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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2373, 14 December 1908, Page 4

Nominations for the Muriwai races close to-day. Tenders for the refreshment booth at tlie AVliatatutu races close to-day. The board of directors of the Y.M.C.A. -will meet in tlie ( AVesley Schoolroom this evening at 7.30. Tho* schools of the Wellington education district will close for the summer vacation on Friday, December 18. An ordination service will be held in To Arai Church on Sunday next, December 20, when some Maori students are to be ordained.

A special meeting of the Drivers’ Union will be held in Townley’s Hall at 7.30 p.m. to-day to consider the question of referring a dispute to the Conciliation Board, The Salvation Army Band yesterday played a programme of music in tlie Hospital grounds. The items given were much appreciated by patients and visitors. At the Salvation Army Barracks tomorrow evening a complimentary musical evening will be tendered to Bandmaster Jones, wlio is leaving Gisborne on AYednesday on a visit to liis relatives in Melbourne.

The following was tlie revenue received at the Custom house, Gisborne, last week: Customs duties £llO6 0s Bd, beer duty £2O 18s, light dues £l7 0s 9d, Harbor Board revenue £l5O 14s 3d; total, £1294 13s Sd. Speaking recently at Leeds, Sir John Go-rst said he regarded the condiion of the ohildren of London as a discredit to the nation, and strongly approved the steps being taken for the medical examination of children. To-morrow evening the entertaini ment in aid of the choir and orchestra fund of the Baptist Church, postponed from Tuesday last on account of wet weather, will be given in the # church. A good vocal and instrumen’tal programmme is to be submitted. Admission will bo free, -and i.a collection will be made in support of the fund.

Tho near approach of Christmas is evidenced by the displays in the windows of several of the Gladstone Road shops. Those firms dealing in stationery and fancy goods are showing tlieir Christmas stocks, and already Santa Claus has made heavy demands on tho toy departments. Other shops uaro uot yet quite so forward with their preparations, but their arrangejnents in preparation for the festive season’s trade should ho completed by the end of this week. The monthly meeting of the East Coast Trades and Labor Council was held on Saturday evening, there being a large attendance of delegates. A communication was received from Air. McLaren, the newly-elected M.P. for AVeiungton, in which he stated his desire to he in close touch with all labor organisations, and that lie would do his best in regard to any matter to which tlie Council wished attention to he paid. A number of union matters were brought up, and after full discussion recommendations were made to the unions concerned.

It is somewhat surprising to find that, although the name of Captain Cook is yearly honored in Gisborne, the memorial which is erected to his memory is treated with scant courtesy. Tho surrounding ground, both inside and outside the iron railing, is clothed with a heavy mass •of thistle, fennel, and! other weeds, and it is with difficulty that a visitor oan get close enough to discern tlie wording on tlie monument. This is a condition of affairs which requires the prompt attention of the authorities concerned.

Tlie City Band intends taking part in the band contest which is to be hold at Hastings in February next, and lias received the following test music: Selection, “Songs of Northern Scotland”; march, “Palmerston.” There is also # to be an own choice selection, and for this the City Band is taking “Mercadante.” Tlie band has settled down to practice three times a week, under Conductor Lawrence, who considers that tlie bland has an excellent oliance of gaining first place in tlie B grade. In order to defray expenses to Hastings tho band will go serenading on Christmas Eve, when it will play m different parts of the town.

“AVhoever thinks a faultless piece to see, thinks what ne’er was., nor is, nor e’er shall be.” So wrote Pope, and no one will be disposed to question the truth of the statement except some moonstruck youth. AVe do not pretend that Pettio and 1 Co. are without fault or that they do not make mistakes. But the accumulation of Christmas gifts, tlie like of which has not been seen in Gisborne before, reveals no fault. A Jady in trying to describe to her friend what she had seen, declared they have a tantalising lot of lovely things. AVhilst others, when viewing tho show of Maltese and other real lace goods, exclaimed“ How lovely and how cheap.” A hearty invitation is given to all our readers to call and inspect, and we assure them that they will not be pressed to buy.

The use of- motor cars lor high speed travelling is coming largely into, vogue both in Europe and America, some of them attaining a speed ot nearly sixty miles an hour, to keep up with the pace this week it’s Rapid potato mashers for fivepence each at Parnell’s Popular Saturday Sales, nineteenth inst. only,

tTia-montHhr meeting of the Gisborne Freezers’ Union will bo held m Townley’s Hall at 8 p.m. to-day lhe renort of tlie committee on the ai te ration of the rules will bo presented. A first assistant master is required for the Gisborne High School, ihe salary is to be £2OO per annum with Spouse allowance are to be sent m not later than Decembers 26. , An exhibition of the work done by the girl pupils of the Gisborne technical School in dressmaking, and by the boys of the school' m woodwork, wi?l be y held at the school to-morrow fl< Mr Barnes Stevenson, surveyor to the Aotea Maori Land Uoard, is surveying the Whaharangi Block, near Pipiriki, for the purpose of settlement and scenic . reservation. Over 40,000 acres are being dealt with, and a large portion is to he opened ioi lease at Wanganui shortly.. The festival to be given in the garrison Hull, under the direction of Signor Borzoni, in aid of the fund ror reducing the debt on the building is to be opened on February ith and will be carried, on for a week. The leading feature is the spectacular display “The Birth of the Empire, composed and arranged by Signor Borzoni. In ‘tliis spectacle two liundred performers are to take part. The excellence of the object should ensure crowded attendances tlnoughout' the progress of the festival. A rather remarkable bird is in the possession of Mr S. White, of Waikaka \ T alley (says the Mataura ‘ Ensign”). In 1877,. shortly after Mr White commenced farming in the district, he purchased a sitting of goose eggs. These eggs were hatched, and from the clutch a fine goose was .reared. This goose did her duty m the world by rearing a clutch of goslings every year till about 1900. -She is still enjoying her well-earned rest, and to look at her one would not realise that she has seen 32 summers. It is not thought that the bird has a. senior in the Dominion. . A curious freak of nature was discovered last Saturday by Mr J. H. Noonan, of Fourth Avenue, Kiugsland. He had noticed that of a setting of duck eggs one very large one, remained after the others had released their fluffy little occupants, and he broke this egg, finding the shell enclosed a- duckling with four wings, four legs, and two tails, while the neck seemed to he double jointed. The wings and legs of this curious duckling were well developed, and Mr Noonan believes that had the bird been able to get out of the shell normally it would have lived. The freak is to be preserved in spirits and presented to the Museum.

There is something unique about the training arrangements of both Burns and Johnson (who are to fight for the championship of the world at Sydney on Boxing Day.) Both men are making a charge to those people who wish to witness the boxers in training action. Bairns is shoving his quality by giving, in the course of his training, two exhibitions a week at tlie Stadium, the proceeds of which are being given to charity. On the first day £9O was netted, and on Wednesday of last week the gate represented no less than £2OO, and it promised to be - just as good on Saturday last, when the last mail left. Recently Mr E. S. Smitliurst, the lion, secretary of the British Empire League in Australia, communicated with the headmaster of the Lincoln District High School, some miles from Christchurch, suggesting that the pupils should present a Union Jack to some school in Lincoln, England, thus following the example of other places in Australia and New Zealand which have derived their names from places in the United Kingdom. The gift would, no doubt, bo reciprocated, and might lead to an interchange of photographs and letters. The pupils at Lincoln took up the matter warmly, and have provided a four-yard Union Jack bearing the following inscription in red silk: ‘‘From the. boys and girls of Lincoln, New Zealand, to the hoys and girls of Lincoln. England.. 1908.” This will be sent to tlie Mayor of Lincoln, who will be asked to choose the school which is to receive it. Mr B. R. Bunny, of Masterton, a brother of Mr E. P. Bunny, of Wellington, arrived from Sydney tlie other day after six years’ residence on tlie Ivlondyko goldfields. He states that gold is'still being won from the frozen earth round about Dawson City, but the opportunities for casual mining were disappearing, owing to the operations of the wealthy American corporations, who are acquiring the payable properties. Dawson City, which is stil.l 400 miles remote from any railway, is not progressing in point of population, hut is showing a, backward tendency on what it was four years ago. It was a fluctuating population that arrived with the spring and disappeared in-tlie direction of civilisation in tlie autumn to avoid tlie riguor of the Klondyke winter. Mr Bunny states that even in tlie middle of summer the ground is frozen pretty hard, so one -can •judge what it is in the winter, when the district becomes arctic in character. He has decided that sheep-farm. ing in New Zealand can give points to gold-getting bn tlie Ivlondyke, and his attention wiil be directed to woolraising for tlie future. . The subject of compulsory training was touched upon by Mr F. E. Baume, M.P., in replying to a toast at the Auckland letter-carriers’ dinner ;a few evenings ago. He said that tlio invasion of this country should be looked upon by his hearers in its true significance, namely, as tlie invasion of their own country. Being a soldier was not an easy matter. It was not a case of just singing “Rule Britannia.” It took some time in preparation. He declared that all young men who held dear tlieir homes .and the honor of tlieir women ought to he prepared to give a. certain period of tlieir lives to fit themselves for defence. This should be tlio pride of every man. He hoped tlie question of compulsory training would soon become one of practical politics, but it could not until the people said it should. He urged that Parliament should be forced to take steps by which the country should be prepared with a force adequate to repel any possible invasion of New Zealand. This 'country had covetous eyes centred upon it front all parts of tlie world. Wo certainly had the pi'otection of the British navy, but that navy coufid not be everywhere, and if there should be an invasion, ho asked them, as native-born New Zealanders, would .they not he prepared to do all they could in defence of their home and country P (Applause.)

Mr T. Downs gave bjs final lecture i n Townley’s Hak last night. There was a good 'attendance, and Mr. George Brown, president of the Gisborne Spiritualists’ Society, was -in the chair. Mr. Downs? subject was “How when and why I became a Spiritualist.” Mr. Downs, who has made a stay of nearly three months in Gisborne, is to leave here on Wednesday for Wellington.

i “An interesting race is about to commence from Melbourne, where four of the Craig lino ships, viz., the barques Louisa Craig, Joseph Craig,, and Jessie Craig, and the barquentme Selwyn Craig, aro now taking hi ballast, afterwards proceeding to Newcastle to load coal for Auckland. At Newcastle the licet with be increased by the barque Marjorie Craig, and an exciting race across the Tasman bea should eventuate. In the last run across to Melbourne, from the Kaipara, all the vessels made excellent passages, several taking under eleven days.

“Lost in the Consolidated Statutes,” would have been a newspaper heading to attract .attention, but at the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court the other day. there occurred an incident quite worthy of the title. The Clerk of the Court was requested to find th© Juvenile Offenders Act, 1906, and at once took advantage of the facilities afforded by the Consolidated. Statutes. The volume marked “I to L” was produced and searched, but no Juvenile Offenders Act was disclosed. Hurriedly the four other volumes that contained the balance of New Zealand’s laws were explored, but still the Act remained in hiding. The absence of an index made it necessary that each volume should be separately searched, ljut the Clerk of the Court, after a fruitless and Jong search, had to resort to the old volumes of Statutes.