News and Notes.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8051, 31 March 1905, Page 6

News and Notes.

Now that the seed of the hawthorn is getting ripe, parents would do well to caution their children ogainss eating the little inside seeds or stones, which are neld by the medical profession to be a probable ohuso of appendicitis. School teaohers might also take the hint and warn the scholars cf the mk which many of them are now daily running in eating berries from the hedges on the way to school

Mr Barrett, the United States Minister at Panama, has sent an official account of how the accident occurred in which Earl Fitzwilliam and some members of his party were injured while searching for buried treasure on Cocos Island. After the first explosion, which left a great overhanging shelf of rock and earth, the Earl's excited party, believing that they had uncovered £20,000,000 worth of treasure, rushed fotward under the " shelf," which immediately collapsed.

According to an Auckland paper, the wife a settler in the back-blocks of the King Country had a sad experience while travelling in the train from Taumarunui to Te Awamutu. It appears that her young family were all laid up with influenza, and the youngest child, aged four months, became so ill that it was decided to seek medical aid at Te Awamutu, a distance of some sixty-five miles. The woman's husband was absent from home, and she had to walk over five miles of rough bush country, carrying the child, in order to catch the train at Poro-o-tarao tunnel. On the journey down to Te Awamutu the child died in its mother's arms.

A novel wager is to be decided shortly in the Transvaal. Mr Yerburgh, M.P., a supporter of Chinese labour in the Band Mines, wagered that eight men, whose expenses would be paid, would not work in the mines for six months. The men are to do unskilled work in the mines at the wages of blacks, and on their return to give an account of their experiences. The offer was made to Chester workmen, and much to the M.P's. surprise, it was promptly accepted. In accordance with the terms of the wager the following will proceed to South Africa:—Alfred Lloyd, casement fatter; C. Jones, French polisher; H. Price, flat attendant; John O'Neill labourer •F. Siddell, hotel boots; Albert Edwards, labourer ; Frederick Roberts, labourer; and Fairclough, ex-Imperial Yeoman. It will be interesting to find how the men get on, for it has been contended that it is entirely unnecessary to employ Chinese labour for the development of the mines, except to enable the capitalists to make larger profits. The Chester Badical Club is taking care that the men are given fair play in the contest, and they are depositing a sufficient £ Umt° f ™onev to c°ver the wager made by the M.P.