NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume V, Issue 554, 8 October 1897, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Apropos to the tortures alleged to have boon inflicted upon Mr A. 11. Savago Landor by Thibetans the Post gives tho following interesting particulars of tho victim and the country in which ho was maltreated : “ Mr Landor is an artist and traveller well known in tho Far East. Ho is inclined to be rather impulsive in his actions, and perhaps a little artificial in his expressions. The Thibetans, although they firmly resist all attempts on the port of white “barbarians” to reach thoir Buddhist capital, are a mildmannered people, who have never before used such yiolonco described in yostorday's telegrams to an inoffensive traveller. Lhassa lias long been tho goal of enterprising explorers in Central Asia, but no white man has sot foot on it since tho day of tho Abbe Hue, who reaohod it in 1846, but was soon after expelled from tho city at tho instance of tho Chinese Resident, and oscorted back to his mission at Canton. Thibotis the centre of one of tho most elaborate formsof Buddhism that exist. There arc two spiritual rulers in tho land, both of whom are supposod to be re-incarnations of thoir predecessors. Tho superior of theso two “ living Buddhas ” is tho Dalai Lama, who holds his Court at Lhassa. In 1854 tho Lamas wore obligod to acknowledge Chinosc suzerainty, anil sinco that time the country has beon evon more rigidly closed to foreigners. Owing to tho difficulty experioncod by Europeans in their attempts to explore it, tho Anglo-Indian Government instituted about 1865 a systom of Bonding pundits, or educated Indians, to survey southern parts of the country. Tho pundits in the south, and Piejevalski and other Russians in the north, have now given to geography a fairly accurate rectification of tho maps and descriptions of many districts first surveyed by the JuHiiits in tho 18th century. In 1889-00 M. Uonvalot and the fire-eating Rrir.ce Henry ol' Orleans traversed part of Thibet during thoir famous journey from Kudja, in Mongolia, to Tonquin. In 1891 Captain Hamilton Bower, of the Indian Intelligence Department, and Dr Thorold crossed part of Thibet, but without reaching the neighborhood of Lhassa. Two years later Mr Uockhill, at one time American Secretary of Legation at Bakin, made his second attempt to reach Lhassa, but, although speaking the language and well disguised, be was turned back when about a day’s journey from the goal of his ambition. In 1890 Mr and Mrs

Littledale, with Mr Fletcher, crossed Thibet from north to south, but were stubbornly opposed by the natives in their attempts to reach Lhissa, and MrSjLittledale's illness compelled them to retreat when within 40 miles of the city. Thus, Mr Landor only adds one more to the list of unsuccessful adventurers who have striven to solve the mysteries of the Dalai Lama's home.

Here is an example of how “ wild cats " are worked in Westralia:— “ The petition for the winding up of tho West Australia (gold district) Trading Corporation was being enquired into when the la3t English mail left. This company took over the affairs of the W.A. (gold district), Trading Syndicate. A certain C. D. N. Grant was sent out as manager, and shortly after he arrived he suggested business in galvanised iron. Three months before any shipment came, however, he received this coded cablegram : “ There will be a meeting shortly, statutory. Suggest telegraph me (us) as follows : 1 Transactions are enormous. Continue shipments steadily; expect profits to be £25,000.’ ” To which lie replied : “ Yesterday I received a cable from you suggesting that I should actually telegraph a deliberate mis-statement of facts to blind the shareholders. You know full well the ‘ transactions are enormous ’ is utterly false. How can they bo when no goods have arrived; and even if they had arrived I have no money to pay dock charges.” The managing director denied to tho Court that he had ever sent the oable message; but ho admitted that the prospectus on which the corporation was formed stated that the syndicate had ‘ declared a dividend at the rate of 100 per cent, per annum,’ whereas all the profits were ‘only anticipated,’ no substantial trading having actually been done ; also, that at the first meeting of the corporation he had told the shareholders that £BOO,OOO worth of goods had been shipped, whereas m reality the syndicate and corporation together had shipped only £27,000 worth. The enquiry was adjourned.

The Hon. H. J. Miller has been re elected speaker of the Legislative Council. The first number of Hansard for the present session is to hand. Master John R. Cade has been appointed pupil teacher at Mangatainoka. According to the Foxton Telegraph, Mr C. Sullivan, of that town, has been left a legacy of £2OOO. The sum of £1,600 cash for a forty acre section was recently refused at Greytown. Those who require catalogues of Mr Crewe’s sale can obtain them by applying either to him or at this office.

The Masterton Permanent Investment and Building Society has loans at the present time amounting to £25,81516s 10. Tie total length of roads maintained by the Government in the Wellington district last year was 217 miles 781 chains.

Tho report of the Department of Lands and Survey this year is very voluminous. It contains no less than 220 pages. A company for the supply of pure milk is being formed in Wellington. This sounds somewhat rough on the existing milk vendors. The baptism service is held at Carterton once a month at St. Mark’s church. At the last service a baker's dozen were sprinkled in one batch. The Danevirke people are asking the Government to purchase the whole of the Tamaki block for settlement purposes.

Two syndicates, with headquarters at Christchurch and Dunedin respectively, have offered a good round sum in cash and some thousands of paid-up shares for the Maliarahara copper mine.

The Catholics in Palmerston subscribed £lO last Sunday for the Irish Famine Fund, which sum has been remitted by Father Patterson to Archbishop Croke, Cashel, Ireland.

Mr E. Knight, Mangahao, offers 10s reward for the recovery of a young dog, lost between J. Knight's, Mangahao, and Pahiatua. For particulars see advertisement. Mr O’Meara is to ask the Government if it is its intention to introduce legislation which will enable the Advanoes to Settlers Department to reduce the rate of interest on past and future advances? We (Observer) hear that an extensive deal in horse flesh took place on a station not a hundred miles from Gladstone tho other day, 300 horses changing hands for £SO. Potatoes, it is said, are a cure for gout' The working people in Ireland, who live chiefly on the potato, never suffer from this dreadful complaint. In some parts of Central and South Africa a single firefly gives so much light that it Illuminates a whole room. The British residents catch them in order to find the matchbox or lamp.

A man was fined £8 and costs at Nelson the other day for supplying a prohibited person with liquor. The prohibited one was lined £5 for daring to quench his thirst with stimulants. Tho following cable has beon received by the Agricultural Department from the Agent-General in London ;—Butter 98s. market not favorable ; cheese, 475. market dropping. The finest complexions in tho world are said to bo in tho Bermudas. This is accounted for by tho fact that the inhabitants live chiefly on onions, of which thoy export over 17,000,000 pounds annually. Sugar ought to carry double freight on tho New Zealand coast after this. Four hundred tons which went down in the Tasmania represented a former 400 tons ruined by tho bursting of a steam pipe of tho Westralia. —Sydney Truth. Says the Hawera Star : —Mr A. Peterson, Meremere, discovered a kiwi sitting on eggs the other day, ono of tho eggs weighing over lib. Kiwi birds, though recognised ns being rare, are fairly numerous in tho Mercinero district.

The Wairoa County clerk is in a predicament over tho collection of taxes amongst tho Maoris. In one block there are over ono hundred owners, and the total rate for the block is 3Ad. Tho natives interested object to pay unless tho rate is divided proportionately. Hence tho trouble.

During tho last financial year (he sheep despatched from the various railway stations in tho Wairarapa numbered as follow : - Kketahuna, 33,580 ; Mauriceville,s,l42 ; Mastortcn, 108,103; Carterton, 41,480; Greytown, 714; Foathorston, 103,111. Feuthorston heads the list for the Colony. With this issuo will bo found a carefully totalled price list of groceries procurable at the W.F.C.A,, Puhiatua, for cash. It gooa without saying that tho housewife who regulates her pur chases by tho prices quoted will be aide to swell tho amount on the credit side of tho savings bank book. Tho Minister of Railways states that the 7 a.in. train from Pahiatua has a carriage with seating accommodation for fifty passengers, but at Masterton, for ecomic reasons, the carriage is put off, tho seating in tho guard's van being ample for tho requirement* of tho traffic between Masterton and Cross’ Creek. Should additional accommodation bo necessary, however, tho car will be sent on from Muotcrtou. I