Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1899.

Manawatu Herald, 29 June 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1899.

The Prohibitionists will be glad to learn that the Rev. L. M. Isitt returned to the colony on Sunday by the Gothic after an absence of over two years. The news about the Transvaal appear^ more warlike every day. Mr Chamberlain looks upon the matter as a festering sore, which is poisoning the atmosphere of South Africa. These are strong words which is but the prelude to blows unless Mr Kruger complies with the demands of Sir Alfred Milner. Affairs in France are also not very hopeful. One bad feature in the case is the manner the anti-Semitic newspapers are abusing Madame Dreyfus, who has shown herself a model wife, with both pluck and tact. She is the one bright spot in the whole of this disgraceful Dreyfus business — and to be attacked ! The friends of Mr and Mrs John Robinson will learn with much regret that their baby boy died yesterday afternoon. The loss of one's firstborn is always a severe shock, and much sympathy is felt with the parents in their bereavement. The funeral is arranged for to-morrow. j Mr and Mrs Ashby, old residents of Moutoa were entertained by their many friends at the Methodist Schoolroom on Tuesday evening prior te their departure to Mangatainoka. Mr Woollass presented Mr Ashby with a Bible as a kindly token of his interest in Church matters. Isaac Bowe was arrested last night by constable Forster on a charge of assalting Mrs Wanklyn. He was brought before Mr Thynne this morning and remanded to Saturday morning.

Russia is devoting n,000,000 roubles to dredging and the construction of moles at Port Arthur. The new Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) has appointed his eldest son (Mr John Logan Stout) to be his associate. Mr Russell A. Alger, United States Secretary of War, declares that General Otis, who is now operating with American forces in the Philippines, is not to be reinforced till October. The Oamaru Mail says : — The comparative mildness of the » season is being evidenced by the forward conditions of many of the spring flowers, some of which are already in bloom. We have also seen a rhododendron, which is just bursting into full flower. The decision of the High Commissioners of the three great Powers concerned to uphold Chief Justice Chambers' pronouncement in regard to the Samoan kingship has caused great disappointment in Germany. Mr Mclvor, of the Bank of Australasia, has been promoted to the management of the Waipawa branch, and has left for his new sphere of work. The House of Lords, by a majority of 114 votes, has reversed the provision in the London Government Bill making women eligible to sit as aldermen and councillors. It has been discovered that Colonel Pitt's appointment to the Legislative Council is void under the Disqualification Act, because within the last six months he has been drawing Government pay as an officer commanding the Nelson Volunteer District. ' Captain Blackburn, late of the P and O. service, has (writes the Post's London correspondent under date 19th May) been appointed Chief Examiner of Masters and Mates in New Zealand, though some, I believe, erroeously term the office that of " Nautical Adviser." Two men named Mace and Pettengell who were to engage in a glove contest for £50 a side, have been arrested at Wellington and bound over to keep the peace. Captain Baillie, who for 20 years has been Chairman of Committees in the Legislative Council, will resign that position on the grounds of failing health. A remarkable restoration to sight is recorded by the Times. Mrs Samuel Wade, of Stanningly, who is nearly 70 years of age and has been blind for 30 years, has undergone a successful operation for cataract at the Leeds Infirmary, which has completely restored her sight. In an interview she said that she recognised neither Stanningly nor Leeds, so many new buildings had sprung up. She had buried two sons without seeing them and on recovering her sight she saw for the first time her daughter aged 21. On Saturday Mr Andrew Jonson went to Palmerston to obtain signatures to the petition to the Hon. the Minister of Railways for a light railway from Foxton to the beach. He was singularly successful, not receiving one refusal, but on the contrary all were pleased at the proposal. Mr Jonson secured over eighty signatures in a few hours. The following strange story is told by the Temuka Leader : — A most extraordinary item of news has reached us from Orari. It is stated that there is some epidemic amongst the cats there which reduces them to a skeleton, and the}' die as if choking. A child a year and a-half old, the son of Mr T. B. Pearce, has died suddenly there under circumstances resembling the way the cats die. T-he child was all right until last Monday, when it took ill, and died on Tuesday morning. He had been as if choking all night, but in the morning he got calm, and died peacefully. There is an impression amongst the people that his death resulted from contact with a sick cat which was in the house, and, whether this is correct or not, it may be as well for people to be careful in this respect. The rage in the States for sending poison to people through the post appears to be spreading, and a new and more ingenious method than poisoned candy has been adopted. Mr George E. S. Terry, secretary of a New York wholesale drug firm, received through the post* a small box. When he opened it, out darted a small snake, which was afterwards pronounced by a naturalist to be a poisonous asp of the same species that Cleopatra is supposed to have used to kill herself with. Its bite is almost in stantaneously fatal . Curiously enough a snake was used in another case, evidently for the purpose of murder, at Rochester, New York State. May Cook, a well-known Vaudeville performer, received a pasteboard box, supposed to contain flowers. She opened the box in her dressing-room, when out darted, a copperhead snake and made a vicious lunge at her face. The stage attendants rushed in and killed the snake, whose bite would mean certain death. A rejected admirer is supposed to have taken shis fiendish means of revenge. The following little story, told by a chatty gossiper in a London paper, indicates the reason of Kipling's rapid rise to fame — he wrote to be " understanded of the common people " : — " I had the honor the other day of lunching with three very eminent men of letters. The conversation turned on Kipling. Said one : 'I am ashamed that I do not know Kipling's work, but I have begun • Plain Tales from the Hills,' on the recommendation of a friend, and do not like them. Is there any book of his in which you can at once see his power?" He turned round to his neighbour, who replied immediately that he knew nothing of Kipling except his name. The third had read * The Recessional, 1 and thought it a mixture of Longfellow and Dr Watts, but not so good as Longfellow, not nearly so good as ' The Psalm of Lite.' He had, however, heard music-hall ditties of Kipling's which appeared to be clever." And the gossiper adds : — " If I were free to give the names of the speakers, they would be known to the whole world."

At important discovery of high-grade oxidised ore is reported to have been made in the Great Boulder Perseverance gold mine, Kalgoorlie. The Chinese Government is arranging to build strong forts in the neighbourhood of Pekin, the capital of t'. Empire.