News and Notes.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3432, 29 December 1896, Page 2

News and Notes.

- The Stab will not be published on - Friday, New Year's Day. The hospital authorities wish to thank Messrs McLachlan and liichdale for i cordials, anil Messrs Keen and Co. for cakes, etc., sent to the hospital. The Christmas number of the Auckland Observer is very nicely got up, aboundß in good reading, and is prol fusely illustrated, including a pictorial supplement entitled " Kapai te Kai." During the hearing of a charge of housebreaking against a lad at Dunedin, " counsel drew attention to an anomaly in the Criminal Code by which Justices were not permitted to deal with the case. The lad made no denial of the charge, but i simply because he stole the goods from ' a dwelling he had to suffer the hardship of waiting in gaol for over two months before the trial. Splendid half-plate camera for sale

The following nominations were received for the vacancy on the Hawera Borough Council : — W. C. Adamson, J. Parkin, C. E. Parrington. An election will take place" on Tuesday, January 5. Additional particulars with regard to the Btabbing of Kenneth Bain at Te Kuiti show that he was staying at Bennet'f boarding house, and a half caste boy was sleeping in the same room. As soon as the row commenced the boy disappeared. Bain was then stabbed, and nothing was known of the affair till the following morning when he was found. He was stabbed in the right side and Dr Kinny thinks either the lungs or the liver is punctured. The man is in a critioal condition. The following is an extract from a letter received by the Bay. E. Q Edwards from his son, -Mr Walter Edwards, C.E., who is at present in South Africa, engaged in supervising the erection of a rinderpest fenoe which is to cost £100,000 :— " Binderpest is spreading with frightful rapidity all through Africa, and notwithstanding the preventitive fences and the thousands of police forming cordona and all the disinfecting that goes on, nothing stops it, and it will only stop, I am sure, at the sea near Cape Town. To show you how quickly it travels, it is now just four years 3ince the disease was brought in by the Italian troops to Abyssinia, and it is now considerably Bou,th of Kimberley. Every precaution should be taken by New Zealand to boycott all skins, karosseß, rugs, &c., that might be imported there from here, as if the disease onoe got into New Zealand a large number of people would be ruined by it. South Africa is terribly cursed with animal diseases, there being dozens of different kinds. I won't write their names, as you would never be able to pronounoe them. To make matters worse here, it has hardly rained in these part* for about two years. How vegetation exists is a mystery to me. In many places you see no grass suoh as you know it for hundreds of miles, and sheep and cattle exist a certain time on yaal bush and karroo sorub. These bushes no amount of drought will destroy, neither can you do so by means of veldt fires." The half-yearly meeting of Oddfellows was held last evening. A large amount of routine business was transacted. The following officers were eleoted :— G.M., Bro. F. H. Turner; N.G., Bro. F. H. Beokingsale; V.G., Bro. C. O. Ekdadl ; auditors, Bros. B, C. Bobbins, J. Parkin, F. H. Turner. The question of an alteration in the scale of contributions was deferred. The election of the rest of the officers will take place at next meeting. Beports showed the lodge to be in a good financial position, the contributions for the last period being exceptionally large. Captain Edwin wires : — Strong N. to W. and S.W. winds ; glass fall. On rare occasions a phenomenon, similar to that sometimes seen in the Hartz mountains in Germany, and known as the " Spectre of the Brocken," can be seen from the summit of Ben Nevis, Nelson. The Brightwater correspondent of the Nelson Mail writes that a party had a capital view of the spectral shadows recently. The valley to the north-east of the peak was filled with mist, while the sun was nearly down in the south-east. To each member of the party a complete circle composed of the rainbow spectrum was visible. Insids this circle the huge shadow of the beholder was displayed, and the smallest movement of hand or foot was made apparent in the shadow. It would be impossible to judge the distance of the apparition, but as the mists advanced the outline became much less distinct. One very clear figure appeared to rest on a peak which must have been two miles off at least. A very strange feature was that one could not see the shadow of his neighbor at all unless that neighbor were almost touching him, then the two circles would appear cutting one another. A person six feet away would produce a spectre quite invisible to anyone else. For fully half an hour the weird scene was enjoyed, then the setting of the sun abruptly ended it. A young man named Ernest Hanswell Bennett, adjudged a bankrupt in June last, was brought up at the Auckland Police Court charged with failing to keep proper books of accounts in Ms business. It was stated that the bankrupt's debts totalled £1118, while the realised assets Iwere only worth £170. The accused said he had paid men to keep books for him, as he did not understand bookkeeping himself. Mr Northcroft said he could not inflict a less sentence than one month's imprisonment with hard labor. At Castlecliff, Wanganui, on Boxing Day whilst fishing a young man named W. J. Benson was struok heavily on the side of 'the head by a sinker which had come off a kaiwai line bis cousin was twirling round his head in the act of throwing out into the river. The unfortunate young fallow was knooked senseless. He was promptly taken to the hospital and an operation was performed several pieces of broken bone being removed. Up tc late last night Benson had not recovered consciousness, though slight hopes are entertained of his reoovery. The final returns for the Western Maori Electorate are — Henare Eaihau 1605, Bopata Te Ao 884, Meeha Keepa 846, and Ngarangi Eaetitia 665. LasG week a Maori woman named Wahanga fell into a boiling spring at Ohinemutu, Botorua, and though she managed to walk home, she died next morning from the effects of the scalding. The Maori who fell into the boiling hole at Tikitere, is progressing favorably. The foreigner Friessburg, who was convicted at Mongonui of unlawfully practising as a medical man, and who committed suicide in the lockup, was formerly at Eltham. The Hawera Tennis Club play Waverley on Saturday next. The following handicaps were accidentally omitted from the Hawera list : — Mile : Bennett, 90 yards ; Hop, Step, and Jump : Kilpatrick, 36 inches ; Half-mile : Bennett, 85 yards. At the Palmers ton South races on Saturday, in the Maiden Plate, Miss O'Kane fell, and Trip, her jockey, had his leg broken, besides being severely shaken. • We understand that proceedings are | likely to be taken against several eleotors in the New Plymouth electorate for certain alleged irregularities in connection with the late election. — Taranalci News. Tenders are called for supply of 30 tons of grass and clover seeds. Good ploughman wanted ; also a cook. An apology is published in another column. All last winter Mr Geo. A. Mills, of Lebanon, Conn., was badly afflicted with rheumatism. At times it was so severe that he could not stand up straight, but was drawn over on one side. "I tried different remedies without receiving roliet," he says, "until about six months ago I I bought a bottle of Chamberlain's Pain Balm. After using it for three days my rheumatism was gone and has not returned since. For 3ale by J. Davidson. Our people are gr owing more and more in the habit of looking to J. Davidson foi the latest and best of everything in the drug line. They sell Chamberlain's Cough Remedy, famous for its cures of bad coldw, croup and whoopingcougb. When in need of such a medicine give this remedy a trial and you will be more than pleased with the esult.

A young man, well known in Wellington was (says the Times) on his way home, when he was approached by three men. One of them grabbed him by the throat, and at the same time another struck him a crushing blow on the forehead, rendering him unconscious. Some time later in the morning a young fellow was making his way home along the same path, when he saw an object huddled up, in the midst of a pool of blood. Upon a close examination, he recognised in the unconscious man a friend, and took him home. Upon examination the victim of the brutal attack was simply smothered in blood — an open wound was found upon the forehead, which needed five stitches to draw up one of the cuts, and the face was so mutilated that the doctor expressed the opinion that the assailants must either have kicked the fallen man or literally have walked over his face. When the man's relatives looked for a motive for the assault, they were soon convinced it was robbery, for his watch and chain were missing, and all the pockets, excepting the left hand one of the trousers, were emptied. The matter has been placed in the hauds of the police, who have particulars of the Stolen property, and on Sunday the victim of the assault was just able to get about, but it is probable he will be disfigured for life. On the morning after the holidays Mr Malcolm Campbell discovered that an attempt had been made evidently to feloniously enter his shop. To a back window he has constructed shutters, and though the windows had been broken an effort to move the shutters had failed, but they had been disturbed and bore evidence of the attempt to force them-