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Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 106, 31 August 1880, Page 2

Thb Waimate Plains. — We hear on the best authority that within a week or ten days the Government intend to offer the Waimate Plains for sall^ Shee_. — Some magnificent sheep have lately been brought per train to Foxton. They are part of a mob of some four or five hundred recently purchased from a Rangitikei farm for Messrs Woods, Crosbie and Co., the wellknown Wellington butchers, and are being shipped by the steamers to that port. The sheep are said by com* peten' judges to be aa fine a sample as t ever were sent from the port, and the above firm are to be congratulated on securing such excellent meat for their customers. The Tui.— The heavy weather which has prevailed along the Coast during the last ten days has prevented the Tui from doing much work. She left here yesterday week, but took three days on the passage down, the Jane Douglas, which started with her, keeping company all the wuy. On the first day she made Porirua Harbour, on the second Ohau Bay, and on tb^ third reached Wellington The 'lvi got awajr from the latter port on Thursday evening, but, as will be seen by the shipping report, did not reaoh the Foxton wharf until 2.30 p.m. on Bunday. The weather appears to have agaiu moderated, and it is probable the steamers trading along the coast will now make their ordinary running. Chokal Society.— A meeting of this society is called for Wednesday evening, at the Athenaeum. Aa we believe tbat amongst other business to he transacted will be the appointment of a new conduotor, a full attendance of members is requested. Chribtvs.— The Christy Company held a meeting at Howe's Hotel on Friday last, when the practicability of performing at some of the other townships in Manawatu was considered. A oordial invitation bad been given to the company to perform at Sandon by some of the Minstrels of that township, tho*e gentlemen promising every assistance in the event of a performance being given there. Aa, however, one of the members of the orchestra could give no definite answer as to whether or not, be. could leave Foxton for thb occasion, and the Stage Manager intimating that it was useless to think of performing out of Foxton unless with the full instrumental strength of the company, nothing definite was decided upon it was known wbetherJ.be company could go or not, a lengthy dissUßlion took;

place as to what object any funds that might t accrue from the performance should be | devoted. Ultimately, on, the proposition of ■> Mr J. Symons, it was unanimously decided that any funds so obtained should be given as a Christy prize to be competed for at the annual regfCtta. It was decided that the pyaeticea of the company should be kept up, and Wednesday night was the time fixed. Corbectinq an Ebror. — At the Education Board meeting, when the discussion re the Inspector was prooeedinsr, Mr Baker is reported to hsve said : — " With regard to the Foxton School examination, he knew there were many residents in that district who would sooner see the Oomraitt.ee out of office than the Inspector." Mr.Baker did. not give his authority fcr the above statement. We presume he has been informed to the effect he spoke, and will simply say that we brieve his " many " do not represent more than two, or three at the very outside. The whole community, with the exception of a few personal friends of Mr Fou'is, are thoroughly in favour of the action of the Committee. Spahk Catchebs. — In the House of Representatives on Friday last, tbe Minister of Public Works, in reply to Mr Beetham, said it was intended to fit the engines running on the whole of the New Zealand railways with the tno"t effective spark catchers that could be obtained. This will be good news for farmers in districts traversed by railway lines. Weiohed ik the Balances— At the Wanganui Education Board meeting, last Wednesday, the motion of Mr Sanson re dismissal of the Inspector came on for discussion, ar.d was, as we predicted, lost. During the discussion the Rev Mr Ross, who is the master of the " Turakina Classi cal School," said :—" Seeing Mr Foulis* behaviour in a school, he would avouch that Mr Foulis could both conduct a olass or examination. * * * It was only required for a person to see Mr Foulis at his work to assure him that he was in every way competent." Mr Boss having set himself up as an authority upon Mr Foulis' ability as a teacher and inspector, it is only right to ask, Is Mr Boss competent to givo an opinion F Referring- to his protege, he said :— ,c He hoped that the matter would now come to an end, and that Mr Foulis would either stand or fall according to his workß, and be permitted to stand or fall." We will try Mr Ross by the same Btapdard, and according to his works we will see whether or not he is competent to act as a judge of the Inspector. Fortunately we have the material close at hand to measure his calibre. In the list of candidates presented for the scholarship examinations a few weeks ago, we notice five from the •' Turakina Classical School," kept and instructed by the rev. gentleman, and the positions those candidates held at the close of the examination will be good indices of the competence of Mr Ross as a teacher, and, by inference, of the worth of his opinion regarding Mr Foulis. Kor Class A Mr Ross presented three pupils out of the six who competed. Mr Ross' pupils are at the bottom of the list. In olass B Mr Ross presented one pupil. Eleven competed, and Mr Ross' pupil is tenth on the list. In class 0 Mr Ross presented one also. Thirteen competed, and Mr Ross' pupil is eisrhth on the t list. It is positively arauwng to see the results attained by these " Turakina Classical School" youths. In arithmetic, the total of marks obtainable was 150. The following were the numbers obtained by Mr Rous* boys : 47, 61, 46, 19, and 7 ! Splendid results those oub of 150 ! Once more and we have done : In science the maximum of marks was 60. Mr Robs' pupils obtained respectively 30, 13, 19, 15, and 22! Splendid again, suraly ! Do these results, compiled from official records, show the olerical schoolmaster competent to give an opinion ? We trow not. As againßt the above we may point out that in the English subjects the boy from the Turakina Classical School who made most marks in Class A— J. M'Donald, — was exactly 100 marks lesß ihan the Foxton boy — J. Flower, — who went up for Class B, and took exactly the sime papers as M'Donald. In view of these figures, it would be wise on Mr Ross* part to refrain from placing his opinion of Mr Foulis* competence against the evidence that was brought forward on the other side by the teacher of the Foxton School. Judged by his " works," Mr Ross has received a deoided " fall " at tho hands of our local dominee. An- Explanation. — In Friday's issue we published a lengthy paragraph headed, " Meat for England." By an oversight the authorship of the paragraph in question was not credited to the Wairarapa Standard, from which journal we extracted it. We aYe particular to impress tbe faot that the extract was from our Greytown contemporary, because the following sentence occurred m it : — " Recently our leading columns have teemed with brilliant articles on political and party subjects," &c While fully recognising the truth of our contem porary's assertion as regards bis own articles, we feel we cannot think of laying olaini to such compliments as ho bestows upon himself. New Zealand Land Holdings. — We olip tbe following from the New Zealand Pastoral and Agricultural News, a new monthly journal published at Wellington : — The area of New Zealand is 64,000,000 acres, of which 20,000,000 are forest. The rural lands held by Europeans, are 12,579,070 The number of holdings are 26,120. This includes freehold and private leasehold, but is exclusive of 13,109,755 acres held under lease from the Crown for pastoral and mineral purposes. Of the remaining territory, large tracts are still owned by tbe Maoris, who hold their land under the Treaty of Waitangi, by whioh their rights were guaranteed when tbe colony was j ceded to the Crown. They show an in creasing desire to sell as their appreciation of European ways of life becomes more keen. Many of tbem are sheepfarmers, and others carry on agriculture with considerable success. They also own town sections, from which, especially in Wellington, they receive considerable sums for ground rent. It is an 111-wind, &o. — During 1 the Kelly scare, the Melbourne Argus published five extraordinary editions, with an issue of about 35,000, whioh sold in the suburbs at Is each; the Age, six editions, with an issue of 52,000 ; and the Herald, four editions, with 110,000, which sold in Geelong for 2s 6d. The crowd at the Argus office on the eventful Monday is said to have had no equal Binoe the days of the FrancoPrussian war. Willis* Sbntbncb.— The Governrffat have decided not to interfere with the sentence of Willis, (lf»te sohoolmaster at the Hutt) for horsewhipping Jordan, en no sufficient reason has been shown for revets- ' ing the judgment. Retrenchment. — The Wanganui Herald ' says : — The Report of the Financial Cora- , mittee of the Education Board referred to^^L new scale of salaries for tbe teacheatj^^^^M learn that the salaries for theM^^^H^H and in future will be calcn^d^^^^^^^H For schools 25 soh_d|^^^^^^^^H rate Idsjaaa^^^^^^^^^^^^M to Z6,£\j^^^^^^^J^^^^M y** r ______________________________i

—■— — — i ■— WMW- —■_■_—_ _— _ _■_■_ ten scholars. F6r insta.ncesthe teacher. !ith 85 soholors will receive<S6llo, and 95, 156. Troublesome Natives. -jHwttVaipawa Mnil thus refers to some. j^HL annoyances caused by the natives^j^^Hustrict : — The Waipawa natives evi_B_Hy intend taking the fullest advantage .of the Government blunder perpetrated here a short time since, as regards the land in dispute betwoiiu them and Mr Harding* and have again offered resistance to Mr M'Nutt. It appears that on Wednesday the natives allowed Mr M'Nutt to proceed with his ploughing unmolested, but on|pro6uming work on Thursday morning, he was waited upon by Nepe, who as,ked.bjm.if heha4oqt<. already been informed that he must not trespass upon the land in question. M'Nutt still continued his work, when a number of Maori women appeared upon the scene, and hnving^ unyoked the pldUghman's^brliesi turned him and them off the ground: Really this farce has been already allowed to go too far. It is quite tune that the authorities should step in and show to the utmost the powers vested in them, or give to the natives the unqualified right to this land. Mb Halcombe in England.-- The European Mail says : — There is now on view at the offices of the Emigrants' and Colonists' I Aid Corporation, at Westminster, a tabletop made from different kinds of New Zealand woods, which was brought over to ! this country by Mr Halcombe. We understand that one of the objects of the visit of this gentleman to London is to endeavour to open up a trade with Great Britain for the export of some of the valuable timber of New Zealand, chicly that used in the manufacture of furniture. Certainly there id a good opening for such a trade; and' from what we have seen of Mr Halcombe, I he is not likely to return to the Colony unI successful. Simple Remedy For Coughs. — A oorrea pondent of the Medical Times says that the popular prescription for spasmodic asthma in certain parts of the country ia to eat heartily of watercresses, and it is said that the remedy is successful. One of the house h"ld remedies tried in Wellington for the cure of the troublesome coughs pervading at present nearly every household is a decoction of watercress roots. A handful or more boiled in a quart of water until reduced to a pint, and the liquor then mixed with a quarter of a pound of treacle. The Hydrabad Trouble.— The Evening Chronicle thus refers to the telegram recently published re the Hydrabad cargo : — " The Australian cable news of this morning informs us that the South Australian Goyernment has taken action to recover £25,000 from Insurance- .Companies for losses on the wreck of the ship Hydrabad, near the mouth of the dbrowhenua Creek, on the West Const ot this Island, a couple of years ago. A good many of our readers may know nothing more about the matter than that the Hydrabad got wrecked in 1878, and may naturally wonder bow at this time of day a dispute as to the payment of insurance should arise. The facts are these : The South Australian Government bought a large quantity of broad gauge railway material belonging to the late Provincial Government of Canterbury, and which was lying on their hands useless after the Canterbury lines were taken up and altered to the uniform guage of tbe colony. All this plant was shipped at Lyttelton for South Australia per the Hydrabad, and insured in the usual way. When the Hydrabad was wrecked on the Otaki beach it was decided by the Insurance Offices to recover the cargo from the vessel and shin it to South Australia. There was no diffl culty at all in the way of this, except that the process of recovering the oargo, by lightening the vessel, would cause her to be driven higher up the beach, and thus render the final floatage moro difficult. Ob. jections were therefore raised on behalf of the owners to, unloading the cargo if it endangered the recovery of the vessel, and it was insisted that the two operation? should go on in conjunction As part of tbe process of recovering the vessel waß that after kedging her a certain distance out, it was necessary that she should be sunk in order to prevent her being blown back on the beach by an adverse wind, the vessel had to be sunk a great many times ; and every time she was filled with water, the cargo received considerable injury. At length all hopes of saving the ship having been abandoned, the railway material: was pot out and hauled over the sandhills to Foxton, where it was shipped. As may be imagined the material must have shown signs of wear and tear by the time it was delivered at Adelaide. At anyrate, whatever state it was in — good of bad — the Government decided to refuse it, and have taken action to recover £25,000 from the insurance offices in which it was insured. The hull of the Hydtabad still serves as a landmark to break the menotony of that long and weary beach between Paikakariki and Foxton." A Paving Profession. — Those who know' Archer, the jockey, say that, by his extraordinary instinct, he is enabled to estimate, not only the powers of the horse which he rides himself, but he oan accurately judge of the capabilities of his competitors. The income of a good jockey is at least equal to tbat of the Lord High Chancellor of England— £10,000 %, year. Archer receives a retaining fee from the Duke of Westminster amounting to iJIOOO a year, simply to ride in any race either of His Grace's steeds that may be selected. This says I nothing of fees, or judioious bets. Archer's 1 income last year has been estimated at £11,000, and this year it is not likely to be leas. A Sign of the Tans. — The consnmp. tion of spirits in Great Britain continues to deo'ine. In the first quarter of this year, 188 C, the quantity of Home made spirits on which duty was paid for consumption in the United Kingdom as a beverage was 6,594,988 gallons, shoving, when compared with the corresponding period of last year, a decrease of 181,991 gallons in England, 201,075 gallons in Scot&nd/frnd in Ireland, 269,833 gallons, or from 1,488,556 to 1,228,923 gallons. The total decrease, therefore, for the United Kingdom is 642,699 gallons, and the decrease in comparison with tbe first quarter of 1878 is no less than 1,013,619 gallons. The foreign spirits imporffi and entered for home consumption alwfthow a large decline.