DISTRICT PARS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 151, 29 April 1909, Page 2

DISTRICT PARS.

Subscribers to the local library will be pleased to learn that new reading is in store for them this winter. A consignment of 70 new books have been ordered, and are expected to be available for use very shortly.

A meeting of the Waitomo County Council is to be held at Te Kuiti "on Monday, May 10th. The Te Kuiti Fire Brigade has arranged to hold meetings every Wednesday night, and members are requested to attend each week as the support of all residents is necessary in order to ensure the success of the movement. Outback residents will be pleased to learn that an additional mail service has been inaugurated between Te Kuiti, Piopio and Aria. The new service is being run by Mr H. E. Lewis, coach proprietor, and the mails close at Te Kuiti on Monday at 8.30 am, arriving back on Tuesday at 3.30 p.m.

The Bank of New Zealand has had another successful year After transferring a substantial amount to the reserve fund, it is the intention of the board of directors to recommend to shareholders at the annual meeting in June, that in addition to a dividend at the rate of 10 per cent per annum, five per cent of which was paid as an interim dividend in December last, shareholders shall receive a bonus at the rate of 2 j per cent, per annum.

The following interesting letter has .been received by the Prime Minister on the subject of the offer by New Zealand of a Dreadnought to the Old Country: —"God bless you, sir. You have done a fine thing in prompt and statesmanlike fashion, and you have made New Zealand proud of its Premier and the Empire proud of New Zealand. You have -shown Germany and the rest of the world that kinship conquers space, and those who ::;_ r ht the British I=lc- mu t fvl t t I " i h race The \ a\ 1 c of the C a \ some In iu did c o nuu ) durmar Cape St. Y tish line face r i batti. . ( tarn t : heel f i J did, i I comn: u wii' SK v / i. r c< 1 IIL i I V, c aid CJ u t i c it the qu< ti - r Court s c' u o tl Ohinemuri C. Mr (J 1 follow in_ t u \\ hi Th= i c named "F bdtui ' 1 ' Nlti i - e\ul 1 i " I at I N I < ' 10 1 * cour II 1 trr - II I II I I < 1 1 . " II * rt junto an t\ Oi iocd, ana this -nauid he considered in the ration of working hordes.

K you want to get the full capacity out of your horses without injury, use moderation at the beginning of every task imposed upon them. A Maori named Hake, seriously injured in Knight's bush, near Katikati, was admitted to the Waihi hospital on Monday afternoon. It appears that Hake was engaged at the time of the accident in helping to construct a chute for sending down logs, when a log by some means got away, striking Hake who was at the bottom of the chute. It is understood that some difficulty arose in procuring a doctor, and the injured man was eventually conveyed to Waihi.

"I have discovered the most mag- ! nificent contralto voice I have yet heard," said Madame Melba to a Press representative in Wellington. She was speaking of Miss Thompson, a resident of Stewart Island. "An old school friend of mine told me about her," said Madame Melba, "and begged me as a personal favour to hear her sing. So she came, and I prepared to hear the usual sort of lovely voice, but I can tell you that as she sang I began to open my eyes .wider and wider. I applied all sorts of tests tried her on long, sustained notes, everything, and her voice was glorious," Miss Thompson will accompany Madame Melba to Melbourne, and will there receive instruction from the great singer. An interesting development has taken place during the last few days in the Taranaki Oil and Freehold Company's bore at Vogeltown. Last week an oil-bearing stratum was struck at a depth of about 1000 ft, and capital indications were obtained. This morning the directors visited the bore, and the manager put the sand-pump down. The spoil from the first lift was liquid mud, smelling strongly of petroleum, and on setting gave a film of oil. The second pumping yeilded less mud, and a thicker scum of oil very soon showed itself. The third pumping was quite liquid, and in a minute or two a thick scum of oil like rich cream on a pan of milk formed. The result of the voting for the election of Mayor of the Borough of Hamilton, which took place yesterday, was as follows:—J. A. Young 520, A. E. Manning 290.

If a cold you have neglected, Till you fear your chest's affected, There's no need to feel dejected, You can still be quite secure To despair is only madness, So away with gloom and sadness, Take that thing of joy an gladness, Woods' Great Peppermint Cure

A clever sketch of Mr T. E. Taylor, M.P., appears in the current issue of "The Citizen." "Nobody," says the writer, "can listen to Taylor and be 'a moderate'; he makes you violently friendly or violently hostile. [He has so much magnetism that the audience must point north or south. Just as the average politician is naturally dull and naturally unable to be otherwise than dull, Taylor is naturally vivid and exciting, and unable ever to be otherwise than vivid and exciting. I would not like to live in a Society of Taylor's making. But I would not like to live in a country where there was no Taylor. In a political society grown slovenly, unprincipled and dull, there is urgent aeei for somebody to stir up trouble. Leaven is not a wholesome diet, but bread without a little leaven is bad. Taylor was the leaven of Parliament in the past; he is certain to discharge his old function again in the future. He has given ample evidences of an intention to regard the next three sessions as three wars."

As will be seen by advertisement in another column tenders are invited by the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the lease of a reserve of lOi acres in the Punui Survey District. The section is weighted with £6 for draining: The term of lease is ten years at a minimum annual rental of £lO, while no compensation is to be allowed for improvements at the end of the term. A portion of the North Auckland is suffering from a visitation of crickets. The Dargavilie corerspondent of the Auckland Star writes as follows: — "The settlers, both here and in the Otamatea County, . are suff i ring considerably owing to the depredations of crickets. In the Otamatea County, especially about Paparoa and Matakohe, crickets exist by millions, and hundreds of pounds damage has been occasioned. Young grass is eaten as soon as it appears above the ground, and, generally speaking, vegetation 'ustnow has not much chance owing to the vivacious habits oi the n ■\Ucnur -i - ca f e c-*" i" e O c ~~ C L r (