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Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 66, 19 April 1881, Page 2

A Telephone Station. — Wo hear on the est authority that the telegraph station at Woodville will shortly be oloied, and that in its place a telephone instrument will be substituted, to be worked from Palmeraton. It is contemplated, so we are informed, to. place at Woodville a married constable, who would work the instrument it that place for about £20 extra to his salary as a police officer, and thus the services of a skilled operator at that pace could •c dispensed with. There are already four >f these iiistrumeuts at work in different, • irtß of the colony, and they are found to jive every satisfaction. The instruments ised are known by the name of the Edison Ball telephone. Excursionists —About 25 excursiotrsts ivrived by th<- Jane Douglas from Wellinjr--■m on Good Friday. They were mostly of r<he masculine gender, many having come "or the purpose of shooting during the Eistor holidays. Wheu they discovered •bat the train did not run on Good Friday, 'tony took to swearing, and for half -an-how "here was more profanity in the streets of '^ ixton than there had been for months •wfore. After a time their ii.inds became nore settled, and some walked to P<tlmeriton, others drove to tho same place, while he remainder accepted the inevitable and at the different hotels. Upon arrival of the coach, later in the day, a some•vKat similm scene was enacted, as Herr B nidmano, the celebrated actor, who came overland from Wellington, was anxious to each Wanganui early on Saturday, having engaged to play there that night. Two biggies, containing Mr Baudmaun aud one if iho ladies of his troupe, aud some other passengers by the coach, started about 7 o'clock for Bulls. Game —By the G izette of the 14fch inst.. the season for shooting native game in the Mauawatu District including wild duck, bittern, plover, wild geese, dotterel I, native pigeon, teal, crulaw->, an I quail, is fixed as from the Ist of Ap d till the .'s lst July. OuCk" pheasants and hares may be killed in the Mauawatu county during May, June, and July. Shooting licenses are 30s, and licenses to sell game £'.), both amounts payable to the Secretary of the Acclimatisation Society at Palmerston. These licenses refvr only to cock pheasants and hares. Procoefi. — Procoffi has been acquitted of- the charge of murdering the uati' c at one Thames. Fires.— A large number of incendiary fires are reported from Canterbury, principally of grain. The Mount Somers Line.—TheG^vernuetiG invite tenders for laying chu permanent way of an extension of th.it noted line, the Mount Somers hrauch. In the adverisement it is described as " Main live to Upper ABhlmrton— Ashburton Branch extension." Surely the country has already had enough of this dreadful swindle. The C ißoxersiiip. —Mr Ward's appoint-n-Mit as Coroner for Mauawatu is gazetted. Tender —Mr \. J. Hadfield, of Oalii. i informs us that Messrs dervautea, Floyd, and Biu-r, hive secured the contract, for bushf tiling on his run, Motley, near Waiuauae, the pric-j bein^ 2!)s per acre. Raln. — \ welc.im.ij shower of rain occurred ou Sunday afternoon ami evening. Tnn only lisapp untineac about it wis that there was not half enough of it. Release. — Tue Government intend this »veeli to release a considerable number of thu political plmghMiuu. Anniversary -The Primitive Methodist Church (Fixtoi) anniversary took place yesterday eveuhuf.and was vury successful. An extended report U held over. Palmerston t. Foxtdn.— The Feilding Guardian begins an aiticte in Saturday's i <atie on thj West. Coast railway with these voids : — " The Provisional Directory of the Welliugton-Manawatu Railway Company, having resolved to leave the settlement of t,he Minawatu terminus to the permanent Directors, who will be elected, be it renemWfd, by fch ; shareholders voting in iinipnrti.in to the shares held by each individual, it behoves the North Manawatu to nrovide that its interests are adequately •^presented on the share list. The settlement of the terminus has now become a question of voting power, and if the northern district and those who, like Mr Travers, consider its claims paramount, outweigh the supporters of the Foxron terminus on the share list, the terminus question is virtually settled." Perhaps our sanguine contemporary will fiud that Parliament will want a aaj in the quest-inn of terminus >i*fore passing the Bill. If the Guardian is right, and the question is merely one of voting power, more's the pity that a matttr involving such large colonial interests, present and future, should be decided upon Mich paltry grounds. Akkray in a Highland Churchyard.— Kilfinan Parhu C mrc'liyard, which ha* been theburvin^-placefdr generations past, was the scene of a great assemblage on Monday last of the natives of the parish. Through a legacy left in the will of the late Patrick Rankin, of Otter, the trustees are supposed to have authorised their factor t" wake certain improvements, as they supp .sed. by diggi >g np the grave* which hid existed for generations and throwing th» on'ents away as rubbish in the stream aljacent. which runs into Lochfyne. Som<»f the bones were carried out to »c*, an.l others wore Brrew^d ou the sides of the str-air. T ese w.re cirefully collected and in c- red by the relatives. Imme liately after having had n »tice of the matter iv Tighnabuaich and neighbourhood, all turned out armid with staves, -&a, to dafend the remains of their departed friends. On their arrival at Kilfinan they numbered about 200 men, headed by Mr Donald Crawford, Tiu'hnahruaioh. who took the •no«t energetic part in the proceeding. Mr Crawford entered the churchyard, followed by the crowd, and met Mr Scott at the head of his party busily engaged as already stated. Mr Soott was warned of the danger unless he gave up his work at once, which he immediately complied with, and all his supporters as well. He also promised to replace every particle of earth and bones, as well as the gravestones, which was not even removed, but thrown over the wall. The crowd noticing some young trees and shuhbery, which was newly planted, immediately bejan to uproot them nnd throw tbe-rj outside, as well as harrows, shovels, and all they c»nl(l lay hands on. The lairs of a number of people are quite unrecognisable, and friends are unable to make out their dead. This is the secoad ♦imp Hint, nn attempt has been made to Wol tV»* ch'KohvAril, which it is evident witrht to be el. wd. as it is quite full alieady. Au >-M Hi_hlau4>T (oie of the com pan}) remarked to Mr Scutt that while factor on the Ardlamoat estate h«

ha I been active in removing the living Highlanders, but now he vu as eager to r move the dead Highlanders from Kilfiaan Churchyard. A Hint to Pugilists.— The Burlington Hawkeye gives the following parable as a hint to young men of a pugilistic turn : — " Don't carry your pet hobby too far. Take note of the shouldera and legs of a man before you sass him. Out here on West Hill is a goat that for three long years has butted everything and everybody the brood empire of Burlington could send against him. He ate the circus posters before the paste was dry, and when the advance agent remonstrated, the goat just Btood up and crowded the rash man clean through the bill stand. He once upset the hay wagon, jammed his head through the end of a wood shed, and flattened Officer Hoefer up agaiust a brick house. A&d one day last week he wandered lown into a sawmill, and butted the flywheel—only once. When he came down, his neck was bent. He couldn't make a • lent in a sack of meal now. Young men, lie content with reasonable victories. S ime day you, too, may run against a flj • wheel." Narrow Escape. —A boy named Frank Black, a Lyttelton resident, had a miraculous escape from being killed recently. Hrole on the A-diburton bridge behind the. I) rat train from the South, at full gallop, and consequently did not Bee that a portion of the planking had been removed in the courses of repairs. The result was that the horse aud rider was precipitated through au opening on to a bed of shingle, a fall of fifteen feet. The horse was killed instantaneously, the boy escaping with severe bruises aud cuts about the face. The Land Question-. —Mr Vincent Pyke, M. H.H., has commenced to hold meetings through Central Otago on the land question. At a meeting at Clyde recently it was resolved to petition Parliament to amend the land laws re re-lett-ing of runs. Mr Pyke said that one million aud a half acres iv Vincent County alone were held by twenty-one persons. OcTsmE Opinion'. — Mr S. Swabrick. for SO years general manager of the Great Eastern Rail way,is at present in New Zealand, being engaged in a tour round the world. On being interviewed at Ohinemutu on the subject of New Zealand railways, by a correspondent of the Auckland Herald, he expressed an opinion that a lack of energy exists, and that our government do not study their own interests sufficiently by devoting more attention to the interests of the travelling public. He considers that the authorities should work the railways— ■say for a period of three years— on a clearance of expenses only, and devote the residue to the benefit of their customers ; and that greater travelling facilities, with a rednction of the tariff, would quickly enhance their funds. Alligator Poisoning. — An alligator was recently destroyed in the Barrow river near Smithtield, by a bait composed of ox livvr and entrails saturated with 1£ dwt of strychnine. On investigation his stomach was found o contain a Chinaman's pig tail and several undigested human honfs — showing that tome unfortunate Celestial had fallen a prey to its voracity. Legal Amenities.— Rumor hath it, says a southern exchange, that two gentlemen of the long rope, practising in Timaru, have had a quarrel — one of them goirg so far a3 to strike bis " learned friend" in his own offio". This has resulted in a writ to the tune of £500 being issued iv the Supreme Court for damages. Should the matter eventuate, there will be food for the newspapers. The Cat as a Hunter.— The cat, it has been discovered in America, has great skill a? a hunting animal, and. is iv many respects more useful for that purpose than tho dog. D >gs cannot climb trees to hunt birds, whereas cats find no difficulty iv following game from branch to branch. The New York Times mentions tha? there is a hunter in Maine who employs a cat only for sporting purposes. Hi goes forth with nothing but a gune-bag with his faithful ami accomplished oat trotting by his side. When h« reaches a forest where the squirrels abound, the cvt hunts eagerly with it? nose on the ground, until it scents .1 squirrel. Following it to the tree where the •squirrel makes his home, the cat nimbly climb.s the treo and catches the gim*. Sometimes there is a brisk chase. The squirrel leaps fr <m tree to tree, followed closely by the cat ; but in a short time is overtaken aud seized. Sometimes the .-squirrel takes refuge in a hole, in which case the cat sits by the hole until the squirrel, thinking the danger is past, pu f s his head out and is caught. The cat al o acts as a retriever, briuging the captured game to its master ; and in the course of a day's hunting, if the sky is overcast aud the squirrels rise freely, the huuter usually fills his game-bag with fifty or sixty fine ■rey squirrels. No dog could rival the success of this cat, and, in fact, it is a very rare thing for a dog to catch even a single squirrel. The New York Times thinks that the cat will ultimately supersede the dog as an assistant to sportsmen. Potato Farina.— Mr W. C. Cuff forwards to the Wairarap.i Standard the following advices received from the N. Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Office, London, regarding the value and general uses of potato farina : — Potato farina is ussd principally by starch manufacturers, and the demand is confined within moderatelimits. Its quality varies considerably, and we cannot quote a specific price until the receipt of a sample, this we understand fr >m Wellington office is being forwards) under charge of the capt an of the Wairoa. We may however mention that the value of a cool description may be said today to ran^e between £14 and £17 p«r ton. There is not at present an outlet for any large quantity, and shipments exceeding a hundred tons would for a time glut the market. P >tato farina is u<u illy shipped in bags. The farina is also the basis or a low class of spirit, but is not used to any lame extent for distillery purposes. Occasionally, too, it is used to adulterate flour for consumption iv the poorest districts of London, but it makes a very inferior bread even when mixed with pure wbeaton flour. We "<hall report to Wellington office as to the quality and va'ue of the article on receipt of the sample per Wairoa. Mr Edison on his Electric Lamp.— Mr Edison has contributed to the new number of the North American Review an article entitled " The Success of the Electric Light." After explaining the chances he has introduced into his system, he say* a public demonstration of the working of the scheme will bt, made "in all probability " at Menlo Park in about two months' time. Meanwhile preparations are being actively made for placing the light within reach of the people in all the -.Teat centred of the United States. " Cities are being mapped and divided into districts, each to be supplied with electricity from a central atatiou ; estimates are being made of the exact cost of plant in the different cities ; contracts are being negotiated for the manufacture on a large scale of engines, dynamos, lumps, wire, and all the other Rupplieq needed ; men are being trained to put up the plant at central stations, to run the machines, and to execute the other detail* of the intr*Ui9tioa Mid working of

ihe system." Tha pride of the light will >f coarse, says Mr Edison, be determined oy tug capitalists who invest iti it -as & nuaincas venture ; lmfc it will of necessit r<e low ;u c ■tui.Mie.d wicb> y gaslight, though it wil vary according to the -original cost of the plaut, the demand in any given locality, and other conditions. The company holding the patents will erect the first station in New York city, and will themselves conduct the station ; hut the othei stations in New York, as well as in the other cities throughout the United Stat s, will be managed by local companies, who will pay a royalty for the right to use tht system. Mr Edison, however, reaffirms that the light can be sold at a price which will make the competition of gas impossible, because the total investment in plant and m labour to develop & given quantity of light will be much, less than in gasworks, while the electric light companies will not be obliged to make any investment in large areas of real estate. It will not even be necessary to erect buildings to serve as stations, as ordinary buildings, which may be hired on rental, will do quite well. Finally, the companies can sell electricity for two purposes— for light at night and for power in the day time. Mr Edison contends that the power for industrial purposes can be supplied at such a profit to the companies as to more than cover the expense of running the machinery for six hours longer in producing light ; from which it would appear that the receipts from the light will be all profit. A Peculiar Breed. — The Canterbury Standard says ;— There is probably no such breed of poultry in New Zealand as those possessed by Mr Waddell. Thy are a cross between the common white fowl and the Australian cockatoo, and are really a novelty in the poultrj line. The character istic of the cockatoo is marked on every one of them in the shape of a crest of feathers on the back of the neck. Last year, through the loss of the male bird, no marked attention waß paid to them, but as there is another bird growing up some attention will be devoted to them, when they will he named and exhibited at some of the local shows. They are excellent layers, and are very beautiful birds. Houses' Backs. — A Brunswick journal recommends the application of collodion as the best protection of threatening or actual sores on horses from the fricture or pressure of the saddle or harness. The collodion dries instantaneously, forming a thin film ovei the tender place, which is thn» protracted from dirt and air, and placed in the most favorable conditions for rapidly healing, and the horse can be worked as usual without hindering the cure. Extra- -rdinary Stampede of Hors s. — The Timi'S of India, of September 25. says : — "The inhabitants of Garden Reach were, on the night of the 17th September, the vitnesses of an extraordinary sight. Mr Macklin, one of the well-known importers of horses from Australia, had occasion to lnnd from the ship Thesalns some 250 animals, and it became a Mi'«ject of considerable anxiety how these 250 were to be conveyed from the K-'ach to the stables prepared for theminDhurrumtollah. At last the colonial plan was adopted, and it wa3 agree 1 that the horses should b« driven up by a few expert Australians. Accordingly at about, ten o'clock at niu'ht all was ready for a start. In the dark compound itself, the drivers, armed with the traditional stock whip, managed to k»»ep the horses under some sort of control, but the instant the road was reached, the leader caught the audit of the glare of the gas lamps and all was over. Breaking away from their would be masters, the mob, in a state of absolute madness.dashed down the Garden Reach Road, over Hastings Bridge, and on to the Maidan. They st.il 1 kept wull together, but, after skirting the fort, formed themselves into little bands to reconnoitre the strange land. All night long men were employed seeking these horses, and there is not one section of Calcutta that cannot boast of having effected the capture of its four or five head. Up to Saturday, w • believe, some sixty or seventy horses remained to be unaccounted for. Some went so far as to pay Howrah a visit and four met with an untimely death in Tolly's Nullah. We helieve it is the intention of the authorities to pass certain orders on this mode of conveyi >c Australian horses from the ships to the stables." En'OLISH Doo Licences.— The Press gives tho following information with regard to dog licenses in England : — They are on all docs 7^ 61. There arc certain exemptions—A ah'-pWd is exempt fir one or two used solely in his calling as a shepherd. A farmer ia exempt for one or two dog? used s lely in tendinar sheep or cattle upon his farm ; and sheep farmers are exempt for dogs not exceeding six in proportion to the number of sheep kept and fed upon enclosed land. In each of these cases a a declaration must be made, and a certificate of exemption obtained from the ■uperv's *. A farmer and his shepherd cannot both claim exemptions for dogs kept in tending the same stock, and if either use their dons in taking rabbit" or game they are disentitled to the exemption. Butchers'and drovers who merely occupy land for their trade are not entitled to claim exemption.