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Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2351, 22 October 1889, Page 2

At Herbcrtville on Friday last, a man named Thompson, alias Troy, was remanded on a charge of stealing seven flasks of brandy aud a bottle of English beer from the bar of the Wimbledon Hotel. He will be brought up again to-morrow.

A New Zealand 3$ per cent £2,700,000 conversion loan has been announced in Loudon. The minimum has been fixed at 95, and with regard to the prospects of the loan, the Agent-General cables that it has been exceedingly well received, and that the Press comment is friendly.

Several steamers which arrived at Canadian ports from England lately, reported the existence of many icebergs in the vicinity of the Canadian coast. One steamer, the Barcelona, sighted over 300 icebergs between the Straits of Belle Isle aud Point Armour. Before the Barcelona got to Belle Isle indeed, 220 miles off—an immense mimber of these floating impediments were seen as far as the eye could reach. A six-year-old daughter of one of the employes in -liis Excellency the Governor’s household, who resides in the lodge in the Government House grounds has been attacked with typhoid fever. The child had been looking on at the recent investigations regarding the drainage of the grounds.

There is a rich family of the name of Lifting in England, the fortune of whose house was founded by such an apparently insignificant thing as the thimble. The first ever seen in England was made in London less than two hundred years ago by a metal worker named John Lofting. The usefulness of the article commended it at once to all who used the needle, and Loftiug acquired a large fortune. The article was then called the thumbell, it being worn on the thumb when in use, and its shape suggesting the rest of the name. This clumsy mode of utilising it was soon changed, however, but the name softened into “thimble” remains.

A smokeless powder is said to have been produced by Captain Noble, of Elswick, which appears to be perfecctly reliable, aud which is at the same time practically smokeless and noiseless in its explosion. The powder is a curious greyish-looking material, in long threads of a wliipcord-like form, a shape probably due to hydraulic pressure. Its action is most startling. At 300 yards range, not a sound is heard when a volley is fired with it, and only a faint haze arises, which is almost imperceptible, whilst a shower of bullets is seen to fall upon the target, an effect produced seemingly without cause.

An Auckland telegram says : —With reference to the cable message received announcing that a Home Rule seat would le offered to Sir George Grey, he stated to a Star reporter that no iutimatiou 'of such intended offer had been received by him. He had had no communication on the subject with either the Liberal or Home Rule leaders. He thought it possible, however, that something of the kind might, be on foot owing to the number of electorates now iu the Home Rule interest. He could not say what course he would adopt in the case of au offer. At any moment he might take his contemplated trip Home, but at present his ouly object would be to benefit his health.

Says the Times ( Timaru) :—The case of Mrs Cornnlo, who murdered her infant because it had been “ changed,” seems the act of a lunatic ; yet Mrs Corrado may be sane enough, but pitifully superstitious. It was at one time a common belief that infants were taken from their cradles by fairies, who left instead their own weakly and starvling elves. The children so left were called

“ changelings,” and were known by their peevishness, and their backwardness iu walking and speaking. This superstition is alluded to by Shakespeare and other poets, and we hare it on good authority that it has not yet died out in some of the rural districts of Britain. One may regret that, except from a few odd nooks, the fairies have really been driven away by the school master bjing abroad, but their loss is not an unmixed evil, for they were a troublesome folk. They were useful in some few ways, as a nocturnal rural police for instance, but they were pesky little fellows, generally up to some mischief, the “ larrikins ” of the invisible world, aud among their worst tricks was their cuckoo system of making wet-uurses of innocent mothers for their sickly offspring. Robin Gcodfellows were rare among them. According to Irish as well as British superstition, the elves had quite a bad reputation for stealing away young children from the cradle, and leaving in their stead a “changeling” bearing a resemblance to the stolen infant, but which grew into an ugly little creature that never thrived. It is quite interesting, from its extreme curiosity, to meet with a case of the survival of this once wide-spread belief in “changelings,” though one must grieve at the tragic means of its discovery.

One pound sterling per second, night and day, six days a week, all the year round ; £85,400 a day ; £518.400, over half a million a week ; 31 millions per annum, is the present cost of the British Array and Navy, a monstrous sum, an enormous proportion of which is wasted, simply wasted. The salaries paid to idle people are wonderful, but while we have our large list of pensioners it will not do to jibe at them England, it is stated, has 179 generals, but can only find employment for 70 of them, 109 draw £02.000 a year for doing nothing. In spite of the growth of the Navy, the Admiralty has not beeu able to build ships fast enough to keep pace with promotions to the rank of admiral. There is employment for only 13, and there are no less than 2GB more on the half pay and retired lists, drawing £IBI,OOO a year for doing nothing. A fourth of the total cost of Army and Navy, £ls a miuute, 8 millions a year, goes to 162,000 pensioners, many of them in the prime of life, and able to work. Here is au Augean stable for a modern British Hercules to clean.

Mr Lohr, the manager for Frank Linoolu, the great American humorist, is in Napier, and will shortly pay a visit to Waipawa to make arrangements iu connection with a performance to be given hereabout 31st inst.

“ Frank ” has had phenominal success in Auckland, and wherever he goes he does well. The Melbourne Argus said of him : “ He combines the mobility of feature, flexibility of voice and mimetic powers of the elder Mathews with those clover tricks of musical expression and movement which the late John Parry used to turn to such irresiitibly diverting account. Received with roars of laughter. Sustaius the merriment of the audience from first to last.”—The Brisbane Courier had this to say :—“ To hear his opening anecdote on Saturday night one might almost imagine that one of Max Adder’s best sketches was a reality, and chat the entertainer was the chief character standing there in the flesh. Mr Lincoln’s wit has a piquancy which is French, a peculiarity which is decidedly American, and a gentle unobtrusincss which- combines what is best in all nations. His methods arc so origiual, so unique, that there is not a matter-of-fact ten seconds during the two hours he is on the stage. His sketches may fairly he described as the best of the highest class of American humor.”

Our Onga Onga correspondent writes : —A meeting of the Kuataniwha Road Board was hi Id at Ouga Onga on 18th inst. Members present—Messrs Rhodes, Herrick, Ross, Mack ay and Johnson.—The accounts of the following were passed for payment : A. H. Ross, Government Auditor, Waipawa Mail. —The name of J. Farghor was inserted on the roll in the place of A. Petrowsky’s for section 31, black 2, Blackburn, but a resolution was passed informing Mr Petrowsky that he was still liable for rates on the section menti med for the year ending 31st March, 1890.—A resolution was passed that the statements made by the late wardens of Blackburn district in reference to expenditure on deferred-payment thirds, were perfectly satisfac* try. —A vote of thanks was also passed for the attendance of the late wardens of Blackburn. During the six months ended September 30th the land revenue was £55,853. the estimate for the year being £121.000, The territorial revenue was £135,765, the estimate being £222,900. The following are the principal headings under which the land was taken up :—Cash. 268 selectors, area, 18,382 acres, value £16,754 ; deferred payment 167 selectors, 22,132 acres, 132,654 acres, reoeipts £2422. Besides these 145 village settlers have taken 1050 acres. The total amount received for special settlement of laud of all kinds was £5054. Pastoral runs were let to the extent of 3,052,819 acres, of which 2,308,780 were leased in Canterbury to 68 individuals. The receipts from this source were £109,615 ; 40.259 acres of small grazing runs were also let to 22 selectors. The Payne Family’s programme for their farewell entertainments at Waipawa and Waipukurau contains nearly all new items. We are glad to uote that “The Bells” has been relaiued. Our readers here and throughout this district will remember that the dates for this family are for Waipawa Thursday next, 24th iust, aud Waipukurau, Friday, 2'*Lh. There will doubtless be crowded houses at both places, and wc advise those who intend coming in from the country to put in an appearance at an early hour to secure a seat.

We would particularly call attention to the article entiiled “Waipawa Scores” in to-day’s issue, as it will be seen from it, that what is being agitated for by those who wish to see the syllabus of the Primary Schools improved, has long been au accomplished fact at our District School. At Waipukurau also great strides have been made in the same direction.

Constable Black, of ltakaia, Canterbury, drew Boz in “Adam Bede’s ” consultation, thereby winning £2700. On the 30th of last mouth 960,000 acres of land were open for selection in various parts of the colony nt prices rnngiug from 5s to £5 per acre. This will be increased by 400,000 acres before the 31st of March next, and a further large area will be thrown open between the Ist of April next and the end of the following June. It is astonishing to us that Mr Justice Denniston has been so lenient with those inhuman brutes, the Abbotts, of Christchurch. Here we have a case iu which a little girl was tortured day after day, month after month , beaten, starved, and almost done to death ; and the Judge awards a sentence of 12 mouths 1 It is a premium offered to brutality. For stealing no article or two, men and women arecouvicted and sentenced to longer terms of imprisonment ; for a similar offence in Dunedin two such brutes as the Abbotts were imprisoned one for seven years aud oue for a shorter period. We shall have something further to say on this matter, for the lightness of the sentence is one of those things calling for severe remark. A cable message yesterday ran as follows : ‘•Speaking at Manchester the Hon. .1. A. Balfour, Chief Secretary for Irelaud, declared that every anticipated result of the Irish policy of the Government had already b-en realised.”—As Paddy would say, •• The devil a doubt of it.” Mr Balfour set out with the intention of clapping priests and members of Parliament into prison. That anticipated result has been realised. He invented a battering ram wherewith to knock down the houses of the tenantry; there again he was successful. Ho hud au Act of Parliament passed that made it a crime for a boy to say *• boohoo 1” to a policeman ; he was successful in putting a boy or two in gaol. Ho could only have anticipated disaster, though he has tried to make his friends believe the opposite, aud that result has bjen fully realised. What he has not done would make rather a long list, but one or two items will suffice. He has not suceeded in crushing out Nationalism ; he has not cowed the true Irishman ; he has not succeeded in making him openly rebel, but has caused him to suffer wrong aud made him realise that to be resolute for constitutional courses in spite of terrorism and brutality is the way to the English heart !

We understand that a special meeting of the Waipawa School Committee is to be called for Friday evening next, at 7.30, to take into consideration the actlou of the High School Board of Governors at Napier and to protest against the recommendation to be made by them to the Hawke’s Bay School Commissioners. It is to be hoped that all other Committees within the Educational district will join iu a strong opposition to what is undoubtedly an iniquitous proposal .

To morrow morning, Mr A. E. Jull will lead to the altar, Miss Whittington, and all who know them will wish them every happiness in their married life. Mr A. E. Jull is au energetic townsman, taking a keen interest in what is going on around him, aud endeavoring by all the means in his power to advance the interests of the place that lias been his home from youth to inauhood. In the promotion aud support of useful local institutions he has given spirited help, aud we know we speak the minds of the residents when we say that we hope to see his usefulness increased and prosperity crown his future efforts in business aud iu social life.