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Manawatu Herald, 13 October 1898, Page 2

I Mr Joe Tos has 180 sacks Circular Head seed potatoes for sale cheap. Mr Speirs has secured the erection of the shelter shed for the school. Mr Alf. Fraser's advertisement makes good reading for lovers of books, as owing to being overstocked and needing all the room possible for the large consignment of Xmas cards expected soon, he has marked off novels and illustrated papers at wonderfully low prices. He has also included some of last year's Xmas cards in the reduction. An assortment of new Xmas cards can be seen in the window to-morrow night, and Saturday and Monday nights. • ' Messrs P. Hennessy and Co. call attention to the arrival of a cargo of the best screened household Coalbrookdale coal. This will be welcome news to householders as the c.ial from this well-known mine is the very best for household purposes. Written offers for the supply of a shunting horse and driver are invited by the Traffic Manager. Offers must be with the statioamaster by 3. 30 p.m. on Saturday. At the meeting of the Wanganui Education Board on Monday night Miss Lily McKenna was transferred from Wanganui to Foxton and Miss Reed from Foxton to Sanson. By the courtesy of the Registrar we are enabled to give the vital statistics for the quarter ending 30th September : — Births 7, Deaths 2, Marriages 3. The Education Board has decided to supply a 600 gallon tank for the local school. The Christmas holidays for the schools will commence on the 22nd of December. A flax buyer was in town the other day wanting over 100 tons of fibre, and the price offered was £16 10s and the millers asked £iy. We do not know whether business was settled, as the quantity was held as under offer for a cablegram to be sent Home. There must be a good pumpkin crop about town this year, as all the stores have sold out the seeds of this particular vegetable. We learn that the outlook for wool this coming season is anything but satisfactory as poor prices are likely to rule the market. Flax is, we here, likely to be of a good price for at least another twelvemonths, as stocks are low and there is not likely to be much of an export of Manila for a year. The prices now oftering are likely to recede in a week or two and will not rise again until March or April. It is the Canadian demand that is causing present inquiries. We are obliged to Mr Richard Gray for the fine specimen bundle of asparagus sent us. The heads are thick and the stems are well bleached. We understand his beds are doing well this year. Mr Andreason has almost finished the new boatshed and he appears to have done his work well and substantially. The club will have a large and comfortable boathouse. From the Cape we learn that the New Zealand Shipping Company's Tekoa, bound to Wellington, caught fire. Her cargo is damaged. The Makohine viaduct, when completed, will be about 750 ft in length and something like 250 ft high. The ! ironwork will be built on eight solid concrete piers, whose foundations extend a long way into the ground, and when finished the viaduct will be the largest structure of its kind in New Zealand. " The greatest organ in the world," ' says a wicked old bachelor, "is the ' organ of speech in a woman, because it is an organ without stops." ■ j The German Emperor has abandoned his intention to visit Egypt. The French interpret this to mean that he has no desire to hamper Great Britain with regard to the Nile question. The natives of China are much impressed with American sewing machines, and American firms recently sent a shipment to Bangkok, valued at 83,000d015. A correspondent, who has had ex- j perience in some of the hottest climes, recommends the wearing of a cabbage leaf in the hat to avert the effect of the sun's rays. A fire broke out shortly after 4 o'clock on Saturday morning in buildings at the rear of the Blind Institute at Auckland and belonging to it. The Trustees of the Institute had made extraordinarg provision against fire, and within a few minutes of the alarm Principal Tighe, who is himself blind, and his assistants at the Institute had a splendid stream of water playing on the fire. When the Parnell Brigade arrived they only found it necessary to attach another hose, and all danger was soon over. The damage to the Institute buildings is estimated at £70 which is covered by insurance. In replying to a deputation on the subject of the M-idland Railway the Premier said the present intention of the Government was to go on with the line and complete it. He wished that to be made very clear.

Mr Ed. Wright, who was Chairman of the last Parliamentary Committee which inquired into the rival routes between Auckland and Wellington has said the central is undoubtedly the proper one for a trunk line to connect Wellington and Auckland." A common house-fly is not very rapid in its flight, but its wings make 800 beats a second, aud send it through the air 35ft., under ordinary circumstances, in that space of time. When the insect is alarmed it has been found that it increases its rate of speed to over 150 ft. per second. If it could continue such rapid fight for a mile in a straight line, it would cover that distance in exactly 33sec. The marigold is a little weather prophet. If the day is going to be fine, the flower opens about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon ; . but if wet weather is in store, the marigold does not open at all. Mr Stevens M.H.R. at the Marton meeting on Saturday moved "That, in the opinion of this meeting, it is urgent in the interests of settlement and the development of the interior of the North Island, that the central line of railway should be speedily construted. That this line, in addition to being the shortest route to connect Auckland with Wellington — extending to both cities equal advantages from the country opened up for settlement — will immediately serve a valuable and extensive district, especially at the southern end where settlement is furthest advanced, and will also afford access to an area of exceptionally superior forest land at Waimarino. Further, its construction would permit of a more certain and speedy distribution of the San Francisco and Vancouver mails." This was unamimously carried. The yellow fever epidemic, which was reported last week to be raging in the State of Louisiana, has spreed to Mississippi, despite the strict quarantine system adopted by the authorities there in the hope of warding it off. The whole of Mississippi is now infected. The Sandwich Islanders estimate women by their weight. The Chinese require them to have deformed feet and black teeth. A girl must be tatooed sky blue and wear a nose-ring to satisfy a South Sea Islander. African princes require their brides to have their teeth filled like those of a saw. In India there is a strange plant which possesses astonishing magnetic power. The hand touching it immediately receives a strong magnetic shock, while at a distance of 20ft. a magnetic needle' is affected by it.