NEWS ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8411, 10 January 1899, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

It is reported that several change*! among the New Zealand Judges will shortly take place. A prospector named Itarkius lias been lost in tlie bush at Korewca. West Coast, and it is feared he has perished. A man lias been arrested at Christclmrch on a charge of having, within the last six months, stolen ninety sheep from Mr Acton Adams. A man named Samuel Walker has been arrested in Auckland on a charge of li,i\ ing broken into a stoical Riverhead and stolen theiefiom kami gum to the value of ,i!(i. Miss Florence Young, the well-known operatic artist, has made a sueeesslul appearance in the pantomime of " Dick U'hittington." at the Grand Theatre. Fulhani, a London suburb. Alexander Wilson and Robert Gillies were lined ,C 5 each and costs at Dunedin for falsely representing themselves as travellers and inducing the licensee of the Provincial Hotel to serve them during prohibited hours. The output of coal in the Duller di-lrict for the year ISIIS was: — Westport Coul Company, •JSO.IL'O tons liicwt ; Cardiff Coal Company, 60,07- tons 1-icu-t ; total 349,103 tons 4cwt. The Westport Coal Company's increase as compa'-ed with last year was tons 4cwt, anil that of the Cardiff Company UOOO tons. Regulation No. 24, under the Education Act, 1877, has been amended as follows : — ''All girls in any public school in which there is a mistress or assistant mistress shall learn needlework, and the in'-pcr-tor shall judge all other work done by girls more leniently than that done by boys, in such a degree as would be implied in reducing by 10 per cent, the minimum marks requited for any examination pass. In the course of a divorce case at Sidney the other day, petitioner's counsel referred to the length of time necessary to prepare a petition, and was brought up with a round turn by the presiding judge (Mr Justice Simpson), who declared that it took very little time to prepare. " They are becoming so common,"' continued His | Honor, (t that I think I have seen one ptinted. In a little time they will be selling them, all ready printed, at the street corners, like ordinary printed matter." Under the heading "A New Judge," the Manawatu Standard says : — lt is sincerely to bo hoped that the statement published by the Wanganui Chronicle that District Judge Ke'tle is to take Judge G'onolly's place as Supreme Court Judge at Auckland is correct, tor although this will be a great loss to the West Coast, especially in bankruptcy matters, few will regret that well-earned promotion has been obtained. Years ago the Minister of Justice in the present Ministry, to our personal knowledge, singled Judge Kettle out for the first vacant Supreme Court Judgeship, but political influence 1 ; were too potent to allow of the appointment Icing made. Therefore it is very probable that the rumour in question is correct, and the best we can wish is that the temporary appointment may prove to bo a permanent one. According to Air Hennikei'-Hcaton, who has made n, special study of the question, the extension of the penny post to all letters from the Australian colonies would cost them about iCIo.OOO, while the cost of applying it to all letters from the United Kingdom to such colonies would be about £IS,OOO a year. These arc not appalling fiures, and it is reasonable to suppose that in time they would dwindle to much less proportions. But against whatever loss would accrue at first from the adoption of the penny rate must be place the gain that would follow to Imperial unity. We (Auckland Herald) believe that a universal penny rate within the Empire would have far-reaching and important effects. The results of the new experiment will be watched with great interest by these colonies, for upon them depends to a large extent how soon or otherwise Australasia will enjoy the same benefits of cheap postage with the Mother Country. A man named Thomas Hinton created some sensation in Melbourne by discharging ti double-barrelled fowling piece at a passing tramcar on the Esplanade, near the bandstand. The small shot struck the side of the car, which was travelling towards town, and damaged some of the windows, but fortunately there was no one on the other side of the glass to be injured. Tlinton was arrested by Constables Burman and Kearney, and charged with discharging firearms without permission of the local authorities. When questioned at the watchhoitse why he fired at the car, he answered that lie was not going to put up with the annoyance of the tram passing. He had put up with enough nonsense during the past few days by boys throwing stones at him. He simply fired to frighten the tram man, and did not waul to do anybody any harm. He added that some time sgo he had been an inmate of a lunatic asylum at Adelaide. On him were found eight cartridges, containing No. 4 shot, and four empty cartridges. Hinton was brought before the St. Kilda Bench, and remanded for medical examination. Mr H. W. Lucy, writing to the Sydney Morning Herald, says :— " A conclusion of the momentous counsels taken in view of the possibility of n. war with France was the confirmation of the scheme dealing with the shipping trade in case of war, Early in the year, when (here was apprehension of war arising out of complications in the Far East, an important meeting of the leading shipowners was held at the oliices of the P. and 0. Company, in Leadenhall street. I was privileged to be present, and was much struck by the shrewd, business-like character of the conversation. Lord Charles Deresford was among the speakers, and made no secret of the plan in favor at the Admiralty, dealing with the Homo shipping trade in ease of war. It was talked of as a secret, but is doubtless familiar to any of the Foreign Powers likely to be concerned. Disclosures made in connection with the Dreyfus case show how little effective, even in matters of minute detail, are the guards against inter-communica-tion of offensive and defensive naval and military tactics. The Admiralty plan is simply to keep the water-way of the Channel free from the embarrassment of trading shipping. It will be patrolled by a fleet that may be counted upon to give good account ot any foreign ships approaching with design on the English coast. All merchant shipping starting from western ports will make their way to sea by the North of Ireland, from eastern ports by the North of Scotland, (lie Channel (leet and a fleet with headquarters at Bantrv Kay, undertaking to keep the seaway clear of marauders from the southward. ( In an article upon the perpetuation of the race-type in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald points out tint it is a scientifically demonstrable fact that Australians are as a people overfed and injudiciously fed. An.-emia and early decay of the teeth are, it says, much too frequent in Australian children. The Herald draws a connection between the fact of the prevalence of .iiiiomia and early decay of the teeth and the use of ordinary vhitc bread in preference to whole meal bread, which contains the nourishing principles of nitrogen, fat, lime, anil iron i in the proportions required for health. ■ Australians and New Zealanders are great bread eatcis. and when we deliberately remove from one of our staple aitirles of diet the very element 1 - that arc ivquiied for health, it cannot be wondeicd at that j ' our children aie aiwinir and havo 1,.ul ( Iccth. Then we aie in the habit of making immoderate use of meat. In the United Kingdom tho average animal consumption -, of meat pet head of the pnpulitinn is equal tn lnnib=, in (lie United Statci to I,'iOlbs, in France to 771 b?, in other European conn tries to even less, while in New Zealand the average animal consumption of beef and mutton— not to mention pork, bacon, and other llcsh food — is "JoSHis pei head of the population, including children. The consumption of what we might almost call our national beverage, tea, is al-.i eM-essi\c. The average annual coiiMiniptiim per head of population in New Zealand is about flto/.s, as compared with TSozs, in the United Kingdom. tJOo/s in the United " States, and. with the exception of Canad-t, F not as much as an average of -Jozs in am' other country. Must people are agieeil that too much meat and tea are injurious to children, yet it is self-evident that with ;O high an average consumption of these u-tides in the colony, the children niu>t be laving more than is good for them. That' 'act, combined with the use of white flour j iom which the most essential ingtedients lave been extracted, may have an imporant bearing on the future of our rice in ' \>V-i! coluliltf!, '

Inspector Gillies left Auckland on Saturday to tiikc up bis new duties. It is understood that Wauganiii will bo made the hcadquartcis of his district. A very instructive little bunk has oeen brought out by the English Jersey Cattle Sneiety. Among a ina»s of interesting detail;; it appears that the average of estimates of cost of feeding a Jersey row in Kngland is .£ll ]0s per annum, and the average yield of butli'r for a cow under live years is 'JliUlb per annum, over live years, .S'JOlb. The; mean of thc-e two quantities is -Jillllb, which at Is a pound would come to I'll IU--, or at Is .'ld In X'lS 12s (Id. A good many keepers of Jcr.scys make an extra price for their butter to retail consumers, and not a tew of them Wciuld average as much as Is .'id a pound the year round.