NEWS ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8412, 11 January 1899, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

— « — The Timaru Presbytery have sustained rt call from Waimate to the Rev. A. S. Morrison, of Hastings. ' The trout fishing in Lake Rotorua has been the means of bringing quite a pretty fleet of boats into that district, five new boats having been put on the lake this season. Reviewing the New Zealand cricket team for Australia "Umpire" in the Dmiedin Star remarks :—" Lusk, of Huwke's Bay, is almost certain to make a name for himself " We hope he will. The Agricultural Department offers prizes of two and three guineas for a sample of the best apples for export, to be exhibited at the Auckland Horticultural Show in March next. Mr B. Bendall, for many years purser in the Union Company on this coast, and lately of the mail steamer Moana, is about to leave the sea, having received an appointment on the staff of Messrs T. and S. Morrin, merchants, Auckland. At Wanganui on Saturday Mary Ann Hilliar, wife of the licensee of the Wangaehu Hotel, was convicted on a charge of unlawfully supplying liquor to a Maori woman named Airs Albert. She was fined £5, with £2 9s costs— a dear drink. < The Wairarapa Times is of opinion that "a Herod is wanted in the Stock- Department to go round the country and kill off the weak, staggering, stunted calves, which are now allowed to develop into diseased cattle." A case of poisoning through eating tinned fish occurred on December ISth among the members of a family residing in Oxford Terrace East, Chrislchnrch. Five children who ate tinned herrings and tomato sauce in the evening were extremely ill at night, the symptoms of poisoning being marked. In examination papers worked by Maoris curious effects are often noticeable, as the reuilt of great ingenuity in inventing answers, along with a very naive simplicity. At a recent boarding-school examination, a Maori girl informed the examiner that the trade winds are so called because they cause much business when they are so strong as to break things ! The steamer Flensburg brought a valuable addition to the Melbourne Zoological Gardens in a collection of animals, the principal of which were two ice bears, one wasli bear, two midget bears, one peecari, one camel, one armadillo, one crocodile, three rare monkeys, two magnificent wolf hounds, and a splendid assortment of parrots, geese, ducks, owls, and vultures. A lad named Deeley, while training the Nosegay filly at Ellerslie racecourse (Auckland), was heavily thrown on the asphalt near the grandstand through the animal becoming restive. It then dashed into the totalisator buildings and injured itself badly. The lad was picked up unconscious and taken to his home. He recovered consciousness, but shortly afterwards relapsed into unconsciousness. An attempt is being made to form a company in Wellington to acquire the patent rights of an invention by Mr J. A. Bell, of Feilding, for raising sunken vessels by means of compressed air. The proposed capital is £10,000 in £1 shares. If the company is floated the invention will be used in connection with the attempt to float the Tasmania. A Nelson paper states: — "On December 7th human remains were found on Rabbit Island, about eight miles from the Port. Medical examination discloses them to be those of a woman, not less than twentysix, and a child, sex unknown, of nine to twelve. The doctor is of opinion that they have been there not less than twenty years. Old identities declare that a family was drowned in the bay in 1843 and buried on the island. We believe that the Riot Act has been read only about five times in this peaceful colony. All round the country the newspapers have commented upon the serene and beautiful orderliness apparent in the Christmas and New Year's Eve crowds, with the exception of the Lyttelton youths. At Taihape, up inland Patea way, however, on New Year's Eve the Riot Act was read twice, and the Maoris and Europeans took sides and made things interesting by engaging in battle throughout the day. — H.B. Herald. A scare was raised in Southland a few weeks ago ovor the discovery in a sale-room of a sheepskin infested with the Bathurst burr, which was supposed to have beeu slaughtered on the s.s. Poherua on her voyage from Australia. The fuss is not easily understood, seeing that the Bathurst burr has had a footing in the colony for very many years. But the amusing feature of the incident is that, on enquiry, it has been discoversd that the sheep from which the skin in question came was purchased at the Bluff. A movement lias been started for the formation in this district of a corps of Mounted Rifles. Those wishing to join can sec list of intending members at Mr Miller's. It is not desired to have the signatures of any but those who will take a steady interest in the matter. When a sufficient number of gentlemen have given in their names it is proposed to call a meeting to elect officers and arrange for transmission of list of the proposed members to the Commandant. The promoters are sanguine of acceptance by the Government, it having been stated by the Commandant and other military authorities that the only corps suitable for such a district as this is Mounted Infantry. The low cost of the uniform, and the fact that ponies of any [height, if staunch, are suitable, and also ! that members can use their own saddles and mounts, removes the bugbear of heavy expense, seeing uniforms should not cost more than 15s, those supplied by Government to some of the Infantry inAucklaiid only costing 11s 6d, being the kharkee now in general use by Her Majesty's forces when in action. When the corps gets into working order it is proposed to have wings stationed at country places too distant from (iisbornc to enable their residents to attend the headquarters monthly parades. Mr Pease, and ex-New Zealander, and a member of the firm of McKerrow and Pease, colonial brokers and merchants, of Manchester, is doing his best to develop a direct trade between the colonies and the ; great provincial centre. According to an , interview in the Manchester Evening Chronicle, he says :— " Within a radius of up miles of Manchester there is a population much larger than within a similar radius of London. This city is the centre i of perhaps the largest consuming locality I in the world. The population is ready to take the products of the Antipodes to ,i fur greater extent than is the case in the South uf England, where there arc more ' of the leisured classes, and where the nmnufcicturing element does not exist to the same extent. Here we have people who want to be decently fed at a small cost, and the Australasian frozen mutton and Inmli supplies a want which cannot be met by the English farmer. At one time Rome people Imrdly tasted animal food from one year's endjto another. Now they ran have it every day, and the best cuts at that. The colonies can send us cheese and butter, canned meats and raw hides, and there is no reason why the wool which s Yorkshire needs should not come here ] instead of to London. The Yorkshire manufacturer now, almost without exception, is buying in the colonies direct, so that there is no longer any necessity for the wool to be ofl'ered at auction in London. Iron ami earthenware from Staffordshire, not to mention manufactured J textile goods from Lancashire and Yorkshire, ought to be exported by way Jf the Canal. To sum up practically every:hing is made in this district to meet the C ic.ds of the rolonii'i." t

The Paris correspondent of a London paper, in writing about the amount of speculation on turf events in that city since the introduction of the totalisator, says that nearly £9,000,000 sterling passed through the hands of the different racing societies during the twelve mouths ending December 15th, 1597, and this sum will probably have been exceeded when the accounts for the present year have been maile up. Setting aside the amount received at the gates of the various Parisian hippodromes, the respective managements were able to place to the credit of the fund for distribution among the winning owners something like «e,'i6O,OUO, while half that sum goes towards the support of " various charities," and one-fourth to the Government Stud Commission for the purchase of approved dams and sires.