Untitled

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7544, 27 January 1896, Page 3

The People, a Wellington publication, makes the astounding statement that " certain police officers in different parts of the colony are in tho pay of, or rather levy blackmail of, spielers," and asserts that the charge amounts to £5 a day. It declares that it has " the very best authority for drawing attention to serious charges which show that the recent story of police corruption and blackmail in New York is repeating itself iv Now Zealand." The fever to which Prince Henry of Batteuburg succumbed is thus described by a London paper : — The fever steals upon its victim before he know 3 that anything is amiss. A native gives up his hut, and the hot and tired traveller enters. Within an hour he is down with fever ; his head throbs ; his skin is dry and burning ; his body feels as though it had been beaten with sticks ;■ he is as sick as a Calais boat could make him in a mid-winter gale ; for a couple of days the fever holds him fast ; now better, now worse — but every time he lifts himself from his wretched bed a little weaker, everything about him seems negatived by this poison — drink ceases to satisfy thirst — sleep bocomes a time of terror, for long, long dreams of endless toil crowd upon him as ho lies, while still the presence of pain is unfelt. At last the fever leaves him for a time ; then comes the moment for the quinine. And after four or five days he rises weak as though 20 days of English illness had passed over him, while voice and limb falter at their work, and all wish for good seems to have vanished for ever. Such, on the best authority, is West African fever, when it comes on in the bush. In the last Ashanti expedition nearly every officer of Sir Garnet Wolaeley's staff had some experience of this fever, and the General himself did not escape. The number of those who escaped altogether was wonderfully small. With the present expedition hospital marquees are being taken out for standing hospitals, such as that for which provision has already been made at Mansa, midway on the road from Capo Coast Castle to Prahsu. Huts built on the native plan, roofed with broad leaves, and having raised benches on which beds may be placed, will probably be found better than teuta. A timely rescue of a boatload of castaways was effected by tho mission steamer John Williams on her voyago to tho Samoan gronp. The vessel had just arrived off the group when a boat, apparently in distresa was observed. Captain Hore bore down, and on getting alongside found the craft was full of native men, women and children. On boarding the steamer they stated that they hid left Saluafata with two other boats for Tutuila, and when midway between Upolu and Tutuila a heavy breeze set in, causing tho boats to separate. The people picked up by tho John Williams were fast being carried seawards, and were in grout distress. They had run completely out of food, and were in a starving condition. Captain Hore landed them safely at Apia. The Hokitiku Guardian of the 13th instant has tho following : — " There has been a very strong feeling ot resentment iv town during tho past day or so, when two officers of the Income Tux Department havo been overhauling the books of a number of our townspeople. Thfi feeling of indignation is natural under the circumstances, as no bu&iness man wishes his books overhauled and his private affairs scrutinised. It seems, too, that nob merely a superficial scrutiny will suffice, but the smallest expenditure has to be accounted for, and those who havo not been in the habit of keeping their private and business expenditure separate have had to answer many irritating questions. Some amusing yarns arc tolcl regarding this scrutiny. Ouo large storekeeper was reprimanded because ho had not kept an account of stores which went to his ptivtitc houbo ; another merchant was called on to account for a half-crown deficiency in his cash, and had to admit that it was balanced by a liquid asset in tho form of five drinks ; another was told his system of book-keeping was unsatisfactory, and he should employ a clerk. In fact, if a tithe of what is tokl is truo, wo are all to bo submitted to a cross-examination far stiictcr than that of a hostile creditor at a bankruptcy meeting. Some good-humorcdly regard this iia v joka, but the majority don't like it, and nothing the government |iave yet done will stir up such feeling againal tliom at the coming elections us thi3 notion of the Income Tux Department." W. H. Nelson, who is in tho drug business (it Kingville, Mo., lias :o much conildeuco in (.'liumberlain's Colic, Cholcrn and Djarrhcea Remedy that ho warrants every botlle, and oilers tp refund tho money to uny customer who is not Butislied after using it. Mr Nelson tftkca no risk in dohif; tliia, bceauae the Remedy is a certain cure tor tho diseases for which ii. is intended, nnd ho knows it. — It in for isula by 14 . D, .Smith, wholesale aud retail agent, --AdvC.

At the picnic to celebrate the settlement of the Wairarapa Lake difficulty a Maori chief, Ngatuere, weighing a neat twentynine stone, was present. The Premier, in tho course of a speech, referred to the fact thus happily :■-" It was said that wherever there was a banquet the Premier would be found in the middle of it. Bub although he had been at some banquets, the Maori friend to whom he alluded must have been at many more, or else there was a fattening property in the eels that came from the Wairarapa Lake such as he had never known. (Laughter and applause.) If that were so, then in time the Wairarapa Lake would come to be known as one of the sanatoriums of New Zealand. (Laughter.)" A second billiard match of 500 up between S. Pell and Wilkinson (of Gisborne) was played in Auckland on Tuesday night last, the local player again conceding the visitor 100 points start. Pell reversed tho previous result by defeating his opponent by 118 points, he scoring the full 500 as against the 252 compiled by Wilkinson. There is some talk of a deciding contest, both players having placed a game each to their credit. — Herald.