LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13305, 11 October 1906, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

The celebrations in connection with the reunion of "old colonists, held yesterday, were participated in by very .large gatherings of old people, St. Andrew's Church and the Choral Hall both being crowded. The thanksgiving service was a particularly impressive one, and the assembly at the Choral Hall proved a most enjoyable function. . Some of the pioneers present were very old and feeble, but there were plenty of young helpers ready at hand, and everyone seemed to enjoy himself or herself to the utmost. Unfortunately provision had not been made for so great a number of people, and refreshments ran short. Some pathetic letters from pioneers unable to be present were read by the chairman at the afternoon gathering, including one from a man who had passed away after writing it. The £5 cheque to the oldest survivor of the passengers by the barque Brilliant, which arrived in the Manukau in 1841, went, for the fourth time in succession, to Mrs. D. Coyle, of East-street, aged 85 years. The next claimant in order is Mrs. Thomson, a daughter of the late Mr. H. C. Lawlor, and now resident in-Lyttelton. Sir John Logan Campbell, who has always taken keen interest and pleasure in the reunions, was unfortunately forced to remain away yesterday, it being too painful for him to be amongst old friends, and, owing to his failing eyesight, unable to recognise them. A report of the proceedings appears in this issue. ■» -.. -•■> ,

SAnsAn : inquest "-was aeia tieuwe. tneuoroner (Mr. T. Oresham), at the Criterion Hotel yesterday afternoon, into the death of an old man named Charles Langdoii, ,i gum- ; digger, who took ill suddenly in Ph ikon's Square on Tuesday, and expired while being . conveyed to the hospital. The circumstances disclosed were practically the same as those given in yesterday's Issue, Dr. J. H. Hooper said he had conducted a post-mortem examination on the body, and found that the cause of death was syn- 8 cope, resulting from dilation of the aorta. A verdict was returned in accordance with the medical evidence. t Messrs. J. M. Lennox and J. J. Jenkins;, .'<-■ J.P.'s, presided at the Police Court yester- ' > day. Henry Volan, an elderly man, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon on a charge of indecency in Albert-street, and a -first offender was convicted of drunkenness, and discharg- ";' ed: In both cases the accused were o»dered to pay the cab fare, 2s 6d. ; The City Fire. Brigade received a call to ;i Ponsonby. shortly after half-past seven a.m. yesterday. On arrival it was found that a chimney in Mrs. English's residence, Hamilton Road, > was on fire. The blaze was promptly extinguished. Two hours later the brigade received another alarm from Ponsonby, bub on turning out found that their services were not required. ' The geysers at Whakarewarewa pave been active since Friday last. '. Pohu'tu playe<! for -.half-an-hour on Saturday morning, between eight and nine o'clock, and again on ''£ Monday morning for an hour and a-half, be- ifi tween twenty-seven minutes to eight and four minutes past nine o'clock. The Prince j| of Wales' Feather geyser was exceedingly active on both days during Pohutu's performance, while Waikprihihi played on t* Monday. The water in Pohutu's ■ cauldron . has been in a very disturbed state for some days past, and'other performances of the geyser may be looked for. The Torpedo has been firing* off shots in quick succession ; during the activity of the geysers. ' Wairoa. Geyser was called upon to play on Sunday afternoon by means of the usual supply oi '; : soap, but did not respond to the call quite £ ' so quickly as is its '{custom, nearly an houi elapsing from the time the soap was put into the geyser's mouth until the eruption, which was-a good one when it did take place. Possibly the playing of Pohutu ' last week had something to do with the length of time that elapsed before Wairoa responded on the present occasion. On Friday last Mr. Horace Blythe met with a most painful accident at the Castlecliff soapworks,; Wanganui, which may possibly result in a total loss of his sight. He was engaged in his usual occupation at the soapworks when a quantity of caustic sods splashed up over his face, severely injuring both eyes. Mr. Blythe was removed to his home, suffering greatly. j , ,' . ' -'"-' ■" ■ ' _• '.'■. ; - ---V '. .- ':' ,'■"''' -■'■' Some newly-arrived Scotchmen (says tin Christchurch Press) have, it seems, a poor opinion of New Zealand. One of them, ••' : .- giving evidence at the Magistrate's Court :*: on Friday, said he did not care to give his : s full name to a, plain-clothes constable, a< - .; he had been warned against the sharpers and. pickpockets of Ch'ristchurch. Later, >: v; another Scotchman said he was not so sure people here were ,as good as at Home. • There were plenty of rogues everywhere. A fire broke out in the bunkers of the Parua, at Levuka, on; September 20, but was quickly suppressed without doing ; ;•; any damage to the steamer. The bunkers had, however, to be cleared. - The steamer left for Rotuma the next day. A Supreme Court judge, who had recently declaimed against bridge playing and other forms of was travelling the other day in' a New Zealand train. = 'He entered the smoking car, and discovered that every - seat was occupied, excepting one. : " Is" this seat engaged?" he asked. "No," came ; tire prompt reply, " we are just waiting for a" fourth, for a game of bridge!" '', The car „ was convulsed with laughter as His Honor , - <; ; beat a hasty retreats ' . ~ <2 The recent cold snap had a marked effect -| on the milk tests ,of the Carterton factories, - -Z<\ which receded-as the southerly continued. The reappearance ,of sunny days \ and the ;: : gradual disappearance of the snowline have, •'■,* however, had an appreciable influence for good on the tests. ■ . ■■•■•■■■■■ ■-'■■• •'.'•; '•„'■ v--Mr. Alf. Warbrick, who left Rotorua last week with 25,000 trout to distribute in the streams in the Bay "of Plenty district, tele- \ graphed to Rotorua on Saturday -to the Tourist Department that he had finished distributing as far as Motu, and was returning with the second' batch that afternoon, and intended going as'far as Whangaparoa. The ; following interesting figures were ; f attached to the Normanby Co-operative Dairy Factory report: Number of cows 1221, number of suppliers 32, milk received ;i: 5,695,7011b, average test 3.78 per cent,, butter-fat received 215,5461b, > butter made 244,4841b, over-run 13.4 per cent., milk to make lib of butter 23.291b,' average price i received for butter 11.130 d per lb, average cost of manufacture 1.179 d per lb, average cost of marketing 1.166 d per lb, cost of manufacture and marketing 2.345 d per lb, ; average price netted 8.785 d per lb, average price per lb of butter-fat paid suppliers lOd, average yield of butter-fat per cow 176.51b, average return per cow £7 7s Id. Quite a sensation was caused in Pate* last Wednesday by the circulation of a report that a man had been found dead in ■■' one of the back streets. It appears that * some resident of the locality had noticed a man lving in a paddock off the road. The .; attention of: a passer-by was attracted, and .<"; he, thinking that the man was dead, sent for the police and "doctor. Constable ' O'Brien, who was in Hawera, was telephoned to, and issued instructions tnat the body was-not. to be touched until hi.« .-■',' return. Meanwhile a small crowd had assembled near the spot, and all kinds of conjectures were volunteered. At last the doctor, in company with a representative ■■'■■ of the legal profession and an undertaker, appeared on the scene. Just then "the corpse" was observed to scratch his head, and immediately afterwards sitting up ask- , v ed the dumbfounded gathering what waf the matter that they could not let a " bloke' 1 sleep. The information that he was dead -, invoked a remonstrance that was characterised more by vigour than by elegance of -~:•' language. ' j A Wairaiapa contemporary says: —Attention has been drawn to the fact that children in country districts are often overworked by milking too many cows, and the Wellington evening paper says: -" Dc you hear the children weeping my brothers?" Well, we don't! For the past 40 years we have seen young children milking cows, and, now and again, there are instances where they are overtaxed; but as ' > a rule the child milkers are fairly healthy and vigorous. Certainly they ar° not in the habit of weeping at their labours. " Whenever an instance of parental cruelty is observable, there is no objection to punish ment being meted out to offenders. \ It is, however, impossible to regulate the b'Otti'f of child labour in the back blocks. . A task which one child can accomplish' without strain, may be a cruelty to another child of a less vigorous habit. There are.to be .'.■ found both in town and country, parent* who are more or less cruel. By all means, make an example of them, but it is unwise to restrict healthy labour in back blocks. , '.-.; i The alternative might be starved children. ■'■ ': ? : k".---'■■■■■■■• :,'-/■■ WM