LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8120, 20 September 1904, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr S. F. Whitcombe, . traffic manager of the railways, went to Dunedin to-day on business connected with the scheme for the jiew express service. Grave irregularities have occurred at one of the New Plymouth suburban post offices (says the Taranaki "Herald"), and the Chief Postmaster is now making inquiries into the matter. ( At Dunedin, to-day, Esther Elliott was charged with stealing, at Invercargill, on Septemb-r 19, two gold rings, valued at £4, the property of Samuel Paskell. She was remanded to Invercargill till Thursday, on a bail of £20. The Wellington correspondent of this paper telegraphs : — Mr Ell informs me that the principle of rating on unimproved values has been ca.rried at Campbelltown, Southland, by 107 votes to 86, and in Buller County by 302 votes to 84. Mr T. Humphries, Commissioner of Crown Lands, went south to-day to inspect a piece of bush at Redcliffs, between Geraldine and the Levels Estate. There are about thirty acres of the bush, and it is thought that it ought to be preserved. In tEe course; of a recent address the Rev H. A. Hawkins, superintendent of the Anglican Maori Mission in the Auckland district, stated that since the year 1850 the Maoris of the colony have contributed fully £100,000 in land and casty for churches in native districts. Of that 'amount £10,000 has come from the Auckland diocese. Tlie popular word "considerable" was arraigned at Court this morning, " What do yon mean by ' some considerable time?' It may mean nine till nine or only half an hour," said Mr Haselden, S.M., to a witness who had stated that a man had been " some considerable time" in a ban Eventually the vague non-committal expression was translated into " an hour and a half or two hours." At the Christchurch Magnetic Observatory the readings at 9.30 a..ra. to-d)ay were : — Barometer 29.604, and falling ; maximum temperatufe during preceding twenty-four hours 53.9, minimum during the same period 41 ; ' temperature at 9.30 a.m. — dry bulb 44, wet bulb 43.1, humidity per cent 93; minimum thermometer on grass 40.9. Cloud' (0-10) 10. The wind was northeast, and the rainfall 0.005 inches. A young Maori, a grandson of the wellknown Hawke's Bay Chief-, Ha-puka. has died at a pa near Te Aute, from malignant pustule, a form 1 of anthrax. The Hawked Bay "Herald" reports that by order of Dr De Lisle (District Health Officer), the dedeased's whare and clothing wore burned, and hb other belongirj-gs disinfected. The natives of the district have been warned to take steps to prevent the spread of the disease. f ! From Russia, Argentine, Japan, Egypt, and ali manner of unlikely places requests are received for the leaflets and pamphlets of the Agricultural Department. They are regularly in demand in many of the oountries where agriculture is developing, and in some of the -older countries of Europe, and the number of applications from the United States and Canada is considerable. From twelve to fifteen thousand copies of each leaflet have to be printed, and in the case*, of some of the pamphlets on special subjects the number rises to 25,000 copies. At Auckland, {o-day William Henry Johnson, an. Auckland Post Office messenger, who had been charged witb secreting two printed papers, on app--aring in the Conrt with* two young men who had been committed for sentence on charges of stealing and forging postal notes, was discharged by Mr Kettle, the Stipendiary Magistrate, upon the application of the Crown. IJosecu- ' tor The latter stated tlnvt the Department was satisfied that Johnson committed the act out of carelessness and not with any criminal intent. At the Dunedin Magistrate's Court to-day James B. Rainey, master of .the Westralia, was changed with proceeding from Lyttelton to Dunedin with nine firemen and six trimmers instead of nine firemen, three trimmers and three greasers. Mr Fraser appeared for the prosecution, representing Captain Fleming, Superintendent of Mercantile Marine. Mr W. C. Macgregor, for the defendant, held that the Westralia. was under Australian law, which did not apply in the present case, and also that no offence had been disclosed, as Section 7 of the Act did not mention greasers. The case was dismissed, the Magistrate agreeing t to state a case for appeal. The passengers from England by the Kumara, whidh arrived at Wellington, from London on Saturday, included (says the "New Zealand Times "\ twenty farmers, six labourers, five, clerks, four bootmakers, four miners, three grocers, three painters, two joiners, two carpenters, two cutters, two drapers, two bakers, two engineers, a bricklayer, cooper, traveller, fitter, carter, stableman, mi«ion*a*ry, ' sailmaker, groom, mechanic, domestic, jeweller, schoolmistress, salesman, ex-policeman, railway guard, nurse, plumbeT. The arrivals from South Africa comprised— Two joiners, two bricklayers, two tailors, two labourers, a painter, prospector, plasterer, carpenter, fitter, engineer, butcher, and a* (horse-dealer. In view of tlie oft-repeated and com-monly-believed statement that "mummy wheat I?—that1 ?— that is, wheat found in the cases of ancient mummies— has been known to germinate when planted after tnousands of years, it is of interest to note that experiments with specimens of wheat, of the antiquity -of which there can be no doubt, have been carried out at Kew <*rfens, with the view of ascertaining whether Sient Egyptian wheat, say, 3000 years old would germinate or not ; in every case £ ex?srSnSt made by the official «t Kew wS (s?ys the "Birmingham Post ;).«» cessfil. As a matter of fact, it is well known to botanists that the wheat germ dies in a very few years. On Monday night, at St Peter ; s Church, Ferry Road, a) debate took place between four representatives of St Paul's and St Peter's Young Men's Literary Societies. Mr J R Brunt presided, and there was a fair attendance. The subject of the debate was— "Ambition: Is it more of a- Virtue than a Vice?" St Paul's, who took the , affirmative, was represented by Messrs T. 1 Reese, N. Proctor, B. Gunn and W. Ear- - waker ; St Peter's by Messrs J. Stout, H. H. Hanna, A. W- Jamieson and E v Dalziel, Messrs Reese and Stout- being the leaders. The umpires were the Rev I. Sargin- ■ son and Mr Whitesides, whose verdict was *■ given in favour of St Peter's. The usual votes of thanks were passed at the close. There are now 3,671,103 acres of Crown • lands open for selection in the colony, com- ' prising 976,869 acres available on the op- • tional system, 119,738 acres for leases in , small^grazing runs, 2,554,183 acres for lease in pastoral runs, 1625 acres of township and other lands, and 18,688 acres for lease-in-perpetuity -under the Land for Settlements Acts. Of the total area available, , Canterbury claims 65,286 acres, made up of ! 24^ sections' comprising 447 acres of surveyed l rural land, 480 acres of unsurveyed rural *. land, one small grazing run of 2331 acres, v two pastoral runs comprising 62,000 acres, i and 46 sections comprising 28 acres for I lease-in-perpetuity under the; Land for Set* 1 tlements Acts. One pastoral run of 45,000 acres is situated in Amuri County : and the other, of 17,000 acres, in Waimate County, which contains also the small grazing run and 17 a^res, in two seotions, of the rural land- The rest of the rural land is divided as follows; — ■Ashburton County,- 479 acres: ' in 18 sections ; Ashley County, one section ' of 15 acr*S| Geraldine County, 147 a-cres ' in 5 sections.;, Selwyn- County, 269 acres in i 4 sections. The distribution of the holdings 1 for lease-dn*pevpetujty under the Land for _ Settlements Acts is made as follows: — • Amuri County, 6 acres in 9 sections; Ashburton County j 6 acres in 6 sections ; Levels Cwntyj 8 acres in 7 sections ; Selwyn County, 3 acrea in 5 sections j Waimate County, 5 aores in 19 sections.

The date fixed* for starting the new express service is November 1^ but it is thought that arrangements may not be completed by thafc date. In that' case the new service will not be inaugurated until a short time afterwards. A sitting of the 1.3-ttelton Police Court was held this morning before Captain Marciel, J.P., and Mr J. T. Brice, J.P. A prohibition order was issued against a man on the application of his wife. The dramatic entertainment held on Wednesday last in the Lyttelton Oddfellows' Hall in aid of the funds of Nurse Maude's camp for consumptive patients realised a net profit of £6, which will be forwarded to Nurse Maude. 1 In future, the Blackball Coal Company intends to work only one shilt, in place of two. In coni sequence of this decision, pli tho employees were* given notice; but when the shift is working, there will still be seventy dispensed with. Already a good deal on distress exists at Blackball, and tho government is being disked to commence the Ngahere railway, with a view to absorbing some of the surplus labour and *allev-iatmg the distress. The annual report of the Department of Agriculture is in the printing offioe, and is°well advanced. It is expected to make ita appearance at an early date. This publication is yearly becoming more and more popular, and last year's issue of six thousand copies was too small for the demand. The coming volume will be smaller than last year's. During recent years .it has grown to nn abnormal extent, and the Department believes that it, would be more beneficial to issue a smaller annual volume and publish more bulletins diaring the year. \t a meeting of the Timani Hospital Board to-day the Chief Health Officer notified that it would be necessary to «rect an infectious diseases .hospital in Berve South Canterbury, and he defined the contributory area, aa w » Pa^ and Roneitat* Rivers, omitting the Mack^zifSounty and the Mount Peel Kojd District Waimate was excluded as an Sto h^ ifa i + rLnSt! erected there. A meeting of tihe oontnbut, "Sies is to he called at once^to endeavour to arrange tOie emoun t of. coruubution to be paid by each, and, failing agreement, the Stipendiary Magistrate will be asked to fix the contributions. During the' last few years (says the "New Zealand TiJes") the farmer has awakened Sthe tyranny of weeds. A few years ago there wL a Dairy Conference at Palmerston North, and the members told each other exactly what breed of cow made dairying pay, and exactly how great a factor scientific management was. They forgot everything about sorrel and twitch and tutu and yare, and the thousand other weeds that adulterate the fobd of cattle. But Mr Kirk, the Government Biologist, put in a word for the purity and proper constitution ot pasture, which, he declared, were the foundations of successful dairying. "What cow," he asked, "could materialise the hopes of her owner if she , was fed on weeds?" Not only were weeds innutritions, he said ; they were absolutely injurious to the health of stock and tainted the milk. ■ Since that date settlers have - been gradually taking more interest in- the subject and developing a lively antagonism to the whole schedule of the "Noxious Weeds Act, and a- good many weeds outside. The Department now receives frequent requests for lectures on the subject. Within the last two months illustrated addressees have been given by Mr Kirk at- Mauriceville, Marton, Bulls, Rongotea, Sandon and one or two other places, and there are still on his file -several applications awaiting attention. — — — *-*-•*•*•—^ mm r»^—^ — l^— — ■-— - — , «—