Untitled

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10659, 12 May 1906, Page 4

The gambling controversy continues m the columns of the Wellington papers with unabated vigor. The Hon. Mr McGowan, Minister for Justice, says that gambling is a great evil m New Zealand, and seems inherent m the people from the highest to the lowest.

The storm which swept the Grey Valley lust week carried the roof off the house of a platelayer on the railway lino at Jackson's. There was a sick woman and a child m tho house at the time. The woman's condition prevented her removal from the building, so the night was spent among the debris.

The Feilding Star asserts editorially that the butchers of -that town havo formed "a kind of trust," governing tho price of meat, which is "at present exorbitant. Our contemporary advises tlie Feildingites to combine m a. self-denying ordinance,' and to go without meat until the butcueis become more reasonable.

A visitor to the South Island states that the harvest iv the South lias been a wretched one. In places m Southland there is not a blade of grass for stock. The crop that should have bceu m and threshed long ago is still m the stook, while other crops are still standing, green and unripe. Tlio harvest has been a heart-breaking- one.

Mr Herbert Scott, motor engineer, of Palmerston North, sustained a severe loss last week. He motored to Oroua Downs on a duck shooting expedition, aud left his car, valued at £550, m an old building. This building was destroyed by fire during Jiis temporary absence, and the car, as well as other vehicles left therein, was destroyed.

tho Auckland Herald states that for some time past there has been quite a plague of rats m some parts of the I'iroiigia (settlement, and up the Waipa river, where the rodents arc running up tho trees, eating die apples and building their nests. The old native i_ not extitict, as many havo thought, for a couple were caught last week.

Thu Morrinsvillo correspondent of the Waikato Times stales that deer are so plentiful m the Maungakuwa ranges, Waikato, that the natives havo abandoned old cultivation- ou accouut of their depredations. Twenty -years ago the native owners of Maiingakawa considerably outnumbered the deor. To-day there are one hundred deer for every adult native owner.

They work their Mayors hard at Feilding. In the course of his speech at the installation last week, the retiring Mayor stated that during his two years of office he had attended 86 meetings of the Council, apart from committee meetings. Another strenuous office for the Mayor was that of J. P. He had sat on the Bench for 153 cases at the local Court. There were other various duties which a' Mayor had to perform, to say nothing of the interviews, and as often as not these interviews resulted m some person or other wanting half-a-crown. What little time he had left ho devoted to making a living.

Influenza we havo always with us. The British Medical Journal thinks it may be some comfort to know that m the good old days things were no better. In Paris, m the sixteenth century, friend-s •on meeting greeted each other with the question, "N'en as-tu point goute un nioroelot?" Long before that the scourge was equally rife. It interfered with tlie work of the law, and prevented the performance of religious rites. In 1403, and again m 1557, the sittings of the court 6 had to b© suspended. In 1427 sermons had to be abandoned because the preacher's voice was drowned by coughing and sneezing. In 1510 masses could i not be 6ung. .The features of the epij demies arc said to have been, incessant discharge from the nose "as from a foiun- ' tain," fever, and general lassitude. The disease was variously known as joliette and coquette, from its capricious nature. The name grippe came into use m 1743; those of pertite poste and petit couirrier, m 1762; and that of general m 1780. It was also known a- influences and influenza. In addition to meteorological causes, tho humming of questionable songwas believed to bring on iufluenzu. The remedies were many and various. In 1510 sufferers put their faith m blessed carbonised water, theriaca, and camphor; m the eighteenth century m theriaca and bleeding. In 1411 the doctors confessed that they knew not what' to do, and m 1803 Dr Chauvot do Beauchesne had tlio courage to advocate that the best treatment was t.o have nothing to do with doctors. Tho epidemics of 1580, 1676, 1703, 1732, and 1737 ceased after an j earthquake or volcanic eruption. Will the recent eruption of Vesuvius and the earthqvuke at San Francisco produce likeresults? • J