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Manawatu Herald, 19 May 1900, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald will not be published on Thursday next.

Consols in London are quoted at ioi» an advance of 20s since Friday

From a private letter received by a Wellington resident from South Africa it appears that Captain John Rose, who resigned from one of the New Zealand contingents, is now serving as a private in the Diamond Fields Horse.

At All Saints' Ofeurch to-morrow special thanksgiving services will be held, at which the Vicar will officiate.

The Rev. W. Woollass will preach a special sermon to-morrow night on the subject of the Relief of Mafeking special hymns will be sung.

On Thursday morning early the Thorndon State School was totally destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at £4,500 on the building and £326 on the furniture.

In response to the letters from M. Zola (says the Central News), M. Alfred Dreyfus, and Col. Picquart, protesting against a mere amnesty being granted to Capt. Dreyfus, and demanding that they be heard in favour of acquittal, " the Senatorial Commission on Amnesty has decided to hear counsel and witnesses- for acquittal. The defenders of Dreyfus are rejoiced at this decision. The Commission will hear M. Zola, Col. Picquart, and M. Reinach.

Our corresponJent "Argus" who wrote so strongly on the local slaughterhouses will thank his stars that he lives in New Zealand after he has read the following from a South African correspondent s—There5 — There are, he writes, no butcher's shops here (East London). The meat and vegetables are sold in a market by an auctioneer. Sometimes the meat will be there for two or three days and you • can see the old Dutch women pick it up and smell it and then throw it down with disgust, and then S3me old German lady will come along and look at it and pull it about for awhile, and by the time everybody has had a "go " at it, it is in a terrible state, but somebody buys it at the finish !

The Mayor and Mr Holmes went up the river again yesterday, and we understand that tenders will be called for snagging, from the mouth to the Shannon ferry, and to give contractors a fair chance, the contract time will be to the end of the year.

We have inspected the latest importation of Messrs Heasman and Baker, which consists of the winter season's tweeds and coatings. They are undeniably of good quality and neat pattern, and their customers will be hard to please if these goods do not give satisfaction. An early inspection is/ invited which we can advise, so as .to secure a full choice. \

The Rev. C. C. Harper, in replying to the welcome given him at Palmerston on Wednesday night said :— He could see that a vicar in Palmerston should take part in work outside that of his clerical position, and that, he confessed, was his inclination. He had felt in the past that the clergyman must live the life of a citizen as well as that of the parish priest. He had done so in the past, and he would do so in the future. Although unable to take part in every undertaking started for the welfare of the people of the town, yet in the field of athletics and , social work, he would like to do something for the benefit of his fellow-creatures.

It was incidentally mentioned by Mr. John Stevens at the Hunt dinner at Marton that the Rangitikei Hunt Club had a good deal to thank its genial President, Mr J. G. Wilson, for, as he was *the first to introduce hares into New Zealand, doing so at his own expense. This introduction may be good for sport, but the hares to the farmers are nearly as great a nuisance as the rabbits are.

Writing from London to the Sydney Herald, Mr H. W. Lucy says :— I hear at first hand a story about Lord Vlethuen that illustrates the strong feeling stirred against him in i some quarters as the result of the carnage that marked his command on the M odder River. The story has its pleasing side by showing him ia a fair light. A mother, who lost her only son at Magersfontein, wrote to him bitterly upbraiding him for being the personal cause of the death ot her boy, ->ent on an ill-planned bootless errand. In due time she received a reply from Lord Methuen, written in pencil on a rough bit of paper, for which he humbly apologised. But, he explained, it was all he had at hand, and only a biscuit box to use as desk. Instead of resenting the tone of the letter, or endeavouring to exonerate himself, Lord Methuen filled his rough paper with expressions of the tenderest sympathy with the stricken mother. He entered into full detail of the young officer's death, met sword in hand at the head ot his troop. " If," he wrote, " you had seen, as I did, how nobly your boy died doing his duty, yon would have been proud to spare him to your country."