GENERAL NEWS.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 34, 4 May 1906, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

A monster wild boar which was shot in the back country at AVaikouaiti last week was protected by hide two inches thick. It had huge tusks, and bristles like wire. The Pone lias presented Prinee-s Ena with She !.<>|. en lio--. Th s is a .jewel consisting of a cluster of rosesand buds on one stem, all in gold, given by tlr* Pope to the Queen who has performed during the year the most pious deeds for the i lurch. A Moata i i mule standing near a magazine of giant powder when it exploded was hurled end over end seventy-five feet to the bottom of the dump pile on which he stood. A\ In n the smoke cleared away he stood quietly picking a bunch of grass, not in the least disturbed, lie had lifted like that himself, and knew how it was done. Government servants throughout the colony ha ve received notice from the Departments in which they are employed that they are not to engage in music teaching. The action of the department (sa vs the Southland limes) is pnsuiiiabdy due to the receipt of information that Government servants have been supplementing their incom's in the way indicated. "Going, going, gone.” shouted the auctioner. and a mob of calvi - had changed hands at Is (id per head. This transaction took place at a stork sale at Taranaki a. fewdays ago. Hearing calves to sell at such a price must I e most disheartening to farmers, <•• mnieiits the Taranaki News. yet this Is Ihe market prices are obtained fi r good calves, but the best of them do not bring over 10s. Two years ago good v. eaners sold up to £2 per head. Mr Roderick McKenzie. M.1f.!?.. writes to the Collingwood paper : ‘•The complete and perfect exposure 1 have made of the concoctions. fabrications, and distortions of the rapscallion of Paraparr. : the severe, but well-merited castigation administered to him has evidently borne fruit. He is now writhing like a reptile in a deft .stick, from which he exudes hi; venom in the I«<iiguage of a. ) tnl.' hoodlum, or an English blackguard.” The editor adds; “This correspondence is now closed.” ft is a singular fact (says the “Taranaki Herald”) that most fishermen are unable to swim. The Lowestoft Collector of Customs, who held an enquiry concerning the drowning at sea of a fisherman who had never learned to swim, said that tlii- w is the «• se in nearly every in vestigai io’’ lie had held. Asa matterof fee", a strong prejudice against swimming exists among fishermen. It ig based on the belief that jf üb!t< to swim they would, on falling overboard, or getting wrecked, keep themselves afloat, and so prolong the agon'es of (bowning. The Marlborough 1 and and Railway Leagm- has 1 ecu informed by the Public AA’oik- Department that the only re-u-on several more men are not nut on w oi k at the Seddon end of the t runk line is that they an- not to be got. The Land and Railway Leagu-* was asked to cooperate with th" Department finding men, and decided to do what it con’d in that direction. The League will co-operate with the Waiau I.eague to urge on ; ,rGovernment the advisability of a trial survey of the route from Kaikoura to Waiau, via the Whale's Back, which would open up much more country than the coast route, if the engineering difficulties were not found to bean obstacle to its adoption,