NEWS AND NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7365, 17 January 1902, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

We call attention to the public meeting to be held this evening to deal with the insurance question. There are several other fixtures for this evening, and to meet this circumstance the insurance meeting is to be held at 7.30 instead of 8 o'clock. It is, we suppose, hardly necessary to urge on business people especially the desirableness of attending in order to strengthen the hands of thoso who are moving in the matter, and we hope there will be a good attendance.

The following probationers in the Primitive Methodist ministry have successfully passed their examinations : — B. Dudley, J. Southern, G. Hunt, J. Featherstone, T. E. Wooloxall.

It iq illegal for a pawnbroker to accept the Viotoria Cross as a pledge under any circumstances.

Three members of one family (two boys and a girl) have secured the dux of the Waitahuna School (Otago), respectively, three years in succession.

Wairarapa Caledonian Society will start the year with a credit of £100. An endeavour will be made to have the next champion meeting held at Masterton.

An old lady of Oamaru has just completed a mat made out of 20,000 rabbit tails. It has been beautifully designed with different-coloured tails, and is large enough to cover a double-sized bed. The mat was Bold for £40.

The Taihape Post throws a strong light on the free and easy customs of the North Island backblocka. It stateß that the Euanui and Mangaweka Cricket Clubs met on Sunday last, when one of the most interesting surprises of the season was experienced.

Mr Geo. H. Scales, of Wellington, completed the loading of the barque Alliance at noon on Tuesday, January 14th, and despatched the vessel the same day for London. She carries 4219 bales of wool, 235 baps of zinc, 10 bags of lead, 346 ingots of zinc, 225 tons of steel, 162 cases of sundries.

At Feilding Court, on Tuesday morning, several cases were set down in which the Truant Inspector sued parents for neglecting to send their children to school. Mr Greenfield held that as the School Act had been repealed, and the Inspector could not prove his appointment under the new Act, he was not competent to take proceedings.

The Bengal Government have discovered that the introduction of barmaids to the saloons of Calcutta is lowering the prestige of the wbite race in the eyes of the natives, who are horrified to see white women employed in a trade which they view with abhorrence. The Governor has therefore issued an edict ordering that barmaids shall be prohibited after April Ist 1902.

A trap whioh was being driven by a stud-groom of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, named Webb, overturned at the bottom of a steep hill, severely injuring Mr F. Call, an innkeeper. Webb himself was flung violently against a wall, and injured his head. Nevertheless, he drove the trap and its occupants back to Totbury, but expired immediately on his arrival.

The opium habit is stated by a correspondent of an Australian paper to have taken a firm hold in Queensland, more especially in the backblocks. He affirms that there are many cases in which white men do work for Chinamen in exchange for the drug, and that on many sheep and cattle stations opium is working silent tragedies.

The Eev. Professor Marks, who entered on the ninety-first year of his age in November, hns been the minister of the West London Synagogue since 1841, and still performs the duties of his office. The London Jewish Chronicle says that such a record of activity is unique in the annals of Anglo-Jewish ministry.

A family of the Zingari, or gipsies, consisting of one man, two women, and a child, arrived in Rotorua on Tuesday, says the Hot Lakes Chronicle. They travel in the usual caravan, and have commenced business in palmistry and other of the occult arts. The Maoris arc rather taken with the idea, and part freely with their silver with which to cross the hands.

" Summon? not served ; both parties reported dead," was the official entry in connection with the last case on the charge-sheet at the Leeds Police Court recently. It referred to a summons against John William Longley by his wife, Selina, for using threats to her. But it was never served, because Longley murdered biß wife and then committed suicide the day after the proceedings had been instituted.

If any illustration were needed to show the monstrous and criminal absurdity of the ethics of duelling, the recent occurrences in Germany would fully supply the want. A young lieutenant of 25 gave a farewell supper to his bachelor comrades at the officers' mess of his regiment on the eve of his marriage, and, like many other foolish young men, he drank farewell to his single life, not wisely but too well, with the natural consequences. To put it plainly, he got drunk, and bad to be helped to his quarters. During this operation'he blindly struck out and hit two of his brother officers. So unconscious was he of this that he went off to his wedding without dreaming of harm. The rest of the story is a miserable piece of cold-blooded barbarism, disguised under the name of military honour. He had to go back to fight one of the men he had struck in his tipsy unconsciousness, and was killed. If duelling can survive this story it will be a matter of wonder to the civilised world.

The following new books have been received at Public Library :-■" O'er Moor and Fen," Joseph Hocking ; " Bulletiu Sf,ory Book ;" » The World and Winstow," Edith Fowler ; " The Redemption of Neil Maclean," D. Lvall; " Count Hannibal, •' Weyman ; " Young Barbarians," lan MacLaren; " The Eternal City," second copy, Hall Came ; " Manasseh," Jokai ; " Marietta, a Maid of Venice," Crawford ; "In Spite of All," Edna Lyall; "A Modern Antaeus, by author of " English 2 woman's Love Letters, ; " " A.D. 2000, or Woman's Destiny," by Sir J. Vogel.

An amusing illustration of the native precocity of tho American child -was noted recently on board an outward bound Atlantic liner. A little girl, barely seven years of age, who bad tasted every dish at the saloon dinner on the first day out, was not asked by the steward in attendance whether she would -have cheese. The man offered the little miss ice cream, fruit, and cakes, only to receive a refusal in each case. On asking whether there was anything else on the table she would like, the small diner replied with a great air of dignity : " Yes, bring me some Camemberi and champagne, please."

In an article decrying the custom of wealthy Australians rushing off to Europe and America on the hunt for scenic splendors, the Age recently said : "In New Zealand, only a week's sail away, the sublimities of the Swiss mountains and the splendors of the Norwegian fiords are blended with the most wonderful coast scenery of the world ; but having failed as yet to get itself advertised in literature with the ringing eulogies that the poets and prose masters of Europe have vied with one another in working to the highest pitch of delight over alp and sound, it is passed by unheeded, or taken ungraciously as Beoond best by those unable to repair to the European resorts. '

One of the most interesting ocean races from these shores was begun on Tuesday, the 14th January, when three wool vessels, bound for London, leaved their anchors and cleared the Wellington Heads. Mr G. H. Scales despatched the steel ship Beacon Rock, with 9,101 bales of wool, and the barque Alliance, with 4,219 bales, and in company with these the Maohrihanish took her departure, loaded by the N.Z S. Co. and S.S. and A. Co., with 8071 bales. All the vessels are in good trim, and speculation is rife as to which will gain the judge's verdiot the other side of the world. The Beacon Rock and Machrihanish have been detained in the stream since Christmas, when loading operations were completed, owing to the difficulty of securing seamen during holiday time. The crews were made up some little time ago in both vessels, but owing to southerly winds prevailing till Tuesday neither ship had the opportunity of sailing.

We would remind our readers of the clearing sale of Messrs W. and A. Symes' sheep and cattle, etc., by Mr Newton King at Toko on Wednesday next. The farm, which is a very valuable a,nd convenient one, will also be submitted to the hammer, and should prove a first-class investment to anyone wanting a farm. Female oook wanted. Greyhound lost.

Hums cheap at Wanganui Fruit Oo.'s.

A nice present for Christmas— Solid silver brooches two shillings each. R. W Sargent, Jeweller, Hawera. — Advt.