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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9726, 24 April 1903, Page 2

The Sierra left 'Frisco on April 23rd. Mr Justice Conolly leaves for Auckland by the Zealandia to-morrow.

Mails which left Melbourne via Naples on March 18 arrived m London on April 2Lvt. .

Messrs Primrose and Leslie announce the arrival of a large stock of golf material.

Miss Blanche Wellsted, teiclier of the violin, announces that her second term commences on May Ist.

The annual meeting of the Poverty Bay Rugby Union will be held m the Masonic Hotel at 7.30 this evening.

Jurors summoned to appear at. the Supreme Court on the 27th inst. are notified that their attendance will not be required. A general meeting of the united Friendly Societies Committee will be held m Townley's Hull to-night, at 8 o'clock. A full attendance is requested.

We understand that Mr W. Miller has made an offer on behalf of Fitzgerald Bros, to charter the steamer Bahnain for the purpose of taking the circus to the South Sea Islands. • \

The Secretary of the Poverty Bay Caledonian Society has received subscription lists from the Christcliurch Society on behalf of the fund to investigate the charges against Sir Hector Macdonald, and lo raise a monument to his memory. Subscriptions will be received by Messrs R. N. Jones (secretary) and J. "Rosie (treasurer).

The attention of members of the Beautifying Association is drawn to the fact that the annual balance is on the 30th insL, and there are a number of subscriptions outstanding. The treasurer, who has already sent out circulars to backward members, would be glad if all .subscriptions were forwarded to him before Monday next.

Further contributions to the children's suction of the Cook memorial fund are: Martinborough, Wairarapa S., 3s; Marlboroughtown, Marlborough, ss; Te Roti Hawera, 10s; Te Aute, Napier, 5s 6d; Mr Poison, Higli School, Napier, 2s 6d ; Frasertown, Wairoa, 6s 6d; New Brighton, Selwyn, 15s; Grey Lynn College, Auckland, 6s 3d ; Raglan, Auckland, 2s 8d; Waioweka (Native), Whakatane, £1 3s o£d; previously acknowledged, £188 2s 7d— total, £192 "2s OJd.

At the bowling green yesterday the following games were played : — Handicap Singles : O'Meara 21 v. Martin 27 ; Harding 19 v. A. Adair. 14; Orr 10 v. McGouan 22. Hundicup Pairs : Lewis and Hennessy 29 v. Sandlant and Hookey 22 ; A. Adair and Coleman 14 v. Harding and Martiii' lß. Other games were : Robertson, Jackson, Dixou, Perrett 10 v. Harris, C. Adair, Pettie. Ifwerson 39; Holmes, Birss, Massey, * Quiglev 21 v. Nicholas, Cussen, Witty, Wallace *20.

London's water supply is supervised by a Water Examiner, appointed under the Metropolis Water Act, 1871, to whom periodical reports are made by two of the most eminent chemists and physicists m the United Kingdom. During the latter part of Sir William Crooke's life he held the appointment m conjunction with Professor Dewar. About 200 samples per month are examined chemically, but samples are taken every day from the filter wells of the Metropolitan Water Companies, and are examined for bacteria.. The" chemical and color tests enable the examiners to say — as a rule* — that all the samples were ■."clear, bright and well filtered." The number of miqrobes to each cubic centimetre, of course. 'varies much, according to the rainfall and to the source of supply, but the need fpr filtration is clearly demonstrated by the figures. Thus, while unfiltered Thames water gave 2262, the mean of 279 samples »from eight different supplies, drawn frdm the' river and filtered by the companies, came out at only 35, some being absolutely free from microbes. The New River unflltered water' had 277 microbes per c.c._, falling after filtration to 16 ; and the' Lea supply gave 253 and 13 respectively. v

On Thursday next tho East Coast Mounted. Rifles parade at Patutahi wit/i the- Band, and will give a concert- m aid of tin's Patutahi Hall, commencing at 8 p.m. A danoe. will be held after the concert.

Owing to the withdrawal of the Union Company's Te Anau from the ferry service, there will m future be no steamer connection with the express at Lyttelton on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.— Dunedin Star.

Mr J. H. Fowler, Government Auditor, was engaged to-day auditing the annual balance of the Harbor Board for the year ended December 31st. He will also audit the yearly accounts of other local bodies during his visit.

Flags were Hying at. half-mast yesterday on the. Shaw-Savill steamer Athenic and Messrs Dalgety and Co.'s premises as a mark of respect to the memory of Captain Babot, late superintendent of the Shaw-Savill line, who died at Wellington on Wednesday. The sheep traffic on the Canterbury railways has increased most astonishingly during the last few years, and during March just ended no fewer than 267,548 sheep were received at Canterbury railway stations. The figures for March 1902 are : 178,066, and for March 1900, 155,842.

The industry of canary breeding at Norwich continues to prosper. There are now between 5000 and 4000 breeders m the city, and if there were double that number sufficient birds could not be bred to meet the demand. One Norwich canary was sold recently for £70, aud another for 35 guineas.

There is nothing now visible of tho steamer Gairloch (says the Taranaki Herald) that was stranded and wrecked near the mouth of the Timaru river some months ago. All the machinery has been recovered from the hull, and is now stored at Mr Mills' farm m the vicinity. The breakers have broken up and flattened the hull out, and there is nothing now visible from the beach.

The recent axemen's carnival m Invercargill was a great success. The entries m the chopping and sawing contests numbered 144, a record. The prizes offered m casli and trophies totalled £200, of which American manufacturers contributed £15 m cash and £50 m axes and saws, local traders contributing about the same amount. Notwithstanding rain and dvissly weather, there were 4500 people present.

Writing from South Africa, an ex-Syd-ney racing man says that he believes it possible to win between £70,000 and £100,000 on the big handicap at Johannesburg at Raster. He says that two or three firms have £20^000 books on the nice, and that, unlike Sydney, a. bookmaker who lays a. couple of thousand against a horse does not immediately chase round lo get it" back. This is certainly not complimentary to o\ir ringmeii.

Tiie Otago Presbyterian Synod has agreed to a situ for the erection "of a residential College. The gift of £10,000 by a former resident of Dunedin is to be spent on a building that will be a credit to the city. For the fuller equipment of the Theological College Dr Wutl has been released of ths Green Island pastorate m order that he may devote himself entirely to the work of his professorship at the College, and his professional salary has been raised to £500.

A curious sight at Pjcton on Monday was that of large quantities of dead fish strewn along the shores of the 'harbor. For some time past big shoals of herrings have lusen driven into the harbor — m many cases so tightly packed that the topmost fish have been forced above the surface of the water. The compact masses rushed along at a great rate, and with a swishing noise that could be heard m town. The front ranks were thrown m heaps on the beach, and it became necessary to gather up the piscatorial debris and bury it to prevent a stench.

Observations of the moon have hitherto been based upon Franz's exhaustive treatise, "The Mountains arid Craters of the Moon," but from a. discovery just made by Professor W. H. Pickering, the Harvard Astronomer, it appears that .all previous calculations of the altitude of the craters have been m error. The Professor made this important discovery while engaged m making researches for a new atlas of the moon. This makes all previous measurements of the moon m error, and they will have to be corrected by astronomers with the new series of tables upon which Professor Pickering is at work.

During the progress of the Hackett v. Hainon and Smith case yesterday Mr W. L. Rees remarked, when the question of rate of intero-st charged cropped up : "When people like plaintiffs get into the hands of money lenders they can do as they like with them." His Honor Judge Conolly : "There must always be a, certain amount of prejudice which all of us can't get over t-iKaanst these 40 to 50 j>er cent gentlemen. Mr Rees : "AH of us m the profession must know that." Mr Xolan : "Do you mejm the borrowers or the lenders?" His Honor: "There is no question that the rate of interest charged is what ordinary people would say waa very excessive, but money lenders have a different creed."

A Sydney paper has the following: — "Left-handed Competition : That unique compolition now iv progress at the City Bowling Club, which compels contestants to use their left hands only has discovered many w;ho can play with the sinister limb just as skilfully as the other, notably, Messrs Hogue, Goddard, Moran, and Hardy. The. event is now narrowed down to tvro — Messrs Hogue and Hodges— and it is understood the winner will be asked to muet the donor of the prize (Mr William Horrocks) for the left-handed championship of the City Club. The last game played resulted as follows : J. A. Hogue 21, W. Goddard 13. This proved a capital match from beginning to end, and some very fine play occurred on both sides."

Volcanic eruptions have been exceedingly common during the past year, and when we hear of the terrible calamities caused by them we are apt to forget their usefulness. Volcanoes act as the safetyvalves of the world (says Engineering;, without which the crust of the earth would m all probability burst with explosive force, and with a resultant cataclysm appalling to contemplate. Volcanoes tend, m fact, to maintain the normal stable equilibrium between the interior and. the outer surface of the. world. Moreover, m the course of time they help to equalise tlie relationship between the sea and . land areas of the globe. Volcanic action has been one of the most' potent agencies m the formation of the present condition of the globe.

At the sitting of the Synod m Dunedin last week the Rev. James Clmholm, speaking on the state of religiou, said that it was fifty-five years since Dr Burns arrived on the Philip Laing and laid the foundation of the Otago Church. Between 80 and 100 members attended the first communion. How had the growth of Presbyterianism gone on side by side with the growth of population? The population of Otago was now 173,000 qdd, and the Presbyterian membership had reached about 14,500. Dunedin had a. total population of about 52,000, and the Presbyterians numbered 19,000, but out of that 19,000 the membership reached only a little over 4000. Turning to the question of spiritual life he contended that it did not admit of any doubt at all that it was a,t a very low ebb.

A Wellington correspondent states: — The municipal election campaign is m full swing, and gives promise of developing into something approaching a general election. Under the Greater Wellington constitution fifteen councillors are wanted, twelve representing the city and three oUr newiy-iinnexed suburbs. Candidates are cropping up m shoals. Nearly the whole of the members of the two ojd Councils ;ire standing, and some others. The evident interest m the campaign is illustrated by the fact that whereas m former years it .was customary, for a candidate to address perhaps one meeting, certainly no more, now t ne %rao | e district is being cohered, and enfranchised woman has m many instances beeu called m to help her husband, or her sweetheart, or her fnqnd, over the municipal stile.

The large and rapid increase which lias recently occurred m the use of potash manures by farmers and m various industries has been an immense benefit to Germany, to whose territory the European deposits of potash salts are practically limited. Only about 1200 tons of saltpetre come annually from the mines at Kalusz, m Galicia, the only one outside of Germany, while about 20,000 tons come from India, and France gets about 2,000 tons per annum of potassium chloride by evaporating sea water. Canada formerly exported about 2000 barrels a year, but this quantity has recently fallen off. Germany, lywever, from her twenty mines, draws over three million tons a. year of what are generally known as Stassfurt potash salts. The deposits are, m some places, as much as 3000 ft thick. The agricultural consumption rose from 71,000 tons m 1890 to 255,000 m 1900, calculated not m the weight of the salt actualjy carried, but m the pure potash it contains.

She American courts have at last decided to put a limit to "sky scrapers" m that country, and m a test case, recently heard before the Supreme Court at Boston, ruled that the erection of these formidable buildings could be legally restrained. In the case under notice a building (Westminster Chambers) fronting on Copley Square had been built to a height of 126 ft, under the old law permitting erection up to two and a-half times the width of the street. The decision of the Court sustains the constitutional nature of the law limiting erection to 90ft. All storeys above that limit must be now raised. The ground of the decision is the public right to light and air, making it necessary either that "sky-scrape>rs" should be limited m height, or that the builders should purchase rights for the upper storeys, a* m the case of the ground area. The owners of Westminster Chambers are considering tlie advisability of bringing a claim for damages for infringement of the rights of construction hitherto enjoyed generally. Lawvtrs and builders m several cities throughout the Union are greatly interested m the ease.

The first lucky American young man to obtain a Rhodes scholarship is Eugene H. Lehman, an athletic young man of 24. He was born m Pueblo, and studied m the University of Colorado before going to Yal«, where he graduated last year. At Yale- he won a great reputation as an orator, carrying off many prizes and medals on the debating platform. In addition to his intellectual attainments Mr Lehman is a fine all-round athlete. He was a shining light m the football world at Yale, and is proficient at baseball, swimming, gymnasium work and crosscountry running.