The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1900.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10097, 15 March 1909, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1900.

Mr George White, of Steward Settlcnieiit, has recorded a -wheat yield wliich, though it docs not constitute a record for the district, will surely justify ihe contention that, given suitahle conditions, the WaitaUi Wains Kstate was one that would adapt itself to agricultural purposes. Fron a 32-acre paddock of wheat, Mr White got a return of 46.], bushels per acre. As a member of the Steward community, Mr White will rejoice that not he alone has been specially favored with a bounteous harvest, for one of his neighbors possessed a 40-acre crop which threshed out over 37 bushels per acre. Generally speaking, there is a cheerfulness about the Steward settlers this year born of contentment, and it is in marked contrast to their condition of a couple of seasons ago, when, owini: to the drought, many began to wonder whether, after all, their success at the ballot-box could be regarded as fortunate. Kven now settlers are hampered for want of water for stock, even on those farms where the crops have been prolific. But now that the Government race is to be completed on lines that should lie most advantageous, the carrying of water by the Steward farmer is a'trouble that ought soon to lie relegated to the limbo of forget - fulness.

The following is the schedule for younj birds' races drawn up by the committei of the North Otago Pigeon Flying Club :- Timaru interval, April Ist ; Dunedin April 9th: Ashbiirton. April 22nd: Gore April 29tli: Christehurch. May 15th: In vereargill, May 20th ; Amkcrley, June 3rd Orepuki, June 10th.

The s.s. Corinna arrived at < ■jiiiiini a' 10 o'clock last night from Dunedin, landec 50 tons of general cargo, took in 200 ton: of produce for Wellington and New Plymouth, and sailed at 6.50 this morning vii Timaru.

The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's s.s. Kumar.i (Captain Morton) arrived off Oainaru from Timaru shortly after daybreak yesterday morning, and was at once taken charge of by Captain Hamsay and berthed at Holmes wharf. 'The present is the first occasion on wliich the Kumara has visited Oamaru. .Her tonnage is registered as 6054 tons, her length

as 452 ft lin, breadth 54ft 2in, and depth 29ft 6in. The Kumara is smaller than the Waiwera, Aotea, and Papanui. the difference between her tonnage and that of the latter being 548 tons, while, she is exceeded in length by the Papanui by sft. It is expected that the, Kninura will sail to-morrow night for Port Chalmers. The local cargo offering approximates 1900 hales of wool, 11,000 carcases of meat, 100 casks of tallow, and the usual .sundries.

The presence of a large steamer in port yesterday acted as an inducement to many to pay an afternoon visit to the harbor, and notwithstanding that it was Sunday

and there were no shunting operations to interfere with a free passage across the railway lines, the new footbridge giving access to the foreshore, which has now been completed, was none the less looked upon as a much-needed convenience. The bridge is a neat structure of one span with easy-graded stairways, and the public will now be able to visit Oamaru's principal wharf by the nearest route without feeling that they are running a risk < f getting knocked down by a railway truck or of having to appear before the Stipendiary Magistrate to answer a charge of tresspass. From those who closely watch the trend of the potato market we learn that it is ■6omc years since such a large area, was devoted to the raising of the tuber in North Otago, the presence of a paddock of over 100 acres in the JOnh'eld district, besides others, having been mentioned as an example. On the T'otara Settlement we hear, also, that the farmers have gone 'n largely for potato cropping. The splendid orices realised during the past few years for potatoes have doubtless acted as an inducement to croppers to cultivate more | extensively ; and while a market existed in I the North Island . ney were perfectly safe in doing so. But at the present time the North Island creates no great demand, and as the Dunedin market is lieing supplied principally by growers south of that city there does not immediately appear that prospect of potatoes being such a payable proposition as was previously anticipated. There is not, anyhow, much likelihood of high prices ruling. Political party antipathy and jealousy run high in New Zealand at times; but tlie Old Country seems to be growing preeminent in this respect. To charge Mr Lloyd-George, of all others, with having averted' a 6tiit for divorce by paying £20,000, is so vicious as to make Mr Massey's attacks on the Prime Minister appear, by comparison, mere pleasantries. The following will play for the Oainaru Cricket Club against Timaru on Wednesday first (St. Patrick's Day), play commencing at 12 sharp :—Kev. Harriett, Borton, Calder, Jones, Mitchell, Mowbray, Muldoon, Ongiey (5), and Utt'ley. The following will ' play for the Timaru Club:—Bain, Brosnahan. Cox. Campbell, Douglas, Lynch (2), O'Callaghan (2), Overton, Rutherford. The New Zealand Times gives currency to a rumor that Mr T. H. 'Hamer, UnderSecretary of Mines, will shortly he resigning that position to take the place made vacant on the High Commissioner's staff in London by the resignation of Mr Walter G. Kennaway. Mr Hamer. has had a lengthy experience of the New Zealand public service, beginning in 1872, when he entered the Provincial Superintendent's office, Auckland: He entered, the Mines Department in 1878, rising to the position of chief clerk, and in 1891 became one of the late Mr Seddon's private secretaries. His appointment as Cnder-Secretary of Mines was made in 1906. Tlie salary attaching to the position of secretary to the High Commissioner is £BOO per annum.

In some parts of South Canterbury (says the Timaru Herald) a peculiar disease is at present playing havoc among the lamOs, and great loss has been suffered by some farmers in consequence. The disease does not confine itself to small or poor-con-ditioned lambs,- but attacks the bifr as well, and kills them in a, very short time. Change of feed and other remedies have been tried, but without success. By some it is considered that rust and dust on the

.rrass is at the bottom of the trouble am that it would disappear it we c<ml<l gel a nooil rain to clear ami freshen the pastures. Some farmers who were in, town on Saturday expressed their intention >.t ealline i" the services of a veterinary siir■.T„in to examine some of the dead kanibs. and thus ascertain if possible the cause and a remedy for the trouble. Uur Waimate correspondent writes: Auckland papers to hand show that the team from the Waimate Jfiro Briiiaile performed very creditably at the Association, meetings. In the liye-inen lu.se am reel Hat and ladder competition, with ' b teams Lompetimi, Waimate came eighth., their time lioiiiu 39 2-th sec, the winners time was 37 2-sth sec, while the standard ,s

'IOSCC. ..i, 1 ! Arc women luckier than moil. II would seem that they are, if the result ol the K;.im)o Hill ballot riin be_»vil;ilil islu-.i as a .standard. Of the oO sections included mi the settlement, 10 of them, or ooi l>c>' eeut., wove drawn bv women, and tins notwithstanding I hat female applicants contributed on' al.mit 20 ik-i- <■<'»«■■ '" <'»' total. ~ , , One of the successful applicants tor a r . mll „„ Ike Kuuroo Hill Settlement was „ot on Saturdav disposed to regard hi.s :.o(..l 'online with such jubilation aa «af l',i be expected from one who had In c.speciallv favored bv the Uoddcs.- ■'■• !.".•"• There were anv number of the m.appointd ones, however, envious en nigh to in -ilo competition for the despised allotment, md offers were made which would have made the applicant's lurk worth a good !,™i to him'in ready cash. But a" U"' utters were rejected, iiossibly owing to the fact that t'ue rides of the ballot pro hibit trulucking in the sections lor a nuniT'onstahlT l'enhalluriack late of Oamarti. has been appointed I h-rk ol the Magistrate's Court at Hriiiincrton. Regulations for deer shooting in the Wailaki .\cclinialisalion Society s olsiricl are gazetted. In reply to a cominunicalioii Iroin .Mr .John Duncan. M.l'. for Wairau. concern ing the position of Mrs llanuani, a survivor of the Penguin wreck. Hie I rime Minister (Sir .Joseph Ward) wrote: -"I am ill receipt of voiir letter of 19th l'cbruary. iu which you inform me of the sad conditio-! ill which Mrs llannani hnds lier.se I a. s a result of the recent disastrous wreck of the steamer Penguin. 1 regret, very much to hear tiiat, ill addition to being deprived of her husband and children, she is destitute, and her case is indeed hard. 1 note what von say as to its being a mailer in which the, Ooveriinicnt. niighl grant financial assistance, and may say I hat it has already been decided to give a. subsidy of £"for A! up to JJIOOO to Hie fund raised by the public for Ihe relief of sulfurors by the wreck. This subsidy,J am sure, yo'u will agree is a liberal one. The Borough Council nolilics in tins issue that proceedings are now being I alum to recover all outstanding fees for sum tarv service. As Hie lirsf batch of sum mouses will be issued on Wednesday, rate payors interested in the announcement should receive, the nolico advertised as a linal intimation'. The man who in an emergency wis oul to entertain his fellows to while .away tedium is generally a most insiillcrablc bore, however well-intentioned: but the passengers on the South-bound express mi Saturday night, side-tracked at a lonely siding for some two hours, were, fortunate above the usual. There was among their number ;m entertainer ol parts, who treated the company to a running lire >l raillery and quite bright- humor. Having ottered- at auction almost everything in sight, his eves lit on the engine. "Now lor the engine." he Baid, "how much am 1 oll'credV who'll set her going': .11 in oiierv met with no reply until sonic two hours later, when the driver gave her a start. There is no doubt lint, the solvation of the passengers and crew of the* liepublic was due to the agency of wireless telegraphy. Although (he. novelty ol the invention has worn oil', there remains something eerie in the idea of the uu seen messages travelling over trackless sea and land', "summoning help and bringing it in time from divers points of the compass. "There remains a dilliciiity which has an important bearing on the possi hility of this beneficent- work," writes Mr 11. \V. Lucv. "On the last homeward vovu-c 1 made from New York, the steamer, one of the largest of the C-unurd Line, was stricken by a furious gale, l-'or twenlv-eight hours the big ship lay to. helnloss a.s a cork, with great green seas washing over her. There were some momollis of peril when one thought grate l'ullv of the wireless telegraphy apparatus at the top of the mast, which only a h-w davs earlier I had used to send u hirewell despatch to a New York paper. When subsidence of the storm made it possible to reach the telegraph oilicc at the foot of the mast. 1 learned that during the height of the hurricane, the apparatus had'been blown clear away, and there was no possibility of repairing if in the teeth of the gale. This is obviously anatural, certainly a fatal, defect. In Hie case of the Republic, what the ship elnellv had to contend with was fog. In such circumstances wirelss telegraphy is a priceless boon., lint if the frail apparatus is to he the first wreckage on a. storin-dnvou ship, as was the case with us, its value decreases abvsmally." In discussing the assembling al Shanghai of the delegates, of the International Opium Commission, the, Shanghai correspondent of the London Times says : There is unqiirs lionable evidence from Consular Customs and missionary somes that- the production and consumption of the drug throughout China are diminishing : in some province's, in consequence- of ollicial pressure, in others as the result of the energy ol the local associations: There, may be thus seen, for once at least, Imperial decrees producing concrete results. At- the same time, the, habits of many officials in high positions who are confirmed opium smokers and the reckless encouragement of the use of so-called anti-opium medicines all'ord the usual spectacle of unorganised China al cross purposes with herself. Among the most serious aspects of the opium question which the Commission is bound to face is the fact that the anti-opium remedies almost without exception consist of morphia in one form or another. The clandestine importation of ami the trallic in this drug are known to have very greatly increased, with the result thatthe opium habit is giving place to a more insidious vice. Though the North Island Main Trunk line has barely been put- into operation, business is developing at a rate so rapid that the Railway Department's resource;; iu rolling stock are being taxed to I hint most (says the New Zealand Herald), and special arrangements have had to be made to concentrate all available wagons in the North. A big trallic iu coal from the Waikato to Southern towns, even as far away.-is Wanganui, bus sprung up, and to cope with it twenty-five new wagons have just been sent from Hillside workshops,' J)u nod in, another consignment of twenty-live is packed ready for shipment, and lifty more will soon be, dispatched to the busy Waikato. The Hon. ,f. A. Millar (Minister for Railways), who gave this information to a New Zealand, Times representative, said the timber trade was also developing, but at a, slower rate. A number of mills were starting again in the Main Trunk country. As for passenger traffic, the through line seemed to have already diverted most of tin; business from the West Coast steamers. It was his opinion that the Main Trunk line would immediately demonstrate itself a profitable investment to the Dominion. A complete rearrangement of the representative chamber in Parliament Building has been deckled upon by the t !overnment (says the New Zealand Times). The members of the Administration inspected the building on 'Thursday and decided to place the Speaker's chair against, the side wall instead, of at- the end of the room. Legislators will sit around the Speaker iu a wide half-circle, and thorn will be galleries at the back and at both ends, the old Legislative Council chamber being taken in to provide galleries for Legislative Councillors, the ladies, and the public. "Hansard" and the I'rcss will be accommodated at- the end of the Chamber where Mr Speaker formerly sat, ami a convenient writing-room is to lie tonne] for the newspaper representatives in the room used last session by the lion. C. C. Rowen, Speaker of the Council. Bellamy's will be made less inconvient by setting aside a special room for refreshments. The. alterations are to be carried out by the Public Works Department. Aged persons-aro peculiarly benefited by. Steam's Wine, as it possesses the stimulating properties of mellow old wins in addition to its value as a body buildor and strength rencwer. _ 7 Two more weeks of Penrose's Givingup Business Sale. As the end draws near, more desperate becomes the bargains. We have decided for the next two weeks to still further reduce the goods; everything imi6t be sold. Those who have not visited the sale should do so as early as possible. £ISOO worth of New Drapery and Clothing still left to be sold. Shop early and get the pick of the goods.—PENROSE'S Drapery Establishment.