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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 204, 8 July 1879, Page 2

The Masterton Hospital Committee meets this afternoon at the Institute. The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the Mastorton Borough Council takes place this evening. It is said that the maintenance of our little army up north, now costs £4OOO per week. Tenders are invited for the lease of the shop now building near the Club Hotel for Mr Joseph Harris, The Committee of the Wairarapa Pastoral Association hold a meeting this afternoan at Carterton.

The ordinary monthly meeting of the Masterton School Committee is convened for next Thursday afternoon at the Council Chambers. The Town Clerk of Masterton has heard from Mr 6. Beetham, M.H.R., tliat 740 acres in the Mangaonc Block will be gazetted this week. Cr McCardle has received a similar communication from the Survey office, This is good news! We hear that the employees on the line from Featherston to Matterton, have struck for higher wages, 8/ per day, instead of 7/6,' the current rate. We have not a very high opinion of the worldly wisdom of rhe employees oil the Railway.

We understand that Mr Booth took to Wellington yesterday, a petition against the Borough movement, signed by a largor number of ratepayers than was the petition in favor of it. This settles the fate of a borough for Carterton. An inquest was held at the Empire Hotel yesterday by Dr Spratt, the District Coroner, on the body of the late JEtonald Robertson, a cadet on Mr Cockburn Hood's Station at the Upper Taueru. The melancholy particulars of the death of this unfortunate young man are already familiar to our readers, and the inquiry meroly elicited a repetition of them, The verdict of the jury was, of course, " accidental death by drowning on June 28th." Tlio deceased wan supposed to be about twenty years of age, After, the inquest the funeral took place, the Rev. Mr Teakle being the officiating minister. A good story is current in one of the Australian cities according to the Dunedin Star) relative to the talented lady now delivering a course of Freethought lectures in Dunedin. Mrs. Brittou commenced on one occasion boforea large audience with the interjectory question —" Why was I born and repeated that in a crescendo scale three times, pausing again before taking up her argument. A squeaking voice from- the, gallery as of a larikin born, broke the silence of the solemn interval with—" I give it up Emma," It need hardly be stated that a good point was lost but Mrs Britton could not help joining in the general laugh. An American paper says:—"At the lowa Agricultural College every girl in the junior class has learned how to make good biead, weighing and measuring their ingredients, mixing, kneading, and baking, and regulating her fire. Each has also been taught to make yeast and bake biscuits, puddings, pies, and cakes of various kinds; how to cook a roast, broil a steak, and make a fragrant, cup of coffee; how to stuff and roast a turkey, make oyster soup, prepare stock for other soups, steam and mash potatoes so that they will melt in the mouth, and, in short, to get up a first-class meal, combining both substantial and fancy dishes, in good style. Theory and manual skill have gone hand-iii-hand. Vast stores of learning have been accumulated in the arts of canning, preserving, and pickling fruits, and they have taken practical lessons in all the details of household management, such as house furnishing, care of beds and bedding washing and ironing, care of the sick, care of children, &c, The girls,' we are informed, are also thoroughly taught in science, mathematics, and English literature ; but this is of slight moment compared with the foregoing catalogue of virtues, If there is anything that challenges the unlimited respect and devotion of the masculine mind it is ability in woman to order well her own household, Each one of these charming lowa girls, it is safe to say, will marry within six weeks after gradation."

In another column,, the Masterton Ploughing Match is announced to take ■place in one of Mr Thompson's paddocks at Te.Ore Ore, on Wednesday, July, 30th. Theprogamme will, we understand, be published in the.course of a few days. We expect to see some of our leading citizens with their well-known public spirit, placing special prizes at tho disposal of the Committee.

There is no moro deadly enemy to the! kangaroo in Australia (says a contain-' porary) than Mr Henry Bracker, of Wstroo. Within tho last two years moro kangaroos have fallen to his gun, and those of the party organised by him, than to any similar number of "shootots" in in these Colonics, We have been favorsd with a synopsis of the last Waroo battue, at which 14 guns were emploped, when 8088 kangaroos, seven horses, and five dogs were killed, at an expenditure of 12,378 cartridges. This gives tho high average of one dpath to each 1-2-Bth cartridge. The shooting throughout was remarkably good, and some of (|he averages very high—for instance, Sutherland scores 650 kangaroos and ono horse to 744 cartridges ; Mr Bracker, 656 and one horse to 1000 cartridges; Bitz, 341 to 400 cart-

dges; and Mr Bracker, 590 to GB6 cart-

ridges. The highest average was 1J cartridge and the lowest Is, The shooting is considered th» more r«markable that the kangaroos ate scarce in the district now compared with previous battues, when they faced tho line of shooters in droves of several thousands. A well equipped and experienced party, such as Mr Bracker has now got together, would soon reduce the marsupial pest to the smallest minimum in any district. A new Temperance movement has lately been organised in New York. It seems founded on principles of common sense, and this is moro than bo said of some other well meant endeavours in the same direotion, The' objects of the " Business Men's Society for tho encouragement of Moderation in the use of Intoxcating Liquors," as explained' at a meeting of that body held in New York on the 11th inst., are as follows" The society, it was stated by the Secretary, believe in pledges They accordingly propose different forms of pledge. The white pledge binds the signer not to drink during business hours. By this modified engagement he is not deprived of a glass of wine in the evening at " social institutions," Tho blue pledge binds him who signs it " not to offer the glass to another, nor to drink at another's expense." The next pledge is the red, white, and blue. It limits tho signer " to drink nothing stronger than t wine or beer, and these only at meals and in moderation," It was pointed out at the meeting that English physicians, who had lately written much about alcohol, differed on many points, but all were unanimous in their opinion that alcohol when taken should be taken at meals. Total abstinence, it was suggested, might be tried for a specific term, and if at the end of that time the abstainer was not convinced that no liquor is better than a little, ho might take such one of the moderation pledges as may be found best suited to the circumstances of hia caso, A pledge binding the signer only to get drunk once a year, and then under supervision, would perhaps assist in promoting temperance. It would give drunkards " something to look forward to." It is the absence of any prospect, however ' remote, of a carousal which makes total abstinence so distasteful to many persons of a jovial temperament."