NEWS AND NOTES.

Waikato Independent, Volume IV, Issue 238, 12 June 1906, Page 3

NEWS AND NOTES.

Opossums have apparcnUv established themselves in Taranaki, a female having been shut, m ignorance, by a sportsman at Salisbury road last week. The animal was carrying four young ones in her pouch.

Pathetic item from " Napier Telegraph”:—The young lady who was unfortunate enough to swallow three of her false teeth, together with a portion of the plate, has returned home from the Napier hospital completely cured.

In the pocket of a drunken man arrested in Christchurch on Thursday was found two dynamite cartridges, one" with a piece of fuse and cap attached. It is easy to imagine the tragedy that might have occurred but for intervention.

Christchurch Truth says—The sug. gestion that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy has been very carefully headed in New Zealand. The colonial proposes to guard against dullness at anycost. The result is that a good slice of the year is devoted to holiday making instead of business.

There is quite a milk famine raging in Taihapc, the various milk vendors having closed, owing to the condition of the roads and the severity of the weather. Most of the residents have taken to condensed milk, in which commodity a brisk trade is being experienced.—News.

At a meeting of the Hamilton .Borough Council the oiler of £2OOO by Mr Carnegie for the building of a free public library for Hamilton was linally' accepted with the conditions attaching thereto. A committee was appointed to elect a site and carry' out the arrangements. About forty of the navvies who arrived by the Turakina have been sent to the Main Trunk Railway. These are all single men, and have been sent to the Taihapc end. A number of the new arrivals booked through to Auckland, and it is expected they will reach Raunnue in a day or tw'O.

During the discussion at a meeting of creditors at Christchurch, it transpired that a traction engine and chaff-cutting plant, w'hich 12 months ago cost £2OO, were valued at only £OO. “It is extraordinary the way machinery depreciates in value, remarked the Official Assignee, ‘ you pay £2O for a new bicycle, and a week afterwards you could not get £lO for it.”

Eleven hundred and forty-onc entries have been received in the poultry, pigeon and canary classes at the Palmerston Winter Show, notwithstanding the rise in entrance lees; 88u entires in the general classes, including 163 for factory butter and cheese; ] 5 for fanners’ butter and hams ; 5153 for horticulture and roots ; 111 for fat stock. There arc 20 candidates for the schools milk-testing competitions, and 25 entires for the jumping events. Mr Justice Cooper, in the course of a speech at Dunedin, said, when referring to the Y.M.C.A.: The life of the conn niunity was the life of its young men. One was appalled by the waste of energy among the young men in this colony. It was something more than waste. Young men walked about the streets aimlessly, ailing, drifting into vicious habits; not only wasting their energies, but using them in an entirely wrong direction, which was infinitely worse. Any institution which would hold out a helping hand to these young men was an institution which deserved well of the community.

ba\s a correspondent of the 'Wanganui Chronicle;-—"! noticed that Mr R, C. Rruoe, while addressing the Acclimatisation Society in 'Wellington, stated lie had never seen a wild pigeon’s nest. I may say that when on the survey some twenty 3 ears ago it was not at all an uncommon c\ent to find thorn in the gullies. They build a very rough nest of twigs, with no pretension to architecture, and prefer the konini, rangiora, and other low-branching shrubs. They lay two eggs, pure white! There can be no doubt as to this, as I have seen the bird actually on the nest. Any back-country bush feller or surveyor would corroborate this, and do away with the theory that these birds breed in another country.”

The question of pooling orders for manure and boycotting are agitating the minds of members of the Clutha branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. It appears that in one district several small syndicates were formed, and as a result they got a certain class of manure at a reduction of per ton. The usm'd market price in manure was £4 is 6d per ton in Dunedin, equal to £4 15s railage paid. E y “pooling” their orders they got it at £3 15s per ton delivered. The first year they got 150 tons, and the third year more joined in, and the order went up to 400 tons, and the agents sold at the same price. Now, through pressure, this thing has been blocked, and the price has been increased to dM. The matter of a threatened boycott by certain agents against the linn with whom the farmers syndicates had privately “ pooled ” their orders, wars discussed, and the following

resolution was carried; — l> That owing to several agency firms Laving prevented importers from supplying manure to a syndicate of farmers in this district at the same price as last year, the meeting resolves not to purchase from the firms referred to until the above condition is withdrawn.” “ A little plain talk about West Coast racing will not be out of place at the present moment,” says the Greymouth Star of 26th May. “ Greymouth has just

concluded its meeting in a manner most cieditable, and although the club will poss:hly lose £OOO over the racing, the committce has the satisfaction of having gi\en to the other coast clubs an object lesson in management and control, it is a matter for regret that a like stand was not taken by some of the other racimr clubs against the bookmaking clement! At Kumara and Hokitika the fraternity simply took possession to the almost displacement of the totalisator. As a consequence the best horse did not always win, and punishment was not meted out to oliendcrs as it should have been. Two riders at Kumara should certainly have been disqualified. The control at these centres certainly reflected detrimentally on the Grey-mouth meeting, the attendancc being poor.” Just before the Chalmers Licensing Committee concluded their annual meet” ing on Friday' last, the chairman (Mr Widdowson, S.M.) said : - In regard to one or two of the hotels in the district we have received several anonymous letters. In my opinion this is a most cowaidly way ol ittacking hotelkeepers. I would like to say for the information of the public or of those who write such anonymous letters, that they arc taken no notice of whatever, and that their destination is the waste paper basket.” I lease take fourteen day's’ notice to get a new pound keeper.” This is what a suburban official getting £.5 a y Ca r for keeping a pound wrote to his ’ council, lie said lucre was too much responsibility attached to bis office. He "bad to keep two books, and too frequently bad to write to the Town Clerk with regard to impounded animals. The conveniences at the pound were not suitable, and he had to put up with insultin" remarks from people whose animals ho happened to secure. The payment he received was not worth the trouble he went to, and he wars anxious to be relieved of his duties as soon as possible. The resignation was received with regrot.