Merry Christmas.

Manawatu Herald, 24 December 1898, Page 2

Merry Christmas.

It will not have been overlooked that the steam launch Florence will run trips to the beach on Monday. From the staff of the "Feilding Star " we have received a neatly executed card, wishing the staff of this office the compliments of the season. We accept the same with many thanks, and desire our confreres on the " Star " as good a season as they have wished us. Nominations for the Foxton Racing Club's Summer Meeting close on Thursday next at 9 p.m. This morning a very heavy fall of rain took place at Taikorea for over half an hour. No rain fell here,

The Wellington City Council have accepted Captain Kemsley's resignation, and have determined to call for applications in New Zealand and Australia. The British fund inaugurated by Lord Kitchener for the establishment of a Gordon College at Khartoum now exceeds £100,000, the sum which the public was originally asked to furnish. The Earl of Minto, Governor-General of Canada, has invited the newspapers in the Dominion to open subscription lists. Admiral Dewey's squadron at the Philippines has been further reinforced. Shortly before peace was declared between America and Spain, Great Britain suppressed a Filipinos filibustering expedition which was forming at Hong-kong. The American authorities suspect that Germany helped the promoters of the scheme, and interprets Great Britain's action as recognition of her sovereignty over the Philippines. Major Marchand left Fashoda on the nth inst. for the Sobat river, an affluent of the White Nile, which comes in from the south-east a short distance above Fashoda. The poor old Sultan. The Sheik-ul-Islam (head of the Mahommedan Church) has announced his refusal to condone the Sultan's surrender of Crete without the Turks are defeated on the battlefield. At the enquiry, held at Dunedin, into the circumstances connected with a fire at the residence of A. M. M'Donald, on the 7th inst. — when the place was twice discovered to be on fire before it was burnt down — the jury returned a verdict that the house was wilfully set on fire, but that there was not sufficient evidence to show by whom. The " Standard " says— lt is stated in town that the Committee of the Manawatu Racing Club have arranged to purchase 100 acres of the property recently owned by Mr A. Southey Baker at Awapuni at £40 an acre, and that about £2000 more, it is contemplated, will be spent in improvements. To-night Carmo, conjuror and illusionist, appears at the Public Hall. As this entertainment is something very different to what we have had here for many years, the show will probably be well patronised. Hamiora, the old Maori who was driven out to sea in a boat off Pihama on Saturday, got ashore safely on Monday afternoon in a greatly exhausted condition, on the Turakina Beach, 90 miles from where he started. The Maoris had given him up for lost, and held a tangi about him. Practical men were of opinion that no small boat could have lived through Saturday's sea. The Government have chosen Messrs J. R. Blair and Harold Beauchamp (Wellington), Mr F. de Cateret Malet (Christchurch) and Mr William Milne (Oamaru) as the representatives of the colony on the board of directors of the Bank of New Zealand. These gentlemen, together with Messrs William Watson and Martin Kennedy, recently elected by the shareholders, will therefore constitute the whole board of directors under the new condition of things. Two aeronauts, named Spencer and and Swinburne, crossed the English Channel in a balloon starting from the Crystal Palace to Havre in 5 hours. A sail and trail ropes were used. The puzzle as to the discovery of the nude body of a woman in the Yarra river a few days — wrapped in old sackihg, and enclosed in a box, with every appearance that death had occurred after the inhalation of chloroform, which her condition suggested might be for the purposes of an illegal operation — is as perplexing as ever. The girl Teresa Akins, whose name was on the box, and whose description answers that of the deceased, has been satisfactorily accounted for, and the police are quite baffled in their efforts to ascertain the identity of the woman supposed to have been murdered. Re-, wards totalling £225 are offered for the elucidation of the mystery. Terence McDermott, one of three dynamiters sentenced in 1883 to penal servitude for life for attempting to blow up buildings in Glasgow, has been released. Lord Kitchener, Sirdar of the Egyptian army, has started on a three months' tour of the Gedaret regions. A Rongotea correspondent says that ■Mr R. McMillan has returned from his trip to the Old Country much benefited by his holiday. — On Saturday last Mr Chas. Burgess drove one of the largest mobs of pigs through Rongotea that has ever been driven through the township. He had over one hundred of fine dairy pigs which he was taking to his farm at Jones' Line. A terrible case of cruelty is reported from Leongatha, a township m the Gippsland district. A youth named Cameron, 2X years of age, compelled a boy known as Higgs to pick up a quantity of red hot chalk in his hands, and also placed a quantity in the youngster's boots, making him stand on it. Cameron has been arrested. The Pennsylvania Steel Company has obtained a contract for the manufacture of 80,000 tons of steel rails for the trans-Siberian railway, now in course of construction by the Russian Government. The Russian Government has purchased the Australian-bred hurdle racer Pounamu (Newminister — Beryl), which as a yearling cost Mr S. H. Gollan, of New Zealand, 1000 guineas, for a stud horse. No fewer than 30,000 forms of appll cation for the old age pension have been supplied by the Government Printing Office, and copiesof them are now obtainable at any Post Office in the colony. The late Baron Ferdinand Rothschild has left to the British Museum the famous art collection at Waddesdon Manor, in Buckinghamshire. Prince George of Greece has arrived at Canea to assume the Governorship of Crete, and been cordially welcomed by the islanders.

The c >al of India, as sold at the pit's mouth, is the cheapest in the world. Its average price at the mines is 3s BJd per ton. The second cheapest is the co il of the United States, which is now 4 > g£d per ton. The average price of British coal at the pit's mouth is at pre ont 5s iojd per ton. Messrs P. Hennessy & Co. wish their customer the compliments of the season. T.\2y draw attention to the usual assortmc.it of fancy crockery and glass ware in stock. The grocery department is . r illy replenished for this season. The Whangaroa was off the bar at five o'cljck this morning and might get in with the assistance of the s.s. Gertie, which is also outside. Early this (Thursday) morning Mrs Teomath, widow of the late Mr Edward Toomath — who was Wellington's first schoolmaster, and who also sat in its Provincial Council — died at her residence in Aurora-terrace. The old lady, who was 71 years of age, was well-known and every highly respected. She arrived in the colony in 1853 in the ship Cornwall, and was married here, subsequently taking part with her husband in experiences incidental to the days when Wellington was young. She leaves three sons and two daughters, all married with the exception of one son.—" Post."