Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JAN. 3, 1899.

Manawatu Herald, 3 January 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JAN. 3, 1899.

The next English and European mail, via Vancouver, will close at this office on Wednesday, the 4th day of January, at 8 p.m. The " Postal Guide " for January is indispensable to business men, as it contains a number of new regulations, especially in regard to post cards, commercial papers, printed papers, patterns and samples. Most of these are improvements on the old regulations, being in the direction of simpler and more liberal rules. An amusing blunder was made at the Auckland Police Court the other day, when the usual batch of drunkards were being dealt with (says the Star.) A first offender's name was called, and by mistake the wrong man was bundled into the dock, discharged with a caution, and allowed to leave the Court. The error was found out when the discharged man's name was called, and he failed to appear. Dreyfus could have escaped, but prefers to be discharged in a straightout way. The poor fellow is being kept like a fly on a pin for apparently no reason at all. „ A well-known beggar who frequented the neighbourhood of the Opera House in Paris was prostrated with sunstroke. On being taken to the hospital banknotes amounting to 300,000 francs were discovered in a belt which the mendicant wore. Benevolent lady (to loafer) : " Now that you've had some food do you feel equal to weeding the garden ?" Loafer : " Equal to it, mum. Why, I'm superior to it !" Dr Speer, the well-known specialist of Wellington has an alteration in his advertisement to-day. Messrs* Abraham and Williams hold their usual stock sale at Palmerston on Thursday. There is a dearth of deep-sea sailors at Ly^t'elton just now. The barque Liv is in the stream, and is waiting to secure a few hands; while the Hermione is also short-handed. The men demanded £10 a month for the run Home. It is understood that the northern colliery proprietors of Newcastle in- | tend to carry out their intention of I raising the price charged to the public j for coal, and at the same time the hewing rate allowed to the miners as I from the Ist January. j I fh?' 1 mvincTSTe '"tvffgS^ftTTiTieTey", as '■ she is now becoming known, having won the ladies' tennis championship four years in succession, is an English player says the " Post," and an exmember ot the Thorndon Tennis Club. In England she won honours at several tournaments, and though she never played at the All-England Championship Meeting, she easily beat the runner-up for the championship event in 1895, and, receiving a slight handicap, afterwards defeated the lady champion. On arriving in Wellington she joined the Thorndon Club, won the champion honours in her first season, and has since had an unbeaten record. The next English and European mail, via San Francisco, will close at this office on Wednesday, the 18th day of January, at 8 p.m. A series of caves of remarkable i 1 beauty have been discovered at Coo- ' noor, a distance of twelve miles from 1 i Muimri. Wairarapa district. One of ■ lib** caves presents a '.vonde'-tul appear- ( .••nce, the entrance to it being through : .••, very narrow opening, while the inside is i-f-erally a mass of stalactites. Several ' jjsS; ,-i bones have (says a contemporary) 1 found in them, but so far they < >r^^ not l>e*:n thoroughly examined. <

At the University in Berlin female students are not permitted to wear their hair in braids down the back. Two young ladies who persisted in doing so were dismissed. A very quiet wedding was celebrated at St, Paul's Cathedral last Wednesday afternoon, when Miss May Moss, daughter of Mr G. W. Moss, late of Greymouth, was married to Mr Humphrey Innes-Jones, of Waimate, the officiating clergyman being the Rev. Allan Innes-Jones, of Feilding, the bridegroom's brother. Mr and Mrs Innes-Jones left in the afternoon by the Rotomahana for their new home at Waimate. During the late Spanish-American war, a lady surgeon accompanied one of the Yankee regiments, and it is reported to have proved a great success. A curious freak was indulged in by a women's cycling club in Victoria recently. In their zeal for the popularity of the rational dress, they gave a fancy dress ball, to which tickets were issued to women only. This sounds harmless enough, but it must be added that many of the fair ones came in masculine dress, one of them even confessing to having donned papa's suit. It is to be hoped this kind of dance will not ' catch on.' A striking instance of the fierce and fatal competition which goes on among plants is found in the case of the Brazil nut. This fruit contains from 15 to 20 seeds, which all germinate at one time. The most vigorous one gets first through a small hole at the top to the open air, and thereupon it strangles the rest and feeds upon them. I C. B. Hoadley and Co., land and estate agents of Napier, have sold W. H. Smith's property, the Hedgeley estate, Petane, consisting of 6000 acres, freehold, for £33,000. The stock and plant, taken at valuation, brings up the purchase money to £39,000. Mr T. P. Clark, of Rongotea, Manawatu, is the purchaser. This is the largest land transaction in Hawke's Bay for many years. " Japanese dentists perform all their operations in tooth-drawing with the thumb and forefinger of one hand. The skill necessary to do this is acquired only after a long practice, but when once it is obtained the operator is able to extract half a dozen teeth in about thirty seconds without once removing his fingers from the patient's mouth. It may interest some of our readers to know what the Wolsley sheep shearing machine can do when working well and in skilful hands (says the North Otago Times). During the last four days 24 men on the Blackhead station have turned out 16,531 ewes and lambs. There has been so much broken weather that the men have been longer at work than usual, but the four days mentioned have been fine and the work uninterrupted. The average was about 170 per man. The fastest shearer, Mr T. Gamble, of Mohaka, did 895 in the four days. His tallies were 216, 217, 232, and 230 respectively. Mr John McDonald, of Masterton Road, was astonished one morning last week to find that one of his dairy cows had given birth to three calves, two bulls and a heifer, and all healthy animals. A similar occurrence is not known to have taken place in the Colony, but from a late Home periodical we learn that a cow owned by Mr David Ford, of Oaken, Bank Farm, Rainbow, near Macclesfield, gave birth to .three heifer calves in February last, and the incident was described as being most remarkable and extremely rare in England. A clergyman whose salary had not been paid for several months, told the trustees that he must have his money, as his family was suffering from the necessaries of life. " Money," exclaimed one of the trust noted for his meanness, " Money ! Do you preach for money ? I thought you preached for the good of souls." The minister replied, " So I do, but I can't eat souls. And if I did it would take a few thousand such as yours to make a good meal." Anong the numerous station properties belonging to the late Mr Tyson was one in Queensland carrying 250,---000 sheep, 50,000 cattle, and 800 horses. It is 4000 square miles in extent, equal to 2,560,000 acres. In order to give an idea of the size of this huge estate, it may be mentioned for comparison that the area of the Province of Taranaki is 2,430,000 acres. A Gisborne drunk said to the Magistrate : — " Will your Worship kindly give me a month in Napier gaol, I can do no good for myself in this district. If you send me to Napier I might do some good." The Magistrate : "We will first take a month's work out of yon, then if you do not behave yourself we will send you to Napier. You are sentenced to 30 days' imprison- I isei^i£lhe \>iouoT&T-:^gaol-'. ! j Colonel and Mrs Estill, who have just arrived from Sydney, and hav»been appointed by General Booth to the oversight of the work of the Salvation Army in this colony, and will spend one night in Palmerston, viz., Monday, January 2nd. Colonel Estill is said to be one of the ablest men in the Salvation Army, having had 18 years' experience as an officer. He has been in charge of the Army works in Ireland, Africa, and New South Wales, and comes as first in command for New Zealand. A peculiar phenomenon was witnessed by a number of people on the East Belt, near the junction with Gloucester street, the other day. Shortly before 1 o'clock, what appeared to be a small whirlwind, about ift in diameter suddenly shot up, and in less than a couple of seconds this was enveloped by another one of far larger proportion— over 6ft in diameter — which earned up with it a duud of dust, straw and other street refuse, :ukl finally disappeared skywards. The peculiar featurr was that thenwns not a breath ot wind blowing at the time, but so soon as^he cloud : carried up by the whirlwind, had disappeare.d-a'Jight breeze sprautr up. ' .

Large English and Australian mails for Weil :igton left Sydney on Saturday pc; Aorangi, and should reach Welling. >n to-morrow about midday. Near: . 100,000 pounds of snails arc sold da ' .■ in Paris markets to be eaten by dwe'l :rs in Paris. They are carefully re . ,'cd for the purpose in extensive ?.-• ul-gardens in the provinces, and fee' on aromatic herbs to make their fl r. our finer.