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Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13333, 23 March 1911, Page 4

This mild weather docs not suggest furs, , but we do, because all our furs are in and ready for your inspection. We would ad- '' vise those who intend buying a new fur this season to inspect our fur stock now, and get first choice. We have a choice range of medium and good furs, and havo every confidence in recommending them to you. McGruer and Co.

Farmers, in the Mossman district. Queensland, estimate their losses by the cyclone at -£20.000. ■.The committee of the Alexandra Cavalry Old Members’ Association met last evening and received a report of the recent annual gathering. The association is in a flourishing state, several new members were reported, and a successful future seems assured. At the recent motor cycle tests held between Wellington and Wanganui, Mr E. Gilbert, of Wanganui, on a Bradbury, won the hill climb (on formula) for heavy weights in the private owners’ class, bespits taking special prizes for a non-stop tun, the fastest hill climb irrespective of class, and the trophy for the fastest time in the open hill climb. Miss Grace Armstrong, a graduate of New Zealand, where she practised dentistry for some years, has just opened a dental surgery in Regina, in the Canadian NorthWest, and is the only lady attending the conventions of the Deneal Society of Western Canada. Miss Norah Armstrong, her sister, who is a nurse, is. also following her’profession in Regina. The blight is seriously .affecting the turnip and rape crops in Southland, and also in some parts of Otago, while in South Canterbury, on the other hand, farmers are not suffering much. The prospects for supply of grass feed during' the winter months are far from promising, and many lines of young lambs are still unfit for freezing. Heavy rain is quite a necessity in districts on the other side of Dunedin, where it would generally facilitate the wort of ploughing and the : general cultivation of autumn-sown crops. The officers of the Young Men’s .Christian Association in Melbourne have reeeived word of a highly successful finanT- ciail campaign which has just closed in ' Philadelphia, in aid of a new building for work in that city. Within fourteen days a sum of .£200.000 (1,000,000 dollars) ’was subscribed, Mr C. S. \vard, of the international office, being in charge of the organisation. At noon on the closing day of the campaign, there was still a sum of £12,500 needed, which one man asked the privilege -of personally subscribing. This amount was, however, secured during the day. the prospective donor refusing to contribute to the scheme because the committee would not accept the amount he offered in full. All the officers who have passed successfully out of the training camp at Tau;herenikau are to start their new careers in the Defence Forces from bedrock. Every one starts as a lieutenant, and all those holding higher rank, among them a major with a D.S.O. to his credit, have had to submit to reduction to the subaltern grade. If they prove themselves worthy of it they will be promoted; otherwise they ■will remain-as they are. This seems to augur well for a useful, instead of a frilly service, - and it is to be hoped such an expectation will be realised. There are one or -two hardworking and highly efficient sergeant-major instructors who certainlv deserved and were expected to get commissions, but who have been passed over. We hope their claims will not be overlooked; however, and that their names will be borne in mind when vacancies occur.

* It would seem that the trade in New Zealand-grown timber will be short-lived (says the Dunedin Star). According to a representative of the sawmilling trade, less than half a century will see the end of it, unless a progressive scheme Of afforestation is pushed forward rapidly and thoroughly. And the fact that the price of kauri is rather good has increased the demand for red pine. The millers meet the efe.mand as well as they can. Through it ill little of no provision is being made for the future supply. In the Southland area it ia estimated that the supply will last for some 20 years. It must net be forgotten, too, that the axe is not the only destroyer of bush. And if it is true that the rainfall departs with the bush, there will, be more disadvantages than high prices for timber to contend against in the future. The subject is one for Parliamentary candidates.

An exhaustive debate occurred in the Methodist Conference in Sydney last week regarding the system of payments to married and unmarried ministers respectively. The practice is to appoint ministers and missioners to certain stations provided they- are married. The Rev. J. Woolnough told a good story in this connection. A young man, anxious to get to a foreign mission station, caUed at the office and offered himself for the work. He was informed that he would have to leave in ten days, and must go as a married man. The reply was a staggerer—the young man was not engaged to be married, he was not even in love with any girl, but he did not think there would be any difficulty in the matter. (Laughter). “And,” added Mr Woolnough, as the conference metaphorically held its sides and laughed heartily, “he found a wife and managed to keep the obligation of the Conference.”

Employers will be interested in the following notice issued by the Labour Department in regard to certain information to b© supplied at the forthcoming census, to be taken on April 2;—" Re information required by the Census Department for tHe purpose of industrial statistics: Owing td some objection having been taken by a number of employers to supplying the information required by the Census Department to officers of the Labour Department. it has been decided that the Census Department will collect the information through its own officers, and the information will therefore not be collected by the Labour Department, as was Intimated in the notice to inspectors, dated Ist April, 1910. Will you please inform the parties concerned accordingly?" All. that the Labour Department now requires, therefore, is that factory-owners fill in the wage-sheets supplied to them, and forward them with their applications for re-registration. The Rev. R H. Campbell, a young Methodist minister, told in entertaining manner to a large gathering in Sydney a few days ago some of his experiences in the interior during the first year of his ministry. “My circuit,” he said, “was a magnificent one, with a hyphen between it 40 miles long. It is known as NymageeCanbeligoe. It has been described as a circle with two centres, one at each end—(laughter) —and from these it gets its name. There was no minister nearer than one hundred miles to the east, and none nearer than one hundred miles to the west.,,l was once asked to marry a couple at one .portion of the immense territory outside the zone of my regular work. They had been, keeping company for twelve years and had been engaged for eight years, and had waited patiently all that time for some minister of the Gospel to come along and make them man and wife. When I arrived on the morning of the great event the bridegroom-elect met me, and addressed me in these words: ‘Say, boss, there are twenty or thirty kids to be christened before the ceremony, and yon will have to do the job, as we have not seen a minister for over two years.’ That was a settlement of 300 souls, winch no jfininister had visited for two years.”

The local Supreme Court sittings concluded this afternoon.

There was a clean sheet at the Police Court this morning. The Weather Bureau reports as follows; • —Variable westerly moderate to strong winds prevailing; expect Unsettled and cloudy weather at times, and probably showery; glass fall slowly, but rise slowly after 20 hours; tides good, sea considerable swell.

An unusually “smart” piece of business is alleged to have taken place in Timaru recently. It is said that a lady and her husband, who had a very quiet and very slow old horse (they were residents of South Canterbury) decided to dispose of it and get a smarter one. They accordingly consulted a horsedealer, who agreed to give them £9 for their horse. They accepted this price, and instructed him to got them another one. After some months of trying, the dealer went to them with the joyful news that he had at last found the very horse they were looking for. They had a trial, and bought it for £l7. It suited admirably. But on being turned out in the paddock it was noticed that it had a trick peculiar to their old horse Said the wife to the husband: “Why. that’s just what our old Tom used to do; surely it’s not he?” The husband scouted the idea. The horse they had sold was one with a long coat and tail, while this one was a smart looking clipped horse with bang tail and hog mane. The truth would out. however, lit the fullness of time the tail, and hog mane and the hair on the other parts of old Tom grew again, and be stood revealed as the same old .culprit that they had ’sold for £9 and bought back for £l7.