NEWS AND NOTES.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1927, 28 April 1880, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

An effort is being made by the 1.0.G.TLodges of Wellington to induce ministers of religion to preach sermons specially on behalf of total abstinence. The Dunedin City Council is going in for another loan of £400,000 for general purposes. When this is floated the Otagan capital will owe the respectable sum of one million sterling. Ross’ buildings, which were destroyed by the well remembered flra at the Octagon, Dunedin, same time ago, are to be replaced by an Academy of Music. The main hall will accommodate 1500 people. The man Fotterell, who recently attempted suicide by cutting his throat at Mornington, is proceeding favorably towards recovery. The Melbourne Exhibition Committee at Dunedin are energetically at work preparing for the proper represontation of their district. The rustics at Winton have broken out into violent larrikinism. One has actually had the audacity to blacken his face and visit tho police station when the constable was out on duty. That officer’s wife, however, was equal to the occasion, as she presented a revolver at the visitor, and he went away at an express rate from tho place, forgetting to open the gate. A gentleman who visited Picton a few days ago has shown the “ Marlborough Times ’* some pearls —small, but apparently of good quality—which he got out of some mussel shells on the beach.

A Zulu cannot marry a girl until he has whipped all her brothers and given her father an upset, if demanded, in addition. There is a great scratching around in Zululand to find •nly shildren and orphans.

The Minister for Works has instructed the Eogineer-in-Ohief to take steps jjo afford -work for the unemployed in the Oamaru district.

lie legal firms in Nelson city are abont taking steps to form a District Law Society. The Oamaru Stone Company, with a view to obtaining the opinions of English architects upon their stone, are sending two large blocks home by the ship Coromandel, now loading at Port Chalmers. One of these blocks has been ordered for the purpose of being transformed into a font for a new church in Westmoreland. It is said that when the chairman of the Grey County Council waited on the Minister for Public Works during that gentleman’s visit to the West Coast goldfields, he kept on adding to the modest items which he wished to be expended by the Government in his district until the bill totted up to £462,000. The “ Waipawa Mail,” Hawke’s Bay, says that a field of oats was to be seen with a linnet perched on every ear, and not a grain was left. The “Telegraph ” tells another tale of a crop being splendid as long as the birds were there, but as soon as the birds left the caterpillars ate everything up. The result is that the oats must go in any case, and the choice is merely between birds and caterpillars. A few days ago a cabman at Auckland completely destroyed the eyesight of a boy riding behind his cab, by slashing him across the face with his whip. Legs of mutton are selling in Wellington at ninepenee each. One enterprising butcher is delighting the housekeepers and terrifying 11 the trade. ’

One of the results of the pleuro-pneumonia outbreak in Waikato is that some of the local butchering firms, instead of purchasing their _fat cattle in Waikato are importing them from Auckland.

Mr Murray, M.H.E., has left Napier for Auckland, presumably to see whether they have any “local industries” there. Yet another instance of the advancing civilisation of the Maori! Prom the“Manawatu Herald ” we learn that Hakaraia te Whena (Bevan) has filed his schedule. He estimates his debts at £3OO, and his assets at £0 Os Od. Hakaraia has been working as a contractor for the County Council on the Otaki-Foxton road.

The Thorn Wire Hedge Co. recently shipped, through its New York agency, a large quantity of barb wire fence to South America, New Zealand, and Australia. An agitation on a small scale is going on amongst the employes of the business men in Masterton, the object being to secure a halfholiday on Wednesdays. There seems to be every chance of the line to Masterton being opened by August next, the work being most energetically pushed on. The plate laying between the Waihohine and Masterton has been let, and has to be completed in seven weeks, after which there is only the ballasting! which will not occupy more than five weeks.

Dunedin folks are now armed to the teeth. The “Herald” says: —“In connection with a case at the City Police Court, in which a man named Thomas King, alias Dublin Dick, was sent to gaol for seven days on a charge of having been found by the police illegally on enclosed premises in Maclaggan street, Ser-geant-Major B.vin pointed out to the Bench the danger that such men ran in the present timorous state of the public mind; for while nearly all householders kept loaded revolvers, prowlers stood a considerable chance of being shot.”

Mr Sketchley, the popular lecturer, is visiting the Wairarapa townships. His first appearance at Q-reytown was not attended with much success, as on the evening of his lecture the weather was very boisterous and unpleasant. Colonel St. Hill, lately dismissed from the command of the Tasmanian Volunteers, and who was at one time aide de-camp to General Chute, was a younger brother of Mr Henry St. Hill, late E.M. and Sheriff of Wellington. Colonel St. Hill received his education in that city, and began his military career with an ensignship in the 63th. There are two other brothers—Mr Ashton St. Hill, who is a sheep farmer, and a clergyman who is, or was, Incumbent of St. John’s, Napier.

The Wellington Y. M. O. A. have appointed some of their number to collect the city “ Arabs ” in one of the halls on Sunday evening, for the purpose of giving them a little good advice. Beekeeping is becoming fashionable in Invercargill. Wellington shows signs of returning life, now that the session is approaching. A local paper says that numbers of shops which have been closed for months have been re-opened during the past fortnight. Southland now possesses a cavalry corps. The newly-fledged troopers have dubbed themselves the “Southland Hussars.” A number of young men were out fishing yesterday, says the “Wellington Chronicle ”of April 19tb, and |saw an extraordinary phenomenon in connection with the water. Suddenly all round the shore from Point Jemingham to the Slip, the water turned into a red hue. One of the party suggested that it was caused through red sea-weed, whereupon a bucket full of the water was taken into the boat, but it still retained its red color. The fishermen commenced to tremble, and thought that Pharoah’s miracles were about to be commenced again, and {made straightway for home.

Owing to the want of proper support from the public and the insurance companies, the Oamoru Fire Brigade is in financial difficulties. The local Dramatic Club have come forward to endeavor to pull the firemen through.

One pound notes, ingeniously altered to pass as “fivers,” are in circulation in Dunedin. Several tradesmen hare been victimised lately. The Otago Benevolent Institute is on the move for funds, and a monster bazaar and Bruce auction will be held at an early date. The two previous carnivals in aid of the institute realised £ISOO and £I7OO respectively, plus the Government subsidy to the same amount.

Argand lamps of 100, 250 and 400 candle power, have been introduced into the Dunedin streets by the Corporation. They Are said to be very effective. The Directors of the Wellington Tramway Company caused a number of free passes, in file shape of gold medallions, to be presented to the original directors of the company. It is satisfactory to learn that the directors paid the cost of the medals, £4 17s each, themselves. Diphtheria has disappeared at East Invercargill. The settlers of the West Oreti rabbit district pay a rate of one-sixteenth of a penny per acre towards exterminating the pest. Three hundred and eighteen new claims to vote have been lodged with the Registrar at Wellington. The Working-men’s Club at Napier is in a flourishing state. The club has now a skittlealley, a shooting-gallery, a bagatelle board, and sundry other amusements for the entertainment of members during the winter months. The library and reading-room are well patronised. Eour more Sisters of the Convent of the Sacred Heart are expected to arrive in Timaru from America about two months hence, to supplement the staff of teachers at present in the Convent.

To Whiti was born at Ngamotn, the present site of the town of New Plymouth, and not in Wellington. His father’s name was Tohu Kakahi, who was killed in a fight with Waikatos at Moturoa, near New Plymouth.

An effort is being made just now to obtain from the General Government the boon of a light at Aratapu heads. A petition has been prepared, and it is in course of signature by the masters of vessels trading to this river for that purpose. The National Mutual Life Association of Australia are making arrangements for commencing business in New Zealand. The Waimea Plains railway is expected to be ready for opening on Juno Ist, Only seven and a half miles of platelaying and ballasting remain to be done. The Maories who recently exacted toll from the Foxton coach now state that they will not allow any surveys, &c-, until they have been paid the sum of £6OO as compensation for the road line.

The extensive flour and wood working mills belonging to Mr J. Bruce, at Timaru, are to be floated into a company. A man up at Waverley finding that times vrere bad, resolved to reduce his expenditure by selling his two sons, aged ten and eight years. The eldest went for XOs, and the younger was parted with for', half that amount. Prom the accounts in the local paper, it would appear that the boys have benefltted by the change. A writer in the “ Timaru Herald” says that one vast stint appears to pervade the town, that can only be ascribed to the accumulation of unremoved filth in dark corners And obscure back yards.