NEWS ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9379, 18 February 1902, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

Tremendous inroads were made into tomato crops this season in the Nelson district by blackbirds and thrushes. In the opinion of Mr Hogg, M.H.R., Masterton, the denudation of forests in the Wairarapa is causing a very noticeable decrease in the rainfall of the district. The Auckland city valuations show am increase of £10,202 on that of last year. The increase practically means an added capital value to the city properties during ™ past twelve '.months of lover £200,000. .'■',• Addressing his constituents at Kakanui last week, Mr T. Mackenzie, M.H.R., said the colony required at the present time the keenest commercial management, both here and in London. Commerce was becoming more and more a fight, of wits, energy, capacity, and common sense. The new river steamer Waione, recently launched by Messrs. Hatrick and Co. on the Wanganui river, has been tried under steam, and has shown that she is undoubtedly the "greyhound" of the New-Zealand Rhine, her speed being 15 miles an hour. Mr Morgan, the Government attendant at the Priest's baths, Rotorua, is responsible for the statement that those waters will cure baldness. Three years ago, when he came to Rotorua, his head was destitute of hair. Since then, morning, noon, and night, he has laved the offending spot with the ecclesiastical liquid, and now he has a medium capillary growth. A society has recently been organised a.t Chicago with the object of waging war against sleep. The president of the society says : "Since limiting myself-to four hours I have felt more active, energetic, and healthy than ever before. Millions of people are wasting their lives by-un-necessary sleep. It is also- a sura sign of laziness, and lazy people'aro not wanted in Chicago." The society has a large membership, and branches "will be established in other parts of the country. A fact which indicates the development of the poultry industry in this district (writes a Palmerston correspondent) is tluiit one local firm has sold upwards of 100 incubators within the last six months. Another firm has recently sold us much as 12,000 yards of wire netting, which would reach a distance of no less than seven miles. From these facts it can be seen that capital is being put into the industry, which should soon prore a not insignificant rival to dairying and fruit-growing. A former St. Patrick's College boy, the Rev. Father Taylor, S.M., has just returned on a visit to his friends at Wairoa after an absence of eight years. . During that time he has studied in Italy, Fiance, and England, being ordained in the Diocese of Plymouth. The rev. gentleman was then sentto Ireland <is professor in St. Mary's College, Dundalk, and later to America, where, for the past three years, he1 has taught in All Hallows College, Salt Lake City. Father Taylor has been appointed to a position on the staff of St. Patrick's College. At Rotorua Police Court- last week, George Davis pleaded guilty to trying to cremate two horses whilst the animals were still alive. The evidence disclosed that the horses stuck Davis up on a 20----mile journey. They were lashed brutally. Then, as they still refused to go," Davis, in, despair, placed a huge bundle of titree beneath their bellies, and set fire to it. The animals, who were on exhibition at the Court, were in a pitiable condition. Hair and skin had disappeared, and burnt, raw flesh was showing distinctly. Davisl was fined £3. Tho Olago Daily Times, while, strongly supporting the fullest recognition of MiSeddon's energy in the cause of Imperialism, condemns in the strongest terms the proposal to send round subscription lists for the purpose of presenting him, with a purse of sovereigns. "The presentation craze," says the Times, "is becoming a serious evil, and business men are already inveighing against a custom which they cannot well evade, and which amounts to a forced levy upon their income. The principle once assented to, a periodical purse of sovereigns would be looked upon as one of the Premier's perquisities." There is no lack-of.entertainment nowadays for the 'visitor to Rotorua, as, in addition to the ever-increasing number of "sights" to be seen in the neighborhood, and the different kinds of baths to- be "sampled," the grounds attached to the I Sanatorium are a real pleasure to walk in when the weather is too warm for much exertion. When lighted up at night for one of the promenade,, concerts, which are held in the open air from time to time-, the multitude of Chinese lanterns makes it appear a veritable fairy-land, while the strains of the band, which plays regularly at stated times during- the season, takes one back to memories of pleasant days rotlnd the bandstand of one of the wellknown health resorts in the French Riviera. ! A strange fish, caught off the Wairau I Bar, Marlborough, was exhibited at the Wellington Philosophical Society's meeting the other night. It was of the chimer.i- monstrosa species, which stands alone "among fishes, and is a. true. Arctic fish. Only a very few specimens of the fisli have been caught in the world. Off Portugal and Labrador captures have been made, also in two more remote places, but the fish on view was probably the first of its kind ever caught in the Southern Hemisphere. There was also on view a specimen of the calorynchus Antarcticus, the Antarctic equivalent of the first-named fish. The peculiarity about this was that' it was a male. Practically eveiy specimen hitherto captured has been a female. In an editorial article dealing with the fruit trade of the Hawke's Bay district, the Hastings Standard says it is obvious that Wellington cannot provide a market for. all the fruit produced in the colony, as would seem to be the impression of growers. There is no sense in making it the distributing centre for such a perishable commodity, when direct shipments might be made to other towns with greater profit to the fruit fanner. The. market in Wellington may be glutted, and one is not surprised, in the circumstances; it is not because' too much fruit is grown ill the. colony, but because the methods of distribution are so unsystematic, and it is time that attention was given by the Fruitgrowers' Association to the question of defining the most satisfactory markets, with a view to equalising the'chances of tho New Zealand growers and consumers alike. Further particulars of the drowning fatality at Bowentown, near Tauranga, show that, the two Maori girls were paddling abput in a. canoe opposite Matakana, and had gone down the estuary with the tide. Attempting to return they were unable to stem the current, which was then running out, with the result that the canoe was carried out in t-he> direction of the heads. The girls, finding the canoe unmanageable, having only one paddle, decided, at the sight of the. breakers, to leave tho canoe and swim foV the shore. Ihey dived off and made a desperate effort to reach the land. Only one of the girls reached the shore. The other, gamely struggling, was carried out to sea by the current. The girl who got ashore landed in a thorougldy exhausted condition. The survivor is now recovering. The girl drowned was the daughter of a wellknown native named Jacobs. Upon investigation of,the methods in vogue at Glebe Island abattoirs (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) a Government ™« nnds that "eveiy three days some 67,500 gallons of very strong sewerage matter ure discharged into the harbor," or equivalent to the sewerage of 1000 people per day! The Mayor of Paddington, upon the existence of bubonic plague m that borough being ascertained a few days ago, oracularly observed that "for some inexplicable reason" the borough, winch 18 months ago -s-as free from rats, Had now become overrun with them. The sanitary inspector for the Borough of Alexandria reports after a tour of his bailwiek that parts of it, are made dumping grounds for filth, other parts also arp 'ma deplorable condition," there are bad drainage and foul air in different localities, and some Chinamen are found to have dammed up "liquid filth" to use it on their vegetable garden. At the last meeting of the Bahrain Council it was reported that rats were abnormally plentiful in that district, and the Mayor said they were abundant "at his place," and so adventurous that they climbed up his fruit-trees.

A gentleman who rode through the King Country from Stratford at the beginning of the year says that he saw more drunkenness in that locality than he has seen since his arrival in the colony.— Settler. A queer development resulting from a sore back in a horse is to be seen in a skeleton now being fixed up at the Colonial Museum, Wellington. Below where in life the saddle sat on the back, a resulting soreness has had the effect of causing the eleventh and twelfth lumbar vertebrae to become united. Mr Charles Arnold's tour, which closed at the Palace Theatre, Sydney, last Wednesday, has been a record one in many respects. It has lasted 96 weeks, and the management estimate of the number of people who have patronised it is 750,000. Mr and Mrs Arnold will rest a few days in Sydney, and then leave for London via New York. Bishop Grimes has just issued his annual pastoral to the* Roman Catholics of the diocese of Christchurch. His sLordship gives some interesting particulars of his visit to the various missions undertaken during the past year. In connection with the new Cethedral, His Lordship states that £24,000 out of the required £40,000 has been subscribed towards its erection, which is now steadily proceeding. About £1000 per month is now required to carry on the work, and Bishop Grimes makes an urgent appeal for further funds. The pastoral concludes with the statement that the Catholic population of the diocese is 22,000. In accordance with a request from the Government, the Hawke's Bay Land Board has asked the Hatunm settlers, who applied for a rebate of rent, owing to the bad season and the high price they paid for their land, to render particulars of their losses. These have been sent in, and will be considered by the Board this week. Commenting upon the position, of affairs, the Hawker's Bay Herald says that the settlers on the whole are satisfied with their bargains. The rebate being asked is for the present season only, to help the settlers to tide over their initial difficulties. Addressing the Victorian section of the Commonwealth Contingent at Langwarrin camp the other day, General Hut ton said: "Do not run away with the idea that because, a man has a rifle in his hands he is a- soldier. He is an armed man, and armed men without discipline and .organisation are nothing but an armed mob. God help any mounted troops, or officers leading them, without discipline. I allude not to the discipline of the barrack square and red tape, but the discipline that is respected among you men yourselves." The Rev Frederick J. Pa-tou, son of Dr John G. Paton, the. famous missionary to the New Hebrides, states that it is a serious mistake to imagine that cannibalism in the Pacific Islands is done away with. "Eveiy island in the Pacific that is not Christian is cannibal." Within the past .seven years Mr Paton has visited Tanna, Santa, Oba, and Malekula, and found cannibalism on all. On Oba the people are sincerely fond of human flesh. The cannibalism in the New Hebrides is partly religious. In some islands, since Ihe introduction oi pigs, the cannibalism is lessened. British labor disputes in 1901, so far as the figures are completed, exceeded those of the previous year, the total, says Engineering, being 571, a.s compared with 562 in 1900. The number of persons involved was 163,069 in 1901, and in 1900 174,708. The aggregate time lost- by those disputes was equal to 3,700,000 working days, as compared with 2,775,000 working days in 1900. This shows an enormous waste of human energy and skill, in spite of the progress of peaceful negotiation and conciliation. The losses in- wages alone represent a larger aggregate sum, apart from all other losses. Still, the progress of peaceful methods has been, on the whole, satisfactory.