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Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3675, 7 January 1908, Page 2

The-Hauatpu Drainage Board has been gazetted.

Captain Edwin telegraphs:—Easterlv, moderate to strong winds; glass rise slowly.

On our back page will be found cnmplete returns to date of the North Island egg-laying competition. The Wanganui College trustees have decided to erect new buildings at a cost, with the preparation of the grounds, of £30,000.

A meeting of the Pukekura Road Board will be held at the Farmers' Club-room next Saturday, 'llth inst., at 1.30 p.m. As showing the vitality possessed by a shark, even after it has been considerably multilated, it may bo mentioned that the animal despatched on the Kakanui beach was cut open. Fully twenty minutes afterwards a small boy, apparently on the quest of adventure, sat on the shark's tail, and was somewhat surprised to find that it still had sufficient strength to lift and roll him over. The story is vouched for by onlookers. The following should be of interest as showing the increase per head of taxation: during the past seven years. For the year ending March 31st, 1900', the whole taxation, general and local among the white population amounted to £4l 8s per head. In 1906 it amounted to £5 13s lid, and in 1907 it had mounted up to £6 3s 3d per head—an increase in one year of 9s 4d per head for every white man, woman, and baby in the country.

Full recognition has never yet been given to the fact that bravery is not confined to the battlefield. Against many decorations for deeds of battle we have but one or two for courage and daring exhibited in civil life. The King has now increased the number |handsomcly. There is to be a new medal—of two classes, silver and bronze- for miners, quarrymen and others within the Empire who endanger their own lives to save others.

A good story is contained in the "Life of Shirley Brooks." At the Punch table Thackeray once remarked that he had "barked his shin" in stepping from a carriage. "You'd better see a doctor," said Mark Lemon. "I've heard that the old fellow who used to drive the Age, the Brighton coach, you know, barked his shin, and died from it." "Yes," said Shirley, "so I've heard; but you see, with Thackeray it's different. He doesn't drive the Age, he leads it."

The Government steamer Hinemoa returned from the Kermadec Islands on Sunday evening, after having landed a party of scientists from New Zealand, who purpose continuing observations in the group for twelve months. The Hinemoa also inspected the various depots for castaways and replenished stores where necessary. There was a large quantity of fruit, principally "oranges, but in inconvenient places for shipping.

Mr- R. R. Martin, organiser of the Political Reform League, will pay a visit to the Waikato electorate shortly, and will address the branches of the League in the various centres on dates which will be notified later. On the conclusion of the tour Mr Martin will address a meeting: at Hamilton, at which it is expected Mr Massey, Leader, and other members, of the Opposition party, will speak.

Light crops will be cut in all parts of the district this harvest, writes the Wa'irarnpa Times. The dry season has, in'the opinion of one farmer, reduced the oat harvest by fully ten bushels to the acre. There are many Crops which will never be harvested at all, being not worth cutting. The fate of a good many late sown rape and turnip areas is still undecided, but it is more than likely the usually dry January clays will soon settle the point adversely. Oaten sheaf will be in much less supply locally this season than last.

There is every indication that the present Ministry will have to light hard and scientifically, if they are going to hold their seats after the next general election. There is more satisfaction ill the ranks of the Opposition party today than there has been for some time past. The Labour party would support Mr Massev as soon as Sir Joseph Ward, provided they can gpl what they want. The Ministerial party, therefore, may except something- more than mere squalls when the next general election takes place—a political hurricane, or something of that sort. — Wairarapa Age.

We understand that extensive arrangements are being made to prospi ct for coal in the vicinity of Pukete, where options have been secured over all the properties in the district, with the exception of two. A boring plan); will shortly be erected mid work gone on with on an extended scale. On one property a good outcrop has been discovered, and on the bank of the Waikato Riyer pear Pukete a good seam of is visible. Arrangements are being made to open up the coal area known to exist in the vicinity of Te Akatea, where splendid coal has been located four miles from Ngaruawahia, and yesterday a start was made laying a tramline.

Dr Arthur, on behalf of the Immigration League of Australasia, has written a letter to every daily paper in the United Kingdom pointing out the leakage of population from the British Isles to places outside the Empire, and the irreparable loss £has is being occasioned by this drain. The world powers of the future will be those that have the largest number of people, and unless some attempt is made to conserve these emigrants,the British Empire will fall behind in the race. The writer states that Australia* and New Zealand are prepared to receive thousands of these emigrants, and settle them on the land, and an appeal is made to all who are concerned with the future welfare of the Empire to assist the Immigration League of Australasia in seeking to keep these people under the Flag.

A great deal has been heard of JuU of the deterioration in the quality of dairy produce in the southern portions of Taranaki this year, and many and vai'iwi theories have been advanced as to the cause of this, says the Eketahuna Express. Perhaps the matter is not so complex after all. Wo? instance, the chairman of directors of out. laree company informed a reporter that foj? hj while the grading notes showed a fall in Quality, and the deficiency was always in flavour. Enquiry elicited the fact that one or two suppliers, who were artifically feeding their cows, had turnips and carrotß growing together, and the turnips disappeared from the paddock at the same time as the carrots. These suppliers were warned, with the result that there was no further cause for complaint in the quality of the butter. ... . .

The following appears in a Swedish newspaper: —"In New Zealand there is a law which provides that anyone found drunk in the streets shall be photographed at his own expense, and his photo sent to every hotelkeeper in the district in which he resides. These photos are exhibited in the public bars."

A leading farmer, in Poverty Bay, has told the Gisborne Times that the district was in for a prolonged drought. He based his prognostication on the unusually early appearance of the insect pest. In sinking a mast for grass seed harvesting the other day, he stated that there were myriads of cricket grubs beneath the ground, and no surer indication of drought could exist than the early appearance of crickets. Again, he stated that the bot flies which did not appear in numbers until after Christmas, were very troublesome, and had been seen in large numbers for some considerable time past. The early appearance of these insects.he stated, was a sure indication that we were in for a repitition of the drought which caused such havoc to farmers in Otago a short time ago.

The Rev. W. Thomson, organising secretary of the Otago and Southland Licensed Victuallers' Association, has returned to Dunedin after a world's tour. Asked by an Evening Star reporter whether he had enquired into the temperance question in America Mr Thomson said: "Yes, I did. I travelled in the New England States, and learned the laws and their results as closely as possible. I think that no-license leaders and agitators have deceived and misled the people. You are aware what my platform is, although it has been deliberately and continually misrepresented, but when I saw the actual conditions of the New England towns, I wondered how no-license agitators can sit down'to a Christmas dinner with anything like a conscience. I say that no-license is absolutely a failure, and I shall prove it by overwhelming evidence."

A gruesome 'exhibit' was shown in the South Australian Assembly the other day. Speaking on the Gaming Bill, reports the Melbourne Age, Mr Dunkel said he would like to see a State lottery in Australia and a Government 'tote.' Mr Roberts was proceeding to cast doubt on the statement of Brigadier Veal, of the Salvation Army, that a mob of gamblers had nipped off the finger of a companion who had joined the Salvation Army and sought to leave them, the gamblers, when the Premier dramatically stretched out his hand, with a bottle in it, and exclaimed: "Here is the tip of the finger, and here", holding up a document in the other hand, "is the letter which accompanied it." A great sensation was caused by this act, but Mr Roberts stated that the production of a piece of finger, was no proof that it had been pinched off in the circumstances named. He refused to believe that the event happened in Australia, though the statement of the captain was that the incident occurred in Sydney. "There are two things the New Zealand dairy farmer and the Government do not find it easy to take," said Mr Kinsella, late New Zealand Dairy Commissioner, recently in West Australia. "One is medicine, and the other is advice. For six long year I kept this question before the people of the Dominion, by lectures, by bulletins, and by practical demonstrations with the Badcock test, and it is only recently that the Government and the dairymen themselves have wakened to the fact that they have been years milking about one third of the cows in the Dominion at a loss. Men carrying on dairying on land valued at £25 to £4O an acre cannot afford to milk cows for thirty three weeks in a season for 3s 2d per week, and it is no wonder that such farmers are amazed when they find the cow alongside the 3s 2d one producing 10s 7d per week."