Untitled

Opunake Times, Volume IV, Issue 184, 9 June 1896, Page 2

There was a very heavy fall of rain on Sunday night and Monday morning. The register showed for the 2i hours 3*12 inches. According to the present opinion of Ministers the general election will be held about the beginning of December.

Inspector McGovern is in town to-day, on his round of inspection of polioe stations along the Coast.

In 1885 the number of sentenced drunks in New Zealand was 1200, whereas the annual number has now fallen to 600, a decrease of 60 per cent in 10 years. Some mischievous person or persons have torn down the cautions against heavy traffic being carried over theNamu, Waiau, Mangahume, and Waiteika bridges, which are still unsafe for heavy loads. The s.s. Glenelg arrived on 7th June. [lmports : J. Banby, 5 pkgs; W. Pettigrew, 16 pkgs; E. Maxwell, 5 pkgs; J. Feaver, 2 pkgs; S. Cox, 80 pkgs; Newman Bros, 1 case.

The Brunner News gives publicity to rumors that several actions are to be brought against the Coal Creek Company by some of the widows who lost their husbands in the recent Brunnerton mine disaster.

Our Rahotu correspondent writes :—At the last meeting of the Public Hall Committee it wes decided to hold a concert and dance on the 26 th June, fuller particulars of which will appear in your advertising columns later on. The committee seem determined to leave no stone unturned in its endeavor to improve the building during its term of office. Mr Eussell, N.S.W. Government Astronomer, says he has been occupied for many years in making'an elaborate study of all the droughts recorded in history, and finds them all connected by law so definite that the prediction of future drought is rendered possible. Mr Eussell will publish the details shortly. The following tenders were received by Mr W. F. Eobinson, architect, for the erection of a seven-roomed dwelling for Mrs W. Fowler: H. Sinclair (ca: centering and painting), £7O; George Dobbie (carpentering only), £57; C. B. Sims, £sl 10s 6d (accepted). Painting and papering—J. Eatock, £l2 ; McDonald and Eussell, £ll 15s (accepted).

A most sensational suicide occurred recently in Birmingham. A -man named Thomas Anderson suffered so incessantly from toothache that he blew out his brains with a rifle, pulling the trigger by means of a string loop in which he iuserted his foot. lie left a letter which said, " The toothache made me do it. I'd rather die than stand it any longer, so here goes. Good-bye." The English Derby, run at. Epsom, was won by H.E.H. Prince of Wales' Persimmon, St. Frusquin 2, Earwig 3. It was won by a neck after a most exciting race. Time, 2min 42sec. Four-fifths of a second between the second and third horse. Loate3, rider of St. Frusquin,. broke a stirrup-leather during the last struggle. Tremendous cheering greeted the Prince of Wales, and it lasted for a quar. ter of an hour.

Mr P. Galvin, who is well known in this district, started the first, paper in Opunake, called the Egmont Courier, is about to assume the editorial chair and management of the Hawera Morning Post. Mr Galvin also originated the Hawera Star, so that he is coming back to friends who hold him in high estimation. For the past six years he ha% been conducting the Yea Chronicle in Victoria, where the people appear to be very sorry to part with him. We, with his many friends in this district, wish him every success in his new undertaking.

The New Zealand Times claims (says the Taranaki Herald) to be the first paper in New Zealand to inaugurate illustrated daily journalism, and asks " What do you think of it ? " What do we think of it ? Well, unless the Times can do better than give its readers a portrait of Baron Hirsch six weeks after his death, we think it should not blow too much. Why, the Taranaki Herald o*fn beat thaf, for we published a portrait of the late Baron with the news- of his death so long ago as April 25th." What we think is, that it is a good job for both of them that the Baron is dead, and that none of his relations are ever likely to see either paper.