebody, else than of her husband, telegraphed to the said somebody else, who is supposed to be a resident lu^ellingtdrl) to meet her on the arrival df'" ascertain boat which arrived .in Wellington recently. Unfortunately the faithless fair one left behind her a letter and portrait, which her lawful -We discovered after she had gone, and alive to a sense of his duty, immediately took passage on what he imagined was the succeeding boat to the one in which his'spoUse had" vatnoosedi" Getting aboard; and feeling inclined for a "liquor" after the vessel had got fairly oti the way, he came into the saloon for it, arid while unfolding 'the story of his woes to' a sympathising listener, he turned his bead and saw in the . doorway of an opposite cabin the pbjebb of his piirsuit.-r^his wife.— Tableau.

The Southland- News says that 120 bushels per acre is the yield of bats — as shown by the result of the threshing—^ from a field owned by . Mr John Bissett, adjoining the one. in. which the trial of reapers and binders was recently ..held. They were ox* the Danish variety, and were , put in . following turnips and potatoes. ' . ' .'•

■ The Japan Gaiilte .States s— '.' Letters received to-day (the 6th March) from Shanghai tend' Pob-chow offer very instructive commentaries' upon Mr. R. W. Irwin's suggestion to the Japanese official trading Company that England is willing to take ..about. 30,000j000, lb. of Japanese black tea! _Che''faet iS that China produces an excessive quantity, which noW in quality tanks but second to the Indian teas. The Indian teas, if thGir strength and quality are considered, displace about 80,000,000 lb. of China tea, and unless the export of China tea is henceforth reduced by 30 or 40 million pounds at least, it is expected that the third and fourth grades of Foochow and Yangtze country teas will not be worth more than half their actual cost, if, indeed, they can be sold at any price."

The Princess Louise is said to be painting a portrait' of Mrs Scott-Siddons, for presentation to the actress.

The Rev. Joseph Cook on a boy who climbs a tree to steal apples: "The apples are tlie natural objective motive ; the boy's appetite is the natural subjective motive ; his intention is his moral motive." It is hardly necessary to add that the boot or board the owner of the orchard applies when he catches him at it, is the boy's natural locomotive.

A rage for exhibitions is springing vp { and very soon the world will get tired of them. The. latest one projected is in Mexico, whence we have received some r circulars notifying that the Department of Public Works has, by the direction of the President, determined that an International Exhibition shall be held next year in the city of Mexico. A bill for this purpose is to be submitted to the General Congress next term. The promoters are of opinion that Mexico will be generally benefitted by an iexbibition, inasmuch, they say, "as it will rectify the errors which are afloat regarding our country, as because it will expend actual markets, and open new ones to the products of Mexican agriculture and industry, thereby paving the way to the solution of the problem regarding the construction and operation of railways in Mexico, of the no less difficult oneVregarding the colonisation, and of others which, directly or indirectly, depend on these, and which . .embody the secret of the peace and prosperity of the Eepublic."

" In the second sermon I ever preached from that text, " A mess of pottage," I got it " A pot of message," and the worst of it was that I kept repeating the blunder all through the sermon, to the intense amusement of the congregation, and some impairment, I fear, of the lesson of the discourse. The devil seemed to be on my tongue, and I spoke the text wrong, in spito of myself, almost every time. I grew hot as a f urna&e ; I perspired to my fingers' ends ; my face was like a beet ; and when I came to that awful text I would make a great pause, fix my lips right, and then, to my intense mortification, say, ' A pot of message !' I was in agony. Finally, I ceased to try to pronounce it, but only said, 'my text' : — pointing at it."— -Talmage.

It is a surious circumstance that when the , strong-room of the Bank of jSTew •Zealand was opened on the morning after the fire some boxes of matches which had been left there on the previous day were found to be unignited, notwithstanding the intense heat to which the exterior of the strong-room, had been subject. This is a strong testimony in favor of tho security of the safe ; but it would be better if matches were not left in strong-rooms.

Lord A. Loftus, the appointed Governor of New South Wales, is a relative of his predecessor, Sir Hercules Robinson, though the two have never metf

Mr Nicol, telegraph and postmaster of Stawell, has, according to the Stawell Chronicle, just finished the construction of an electro-motor which promises to be of very great importance and benefit. The motor consists of a cylinder with soft iron, armatures, acted upon by a series of electrormagnets brought alternately into action by means of a voltaic battery. There is mech'inism for alternating the necessary currents, so as to cause the cylinder to rotate rapidly, and the speed may of course be increased with the aid of additional battery power. Mr Nicol intends applying his electro-motor to the driving of a sewing machine; or it could be used to put fans in motion to cool a heated room. Mr Nicol has also invented a hew telephone, which will not require, to bo held to the ear, but merely laid bh the table of a room, round which a large party can sit and hear the. spoken messages as plainly as if one of those present was speaking.

An Otago paper says : — The family of Partington flourishes in this part of the world. A woman after reading the cable message in Friday's Star was heard to exclaim : Tho Princess Louise is insane. Poor dear! So blythe and bonny she was, as I have seen her, iv the Old Country. It's the terrible cold of Cauadp that has done it."

A tragical termination to a practical joke occurred at Sua recently. A man named Vorle mischievously intending to frighten some young girls, dressed himself up in a white sheet to personate a ghost. The girls fled in alarm, with one exception: .She pointed a revolver at the pretended spectre and shot him dead — a ball had passed through the heart.

The Hon. William Fitzherbert is gazetted "as Speaker of the Legislative Council.

Worth, thinks every., dress ought to have some' " expression." The greatest expression • about Worth's dresses', is made by the husband when he sees the bill. A

The Louisville Courier Journal has discovered a young lady who blushes, goes to bed at nine o'clock, eats speaks plain English, respects her mother, doesn't want to marry a lord, and knows how to cook. She .must, be one of Edison's new., inventions. A young lady was never born that way.

A certain lawyer was compelled to apologise to' the Court. With '■■ stately dignity he rose in his place and said) " Your Honor is right, and I am wrong, as your Honor generally is," There was a dazed look in the judge's eye, and he hardly knew whether to feel happy or fine the lawyer for. tJontempt of ediirt.

A queer sort of a . cat is. owned by „ a little girl in West Kalamo, Michigan, who has taught it to repeat poetry or prose after her— at least, as nearly as is possible to a cat's limited powers of articulation. , Placing, the cat.faoing her, the little girl' will repeat a word, when the oat will repeat it after her,by a series of mews, one mew for a word of one syllable, two meWs for. two^syllaoles, &c. This singular gift of intelligence on the part of puss has attracted much attention in the neighborhood.

When the news reached Philadelphia that Shere Ali- was dying, two lawyers immediately started for Afghanistan to induce the relatives to contest the -Willi • ' .-'... ......

, The Ntiova Grazzetia di Palermo pubr lisb.es the wonderful .. news that the authorities are preparing a biography of moi-e than 4000 brigands living in Italy, with short notices of their friends aud associateSi These gentlemen all belong to the dreaded. " Mafia}" and many are said to occupy high .positions, in ihe State; wherefore — so we are naively told — this voluminous " Black -book "will be kept secret. The story reads like a joke ; not that there is much fun in the existence of that wonderful organisation oi crime, the Mafia.

\ The, St.. Petersburg correspondent ..of the JDailyj'lelegraphs&ystaab among the poorer classes of St. Petersburg suicides, through s swallowing a solution of phosr-. phorus, have,, [become: so numerous that it is proposed to prohibit the manufacture and sale of lucif er matches made to ignite by the.nieans of , phosphorus.

A strange excuse was tendered- to the Brighton Magistrates recently by a young man of respectable) appearance who had been given into custody for disturbing the congregation worshipping at St. Paul's Church, West-street, a place of worship which has attained some notoriety as the scene of the Ritualistic practices of the Rev.; Arthur Wagner. The prisoner, it was stated, continually interrupted the evening service by encouraging shouts of approval and laughter, and by frequently applauding. In answer to the. charge, the prisoner expressed, his extreme regret^ attributing his behaviour to liquor, but he solemnly assured the bench that, he believed at the time he was witnessing a performance by a troupe of Japanese then giving entertainments in the town. ;

Of all the curious and unexpected development of human nature, that exhibited by the churchwarden of Little Hormead, Hertfordshire, the other day, is certainly the most remarkable. He was summoned before : the bench of magistrates for bawling in chnrch. He "burst into church," as the clergyman was about to dismiss the congregation, without his hat, crying out, " you have given them no sermon." and added threats about reporting him. to the bishop. It is probably the first time that any member of a congregation has been found to complain that there was no sermon. But, on the other hand, this churchwarden does not seem to. have, been in church, but like some abnormal inversion of the dog in the manger, was angry that other people did not get what he did not want himself.

London Truth, in an article giving anecdotes of the Prince of Wales, says : — " He. is : fond of late hours, but no matter how late, he may go to bed he rises early the, next .'morning. He is a sportsman and a very fair shot. At whist he plays an excellent hand. And whether the occupation of the moment be whist, sport, or dancing, he enters into it with a hearty relish, which contrasts strangely with the blaze airs of the golden youth of the day. His constitution is an excellent one. He rarely has a day's illness, and he is a living proof that no amount of tobacco can enfeeble either mind or body. I believe that he was the inventor of the now popular drink, ' lemon and soda."'

An old lady in Glasgow was left a legacy of £2000, having already a small fortune of some £8000 to £10,000. She invested the legacy in the City of Glasgow Bank, and when the crash came went distracted at, the thought of beggary that was awaiting her. - To her surprise, no call was made upon her, and on investigation she found to her delight that her agent had embezzled the money while pretending to invest it in the share desired. • ;

Captain Gaskill, of the coasting schooner Mary Louisa, is a hero and a Mason. On the last run from New York to Newbert, North Carolina, his look-out discpyeredjthe wreck of the Clara Merrick, near Hatteras, with five men clinging to the rigging. The captain .went forward and closely observed the signals made by ,the wrecked men, after which he ordered, the boat to be lowered^ and stated that he intended to save them if possible. The wind was blowing a gale, and seas were running very high at ; the time,' and one of his men asked : " Will you try to save them?" The captain replied: "I will go to them or die in the attempt. I see the Masonic signal of distress displayed. Who will volunteer to go with me?" Two of his men at once volunteered, and the three brave men stepped into the yawl, and shoved off from the vessel. Their noble efforts were crowned with success. They reached the men, took them from their' perilous position, and returned in safety to the Mary Louisa. The five men had been clinging to the rigging at the masthead about six hours.