NEWS ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9408, 7 April 1902, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

The town clock for Masterton is nowcompleted. The milk of about 900 cows has been promised for a co-operative butter factory at Brightwater (Nelson district). By Inspector Pender's retirement Ser. geant-Major Ramsay, of Palmerston, heads the list of long-service officers in the New Zealand Police Force. The Rotomahana made the passage to Picton from Wellington the other morning in 3 hours 22 minutes and returned in 3 hours 15 minutes. Both these times are records. The previous best from Picton to Wellington was 3 hours 28 minutes. Mr J. S. Fitch, Government Pomologist, considers Hawke's Bay one of the finest fruit-growing districts in the colony, and adds that it is now in a position to supply with fruit the whole of the southern portion of the North Island. In a settlement near Waitati (says the Oamaru Mail) there is a large broadleaf tree in the middle of the rod, which, pretree in the middle of the road, which, previous to the flood, had grown in a neighthe flood through the fences, which it broke away, and was landed where it now stands. In many parts the roads are completely blocked, and to clear these so that the settlers can make use of them will cost much time and money. The Lyttelton Times says :—The other day, when a Chinaman was driving a cartload of vegetables along a road at Avonside, the belly-band of his horse's harness broke. The cart suddenly upended and shot John out on the road amid, a medley of vegetables. Then appeared on the scene a member of Parliament, a City councillor, and the chief clerk of a large business establishment, who pub horse and cart to rights, gathered the scattered vegetables and replaced them in the vehicle, and sent it and its owner' on their road, the latter, no doubt, reflecting that "when once admitted to New Zealand a Chinaman receives as much consideration as any other man. "What is really most pleasing and gratifying to me," said Mr Seddon in an interview with a southern newspaper representative, "is, that not only have a number of communities wished me Godspeed and farewell, but they invariably join in hoping I may have a safe return. They evidently don't wish me to leave New Zealand, and nothing is further from my present intention than leaving the colony, with which I have been so closely connected for so many years, and where I have made so many friends, whose kindness I can never forget. You know that is very pleasing and consoling, after the various unkind things which have been said aboujyne, from time to time." The regulations under the State Forests Act have been (says the New Zealand Times) amended so as to provide a penalty of £50 for trespassing in any forest. The new regulations further provide that "any person, whether a license© or not, who may be found trespassing in any forest during the months of November, December, January, February,- and March in the North Island, and during the months of December, January, and February in the land districts of Nelson, Mrlborough, and Canterbury, or who shall do any act whereby there is a danger of the forest being destroyed by fire, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall upon conviction be liable to a penalty not exceeding £50. Orders have been placed for turbine engines for three yachts of high speed. One of these, which is being built for a New York owner, will be a 1400-ton yacht of 3500 horse-power. Of the other two, which are being built for British owners, one will be of 700 tons displacement and 15 knots speed, and the other (which is to be constructed on the lines of a torpedo boat, and carry Yarrow water-tube boilers) is to be of 170 tons and will attain a speed of 24 knots. The (Scientific American says the construction of an ocean-going turbine steamer of 4000 or 5000 tons displacement should be the next step. With a ship of this size it would be possible to determine with pretty close accuracy whether the equipment of a 10,000 or 15,000-ton liner with turbine engines would be a profitable investment. The Napier Telegraph is responsible for the following:—"The Premier was travelling by sea. The boat he was in arrived at her destination showing a marked listto port. Before leaving it he was: told that a lady wished to be introduced to him. She was introduced. She was a very weighty lady. Said the Premier, I after preliminaries, "Madame, I am pleased to at last meet one whose avoirdupoise is nearly equal to my own." "Equal?" archly queried the lady, "do you know that I weigh thirty-nine stone?" "Now that I look at you again, madame, I have no reason to doubt your word. I, alas, am only twenty stone. "My sister," continued the lady, "is thirty-seven stone." "Is she on the ship?" "She is." "May I ask on which side of the ship your cabins are situated." "On the port side," said the lady. "Ah," replied Mr Seddon, "so was mine. That accounts for the list." A rather amusing incident 'accursed at the Pahiatua railway station on Saturday evening, where the special train bringing the Premier from Napier stopped to allow Mr O'Meara, M.H.R., to have a short interview with Mr Seddon. A young man approached the Premier, and asked permission to travel in his train and take his bike with him. "I assure you, sir," he said, "that it is a matter of great importance to me to get to Carterton early this evening." "Oh, certainly," said the Premier, good naturedly. Then to the guard, "Mr Turner, will you on no account fail to let this young man and his bike down at Carterton; otherwise I am sure there will be a disappointed young lady there to-night, (Cheers and laughter from the crowd on the platform). The grateful youth promptly transferred his bike and hinißelf to the special, and in another few minutes was travelling at express speed to his destination, doubtless with greatly relieved feelings. The lowest depths of the movement for raising a "National purse" to Mr Seddon must have been, reached in the arrangements that were made for the collection, through Government officials, of shillings from the old-age pensioners in the Auckland district. The New Zealand Herald thus explains the method that was adopted: "Any of the old-age pensioners who have not yet voluntarily subscribed in the Eden, Waitemata, of Manukau Counties, can do so up to Thursday next, the 3rd April. The contributions, which are not to exceed Is, will be received by any of the postmasters at tha respective places, or by the deputy-registrars at Auckland, Otahuhu, and Helensville. The lists on the date mentioned will then be finally closed and all moneys transferred or handed to the honorary treasurer, who is the chief clerk of the Money Order Savings Bank at the Chief Post Office, Auckland." , "Blackwood" has a very graphic paper on "Prospecting on the Gem-fields of Australia." . Its, importance appears from the opening paragraph:—There is still a land sacred to the pioneer, a land where neither syndicates nor limited companies exist, and where fortunes are frequently made by "one stroke of the pick." This Land of Promise is in the great Australian desert, on the extreme west of Queensland and New South Wales. The aborigines knew it as the "Never-Never" country. At best it is a region of dreary desolation, on which the sun shines with terrific heat by day, and where by night innumerable pests make life unbearable. But it is the El Dorado of the fortuneseeker, for with grim sarcasm Nature has gifted that inhospitable waste with a wealth of precious opal; and who can resist the allurements of that blood-flash-ing gem ? The average value of the gems, however, is about £10 per ounce, and as it is quite a common occurrence for a man to break through a matrix seam carrying anything under 100 ounces, it is at once evident that, "opalling" has some advantages over gold-mining. At a meeting on Thursday evening of fit. Andrew's Presbyterian Church congregation, Mr J. A. Fostick made a suggestion for raising funds which so startled one of the elders of the church that he at once inquired if Mr Fostick was a Scotchman. On being told that he was not, the elder quietly remarked that he ought to be. The suggestion was that a collectionbox or plate should be- placed in the north of the church, and that every one of the 400 members and adherents of the church should make it a matter of duty never to enter the porch without putting a penny in the box. The small coin would never be missed by the giver, and the amount so collected would pay the whole interest on the building loan and leave something like £100 per annum to form a sinking fund. The suggestion was adopted by the meeting, and will be acted i upon at once. If it should be the complete sucecess some of the more sanguine members thought it would be, the Frostick box will become on institution in every church in Canterbury.—Lyttelton Times.

"The Premier of Federated Australia" was a recent description of Mr Seddon by the London Daily News. Very little wheat is offering (says "Drover," in the Otago Witness). The Millers' Association desire to bring prices down, and it remains to be seen whether they will succeed. The Government statistics show that the yields throughout the colony on the average are not large, and that there is also a decrease in the cropped area of 40,610 acres on the previous year. It seems that all will be required for local consumption without any for export. Personally, I don't wonder that farmers are firm in holding out against reduction in price. A correspondent says that, as the result of experiments he has made under careful timing, he finds that the greyhound is the fastest of all four-footed animals. When going at full gallop it can cover 20 yards a second, or about a mile in a minute and 28 seconds—a speed that comes very near that of a carrier pigeon. There are very few thoroughbred horses that can exceed 19 yards a second. Greyhounds have been known to better that by four yards. Wolves can run at the rate of a mile in three minutes. Nansen says that Siberian dogs can travel 45 miles on ice in five hours. * In his address before the Arbitration Court at Wellington on Wednesday morning, Mr P. Hercus, general manager of the Kaiapoi Woollen Manufacturing Company, referred to the booming effect the sending of our contingents to South Africa had had upon the clothing trade in. New Zealand. The figures, he said, were approximate. Our factories had manufactured for the contingents some 7000 overcoats, 14,000 tunics, 14,000 riding breeches, 7000 drill trousers and 7000 caps, besides other articles and garments. Mr Hercus said that manufacturers could not hope for the boom to continue, and there was not a busy time before them so far as he could see. The Postmaster-Geiieral should be well-fitted to take tjte helm of affairs, judging by the nautical skill he displayed at Doubtless Bay (says the Auckland Star). When the two surf-boats from the Tutanekai, each with four oars, pushed off from the beach at the cable station, with their passengers on board, Sir Joseph Ward took possession of the big steer-oar in his boat, and very capably piloted the heavy „ boat out through the breaking ground swell, and off to the steamer, which lay at anchor in the bay. Sir Joseph made an imposing figure as he stood up in the stern manfully straining at the steer-oar, his frock coat flying in the wind, and he rounded his crew up handsomely alongside the ship ahead of the rival boat. "The largest and best equipped vessel that has ever visited New Zealand" is- the opinion expressed by old shipmasters at Wellington who viewed the interior surroundings of the new White Star liner Athenic when she was berthed at the Queen's Wharf. A large crowd of people assembled on the 'wharf to witness the berthing of the vessel, and quite a few remarked, "How are the Harbor Board's cranes going to handle the cargo from this mammoth vessel?" The cranes on the outer tee of the wharf could not discharge the cargo to advantage, but there are appliances on board which carry out the work to a nicely. The salient feature of the Athenic is the extraordinary degree of comfort which she provides for her travellers of all classes. When the first of the White Star steamers, the Gothic, arrived here many years ago, the travelling public considered that as regards internal fittings and comfort that vessel could not be surpassed. To Messrs Ismay, Imrie, and Co., proprietors of the White Star line, the thanks of tourists and passengers is due, for the Athenio is undoubtedly a "floating palace." With regard to the Athenic's sea-going qualities, Captain Kempson speaks in praiseworthy terms. She averaged twelve and a half knots on the run to New Zealand. The actual steaming time from Plymouth to Wellington was 43 days 7 hours 37 minutes. The Greymouth correspondent of the Wellington Post writes:—A railway matter that has been kept very quiet here is now exercising a good deal of public at- i tention. On the first day of the Reefton races, through some miscalculation, mis- J understantHfig, or negleot, a very serious calamity nearly occurred/ A train from Greymouth, with seven carriages crowded with passengers, was on the way to Reefton, and when nearing Stillwater one of the railway employes in the guard's van noticed the Stillwater stationmaster on the platform frantically waving a red flag He immediately put on the brake and hung out a danger signal, which was no- i heed by the driver, and the train was brought to a stop. Almost immediately afterwards a heavy mineral train put in an appearance. When the guard noticed the flag at the station he had no idea what was the cause of stoppage. Had not the signal been seen the train would have gone right on and would cer(|inlvJrave ' been telescoped by the mineral 'trdMfc The escape was a verjfenarrow one, HSM rumor declares that quite a number (fIP officials are likely to have a very u# pleasant time of it when an inquiry takes' place. _. An Auckland trooper with thevSwJ Contingent tells an amusing storyiHßU small detachment of the force. It^aa after the first drive of DeWet. The*WJumn was making for Heilbron, but * party of scouts got lost, and brought up in the vicinity of Vredefort road station on the main railway. The Scots Greys were holding the line, and taking the men for Boers, commenced volleying at them at long range. Jus.t at the time Lord. Kitchener came along" aboard an armored train. This rather increased the activity of the Scots Greys, who knew that if they allowed anyone to cross the line a court-martial, a terrible tbi«g for Tommy, would" be their fate. sFh*,-fusil-lade went on, despite two of the New Zealanders advancing waving their hats, and coats. The gunner of the train, too, was holding the lanyard of the 4.7 gun ready, itching to let fly. The remainder is best told in the trooper's own words: —"Anyhow, Kitchener gave the order to cease firing and let them come up, and they did. They at once made for the station refreshment-room (as'we always do), and started 'tucking in' without loss of time. Presently the armored train came in, and someone, evidently an officer, stood on the platform gazing at the men with a smile, watching them making up arrears. One of the station hands told them it was Kitchener watching them; but all they said was 'd Kitchener,' and went on with their tucker. They joined us again next day."