LOOM. AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12583, 2 October 1908, Page 4

LOOM. AND GENERAL.

Reuters, in Melbourne, have received advice from Samoa that the American cruiser squadron does not visit Auckland.

The rainfall recorded at the Momonaki experimental farm for the past month v/as 1.96 in. Eain fell on 11 days during the month, the maximum being .58in on the 15th and the minimum .02in on the 271 h. Corresponding month last year 5.78'u.

Some fortunate buying has placed us in possession of a splendid range of ladies* belts. One result, in fact the chief result of this fortunate buying is that you also will be fortunate in your buying, for now you can buy the most fashionable and up-to-date belts at considerable reductions of ordinary prices. More than half of the belts— and taere are fully two hundred of them — are »ampies, and they represent a manufacturer's new season's stock. He liad. finished with them, taken his season's orders, and gave them to us at a big discount ot ordinary prices. All the newest and latest styles in belts are represented and the variety is splendid, such as only an up-to-date manufacturer could produce. The prices range from Is 3d to 4s lid, but when you see the belts you will not hesitate to say that they are really cheap. McGruer and Co.

.^ __^— — — — ____!^5H555& n A Perth cable announces the death <A! - ; Dudley Clinton, the actor. , . | After October 17 the whole of the freezing works in the South Island will be closed and remain so till the new season s supplies oj: stock arc to hand. A Sydney cable states that Ada Crossley received an enthusiastic reception at the Town Hall. There was an immense audience. One by one the seamen who accompanied the Ninirod to the ice are signing on for the trip back south (says a southern paper). Four have already joined, and others intend groing on the articles. The infant borough of Taihape can give many older towns a lesson in municipal style. The mayoral chain was exhibited to Councillors at the last meeting. This insignia of office weighs 3 ozs 1» dwt 12 grains of 18ct. gold, and cost .£45. The emblem was spanned across the ample bosom of the Borough Treasurer, "just to see how it looked," and the effect -was the cause of some amusement and much admiration says the local paper. At a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board last night it was decided to draw the attention of the Government to the necessity for more stringent examination , as to the health and financial position of immigrants. In the course of the discussion it was shown that during the last j, six years 50 cases, involving 94 persons, I had become a charge on the rates, all these being recent immigrants. Included in these were 17 cases of consumption i The usual oath was being administered to a Chinese witness at the Wellington Magistrate's Court by an interperter, who gravely struck a match, which match the witness blew out before the oath had been recited. The interperter struck another lucifer, the head of which came off, and lodged under his finger-nail. He muttered something in Chinese (says the Dominion), whereupon a police officer, who was "close to the press table, remarked to the inspector, '"I don't know if the witness is fworn, but I'll bet the interpreter has." "They say the Maori won't work," said a gentleman interested in the native lands question at Wellington on Saturday, "but look .at this," and he produced- to trace da a plan in front of him a farm -of 38,000 acres of rough* almost impossible country, which few white men would undertake to work, and which land was being farmed by a Maori, who ran about 20,000 sheep and 300 head of cattle on it. The farmer owned part of the land in the- first instance, purchased a portion from a £akeha, and leased the balance from other natives. The nearest town to the station was Martinborough, but this was too far to cart the wool, which was shipped direct' from the coast into small steamers, which called periodically. ■ A deputation from the Women's Christian Temperance Association waited pa the Board of Education at Auckland yesterday afternoon, with a request that the Board should consider the advisability of having temperance instruction in schools, and making a class subject of temperance. They handed in text books which they, would provide, and they also wished to placard the walls in the interests of the cause., The chairman of the Board (Mr C. J. Parr) said that under the sylla&us the Board had no power to make a special subject of temperance and alcohol, but under the heading of moral instruction many of the teachers made a point, with the approval of the Board, of touching" on temperance in their lessons on physiology. The Board, added the chairman, was in sympathy with any movement for temperateness among our young people. According to advices received in Sydney from the Amoy correspondent of the itgur Wan Times, there seems a possibility that* the enthusiastic receptions accorded tfis fleet in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, attd Albany may be rivalled by the velcome which the Chinamen of Amoy are prepar- - ing. "The sum of £40,000 is to be pxpended and extensive preparations ar» in hand," writes the correspondent. "T-htf police are being strongly reinforced, so that the visitors will not be subjected to" annoyance at the hands of the lower classes. A large three-storied house i* being erected lor the accommodation of the Admiral and his staff, in the centre of a large compound, ' and will be modelled and equipped in, American style. It will be surrounded by a handsome garden, and will be screened from the gaze of the curious by a high wall. Detailed plans ; for the structure are m course of preparation, and the work will be hasteaed , on immediately the designs have been ! approved by the Viceroys of Fukjn, and i Chekiang. | The promptness with' which news is disV 1 , seminated in the press of the Dominion I and the far-spreading ramifications of the Salvation Army, with its capacity for helping cases of distress, received a striking exemplification to-day, says yesterday's Manawatu Standard. On Wednesday we published an account of a young man who, though willing enough, was unable to obtain work, and wjio had eventually to leave a situation found for him by the Salvation Army because the award in the trade prescribed a higher wage than fcis employer was prepared to pay. In ».ue course the essential facts of the case vt-re distributed by the Press Association to the newspapers of the Dominion. The inlormation appeared in yesterday's Gisborne papers, and early this morning Staff-f,api tain Henry, in command of the local branch of the Salvation Army, received a telegram from a gentleman at GisbotMe as follows:— "If young man from England who was put off butcher's shop is a t.msmith will take him on and pay hia fare up." In the meantime, however, StftffCaptain Henry had interested himself in the young man's case to such an e?.tentl that a suitable position had been found in Palmerston for him. ■ Saturday's Post contains the followingon "The Motor Madness"— Ten ambulance stations, with doctors handy, were established on the route of the motorcar -ace in the Isle of Man, temporarily converted into an Isle of Mad Man or an Isle *of Mania). The motor, with the goggled speed crank at the lever, is becoming- a thinsr of dread in Europe and America. , it is not long since an infuriated. Italian, whose child had been killed by a rushing car, shot two of the occupants, ft was a terrible vengeance, but the frenzied father had almost irresistible provocation. The worship of the Moloch of speed is one of the saddest fetishes of the age. The men in 'the whirligigs dp not soour the roads at sixty or more miles an hour to serve any good purpose. They merely crave excitement, seeking to glut appetite* for the sensational, but the appetite grows and grows beyond bounds. What splendid material for the leading ' of forlorn hopes and other desperate but useful enterprises is wasted on the loxseats of motor-cars T Man; still with some' devil in him and a> scorn for death,- can no longer seek out pirates on the Spanish Main, but he can run. over ckildren on the Spanish road. The energy w.oich their forefathers once used to extend the boundaries of the Empire, the men of to-day squander in stirring up tfie dust of the Empire's roads and polluting the Imperial atmosphere with the fume* of petrol. One may admire the pluck and endurance of the racers, but one- regrets the 1 misuse of qualities for which; there are many betfer uses.

Ttkt New Zealand Shipping Company has declared a dividend of 5 per cent., and fSXZ$ed forward £15,508. The Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association has now a membership of over •ighty orchardists. Captain Edwin wired at 12.50 p.m. today — Northerly moderate to strong wi ads, gbtta little movement, tides moderate, sea moderate. The sale of cigarettes is illegal in the American States of Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tennessee, Washington, and iWsconsin. Mr T. Bamber, J.P., presided at the Police Court this morning. Only one accueed — a first offending drunk — was presented, and a conviction recorded. We have to apologise to our readers for being a little late in. the delivery of >he "Herald" last evening. The delay was ♦lrtiiely due. to the poor state of the gas, aot enabling the engines to attain to anything like their ordinary working power. Mr Hector McLeod, who has done much exploring of the sand hills at Miramar and. Seatown, has just been successful in securing some leg bones and part of the pelvis of a small moa. The bunes of the bird were found associated with .Maori adzes and chisels in a cave near which some workmen were quarrying. Two caves at Karaka Bay have been disci rered, which are expected to yield some interesting relics. The Stratford Post understands that the Railway Department wil shortly run a fast train from New Plymouth to connect at Marten with the mail train from Wellington for the Main Trunk line. The proposed train' will only make four stops between New Plymouth and Wanganui, and «n earlier train making more stoppages will be run in order to allow of passengers from intermediate stations catching the fast train at the nearest stopping place. - The first punt load of stone obtained from, the Kaiwhaike quarries for the harbour works since the work of re-opening the quarries commenced, was brought to town yesterday by the Togo, and taken down to Castlecliff. The load was principally of small blocks of stone, which will be used in repairing works on the present length of the north breakwater. The travelling crane for lifting the stone from the punts to the positions on the wall is ia working order, and the members of the Harbour Board, who visited the harbour works this afternoon, were to have been given an exhibition of the crane's capabilities. The largest pieces of plate glass that haye 'ever been landed in Wanganui have just been received by Mes3rs R. and E. Tingey, ex Rippingham Grange, from Pilkragton Bros., Lancashire. The glass is for Messrs J. Thain and Co.'s new threestorey premises at the corner of Taupo Quay and Victoria Avenue, and there are six cases in all. The largest plates of glass a»e' 12ft by loft, and require careful handling. The Messrs Tingey, howover, are', experts, and have all the necessary appliances, for dealing with such big sheets of glass, and under their capable supervision they. will doubtless be placed in position without difficulty or accident. . A return of the books lent out from the Wanganui Public Library for the first nine months ' of this year, and the comparison with the same period of the previous year, shows a decided increased demand for liter♦tUre of the more classical description, and * decrease in the demand for books of fiction. The total books lent out this year up to Wednesday last was. 18,912, as against HMi24, for tie first nine months of last JMSfv The«B^re m&de up as follows, the fjbrtres in parenthesis being for 1907: — VSAion 16,001 (16,127), history 306 (210), poetry 84 (78), general literature 546 (488), travels 640 (497), biography 514 (333), science, essays, etc., 247 (242); divinity 45 (29), bound magazines 136 (148), children's books 378 (361); reference 15 (11). Apart from the above total 4603 magazines in part were lent out, as against 4445 for the previous year. The figures for September are:— Fiction 1755 (2015), history 42 (40), poetry 5 (11), general literature 61 (69), travels 84 (67), biography 74 (44), science, essays,- etc., 29 (27); divinity 1 (]), bound magazines 26 (21) ; children's books 49 (61); reference 1 (1). Apart from these figures there were 521 (514) magazines in parts.