LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7988, 14 May 1904, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr Jas. Foy will preach at the Methodist Church to-morrow morning at 11. At night the Rev. C. Porter will preach on "Five Minutes After Death: What?" Mr Porter will preach at Manaia at 11 and Matapuat 2 on fj}e game, subject. Rita (8.11) was inadvertently omitted from Manaia Handicap in Manaia weights.

Waimangu Geyser was silent' only on two days last month, and on two days (the 3rd and 7th) the thermal monster gave four immense upheavals' V* tb >n the twenty-four hours.

$be public sghoo| p&d.ets |p Ne«r j^enland Bow number m>gfly itf.OOe, divided into 2T battalions. Each boy who is supplied with a model rifle is allowed 60 rounds of ammunition annually -26 for praotioe pur p ses and 25 for claw-firing.

Mr Bertram, private secretary to Mr Carnegie, has advised tbe Donedin City Cooncll that Mr Carnegje hns instrncted the .cashier <0 wange payments fqr a library bnildiog. It was desired that a photograph and a re T daoed plan of the building be sent for approval, The letter was referred to the finance com* mittee to report.

In spite of the attempts made to keep liquor out of the King Country, it appears to be eomparatirely easy to obtain nlooholio stimulants. A recent visitor to the North relates that at Tbum'aranui, he asked a. native where the pub)io>house was, and the native replied, "Üb, every hout te pubrio boat." At this particular time, the Tsumaranui policeman was in Auckland, sq that there was bo partioular difficulty about assuaging illegal thir-ts. At the same time, I here were do $Irvb of drunkenness Visible in any of the districts visited by the gentleman responsible for the story.- 1 Wellington Post. . At the' inquest on the body of the native, Toto Wilsgn, who died from mjuri«»* revived from falliijg ffpm hyhpm ieveToonvmts. ™2 fogfct in accprdifice with the facts already nubh§ni3d was return*^ At the Waverley BM- Court, on Vhjtrfe, day morning, J, Bowei* pleaded gWity to » charge of hpwe-stoaling, "Accused ejected to be dealt with summarily, »n4 was »entenc«4 to tig months' impripon, went. . '

During the last 15 months over 100,000 acres of good country have been offered for selection in the northern part of Taranaki, and of this about 80,000 acres have been taken up in sections varying from 60 acres up to 1500 acres in extent. Plans of over 90,000 ara now lying prepared, and this land will be available for selection at an early date.

The Patea Press reports that the Elthara and Hawera Dairy Companies, who were affected by the destruction of the Moturoa Freezing Works, have made arrangements to ship their butter through the West Coast Refrigerating Company's works at Patea. It is thought probable that several other companies will take advantage of the Patea works.

At % meeting of the Wellington Philosophic oal Sooiety, Professor Kasterfield hotured on the great strideß that chemistry haß made daring the last century, and its application to industrial life. Tbe main substance dealt with was sulphuric acid upon which so many other constituents are dependent, and he traced in an interesting manner the various experiments that bad been made to oheapen the process of manufacture. He mentioned that the closing of the Orepuki shale works in Southland, in which a capital of £120,000 had been sunk, was due to the difficulty experienced in securing an adequate supply of sulphuric acid. The manufacture of artificial indigo - obtained from a plant cultivated in India— was likely to ruin »n important industry in that country, though at the Eame time it would thnw open for cultivation an enormous afea of land, and it was questionable whether the discovery would not prove a blessing in dipguiae for India. 'i'he advancement in chemistry had resulted in the manufacture of white lead being considerably cheapened by a quicker* and nvre 1 satisfactory method. Experiments with a new process had been satisfactorily carried out in Wellington, and within the course of a few yeare works for the manufacture of white lead would be established in that city or in its vicinity. In »e.t'ly every case, tbe advancement was duo to the recognition by tbe manufjciunr cf tbe ran] value of a icntifio research. If one examined tbe enormom strides Germany bad made in tbe ehemioal industry, it would be found, us id the lecturer, to be entirely doe to the fact that the men entrusted with the work were men who had received a scientific training "

Regulations in connection with the Rhodes scholars in New Zealand have been approved by the Rhodes Scholarship Trust. Candidates must be British subjects, unmarried, and between the ages of 19 and 25 on Ist October of the year in which, if elected, they would enter upon residence at the Oxford University. They must be graduates or undergraduates of the New Zealand University, and must, for five years immediately preceding the election, have been domiciled in the colony, and have been educated in the colony four of such years. In accordance with tho wish of Mr Rhodes, the trustees desire that "in the selection of a student to a scholarship regard shall be had to (1) his literary and scholastic attainments, (2) his fondness for and success in manly outdoor sports, such as cricket, football, and the like, (3) bis qualities of manhood, truth, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness, and fel-

lowship, and (4) his exhibition during schooldays of moral force of, character, and of instincts to -lead and to take an interest in his schoolmates." Mr Rhodes suggested that (1) and (3) should' be decided in any school or college by the votes of fellow-students, and (4) by the head of the school or college. Where 'circumstances render it' impracticable to carry out the letter of these suggestions, the trustees hope that every effort will be made to give effect to their spirit, but desire it to be understood that the final decision must rest with tha Committee of Selection.

Referring to the natives and their ways, the Auckland Observer says : — When Sir George Martin was Chief Justice of New Zealand, and residing in Auckland, his wife took under her patronage a young Maori girl, practically adopted her, and ultimately took her away iS the Old Country. The little girl was given the best education that money- could 'buy. When she returned to the colony she was able to speak three languages, and to display all the accomplishments of the daintily brought-up young woman of her day. In course of time she married Nikorima Poutotara, an influential rangitira of the Thames district, and , from her husband's rank and her own personal character and refinement of manner, was made much of by society, both at the Thames and in Auckland. A rich contralto voice was one of her endowments, and for some time Mrs Nikorima Was much sought after as a performer at charity and other concerts on the goldfield. By-and-by the longing for the old free-and-easy » life of her own people seized upon her. The European civilisation had been oh'ly a veneer, after all, She appeared less and less in European society, and finally withdrew from it' altogether, abandoned the tasteful and fashionable modes of dress

that had been her wont, adopting 6Jie billycock hat and bright-coloured blouse - and skirt so dear to her dusky siaters. The result was that she became quite indistinguishable from the general run of plebeian Maoris — unless she could be sur-

prised into English conversation, when the purity of her language at on,co betrayed the 'effects of a superior education. Mrs Nikolima's case is only one of many that itlustrate the innate weakness of the Maori for the ways of his ancestors.. Time, after time have young Maori men, educated in the secondary schools of the colony, drifted back to the life of lazy comfort of their fathers' homes. Probably no person of her race has ever drunk more deeply of the sweets of European society and European civilisation than Mrs Nikorinia, and yet she abandoned them all for the primitive ways of the kaianga, To-day she is occasionally to be seen about tne> streets of Auckland, but is 'entirely inconspicuous, and. no one acquainted with her history would suspect that she is .a person of much greater culture than the average European with whom she rubs shoulders. For Bronchial Coughs take Woods? Great Peppermint Cure. . Is 6d.