NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12765, 5 February 1910, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Nelson Freezing Company, Limited, announce that having received orders from London, they are purchasers of fat sheep and lambs for February shipment.

The special committee on house drainage connections recommended to the City Council last night that the time allowed a ratepayer to connect his premises with the sewer be exended for fourteen days, and that failing his compliance within that time, the Council have the work done and recover the cost from him. In several other cases the committee recommended that thirty days' notice to connect be given. The report was adopted.

A friendly rifle match has been arranged to take place this afternoon on the Toi Toi Valley range between, the Nelson Rifles and the Nelson Defence Club. The teams will be eight men aside, and the ranges 500 and 600 yards, The following will represent the Defence Club: — Riflemen Milroy, Milner, It, Kenning, Howard, Smallbone* J. Hitching, Holland, and Elvidgo; emergency, J. Bunch. The Nelson team will be: Sergeants Mitchener and, Frank, Corporals Carter, Manssen,.and Alborough, Privates Conroy, Thomson, Hunter, and Brown.

In Great Britain there is, according to official figures, a pig shortage of half a million compared with the returns for the preceding year, which means that the morning rasher of the British workmen will soon also bo listed with the other things "made in. Germany."

The "Live Stock Journal," in outlining a scheme for the providing of remounts for the army, says: — "The superiority of Irish hunters is admitted. Irish hunter owners are not pealthy, and probably £100 would buy the five best brood mares in the island."

Of all the incidents that have occurred on the Kitchener tour in Australia there is cue that really impressed his staff (says the "Argus"). Just after the Field-Marshal landed at Port Darwin he drove out along the Esplanade. They got away iro\-: the little northern port into the v\ »n country and turned a corner of tho track. A hut stood close i-y ife vaj. A tall, grey old man stood ot tl'6 door of his hut, his heels together, his left hand at his forehead in military salute, his right holding an old buglo to his lips ready to blow. Alongside" him on parade and at attention stood his wife. Tho grim, grey military pair might have been Mulvaney and Dinah Shadd. There was no mistaking the old soldier and the soldier's wife who had followed, the fortunes of war with the baggage train in many a long Indian march when the regiment/ was marching down the Grand Trunk Road. There was more cordiality in the FieldMarshal's acknowledgment of- that odd, almost pathetio salute than in any of the finer demonstrations since mad© in his honour.

There' b too much starch in the Church at Home. I don't know if there is out here. If there is, take it out. There are men who have gone to the devil because of the starch vi the Church."— Rev. H. S. Woollcombe at Wellington.

Something of a sensation was caused at Ohakune last week hy the reported discovery of gold. Excitement ran high until it was discovered that the whole tiling was . a hoax, some practical jokers have gilded a piece of scoria, which passed for the "yellow metal."

"What shall I do?" plaintively asked the tourist who had fallen out of the express train as it passed the Henui Bridge 1 . "You're all right, mister," replied the porter, "your ticket allows j r ou to break your journey so as to see the wave sliding on Thursday evening next."— " Taranaki Herald.'? '■■ ■

The Beef Trust in America, it is stated, openly defies the law in the face of a most thorough Judgment, and does just what it likes where th© meat market is concerned. The gains of the combine, although they are not absolutely ascertainable, aro known to be enormous. In 1903 the profits of the Trust firms in Chicago alone amounted to £5,000,000. Not only is the consumer bled to breed a tribe of millionaires, but the stockbreeder is absolutely at the mercy of a small group of men. In the absence of any effective means of administering the law in America, the creation of a strong public feeling appears to be the only remedy. Tho fact that over a million persons have pledged themselves to abstain from meat is a striking illustration of the indignation felt by American people.

Much as we detest jingoism, we are not simple minded enough *o swallow all that the German Ambassador says without a considerable graiu of salt. Even those whose swallowing capacity is larger than - ours should recognise that the • British peo pie will be wise to show its love of peace in the .same way as the Germans, by building more ships. — ■ "Evening Post."

"My last words to the young men and women in Australia," said Sir George Reid at a farewell gathering in Sydney, "are: 'Don't forget your rightful claims to enjoyment and recreation — but begin to remember that you miss the rarest pleasures of human life if you miss the intellectual pleasures of the human mind. Don't forget that if you excel in the lower forms of excellence, in the amusements of the -day, you are missing a chance of excelling in developing the powers which know no old age. Your capacit yfor sport will gradually and perhaps soon disappear ; but if you do endeavour to develop these immortal powers you possess you will have, a happy life, a grand old age. And I say at last to young Australians, with all these magnificent advantages and all these opportunities for excellence around them— "Awake ! Awakei!' "

To-day, at 11 a.m., Mr A. Gould will hold his weekly miscellaneous sale.