Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 81, 1899 Africa and France.

Manawatu Herald, 31 August 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 81, 1899 Africa and France.

. « On the Dark Continent or in gay Paris must we look for the coming war, and in either spot it is hardest to say where the clouds look blackest. The Boers having been pretty clearly spoken to by England appear to want to get up a row with Portugal, who, as a good neighbour, refused to pass through her territory arms and ammunition which might be used against the British Empire. Portugal probably knows which of the two rival powers has the strongest forces, and will not therefore give in to the Dutchmen, but she has wisely taken steps to avoid a surprise, by keeping the troops at the station of Lorenzo Marques constantly under arms. This station has only a white population of 500, with a large Kaffir colony outside the walls, and it is these possibly the Portuguese fear as several Boer emissaries have been arrested. The railway along which these arms would have to be conveyed was made and is worked by a London company who obtained, in 1887, a concession for ninety years to lay a railway from Delagoa Bay to Pretoria. It is difficult to believe that President Kruger will be so foolish as to resort to arms to resist the demands of Britain whether they be right or wrong as the fact of importation of arms having been stopped at Delagoa Bay must have proved to him that his Republic is so surrounded that there could be no possibility of securing war material or food beyond what can be made and grown within the boundaries of the Transvaal, directly war was declared. We sincerely trust war may be avoided, but the evident postponement of the acceptance of the British demands looks as though the Boers looked for outside help, possibly from France, if anything should arise out of the very unsettled state it is now in. The army in France has been the cause of the unrest, and yet to the army, possibly, the nation will have to look for the repression of anarchism, and it is the general impression that the army desires war with some power to cover up the infamy of the Dreyfus scandal. The French rabble in Paris are said to have danced to the chanting of tbs tune of the carmagnole. The song, an immensely popular one, was called after a costume worn ia France during

the revolution in 1792. It was, at first, a coat having short clinging skirts, a broad collar and lapels, and several rows of buttons ; the costume afterwards was extended to large black woollen pantaloons, a red cap and a tricolored girdle. In the " Tale of the Two Cities " an account of this dance is given which makes terrible reading though it shows graphically the madness of the times. The writer says : — There could not be fewer than five hundred people, and they were dancing like five thousand demons. There was no other music than their own singing. They danced to the popular Revolution song, keeping a ferocious time that was like the gnashing of teeth in unison. Men and women danced together, men danced together, as hazard had brought them together. At first they were a mere storm of coarse red caps and coarse woollen rags, but as they filled the place, and stopped .to dance about Lucie, some ghastly apparition of a dance-figure gone raving mad arose before them. They advanced, retreated, struck at one another's hands, clutched at one another's heads, spun round alone, caught one another and spun round in pairs, until many of them dropped. While those were down the rest linked hand in hand, and all spun round together ; then the ring broke, and in separate rings of two and four they turned and turned until they all stopped at once, began again, struck, clutched, and tore, and then reversed the spin, and all spun round another way. Suddenly they stopped again, paused, struck out the time afresh, formed into lines the width of the public way, and, with their heads low down and their hands high up, swooped screaming off. No fight could have been half so terrible as this dance. It was so emphatically a fallen sport — a something, once innocent, delivered over to all devilry — a healthy pastime changed into a means of angering the blood, bewildering the senses, and steeling the heart.

The Wellington Hospital authorities state that Sapper Head is still improving, and may now be expected to recover. Archibald William Phipson was sentenced at the Wellington Supreme Court to eight months' imprisonment for the theft of four bicycles. The Telegraph Department notifies that its Koputarua, Levin, Manukau, Ohau, and Shannon offices will be telephone bureaux from the xst Sep--1 tember The Standard says, we understand that the Government have purchased Mr J. Saunders' Awahuri property, and the surveyors are now engaged in cutting it up for settlement. The following telegram with reference to the bridge over the Rangitikei | River at Bulls was received from Mr , John Stevens, M.H.R., by the Advocate on Monday morning : — ll Replying to your question respecting bridge. Alteration in plans necessitated delay for preparation. This has been done and approved by the Engineer-in-Chief. There are, however, some ■ modifications suggested in the protec--1 tive works. So soon as this is settled by the Engineer fresh tenders will be at once called for." The Manawatu Times says, Mr Lionel Maclean, second son of Mr C. H. Maclean, local manager of the Bank of New Zealand, hascbeen appointed to a position on the staff of the Eastern Extension Cable Company's service, and leaves on Friday next for Sydney en route for the company's station at La Perouse. Mr L. Maclean has just completed a lengthy career at the Wanganui College, in which he has acquitted himself well, and he will take with him the best wishes of his parents' many friends for his future 1 success. The trawlers that trade to Grimsby bring their fish fresh, by packing them in ice. and also having " wells " though they bring them to port 1200 miles from near the coast of Iceland. By the coolie ship Avon, which left Suva for Calcutta on the 10th inst., 279 time-expired coolies from the sugar plantations left for India. The passengers had in their possession bank drafts, cash jewellery valued at close on £5000. Calico print works use 40,000,000 dozen eggs per year, wine clarifiers use 10,000,000 dozen, the photographers and other industries use many millions, and these demands increase more rapidly than table demands. The following appears in the paper published by Messrs Sharland and Co. : — " Within a few months there have been five deaths in Pittsburg, Pa., from headache powders composed mainly of acetanild. In connection with the last instance, that of a woman who died within twenty minutes after taking a single powder, the coroner's jury recommended that some State law be enacted to compel caution notices to be printed on all such powders, and meanwhile that pharmacists warn their customers of the danger which lies in their indiscriminate use, In response to the latter recommendation, the Pittsburg pharmacists met. and decided to paste caution labels on all such powders." The town of New Brunswick, New Jersey (U.S.), was the scene of an extraordinary bicycle race on July Ist. The competitors were two factory girls. The race was undertaken because they were rivals for the possession of the affections of a certain young man, and the prize was the young man himself. In order that it should be a thoroughly game contest, the race was over a course of two miles, and both girls did their level best to win. A great crowd assembled to watch the event, and the racers were followed by a large number of cyclists, among whom were many couples on tandems. The event was won by Nelly Donnely in four minutes and a half. The prize young man was waiting at the end of the course, and as soon as the race was ended he and the victor made their way through the crowd to a minister, who was in waiting, his services having been already requisitioned, and in the presence of the hundreds of spectators they were made man and wife.— Dfclziel.

Nelson has a female cabdriver. Tenders close to-morrow (Friday), for repairs to the Foxton R. C. training track. The meeting of the Manawatu Rowing Club takes place to-morrow night at Whyte's Hotel at 8 o'clock. About 600,000 trees are annually planted by Swedish school children under the guidance of their teachers. We wonder if they grow. The fate of those planted here under similar guidance is known. Mr Ayson states that both the governments of Canada and the United States offered to supply this colony with a large quantity of Pacific salmon-ova for the cost of packing and transport. He recommends the acceptance of the offer. Of the bot fly Mr McKeague, in his | book on irrigation, states that to attempt to destroy the pest in the winged stage would be futile. I te says stallted animals suffer more from internal bots than grass-fed animals living in paddocks* Should the horse exhibit any symptoms of bots in the stomach, it can be relieved of such in two or three days by confining it for a week or a fortnight in a large yard, and suddenly changing its diet from oats and chaff to fresh green food, liberally sprinkled with salt. A mare was kept fasting for 24 hours before giving the green food ; in 48 hours she began to void bots, which continued throughout the eight days during which she was confined and thus fed. Any food tend* ing to sicken bots in the stomach of the horse is more natural and safer than dosing with strong medicines. To check the increase of bots draw a heavy brush harrow over the pastures in October, November and December.. The Post says s— -There were no passengers on board the lost steamer Tekoa, but the family of at least one member of the crew lives in Wellington and its case came before the Benevolent Trustees this afternoon. It was reported that the wife of one of the engine-room hands and her two children were in distressing circumstances here. The woman had had to pawn her wedding ring and her best dress, and there was " not a stick of furniture in the house," the family huddling up in a corner of the living room. The house-bold had already been receiving help, and the Trustees decided to continue it.