NEW ZEALAND: GENERAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 25, 21 June 1906, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND: GENERAL

It is estimated that the total catch of mutton-birds for the season by Ohm "Natives is 120,01)0, which, at 4d a-piece, represents £2000. The birds were never known to be in better condition, due to the superabundance of the small fish which oonstitute their food. The Marlborough interim sheep returns show an increase in all districts on last year totalling 76,000. Flaxbourne restocking accounts for* 35,000 of this increase. Another factor promising for the future is that owners are now refusing to send ewe lambs to the freezing works. It is reported tfiat granite of good quality, similar to the Orepuki graaite used for the Government buildings, Dunedin, and better in composition than the. Aberdeen granite, has been found on Shand s Farm, between Lome and Enfield, in the North Otago district. There is every indication of a big quantity. At King Edward's command, Sir J. G. Ward had a half-hour's audience with his Majesty at Buckingham Palace last week. His Majesty referred with admiration to Mr. Seddon's striking personality and to the very great 'loss which ths Empire had sustained. Sir J. G. Ward sails in the ' Majestic ' on the 27th inst. The new valuations for Invercargill Borough show th(j capital value to be £1,532,497, an increase of 17 per cent, on the previous valuation, and the unimproved value to be £689,779, an increase of 32 per cent. For the Borough of Gore the capital value is £417,132, an increase of 31 per cent., and the unimproved value £183,000, an increase of 73 per cent. The ' Gazette ' notifies that the following new railway regulations will conic into force on July 2 :—Passengers travelling first-class by mail and express trains running between Christchurch and Invercargill and holding tickets for a journey of not less than 100 miles may, if they so desire, reserve seats for the .jtourney on the production of their ticket and a payment charge of 6d for each seat reserved. First-class passengers joining the train at stations other than Christchurch, Dunedin" and Invercargill, end who desire to reserve seats, must apply to the stationmastcr at the- station from which they commence their journey, and on the arrival of the train at that station they will be allotted any vacant seat available on payment of 6d, but no guarantee can be given that seats will then be available for reservation. Seats will not be reserved for journeys of less than 100 miles. With a lhing freight of seme 5195 sduls (says the Wellington correspondent of the ' Evening Star '), the big Shaw, Savill st/aamer ' Athenic ' steamed into port front London on Monday. The vessel brought 440 passengers in all, most of these (or 396) being immigrants from London. The passengers are a fine, healthy-look-ing lot of men and women, who should make satisfactory settlers. The ship's papers give the occupations of the new comers, and state that there are no less than 29 on board with no occupation, which is a much more formidable number than any of fhe vessels have brought of late. The other passengers are mostly laborers, domestic servants, navvies, and farmers. There is one party of twenty domestic servants, in charge of Miss Birchell, matron. These are fine-looking young women, and have come owt under engagement to residents at Hastings, Hawke's Bay. In the course of an anpreciative notice of the late Mr. Seddon in the ' Lyttelton Times ' Sir William Russell says ' ' Many have asked : " Had Mr. Seddon enjoyed the benefit of a university education would hje have been a greater man ? " I doubt it. Education polishes the exterior, tout God alone creates the material out of which a man is fashioned. Many- are dwarfed by fears of precedent, and the personality and inherent force of any but the strongest men may be contorted by the formalism of too much training. Possibly Mr. Seddon would have been ' less great had the early discipline taught him to consider more carefully the conventionalities of the world. His genius had greater scope owing to an untrammelled brain. There can be "none who do not grieve sincerely for the sorrowing family, and few who do not reverently breathe, a prayer for him who has gone. His death was in itself most glorious. At the very zenith of his- fame, after a triumphant -tour ol Australia, exulting in his success, without pain of mental suffering, he went to his rest ; and men- of all shades of political thought will agree that he was a most remarkable personality, and labored long and strenuously for the people of New Zealand, in whoso history his name will' ever endure.'

A piece of wedding cake, sent -to a medical man for the purpose of ascertaining whether it— contained ptomaine germs (says the Christchusch 'Press'), was subjected to a form of analysis certainly not contemplated when the specimen was handed over. The cake was "^covered by tw 0 of the doctor's youngsters, who, in DhssfiuL ignorance of the suspicions surrounding it, promptly ate it up between them. 'No ill effects resulted however, and the doctor, who was called as a witness in the case in which the wedding cake and other delicacies figured, said he concluded from that that the cake was harmless and fire from offending microbes. ' I suppose,' observed a solicitor engaged in the case, ' even a microbe will pass a wedding cake.' In writing of the burial place of the late Premier the • New Zealand Times ' says —Edward Gibbon Wakeneld, managing director of the New Zealand Uompany, and his brother, Colonel William Wakefield, founder of the New Zealand Settlement, both died in Wellington and were buried in the Bolton street Cemetery Sir George Grey was buried in England, where he had lived during the last years of his life, and Mr. John Bal- - lance, Mr,. Scddou's predecessor, was buried at Wanganui, the town where he lived, and which sent him to Parliament. Sir John M'Kenzie was buried close to his home at Bushy Park, Shag Point, Otago, and a memorial cairn was raised on Pukchuvitahi, where he first worked as a shepherd. Sir William Fox was buried at Auckland, Sir Julius Yogel in England, and Mr. J. E. Fitzgerald in Bolton Street . Cemetery. The spot where the late Premier's two children are buried is on a hill at Stafford, where Mr. and Mrs. Seddon lived after they were married, where six of their children were born. Just below is the old office of the_Arahura Road Boiard, the first public body to which the late Premier was elected.