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Manawatu Herald, 18 October 1900, Page 2

The Foxton Racing Club have from year to year been buffeted about the town as to an office and the Stewards have taken the wise course to erect an office for themselves, which will be erected on the same section that the Manawatu Herald is situated on, good terms having been made with Mr Thynne the owner of the land. The building will be 12 by 20 feet and matched lined. Mr Ahem has the work in hand. The South African League has de cided to invite the Duke and Duchess of York to call at Capetown en route to Australia. A gentleman of Portrush lately sent Lord Roberts a bit of shamrock and an old horseshoe — presents neither rich nor rare, but they drew an interesting reply from the Commander-in-Chief. The shamrock he planted carefully, " and the shoe will be kept by me as a souvenir, together with the one picked up the day I entered the Orange Free State, and which I foundat Paardeberg the day before General Cronje surrendered." A story of a strange family meeting comes from Home. A letter was received in August by the Rev. T. F. Jerwood, of Little Bowden (Leicestershire), stating that two brothers and a sister, whose homes now lie far apart, met quite unexpectedly outside the general Post Office at Capetown. Wardie Nunneley, it appears, went to the war with the Canadian Contingent and was one day posting a lettsr when he was confronted by his brother Wilfrid, who had accompanied an Australian corps. While they were talking their sister, whose presence in South Africa they were both ignorant, entered the Post Offi ce. A New Zealand trooper in Rhodesia writes : " I have never seen so many natives in all my life as there are here The native men have four or five wives each. I cannot understand how they get along with so many. One sees some very funny sights here. I saw one native with a pair of ladies' corsets round his legs for leggings, and he did famcy himself. One man was told to take a barrow away, and, instead of wheeling it, put it on his head and carried it. They carry everything on their heads, and It would astonish you to see the loads they can manage.

We are glad to learn that Mr James Barber, some years ago of the wellknown firm of J. and H. Batber, Wellington, has determined to make a permanent stay in Foxton, where his two sons, Richard and Walter, are permanently settled. Probably he will have a house built shortly. A Masterton resident has received a letter from a f':-- 1 *n Queensland, which gives a dis, effects of the droir y. On one station alone 60,0 .p and 12,000 cattle have died. A. Kuthven Station, on the Barcoo River, which usually carried between 120,000 and 140,000 sheep, only 8000 were shorn this season. On Weetlands Station they have just completed gathering between forty and fifty tons of dead wool, and not a hoof is left on it now. There ha9 been several remarkable balloon displays at the Paris Exhibition. One balloon travelled from Paris to Kieff, in Russia, a distance of 1300 miles, in 36 hours. Several others reached Gerniany» and one travelled nearly to St Petersburg. The French War Department is giving much encouragement to ballooning. The Conservatives have gained a notably victory at Aberdeen East, where Mr Maconnochie has been returned in place of Mr T. R. Buchanan. The average application for policemen's billets has been about 500 a year for the last three years, whilst the vacancies to be filled annually number on an average only about thirty. A private Round-Table Conference, consisting of fifteen representatives of the clergy and laity, extending over four days, has been held at Fulham Palace, the official residence of the Bishop of London, to consider the question of Holy Communion and its expression in the ritual of the Church of England. As showing the great saving the road-making machine is to the ratepayers of the Manawatu Road District the foreman informs the Standard that a length of 90 chains of the Lower Aorangi-road has just been made by it at a cost of 2s id, whereas under the old system it could not have been done under 10s per chain. With regard to the statement cabled from Perth that the captain of the steamer Nemesis had reported sighting a sea serpent off Cape Naturalist, the captain, who has arrived at Adelaide, now says that the monster was not like a serpent, but was a large fish and had a fin 30 feet long. A very interesting paper on the " Regrowth of the totara " was read by Mr Joshua Rutland at the Wellington Museum on Tuesday night before the Philosophical Society, in a lucid manner he accounted for the fact of the totara being generally found in solitary grandeur. Where the mixed bush escaped fire after the milling timber, has been removpri tV " climbers " play b .< oc with tii< r }- like young totara. Of the marketable timbers, the totara was the only one that might be artificially produced on a large scale without a great expenditure. The land would have to be sown broadcast with totara seed, and the cattle kept off. The New Forest (England) was created in the eleventh century by sowing seed, and was-renewed in the same way. Ticket inspection is a matter that has engaged the management of the Wellington tram service in the past. A'i English paper states that the Leeds Corporation have been so pained by the leakage of fares on their trams that they are about to adopt a ticket machine so cunning as effectually to defy the nefarious ingenuity of any tram passenger or conductor on earth. Its full title is the ticket-printing and fare-recording machine. And this is what it does. It prints each ticket at the moment of issue. On this ticket appears the date, the exact time of the day, the amount of the fare, the stage to which the fare carries, the number of the machine, and an advertisement on the back. Moreover, the amount of the fare appears on a dial in front of the machine, where the passenger can see it. Other dials recond the total number ot pence received during the whole journey, and the number of passengers who have paid fares. The conductor carries the machine which measures s£in. square by if in. deep, strapped round his waist. At the last meeting of the Horowhenua County Council Messrs Kebbell and Davies gave the following notice ' of motion : That the local bodies whose boundaries join the Manawatu river, viz., the Foxton Borough Council, Manawatu County Council, Manawatu and Fitzherbert Road Boards, be asked to send delegates to a meeting at Shannon on a fixed date, to discuss the advisability or otherwise of making a joint application to the Supreme Court for an injunction restraining the Palmerston Borough Council from discharging their sewerage into the Manawatu river, and that the chairman and the mover represent this Council at the meeting. The Secretary of the Canterbury Jubilee Carnival have issued a very handy notebook " Hints for Visitors," which should be read by those who purpose taking part in this holiday. The latest startling announcement of the American inventor, Nikola Tesla, is that he has discovered a perfect insulation for electricHv. The idea was suggested to him by ;) - <fessor D"w?.r, of the Royal Instimti-, in 1893. Tie has been working on it ever since, and has just obtained a patent. The plan is by a chemical process to freeze a mixture of water and sawdust in a thin metal tube about the wire carrying the electric current. Tesla declares that electricity will in this way be transmitted from Niagara Falls to the Pacific coast or through the ocean from New York to London with no perceptible loss of power. He asserts that the invention will greatly cheapen electricity and cause a revolution in industrial affairs. A pretty severe earthquake was felt here on Tuesday night about 10.50. It was, however, very easy in its roll.

On the subject of the increased price of coal, a member of one of the leading firms in the London Coal Exchange lately stated :— " No, I don't think coal will be any cheaper ; at least, not this side of next summer. Less coal will be sold in the winter than we expected, simply because householders have been scared by the published threats of a turther increase, and have already laid in their store for winter use. As a rule, the householder does not buy his winter supply until September, but for the reason I have given he has secured it earlier this year. That coal will not diminish in price I am pretty well certain." A writ has been served on the Horowhenua County Council by Mr John Hadfield, claiming £100 damages for loss alleged to have been suffered by I him through the flooding of his land at Hadfield, in consequence of the construction of certain drains by the Council. The case will be heard at the next civil sittings of the Supreme Court. Messrs v !:; ..house and Hadfield are solicitors for the plaintiff, and Messrs Chapman and Tripp for the defendant Council. A heavy flood is now in the river, the water overflowing this morning at Walden's Mill and at the other usual places along the road. Suppliers to the creamery had nearly three quarters of a mile of water on the road to negotiate. It is not generally known (says a contemporary) that in France it is forbidden under severe penalties for anyone to give infants under one year any form of solid food unless such be ordered by a written prescription signed by a legally qualified medical man. Nurses are also forbidden to use in the rearing of infants confided to their care, at any time or under any pretext whatever, any nursing bottle provided with rubber tube. Several other similar and equally stringent laws have recently been enacted by the French Government, which, despairing of obtaining any increase in the birthrate in their land, are now turning their attention to the saving of the few children that are born. In 1897 John L. Rees was arrested at Karangahake on charges of obtaining money under false pretences. He was admitted to bail, but disappeared, and was not heard of again till last month, when he was arrested in Wellington. He was sent back to Paeroa and committed for trial. The district coroner, Mr J. Ashcroft, who has lately been directing attention to certain aspects of the condition of morality, particularly in regard to the declining birth rate, has arranged for a conference of ministers. Various meetings have been held to discuss the matter. A conference was held at Wellington last Monday, and it was decided that another meeting be summoned, also a conference with medical practitioners. Messrs P. Hennessy & Co. do not expect their trade to decrease as they are now erecting a staircase from the shop to the floor overhead which they intend to use for their glass and china department, of which they hold large stocks.