Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY. FEB. 4, 1899.

Manawatu Herald, 4 February 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY. FEB. 4, 1899.

The ordinary monthly meeting of the Foxton Borough Council will be held on Monday evening. Mr A. Fraser has an altered advertisement in this issue. The State School excursion by train to Pahiatua has been fixed for the 14th instant. The tennis match between the Otaki and . Foxton teams will be played at Foxton on Saturday, 25th inst. The following are the likely players for Foxton : — Mesdames Stewart and C. v ßobinson, Misses O'Brien, Purcell, H. and' M. Collins ; Messrs C. Austin, W. Hamer, L. Furrie, W. Collins and W. Cook. Mr H. Border having gone on a holiIny jaunt to Australia, Mr Wm. Hunter, a former popular landlord of the Family Hotel, is now in charge during his absence. The adjourned Committee meeting of the Foxton Cycling Club was held at Mr Mitchell's office last night to finally arrange a programme of sports for Easter Monday next. An excellent programme was drawn up, and prizes to the value of over £40 are to be distributed. If possible a special train will be rui fiom Palmerston North, and given fine weather this should be one of the best sports meetings ever held in the district. Miss Marienburg, of Palmerston North, in another column advertises that she is willing to receive pupils for the pianoforte.. A cheap second hand side saddle is advertised for sale. Typhoid fever, which at this time has been prevalent in previous years, is now completely absent from Wellington, only one case being in the Hospital, and that not a city case. When the steamer Otarama was some 200 miles north of the Cape Verde Islands, on the voyage to the colony, a strong E.S.E.'gale, attended by a heavy sea and foggy weather was experienced. These disadvantages were increased by an accompanying sandstorm, which -lasted for eight hours, during which time the vessel was covered with a coating of fine red dust. A new butter-making machine, the " Radiator," is much used in Sweden and Denmark, as well as in England and Ireland, and is creating immense interest among dairymen everywhere. With it they can make milk into butter at the rate of 400 gallons an hour. The machine is manufactured in Stockholm, and Mr F. Nordenfeldt (the inventor of the great guns) is associated with it.

Wl '" IHIIIIMII—i— — PC— —^M — B— ■ 1 Among the cases set down at the civil sittings of the Wellington Supreme Court is an action for £1000 damages against a Wellington doctor for alleged unskilful treatment. • A man named Clements was convicted for maliciously wounding a woman named McKenna with a tomahawk at Wellington. Several icebergs were sighted by the steamer Pakeha during the voyage from London to Auckland. The Rev Mr Habens, UnderSecretary for Education, is seriously ill with paralysis, and is not expected to recover. [The rev. gentleman died last evening.] The old Maoris in the Otorohanga are greatly delighted at the prospect of old age pension. Mr Wilkinson. Government Native Agent, is kept busy filling in claims and explaining the provisions of the Act. Ranjitsinhgi .takes an English amateur cricket team to India in the winter. The " X " rays apparatus is now in constant use at the Wellington Hospital, with great success. It is rumoured that the Hon. John Bryce is to be asked to contest a West Coast seat in the next election. An Amberley farmer has threshed out 80 bushels of oats per acre from this season's crop. It is now openly stated that the Hon J. G. Ward will soon re-join the Ministry. The Wellington Harbour Board loan of has been subscribed by the. Australian Mutual Provident Society, at 4 per cent, per annum, and a sinking fund of one per cent., is to be credited. An Austrian inventor claims to haye invented an electric apparatus by the use of which a person may sit in a dark room and look at a scene in another part ot the town, regardless of corners, intervening buildings, or any other obstructions. The inventor of the new instrument which is called a " fernscher " claims that his apparatus transmits light waves just as sound waves are carried over the wire by electricity. The Otaki Mail reports that quite a number of local residents are suffering from a mild form of what is known as the English cholera. Last Tuesday the Flax Commissioners (Messrs R. Gardner and J. Rutherford), with Mr J. D. Ritchie, Secretary of Agriculture, made the official trial of Mr Gillman's chemical treatment of the preparation of flax ; and the trial of Mr W. Toogood's patent stripper and washer at Featherston. Both processes were given a fair trial, and the Commissioners were very favourably impressed with the results attained by Mr Toogood's machine. There is every reason to believe that this gentleman will get some recompense for the trouble and expense that he has gone to (says the Wairarapa Standard's correspondent), and I am sure that there is not a person who does not think he deserves it. The new " Church Hymnary " which has just been issued in connection with the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland occupied nine months in printing. Up to the present time 1,120,750 copies of the book have been put to press. For this 330 tons of paper were required, which if divided into a strip six inches wide, would just go round the world. To prepare 100,000 musical copies alone for sewing, necessitates that five and a half million sheets should befolded separately by hand. The skins of 3.222 animals have been required for the backs only of copies in one of the many styles of binding in which the book has been issued ; the sides in this case were covered with cloth. One bookseller in Glasgow; who had ordered £3000 worth of the " Hymnary " sold £1,500 worth in one week. A native school teacher gave a lad a sound thrashing. Half an hour after his sister came back with a letter from the father thanking the teacher and asking him to accept the accompanying leg of mutton as a token of entire approval. Mr Rothschild, who lost about £2,000 worth of jewellery in the wreck of the Tasmania, arrived in Napier by the express the other night. He has received a telegram from Captain Porter, who is with the Coraille expedition at the scene of the wreck at Table Cape, bating that Mr Pascoe, the Wellington diver, went down and found that the main deck of the vessel, on which are Mr Rothschild's jewels, is altogether free from silt. The Kia Ora, on her passage on Monday, passed Table Cape, but found the weather too rough to communicate with the Coraille. Great hopes are being held out of the success of the efforts which are now being made to float the ill-fated vessel. The wedding of the Bishop of Melanesia with Miss Ethel Julius, second I daughter of the Bishop of Christ - I church, was solemnised in thr Christchurch Cathedral on Wednesday. The S building was crowded. The service was performed by the Bishop of Wellington, assisted by Canon Harper. The presents were numerous and valuable, excelling anything hitherto seen there. It is rumoured that Lieutenant Wark benefited by Miss Yates' death to the extent of £7000, that being the amount which it was generally believed she had willed to him. The Press Association understands on good authority that the deceased has left to Lieutenant Wark half of the residue of her estate after the payment of sundry liabilities. The will of the deceased is, however, to be contested by the next of kin. The ground alleged is not on account of undue influence, but that Wark, having been convicted of causing the death of Miss Yatee, cannot be a beneficiary under the will. In connection with the Canterbury Jubilee commemoration in rgoo it is proposed to mark the anniverfary by the completion of the Christchurch Cathedral.* Of the sum required, (£ 12,000) £3204 was subscribed as soon as the project was started, in sums ranging from £1 and less. No debt will be incurred, but the work of completion will be begun ,as soon as half the money needed is in hand.

We hear that the natives are in a difficulty about applying for Old Age Pensions. It is said that it costs them a guinea to get the application translated. If this is so it is unfair, and the matter should be brought under the notice of the Minister in charge of the matter. With this issue Messrs Wilkins and Feild, the well-known ironmongers of Wellington, have an inset in which are found some of the many lines that can be purchased at their annual sale. The botfly has an active enemy at last. A settler at Hilderthorpe was (says the Oamaru Mail) thinning turnips the other day when something came buzzing against his head, and fell on the soil in front of him. Looking at it he saw a bot-fly being preyed upon by a large grey insect, about an inch long, a stranger to him. It appeared tv be sucking the bot fly's blood, and, having accomplished its object, flew away, leaving the dead bot fly where 'the final struggle occurred. The next English and European mail via Vancouver will close at this office on Wednesday, the ist day of March, at 3 p.m. A man named William Hammington living at Petone, went home drunk on Friday night and quarrelled with his family and threatened to do for them. He turned his wife out and then cut his throat in six places. When the police arrived he accused his son of doing it. It is expected he will recover. The N.Z. Times says :— Locally there has been a little better iuquiry for hemp, and millers have made sales up to £13 per ton, landed in Wellington as against £12 per ton a fortnight ago. So far as can be ascertained there has been no change in the London market and recent purchases must therefore be in fulfilment of previously received orders. The tension of the Philippines, together with the fact that the fibre shipping season in the East is nearing its close, must, it is thought, favourably affect New Zealand hemp, with this reservation, however, namely, that the reserve stocks in the centres of manufacture are not abnormal. If stocks are large there will be no keenness for New Zealand hemp. The Archer has been purchased by a Taranaki sportsman, and will go into the stable of J. J. Russell. The Hon. W. P. Reeves, AgentGeneral for New Zealand, is greatly impressed with the success of the direct trade between Canada and Manchester. Canada he finds to be a powerful rival of the Australasian colonies in the grain, dairying and meat trades. The question of the establishment of direct trade with New Zealand deserves, Mr Reeves says, the attention of the Hon. John McKenzie when he visits England. Miss Olga Nethersole, the wellknown actress, has inherited a fortune of £40,000. " Crazy Socials " are the latest form of an evening out in America. The idea is to make everyone and everything look and act as much like lunatics as possible. At a recent crazy social the meats were served in cake baskets, the blanc-mange appeared in a fire shovel, the icecream in a saucepan, the wine glasses were filled with mustard, the jellies trembled in a dust pan, the sugar in salt cellars and the salt in the sugarbasins. The Foxton Dramatic Club have decided to put in rehearsal at once a very amusing farce entitled "A Morning Dip," and which it is hoped will be staged at the Catholic concert on 17th March (St. Patrick's Day.) There are seven characters in the piece, and at the committee meeting last night the different parts were allotted, three ladies and four gentlemen being chosen. On Wednesday evening a very painful accident happened to Master Alfred Kerslake, son of Mr T. T. Kerslake, of Palmerston North, says the Standard, by which he lost part of the calf of one of his legs, which had to be removed as a result of the misfortune. It appears that the little fellow was sitting on a swing at his father's house, when a neighbour's girl came along with their dog and for some reason, probably in jest, she pointed at the boy, when the dog immediately seized upon him, biting his legs severely in several places. The greatest injury inflicted was to the muscle of the right leg, which Dr Macintire had to stitch together. The little fellow is now progressing very favourably, - and prompt measures were taken to destroy the dog.