NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1916, 28 April 1888, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Egmont Star for this week will contain a great variety of interesting matter. There is English news by the Orient, giving particulars with regard to the provision being made for an Australasian navy ; the strength of the British navy ; the intense cold in England ; English footballers ; Mr. Brodie Hoare's introduction into Parliament, that gontleman having been returned without opposition to represent the district formerly represented by Sir Henry Holland, now Lord Knutsford. There is also an interesting communication from a London correspondent on the War Cloud in Europe ; also notes on the silver wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales ; the Australian Princess Midas ; the shipping ring, etc. In the Australian news, there is an account of the burning of the Coffee Palace at Ballarat, etc. There is a threecolumn report of the lecture by Mr. Molloy, M.P., on Home Eule, which, we are sure, will be read with interest. Sporting news, general extracts, dealing with a great variety of subjects, garden notes, fashion items, kitchen recipes, and household hints all go to make up an interesting paper. Cable news and telegrams are full, and local correspondence and news are complete. Every week the circulation of the Egmont Star is increasing, and it has a larger circulation than any other weekly paper printed between Wellington and Auckland.

Game licenses may he obtained at the offices of the Postmaster Hawera, from to-day, and at post offices Normanby, Manaia, Patea, and Waverley on and from Monday next.

Two kegs of butter (151 lbs nett) 6ent home by Mr. Walter Crump, of Tikorangi, and sold at Liverpool at the beginning of the year, realised 112s per cwt, and the not proceeds to him were 9£d. Mr. Crump informs the Taranaki Herald that he had sold the same class of butter in Waitara at 4d per lb. The butter was sent home' in kegs, in the frozen chamber of the Riinutaka.

Mr. Samuel, M.H.E., has written to the Premier, renewing his recommendation made to the late Government iD January, 1880, on the Rubject of establishing a large prison at New Plymouth, and utilising the labor of prisoners in the construction of harbor work. He observes :—: — Circumstances have changed for the wotae since my letter of January 23, 1886, and a rate has, contrary to the then expectation of everyone, become necessary and been levied. The result has been to impoverish the settlers and retard settlement, without affording funds sufficient to maintain the harbor even in its present condition, or to continue to pay interest on the loan. The works which Mr. Blackett recommends are especially well suited to be constructed by prison labor, and it is necessary that they should be constructed in order to prevent the expenditure of some. £220,000 being in time rendered almost useless. At the same time, the low price of produce and general depression render it impossible for the settlers to pay the heavy annual charges on the money which had been expended, and I earnestly request that the Government will consider the whole question on broad grounds, and endeavor to devise some means of at once relieving the settlers and protecting the harbor works.

Laing, not being well, will not hear of another match with Slavin just yet, but promises to go to Australia it' necessary to meet him in a short time.

The price of bread, it will be seen, has come down generally, Messrs. Boyd and Co. and A. J. Kirk notifying reduction in their prices.

A few gentlemen met at Mr. Major's office last evening, when it was dpcided to start a rink. The subscription was arranged to be 103 for gentlemen and 5s tor ladies. The management of the affair was left in Mr. Major's hands.

It is interesting to learn that the first name on the list published in another column of persons to whom war medals have been issued, viz., Captain George Rutt Burton, Taranaki Milita, has been dead about a quarter of a century.

The Bailway accounts for the past financial year, which ended on the 31st ultimo, are now finally made up, and the results show that the net profit for the year was J-307,515 as compared with j-299,696 for tbe previous year, an improvement of nearly

We give a reminder of the sale of Mr. DuffiU's furniture and effects on Monday, and may take the opportunity of expressing regret that Mr. Duffill is leaving the town, and hope that in the new venture, which calls him to Wellington, he will be successful beyond his hopes.

The generally excellent management of postal affairs in this district is defective in one respect, and we should think the matter has only to be pointed out to be remedied. It seems that the portion of Auckland mail which is expected to reach New Plymouth or Waitara to catch the morning train is addressed to the travelling post office. When thb steamer catches the train all goes well, and Hawera gets Auckland letters in good time ; but when the steamer is not in early enough and the morning train is missed, as waa the case on Friday, the mail is brought down as far as Normanby in the evening, delivered to the travelling postal office at Normanby — where the eveningtrains cross — taken back to New Plymouth, and brought back to Hawera at midday on Saturday. This is a wonderful arrangement : a mail stopped in its transit, four miles short of its destination, and then taken back fifty miles and returned next day. Surely the postal authorities can make some arrangement whereby the bag shall be opened at Waitara- or New Plymouth, and the Hawera district letters sent forward by the evening train in the ordinary way.