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Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 705, 29 December 1902, Page 2

The bot fly is proving very troublesome at present in the district, horses having a nasty time from the pest. The Mararoa arrives from Sydney and Auckland a day early this week. She leaves Auckland for Gisborne this after noon. A further batch of 13,000 acres ot Crown lands in the King Country is now ready for settlement, making 19,000 acres in all for disposal witlnn the next lew weeks. The Timaru Technical Classes Association has received a notification from the Education Department that

£1001) has been granted them for erecting and equipping buildings for classes. During Christmas Langley and Co’s jewellery shop at Pahiatua was entered. Kings and watches valued at from £OO to £7O were abstracted. The back door was forced with an axe, The great event for Thursday will be the Oddfellows’ picnic at Kaiteratahi. Kailway and admission tickets may be obtained from the secretary and members of the Committee, and on the morning of the picnic at the boxes in Peel street and on the railway platform. The fare, including admission to the grounds, is 2s 6d, which is less than the cost of ordinary return tickets by rail. A serious accident occurred at the cycling sports, Lancaster Park, Christchurch. During the five-mile motor car race two cars collided, and the drivers, Best and Oates, sustained nasty cuts and bruises. Oates was carried home. The Christchurch Wheel K’aco of £25 was won by George Sutherland. W. Martin rode a mile in one minute 29 seconds on a motor bicycle, the fastest time ever put up at Lancaster Park. At Christchurch oil Saturday Ah Ycc and Tim Chin were charged with smuggling and importing opium without permission, and were further remanded to January sth. Walter E. Rose was charged with breaking and entering and stealing £2OO worth of postage stamps, and was further remanded for a week. John Haekett was committed to trial on a charge or and entering a butcher's shop on Boxing Light. The 100 and 220 yards New Zealand Swimming Championships were held at Greymouth on Christmas Day, and were won by J. M. Hamilton. Greymouth. and Fred Roberts, Wellington, second in each, times being lmin 12 2-stbs sees., and 3min losecs. respectively, against a strong head gale and incoming tide. C. Dale won ihe 50 and 100 yards handicap. Hamilton also won the Ladies Bracelet. About 2QQ people were present at the snorts,,

In the interprovincial cricket match Wellington easily defeated Nelson. Canterbury won the cricket match against Otago by seven wickets. The Turkish route for cablegrams to Europe is interrupted. '• Jimmy the Saint " is the name under which a horse is running at tho-Auckland races. At Toiaga Buy a man charged with using obscene language was sentenced to two months’ hard labor in Napier gaol. The recent Dunedin races show a big decrease in tiie totalisutor receipts, £2945 as against ,£0725 last year. On New Year’s Night a social is to be held in the Academy uf Music, under the auspices of the Poverty Bay Rowing Club, the price of gents’ tickets being 3s Od. The following: are the cable rates via the i’aetlie Prince Edward Island 2s 7d ; Newfoundland, 2s stl ; Alim ami Youkon 3s 2d. r Information received by the Labou 1 Department shows lhat the number 0 genuine workmen out of employment was never so small as at the present time. Harvesting operations on most of the farms in the district commenced last week. \Ye hear that the hay crop is rather light, while the grass-seed is expected to bo about the average. The enthusiasm shown m the championship tennis matches at Nelson is indicated by tiie fact that on .Saturday play was kept up from U in the morning until N p.m. Mr E. Currie lias arranged to run a butcher’s cart round i’alutahi, To Aral, and Te Karaka, when meal, will lie obtainable at reduced prices. The days of call are notified by advertisement.

The big dividend of £125 lbs was paid in the hack race at Dunedin on Saturday, the event being won easily by Buluwayo, on which there was £2 invested out of a total of £373. Xiio second horse paid 30s. The Otaki-Manakau Co operative Dairy Company has just paid out to its suppliers £1350 for butter-fat for November, and will pay about £IOOO for December. The price being paid for the summer months is 91 d per lb. The fruit crop in the district appears to be rather backward this season. Those fruitgrowers who are fortunate enough to have their fruit in a forward state are able to secure a fair price and a ready sale on the market. It is stated that Cabinet has decided to push on the construction of tho North Island Main Trunk railway with all possible despatch immediately alter tiie holidays. A number of ineu have oeuu engaged in various parts ui tuo eo uny to assist in that work The first annual Conference of the Federal d Cuiuuilo Young Men’s Societies was held at Wellington uu Omistmao Day. Yue report and u.imnce silent were veiy ..lilslucioiy. it Was deeded Id eoiauilSll a magazine. Asiiuuiiuu was UXeU as Lin p.acu lor tile ueXu couleienoo. The following items to date comprise the Sydney telephone exchauge: 42UU subscribers ; 200 incoming trunk lines, 84,920 spring jacks, 5090 drops (shuttles), 985 keys, 1520 cords and plugs, 1000 miles of wire, 850,000 soldered connections, 25 branch exchanges, 170,000 calls per day, total subscribers 9200. A loading firm of wine and spirit merchants ill Wellington states that their Christmas returns showed a falling off of closo on £IOOO, as compared with tho previous year ; on the other hand, a big drapery establishment affirms-that sueli was not their experience, tho turnover being more than equal to that of past seasons.

A man named John Peter Evans comes before tho Court to-day on a charge of robbing a bushman named John Wilson of £2. The alleged robbery is said to have occurred in open daylight, tho accused man being promptly taken in hand by Detective Nixon and Constable Crawford.

Ono of the attractions on New Year’s Day will be the Poverty Bay Bowing Club’s annual picnic at Ormond Quarry. The place is an ideal spot for such an affair, and with the promise of a good drivo from town there should be a large party at tho picnic. Those desirous of obtaining invitations may get the same from the committee. A young man named Charles J. Hart was arrested at Cambridge at the railway station just as tho train was leaving for Auckland, and charged with stealing £3O from his mate on tho riight of the 10th inst. On the date mentioned the accused and his mate both stated they had been robbed, their boxes having been broken open whilst they wore asleep. The accused was remanded until Friday. On Monday last a vessel of considerable size, known as the Jane (a steamer which some years ago traded between Lyttelton and Port Chalmers, and afterwards was used in Wellington harbor, finally going south again, where she traded between Lyttelton and the Bays) was sold at auction by Messrs Tonks, Norton and Co. for probably the record lowest sum over paid for a ship, viz., one shilling. The vessel had been lying near the slip at Lyttelton, dismantled, and was seized for “ rent." Mr Hood Williams was tho purchaser on behalf of the Harbor Board, and on January Ist the Jane will be blown up by Captain Falconer at tho Lyttelton Begatta.

Mrs Watson, wife of the officer in charge of the long-sought-for boat of the Elingamite, has had more than an ordinary sharo of family trouble. Thus a writer in Melbourne Punch A tide of misfortune seems to have followed her since her marriage, twelve months ago. Her father has died, her mother gone blind, ono brother seriously involved in the Boxer troublo in China, and another died only a month or so ago. And now comes the practical certainty of her husband's awful fate, ii would indeed be hard to find anything mure sad than this, even among the innumerable pathetic incidents of the wreck. We have received a handsome Christmas caid, wishing us Kia Ora, from the Prime Minister, 'i’ue card gives views of Mr Seddou’s trip Home. On the front there are pictures of the King, Queen, and Prince and Princess of Wales, while on the back page of the cover there is a picture of Mr Seddon and the Coronation Contingent officers, with Colonel Porter seated beside the Premier. The illustrations represent the garden party at Capetown, “ At Whoam,” the Imperial Conference, the graduation ceremonial at Edinburgh University, the Home-coming at Auckland, and the arrival at Wellington, We have received from Mr W. J. Hawley, Collector of Customs, a copy of the New Zealand Nautical Almanac and Tide Tables for 1903. The almanac has been published by direction of the Minister of Marine and prepared and edited by Capt. Blackburne, Nautical Adviser to the Marine Department, and among its contents are splendid vocabulary cf signal codes, lists of lighthouses, tidal tables, harbor regulations throughout the colony, and general information, comprising statistics, plans, system of buoyage, wharfage plans of all New Zealand ports. There i 3 a collection of charts. The work is a very useful production, highly creditable to the compilers, and has been issued at the moderate price of Is 6d. Copies of the almanac may be purchased at the Customs office.

American papers received by last mail state that the people of England are being shocked by cable messages from New Zealand, telling of the horrors attendant on the wreck of the Elingamite. The DailyMail had a message stating that the eight survivors of the steamer Elingamite, who were rescued on a raft by the British survey steamer Penguin, admit that while their minds were unhinged by hunger some of them prolonged life by drinkiDg the blood of their companions. This was mostly done by mutual consent of two parties, incisions being made in their skins and each sucking the blood of the other simultaneously. Those of the castaways refusing to do this were "tapped” while they were asleep an( j j s a ii e g e( j that the stewardess died from exhaustion through loss of blood taken by this process. The correspondent adds that the story cf the survivors has caused a feeling of horror, their action being regarded as inexcusable, as the raft was only four days and a half afloat.