The Northern Advocate. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1910 LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Northern Advocate, 20 September 1910, Page 4

The Northern Advocate. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1910 LOCAL AND GENERAL.

"Dorothy."

Mi's Young, postmistress at Whakapara left Whangarei to-day for a month's holiday in Wellington and the South.

By a fire- at Leonard's hi?;; shed above Tutamoe. Messrs Keer, Van Veen, ar.d Gamble lost about £60 worth of property. The orign of the fire is unknown.

An up-to-date catalogue of all panlications issued every year by the Government Printing Office, and the pr'ce for which they can be procured, is being asked for by Mr Mander.

All Government offices throughout New Zealand will be closed on Monday .'lexL, 26th inst, being the third anniversary of the date on which the colony of New Zealand was creaierl a dominion.

Further improvements are being inaugurated at tlie Dargaville post oif.ee and the Cabinet has passed a vote of £275 for the purpose. It is inten;l;-d to enlarge the front portion, and to make necessary extensions behind for telegraph and telephone facilities

Tho cantata "Daniel," which was to have hoen presented by the Methodist Choir and friends on Monday evening next, been postponed by the Choir Committee for one month. But in the meantime a first-class concert, consisting of a varied programme, will be held In the church on Thursday week, the JiHh of September. Further particulars will appear "iater.

The Rev. George Craig Cruickshank, 8.A., of Keble College, Oxford, has been appointed to succeed the Rev. J. B. Brocklehurst as vicar of Whangarei. Mr Cruickshank is the son of the late Mr D. B. Cruickshank, of Auckland, and was trained at Ely Theological College and at St. Hildx's, Darlington, which parish he left to join the home mission staff of five Auckland diocese, and has been wo.king i\ the Taranaki district since February of last year.

Under the auspices and by the invitation of the Young Men's Institute, Mr W. O'Gorman will deliver a.lecture on "Dieliens" at the Presbyterian Hall tomorrow night. No one better qualified to further the Institute's aim at elevating "iiterary tastes could have been cho.s>:x. than the gentleman named, since his intense study of this particular subject over a period of many years and the comprehensive breadth of h's general reading knowledge qualify him peculiarly for the parpose. If the lecture succeeds, as it should, in raising to any extent the your..: people of the town out of the slorgh of muddy and unprofitable reading, it will have achieved a grand obje.ot. The dimensions of the atteiviance to-morrow should be proportionate to th.- importance of the occasion; and that would mean a crowded hall. No charge of any kind will be levie.'.

A little to the north of Whangaroa Harbor, that is to say, at a point known as Toobung, it lias been amply demonstrated that there exists a sponge bed and that the sponge is of superior quality to that found in the Mediterranean, but of what extent the bed may be has never been ascertained. Aftti* every storm the residents are able to supply themselves with plenty of sponges that have been torn away from the rocks and washed ashore. Samples were sent by one of their representatives to Messrs Buvgoyne and Burgess, manufacturing chemists, London, and they pronounced them excellent, offering a good price for the sponges if taken "aliv«" and cured. An attempt has been made to get a supply, but for lack of capital the industry was net exploited further.

Vernal equinox to-morrow.

Mr Maurer, the well-known jeweller in Cameron-Street, is confined to his bed with a bad attack of pneumonia and pleurisy.

To-day's weather report is as fallows:—Westerly, strong winds to gale; expect showery and changeable weather; glass little movement; tiJos good, and sea rough off shore.

Timber workers are preparing for a busy season in districts adjoining Mangapai and Maungakaramea, and this summer will see two saw-mills erected at Moewhare.

At the horse sale to be conducted in their Bazaar by the Farmers' Union to-morrow, and which starts at 2 p.m., there will be offered a number of useful harness horses, which ought to command the attention of buyers.

Mr E. C. Blumfield, who formerly was the Stipendiary Magistrate presidiny, at the Whangarei Court sittings, left for Auckland to-day, after having spent some days in the North and in Whangarei.

The Whangarei Rowing Club has a great many new members on its roll this season. In view of the scratch fours on Thursday week it will be advisable for as many as possible of these to get down to the shed for practice before then.

In view of the more settled state of the weather, it has berm positively decided to hold the moonlight excursion to-night to Grahamtown. Launches leave the town wharf at 7 o'clock, and advantage will no doubt be largely taken of the chance to secure a very pleasurable outing.

Among those leaving by the Ngapuhi this morning was Mr J. P. F. Condon, who has severed his connection with the Auckland Farmers' Union aftex being attached to it for three years. Mr Condon is going to Australia for a holiday, and most of the staff of the Farmers' Union were on the static v to bid him good-bye.

Another of the representative football fixtures of the Whangarei Rugby Union has fallen through, Mr McGill. the secretary, having been notified that the Otamatea Union finds it impossible to get a good team together, and the match, which was to have been played at Waipu on Saturday, hc<,s been cancelled. The members of the Management Committee have wired to Hikurangi to ascertain whether it is possible to play the return match against them next Saturday instead of a week later.

The Auckland Farmers' Union are advertising the fact that a dividend of 8 per omit, has been declared for the year ending June 30th, and also thnt a re Date to shareholders of 25 per cent lias been granted on all stock commissions paid by them, during the same period. This undoubtedly spec's success for the Union, and is a good advertisement for the North. The Union is to be congratulated upon having pad so successful a financial year that it was possible to grant such return, n their shareholders.

As showing how common is the idea among primitive and savage tribes that the crucifixion of a human being will propitiate the gods, Mr C. R. Palmer, who was in Africa lor some years told an "Advocate" reporter this morning that when In arrived at a native town with British troops he found that men had been crucified on trt-es by tlie natives in the hone that the gods would be propitiated and the troops kept away. He stated that human sacrifice was still indulged in secretly by the natives, and that crucifixion was a common form.

Mr J. McKinnon, County Clerk, has received a reply from Mr J. K. Logan, Superintendent of Electric Lines, in answer to' a letter from the County Council urging that direct telephonic communication should be established between Onerahi and Parua Bay. The reply states that the desired authority has been given for the connection to be made. The construction of this line will supply the missing link of the important circuit from Whangarei, via Onerahi, Parua Bay, the Heads and Marsden Point, to Waipu ,which at present is not connected with Whangarei by telephone. The completion of the line has been advocated for several years and the decision of the Superintendent will give great sat'sfaction to residents in all the places tapped en route.

Messrs Adams and Angus have commenced business in their thoroughly up-tc-date premises, which they have themselves constructed in a limited space of time, in Cameron Street. The Enterprise Auction Mart is a large and commodious building, the actual auction room being of a size quite capaole of coping with all the business whim is likely to be forthcoming in Whangarei, while the open space at the back of the building is being rapidly transformed into a miniature stock yard, then 1 being several pig-st''es with concrete floors, and two rows of poultry The land agency part of She business is being specialised by Mr Angus, while Mr Adams will conduct the auctioneering, which will commence on Saturday week. In cmjunction with the auctioneering, there is a thoroughly modern cabinet-mak-ing plant in a separate building on the same property, and this is now in full swing. Picture-frame making is a site line upon which this enterpi'""-

ing firm is entering, and the extreme cheapness and splendid workmanship are likely to seize a very large proportion of the business in the district. The bi-weekly sales of furniture, pouHry, pigs, and produce should be a vory strong inducement to farmers and others to give this energetic firm the support which it genuinely merits.