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Waipawa Mail, Volume 2, Issue 123, 15 November 1879, Page 2

Me P. McGreeyy is haring a fine verandah put up in front of his Bhop. Having this protection from the sun, he will be able to make a greater display in his Bhop-window of gentleman’s mercery than he was able hitherto.

A meeting of the Waipukurau Hospital Committee will be held in the Hospital on Wednesday, 26th inst., at 3 p.m.

Rain. —The rain which fell on Thursday will do an incalculable amount of good to the district. Commencing at a very early hour in the morning, it lasted without intermission all through the day. Vegetation of all kinds is wonderfully refreshed. It will be remembered that about this time last year we were suffering from hot dry weather, and the country was commencing to look bare and brown. This year all nature looks as verdant as last year it was languishing. Mr P. Gow, of the Tavistock Hotel, Waipukurau, is having a cellar dug underneath the bar of the hotel. Previously having no cellar-room, he has been obliged to keep the beer barrels under the counter. He will, no doubt, be able now to keep his beer very mnch cooler. Improvements. —However dull the times are, there are always some improvements being made at the Empire Hotel. Mr Baker spares no expense to make it a really first-class hotel, and it seldom happens that there are no workmen employed by him in making some substantial improvements. The hotel is now being repainted, and is beginning to present a quite new appearance outside. Local Industry. —We hear that the Waipawa Brewery bids fair to become a very remunerative concern to its proprietors. So far the beer they have brewed has been of a very excellent quality, and they have no lack of orders for it from all parts of the district. It is satisfactory to know that an industry so thoroughly local as this is, is prospering. His Honor Judge Kenny, on Thursday, gave his judgment in the District Court, Napier, on the case W. Tyne v. the Waipawa County Council, finding for the defendants, with costs, amounting to £l3. He based his decision mainly on the precedent of a case recently tried in the Canterbury Supreme Court, “ Hanson v. the Heathcote Road Board.” The opinion of Mr Justice Williams on that case was “ that the mere neglect to construct or to repair a road would not render the Board liable,” and Judge Kenny considered this decision very pertinent to the present case.

A telegraph office is now open at Palii, County of Rodney, Auckland Provincial District.

Friendly Societies. —From the last number of Hansard which we have received, we gather that Mr Pitt has asked the Colonial Secretary “ Whether the Government will take such action as may be necessary for removing doubts which exist as to the sufficiency or otherwise of the scale of money contributions of the members of many of the ‘ Friendly Societies Act ?’ ” The mover stated that the Government Actuary had, in the case of many societies, declined to certify that their scale of contributions was sufficient and these societies were therefore debarred from the advantage of registration under the Act, while the societies considered, notwithstanding the opinion of the Actuary, that their contributions were sufficient. The Premier has promised the best consideration of the Government to the matter.

The Hero of Plevna. —lt is currently reported that Osman Pasha at the present time receives as Turkish Minister of War £315 a month ; as commander-in ehief of the army another £315 a month ; as marshal of the palace, £450 ; and as commander-in-chief of the Guard, £225 a month—receiving, therefore, an aggregate monthly wage of £1,305. His wife also is paid £9O, and each of his two children £27 a month, out of the private purse of the Sultan. Moreover, for each of the appointments he holds, Osman Pasha receives a certain number of rations daily, and the sale of these brings him in about £360 a month. Altogether, therefore, he receives a regular income of £I,BOO a month. All this money he can and does save. He himself lives in the Sultan’s palace, while his whole household, wife, children, and servants, receive three meals a day from the Imperial kitchens, the food being conveyed to Osman’s konak in a waggon specially constructed for the purpose, and fitted with stoves and other heating apparatus. Grain and Flour. —A return, ordered by the House of Commons on the motion of Mr Bass, has been issued, showing the total quantities of the various kinds of grain and flour imported into the United Kingdom from 1820 to 1827, the gazette average prices of corn in each year, for the same period, with the highest and lowest weekly average prices reported in each year, and the average annual pricee of butchers’ meat, wool, and other agricultural produce, for same period. The return is precisely in the same form as that previously ordered 1 * on the motion of Mr Foljambe, and covering the period between 1828 and 1878, The highest importations of grain and flour during the eight years were in 1827, when they amounted to 6,849,272 cwt.; the lowest in 1823, when they amounted to 144,256 cwt. The highest average price per quarter of

wheat was in 1825, when it was 68s 7d ; the lowest in 1822, when it was 44s 7d. In 1822 beef averaged 2s to 3s per stone of 81b., and in 1825 4s 2d to 5s ; mutton, Is lOd to 3s 2d in 1822, and 4s 4d to 5s Btl in 1825. In 1822 the average price of butter was £3 10s per cwt, and in 1825 £4 18s ; English southdown wool averaged Is 3d per lb. in the former year, and Is 4d in the latter.

New Zealand bids fair to be one of the largest grain-growing countries in the world. In the year 1877-8, no less than 11,265,000 bushels of wheat and oats were grown ; whilst the yield daring the year 1878-79 had increased to 14,247,000 bushels. Victoria, with more than double the population, produced only 8,062,000 bushels. The yield during the past year was 26 bushels of wheat, and 31-6 bushels of oats per acre ; while the respective yields in Victoria were only 12 3 and 103 bushels per acre. A Small Engine. —The smallest engine in the world is in possession of Mr John Penn, of Greenwich. It stands on a three-penny piece, although it really covers less, for its base only measures three-eights of an in eh by three-tenths. So small are some parts that they require a powerful magnifying glass to see their form. The whole weight of the model is less than a three-penny piece. It works admirably, and when working, its crank shaft performs from 20,000 to 30,000 revolutions per minute.

Krupp Guns. —The German Government have put up a 240-ton hammer at Le Creuzot to be used in the manufacture of modern heavy ordnance. Herr Krupp calculates that his latest gun will penetrate the 24-inch armour of the English ironclad Inflexible at a distance of 1800 metres, or will go through 14-incli armour five or six miles off, and throw a projectile weighing 520 kilogrammes over London.

A marvel of constructive ingenuity is on exhibition at St, Petersburg. The article is a watch about the size af an egg, said to have been made by a Russian peasant. Within it is represented the tomb of Christ with a stone at the entrance and the sentinel on duty. While the spectator is admiring this curious piece of mechanism, the stone is suddenly removed, the sentinel drops, the angels appear, the woman enters the sepulchre, and the same chant is heard which is performed in the Greek Church at eve.

A Human Breakwater. The bursts of rain in the Carnatic are tremendous. As much as five inches of rainfall in a single night is not unfrequent, and Sir A. Cotton has known as much as 19 inches of rain to fall in that time. The smallest rill that is allowed to trickle over the edge of an earthern bank wears itself a passage anti becomes a destructive torrent with extreme rapidity. On one occasion the water in the Veranum tank is said to have overflowed the whole 12 miles of the bund, and to have breached it in 13 places. On another occasion the the engineer in charge of a bund, finding the water rising with more rapidity than he was able to meet by the supply of earth, made a wall of the bodies of his laborers, causing them to lie down close to one another on the top of the threatened part of the dam, and thus keeping back the 2in, or Sin. of water which, if unchecked, would soon have wrecked the whole bund and ruined a wide district, until their places could be supplied by basketfuls of earth. It was an original expedient but it saved the district. What the laborers said about it we have not heard.—Builder.