ANOTHER "LITTLE WAR."

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8791, 18 January 1897, Page 2

ANOTHER "LITTLE WAR."

The telegrams in our issue of Thursday announced a massacre, by the natives, of several English officers who were loading an expedition up the Niger River in West Africi. The expedition was unarmed, and had for its object the opening up of trade. Another expedition of a different character is, however, being sent up the river, and Captain Bower, the British Resident at Ibadan, has given the correspondent of a London paper some information relating to the object of the expedition that will be of interest: "To suppose, as is suggested by some of the Continental papers, tint the projected expedition of the Niger Company has Sokoto for its object almost amounts to an absurdity. It is much more likely that the projected expedition is agaiist Bida, better known as Nupe, a large kingdom lying north of Lokoj.i, which is only sepaiated from Ilorin by the t-mall Yagba and Ikita countries- The attitude of these Nupe people is, and has been, of a distinctly menacing character, and they are continually Bending out raiding parties. They have even got a war camp clohe to Aiede, on the borders of the Lagos sphere. The Nupes are a veiy wild and savage people, and, fudging from those I saw with Captain Lugard, unlike the Ilorins, they have not a semblance of civilisation. An expedition against the Nupes would have had a considerable effect on the Ilorins, with whom they have some kind of understanding. So far as Ilorin itself is concerned, it could bo reduced to submission by a comparatively small force. The Nupo campaign would bo a much bigger and more serious affair " In tho vicinity of Lagos are two tribes whose chiefs are large traffickers in slaves For the purposes of this trade they make these raids, and the Royal Niger Company, which has the rights of trade in the district, have to maintain an expensive force to prevent them encroaching on their territory. These tribes are the Nupe, re ferred to in the cable message as the murderers of tho English officers, and the Ilorin. The.'c seems to be a fear of French jealousy, and the British Government have carefully avoided any direct assistanco to tha Company, though they have given permission to a number of army officers to take part. It in quite probable that the Nupes will wi.sh they had lefc this expedition alone There will probably be a rush up the river, a short sharp encounter, and the king may find his royal palaces crumbling about him, and his royal power will ultimately go the same way. Slavery will have received another blow, the British trading area will be extended, and the majesty of the British lion vindicated. One cannot help a feeling of sympathy with these native kings whose realms are thus gradually being absorbed by the greater Powers. Brutally cruel though they be, they are only true to their traditions, and there is an air of antiquity about them which inspires regret that the old must ever give place to the new.

The motor car is coming to Wanganui, a local resident having sent Home an order for a two-horse power car. At the Magistrate's Court on Saturday, before Major Keddell, a first offender for drunkenness was fined 5s and ordered to pay 2a costs, ia default 2i hours' imprisonment. Captain Law, of the barque Lettcrewe, takes the opportunity of thanking the friends he has made in Oatmru for the many kindnesses extended to him during his stay in port. The Taieri paper hints at a slander action, in which Taieri residents will be the litigants, the damages being laid at L5OO The cause of the action i 3 said to be defamatory statements relating to a mysterious disappearance of money. The New Zealand Shipping Company announce that a number of their steamers will call at Monto Video and Rio de Janeiro, and in addition the Ruahine and Ji mutak* will call at Punta Arenas, going through the Straits of Magellan if the weather permits. Mr George Sumpter reports the sa'e, on account of Mr Snow, of freehold sections 25 and 26, block 79, Oamaru town, with eightroomed house and improvements, for L 245. Freehold section 12, Block J, runtroon, was passed in, the bidding not reaching the vendor's expectations, but it ia open for private sale. A writer on the abbatoir question in the Wanganui Chronicle signs his letter in all aenousnc&a " One Who lua Visited the Five Heinisphoros." This industrious individual lias evidently trayellcd a good deal, and visited three hemiaphercs that geographers have not yet outlined. Mails for Ceylon, India, China, Japan, straits Settlements, Aden, Sue-s, Mediterranean Ports, Europe and United Kingdom, via i-'nez, also Australian Colonies, Norfolk Island and.Noumea, per Waihora, close at Auckland on Monday, the 18th instant, at 4 30 p.m. Shearers from the back country report that there was a considerable increase in the weight of the floeco aud length of the staple this year compared with last year. The moßfc expert ihearers, who could get through over 200 sheep a day last year,

ciuld nob manage more them from 150 to 170 this year. Tons of fine cherries are going to waste ab Te Reinga, Poverty Bay (aays the Herald) where there are hundreds of lirge trees quite red with the ripe fruit. The Maoris «eem too lazy to cart it to town, and content themselves with charging visitors 13 a frel — a rather exorbitant price considering the abundance of the fruiti During the height of the dry weather in the Oamaru district grave feara were felt as to the posaib lity of fires being cimmunicited to the crops and grass by carelessness on the part of wayfarers or sparks from railway engines. The late fill of rain has to a very considerable extent allayed these fears. During the north-wester? the country was like tinder. A person and digger were travelling by rail the other day on the We9t Coast, and had a compartment all to themselves. The digger wauted to strike up a converaition, aud he broke the ice by saying, " Kin ye tel me, sr, just to settle a bet for drinks, how old the devil is ? ' The parson took it. as an affront, and sourly answered, "My friend, you must keep your own family record." The rest was silence. Some of the Maerewhenuii settlers, who have begun to cut their wheat, are thoroughly satisfied with their prospects. A visitor describes the heads as six inches long, and well filled for the whole length. One settler estimates that he has five years' rent of hia s^ctiou in his crop. The crops on the pain, r owever, are not expected to turn out so good as those on the hills. The heada are not so large, nor are they so well filled. Mr Wi'liam Mackenzie and hia company appear at Herbert this evening. On Fru'ay night Mr Mackenzie had an enthusiastic reception at Ngapara The hall was crowded, and the singing of Mr Mackenzie was received with unboundpd applause His droll Scottish stories, and the pawky way he has of telling them," brought down the house" on m »ny occasions. The concert was an unqualified success. Miss Glover added to its success in no small measure by her elocutionary efforts, and by her singing. " Prohibition in Maine " is still being debated by some of our northern contemporaries. The debating of this subject com* menced with the dawn of the prohibition movement, and will evidently continue till prohibition is triumphant or dies a natural deith. The subject, however, like the African's '"mush" at his three daily meals, must be getting a trifl.3 monotonous by this time "Prohibition in Maine" has never struck Oamaru hard, and we shall do our best to sink all differences of opinion on (he sut ject in the waste paper basket. The Star says that on Tuesday last the Hon John M'Ken/,ie, accompanied by Mr A. Barron, Under-Secretary for Lands, paid a visit to the Sanatorium at Hanmer It is understood that as a result the Cabinet will be recommended to make a substantiil advance out of last session's vote of LQ5,000L Q 5,000 for thermal springs development. The expenditure is absolutely necessary. The Government have already authorised the erection of a building on a similar plan to the Sanatorium at Hotorua, and are evidently prepared to carry out the recommendations of the late Mr C. Malfroy, who visited the district and reported on its necessities four years agi. A couple of paiuful accidents have happened at Waimate, according to the Waimate Times : Mr J. B. Milsom, of the Waimate Brewery, received a very severe und painful cut on the palm of the hand on Wednesday afternoon by the bursting of a bottle he was filling with t erated water. T )r Barclay dressed end attended to ths wound. — On Thursday a lad named Rennie, about 18 years of age, who was working for Mr Kuddenklau, nearly gougcl one of his eyes oufe with a bag hook. He was in the act of catching hold of a sick of oats with the hook whpn it slipped, and ran into the lad s eye. r i\.bably it will be necessary to remove tho eye of the unfortunate lad. The sighr of the eye, wp are informed, was somewhat impared previous to the accident. When Henry George wis on his tour and preaching land nationalisation, he had a meeting At Montrose. Then and there a 100 -1 heckler, with a face like a sphinx, got up and asked the Apostle of the Single Tax : " Yo hie land o' yer am. Master George ?'' " Not I," said the New Yorker airily, " I'm not a landlord." " Yell be a tenant o' land, Maister Goorge ">" w»a the next query. "No, I'm no man's <en'n f ," rejoined the lecturer. " Ya'llbean agent for land, Maiater George ; yell manage land for somebody else?" was tha next interrogation, which caused the m&n on the platform to answer emphatically, •I m not an agent for land. I've nothing to do with land.' 1 u I thocht sac, Maister George,' 5 retorted the heckler, who resumed his seat with a perfectly satisfied air. On Saturday evening, at Pocklington's Temperance Hotel, Miss F. Telfer. who is leaving the employ of Messrs J. Bulleid and Co. for the Old Country, was presented by the boarders in the Hotel vrith a salad bowl, biscuit barrel, and hand-painted mirror, accompanied by a suitably worded address Regret was expressed at the cause of Miss Telfer's departure for the Old Country, and reference made to the appreciation the boarders in tho hotel had for her, the presents being but a feeble expression of that esteem They wished Miss Telfer a safe voyage and a happy future. Mi&s Teifer suitably responded, thanking her friends for their handsome presents and the kind regards expressed by them. Miss Telfer was also the recipient, in the earlier part of the week, of a very handsome travelling bag from the emp'oyees of Messrs J. Bulleid and Co. Big prices were going at Messrs Fleming and Hedleys hone sale on Saturday, and it is m»ny years since there was iuch a demand for horses and the prices were so good. Theie was a yard full of buyers;, and consequently no time w»s wasted in looking for bids. As a result 42 horses were put through in a little over an hour and a half. Awamoa is, par excellence, the place for draught stock, and the announcement that 12 three-year-old geldings from that estate would be offered drew together a large attendance, The horses were brought out in the pink of condition, and their quality is indicated by the fact that they are by Crown Prinoe out of Awamoi mires. The highest price realised was L 4"2, and the lowest L3O. It is a long time since geldings, oven good gelding*, fetched prices like theE«, and we hope that the price of grain, which to a greab extent regulates the price of draught stock, will be sufficiently good to keep the figures for horses at; a prioe corresponding with those of Saturday. The sheepfarmers of the Plate, who are looked upon as among the most formidable competitor* with the sheepraisers of this country in the Home market, have to contend with one enemy which is even more terrible than the New Zealand rabbit— the j locust. A letter from a correspondent at the River Plate in the Australasian Pastoralists' Review of November 16, states that locusts are devastating the northern provinces, that thousands of dollars have been voted by Government for the destruction of eggs and the recently hatched insect, but that neither the individual nor the Government has delayed by one infinitesimal fraction of time tho onward march of tho scourge. The writer says : "It is about a. toss up, 1 should say, which is the worst evil, your rabbits or our locusts. Your rabbits live among you always, and you may, by tho outlay of consideriiblc Ciii/itJ, keep them within a certain district, but how can we possibly limit/ the locusts, which breed in portions of the country as yet uuknown to civilised nun ? . They eat up all your alfalf t, and the leaves aud bark off your trees ; they g3t into your houses, and eat your tablecloths, bheets, or any linen thing they can find and get at — there is no hope of their ever being satisfied." Read W. Bee's special new advertisement on the first page of this issue. There are special linea in Teas, Cutlery, Glassware, etc. The largest perfect diamond in die ■world it worth a quarter of a million pounds sterling.