SPORTING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5630, 27 November 1889, Page 3

SPORTING.

«. EXHIBITION RACE MEETING. Duxemx, to-day. The following are the results of the early events of the above meeting :— Hurdle Rack, 2 miles and a distance. Secretary 1 Ahua 2 Wardrobe 3 Won easily. Time, 4 mins. 24i sees. Divs. L2B 13s 6d and L 27 10s 6d. Exhibition Cup, 1$ mile. Occident 1 St. James ... ... ... 2 Wakatipu •'» British Lion has been sold to Mr Hungerford. MANCHESTER CUP. London, Nov. 24. The following is the result of the Manchester November Handicap, Cup course I mile 6 furlongs IDG yards : — Mr R. C. Vyner's Fallow Chat ... 1 Mr C. J. Blake's Conservator... ... 2 Mr H. T. Fenwick's Phil 3 Ringmaster, who ran, was nowhere. Stray dogs are seized in Birmingham, and after being poisoned are cremated in a furnace at the rate of fifty a day. There are 1200 persons of the name of Smith employed in the United States postal service. The manager of the old "Arthur Guinness, Son, and Company's " great Dublin brewery probably saw something in a namc,andasif it judged aman'saptitudefor business.for the staff contained a "Bet-re," a " Porter," and a " Bass." There are about 100 species of mosquito in the world, occurring in all clinics. Eight or ten species have been known to inhabit Englardfor more than 5} years — in fact, since they were first studied. No new .species to Britain have been recorded for more than 50 years. A French statistician makes out that "there is room for 115,000,000 people more in Europe, 1,336,000,000 more in Africa. 1,402,000,000 more in Asia, 515,000,000 in Oceania, and 2,000,000,000 more in North and South America." The incredible toil and squalid misery of the ordinary Persian peasant's life is endured w'th one object, which is to amass sufficient savings to enable him to go on pilgrimage to the Shiah shrines once in his life at least, which done, he becomes a beggar asain. — Spectator. The Federal Stock Exchange of Melbourne is to be wound up This was another venture of the boom. The shares, paid up to only 10s, were actually selling at one time as high as L 9. About a month ago the directors accepted an offer of Is Id for all shares forfeited for non-payment of calls.

From the general appearance of the vegetation, together with a discussion of the origin and relations of the flora, it is concluded by eminent botanists that Greenland is not a European province from the point of view of botanical geography, but has nearer relations to America.

The wife of Dr Barclay Thomson, a well-known medical man ill Melbourne, has died under very painful circumstances. She suffered severely from internal pains, and after trying several remedies unsuc cessfully, the doctor gave her chloroform. She developed grave symptoms, and shortly expired. Her husband was nearly demented She was quite a young woman, with two infant children, and a daughter ofMrDowling, M.L.C. She had taken chloroform twice previously without serious results.

Including .nearly 1,600,000,000 letters, the British Postofh'ce carried during the last postal year no less than a grand total of 2,363,000,000 letters, post-cards, book packets and circulars, newspapers, and parcels. As regards the parcel post, the parcels increased from 23,000,000 in 1884-85 to nearly 40,000,000 in 1888-89.

The New South Wales Railway Commissioners have already sent a cadet from the Government railway workshops to England to gain experience in the larger establishments of the old country, and the}' are now arranging to send three apprentices or improvers Home to gain a good knowledge of the latest and best railway practice regarding the construction, running, and repair of locomotive rolling stock, and other railway appliances. A stay of 18 months in England will be allowed, and L 3 per week will be paid in each case.

At Chafley Bros' irrigation settlement at Mildura, in Victoria, the pumping appliances arc upon a gigantic scale, one plant of 1000-horse power, in course of erection, being calculated to raise 120,000 gallons per minute to a height, of 20 feet. About 31 miles of main and 25 miles of subsidiary channels have been made, and 12 miles of wrought iron pipes laid. The land sold amounts to 7000 acres ; 3000 acres have been cleared, 2000 planted with vines and fruit trees, and (500 acres are under cereals, while 200 acres are being prepared for maize.

A resident of Foxton gives the subjoined returns of 1483 sheep sent Home by him recently per s.s. Aorangi. They atl'ord convincing pi'oof in favor of meet feezing : 490 carcases of mutton, weighing 32, 7631 b, realised LC93 14s ; 988 carcases of mutton, weighing 02, 685] b, L 1405 ; fat sold in the colony, L 72 15s Gd ; skins, LI 85 3s 4d ; total, L 2416 13s 3d. Charges : Consolidated rate covering all expenses in London, L 179 6s ; freight and primage, L 039 7s 6d ; marine insurance, L6l 7s (id ; freezing and bags, L 176 18s lid ; railage and driving, L7B 3s ; total, L 1144 2s 2d. Net return, L 1273 10s (id, or at the rate of 17s 2d a head on the station.

Tho time-honored adage of "stolen kisses " is borne out in the following interesting opinion of one of New Zealand's oldest and most respected settlers with regard to the drinking habits of the Maori. He says — " In '40, when a sailor offered a Maori rum he expressed disgust, and not one in a hundred would touch it ; but when Governor Hobson, with a somewhat rabid though well-intentioned zeal, provided a penalty of LSO for offering an aboriginal drink, the Maori reasoned that there must be some virtue in the liquor, and resented such a strongly-implied inequality of race. In six mouths after the proclamation of ' tapu ' on the grog, every Maori who could had tasted on the sly. How many with disastrous results is seen in their degeneracy to-day. " We commend the above "bit of human nature " to our temperance societies.

As a matter of fairness (says Dv n edin.Star) we Uave reprinted Mr Ballance's Napier speech in full, and, candidly speaking, his worst enemy could not have done him a more cruel injury. Its triviality and utter insanity must be an unwelcome surprise to the members of the Opposition. He propounds nothing, but disparages all that has been done, or left undone by the Government. "No case, abuse the other side," was the sage advice of the old lawyer to the young counsellor. Mr Ballance had acted on it, limiting his prolix and disjointed utterance to abusive criticism of the present Ministry. Someone has described literary critics as persons who have failed in authorship ; and, after reading this Napier speech, we shall feel justified in denning political critics as persona who have failed in statesmanship. The staunchest friend of the Atkinson Government must admit that they have made mistakes. But the worth of a Ministry must be gauged by generals, not particulars ; and so regarded ; public opinion ia strongly in favor of the present occupants of office. It is not yet forgotten how nearly Mr Ballanco and his colleagues plunged the colony in thegulf of financial ruin ; and no amount of carping criticism will induce the people of Xow

Zealand to ran the serious risk of displacing the Ministry that has rescue. l the colony from imminent danger, for the purpose of restoring the tail end of their predecessors to office.