NEWS ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8414, 13 January 1899, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

Lord Kanfurly ir»tc?ir3.*i to make a trip to the Cook Islands in April next. The visit will be made in one of Her -Majesty's warships. Operations at the bovril works, Manaia, are (says the local paper) being rapidly pushed on, and soon a start will be made extracting. This industry will cause sonicthing between £400 and £500 per month to circulate, and the works will employ about ten men. Considerable dissatisfaction is expressed in commercial circles in Wellington with] the alteration in the telegraph word rates recently introduced. The letters fo.b. if written fob, the letters being connected are charged as one word, but if divided by full stops as six words. There are similar distinctions in other matters, such as names of companies, which many leading mercantile men condemn as confusing. The fact that in France there is a tax on cycles makes it easy to collect statistics as to the number of machines in the country. The latest return, going down to the end of 1897, shows that there were then 408,869 "pneus" in the country, as compared with 203,000 in 1894. The increase has been very rapid. The Treasury benefits to the extent of £162,000 a year by (ho rage for cycling— a mud which Mill, in. tloubt) inciCiKiu steadily.

The Marconi system of wireless telegraphy was recently demonstrated in the House of Commons in London, messngps being sent from a room in the terrace of the buildings to St. Thomas' Hospital, on the other side of the Thames. The wires used at either end were let fall from windows and connected with lump posts, but with no connection across the river. A number of messages were sent and received in the presence of the Speaker and members. It may interest some of our readers to know what the Wolsley sheep-shearing machine can do when working well and in skilful hands (says the North Otago Times). During the last fotu- days 2-1 men on the Blackhead station have turned out 10,531 ewes and lamhs. There lias been so much broken weather that the men have been longer at work than usual, Init the four days mentioned have been fine and the work interrupted. The average was about j 170 per man. The fastest, shearer, Mr T. Gamble, of Mohaka, did SO;S in the four days. His tallies were 210, 217, 232, and 230 respectively. The New Zealand Times in a semi-official article says that inquiries confirm the view that -Ministers are within their rights in ! excluding undesirable aliens, even without a definite law empowering the prevention of their landing. It refers to the example of South Australia last year as regards the right of aliens who were refused admittance to a British colony, in the case of AU Toy and Musgrovc. The Privy Council decided that no right of action lay against the Government.. That whilst avoiding au unnecessary display of force the Government should throw upon shipping companies the cost of maintenance of destitute foreigners. The revenue of the Auckland Harbor Board for the past year shows a. substantial increase over that for 1897. The I revenne for that year amounted to J£S6,CGS 7s 3d, which was an advance of £4704 Is 2d over the previous year. That was considered to be a record, and it was believed that the revenue for 1898 would show a falling off. The mining boom had collapsed, and the quantity of machinery was less. But there has been an actual advance in the revenue over 1897 of about £2000, so that the total will amount to more than £58,000. This (says the Auckland Herald) ought greatly to encourage the Board to go in for permanent and substantial improvements to the harbor. There is proverbially a providence (says the Lyttelton Times) that watches the footateps of a drunken man, and Saturday night furnished a good illustration of the saying. A boarder in one of tlie city hotels spent New Year's Eve in the manner that was once orthodox, and towards midnight went home with uncertain steps. He managed to get upstairs, to his bedroom, and, half asleep, proceeded to undress himself. Wishing to go downstairs again, however, he mistook the window for the door, and walked out on to the street. Passers-by were startled by what they took to be an apparition, but the heavy fall and the accompanying thud as one body of matter met another, convinced them that it was not a ghost that walked. The man was awakened, not injured, by the fall, and, as he proceeded to cast reflections on the sobriety and respectability of the pavement, he was removed to a less public place, and slept in the police cell. Here is a funny little anecdote about Mr Rhodes. He has never been noted for excessive modesty, and it is asserted that ] the only man who ever got even with him in the matter of personalities was a little Germau clerk in the Government office at Johannesburg. Rhodes had to stand in line, and he didn't like it (says M.A.P.). He had not been used to standing in line in South Africa, or anywhere else. "Please attend to me at once," he said ; "I can't wait." " When your turn comes, mister," mumbled the clerk. "Confound you, sir ; t don't you know who lam ? I'm Rhodes." " Oh, yes, I knew that ; but that didn't | worry me," was the unruffled reply. "If you were in Cape Town I'd have you disj charged in a minute," roared Mr Rhodes. ("Yes, I have heard that they discharged people in Cape Town for doing their duty," answered the clerk ; " but we ain't in Capetown; this is a Republic." The special correspondent of the Daily Mail, who recently visited Gordon's garden at Khartoum, thus describes it: — "Here was an .Englishman doing his duty, alone, and at the instant peril of his life ; vet still he loved his garden. The garden" was a yet more pathetic ruin than the palace. The palace accepted its doom mutely ; the garden strove against it. Untrimmed, unwatered, the oranges and 3itrons still struggled to bear their little hard green knobs, as if they had been full ripe fruit. The pomegranates put out their vermilion star flowers but the fruit was small aud woody and juieeless. The figs bore better, but they, too, were small and without vigor. Rankly overgrown with dhurra, a vine still trailed over a low roof its dwarfed leaves and limp tendrils, but yielded not a sign of grapes. It was all green, and so far vivid and refreshing after Omdurman. But it was the green of nature, not of cultivation ; leaves grew large, and fruit grew small, and dwindled away. Reluctantly, despairingly, Gordon's garden was droppiug back to wilderness." Speaking at a recent meeting of the members of the Royal Colonial Institute in London, the Rev. Alfred Homier, of Adelaide, referred to the subject ot systematic colonisation. He laid stress upon the ■fact that much time and energy are lost in the establishment of new colonies through ignorance of the true principles of colonisation, and went on to advocate the formation of small townships. Colonial Governments might make grants of laud, the townships could be surveyed, and capital provided for selected emigrants by a syndicate, which might recoup itself by means of terminable rents, banking and trading monopolies. The settlers would know exactly where they were going and what they would have to do to ensure success. Each township should be planned for 1000 inhabitants, and it would be easy in this way to find room for thousands of persons who had "no chance" in this country. South Australia, with its splendid climate, 900,000 square miles, and small population, offered "a paradise to the honest working man and a harvest field for capital." Certninlv there is something wrong somewhere in the training aud education of Englishmen, otherwise (writes Mr Stead in the Review of Reviews) it would never have been possible for the Board of Trade to have issued such n return on the causes of the decay in British trade. In this memorandum are summarised the reports of 116 diplomatic and consular agents in all parts of the world. One and all tell the same story. We are being beaten in markets that were once our own because of our pride, stupidity, and lethargy. Germans and Americans are cutting us out everywhere, and it serves us right. The excessive arrogance und smug selfcomplacency which have long made the English so detested by their neighbors are now exacting their penalty in the way of business. We despise the foreigner, and if he will not take what we deign to offer him we let him go elsewhere. And as a consequence lie has gone elsewhere. Our business rivals have none of this stupid pride about them. If a foreigner wants to have anything in his style they are humble enough to try to let him have what lie] wants without elaborately making him feel that he is a condemned fool for not preferring it British fashion. The Board of Trade memorandum might appropriately be issued as a sermon preached by the representatives of England abroad from the familiar text, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a full." We have got our fall, or part of it. But John Bull will have to fall further yet before ho wakes up to the fact that be is being left behind in the nice. A case of unusual neurological interest, which has been under treatment for some time past in St. Vincent's Hospital, Boston, is recorded in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of October 6. Dr T. H. Curtin states that the patient, William Larsen, a Norwegian, was admitted on September 5 in n state of coma, a block from iv derrick on one of the piers having fallen on his head and crushed in the right side of the skull ; the fracture was nearly three inches in diameter. The greater part of the third frontal convolution of the brain hud been destroyed, and it was not expected that the mnn could survive more than a few hours ; but two days after the fragments of bone had been removed, tlie edges trimmed anil all pressure renoved from the brain he recovered consciousness, i The effect of the injury upon memory and speech was watched with, special interest, and it was was at first found that while he seemed to be rational and nearly normal ' in his understanding of what was said to him, all his answers to questions were] given in an unintelligible gibberish. After a few days, however, his speech became 1 eutiicly coherent; but the remarkable | circumstance was noted that he could no longer speak in his mother tongue, but! only in English. Another feature of the case was the development of great emotional sensitiveness, so that if anyone I conversing with him smiled he was moved! to laughter, and if the person looked depressed he begun to weep. He reeog. . tiiscd his acquaintances immediately, and lill.cd uiih iiilereM. of fn'.-, pUni fur (he .future — British AJediuul Journal. I

An luminous French inventor Has devised a moving suit disc, which ii«a put into Übe in une ot Hie large Louclun utoivs. Instead ot having lo walk upstairs, you h.ive biinply to tune your stand on one ot Llit: steps, uuil m twenty-live suuonUs you lind yoiuselt at ttto top of the bUirease lot-ty leet in length. Iheio is iibsuiuiely uo Hanger, and mere are no delays us in the ease ot v lilt. The staircase is like a strong leather driving bell, witii steps attached, revolving on .111 incliued plane, at 11 gradient ot one in three. A decided improvement in the cinematograph lias been madeby M.M. Paul Morticr and Cheri-Ronsseau— at any rate, from a scientific, point of view. It permits of the synthesis of movements much more perfectly than cinematographs in use, owing to the greater number of images which it passes licfore the eye in a, short, time. Twenty-five images are generally given in a second, hut the "alcllmrania," as the new instrument is called, gives as many as '2000. In 'it the film moves continuously, and the light is reflected thro.igh it from a series of inclined mirrors. The Wairarapa. Times, in the article in which it expresses an opinion that "a Herod is wanted in the Stock Department to go round the country and kill oil' the weak, staggering, stunted calves, which are now allowed to develop into diseased cattle," says : — At the present time in New Zealand we are, as it were, breeding tuberculous animals at almost every dairy farm in the colony ; that is, settlers are raising weak calves which in due course must grow up into stunted and undealthy cattle. Formerly it was the custom in this district to feed young calves, lo a certain extent, on good milk, and even when the churn robbed them of the butter fat which was their due, there was still left in the skim milk a considerable amount of nutriment. Then came " the separator," which takes still more out of the milk than the oldfashioned churn, and simply starves the calves that come after it for their nourishment. Again, on farms where cheese is made, the whey left for the calves is absolutely inadequate for rearing healthy stock. Every year thousands and thousands of weak, stunted calves arc reared in ourj dairy farms ; many of them die and the balance which pull through do not get the nourishment which is essential to the formation of healthy lungs, and in due coursethey fall a prey to tuberculosis. Mr W. Y. H. Hall, an Invercargill ; solicitor, spent the holidays in exploring that part of the country which lies between the south arm of Te Anau and the 1 West Coast, and has just returned, report- j ing the discovery of 12 lakes, lying in a westerly direction from the sonth arm. I .Mr Hall was accompanied by iv Maori named Te Ou, or better known as Te Koofci, and in addition to the lakes also found two passes from Te Anau to ] Bradshaw Sou'jd, but both would be useless for any but very active tourists, as one is very high, being under snow throughout the summer, and the other one too rough. Mr Hall says the largest lake appeared to be about two miles long, and the various altitudes of thoso he measured wore 1600 ft, 1800 ft, 2600 ft, and 2625 ft above sea level. During their explorations they climbed to the snow line on either Rectory or Forden peaks. Snow was met at an altitude of 4100 ft, but Te Ou went on and climbed to the summit, 5200ffc. The last 1000 ft was a very risky climb, and as he had no naila in his boots or i alpenstock, the climb was an exceptionally hazardous one. His dog was not able to climb where he did, so it must have been hard climbing. Mr Hall says one thing he noticed was the presence of rabbbits right up to the snow line, and strange to say, I wherever the rabbits were there was no ground game at all. This he put 3 down to the ferrets, which lie thinks have followed the rabbits there, though none were seen. Sir Richard Thorno Thome's second Harben lecture in London recently on " Tuberculosis " practically resolved itself into a condemnation of uncooked milk, and an appeal to doctors to use their " great influence" in inducing the public to boil their milk. We are, it seems (writes the Spectator), the only civilised nation of the world who habitually consume uncooked milk, and that in the face of the great prevalence of tuberculosis amongst our milch cows. To illustrate thi3 statement the lecturer declared that the removal of every tubercular cow from our dairies and cowsheds would mean at the lowest estimate the withdrawal of over half a million cows from our milk supply. This he regarded as a counsel of unnecessary perfection, but advocated the immediate seizure and slaughter of all cows with advanced tuberculosis in any part of the body, and all cows with suspicious udder diseases, compensation to be paid out of the public funds. Two interesting points made by the lecturer remain to be noted — first, that the artificial conditions under which milk is now produced in cowhouses are precisely those which tend most effectually to induce tuberculosis in cows ; and, secondly, that, owing to the better supervision of the town cowhouse, tubercule bacilli were foflnd in far larger numbers in the country than in the town milk supplied to Liverpool and Manchester. We are afraid, in these days of so-called " Christian science" and conscientious objection, that Sir Richard greatly exaggerates the influence of doctors. How many intelligent people keep filters that are of the slightest use, or will be bothered to boil their drinking water ? The subjects of the Mikado arc great readers. They read everything— history, novels, magazines, and newspapers. The last-mentioned are innumerable, Vmd of magazines there are also quite a host. Many of these are after 'the style of the ''Strand" or "Windsor," containijig miscellaneous articles dealing with various topics of current interest, biographical sketches, short stories, interviews, &c, and many of them are illustrated, some having truly wonderful frontispieces. In price they vary from about a penny to sixpence per month. The commonest price is 10 or 15 sen, one sen being equivalent to about a. farthing. One of the most popular of these monthlies is "The Young Man's World," published in Tokio, the price of which per copy is only six sen. Some idea of the range of its subjects may be gathered from a glance at its contents page. To mention a few out of the fifteen articles appearing in the September number, there is one dealing with Sunday, another on the moon, and one, entitled, "The Home of Civilisation," deals with ancient Egypt. Apropos of Bismarck's death, there is an account of the Franco-German war. The story of a military expedition and tho records of an exploring party in Batavia form two other articles, and there are also two other short stories and a prize poem. Several of these are illustrated. The first few and last few leaves of the magazine are taken up with advertisements, chiefly of patentmedicines, in which the Japs place great faith. The Japanese newspapers are thoroughly up-to-date with their news, several of them receiving all Renter's principal telegrams daily, which they courteously allow the foreign editors to copy into the columns of their papers. Although ihe negro is to-day more popular in tho United States than ho was twelve months ago, owing to the gallantry displayed by the colored regiments during the recent war, the racial difficulty is not j nearly over. Within the lust few weeks, says a correspondent of the Age, there has been a bloody conflict in the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina, resulting in eight negroes being killed and three white men wounded. The origin of the riot appears to have been a leading article in a newspaper edited by a colored man, which was regarded by the local critics as offensive to white women. The offending journalist was told that he must remove himself and his plant out of the town in twelve hours, and as lie did not do so six hundred armed whites, including some of the best known citizens of the place, marched to the Record office, destroyed the printing material and burned the building in which the newspaper was published. The unfortunate editor (led, but the whites were not satisfied, and thousands of them poured in from the. surrounding country, and attacked all the negroes whom" they came across, with the result that eight of the colored men were killed, two wounded, and three white men were wounded. The latest accounts are that the negroes are rapidly clearing out, and that a number of ministers of religion are taking part in the disturbances. It might be supposed that Wilmington is a mere village in the backwoods. On tile contrary, it is the largest town in North Carolina, a State which'hns a population of 1,617,947. and boasts that " it is the chief commercial city of North Carolina, has an eliicient police force, and is regarded as a pleasant place of residence."