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Waipawa Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 4697, 13 August 1904, Page 2

Commeroial news will be found on the first page. A report of the meeting of the Waipukurau Road Board and Parliamentary Notes appear on the fourth page.

A number of football enthusiasts left by the special train, last night, to witness the British-New Zealand football match.

Sergeant-major Tuck says the Te Aute College Cadets surpass all the cadet corps between Gisborne and Wellington. The Gisborne corps come next. The sum of £40,000 is mentioned as the capital of the proposed new evening paper in Wellington. If established, the paper is to be run on independent lines. Passing under a tree in Jersey City during a thunderstorm a man was struck dead by lightning. Branded upon his face was a vivid picture of the tree.

The papers are being forwarded to the Privy Council by the outgoing San Franoisoo mail in the Port Chalmers licensing appeal and the Blenheim appeal, Clouston and Co. v. Corry.

It has been observed that oattle feeding on a kind of Swedish turnip afterwards suffer from an affection of the jaw and loosened teeth. The disease is said

to be common in Southland. After the earthquake on Tuesday a newly-arrived family down Woodville way declared that they would pack up and be off to England in the morning, but it is doubtful if they will carry out that idea.

We hear that Mr Sydney Johnston, of Takapau, estimates that the loss caused by the earthquake to his house will amount to £2OOO. Mr Robert Johnstone’s residence at Moutataria was also

severely damaged. As a result of a recent police raid, Henry Vezey was charged, yesterday, at Balclutha, with having for sale 20 bottles of beer and thirteen of whisky. The defendant kept a small fruit shop. A conviction was recorded, and a fine of £SO and costs inflicted.

A married woman at Ashburton was fined £3 last week for picking up a purse in the street and retaining it. In addition to the fine, she was ordered to return £4 17s 6d, money contained in the purse, in default one month s imprisonment.

To encourage working people to estabish homes of their own, Norway has ounded a bank for working men. It

lends money at 3£ to 4 per cent., and gives the borrower 42 years in which to pay the loan. The total cost of the house must not exceed £l6O, and the area of the land must not be more than five acres.

Dr Neild, interviewed at Melbourne regarding the physical degeneracy of Australians, attributed it to excessive smoking. He says that during 50 years’ experience, over and over again he had seen broken health in men caused by excessive tobacco smokiug. Taking as a whole tobacco was a monstrous and grievous evil.

The Austral Guards Band attracted a

large audience to the Oddfellows’ Hall, on Thursday night, when they presented a very attractive programme. The combination which comprises twenty-five performers, gave a number of selections in fine style, and they were deservedly applauded. The songs and recitations however, were but of ordinary merit.

An unsuccessful attempt was made to burglarise the railway station on Thursday night. It appears that the burglar stood on a milk can that was on the platform and cut a pane of glass out of one of the front windows. Whether the noise of the falling glass frightened him or whether he was otherwise disturbed is not known, but he did not push back the catch to open the window, as no doubt he intended. A Christchurch business man, who is one ot the best authorities on financial questions, says that he sees no reason why the bank rate of interest should rise, unless there is an outbreak of war involving the Empire. He points out that the prices for wool have been good. The returns from wool are £2,000,000 more than they were in 1901, and that sura represents an absolute net profit

from the industry. Mr G. Hogben yesterday received the seismogram or photographic record of the recent earthquake, taken by the recording instrument at his residence in Thorndon, Wellington. This shows that the tremors of the main shock lasted for 17 minutes, what are termed the after tremors for another half-hour, while

smaller tremors continued all day up to 7.45 p.m. These were imperceptible except to an instrument of considerable delicacy.

At Lyttelton last week some cruel person or persons tied a cat up in a sack, and afterwards filled the sack up with snow. The oat and sack were left lying in Oxford-street, and a lady who was passing, hearing the cries of the animal, turned out the snow and released the cat, which was half perished with the cold and unable to walk. Its feet were lacerated and bleeding. The poor creature was revived with warm milk, and recovered from the effects of its cruel treatment. The matter has been placed in the hands of the police.

A publican who does not drink and a oigar manufacturer who does not smoke are rather rarities in their respective Hues, but they are not altogether un-

known. There are hotelkeepers who are total abstainers, and in addressing a meeting of the Victorian Alliance Mr John Vale gave an instance of at least five persons engaged in the cigar trade who never smoked. He said his father was a cigar manufacturer, and although he managed one of the shops in London he had never smoked in his life. He had four brothers, none of whom had ever smoked. His father told his boys they were not to smoke until they were 21, “ aud,” added Mr Vale, “as we were brought up in the old fashioned way we never thought of doing anything else.” A most curious natural phenomenon iu the shape of the petrified body of a young aboriginal girl is reported from Adelaide. It was found, the Advertiser says at a depth of about 3ft below the surface at Waterfall Gully. The body measures 4ft 3in in length, and it is in perfect condition, even to the nails on the hands aud feet, with the exception of one joint of a finger, which is missing. The body is perfectly hard, and has the appearance of white marble. Dr. McDonald, who spent some years in China, was greatly struck by the resemblance the body bears to the conventional statue of Buddha. It is in a sitting posture, and .the hands are crossed in

the manner familiar to those who know I the representations of the Eastern god. A memorial signed by Mr J. A Renall, Mayor, and over 150 of the leading residents of Masterton, has been presented to the Premier, asking that n block of land near the Masterton Railway Station, comprising 190 acres, and I known as “The Bishops Reserve,” may be withdrawn from the Trustees who have been administering it, and subdivided into workmen’s homes or for the purpose of closer settlement. The memorial sets forth that although many years hava elapsed since the land wap placed in the hands of the Trust no effort has been made to comply with the conditions prescribed by the original native owners, and that owing to the way in which it is administered instead of being useful or beneficial to natives oi Europeans, it is a formidable drawback to the progress and expansion of the town.