Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEB. 28, 1899.

Manawatu Herald, 28 February 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEB. 28, 1899.

The Oroua polo players defeated the Rangitikei team on Saturday last at Bulls. The winners scored three goals to their opponent's one. The local Club has an unbeaten record for this season so far, and they should give a good account of themselves at the next polo tournament to be held in Palmerston next month. The moonlight excursion on the river is to be held to-morrow night. The Foxton Brass Band will contribute a number of selections, and refreshments will be provided. The steamer " Flower of Kent " should be a full ship, and a delightful trip should be the result. Autumn novelties and new fashions are at Te Aro House, Wellington. As a mob of sheep were being driven along Lambton Quay on Friday (reports the Post), 70 or 80 head of the animals rushed into the New Zealand Clothing Company's shop, and made things lively for the assistants for a few minutes. We have something to learn from Japan. In that happy land the owner of a barking dog is usually sentenced to labor for a year for the persons whose slumbers have been disturbed by the restless animal. If nine is really such a mystic num ber as it was esteemed by the ancbnts, then 1899 it is pointed out, should be a year of tremendous import. Nine is a trinity of trinities, and is supposed to represent perfection and classical uses of it in this connection abound. With 1899 it is impossible to get away from 9. The number is divisable by 9, and if the 1 and 8 are added together there is a trinity of nines, or a trinity of trinity of trinities. What a year for the fortune-tellers to revel in I That old periodical the Home News is dead. After a career ot more than 40 years, during which time it was in many cases the sole source from which colonists derived information as to the things passing in the world outside their own particular colonies, and, above all, in the Mother Country, the paper has ceased publication. Finding that its contents were to so great an extent anticipated by cable, and also were so largely superseded by the work of the special correspondents who represent in London all the leading colonial papers, it did not seem worth while to continue its issue. Accordingly, the year 1898 saw the last of the once-popular and valued Home News. " When a man marries, his troubles begin," is a saying the truth of which has been discovered, only too late, by many persons, says the Lyttelton Times. A sample of the nineteenth century martyr was in evidence at the Magistrate's Court when a man was charged by his wife with deserting her and his five children. " DidnH you clear me out yourself?" asked the husband, a dejected-looking individual, " and didn't your beautiful son sit on the edge of the table with his sleeves rolled up and tell me he was a snag, and would put a face on me? And didn't he give me a black eye ? And didn't — " Put questions, if you please,' interrupted the Magistrate. After the evidence had been heard, Mr Beetham said he would make no order, and continued, sotto voce, ♦ Seems to me be has got a handful.' Messrs Gammin and Co. insert a final notice, wilipil. is Oliutejest tO their debtors*;

The friends of the Methodist Church are busy making preparations for their usual quarterly social and concert, which is to be held next Monday night. | The programme of the concert will be I of a specially good character, and will be published in a later edition. We have received a first ißsue of a new paper that has lately made its appearance— The Wakatane Times, which is printed in the Bay of Plenty district. It is creditably got up and well printed, and should supply a longfelt want in that part of the colony. We wish our contemporary every success. The birth of this paper now makes a total of 232 newspapers registered in New Zealand. Mr Hull, Stock Inspector, had a bullock killed in the Upper Rangitikei which had a tumour weighing 4jlbs taken from its throat. We (Hawke's Bay Herald), were shown a small fish caught in the net. of the trawler Winona. It is five inches long, has the lower jaw protruding, and a row of sharp spikes along the belly. Some say it is the real English sprat, and that they have occasionally been caught lately. With the mesh used for the larger fish it is well nighimpossible to catch fish of this size, so we are unable to say whether there is j any quantity of them in the bay or not. On a calm day the fishermen often see millions of small fish feeding on the surface. The sea seems to be alive with them, but whether they are like the one referred to above, or simply the common small herring, remains to be found out. If they are really the English sprat, what a mine of wealth lies at our door ! At present there are nine steam trawlers at work in the bay for flat fish, and now there is a trawling company and a fish distributing company at the Spit, we suppose steps will be taken to thoroughly test the bay for other fish. A sardine factory is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Retribution, long delayed but sure, came upon a widow at the Old Age Pensions Court, Christchurch, on Thursday morning. She stated her age as sixty-seven years, and asked for a pension. Unfortunately for the lady, the certificate of her second marriage showed her age as sixty-four years. She accounted for this by saying it was a mistake. " Should have thought of that sooner, said Mr Beetham, "we all like to appear younger than we are." She will have to wait a year for her pension. A case came under the notice of one of the local stock inspectors at Christchurch recently, that shows the necessity of testing cows to make sure whether they are suffering from tuberculosis or not, in order that the diseased animals may be destroyed, and so prevent the spread of the disease. A cow was condemned, and was found to be extensively diseased throughout her system. She was suckling a six weeks old calf, which was also found to be suffering from tuberculosis, contracted, no doubt, through being fed on milk of the diseased cow, which it may be mentioned, was not the mother of the calh It is high time (says the Inglewood Record) the local authorities in this district took some definite action to eradicate the noxious weeds that are becoming more of a nuisance year after year. Some people will not go to the trouble of clearing their land of these weeds unless compelled to do so. It is ridiculous on the part of local bodies to pass resolutions in regard to the subject which are never put in force. A Christchurch clergyman has created a sensation. Whether he has done any good thereby is a question, but he certainly has "got his name up." One Sunday evening he treated his congregation with such a peculiar address, and charged certain persons in the city with such enormities, that several of his hearers — staid, sober men who by their life have earned respect — rose and left the church, thereby testifying their disapproval of the violent language which the rev. gentleman was indulging in. More may be heard of the affair. Disquieting rumours have lately been afloat with regard to the Sumner Deaf Mute Institute, with the usual result of the real facts being exaggerated and distorted (says the Christchurch " Press "). It appears that on the 26th of January last, when Mr van Asch was in Wellington, he received trom the father of one of the boys in the institution a document conveying a serious charge against Mr J. C. Allen, a teacher who had been connected with the Institute for about 14 years. Mr van Asch at once brought the matter under the notice of the Rev W. J. Habens, the Secretary to the Education Department, and as the result of a preliminary inquiry, Mr Allen was suspended and called upon for an explanation. In reply he sent in his resignation, which was not accepted, and he was told that he must apply for a fully inquiry, or his dismissal would follow. Since then nothing further has been heard from him, and his present whereabouts are not known to the authorities of the school. " Scrutator," in the New Zealand Mail, is evidently more up-to-date in his views about the Palmerston tragedy than his extraordinary confrere on the Times. He says :— The Palmerston j horror has again set people discussing the ethics of suicide, and a lot of sentimental nonsense is being talked about McKain's alleged " courage." Courage indeed ! To my mind the man was an arrant coward. He seems to have married on next to nothing, from a monetary point of view, and in common with many other people, I bold the opinion that he disguised the truth from the unfortunate wife. There is strong presumptive evidence that he shot the poor women first and then committed suicide, and all this because he had not manliness to stand up to the world and fight his way through his difficulties, just as many a man has had to do, and will have to do again. Nothing can excuse his acts, and to attempt to justify what was an obvious crime by morbid, teddy talk about the man's " courage " is to me a most deplorably wrong way of ffiP.sjflfirin& the guegttoK '•'

Mr Leiter, father of Lady Curzon, has paid for the Indian outfit of both his daughter and son-in-law. He insisted on it. His joy at having produced a daughter who is to be the Vicereine of India knows absolutely no bounds. Money has poured out in gifts to the happy pair which can alone give adequate emphasis to Mr Leiter's emotions. Lady Curzon of Kedleston enters upon her extra official duties with a trousseau absolutely unexampled in the possessions of the past Vicereines, while Mr Leiter has also given Lord Curzon himself three official durbar cloaks in the finest velvet and gold. The Ingle wood Record says that Miss Rennell, of New Plymouth, officiated as returning officer at Fitzroy on the day of the Harbour Board election. This is the first time that a lady has acted in the capacity mentioned, in connection with the above elections, and the event therefore -marks another step in the advancement of the fair sex. The Hunterville Express says: — There are no farmers as prosperous as those of Taranaki. Before they put their dependence on milk they were the most depressed. It may be thought that butter is liable to as big fluctuations in the market as wool. There need be no fear of that. In these days the price of an article won't go down in the production of which a large amount of labour has to be employed. The tendency is the other way about.