Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 17, 1900.

Manawatu Herald, 17 November 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 17, 1900.

A telegram states that a conference of inspectors of schools has been convened by the Minister of Education to be held at the end of January. Mrs Gray, wife of the Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, died on Wednesday. The deceased lady was a sister of the late John Hoggard. Additional Ministerial appointments are announced as follows : — Earl Onslow, Parliamentary Under- Secretary for the Colonies; Earl Hardwicke, Parliamentary Under- Secretary for India ; Lord Raglan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for War. At the Wellington Supreme Court the Grand Jury returned true bills against Wybertus and Kilian in the Stoke Orphanage assault cases. After December 21st Imperial penny postage will be established with Orange River Colony. The British Parliament meets on December 3rd to pass a war vote, and will then adjourn until February. Marconi's system of wireless telegraphy has been installed in London and suburban stations.

, The Mayor convene^ a public meeting on Friday evening next to consider the ways and means of procuring a resident doctor. In the tennis tournament about to be started by the local Club io ladies and io gentlemen have entered. ( Timber is now lying on the sites for new houses for Mr Barber and Mr G. Coley. A building is being erected on the railway property facing the wharf for the guard, Mr Carroll. A parcels room is being added to the railway station. Advices received in Berlin state that 15,000 Boers intend crossing the Kalahari desert into Damaraland. the German authorities cordially assenting. The Government is recruiting a thousand men in the United Kingdom for service in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony constabulary. An exchange says, an enormous number of whitebait made their ap- J pearance in the Grey river last week. 1 and so dense was the column that the fishers scooped them up literally by the gallon. One successful fisherman filled twenty kerosene tins in an incredibly short c pace of time. There bas been nothing like this during the season, thongh something similar was seen on the Teremakau a few days ago. Inspector H. G. J. Hull, of Palmerston North, has been transferred to Timaru, and will take charge of the Stock Office there. Inspector J. Duncan, of Palmerston South, is to take Mr Hull's place at Palmerston North. The genial skipper of the Queen of the South is a man of resource. To be prepared is to be forearmed, and in I the eyent of further complications of a warlike nature he has, as a member oi his crew, a late member of Brabant's Horse, who is putting the crew through their " facings." We believe the detention in the river has been utilized :in skirmishing drill. When the drill is 1 perfected the Queen of the South will become an useful cruiser. Dr Mason, of Otaki, has been appointed Chief Medical Officer of the Public Health Department. The salary will be something near £1500 a year. 1 People in Dover, says an English paper, are asking why the two new French mail packets — the Nord and Pas de Calais— have been fitted with powerful electric searchlights corresponding with those used in the French navy. The searchlights, which are on the bridges, have been erected by the French Government, and it is said that each is in charge of a naval ' officer, although the boats are owned by a company. The steamers were recently transferred from the day to the night service, and the searchlights are sometimes trained on the land fortifications of Dover. The London Times correspondent with General Rundle tells the following story of red tape : — Owing to the necessity of cutting down baggage to the lowest possible point so that sufficient food and forage might be carried, General Rundle's eighth division left their tents behind. The division was presently joined by the East Yorkshire Regiment, who also left their lents behind. As a consequence, payment of " field allowance " to officers and men of that regiment has not been sanctioned by the Pay Office on the ground that the paymaster is credibly informed that the regiment is not " under canvas." There will be excitement in classrooms and dormitories (the Daily Graphic of September 15th says) over the news that the boys who took part in the defence ot Mafeking are to have war medals as well as their elders. Such military glory often comes in the way of lads of their own age in Mr Henty's novels — '• The Young FrancTireurs," for instance, — but in real life their chances of winning it are not numerous. Still there are precedents in military history. Ensigns of barely 16 fought under Wellington. Mid shipmites of still tenderer years fought under Nelson. In the United States civil war the military cadets ot Lexington — mere children as compared with our cadets of Woolwich and Sandhurst — were more than once summoned hastily from the lecture hall to battlefield because the enemy had appeared unexpectedly in their neighbourhood. In the same war one of the Southern strongholds was defended by schoolboys (aided by old men) in the absence of the regular garrison. And they held it against assault as bravely as our young friends held Mafeking, being sons of the same race and chips of the same block. ' A glance at the windows of Mr Alf Eraser's shop will reveal the fact that his Xmas and New Year cards have arrived, and a second glance shows a display well worthy of any shop in the Empire City. Mr Fraser informs us that by next trip of the Queen of the South he expects five cases of toys and fancy goods ex " Paparoa," which comprise some of the latest novelties, which shows that no effort is being spared to please both adults and juveniles at the festive season now approaching. We are sorry to learn that a young man named Fred Rout met with a painful accident on Wednesday morning last, necessitating his removal to the Palmerston Hospital, the following morning. It appears he was getting offa cart and got his leg caught in the shaft resulting in the limb being broken. A trial shipmennt of 1000 head of cattle for Rhodesia was despatched by the steamer City of London, which sailed from Newcastle for Beira on October 23rd. Most of the cattle were obtained in the district, but some came from Victoria. The stock are intended for re-stocking the estates in Rhodesia, and should the shipment prove successful regular shipments are likely to be made. Albert Benfield, alias Goodard, was arrested at Otaki on Thursday on a charge of forging the name of Austin Bros, to a cheque tor £4 5s 6d, and uttering same to A. Pat, grocer here. The same offender is also charged with forgery at Otaki, and the case will be heard on Thursday next.

The bicycle pump advertised for has been returned to the owner.