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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3779, 25 August 1883, Page 2

Another blank charge sheet in the R.M. Court this morning. Napier still keeps up its fair name for sobriety.

Th o gentle hint we conveyed to our country readers in the matter of county rates has had the effect of bringing into the Hawke's Bay treasury over £1000 during this week.

Snow fell almost continuously yesterday in the Seventy-mile Bush, and all the hilltops visible from Napier this morning were covered more or less with a mantle of white...'v- "*

Mr J. F. Sturm, of Hastings street, has left at this office a splendid sample basket of early vegetables, including some very fine new potatoes, and full grown early peas. The frosty weather has evidently not disturbed Mr Sturm's gardening operations.

Tho Union - Company's s.s. AVaihora, having been detained by stress of weather on the passage from Auckland, did not leave Gisborne for Napier until 11 o'clock this forenoon. Sho is exj>eotcd to put in an appearance here between 7 and 8 o'clock this evening, and will be tendered for mails and passengers immediately on arrival.

The Comte de Chambord, whose death is announced in our cablegrams to-day, was the son of the Duke de Berri, the second son of Charles X., who was deposed from the throne in 1830. The Duke De Berri was assassinated in the streets of Paris in 1820, and the Comte de Chain-boj-d became the heir to the crown. Louis Philippe, however, was summoned to the throne to wliich the Bourbons never returned. Tho deceased Prince has lived an almost uninterrupted life of seclusion, though two or three times has issued manifestoes as the Legitimate sovereign of France.

Mohaka possesses a frolicsome young blade who has apparently a penchant for practical joking of a rather questionable description. According to the AVairoa paper, whilo the offertory was being taken up at Divine servico last Sunday, tho facetious individual in question, instead of contributing coin of the realm, poured tho contents of an ink bottle into tho plate. Now (remarks the Guardian) a joke is well enough in season, but a trick of this kind during Divine service is simply disgraceful, and a deliberate affront both to the gentleman officiating and tho well behaved portion of the congregation. People who cannot behave themselves at church should remain away.

The story we told yesterday anont tho tin-kettling and the brick-bat retaliation requires some modification. When the tinkettle bandsmen arrived at the scene of demonstration they wisely and inoffensively took up ground on the road. The noise they made not bringing out the expected refreshments, they entered the gardon and went on the verandah of the house, where ">~ they began to give vent to improper language. It was then that the proprietor rushed out, and with his fists knocked down the biggest man he could see, and next attacked three others, and the rest fled. ->■ Ono man was somewhat knocked about,"" and was given a reviving glass of whisky, and there was an end of the matter. If it were tho rule to treat all tin-kettlers in tho same way the insane custom of annoying newly-married people would probably cease. Atthemeeting of theHarboi-Board yesterday, the Chairman said that, since it became known that the Board was not disposed to carry out Mr Culcheth's designs, he had received a number of communication on the subject of a harbor from engineers and others. Some of the engineers stated that they had not competed because the amount of money mentioned for the work by tho Board was not sufficient for what was required. He had also received a plan from Mr M'Grcgor, accompanied by a report, and a proposal from an engineer who had competed under the designation of "Coral Reef," who stated that he had a company ready to find the money to carry out his plans. AYe should say the latter gentleman, provided liis designs are feasible, is just the very person the Board has been looking for.

Little by littlo the magnitude of tho enormous loss inflicted on New Zealand by the rabbit pest, is coming to be realised, says the Timaru Herald. The statement that the rabbit question is one of national concern no longer excites contemptuous laughter in the Legislature, as it did a few years ago. "Liberal" politicians Uo longer seek popularity, as they did a few years ago, by declaring that the rabbits ought to bo encouraged as a means of driving out the squatters. The thing is becoming too serious, and the time is not far distant when the most thoughtless and irresponsible amongst our public men will be compelled to give attention to it. The inhabitants of New Zealand are gradually awakening to the fact that if they do not suppress the rabbits, the rabbits will most assuredly suppress them.

A curious exhibition of contempt of Court was witnessed in the Resident Magistrate's Court, Timaru, recently (says_ the local Herald). An unhappy - looking young woman, called as a witness in the Kensington disturbance, was placed in the witnessbox, and the orderly repeated the words of the oath. He then asked her to kiss the book, which she had taken into her hand. She hesitated a few moments, and then, without any gesture, threw the book away, exclaiming, " Oh, I hate the book." 3i^ A Beswick instantly ordered her to be taken out of Court. Later on she was recalled, and after a brief but severe lecture, sho kissed the book, first looking at it dubiously a few seconds, and gave her evidence, but in a peculiar way, finishing by declining to swear anything against anybody but t__ defendant. The new Affirmations Act was evidently wanted here.

Our Gore (Otago) contemporary has gathered some interesting facts and statistics regarding rabbit poisoning on the estate of the New Zealand Agricultural Company. During May, June, and July they laid 150,0001b of poisoned grain, and they have taken 122,000 skins from the rabbiters during tho same period. It is reckoned that fully half as many rabbits die in the burrows and on rough groundj where they are not found by the men, which would bring the number of rabbits killed to say 183,000, or about a rabbit and a quarter for every pouud of grain laid. Although tho company laid 17,0001b more poison in July, 1883, than during the same month in 1882, they received 25,000 fewer skins for the corresponding period. This looks encouraging. Of course, it must bo remembered that the company owns and leases a very large tract of country—somo 300,000 acres—this should be borne in mind when reading about 150,0001b poison laid and 122,000 skins received in threo months.

Much has been written about the acclima- | tisation of cattle and sheep, and it is a well-known fact that some breeds are not all Cosmopolitan in character. Ar an instance of this, tho Live Stock Journal was informed the other day by a gentleman now Home from New Zealand that he had sent from England two years ago several two year-old heifers, who he is sure the. breeder would not now be able to recognise; These animals have entirely changed in character. Their coats are much thicker and coarser, and thoir frames much bigger and stronger, and not at all like the neat, lithe, and fine handlers they were when they arrived in New Zealand. Their ability to fill the milk-pail is in no way diminished, though they havo changed in external appearance.

Lydia Pinkham, of proprietary medicine fame, died in Lynn (England) recently, aged 64. She spciit £36,000 a year in advertising, and secured a trado Dotting her £60,000 a year profit.

Mr J. N. Darby, well-known as the founder of 1 .ymouthism, died recently in London at tbe ago of 81. He began life »»- a clergyman of the Established Church, iir* Ireland, but withdrew to found the organization which in later years extended to almost all civilised countries.