NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1541, 2 February 1887, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

Notice is given ot the Harbor Board poll on the 14th inst.

The statement that Parliament will assemble on April 18th is authoritatively contradicted, as the financial year does not end till March 81, and the accounts cannot be ready for a month, the end ot April at the earliest.

We remind those who intend to bid, that the privileges in connection with the forthcoming Egmont race meeting will be auctioned to-morrow, after Messrs. Nolan, Tonks & Co.'s cattle sale. General entries and acceptances for races are due on Thursday evening.

Sir R. Stout's dissolution of partnership is announced. It is understood that Mr. Sievwright objected to the continance of politics. But for the necessity of supervising the arrangements of his new firm, there is little doubt Sir R. Stout would go Home to the Conference.

The earning power of the Australian community is greater than that of any other population in the world. According to Mr. G. Mulhall, F.S.S., the annual earnings per head in Australia a>e over £43, as against .£35 in the United Kingdom, £27 in the United States, £26 in Canada and Holland, and i'2s in France.

During the month of January raiu fell on five days on the Plains, the total fall being only I*ol inch. This is the smallest record for any one month which we remember to have seen. In January last year 76 inches fell at Hawera. In Haweia during the past month the rain fell on four days, and 1-92 inches was registered.

During the past six weeks nearly seven hundred persons besides subscribers have visited and made use of the public reading room at the Hawera Institute. During the Fame period there has been in the reading room, and in a prominent position, a box marked as follows .—". — " Voluntary contributions respectfully solicited." The librarian begs to gratefully acknowledge contributions to the amount of twopence ('2d.). Oh, what a lot for tuppence !

A new market has been found tor New Zealand dairy produce, and farmers should avail themselves of it without delay. The Bay of Plenty Times states that a trial shipment of tinned butter was lately made from Tauranga to Rio de Janeiro, with the result that 2721bs of butter realised 11 jd per lb, and 981bs cheese 7,1(1 per lb. In larger shipments, the average price is expected to be higher. The butter sent to Rio was, on the recommendation of experts, sent in three tins, and of these one turned out to be rancid, owing, probably, to defective packing or some fault of the tin, and the total price realised was 21d per lb. From this, when duty, freight, commission, etc., were deducted, the sum of lid per lb remained. Had the three sample tins turned out satisfactorily, no doubt considerably more than Is ( Jd per lb would have been obtained. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce, which took steps to publish particulars regarding trade with Brazil, deserves credit for having led to the opeuing of such a remunerative trade.

" Atticus," in the Leader, writes : — Of course, banks are occasionally got at. There was the case of the National Bank at Collingwood last week. A manager told me of another, where a £9 cheque was changed to 90 by the addition ot a "ty," and an 0 put after the figure 'J. There was a doubt about it, and the person who presented it was told that he must wait for a short lime till an enquiry was made. He had not the slightest objection and sat down quietly in the office while a messenger was despatched to the office of the drawer. In half an hour the messenger returned with the news that the drawer was not in, and after a consultation in which three bank officials took part it was resolved to pay the money. No forger, it was argue I, would have dared to sit in the office for nearly an hour with the knowledge that the matter was being investigated. " Now," said the manager, "I know how the thing was done. The scamp who presented the cheque was leaving the colony. He was in collusion with the scamp who drew it. If we had found the drawer he would have said it was all right. As it was he turned up the butt of his cheque book, aud showed that the cheque he gave was for £9 only. It was simply a cheap way of getting an old friend out of the country at our expense. I admired the ingenuity, but I closed the ingenius man's account."

It will be seen by a telegram elsewhere that the jury in Hall's case have convioted, and prisoner has been sentenced to death. There is, however, a point reserved for consideration of the Court of Appeal as to whether certain evidence was properly admitted into the case by the presiding judge. The point we understand to he this : Certain evidence was tendered to show that the symptoms exhibited by the late Captain Cain, during his last illness, when, it is alleged, he was being poisoned by the prisoner, were similar to those observed in Mrs. Hall, whom prisoner has been convicted of endeavoring to poison. Counsel for the prisoner argued that this evidence was inadoiissable, because it went outside the history of the case and introduced matters not in evidence at the time of the alleged murder, and could have had nothing to do with it. The judge, however, admitted evidence of this class, and it is for the Court of Appeal to say whether he did right. If he did right, no doubt the last terrible sentence of the law will be executed upon the wretched man ; if the judge did wrong, the conviction will, of course, be quashed, and he will escape the consequences of his crime.