BY THE WAT.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 215, 14 November 1896, Page 2

BY THE WAT.

« It has been estimated that electric railways have already displaced 1,100,000 horses. This is probably less tnan the actual number. ■ •■ The first European woman born in New Zealand— Mrs Lethdridge, granddaughter of Captain Hansen, who brought the first"' missionaries to the colony in the brig .- Active in 1813— is still alive at the Bay of Islands. Her age is 79. Members of the Opposition intend to present Miss Seddon, daughter of ths Pre- ". mier, .with a silver salver weighing 43ozs, on the occasion of her marriage. s James Miller, a Dunedin commisson agent, dropped dead in the street on Thursday afternoon. At the Woodville cattle show Mr W. Souness swept the board with his Ayrshire -•' cattle. Thirty years ago there were only two dozen explosive compounds, known to chemists ; now there are over 1,000. A local body in the Taranaki district receives a revenue of about £30 a year from depasturing cows on the back streets. Mr Herbert Godfrey, travelling representa- ' tive of the New Zealand Loan and Marcantile Agency Company, Limited, died at Picton last Friday, after a short illness from an internal complaint. The editor of tho 'Clutha Free Press' challenges the Key. Kilpatrick to a debate on the success or otherwise of Prohibition in Olutha. Bamboo cycles are being offered to the ' wheeling public of Christchurch. Mr David Barron has arrived in Invercar- ' • gill to fill the position of Commissioner, of ■ - Crown Lands and Chief Surveyor for South- ■ land. Another duck has entered into competition with the record.layer at New Plymouth, and had laid 98 egga with three daily, breaks against the other's record of 112 eggs to date 1 with only two breaks. The explanation given to the Nelson Charitable Aid Board of the reason why a recipient of aid could not work was' that he "fed too hard." A cyclist in Auckland has been fined 40s and casts for riding v at nigbt without a light. ■y*f , -