NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12767, 13 April 1910, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Nominations for two seats on the Waimea West Road Board close on the 30th instant, and if necessary an election will be held on 7th May.

During the two days of the Wellington Rating Club's autumn moating the sum of £3850 was distributed in stakes. The list of the principal winning owners is as follows: — Sir Geo. Cliiford, £750; Hon. J. D. Onnond, £525; Mr. G. D. Greenwood £425; Mr D. Rutherford £325 ; Mr. J. Monk £175 ; Mr. C. B. Pharazyn £105 ; Mr. J. W. Lowe £160 ; Mr. Middleton Melrose £160; Mr. W. Jack £150; Mr. Highden £100.

Tho complaints (says "The Dominion") made by the curator of thei Dominion Museum, Wellington, concerning the destruction of Maori carvings also apply in some measure to the Auckland Museum. However, the vandalism so far consists of nothing more serious than the removal of pawa sheJl ornaments from some of the Native houses. The curator (Mr. T. T. Cheeseman) states that the museum authorities are keping a sharp outlook with a view to making an example of some of the offenders.

The Duke of Portland took the chair at a great meeting in Shoreditch (says the London correspondent of the Melbourne "Argus"), the first of a series to be held throughout the country to demand the complete suppression of the "horrible, disgusting, and un-English trade," as tho Duke called it, in aged and worn-out horses, exported from England to the Continent. The traffic is said to amount to 50,000 horses a year. Its absolute suppression is being demanded on the ground that restrictions and official regulations are useless. After the "Daily Mail's" correspondent investigated the facts at Antwerp last summer the Board of Agriculture undertook special action, and the same correspondent has now Been ovej again to witness the results. Here is an example : — One hundred and fifty-six horses on one boat from Hull, which crossed in a storm ; one died and was thrown overboard ; another was killed by the captain, after breaking a foot ; 31 arrived deadj 12 had their throats cut in the boat or on the Antwerp quay; four were so ill that they had to be carried in waggons to the. stables where the butchers buy them ,• the rest hobbled the. three miles. This is a typical case.

The "Lyttelton Times" says:— "lf the weka becomes extinct, it will leave behind it a name for. impudence which will live for ever. Perhaps it is an exaggerated form of egotism that leads this bird to believe that its presence is acceptable at all times and in all places. It knows nothing of the law against trespass, and it boldly ignores : all unwritten regulations in regard to ill-times visits. The Cambridge Sanatorium, which ; has been erected close to an extensive piece of native forest, is often visited by this little larikin, especially at night, when opportunities are supplied for stealthy movements and cunning raids. -Patients are sometimes surprised by a nightly visit, and outside in the yard near the kitchen there are often evidences . in th© early morning that wekas have been prowling about looking for things which attract their quaint fancies. One night a few years ago, an, exceptionally bold member of the genus entered the building, and walked calmly upstairs into, the matron's room. "Its movements ■ attracted attention, and when the light was suddenly turned on it turned round with a dignified air, and departed, its feet pattering on the stairs as it went down and left the building by the way it had; entered."