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Manawatu Herald, 27 June 1899, Page 2

Mr Amos Burr, of Foxton, is petitioning Parliament for recompense for services rendered to the State. Mr Stevens will move the Addressin- Reply in the House and either Mr Millar or Mr Joyce will second it. The Prince of Wales has advised the Jockey Club to make an experiment with the starting machine. i Parliament was opened on Fridas^ with the usual ceremonies, and a Speech which had nothing of importance in it. The real business commences to-day. A flight of starlings in processional order which was estimated by those who witnessed it to be quite two miles long, passed over the Taratahi plains on Saturday afternoon. The sight was a remarkable one. News from Sydney says in consequence of the demand for frozen meat and produce in the Philippines, the steamer Maori King has been taken off the London berth and fixed for Manila. Efforts are being made to secure the Perthshire's meat for despatch to Manila by the Maori King. Mr C. K. Wilson, of Levin, has been notified by the Labour Department that the Premier has approved the proposition that the Government should pay half the cost of putting a bore down for artesian water on the State Farm, Levin. £50 has been authorised to be expended, and should the bore be successful, the Government will pay the full cost. At the International Peace Conference, now sitting at The Hague, the Russian representatives have made a proposal that all armies shall remain at a standstill in respect of numbers for the next five years, except in the case of colonial military forces ; also that there shall be no further increase in warships and naval armaments for the next three years. The Public Prosecutor has declined to proceed with the case against the Right Rev. Herbert Tugwell, Anglican Bishop in Western Equatorial Africa, who was recently committed for trial at Lagos on a charge of criminal libel arising out of his statements in regard to the liquor trade in British West Africa, in which he called attention to the large number of deaths ot Europeans which were due to drunkenness. The Chinese appear to be born to trouble. The Tsung-li-Yamen, or Chinese Board of Foreign Affairs, refuses the British demand to remove the Chinese Governor of Kweichau, a province to the south of the Yang-tse River, because he failed to punish the murderers of the Rev. Mr Fleming, an English missionary ; and now a band of Chinese brigands have killed two Russian engineers and ten Cossacks at Kerin, Manchuria. Mr S. Fletcher, the well-known stock dealer at Gore, intends making a new departure in the frozen meat line. We understand (says the Mataura Ensign), it is Mr Fletcher's purpose to' ship Home considerable quantities of frozen veal by way of experiment, and should that article command a price fairly proportionate to the values ruling for Home-grown veal, further shipments will follow as a matter of course. The ceremony of swearing in the Hon. Sir Robert Stout as Chief Justice of the -colony was performed at Government House at 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon in the presence of the Governor, the Premier, the Ministers tor Public Works (Hon. W. Hall-Jones), and Education (Hon. W. C. Walker), and the Acting Colonial Secretary (Hon. J. Carroll.) The oath was administered by Mr Alex. Willis, Clerk of the Executive Council. Dr. Devenish-Meares has been suffering for some weeks from a bad thumb, originating from a whitlow, and yesterday morning he went up to the Palmerston Hospital. When there it was found, as Dr Meares had feared, that his thumb would have to be amputated, and a telegram was received in the afternoon that the operation had been performed, and that he was detained at the hospital. The meeting of the Forester's Lodge to-night will accept this intimation,, and it is evident that Dr Meares has been suffering far more than had been expected, owing to the manner in which he bore himself. We trust he will make a rapid recovery. If a currentestory is true (and a Bow Street reporter informs a London contemporary that "it comes from a reliable source), the connivance of a prison warder in the evasion of prison rules may be purchased too dearly. A certain prisoner — so the story goes — got a warder to carry letters from him to two women. One was his wife and she was urged to send the prisoner money. The other was told that for her use during his enforced absence in prison the convict had set aside a sum of £7000. This handsome provision has not prevented Her front seeking consolation for the loss of the prisoner's society in marriage, and the man she has married is— the warder. From the days of Miles Standish it has never been safe to send messages to a lady by a confidant.

The s.s. Gothic arrived in Wellington from London on Sunday evening. j Arrangements are in progress by which the proprietorship of one of our j stores will be changed in a few wee!" While playing on Tuesday a thrccyear old son of Mr J. Tennant, of OrouA Bridge, had one of his fingers cut off by an axe. — Advocate. The Astronomer-Royal at Greenwich states that the next century will begin on the Ist January, 1901, the last year of the presout century being 1 god. Messrs Hickson and Reeves new flax-mill which is situated between the mills of King and Austin, on the river bank is getting on well and a start will soon be made in turning out fibre. The Minister Of Mafind ia being asked by Mr O'Regan if he will intro duce legislation to prohibit the deckloading of vessels trading in New Zealand waters, and to compel all vessels to be fitted With twin screws. The metal now now being used for repairing the roads has too many boulders mixed Avith it, and the cost of breaking them by hand will amount to a very large sum. It would have been better to have paid a little extra to have hadithe metalled screened. In the Governor's speech it was stated that a Bill will be introduced amending the Advances to Settlers Act in the direction ot reducing the rate of interest and extending the operation of the Act to urban and suburban lands. The Right Hon. Mr Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, has cabled to Earl Beauchamp, Governor of New South Wales, to the effect that the Imperial Government has learned with much satisfaction the result of the federal voting in that colony. Among the private members' Bills given notice of were a Libel Bill, by Mr Carncross ; the Elective Executive Bill, by Major Steward ; the Absolute Majority -Bill, by Mr McNab ; the Colonial Option Bill, by Mr Taylor; the Removal of Women's Disabilities Bill, . by the same member ; and the Preferential Voting and Proportional Representation Bill, by Mr O'Regan. A year ago the Manager of the Assets Co. expressed surprise at the suggestion that the Motoa estate derived a good incmoe from royalties on flax, but now he will not as the receipts will be appreciated. Six mills are drawing their supplies from the estate, and the total sum will amount to £120 a month. Evidently flax has again shown that it is a better crop than grass. Public meetings will be held at Shannon on Thursday, and Foxton on Friday in connection with the Manawatu Co-operative Bacon Curing Co. Ltd. The directors of the company will be"pfesent and wiH explain all details. Bacon curing is becoming an important industry on this coast and very facility that is offered to the settler should be encouraged and taken advantage of. An •innovation which sweeps away the occupation of the telephone girl is now being made the subject of a report to the Victorian Postal Department (says the Age.) This is an automatic instrument by means of which a subscriber can, by a very simple process, put himself into direct communication with anyone else on the system without the help of an intermediary, and it is being largely used in America and England. In a leader on the appointment of Sir Robert Stout as Chief Justice the Post says: — The Premier, in offering the post to one who has proved in his time the most destructive critic of the present administration, has shown once more his superiority to personal feelings. Whatever his political sins may be, Mr Seddon possesses in this freedom from personal considerations one of the highest attributes of statesmanship. Such an appointment will certamly show the country that he is not always the biased partisan that many of his actions would lead one to suppose. Sir Clement Markham headed a deputation to the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, First Lord of the' Treasury, to urge that the Government should co-operate in the proposed Antarctic expedition. Mr Balfour, in replying, said that such exploration far exceeded Arctic expeditions in importance. He hoped it would be adequately equipped, and that it would co-operate with the proposed German expedition with a view to strengthening the resources of cosmopolitan science. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, he hoped, would, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, give substantial aid. Two Taranaki gentlemen are in England exploiting a patent frozen meat wrapper, which is composed of the usual strong muslin, lined throughout with a light glazed waterproof paper. This serves a double purpose. It keeps out thp dust and dirt, which in the case of the ordinary wrapper find their way through the interstices of the muslin, and often greatly discolor and disfigure the meat. Secondly, the paper, being a non-conductor of heat, delays the thawing process which, when the ordinary wrappers are employed, begins directly the meat is taken out of the refrigerating chamber. The outcome of a practical joke was the appearance of a young man named Geo. Wilmhurst before Mr Haselden, S.M., at the Wellington Magistrate's Court last week, charged with unlawfully disturbing a meeting assembled for entertainment at the Oddfellows' Hall, Johnsonville. Accused had gone to the meeting armed with a rifle and wearing a leather belt, and announced himself as having been sent by Constable Hutton to keep order. He ordered a man who was smoking outside to put away his pipe, and in fact attempted to play the part of a despot. Questioned in Court, accused, who appeared to be rather ashamed of himself, said it was only a " foolishrtrick." . The Magistrate said he supposed defendant thought it was a magnificent joke, but such behaviour was carrying a joke too far. The young man was fined los with £1 14s. costs.— Times.

Tenders are invited tor clearing 300 •chains of drains on the Motoa Estate. Tc.ulers close on sth July, and specifications can be seen at the homestead.

The Diocesan Synod meets in Wellington to-morrow, and the Mayor, who is also the Synodsman for this parish left by train this morning to attend it.

One of our business men has almost determined to give storekeeping best and to turn the whole of his attention to flaxmilling. We understand that for a start he has a contract for 200 tons of fibre at £ij 10s a ton.