NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1561, 26 February 1887, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

Captain Edwin telegraphed at 12.40 p.m. : — Glass further rise.

Typhoid fever and diptheria are becoming "prevalent in Wellington, owing, it is said, to bad drainage.

Mr. Ballance is to speak at Wanganui next month. It is said that he will disclose the policy of the Government.

Some natives who were at Parihaka in 1881 are interfering with a survey party at Raorikia, Upper Wanganui.

A public meeting, to be held on Monday evening next, has been convened by the Mayor for purposes explained iv the advertisement which appears in another column.

The mail steamer Mariposa was six days late in leaving San Francisco with tbe January English mail, owing to tbe mails being snowbound. She should have left 'Frisco on the 12th instant, but did not get underweigh till the 18th. She is consequently due to arrive at Auckland on 10th March.

In our reference yesterday to the career of the late Mr. Macandrew, we, in the hurry of the moment, erroneously spoke of Sir Julius Vogel and Mr. Macandrew taking opposite sides on the Public Works scheme, whereas the incidents we had in mind occurred when Sir Julius Vogel moved his resolutions for abolishing North Island pro vinces. Mr. Macandrew, seeing that abolition ot all must follow were this successful, opposed the proposal. The Mayor has received a letter iroin

Mr. Buxton, railway traffic manager, stating that the alterations iv the time table to give passengers from north more time in Hawera, has now been approved, and will couie into operation on Monday, 7th March. There will be an interval ot' two hours fifteen minutes between the arrival of the mid day train from New Plymouth and the departure of that for New Ptymoutk. To equalise the detention, the trains from and to Wanganui have been scheduled half au hour and forty minutes earlier respectively.

Twenty-seven new seedliug varieties of the potato have been forwarded to the Victorian Department of Agriculture by Mr. Joseph Bosisto, M.L.A., who received them from Messrs. Sutton and Sons, of Reading, Berks, England. These new varieties, says the Argus, have been produced during the past two years, and amongst them are several which are said to be superior to any cultivated in the colony. The seedling potatoes are to be distributed in localities where they are likely to have a fair trial. Mr. Bosisto has also sent to the department six new cobb nut trees, which will be planted in the state forest at Macedon. The nuts from these trees are ebible.

In an article on Greeuway's floating breakwater, the Timaru Herald says it has been found that the cost of maintaining the moorings is enormous. It is so in the case of a light-ship whenever it is exposed to rough weather. Obviously tbe cost under that head must be very much greater where a long row of enormous pontoons has to be moored right in the face of heavy gales and an advancing sea. Secondly, and apart altogether from the maintenance of moorings, the cost of repairs to floating breakwaters has proved to be very heavy. Thirdly, floating breakwaters, one and all, have this fatal defect where the object is to secure perfectly smooth water : The advancing waves may to some extent be broken lip, but tbe whole structure rises with each sea : and the undulating motion is not got rid of. Iv other words, the range, as it is called, is not destroyed.

Among the causes contributing to the present commercial stagnation the fear of a considerable increase in the property tax is (the Auckland Star thinks) 'undoubtedly very predominant. Speculation is paralysed, and money which would otherwise find its way into various industries and other investments is placed on short dated deposit at the banks, to be removed at the first sign of heavier taxation. It is, of course, beyond the power of any one parliament to bind another ; but if the thing were practicable, we believe it would have a very reassuring effect to declare that under no circumstances should the property tax be raised above one penny in the pound. That sum, representing 8s 4d per £100, or something less than a half per cent, per annum, would not drive capital out of the country nor cripple those industries in which capital is embarked, while it would yield an ample contribution to the national exchequer. Sheep are offered for sale by Mr. Turner, of Otoia. Tenders are invited for putting up 106 chains of wire fencing. Impounding notice appears in anotheF column. __________^__ i _ ! _ m n*M\\(ir. In unoi.PiNA.Jii." — Wholitmiot cxikktnced. b<utof ■ '!>i<ly wiicmill tl.o Ocuituj s-uuni in rt'bulli.m, and labor 1.. absolutely impossible? It is :i condition of itur\o-> .uidbtomuch .uid brain that etui only be cured by the use of that irresistible remedy American (Jo's Hop Bitters. Head 23