NEWS OF THE DAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5577, 24 September 1889, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Harry Riekards with a largo company is doing this colony. The Lid Hutton, who stabbed his schoolmate Blom, has been committed to trial. \Viiip:i\va (H. 8.) was cnfctv on Friday, when a lire brigades demonstration took place. A new threepenny post-card for Australian service will bo issaod in England this month. A new township named Scarborough is being formed and built near Pahuibia, the bush settlement. A new iudustry, in the shaoe of the manufacture of waterproof goods.has been commenced in Dunedin. There is much growling in Ireland over the action of the Irish members of Parliament in voting for the royal grants. Mr H. Hill, Inspector of Schools, delived a most interesting lecture at Napier on Friday on "The Hot Lake District of New Zealand." A proposal to lease the hulk Edwin Fox for refrigerating purposes in Lyttelron I has fallen through for the present, for want of sufficient guarantee of support. Makaore who was found guilty of the Mahia murder, is, says a Napier paper of last week, to be ex*cuted on Saturday next at 8 o'clock. The wine cellars of California are so full that there will not be room for this season's crop, and grapes will be cheap in consequence. Sailing vessels for New Zealand are filling up rapidly, especially those bound for Auckland and Dunedin. The Invercargill, which sails to-day, had to shut out 100 tons of cargo.— London correspondent. During the first six months of the yea* 5015 horses, valued at 1/531, 518, have beeft exported from "England and 5732 horses, valued at Li 35,399, imported. During the last twelve months (JSB pedigree shorthorns were exported. The Botany Handicap, of 525 soys, was run off at Sydney on Sept. 9th, the final heafc resulting as follows : — W. H. Williams (22yds) 1, J. Morris (27yds) 2, D. H. Bushell (22iyds) 3, J. Dooley (30yds) 4. The winner covered 128 yds in 12sec. Elizabeth Tier has been awarded L 375 damages by a Sydney jury against J. R. Clinch, a prominent business man, for slander. The plaintiff was unmarried, and the defendant had slandered her by saying that she had gone to San Francisco to become the mother of an illegitimate child. A stupid blunder, which caused some anxiety, was made by a Napier paper on Thursday. The schooner Dunedin, bound for Auckland and the Kermadecs, had taken a long time to reach the former port, and the lino which was published, " The schooner Dunedin has been sighted on lire," was given credence to. It should have read that the schooner Dunedin was sighted off Tiri. A remarkable instance of the voracity 6f the black shag is to be seen at Mr M' Williams' shop, Colombo-street (says the Lyttelton Times) in the shape of two of the common herring or mullet taken from the throat of a black shag shot by Mr Charles Lewis. The two fish are Him and llin in length, and in addition to these there were two others about equal in si^e in the creature's gullet. The revenue of the New Zealand railways for four weeks ending 17th August was L 71,73s 5s 4d, and the expenditure L 50,346 2s 7d, or 62-95 per cent of revenue. The returns for the same period of last year were - Revenue, L 63.787 19s lid ; expenditure L 48,456 4s od, or 67 01 per cent of revenue. The total revenue of tlie present financial year up to the above date amounts to L 400.270 11s 9d, and for the same period last year the total was L:J73,1()2 10s lOd. This shows that our railways are certainly improving in their revenue-producing powers. — Wellington Times. During the recent race week at Newmarket there was some high play in the evenings at TiOi-<l Lurgan's, whither most of the smart young men usually adjourned after dinner. The Prince of Wales was present one night and took a bank at baccarat with Baron Hirsch. The pair were very lucky and won L 22.000 altogether, the chief loser being LordLurgan. H.R.H. seemed to regret having been led into the business afterwards, and solemnly bound over all present to secrecy. Lord Lurgan's servants were also se-verely cautioned. Nevertheless, the facts leaked out and were town talk in High street and on the Heath the following afternoon. A Special Settlement Association has been formed to take up a block of 5000 acres in the Mangahao (near Woodville) survey district. The Association are a lot of stalwart young men from Banks Peninsula, and the block is to be allotted on the condition that they shall reside on the land. These men would desire no better home ; they were born in the bush, and their first ambition was to fell a tree. Just notice this the latest testimony to the value of advertising -.—Two Life Assurance offices doing business in this colony spend a certain portion of their takings in advertising. The one spending 50 per cent, more than the other finds the business for the year has cost less than its rival by 32 7 per cent, on its total receipts. This saving meant L 54,000 for the spending of L 193 in advertising. An important discovery of coal has been made about 85 miles from Melbourne, close to the Gipj island railway line. Coal was struck at 55ft from the surface, and the augur passed through 100 ft of coal, and is still going darker and denser as the bore goes deeper. The discovery proves a huge bed of coal, extending for some five miles in area, with a thickness of at least 100 feet. A syndicate has taken up two square miles of the country, and arrangements have been made to further test the ground. Discoveries of coal have been rather numerous of late, and, if they continue, Victoria will be to some extent independent of New South Wales for her coal supply. We (Hawera Star) have been shown some returns of frozen beef which left this district a few months ago, and which sold in London at 4Jd for hindquarters and 3|d for fore-quarters. The average price was just about 4d per lb. The charges absorbed about 2^d per lb, but the skin and offal were worth about 19s. The heifers averaged 6251bs each. The net result was equal to from 15s to 16s per lOOlbs to the grower at Hawera. There are ti few forequarters the returns for which have not yet come to hand, but they will not greatly affect the result. At a moderate estimate these heifers will return about £'4 10s a head, and they would not have fetched more than L 2 15s in Hawera at the time they were shipped away. A determined attempt at suicide was . made on board the R.M.S. Victoria just after she got out of Port Phillip Heads on Friday week. It was noticed that there was a man in the water. The second oilicer of a schooner near and Pilot Stewart jumped into a boat and pulled towards him. The man, seeing they were coming to his rescue, swam away from them as vigorously as he could, and tried to give them the slip. He was dragged into the boat by main force, and the boat then headed for the Victoria, which had stopped and was backing astern to meet it. The Victoria had cleared away her own boat, and had thrown life-buoys towards the spot where the would-be suicide had jumped in. As the boat was being pulled along the man went over again, and was again dragged in. He appeared to be in a high state of excitement from drink or some other cause. On getting near the Victoria he made another attempt to break away from his rescuers, but the second mate of the Mavis, a man of powerful physique, held him in his gra--p until a rope was passed round him. and he was hoisted upon deck.

A large emigration from Scotland if now going to Chili. London's policemen number 14,247 ; hackmen, 14,267. Ireland has a prospoct of tho most abundant harvest for years. There are 2272 soldiers six feet or over in height in tho British army. A few Sundays asfo the youni^ E'irl of Dudley lost £10,000 at cards in "Paris. The Peace Problem of Euro-ie — "I wonder if the other fellow's gun 'is roil 1 v loaded ?"— Puck. There are 342,000 miles of railroad in operation in the world, of which 181,000 are in America. Under tho new scheme of Imperial defence the native Indian States will furnish 30,000 troops, mostly cavalry. With a population of 6,000,000 Belgium has 150,000 places where beer and other liquors are sold. A woman's proper figure on the modern plan is said by tho English authorities to be of twenty-eight inches about the waist and thirty-six about the bust. A movement has been started in England to restrict the output of iron. It is claimed that the present supply is far in excess of the demand. She — What does a Chinaman call his sweetheart, I wonder? He— Dovey, I suppose. You know they speak pigeon English— N.Y. Sun. Last Year the Argentine Republic shipped 945,000 tons of corn. This year it will go above 2,000,000 tons. This is owing to the rapidly increasing immigration. Clearly explained — Omaha Teacher— l would like some one oi the class to define the meaning of vice versa. Bright BoyIt's sleeping with your feet toward the head of the bed. The sum which Messrs Longmans, the London publishers, have greed to pay to Dr Nansen for* bis forthcoming book on his experiences in Greenland is L 2,500. The English Lord's Day Observance Society has begun a vgiorous effort against the cheap Sunday travel offered to the public by the various railways running out of London. The girl of the day at the seaside arranges her bathing suit as a compensation for the ball dress of last winter, which was very Bhort at the top. Passenger elevators having electric Motors are much in use in England, the Bank of England being the last to utilise their electric plant for such a purpose. " I have lived among the Arabs for ten years," writes an Englishman to a London ' paper, " and have yet to find one who has the least honesty, decency, or Christianity." The antiquity of dolls has lately been proved at Borne, where there was found in a sarcophagus, containing the -skeleton of a young girl, a wooden doll with jointed arms and legs. English society is making an attempt tc introduce a new dance, on this plan ; foui paces are made as though a march were intended, and each gentleman embraces his lady and. waltzes with her for foui bars, then resuming pacing. Repeat. Christianity increases in Japan at about 500 addition per month. Twenty years ago there was not a public periodical in Japan. Now there are more than five hundred of various kinds, and most of these favorable to Christian civilisation. A committee of "scientists and philosophers," Italian and foreign, has met at Milan with the object of instituting anew " National Church." Their first step has been to draw up a catechism, and to invite adherents through a manifesto addressed to parents, students and public officers. The manufactory at Noisiel turns out about forty million pounds of chocolate a yoar. The thin paper with which the cakes are covered costs L 20 ,000 per annum, and the work of wrapping up the cakes gives employment to six hundred women. Dancers from Egypt and Siam and various other places have been performing in the Paris Exposition, but the gipsy dancers from the slope of the Alhambra in Granada practice such movements and poslnrres - tliatreTeTrthe Parisians think it won't do. It costs England a great deal of money " to spread civilisation to the earth's remotest bounds," as Lord Salisbury expressed it in his congratulatory speech the other day. The seventy-four English Bhips-of-war in the review off Southhead recently represented £30,000,000 in gold. Four new States were added to the American Union on Independence Day— - Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana — and in recognition of the fact four new stars have been added to the flag of the nation. The national ensign therefore now consists of 42 stars and 13 stripes. An Oklahoma hack driver purchased two lots on the day after the opening, from men who decided there never would be a city, and who were going away in disgust. For one he paid lOdol, and for the other he traded a well worn sixshooter. One of the lots he has since sold for llOOdol, and he is holding the sixshooter lot for ISOOdol. A correspondent of the London Standard states that as some men were working in tho Harvey seam of the East Howie Colliery, they came across a live toad. The writer adds: — "The length of the body is three inches ; it has no mouth, and appears to live entirely upon the air, which it breathes freely. It can hop and crawl about." A Portsmouth correspondent writes : — " In order to test the quality of the bayonets now being served out to the troops, a number of weapons were ' indiscriminately selected from among those in use by the In'niskillen Fusiliers, and some sensation was occasioned in the garrison when the report from the testing expe rts in London was received notifying that 60 per. cent of the bayonets were totally unfit for use." An old well-known landmark of London is for sale — Millbank Prison. It may now be had as a going concern by any wealthy colonist who wishes to obtain a baronial castle on the banks of the classic Thames, and who is not particular as to the style of architecture. Its chief value lies in its site, and in this case the site is an immense one. The County Council have offered the land for the erection of workmen's buildings. Rather a peculiar incident is recorded by the "Waikato paper, which recently asserted that the curiosity of calves is wellknown, but it was not often that it led to commit suicide. Such, however, was the case a short time back with four of Mr Karl's calves. They found out a quantity of tea lead, <tnd experimented on it as an article of diot, their experiment terminating fatally. The symptoms before death are somewhat peculiar, the animals seemingly become blind, and rush sound in circles, gradually reduced in size until tho victims fall dead. In one case a post mortem examination was made, and about a teacup full of lead was found in the stomach. The Ballarat Courier had a most extraordinary experience lately. All editors of newspapers know the aspect of the individual who comes, stem of visage and desperate of resolve, to the office with that morning's paper in his hand ; and one such meandered in recently. He had, as it proved, just cause of complaint, but happily it could be easily rectified. He began : " See here, mister, this is no way to run a paper. Where are your reporters?" "What's the matter?" demanded the editor. " Look here, I was on a regular old-fashioned tear-up the day before yesterday, got drunk and was locked up. Yesterday the beak fined me' five bob, and — and — " (here he grew stern and reproachful) — " there is not a word about it in your paper. They won't believe me when I go back to the station that I had any kind of time at all." Tho editor confessed that it was disheartening, and mollified him with a promise of more attention on his next occasion.

Since the review of last year England has added about 20 vessels to her navy, sonvi of them of immense power. The quotation from the Timber Trades Journal of last mail finds its answer in a subsequent issue of that paper. It appears that tlie largo logs of kauri which it prophesied would never be sold, were ictti illy sold at tint time. " Seeing them still iv the shads," says tho repentant editor, " an I knowing that thoy have been fchery since tin* middle of 1886, we naturally supposed them to be still on hind, and regret that we inadvertently made the mistake. It is rather a matter of surprise that Australian woods are not more pushed in this country. . . . They are practically impervious to dry rot, and | therefore well adapted for any work where it has to rest jon the bare ground. . . . Instead of our Australian friends waiting for the trade to come to them, they should push the timber on the market here, and establish a demand, even if they have to be out of pocket at first. For wood paving, and any permanent roadway, better timber could not be found." Commenting on the New Zealanc Thames Valley Company, the Capitalist says:— "This company appears to be a highly respectable organisation, dragging along a weary and unprofitable existence as a result of having been enticed into paying far too big a price for its ' whistle. ' The original scheme was to take up 250,000 acres in the North Island at LI 10s per acre, probably five or six times it 3 real value. The overburden of capital broke down the scheme, and a new arrangement was arrived at with tho vorajious vendors in ' '85,' which reduced the xmount of land to be purchased, and the price to 2s Gd per acre. That this was a yery inadequnte compromise is evident trom the present condition of affairs. The losses are at the rate of over LSOOO a year. But there still remains a balance of Lloo,poo to be called^ up, and as long aa. the funds hold out matters will probably go on drifting."' This is Max O'Rell's description of French love making: As soon as two young French people are in love they want to die unless their parents immediately consent to the marriage, which is very seldom the case. Of course they never do die. - They live all the while, and are almost inclined to think that, in love matters, plain sailing is not so sweet or so romantic as obstacles to overcome. What lovely letters crossed love suggests to them. Letters invariably written at midnight — French lovers never write by day — midnight, "when all is in repose around them." Letters full of "All is known, we are lost ! What will became of us ? Ah ! forget me as soon as you can ;we shall never be each other's. As for me, I shall die of it, I know I shall. Then you will marry another woman. I will pray in Heaven for your happiness. Perhaps now and then you will come to the cemetery and lay a bunch of violets on my tomb. You know, beloved one, that violets are my favorite flowers. You won't forget than, will you ? Farewell ! ' When the Frenchman in love has an opportunity of making a viva voce declaration to the mistress of his heart, he generally sets about it in a~ theatrical ashion. " Mr Wilson, chief engineer of the Midlaud Railway Company, in an interview at Christchurch on September 11, states that he is going to let contracts at once up to Reefton, and towards Lake Brunner, and those for work at tho Springfield end as soon as he can get tenders out. As to the line at Belgrovo, he will call for tenders as soon as he can get the surveys and plans completed. Regarding the land on the West Coast, he is going to offer every facility for settlement upon it, of course at a fair price. Every inducement will be given to bona fide settlers, 'for' said Mr Wilson, *it must be borne in mind that settlement is what we want. It is to our interest to rush on the work as quickly as possible; that is what lam going to do. JChatis Jbhe_ sum -and. -substance of the policy of the Company. With regard to the work at the Springfield end, I am now discussing the details with Mr Napier Bell. It will take a little time to get things straightened, but it is only a question of a weeek or ten days before the advertisements will be got out. There is a delay on account of having to deal with matters that are more immediately pressing. As far as we are concerned a delay of a day is a matter of regret, as we are most anxious to get everything out and done with. lam here with the object of spending money as quickly as we possibly can. The Napier Telegraph says :— lt has been suggested that if every elector were compelled to watch the proceedings of Parliament for a whole week during session I time that it would tend greatly j;o an i improved selection of members when a general election came round. It would be necessary for the thorough Parliamentary education of the elector that lie should not miss a minute of each day's proceedings. He should have a mentor by his side to point out to. him the different members, and the motives Which actuate their speeches. He should be told that because the member for A strenuously opposed a useless railway, a valuable public work that he desired for his «^£ part of the country was stonewalled, Neither should he be left in ign»rance that because the member for B was personally unpopular, a useful measure that he introduced was thrown out. .The enquiring elector would be " full up " of Parliament in a week, and while wondering how any independent man could be induced to waste his time by becoming a member, he would discover how large a part of the littleness of human nature enters into the legislation of the country. Give to every elector this experience of our Parliament, and the chances are that there would be a universal demand for the abolition of the institution on its existing basis.