LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 113, 11 May 1909, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Messrs T. Brodie and A. S. Bayfield have both consented to act as delegates from the Marlborough Rugby Union to the New Zealand Union.

A Press Association telegram states that the Auckland Racing Club has increased its prize-money by £4000. The Cup will be £2000, and the Hurdles and Steeplechase £750 and £1000 respectively.

A meeting of the Hastings branch, of ithe Farmers' Union strongly approved tlie Prime Minister'© laaid settlement and finance proposals, and resolved to forward <a, (remit to the pa-ovincial conference to give the Bill evea*y support. , '

Picton playgoers are promised an agreeable surprise on Saturday next, May loth, when Pollard's Juvenile Opera Company will " produce ' 'The Gay Hussar" at Fay's Hall. This should prove a red-letter day in the history of Picton amusements, and the result should be a record attendance.

The report of the monthly meeting of the Education Board will be found on page 7 of this issue. Other back page matter comprise® "Reminiscences' of Sir Geo. Grey"; "The Futility of Prohibition Orders"; "Earthquake Panics"; "The Dust Problem"; "A Love Tragedy" "In Touch with Nature," and otlhea- topics of interest.

A copy of the Western* Daily Mercury, Plymouth, England, has reached the office of the Union Company. It is dated about the time of the wreck of the Penguin, and contains a har<rowing account of the disaster, mentioning that "700 lives were lost", and that "all the boats were rotten!" The American press could hardly eclipse this.

At the meeting of the High School j Board of Governors yesterday the folj lowing tenders were ■ received for the ■ erection of a gymnasium: Messrs Ward and Sons; £353; Mr T. May, £397 j Messrs Hegglun, £398; Nicholl Bros., £398 ] 2s; J. McLeod, £417; J. Fawcett, £448; W. Carr, £455 12s 6d. It was decided that Messrs Ward and Sons' tender be accepted.

, Gardeners in Nelsoni are getting anxious about the re-appearancei of the mimosa blight, which, after much trouble, was eradicated some years ago. The Evening Mail suggests that local scientists should 'agitate for the re-introduction of the ladybird. The writer thinks that the insect, which has become a rarity, may. have taken to cannibalism, in the absence of its natural food. ~ " •

i The weather in the Dominion was a bit more settled to-day than it was yesterday, but at several places it was still showery. No ; report was received from Cape Campbell. The thermometer registered ,63 at Auckland and Cape Egmont, and 46 at Queenstown, the Blenheim reading • being 55. The barometer showed a ! rise at almost every place except | Blenheim, where it had fallen from , 29.92 (yesterday's reading) to 29.61. ■ The sea was heavy at Kaipara and ! Castlepoint, breaking at Hokianga, ! and rough at Raglan and Kawhia. The local rivers were still high. The High School Board of Governors met immediately after the Education Board meeting terminated yester- , day, when there were present:— ■ Messrs McCallum (Chairman), Macey, j Penny, Smith, Reader, Storey and White. Leave of absence was granted to Messrs Conolly and Parker. Dr Innes reported that Miss Dorothy, Cheek was the successful candidate for. the Board of Governors' endowment scholarship. It was decided that Miss Cheek be awarded the scholarship. The Secretary reported that the credit at bank was £397 19s 9d. Accounts amounting to £13 8s lid were passed for payment, and the meeting rose. . . '

Never mind the t why or wherefore, You've a nasty cold, and, therefore. That it's time your health to care for, You must surely recognise. : Let not old-time drugs enslave you, Or (the pills that grandma gave you, Woods' Great Peppermint Cure will save you From a premature demise. 1

Hokitika reports that Messrs Mark Sprot and Company, agents for tlie Inter-Wanganui Cheese Factory, have received advice from their London representatives stating that the first shipment arrived in splendid condition, and realised 63s per cwt. Such an excellent - return will encourage other settlements in South Westland to utilise the fine pastoral country of that locality for dairying.

Tenders for the construction of the bridge over the Waiau closed with the Public Works Department on Thursday. Further -proceedings (says the ; Press correspondent)" are awaited with consideirable anxiety in Cheviot. The settlers have for years been strenuously urging on the Govea-inonent the necessity for the erection of the bridge and were hopeful of seeing their desires attained when the tenders were called. However, a feeling of doubt now exists whether aiT^ tender will be accepted. Several building oraitractors have visited tihe site, and they have expressed the opinion 'that, the contract time of eighteen months is ridiculously short for a work of such magnitude. It would take the ;successful tenderer six months to get the timber on to the site. It is 'also said that the Government estimate is on an extremely low basis, and the feeling seems to be that the Govea'aunenifc ■will seize the excuse if tenders exceed the estimate to hang up tlie work indefinitely. Developments are awaited with great interest heir©.

Os in the £ discount at Smith's Bank Demand Sale of Drapery, now on, opposite Criterion Hotel. *

A striking instance of how not to do it in connection with our city streets is now to be seen in Manchester Street, between Gloucester and Worcester Streets, Christchurch, (says the Press). The City Council have just completed the work of putting down a heavy coating of metal on _ the street from the Clock Tower. This has been carefully and completely rolled in by the steam roller with considerable expenditure of time and money. The work has just been completed. On Friday morning, however, tho_ City Comicil, in connection with their electric light power, began to dig a wide trench in the street, thus practically, so far as the width of the trench is concerned, undoing just as it was completed the work done.

New York is painfully digesting some amazing statements made by General Bingham," Chief Commissioner, of the Police of New York, to whom the Board of Aldermen has refused to grant £25,000 for the organisation of a much-needed secret service. General Bingham designed the secret service for- the suppression of "Black Hand" crime, and (says the Daily Mail's correspondent) attributes the attitude of the aldermen to personal hatred of himself. He has declared that ' "New York is honeycombed with politics of the most curious sort," adding that his office

was easily worth £60,000 a year to a man who was "willing to be a politician and laeglect the interests of the city." "Soon after I began my duties," the General stated, "a man whom I believed to be a gentleman called on me and talked most interestingly on certain phases of police administration. Finally he offered me

£6000 monthly merely to refrain from doing certain things." Tne visitor was naturally ejected, and Bingham refused to make his name known, with the characteristic remark, "What's the use? It was evidently merely an incident in the official life of this city,". ■:■...

Verily, owing to the keen competition ait .present existing: betweeni the various cycle firms in Blenheim, cyclists are on a far better puircliasing footing in. tihis towm than: dm most other parts of the Dominion:. Messrs Wintringham and Deugaa-de, ui> doubtedly the most progressive firm in this line of business in Mairlborough, are to the fore again, with a frestb lot of good and cheap second-hand cycles. As we stated some little time back, this firm make a, .rule of inevea* selling a seoond-haind cycle until (they have thoroughly overhauled it, and stoveemamelled^ it so that to all intents and purposes it is practically as good as new. They have just treated the fresh lot in this manner, a>nd are now offering them at prices <ra,nging from £4 10s to £8 10s, according to make, age and wearing quality of the bicycle. In sundries they will also be found the cheapest firm to deal with; for instance, they offer a really good acetylene lamp for 4s 6d, and oil lamps from 2s "upwards. Address: Alongside Blenheim Town Hall. *

The late Mr D. M. Luckie, (says The Post), was one of the older group of New Zealand journalists, though, by no means among the oldest survivors from the early days. It was doubtless through his newspaper association with Sir Julius Vogel, the founder of Government Life Insurance, that he joined the department thirty years agOj since which time he has had no active association with journalism In 1863, when he arrived in New Zealand, there were not more than forty newspapers in the Colony, more than half of which were recent r ly established. The leading lights were then the Nelson Examiner, the New Zealander, the Southern Cross, the Wellington Independent,' and the Otago Witness. The Lyttelton Times was a young paper, and The Press an infant. There were two newspapers in Napier, and the smaller towns had their representatives. The Colonist, in Nelson, and the Colonist in Dun- ! edin, occupied minor places. The Examiner was "The Times" of New Zealand—modelled in the form and style of the great London paper, and reckoning among its contributors some of the leading statesmen in New Zealand. But when Mr Luckie— clever, incisive, epigrammatic, took editorial charge of The Colonist, the older paper found it had a rival to reckon with. Mr Luckie's work shared the inevitable fate of journalistic contributions. Some of it might have possessed permanent value, but he never made any effort to preserve it, even for his own reference. He has been a member of the Journalists' Institute since its establishment nearly twenty years ago, and loved to attend its gatherings. His reminiscences of the pressmen and politicians of forty-five years ago were inexhaustible.