Local and General.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11734, 12 September 1902, Page 4

Local and General.

A Gun dub has been formed at Cheltenham, and there was a large attend.- ! ance at the opening of the season on Wednesday. There were numerous entries for the different comipjetitions, and' good sport resulted. A well known native chieftainess, Kipeka ("Rebecca") Tauri, died, somewhat suddenly at Putiki yesterday afternoon. The deceased, who was about 65 years of age, was the wife of the late Wiremu Tauri, who died siome ten years ago, and leaves a family of six sons, one of whom is i on his return from a visit to England as a member of the Maori Coronation Contingent. ! The ordinary monthly meeting of the Kaukatea JRoad Board was heuu. yesterday morning, when there were present— The chairman (Mr. J. E. Wil&on) and ; Messx-s. J. Jones and Tyler. The chairman reported tkut. he and Mr. Biggie had intenriewed Mr. Strachan respecting the creek at Mr. Strachan'«, and had arranged -that the latter should supply a man to help the surfaceman tot ciear th& obstruction, and that the work had been done. It was resolved' that Mr. Alex. Mackintosh's claim for clearing out the Okoia drain should! not he entertained. Says the Wellington correspondent of the "Hawke's Bay Herald: The Minister for Lands to-day oommitted an extraordinary breach of the Standing Orders, which, curiously enough, seemed to escape the vigilance of the Speaker. Mr. Mackenzie had been urging the Minister to amend the law so as *to enable settlers io obtain a limited! freehold, and in his reply Mr. Duncan exclaimed, "I have a freehold." Some, member interjected, "You have alsfa a leasehold." "Yes," excitedly exclaimed Mr. Duncan, "but "I'm tt I don't think." The rest of the sentence was drowmed in, the roars of laughter that followed the Minister'© slip. The excitement of the Paris-Vienna motor race was repeated to a small extent in the Austrian capital last month upon the arrival of a mail named Anton Hauslian from his tour through Europe. Two years ago the New York Herald offered a prize of 5000 florins to anyone who would travel through Europe on foot, pushing a child's perambulator. The offer was accepted by Hauslian, who started from Paris on 12th Sleptesnber, 1900, with his wife and chilid comfortably seated in a small threewheeled covered cart. He proceeded through Bavaria,, Prussia, Belgium, went by boat from Calais to England, and reached Scotland, wheoi.ee he crossed to Hamburg. He then, pursued his way through Denmark, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Serviai, Roumania, Bosnia,, Italy, Spain, Southern France and Switzerland. As he was obliged to start penniless, he gained his livelihood by selitinqr picture cardis and fiving lectures upon his travels:

A ceremony of a'very beautiful character took place at St. Mary's Church on Tuesday evening, when five young ladies received the religious habit of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth-. The following were the young ladies: Misses Shanley (Sister M. Bonaventure), Wanganui^Moroney (Sisnter Mary Basil), Waipawa; o'Connell( (Sister --j.. Helena), Wanganui j Goldfinch (Sister M. Camillas), Tellington) ; and Hodgson (Sister M. Zita), Manaia>. The ■ Venerable Archdeacon Devoy officiated at the function, assistedjby the Very Rev. Dean Kirk. The accaßi<>nal (sermoan, which was a v«ry beautiful and eloquent one, was preached by the Very RieV. Father Pawier, of Hawera-, to a crowded congregation. The relatives of the newly-received sisters were entertained at the Convent after the ceremony, when they offered their hearty congratulations.

An extraordinary general meeting of the Wanganui Settlers' River Steamship Company, Limited, will be held this afternoon at 3 o'clock, at the Borough Council Chambers, for the purpose of considefing, and, if thought fit, passing each of the following resolutions: —1. That it has been proved to the satisfaction of the company that the company cannot, by reason of its liabilities, carry on its business, and that it ia advisable to wind up the same, and that the company be accordingly wound up voluntarily under the provisions of "The Companies Act, 1882," and its amendments. 2. That Mr. C. T. Millward, of Wanganui, be and he is hereby appointed liquidator for the purpose of such winding up. 3. That the remuneration of such liquidator ffo&f his services in the winding be fixed wt £30, in addition to his out of pocket expenses.

According to a London correspondent, Lord Kitchener's character is again under critical miscroscopes, and the estimates of those who know him—if anybody can be said to know a man so prei-occupied and mono-syllable—are as contradictory as the various attempts to describe the deal Mr. Rhodes. When Lord Kitchener was carrying out the pacification of South Africa, slapping doubting Boens argumentatively on the back (so it was? said), and making Sip,ceches which read remarkably well in the newspapers, we were assured that, after all, lie had been misjudged'; that he was not a cold, relentless person with a basilisk eye, but a really considerate and genial man, who could smile quite easily. But new that he is home again his critics are falling once more under the did sgell. They speak of his "hungry look "as he wanders incongruously through London drawing-rooms, and of hia gaze turned across seas and continents. His lotrdslup's eyes are the chief source of trouble in connection with lill these coißttisentfi—the eyes which a sweating orderly once described as "like the bloomin' Day of Judgment."

<■ We call attention/to the jsacial and farewen to Mr. Cowx at Fordell this evening at 7.30 o'clock.

The annual sale of wark in connection with the Dublin street Primitive Methodist Church will.be held ob Thursday and Friday, September 25th and 26tb, when a special attraction will be' the attendance of the Garrison Baind ar.d Armstrong's Orchestra.

We have received a copy of the second edition of Mr. Walter lmpett's popular selection for the pianoforte, "The Night Patrol." We congratulate Mr. Impett on the evident success of his tuneful composition, and have no doubt that the second edition will soon give place to a third.

The French Government has adopted a system of passenger insurance on the State railways. The purchase of a penny ticket confers the right to £400 in case of death .or permanent injury, from £100 to £200 for minor injuries, and 5f a day while the injured person is unable to work as the result of an accident of any kind within the precints of the railway. A passenger may purchase any number of tickets up to 10.

A •.cycle run in connection with the T.Y.M.I, will be (held on Wednesday evening next. The following committee to make arrangements has been appointed —P. C. Price, S. Randrup, E. Turner, J. Meuli, 0: Breed, and C. Goldsbury. Each taking part is asked to bring a Chinese lantern for a parade prior to starting on the journey.

We give a final reminder of the entertainment in aid of the prize fund of the Boys' District Highi School, to be held this evening in the Opera House. We publish the programme in the present issue, and it seems to us from the varied character .of the items that the partons of this entertainment have a treat in store for them. The school' children have been pushing the sale of tickets witih their usual vigour, and given fine weather the Municipal Opera House should be filled. The charge for admission is 2s. upstairs and Is. downstairs.

Considering the inclemency of the weather and the several counter attractions, there was a very fair attendance at St. ' Paul's Hall last evening on, the occasion of the annual social in connectioai with St. John's Presbyterian mission. In the unavoidable absence of the Rev. R. M. Ryburn, the chair was occupied by Mr. A. Ferguson. A veiy good programme was presented, items being rendered by Misses Austin, Roberts, and F. Caiman, Messrs. P. Bell, Wilson, J. Aitikem, W. IP. York, and Cuthbertson. Refreshments in abundance were handed round during an interval. In the course of the evening Mr. R. Tucker proposed a hearty vote of thanks to all who had assisted to make the social so successful. Speeches eulogising Mr. Tucker's work were made' by the chairman and Mr. W. Bruce, and were endorsed by the" applause of the audience. A very enjoyable social concluded by the singingl of the Doscology.

Sir James Crichton Browne, speaking as president of the Medical Section of the International Congress for the Welfare and Protection of Children, has given some interesting figures relative to the decadence exhibited in certain classes of young operatives. His statistics were culled from Dundee. There it is found that boys from 11 to 12 years old who work in the jute mills', and who should measure 4 feet 5£ inches according to the standard, attain an average height of 4ft 2in only. They shouUd weigh 721b', but of this weight they are 101b short. The girls also are 1^ inches less, than the normal, and fall 51b below the standard weight. Despite the influx of the country bred into towns> decay of physique continues, for of our population 77 per cent, are town dwellers. Sir James came down very heavily indeed on the lack of maternal interest exhibited. Children, he says, are not properly nourished. Those of the poor are badly fed, and well-to-do mothers "delegate the duties of maternity to feeding bottles and French maids."