CORRESPONDENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 5195, 16 July 1891, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE HARBOUR BOARD' 3 ENGINEER. TO TIIK EDli'Oll OF TUB TIiUAJUJ UJ3HALD. Bin, — A. largo number of ratepayers have Iho sumo opinion us myself, that aa long as tho Titniuu' Harbour Board omploy n per nmnont ongineor tboy will bo landed into pnynicnt of largo euniß for keoping open the Inirljotir. Of a neeoaeity fcho engineer niuefc ni tempt (,jj show somnthing for his salary. li'.ir hotter to have a consulting ongineer, and perhaps only pay half the presont cost of having a permanent man. Probably, too, the shinglo would not then bo thought such a terrible thing as it ib at prosout I am, &0., Practical [It is quilo fail* (o raieo tlio quoßtion as to whether tho Harbour Board should omploy a permnncnt or a consulting ongineor, but il ia unfair to malio such ineinuations ngainpt tho prcaonl. oqginoer aa " t'ructicul's " letter cuntainn. Mr Merchant haa n«vcr unduly proa'od the shinglo difficulty on tho notice of tho Board ; corlnialy ho hus not made moro of it lliun the fucti snomed to warrant m tho opinion of Mcssrn O'Connor, Qoodull, Nupior 8011, and Wilson, all of whom mutt bo regarded as consulting engineers.— E». I'M,"] Tho donfch is announcod lit Chiongo of Mr Francis Gooffrey Diolioiiß, a son of tho novelist. Tho deooimod wsb forinorly an olTiosr m the tanuntod polieo of tho Oiuniiiun North- WosL, and liud, it, m suid, led n roring life for noino time provious to hie death. In Oliina, by n. rooont ImpdVinl doorco, tnombors of tho Koynl Family and mandarins of tho first rank will hereafter bo pormitted i to npproaoh tho Kmporor witliout knocking their hoada upon tho ground, etiquotto hoing sntislicd if Uioy quietly crawl into tho august presoaoe uu 011-fuuro,

To decide a wager of £5, Joseph Rocker (of Bridgewater) Buccessfully.'accomplished a feat of pioking np 100 eggs, one at a time, placed 'a yard apart, and returning them to the scratch line within an hour. The time taken was 55imia, the distance which he had to run being only 20 yards ehort of five miles and throe-quarter.

The Hawaiian race has been steadily dwindling m numbers during the present contury, and the latest census gives it a population of I but 40,000, or a deorense of one-half within a half-century, so that its extinction must soon be complete. The Japanese, who number 40,000,000, are increasing, and it is thought they will soon replace the vanishing race and re-people the island.