NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 13, 26 May 1880, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

Friday next is the date fixed for the opening of Parliament.

In our fourth page will be found a report of the annual meeting of the Acclimatisation Society, the monthly meeting of the Hawera School Committee, and a telegraphic summary of Sir George Grey's speech at Christclnu'ch.

The annual meeting of the members of the Hawera Institnte and Public Library will be held on- Satiirday at the Institute, at 7.30 p.m.

Members of the Chess Club, and all who take an interest in the game, are invited to attend a meeting to be held tomorrow evening, at 7.30, at tha Institute.

Mr, Freeman R. Jackson's Hawera sale will take place on Friday next, at 1 p.m., on which occasion the lease of the Tongahoe brick works, having three years to run, will be submitted to public competition.

The following tenders were received for lining the Wesleyan Church, Hawera :—: — S. J. Tocker. £6 ; Macklan and Weddle, £5 ; Fell and Message, £4 6s ; Sanders and Broderick, £3 12s. The lowest tender was accepted, Adz., that of Messrs. Sanders and Broderick.

We understand that numerous applications have been received for some of the sections set apart for sale on deferred payments in the Ngaire Block. In order to give applicants from the Middle Island an opportunity of bidding for the land, the date for putting it up to auction has been fixed for the 23rd June. The sale will be held at Hawera.

A gentleman who arrived from Opunake on Monday, informs us that four or five bullocks belonging to Mr. Wm. Treweek, who supplies the A.C. Force with beef and mutton, have been impounded by the natives. Mr. Emanuel Baily, who supplies the new camp at Te Kete with milk, prefers sending it in carts all the way from Opunake, rather than run the risk of grazing his cattle in the vicinity of the camp.

The following nominations were received for the Road Board on Saturday, by Mr. G. V. Bate, Returning Officer :— Messrs. M. Hunter, F. Riddiford, G. W. Gane, O. Williams, J. Morrison, T. Robson, and T. Allan. As there are only seven members to he < leefced, there will, therefore be no contest. Several persons were laboring under a misunderstanding with reference to the date of nominations, and were under the impression that next Saturday was the time fixed upon. Had it not been for that, there would probably have been a contest.

Dr. Pickering Richards, M.R.C.S., has decided upon settling in Hawera. Mr. Tucker, a gentleman who has been residing at the Waitara for the past two years, has determined to follow his profession, as a chemist, in Hawera ; and an address presented to him, before leaving Waitnra, speaks in veiy flattering terms of the way he acted during his stay in that place. Negotiations are in progress, we believe, for the transfer of Mr. Prichard's business to Messrs. Wakefield and Hogg, chemists, of Wanganui. We have no other changes to record hi the " world of medicine," at present.

The Bank of New South Wales has declared a dividend at the rate of 17^ per cent. £10,000 has been added to the reserve fund.

The next English and Euroj>ean mail, via Colombo-Brindisi, will close at Hawera to-morrow, at 11 a.m. Letters cannot be registered, or money orders issued, after 10.30 a.m. the same day.

The wet weather completely spoiled the excellent programme of sports which had been prepared by the A.C. Force at Waihi. Even the dance in the evening had to be postponed to a future occasion.

We would remind oiu* Norrnanby readers that a meeting is called for halfpast seven o'clock this evening, at Brett and Johnston's Imperial Hotel, to discuss the advisableness of erecting a town hall snd institute.

From tho Wellington Corporation accounts for the past year, it appears that the public debt of the city amounts to J!430,000, which is made up as follows : — Six per cent. Consolidated Loan, » City Improvements Loan, £100,000; Waterworks Extension Loan, £130,000.

An accident occurred at the camp at Kumikuini on Wednesday morning, to one of the Armed Constabulary named Harnett. He had been bathing (says the Herald), and after he had dived he experienced pain in the back of his neck. When he came out of the water, he lost all consciousness for some time, but he afterwards recovered. However, he became suddenly ill again, and it was found necessary to telegraph to town for Dr. O'Carroll, who immediately left for the camp to render medical assistance. The unfortunate man died on Thursday.

Mr. Williams, one of the proprietors of the Eskbank Iron Works, New South Wales, who recently visited New Plymouth, and interested himself in the iron works at Te Henui, has written to Mr. E. M. Smith stating that he procured a quantity of piff iron in "Wellington, which had been manufactured from Taranaki iron sand. This metal (says the Hearld) he purposes to manufacture into bar iron at his works, and he promises to send samples of the metal to New Plymouth after being thoroughly tested, in order that the people of this town may see for themselves the result of his process of treatment.

In Saturday's issue ot our contemporary appeared the following letter : — " To the Editor of the Taranaki Herald. Sir, — Herewith I beg to hand you, as a donation to the Taranaki Hospital, the enclosed cheque for the sum of five pounds (£o). At the same time I would like, through the medium of your paper, to express my many thanks for the kindness and attention I received from the hospital attendants while laid up with typhoid fever, but more particularly to Dr. O'Carroll, whose skilful treatment as a medical man, and kindness as a gentleman, pulled me through the most dangerous illness of my life. Trusting he may long be spared to administer to the wants of suffering humanity, — I remain, &c, Thomas Robson. Normanby, May 6, 1880."

The hawks and wild cats have been doing as much mischief as the guns of the sportinen amongst the pheasants at Kai Iwi. At the meeting of the Acclimatisation Society, on Saturday, Mr. Southey, who had been down with Messrs. Isaac and G. T; Bayly for a few days' shooting in that direction, stated that he had seen the remains of half a dozen pheasants which had been killed by the pests alluded to, and he suggested that the membei's of the Acclimatisation Society should be supplied with poison, so as to reduce the number of hawks and cats which infest the district. Although most of those present appeared to concur hi the remarks made by Mr. Southey, it was considered that the committee should deal with the matter, in consequence of the difficulty of distributing poison in anything like an manner.

The sliding scale of the Wanganui Education Board, having reference to the disposal of school fees, is far from perfect, and evidently needs revision. For the quarter ending last December the attendance at the Hawera School numbered 91. The following quarter the attendance reached to 109 ;' yet, strange to say, the funds placed at the disposal of the committee, for school purposes, represented £1 3s. less than for the previous quarter. The question may, therefore, not be impertinently asked — Does it take less to provide for 109 scholars than for 91 ? If it does, well, of course, the scale adopted by the Board must be as perfect as anything human can be. If not, then the sooner it is revised the better. We publish this model scale for the benefit of our readers : — Per annum. On 40 scholars and under, 10s. Od. each On 41 to 05 scholars, Bs. 6d. „ On 6G to 100 „ 7s. Od. „ On 101 and upwards ss. Od. „ A destructive whirlwind passed over Omata on Thursday morning, at about a quarter past ten, doing a considerable amount of damage to the buildings there. The Taranaki Herald states that it came in a north-westerly direction, croseed the Herekawe gulley, taking the north side of the old pah on Major Lloyd's farm, and on past the Omata Inn, where its force seems to have been broken. It cleared everything away in the course that it took — trees, fences, and buildings being carried away hundreds of yards from the spot where they originally stood. Mr. Penwarden's fence was cut through as if with an axe ; and his outbuildings thrown down. The stables of the Omata Inu were razed to the ground, and part of them blown into the road. Part of the roo&ng of the hotel, as well «s o£ the sleigh at the back, was torn off and carried across to Mr. Oliver's property. Through a piece of bush the violcuco of tho whirlwind is visible, tho tveos and scrub being cut clean away along tho course that it took. The houses at Omata, whilst tho whirlwind was at its greatest forco, rocked fearfully, and fears wore entertained that they would be blowu over ; and when it had exh usteil itself tho wholo village was covered with debris. The average yield of wheat per aero is five and a half bushels in Russia, twelve in the United States, twelve and a half in Austria, sixteen and a half in Prance, and twenty-nine and a -half in Great Britain. In the United States the average yield might easily be doubled, but the cheapness of the land, the use of machinery, and the cost of fertilizers, makes it cheaper to cultivate large areas rather than to work for larger averages.