SPORTING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7810, 24 December 1896, Page 3

SPORTING.

SATURDAY'S RACES. \ — — To elioit the winners at the G.R.C.'a Boxing Day meeting ia not the easy task some people might imagine, and even the man at the corner who ia invariably " in the know " Scratches hU head and vainly endeavors to discover that which Mr Bennett has so cleverly hidden. In making my selections I claim no gift of propheoy, but do so after due consideration of what, in the ordinary course of events, and fitness of the horses engaged, should be near or near about the results : — Flying Handicap : Huna. . Disposal Stakes : Paki Paki. Hubdles : Disturbance. Hack Hurdles : Charcoal. Fabk Handicap : Strowan. Hack Flat : Free Lance. Old Sport.

Mr Samuel has informed the Taranaki Herald that the oil well would, he considered, be a payable one, -but there was nothing to .warrant! anyone thinking that it would be productive of wealth like a good gold mine. It would, he added, be necessary to have eight suoh bores in order to establish a refinery, and this, of course, would mean the expenditure of some £16,000. Mr Samuel Baid he meant to show that there was no prospect of sensational spouting wells, but ' the oil that would be won from the earth ' would entail the expenditure of a fair - amount of capital. Ad elopement possessed of some romantic features is reported from Masterton. A laborer, who is a hard-workiDg, industrious fellow, had befriended a man with a broken leg. He had not the slightest reason to doubt the fidelity of his wife or to Buspect the bonajides of the one he had befriended. On .Thursday last he left home as usual, wiahing his two children, to whom he is foDdly attached, good-bye. In the evening, worn out with a hard day's work at haymaking, he returned to his home for his meal. To his intense surprise he discovered that bis house was empty. ' His wife and children bad gone, and so had the one to whom he had acted the pact of the good Samaritan. ,The feelinga of the husband, when he realised how he had been betrayed, can be better imagined than described. A petition, bearing 10,000 signatures, was . ' presented to the Governor of South Australia last week, asking him to cause the inquiry into the management; of the Adelaide hospital to be made by a board, to consist of a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia or neighboring colony, or the Commissioner of Insolvency of South Australia. Sir Fowell BuxtoD said he could give no definite reply to the petition without consulting his Ministers. On November 7 a fire, which in a very Bhort while assumed enormous proportions and attracted thousands of persons from all parts of London, broke out in Blackfriars. The premises attacked consisted of the large factory occupied by Messrs Shand, Mason, and Co., the well-known fire engine and appliance manufacturers. Three hundred and fifty tire-engines, two floats, (for Bombay and Madagascar), and some 37,000 feet of hose were destroyed. The Daily News' Vienna correspondent writes : — " One of the patients of Professor Ejafft Ebing, who. occupies the Chair of . Mental Diseases at the Vienna University, ■ on October 31st delivered a lecture before the professor's students, speaking for an hour. The patient sufferß from periodical seizures, which return every year, and will end in permanent madness. During theee attacks, according to the above-named specialist, he is much cleverer and wittier thftn in his sane condition, When the - patient was introduced in the lecture room be mounted the platform with a grave air. The professor asked him what subject he wonld lecture upon, and he replied " Upon 'The Mental Condition of the Maniac in Periodical Attacks of Madness.' " The audi- . enceoften interrupted thespeaker with sincere applause, and when there was laughter at his witty remarks he looked flattered. He left the platform with grace and dignity and returned to bis ward. The professor told the audience that at college he had had a fine record." Within the past few months four solicitors enjoying the best reputations within and - outside the profession have levanted, writes a Glasgow paper. The first was the Glasgowand Paisley accountant, MrAbercrombie, with over £50,000 ; next the Aberdeen - eolicitor, Mr Sim, £12,000 j then the Glaa- ' gow lawyer, Mr Samuel Carrick, whose defalcations are pat at £20,000 to £30,000 ; and in the same week came the news of the sadden disappearance of Mr Arthur Sturxook, son of ex-Provoet Sturrock, KilmarDOck, with whom he acted aB joint agent of the branch of the British Linen Bank in . that town, whose defalcations reach quite £100,000. A new machiae is being built by an enterprising Yankee firm which will accommodate a whole club of 25 riders, It is called the duodeciplet, and has four wheels. The steersman, who occupies an elevated seat in front, does not pedal at all, and so is enabled to concentrate all his energies on the steering. The length of the machine .will be 25ft, and the cost will be £120. The front portion of the machine will be geared to 100 and the rear to 68, this being itnade possible by an ingenious contrivance of wheels. ___________