NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10561, 30 September 1897, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The team of cricketers, composed entirely |f: of British lawmakers, which intends to iffl make a tour of the colonies midor the gaittlf®l ance of the energetic Mr. HennikerHeatW, f Ml ah ex-Australian, Who represents Canter- ,rpjf bury in the Home of Commons, is certain |® to receive a very hearty welcome. The 'M original intention of the eleven was to play ' paly four matches, one each at Ottawa,, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide; but u||j§§ endeavour ii to be made to induce the teapot to co.me on to New Zealand, and there an! ft | reasons, even apart from the sport itself, | which make it very desirable that thlr "* i| invitation should be accepted. It is prok- Li ' able that cricket is not the sole object jif \- the trip. Mr. Heaton, no doubt, desires la* Vf bring the Australian colonies more prominently under the notice of his fello|. "?&*! members in (he House of Commons! This ' point of view is strengthened by the fact that the Salisbury Government will be' §| exceedingly wall represented in till team. Another reason which has possiblySH prompted the tour is that if the memben ©I leave England in time they will be able to | ' 'i witness the final test match in Sydney between England and Australia, and if ||| that event has anything like the significance 'jj|| which the test match three years ago had, those who are really enthusiastic cricketers %} amongst Mr. Heaton's team will .hardly '-t-t begrudge the expense of the trip. It will, M of courae, be all expense, and very littie returns for the team, because they can f§| s' scarcely hope to attract a large attendance. ?If||| This, however, is not likely to trouble the Sp gentlemen whose names Lava, bsen ..cabled\ out. From a . purely cricketing poiSTw view the team is fairly strong, inasmuch asfM® it will probably include the Hon. Alfred C Lyttelton, a player who thirteen years ago !'?*■ '? represented Cambridge University in firsfcjSpl class matches, and Mr. George Kemp, who'lMp within recent years was a .prominentfess member of the Lancashire County Eleven, v.; while the names of Mr. J. Pease and othec 1 remembers are occasionally seen in the swrvffi© ing lists of the M.C.C. off matches now«|!®| adays. 1 America seems to hare a chance (accordi^j l ing to the New York correspondent of the /■' 1 Standard) of making a graceful return for,|!/gs England's recent conduct in giving up tbf pip Mayflower's log-book. Discovery has bwsJpP made in New Sork of it bound volume of 3gf||| manuscripts, which has lain neglected foi>'Vf'> generations upon the shelves of the Ex« s -0. amination Historical Society, which is : M belieyed to be an original copy of theWm Journal of the Clerk of the House o(spf Commons during Cromwell's period, and . ranging from the year 1650 to 1675. ff|||j They are contained in 16 folios, bound in,>'n' antique calf. The entries are well written in single columns, with broad margins, but $jm many pages are missing, and appear to havf|||§ been detached for some special purpose.' One tradition is that during the revolu«. v tionary war in the American colonies, the ffM orders of the generals were written upon j|||| them. Possibly they were brought over by v ; ; some of the judges who sentenced Charlei fljS 1., and who are known to have died as fugi- ||| tives in New England. Upon the other ]'.} hand, the order of the House of Commons 7 \y of 31st May, 1743, to print its journals, g||| which' was duly complied with, see mi U v >: indicate that these manuscript! were ,\ brought over after that date, otherwise' ,'/ there must have been duplicate manu' scripts, which seems to be unlikely. Nothing appears to be known with cer- :.j ;V tainty about these volumes before 1800, , ; ; when they were in the possession of Colonel De Hart. / Twenty-six years ago, a Frenchman, in. terested in the study of natural history, '||| brought over to Melford, a suburb of Bos« ||| ton, Massachusetts, a number of gipsy cater- J|| pillars, which were accidentally liberated • < by a gale of wind from their netted en- ; y closure, and some spread over the country. || The units increased to hundreds, the hun< jigi dreda to tens of thousands, the tens of thou- || sands to millions, and at this moment, as .'M Mr. Fletcher Osgood writes in the Century, groves and gardens, fields, orchards, and ,-S tree-shadowed streets, the sides of th«p|§ bouses, the pavements,'and the door sfcept pig are black with them. They paint the scene $p| of their ravages with a most repulsive "fv| stench, and as soon as they, have devastated |®|| one district they move on to lay' wash WjM another. By the year 1892 the army oi, caterpillars had deployed over 220 square -fji miles of territory; and after many WMbfjj effectual attempts to stay the plague, the ; |Sjj State of Massachusetts has now commenced a war of extermination against it by means'Ms|p of a gang of men, under the direction of • J the superintendent of the Board of Agriculture. From September till April these .-J ;§| men are incessantly engaged in egg hunt-'Lj#| ing; by' a system of house to house scrutiny ; in the towps, and, by a searching examination of trees, shrubs, fences, gateways, and ;; buildings, and even standing crops, the places of deposit are being saturated with a composition of creosote, which is fatal to the eggs. 'Up to the present time nd fewer g than 1 2,003,000,000 of these formidable - j enemies are.known to have been destroyed; v| while the;;.unrecorded destruction is ~be-s|||| lieved to .bring the list of the killed up taj||gf| 4,000,000,000. Only >75 square milftyotjg territory now remains infected; ; and the State fa firmly .resolved "toextirpate the ? orMture absolutely from his present confinei, tud 1 from the uew world, to tin /M m>", -■■■ ' ' ■ v •' '-ii

News from the Indian frontier states that Colonel Westmacott's column baa destroyed two of the rebel strongholds. The tribesmen resisted desperately. The column then attacked Moll* H&ddt'i headquarters, the fanatics defending Hadda'g home with frantic bravery. The Mobmands are said to be thoroughly cowed. Some difference of opinion appears to exist in England regarding the offer of the New South Wales contingent. One section of the press thinks the offer should be at once accepted, m it would b« an object lesson to the world regarding the unity of the empire. Oi the other hand it is urged that the presence of the New South Wales troops would weaken Britain's prestige, and it would be better for the Indian Government to show that it was quite able to cope with the rising without outride help. It is also feared that the contingent would arrive coo late to be of use. A rather serious outbreak of typhoid fever has occurred at Maidstone, in Kent. The cause of the epidemic has been traced to polluted water. Twenty-one deaths have occurred. The Chief Secretary for Ireland is to make a tour of those district! where the potato crop has been a partial failure in order to be in a better position to cope with the threatened famine. An appeal has been made to the Powers to terminate the present position of affairs in Crete, as the existing arrangement is said to be causing unbearable misery.