MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1417, 27 April 1899, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

An apple -weighing a, pound and a half was exhibited the other day at Hawera. The Palmerston North Chess Club has decided to affiliate with the New Zealand Chess Association. The Ven. Archdeacon Williams has offered to give the native churches in the diocese of Auckland and Waiapu £2OOO if they will raise £4OOO towards the increase in the stipend fund of the native clergy. Inquiries made by Mr Hill, school inspector for Hawke's Bay, show that at eight schools in districts where there are dairy factories 160 children milk 556 cows. The majority get up before 5 a.m., and some bring in the cows, milk them, take the milk to the factory, and then walk as much as four and a half miles to school. The "Rangitikei Advocate" has been informed that the old flax mills at Lake William, Heaton Park,, which have been closed for the last nine or ten years, will be in full operation in a short time. There is a splendid lot of flax on the estate, and the revival of th industry will, it is hoped, benefit Marton, Bulls and Turakina district. The erection of a crematorium is being advocated at Napier. In connection with the recent discovery of the bones of moas and Maoris at Fohangina, Mr D. C. Tennent informs Uie "Rangitikei Advocate" that the othex' day a similar discovery was made on his property, twelve miles beyond Mangaweka, near the Kawhatau river. A large quantity of moa bones were discovered after the bush was burnt, and with these were the skeletons of two Maoris. The natives of Rotorua, assisted by about 700 visitors from Matata, Te Puke, Taupo, Tauranga and Opotiki, have lately been holding a tangi over the remains of a chieftainess named Rakitu Eisorohuka, of the Arawa tribe, ono < f iho daughters of Haerehuka, a noted chief in the olden times. As an indication of the influx of population to Palmerston, twenty-one newpupils have been enrolled at the local school since re-opening on the 10th mst., while over 100 have been admitted since the summer vacation. The Crown Dairy Factory Company have paid the milk suppliers of the Woodville district over £IOOO for milk delivered during the month of March, being about £4OO in excess of that paid during a similar period of last season. The tests are averaging well, the milk supplied dur ing March averaging 3d per gallon, \- all skim milk returned.

Only ninety-four applications for enrolment on the new burgess roll have been received in Christchurch.

Mrs Hugh Bower, a very old resident of Otago, died last week at Balelutha, aged ninety-one years. The deceased lady leaves eight children, forty-four grandchildren, and forty-six great-grandchildren. The opening of the hunting season in South Canterbury has been postponed till the 27th inst. The late rains have made the paddocks so soft that it was deemed advisable, in the interests of the many farmers who so loyally support the hunt, to m.ake the adjournment named. Out of a "bag" of thirteen rabbits captured by a shooting party near Invercargill the other day there were three minus a leg. Evidently amputation had been performed by traps, but the stumps had healed up perfectly, and the fleetness of foot of the "whits tails" had not been impaired in the least. In connection with the claims for injuries sustained in the Rakaia railway collision, a number have been received ranging from £2O to £IOOO. The matters are referred to the medical officer as they come in, but it will be a long while yet before any final steps are taken, as many negotiations are pending.

The foundation stone for tlie new hospital at Greymouth has been made at Wanganui. The base of the stone is of solid granite, with a siink panel in white marble, the inscription cut in being as follows : —"ln commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. This stone was laid by the Right Hon R. J. Seddon, Premier of New Zealand, April 26, 1899." (Here follow the names of the hospital trustees.) It is stated that Mr W. Day. a South Canterbury resident, who was buried the other day at Timaru, owed his fatal illness partly to inhaling the fumes of phosphorous used in rabbit-poisoning. The dog tax collector at Blenheim is understood to have put up a record this year by collecting a greater sum than in any previous period. Sickness has been very prevalent or late amongst the infantile population at Kumara.

The new standard time will be introduced in South Australia at midnight on Sunday, 30th April, when the clock at the General Post Office will be put forward half an hour. The change will place Adelaide time half an hour behind that of Sydney and Melbourne time, instead of an hour as at present. Railway trains will run according to the present time-tables, and this will give the Melbourne express half an | hour longer between Adelaide and Serviceton. Francis Druce, the South Australian claimant to the Portland title and estates, took his departure for England from Adelaide by the Omrah. On his arrival in London Druce will place himself in communication with a firm of solicitors acting for him. Druce is very sanguine of success. A fund has been raised in Adelaide to defray his expenses, and a committee of residents in the suburb in which he lived are acting an trustees. .

Numerous '•travelling" questions were i put by the Chief Justice to counsel in the Porirua Anglican School property case, now awaiting decision in the Supreme Court. One "poser" was to this ; effect: "If the Church were offered £IO,OOO to start a school at Porirua, would they say, "No, we can't accept the I money, because we can't do anything with j it.'" The point of the question lies in the fact that the land is worth about £4OOO, and that there is a fund of over | £6OOO in hand. I

It is a matter for regret that Professor Hugh McKenzie, who since his arrival in Wellington has not been in very good health, is at present confined to his bed suffering from nervous prostration. Mr Sydney W. Philips, of the firm of Messrs Philips and Pike, arrived in Wellington from Sydney via Auckland yesterday. It is understood that Mr Philips who will leave again for Sydney on Saturday by the Monowai, is working up a trade in New Zealand productions on behalf of his firm in New South Wales ; and that with a view to still further popularising this colony's products in Great Britain Mr Philips will sail for London in a week or two. Mr McKay, the Government Geologist, is at present in Stratford. He has instructions to report on the coal deposits, the shell rock and other matters of interest to the Geological Department. The bridge across the Waikato River, near the Waimahana crossing, is fast approaching completion. The decking is now being laid, and the contractor expects to have the railing and other details finished within a fortnight. Some few months ago Mr T. W. Rhodes, of Coromandel, wrote and published a small but comprehensive history of the Auckland gold field and its resources. By Last mail he received a special request for a copy for the Philadelphia Museum. A resident of Hastings has shown the "Standard" a specimen of a potato grown by him this season which he calls the African "yam." It is a long, thin tuber,• blue throughout, and full of eyes. It is said to be a good eating potato, and resembles in appearance the "Kouinuini" grown by the Chatham Islanders.

The Hawera County Council lias (savs the Hawera "Star") received an advance copy of a sketch plan showing lands in the back country shortly to be opened up. The chairman has been informed that 30,000 acres of country will be tapped by the Rawhitiroa road, 25,000 acres by the Roimata, and 30,000 by the Ball and other roads leading to Patea.

During the last few days large quantities of codfish have been caught off the New Brighton pier, near Christchurch. Two well-known local anglers landed in an hour several dozen fish. So far as departmental arrangements are concerned, the present system in the Stock Department is obsolete, and in consequence the country is not getting the full value from the services of its veterinary experts.—Nelson "Mail." As showing the fertility of the land in the Christchurch district, a resident of Sydenham procured from one root one Derwent potato weighing 31b 2oz, and six others weighing 161 b Boz. This yield is all the more extraordinary as the tubers were grown without the aid of any fertiliser whatever (says the "Times"). On the farms in the North Canterbury district there has been a decided spring in the grass, and stock of all kinds was never seen to better advantage (says the "Lyttelton Times"). The rains have mellowed the land for autumn ploughing, and an average breadth of crop is likely to be sown. The rain did some damage to the potato crops, but it is not considered the crop is very seriously affected, and digging will begin in about a fortnight. The unexpected arrival of H.M. gunboat Ringdove on Saturday afternoon caused something like a bread famine in Lyttelton (says the "Press'). The purveyor of bread was called upon to supply 100 21b loaves, but was quite unable to satisfy more than half the demand.

Miss Dora Sharpies, of Auckland, a young lady of decided dramatic ability, proceeds Home by the Kaikou a on Saturday, with the intent. in of j-tadying for the stage. An interesting memento of a trip to Mount Egmont has been shown to the Hawera "Star," in the shape of a couple of photographs of a group sitting under the trig triangle erected at the summit of the mountain. One is a beautifully clear group of seven, in which there are several well-known residents of Hawera and Eltham; and another is of three Hawera residents. The work on the Makohine viaduct is being vigorously pushed on without intermission, by shifts of four hours each, with the aid of a powerful electric light during the night. The machinery employed in drilling and riveting is of the latest and most efficient kind, worked by hydraulic and steam power. The two steam drills do 450 drills a day, and it is said that the total drills in the whole work amount to the prodigious number of 12,000,000. A shocking burning fatality occurred at Hatton's Hotel, Grafton. The curtains of a bed in which three of Mrs Hatton's children were sleeping by some means became ignited. The youngest child, aged two years, endeavoured to clamber out of bed through the burning curtains, and was fearfully injured about the legs and lower parts of the body, from the effects of which he died within a few hours. The other children lay perfectly still in bed, and escaped injury. An expert in jewels informs a contemporary that the diamond jewellery presented to Mrs McKenzie, wife of the Minister of Lands, at Palmerston recently, was worth between £BOO and £9OO.