ORMONDVILLE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7912, 29 November 1887, Page 3

ORMONDVILLE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) November 28, 1887. The Mangarangiora bridge is ready for taking over by the county. It is a substantial affair, and is also about the only contract that has been completed in justhalf the contract time. Altogether it reflects great credit on the contractors, as well for the workmanlike manner in yvhich the yvork has been carried out as for the short time occupied in its construction. When the road is made it will reduce the distance between Ormondville aud Papatu by nearly two-thirds. This road should have been completed some months since, but owing to various causes it still drags on. I suppose it will be finished some day. We have here a well preserved Crimean hero in the person of Mr Charles Penbow. I kneyv him very well by sight yvhen he was in the Grenadier Guards, and when I met him a few days ago I found him rather indignant owing to an extract from the Echo yvhich appeared in your columns in which a certain "Royal Duke" aud Sir Colin Campbell figured. In, speaking of the matter he said, " Though it appears to be fashionable to throw discredit upon the Royal Duke or any other Royal that can be most easily attacked, I do not believe that any soldiers of the Guards would do as was stated in the paragraph from the Echo. The Duke was cool and self-possessed throughout the battle, and so tie was at Inkerman, at which place his horse was shot under him. If tlie Duke had not ■ advanced aud retired us continually we i yvould all have been cut to pieces, as his doing so prevented the Russian gunners ' from getting our range, and yve were i exposed to heavy fire during the time ' that the Light Brigade (infantry) yvere i engaged yvith the enemy. Sir Colin i Campbell was away on our extreme left, , and had quite enough to do in attending to his-oyvn men, nor yvonld the Duke have t consulted yvith him as to what w"as best I to do even had Sir Colin not been so fat 9 away, nor was it possible for Sir Colin to ; have known what was taking place f on the right yvhere the Guards yvere. - Lord Raglan sent orders to the Duke 3 to advance the first division, yvhich in f eluded the Highland Brigade. He sent , orders to Lord Bentinck and Sir Colin tc I advance their brigades, and we marched on under a heavy fire of grape and canistei c to the river Alma, which we waded, ant c then climbed the heights on the othei a side. On reaching the top we wen if ordered to the relief of the Light Brigadi is (composed of the 23rd Welsh Fusileers, tin g 33rd Yorkshire, and tlie 88th Connaugh d Rangers). When within a few paces o o them the order was given fortheWelsl s- Fusileers to retire, they having sufl'oiei d very severely and an officer of tlie Scotcl ie Fusileer Guards, who was also a country ie man of Sir Colin's, mistook the order am n began to retire some of the Scotch Fusilee 1. Guards. They had not retired more tha ," a few paces, yvhen the Duke halted thei is and turned them to tho front before an id confusion could be aaused, and in a ver ig few moments the yvhole battalion was a< in vancing. This was the only time that i ie yvould have been possible for Sir Coli /o Campbell to have used the words a le tributed to him, but he was then bus by elsewhere, and could not have known i this mistake until after the battle, even is- he then knew of it. Allowing me to hn,\ rs fired about the average of the nun iy ber of shots fired by the Grew ho diers, they must have fired 27 roum .te each man, I having fired that number k- rounds and loaded with the 28th roun iss but did not fire it, as by that time tl sk battle was yvon. I do not think that oo Alma, Inkerman, and Sebastopol tl nd 42nd fired that number of rounds per ma rs, noi vere they more than about twcnty-oi ed month-) at the Crimea. I have no don be that every man in the Highland Brigai by did his duty at the Crimea, as they ha in done elsewhere, but the Household troo at were not backward when the time car er- in yvhich to convince the world that th ide yvere not merely fit for slioyv, and t ing ltoyal Duke showed on more than o nit hard-fought and bloody field that ho w ew to tlie core a true British soldier."

|^^^^SS^e>? rhedicinal plant is referred to in number of the . Therapeutic Gaip*S;%'«<f« under the name of cacur, and is said Hepprtd^belused by the: Kaffirs in Southern llpßyAfnca aa.an emetic. The plant is said to |l|pHjl>e! Cdcn'mia myriocampe, and the green or are the parts used. fep^SThe'-fdrni of administration, as pursued by iSyg^tlie Kaffirs, is to heat the fruits, andsquirtli||&£"lng'r their content's into their mouths, to ||§B§V.'B'v?allow them. The contents of two fruits S^3s-iire '.considered' a dose for an adult, and SS.f^fone t 'for : a child. • The plant grows ®|jS;ilargely. '- in ■ gardens aa a yveed, esSpJ^pecially where, melons and pumpkins are jSpft' Cultivated, and it produces its fruits very pK^pi'ahuhdahtly. These fruits are about tbe Ipf&Skize of alarge gooseberry, at first green, yellow on ripening, and M-fWy- covered sparsely with short soft prickles. «§_|sf The sof tyiscid pulp has a faint odour of fj%^y-,'oßCuhibers and a decidedly bitter taste. fg^^JFiom experiments made with the pulp of *^j"iS."-ttKe fruit it seems to be decidedly emetic |2^J»l?.ln its. action and purgative in non-emetic |*4;£>' 'doses'. The chemistry of the plant has 'Snot yet been satisfactorily ascertained; &*& abo far as it has been done there seems to ffr.^*s3>9 "do trace of any alkaloid, the activity seeming to depend upon a bitter neutral g'fix-i' principle readily soluble in water or in 80 ?<3 a ß' : percent, of alcohol."