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Waikato Argus, Volume IX, Issue 768, 1 October 1900, Page 2

Wk are without our usual batch of cablegrams and telegrams this morning owing to au interruption in the telegraph line between here and Auckland. Where the break is is not yet known, but every effort is being made by the Department to restore communication.

Eour horses in the Hamilton Pound will be sold to-morrow at the usual hour.

To-morrow Mr W. J. Hunter will hold his annual cattle and hogget sale at Ohaupo, for which a large number of entries has been received. The cattle sale will commence at 12 o'clock sharp, and the hogget sale at 3 o'clock. The annual meeting of the Cambridge West Amateur Athletic Club will be held in St. Paul's Gymnasium, Cambridge, on Wednesday evening next, at 8 o'clock. A full attendance is desirable, as the business is important.

The average number of children per family in European countries is lowest in France, with 3 03 ; Switzerland, 3-94 ; Austria and Belgium, 4-05 ; England, 4"08 ; Germany, 410 ; Holland, 4-22 : Scotland, 4-46 ; Italy, 4-56 ; Spain, 4-65 ; Russia, 483 ; while Ireland is highest, with an average of 5-20 children in each family.

A swimming club recently been formed in Rotorua, A deputation was appointed at the meeting to interview Dr. King with a view to obtaining the use ot the Blue Bath for practising purposes until such time as the weather permitted swimming in the lake. The application has been forwarded to headquarters.

The annual monthly meeting of the Tamahere branch of the Waikato Farmer's Club will take place at Tamahere on Wednesday evening next. MrS. A. Browne, oi Glevedon, intended giving an address on (Co-operation) at that meeting, but owing to unavoidable circumstances, he will be unable to attend. H,e has intimated to the secretary his intention of addressing the farmers at a subsequent meeting. A book sent from North Carolina to the Labour Department has arrived covered with curious and amusing notes. The clerk, in directing it, wrote " Wellington, N.F." instead of " Wellington, N.Z." The result was that the book has evidently made an extensive tour through the State?. It is marked " Not claimed," " Don't know where to send it," *" Keep it goine," " Here goes," " Try Australia," and " Let her go." The annexation to New Zealand of several of the islands of the Pacific was originally contemplated by Sir Julius Yolgel, but it has fallen to Mr Seddon in conjunction with the Imperial Government to give effect to the idea. The step will increase our responsibilities, but at the same time it is calculated to secute to us a trade which requires careful nursing to become of considerable value. There is this also in its favour, it will prevent other nations hoisting their flags, aud as is their custom imposing conditions of trade inimical to British interests.

An endeavour is being made to establish a branch of the Acclimatisation Society in Rotorua, and the society and the Government are being approached on the matter. At a public meeting held to consider the question, the fact that although no one in the town had a license for selling game, it was always to be found gracing the tables of the hotels and boardinghousea in season, was severely commented on. Good fishing and shooting would prove an additional attraction to the already favourite resort, and the attempt to form a branch of the society there should be encouraged.

lb is certainly rather amusing that at the very time that tinned meats and sausages have been forbidden importation into Germany large quantities should be brought from abroad for the use of the German troops in China. The German Meat Inspection Law is defended and justified on the ground that you cannot inspect tinned meat to make sure that it contains nothing unwholesome, but, as the Vossiche Zeitnng says, what may not be good*enough for German artisans and labourers will apparently do for German soldiers and sailors. As a matter of fact, the law is a piece of Protection dressed up to look like a measure to protect the public health.

The Speaker of the House of Commons has many pleasant privileges. He has £SOOO a year as salary and the Speaker's house at Westminster, beautifully furnished. The Speaker's stairs lead from the Thames to the house, aud the situation is such that this ollicial residence is said to be the best lighted house in London. When the Speaker is elected he receives from the State £IOOO to provide himself with proper robes, 2000 oz of silver plate for the maintenance of his diguity, two hogsheads of claret at the same time, and he receives £IOO annually for stationery. The Clothworkers' Compauy of London make him a curious present of a length of broadcloth every Christmas. Then when he retires he is made a Viscount, with a very substantial pension into the bargain. So there are many things worse than feeing Mr Speaker.

At the Hamilton Preshyterian Church last evening the Rev. J. M. Mitchell, preaching from the text " Owe no man anything,'' delivered an outspoken address in which he condemned the conduct; of those people who habitually neglect; to pay their just debts but at. the same time refuse to deny themselves any pleasure. I?veiy man and woman in the community owed a duty to their fellows, their town, the State and the Church, and they must see to it that, they performed what was required of them conscientiously and fearlessly. Their duty to each other was contained in the golden rule, while in municipal and State affairs it was required of them that, by their votes and influence they should endeavour to put an end to all unfairness and corruption. In the Church it was noticeable that the greater part of the worn was left to the williuH few, who were often the busiest people in the community, while the grumbling was done by the '• donothings." If every church member would undertake and faithfully perform their fair share of the work, greater success would be achieved. The address was very attentively followed aud made a very favourable impreasiou,

It is stated (says the Levin paper) that the salmon trout are destroying the white bait in the Munawatn j river. White bait fishers have reported ; as to catching the trout in their nets, so eager has the trout been after the little fish. It is also stated that the trout are very numerous in the Mauuwatn river. Mr V. Granville, of New Plymouth, was called in the other day to attend a draught horse which was suffering from a Btoppage of the bowels. He saw at once that the case was hopeless, but the owner hoped against hope. The animal succumbed, and when opened it was found that the stoppage was caused by a mass of ironaaud, weighing fully 50 Id. Mr Granville tells us—and he gives the advice gratis—that the stoppage would not have occurred if the horse had always had access to rock salt. It was a natural craving for salt that caused the animal to pick up the sand.—Herald. The Americans are gradually becoming great money-lenders. Thete were excellent tenders for America for the "Khaki Loan" of £30,000,000, one insurance company alcne tendering for £10,000,000, When Exchequer Bonds were issued the other day for the amount required under the Supplementary Estimates for the war the Americans secured £5,000,000 of the bonds. Now Germany is endeavouring to raise £4,000,000 in New York on .Exchequer Bonds. The money markets of Euiope are in a state of stringency, which probably forces Germany to seek the assistance of Now York, but it is probable also that Germany wants gold, of which there is an oversupply m Amciica.

The Ashton Australian magazine rifle, which recently received a strong recommendation from Lord Charles Beresford after severe trials at Gibraiter, had another trirJmph at Manchester recently (says the Daily Mail). The rifle has attracted a great deal of attention from local officers, volunteers, and experts The automatic feed of the cartridges from the magazine into the breech is a striking feature, and the strength, simplicity, and efficiency of the new weapon are held to make it superior to both the Lee-Metford and Mauser. The Ashton is 35 per cent, cheaper to make and lighter than the Lee-Metford. At Bisley recently 30 shots per miuute were fired from the new rifle with 28 hits, including 17 bulls.

During the hearing of a maintenance case at the Christchurch Magistrate Court last week, it transpired that a certain young man got married some six weeks ago with £3 in his hand. He was not in work then, and has not been in work siuce, but is still looking for it. Up to the present time he had used 30s of the £3 iu order to keep the matrimonial home running, and the other 30s is available for the next six weeks. The man's father is at present destitute, and will have to go to the Charitable Aid Board for subsistence. Mr Beetham, at the close of the case, delivered an impressive lecture upon the hasty and unthinking method of rushing into matrimony, and leaving the parents destitute. This sort of thing he was used to, seeing children let their parents go down to the grave without caring a scrap what became of them, It did not give one a very good idea of human nature.

While General Bullor's army was at Estcourt a volunteer regiment fell in on a Sunday morning under a boiling sun. There was no chaplain, and the colonel, who undertook the service, called on the Roman Catholics to fall out. Somewhere about a dozen stepped out, and the colonel, seeing the number was so small, told them to go to their tents. They eujoyed themselves for an hour, while the less fortunate men of the Church of England persuasion had to submit to a long address in addition to the prescribed morning service. Next Sunday, with similar conditions prevailing, the colonel gave the order, " Koman Catholics, fall out." Three parts of the battalion fell out. The colonel recognised the plot, and, without showing any sign of surprise, ordered the newlyconverted Roman Catholics to be marched into town to attend service tbere. The few steadfast Protestants scored that day, for the colonel held a brief service, and enjoyed his luncheon all the more for the satisfaction he had gained. Two instances in which insolvents have shown tHryrness to JiscHiirtie their moral obligation.' 10 their creditors have just come to light in Sydney. In one, Captain William Scott became bankrupt in 1889, and secured his discharge in 1895. Subsequently he married the widow of the Hon. James White, and ou her death became possessed of considerable property. Now he has sent from Ireland a sum sufficient to pay '2os in the £ to his old creditors, and his bankruptcy iias been annulled. The other case (says the Sydney Mail) is thur. of Herbert Arthur Trower, a partner in the firm of Meyerfield and Co., which failed in 1891 Jfor about £120,000. Some very hard thing were said about Mr Trower keeping away from the colonies at the time, but it now appears that he had to sequestrate his personal estate in London in 1894, and got his discharge in 1897. The matter of the Meyerfield bankruptcy cropped up in Sydney courts the other day, when it transpired that Mr Trowe, had come back to Sydney to settle with the creditors.

Donald Macdonald, the Australian war correspondent, speaks with sorrow and feeliug on modern warfare. On one occasiou, lyiug sheltered behind a stone on the hill top, which he had reached amid a shower of bullets, he watched the Devons preparing to clear the hill. For 17 hours fighting had been going on, with no advantage to either side; and, for safety, it was deemed necessary to clear the hill top of Boers As the regiment came swinging up the hill, as though on parade, quite regardless of the deadly fire they knew would greet them at the top, Mr Macdonald says he felt he had witnessed something of the sublimity of lifo and the magnificence of death. As the men reached the summit he was filled with an overwhelming feeling of pure savagery, born of the dcairc to kill; but when 70 of the advancing Devons fell silently under the first volley, these savage thoughts passed away, giving place to a great pity which knew no distinction between friend aud foe. As he watched it looked as though the British were crumbling away before that awful tire; but with a " Steady, Devons, steady !" from »he commanding officer, they charged with one wild rush, and in an instant there was not a live Boer left on the hill top.

A well-known Sydney lady had a remarkable cxperince the other day. She was going home in a George-street tramcar, after an afternoon's shopping, carrying her purse and purchases, in true female fashion, on her lap. Opposite Bat a stylishly-dressed man, hearing on his linger an exceptionally brilliant diamond ring. This face attracted the lady's notice by the (lashing of the gem as the light fell on its facets. An one of I lit; stopping places the car was besieged by passengers, and the lady, transferring the purse from her lap to the pocket of a tailor-made jacket, she was weiring, and gathering up her numerous parcels, made room for the newcomers. In the stir the diamondadorned individual crossed over and sat alongside her. At the next " stop "he got off the tramcar and disappeared. To the lady's surprise, she found, when called upon to pay her fare, that her nurse was m'ssiuij, but a friendly person iu the eir came to the rescue and settled with the conductor. Judge of the lady's astonishment when, on reaching home, she put her hand in her pocket and found lying in ft comer the large and lustrous diamond worn by the man in the tramcar. Upon bfciny shown to a jeweller, the diamond was valued at £SO. The police have not yet been advised by the individual of his lose.

There Ims just died in a benevolent institution—tho Old Colonists' Home near Melbourne —a once-wealthy Australian squatter named Donald Cameron, , \ilio made and loat three fortunes during his sixty years in Australia, tie was tie owner of two stallions and 40,000 sheep when gold was discovered iu 1851, and that event, while enriching many, ruined him and other squatcers. Starting squatting again iu Queensland, he was ruined the feeond time by the disastrous effects of the American Civil War upon the wool trade. His third fortune was swept away in the financial cyclone that devested Australia in the early nineties. After that the venerable Scottish Australian was too old to make a fresh start, and sought refuge in the Old Colonists' Home. In his list letter from there he philosophically wrote :—"lplay my pipes and am happy still."

The own' correspondent of the Lyttelton Times, at Kelson, writing on the court proceeding in connectioh with the Stoke Orphanage says : The defendants furnish a strong contrast to each other. Brother Wibertus is inclined to be gross of body, aud he is heavy jowled, short-necked, long upperlipped, and dark browed, with a larce loose mouth. He is in the prime of life Brother Killian belongs to the ascetic type. He has iron-grey hair and sharp, regular features, and shallow, irritable eyes, and he has also a nervous manner. Both men are Belgians. It happens that, with Brother Loclus, the director, they were the only foreigners among the brotherhood at Stoke. It will be remembered that in the Commissioners' report " cheerful dispositioned Britons " are recommended as desirable, should the Brothers continue to control the school. The accused are supported in Court by Brother John, Provincial of the Marist Order iu Australasia. He is a fine-look-ing cleric, with clear-cut features, and a subdued but imperious manner. His attitude is obviously critical. He sits on one. side, and leaves the instructing of the counsel to Brother Augustine and the nervous Brother Killian. Brother Augustine, who has figured in the proceedings as the "Kind Brother," is a Scot of Scots. His secular name is Donald M'Douald, and he cuines from the Northern Highlands.

The Republicans are confident of re-electing President M'Kinley at the elections in November. In seconding the nomination of President M'Kiuley, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, said :—" When we place William M'Kinley as our candidate before the people we pluce the Republican party on record as standing for the performance which squares with the promise, as standing lor the redemption in administration and legislation of the pledges made on the platform and on the stump, as standing for the upbuilding of the national honour and interest abroad and the continuance at home of the prosperity which it has already brought to the farm and the workshop. We stand on the threshold of a new century—a century big with the fate of the great nations of the earth. It rests with us now to decide whether in the opening years of that century wo shall march forward to fresh triumphs, or whether at the outset we shall deliberately cripple ourselves for the contest. Is America a weakling, to shrink from the world ivork that must be done by the world Powers ? No ! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with fearless and eager eyes and rejoices as a strong mau to run a race. We do not stand in cruven mood, asking to be spared the task, eiin»iug as we gaze on the contest. No ! We challenge the proud privilege of doing Ihn Work that Providence allots to us, and we face the coming years high of heart and resolute of faith that in our people is given the right to win such honour and renown as has never yet been granted to the peoples of mankind."