NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1589, 31 March 1887, Page 2

NEW S AND N OT ES.

We regret that, owing to a transposition, a portion of Mr. McGuire's letter was omitted in part of yesterday's issue. We reprint the whole letter to-day.

We (New Zealand Times^ learn with pleasure that the Bishop ot Wellington's health continues to improve rapidly. We understand tint his lordship will probably pay a visit to Te Aroha immediately after Easter to seek the benefit of the hot springs theie.

Mr. G. F. Sherwood, was a passenger by the Hawea to New Plymouth on Wednesday from Auckland. He is on his way to Wellington to complete some \>Dsmess -\viiich has provp<\ a very pvonb able venture. He is looking well (s iys the Herald), and is as active as ever.

The action brought by Mr. Jcrvis G-eorge against the Waitara Jockey Club was heard on Wednesday. It was a claim for damages on account of the Derby of 1887 not having been run at Waitara, although the club had. accepted nomination for the same with fees. After hearing the evidence, the jury gave judgment for plaintiff for £10 with costs.

A Parliamentai-y return just printed and published shows that there are in the pi ssession of the uatives in the North Island 7,493,686 acres of land which have not yet been passed through the Native Li nd Court. It is situated in the various provincial districts as follows : — Auckland, 4,452,200 acres; Hawke's Bay, 370,272 acres : Wellington, 1,792,814 acres ; Taranaki, 928,400 acres.

Mr. Hankey, railway manager, inform 55 the Taranalu Her -i ld that the Carrington road bridge passed the test as satisfactorily as any structure on the section. The double Fairlie engine, which weighs 36 tons, was run across it at various speeds — up even to 2J mites an hour — and no sign ol any weakness was discovered. The depaitm-nt are, in fact, satisfied that the Carrington road bridge is one of the most satisfactory structures on the whole section.

Among the new provisions of the Counties Act of last se=sion is one compelling County Couucils to publish on a defaulters' lis-t the names of all ratepayers whose rates are not paid on the last day of March. In addition to the enforced public ition of these names in the county they are as a consequence struck off the electoral roll, so that defaulters can neither be candidates for office, nor can they vote at the ensuing elections in Novpiiibt-r next. To-day at five p.m. is the ktest time at which ratepayers who are now in avrear can escape these penalties by paying their rate=:.

A new paper out West has started under difficulties. It tells its own story as follows :—": — " We begin the publication of the Roecay Mountain Cyclone with some phew dipphieulties in the way. The type phounders phroni whom we bought our outphit phor this printing opphice phaled to supply us with any ephs or cays, and it will be phor or phive weexbephore we can get any. The mistaque was not found out till a diiy or two ngo. We have ordered the missing letters, anil will have Id ,»et along without (.hem till they come. We don't lique the loox ov this variety ov spelling any better than our readers ; but mistax will happen in the best regulated phamilies, and iph the ph's and c's and x's and q's hold out, we shall cccp — sound the c hard — the Cyclone whirling after a phashion till the sotts arrive. It is no jocque to us ; it's a serious aphphair."

The Iri=h agricultural returns for the past year just published show, as was expected, that corn-growing is on the decrease in Ireland as in Great Britain. The leading Irish, as well as Scotch, cereal is oats ; the area occupied by that grain in Irelaud last year was 1,321,983 acres, being a decrease of 71,838 aeros on that of the preceding year. Wheat occupied 09,546 acres, which was 5G.406 acres less. The barley area, consisting of 181,598 acres, or 27,377 acres leas. On the other hand, there has been a large increase in the number of acres mown for hay, and smaller increases in the areas appropriated to potatoes, turnips, and flax. The laud from which hay was taken is returned as 2,094,209 acres, an increase of 147, 394. Potatoes occupied 709,847, au incieise of 86,149 acres. Turnips were grown on 299,323 acres, an increase of 13,051, while flax occupied an area, ol' 127. 590 acres, having increased by 7120 acres.

At New Plymouth on Wednesday (saya the Herald), some amusement was caused in Court while the case against the "WaifcaiM Jockey Club was being heard. Tiie defendants sought to make out that the plaintiff's hoise could not possiMy have won against the other horses which wtre entered. Mr. George said he was prepared, auyhow, to run the other horses for any sum they liked. Mr. Roy, counsel fur defendants, suggested that the amount sued for and the costs might be put up as a stake, and let the case be run oil' instead of beinpf decided by the jury before which it was being heard. Mr. Samuel, for the plaintiff, said he would ayree to that. Mr. Roy : "We fix the day ?" Mr. Samuel : " Yes, if within a couple of months. Honestly, your Honor, this is a most practical settlement of the difficulty, and lam quite prepared to adopt it. It will save the jury a lot of trouble, and perhaps they will come to see the race run off. If the amount be deposited in the hands of a stakeholder we will withdraw the case. If the other side will only accept tliis nothing would bo easier in the world. Here are a Jockey Club and a trainer with a dispute, and here is a way of seitling it without those nasty lawyers being in the matter. (Laughter.) Will my friend accept that ?" Mr. Roy: " I don't think so." Mr. Samuel remnrked that was a pity, because he himself would stake the money for his side. (Laughter.) 1

A child of Mr. Walker's, Ngaire, met with a nasty accident the other day. He was playing with a broken glass bottle and fell upon it with the result that the arteries on the right \vri>t were severely cut. Dr. Chi. ton attended to the srfferer, who is doing well.

Referring to recent complaints made of the brutal conduct of larrikins towa ds unprotected temales in some suburbs of the city, the Rev. W. Calder, of All-S.iints Church, Auckland, on Sunday night in a sermon, said thut if the State was unable to afford protection to the helpless and weak, he considered it the duty of all good citizens to take the law into their own hands, and signified his intention of bein^ on the watch fov such offenders in the future, and if he caught them he would guarantee their parents would find considerable difficulty in again recoguising their offspring.

Captain Jackson, of the Timaru Artillery, has imported an article called the telemeter, or pocket range finder, winch is designed to give, without any calculation, the distance of any visible object. Its chief merits are that it does not require much training to use it, and it is not necessary that it should be levelled at a definite sized object (such as a man standing ei'eci). The scale is calculated for a thirty yards base, and is divided from 300 to 3000 yards, but any distance from 100 to 9000 yards enn easily be measured. The Herald adds that Captain Jackson intends testing this instrument as soon as possible,

At the Supreme Court, a case of some importance to farmers and storekeepers was concluded. McKenzie, a storekeeper at Balclntha, sued the British aud N.Z. Mortgage and Agency Company for .£2OO damages, for breach of guarantee in selling rape seed instead of turnip seed. Plaintiff had cold it as tuvuip seed to others, and had had a number ot claims made on him in consequence. After hearing a lot of evidence, t ; ie jndge gave a verdict for plaintiff for £150 18s Bd. Defendants pleaded thai to plaintiffs knowledge they are not growers of seed, but merely receivers of same from Englsnd, by way of consignment for sale on commission ; that in selling the seeJ to the plaintiff, they had relied on the express terms set out in nn invoice, which was delivered to the plaintiff when the conti-act was made, and that the purchase was made upon the terms expressed in the invoice.

The Controller-General, we (Grey River Argus) undei stand, has at length, made up Ms uiiad as to tha line of action he will pursue in the case of the surchai'^es of the members of the County Council. From the long time he has taken to deliberate whether or not to take proceedings against those gentlemen, the head of the Audit Department must have been perplexed with doubts. The case cannot be very clear and palpable or he would have taken action long ago. The information was quite a surprise, as we had almost forgotten that such a question had ever been raised. But so it is. Mr. Jones, solicitor, has received instructions to notify the Grey County Councillors individually of the cliiim of the Auditor-General, and then, if that is disregarded, to proceed by summons in the usual way in court. As the to'al amount is somewhat considerable, the request of the Auditor-General will scarcely lie complied with, and the matter will then p;iss into the hands of the lawyers.

The Queensland correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, writing of the effects of the recent rains in that colony, Bays :—": — " I am speaking quite soberly when I s-iy that Western [Queensland could fatten 200 million slieep this summer and autumn, and that the runs nvoiiUl be distinctly the better for such a stock. And I may add that in'a few years one-tenth of the number may again be struggling for existence on the dried up, hare plains. Cannot we find some practical means ot equalising things. Your readers must remember that over millions and millions of acres, now so covered with grass from one to two feet in height, that the station tracks are almost invisible, there is not a tree, a bush, or a stone to interrupt the course of a mowing machine, and that the grass is equal in fittening properties to the very best fodder that can be grown. And yet in a few months' time there will be billions of tons of this todder — my figures sound absurdly big, but they arej correct — withered or rotten, and a source of imminent clanger, because ifc will be fuel to feed the bush fires that are likely to occur in the coming winter and|spring."