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Manawatu Herald, 22 November 1900, Page 2

The Messrs Robinson commence shearing on Monday. To-night the volunteers will be put through their first drill by Staff Instructor McDonald. Mr McDermott, our attentive postmaster, resumed his duties, after his holiday, on Monday. On Tuesday evening J. B. Imrie was brought before the Court and remanded to Wellington. A second million of universal penny stamps, ordered by the New Zealand Government, has been shipped by the Gothic. The Railway Department notifiy in another column the train arrangements from Palmerston for the Feilding races, the 29th and 30th November. The system of wireless telegraphy invented by M. Ropoff, a Russian, is beirg installed in the lighthouses and warships in the Black Sea, and at Vladivostock and Port Arthur, in the Far East. A coloured boy, sixteen years of age, has been burned to death in Colorado for murdering a white girl. The girl's father applied the torch. Mr John Stevens, M.H.R., informed the Advocate on Tuesday that the Government have accepted the tender of Mr J. Saunders for the erection of Bulls bridge. He has signed the contract and is now arranging for the purchase of timber in Australia. We are very sorry to learn from the Mail that Mr George Whitehorn, of the Bank of Australasia, Otaki, who has been suffering from rheumatic fever for several weeks past, has, we regret to hear, taken a turn lately for the worse, and his condition at present is causing great anxiety to his friends. News comes from New York that Mr William K. Vanderbilt has given £500,---000 to his daughter, the Duchess of Marlborough, the gift being a thankoffering for the Duke's safe return from the war. The Duke and Duchess (telegraphs the Daily News Paris correspondent) are now in Paris investing the money in antique furniture and decorations for the house which is being built for them in Mayfair,

Mr Winston Churchill, the late Lord Randolph's son, gives his definition of a political candidate as " .1 man who is asked to stand, who wants to sit. and who is expected to lie." During Advent the Rev. Hugh Leach i will preach a special course of sermons on Sundays and Wednesdays, at All Saints', Foxton, and at St. Simon & St. Judes, Rongotea on Sundays. This morning Master Albert Shadbolt met with a painful, and narrowly escaped a very serious, accident whilst playing with gunpowder. His face and head were burnt, and the lett eyeball slightly burnt. Mr Hamer attended him and he is likely to do well. It should be a lesson to keep gunpowder out of the reach of children, A scheme for establishing an Industrial Home at Levin, on tha Manawatu Railway line, has been approved by Cabinet. is to be expended on the erection of a building and its equipment. The site has not yet been selected, but it probable will be on the present State Farm. The home is to accommodate about 100 boys, who will be taught trades. The Wanganui Chronicle says :— lt was with regret that we learned that Mr W. H. Vereker-Bindon has been forced, through continued ill-health, to send in his resignation as chief inspector to the Wanganui Education Board. During the past seventeen years he has occupied the position, Mr Bindon has done most valuable work, and has considerably raised the srandard of the schools under his supervision. The Education Board accepted the resignation with regret — and with reason. With his many friends we trust that change and rest may soon restore Mr Bindon to health. The Native Minister (Mr Carroll) will go across to Sydney in connection j with the contingent of Maori wawiors and musicians which the Government has decided to send toJ]ieXQ.mmiJnAj. weaiib-JiiaiiguratJba ceremonies on i>Jew Year's Day. It is understood that the Premier and the Hons. J. G. Ward, W. Hall- Jones, and J. Carroll will travel to and from Sydney in the Tutanekai. The natives may go across in the same vessel. The mounted men from New Zealand will travel to and from Australia by a larger steamer, as 1 the Tutanekai is not big enough to take their horses. — Post. The Ngatiraukawa and Ngatitoa Maoris, residing between Porirua and the Rangitikei, are circulating a petition for presentation to the Premier, in which they state that they are anxious to give the Duke and Duchess'of York [a Maori welcome, and request the i assistance of the Government in doing so. They point out that ever since the introduction of Christianity in 1840 they have been loyal subjects. The Maoris desire to welcome their Royal Highnesses at Otaki, which is the centre of their district, the seat of the Christian missions, the burial place of the great Te Rauparaha (whose son, Tamihana, visited the Queen about half a century ago), and the present place of residence of the leading chiefs. The petitioners intend to interview the Native Minister (Hon. J. Carroll) on the subject. A new emergency ration is to be given a practical test by the Ration Board of the War Department. Captains Fountain and Foster will take a troop of cavalry on a marching expedition in Indian territory and the men will live wholly on the emergency ration. It is made up in an elliptical can eight inches long. Each day's food weighs a pound, and each can contains three cakes of sweet chocolate and three cakes of a food preparation composed of a meat and grain compound. The latter, which tastes not unlike parched corn, is very palatable. It can be eaten uncooked, made into soup or porridge, or made into mush and fried. Each one contains salt and pepper. The effect of the food on the men will be carefully noted by a physician. They will be weighed every day. The tests will probably last two or three weeks. After the conclusion of the case of alleged perjury against Louis Locke at the Wellington Police Court on Tuesday, a Chinese interpreter discoursed, says the Times, to a small audience on the matter of Chinese oaths. The blowing out of a match, he said, was not of much avail as a means of getting a Chinaman to speak the truth. •' That only means he will get no light," he explained. A Court official suggested that the breaking of a saucer was a more effective form of oath, but the interpreter discounted that form also. " Cut the head off a rooster," he said ; " that is the way ; it means something terrible ! If that be done, either in a Court of justice or in a cemetery, a Chinaman will generally speak the truth. He considers that a lie under such circumstances will cause him ill-luck all his life, and a horrible experience after death. Cut off the rooster's head," he concluded, "that is the only way to get the truth !" The Christmas number of " The New Zealand Mail " is to hand and entitles the statement that it is bulkier and contains more reading matter than any Christmas number issued from the New Zealand Press. The covers are very patriotic, as portraits of the Queen, Lord Roberts, Baden-Powell, Mr Chamberlain, Lord Ranfurly and Mr Seddon are above and below a group of the Australasian Contingents around the British lion, who reposes on a Union Jack. Taranaki is honored with ten Views around Mount Egmont, and there are 12 photos of the country in which the Maori is at home. The South and far South have a number of views, and Fijian life is well depicted by n views. There are some interesting views of old Wellington. The tales of " The spell of Tohatapa," " One of the Gods," " George Grayling's Gratitude," "The Ghost Coach," " A King's Ransom," " A real old time Christmas," "An artistic Triumph," " Miriam," " My first ride," " His first love," " The Red Light," " A strange discovery," " The luck of the house of Gover," " The skeleton tree," " Bush life in New Zealand," and •• A Maori Warrior," are all interesting and show the liberality with which its readers are treated. It should be a welcome paper to send to friends ia England,

The baptism of children in water brought all the way from the river Jordan was made a feature of the service of one of the Wellington churches on Sunday. A member of the congregation had brought the prized liquid in returning from a tour that had included a visit to Palestine. The tallowing letter, from the son of Mr Gert Pelser, of Lekkerdraai, has been published in a South African paper. It will serve to refute, if that be necessary, some of the fables circulated as to the treatment of the Boer Prisoners : — " Dearest Father and Mother, — We arrived here safely. Through God's goodness it goes very well with me and I wish you all the same. I would like to be a free man to thoroughly explore this place. When we left the ship, we got on to a train and passed through 36 tunnels under mountains and you can, therefore, judge for yourself what sort of place this must be. The train journey did not occupy a whole day. Of plantations you must not speak, bananas, cocoa-nuts, dates, coffee, sugar, and everything else that the earth yields —one cannot give a proper description of the place. We are being well treated, and all I require is money. Please send me a little money for it very hard to be without money. I cannot write for want of paper and ink. Send the money as soon as soon as you receive this letter. — Marthlnus Pelser." The Post says nearly every evening, and during the greater part of each Sunday, groups of well-dressed youths assemble in South Wellington for gambling purposes, sometimes with cards, but generally engaged in pitch-and-toss. On Sunday afternoon a company were gathered as usual at a favourite resort by the plantation on the Vogeltown road, seated on the grass, oblivious of a heavy passing shower. Eight or ten Httis^tyj^^a^parentl>'j^tijjcniri^^?6in Sunday school, -Stewed and looked on with great interest. Then a Chinaman quietly strolled up the road and also stopped and iooked on, apparently to the disquietude of the players. After a short time he passed on, and a few stones were thrown after him. Whether x>t not the Celestial was on a deliberate tour of inspection it would be difficult to say — if so, further developments may arise. Probably he was wondering how long Yung Sin and Win Loo would be permitted to run an al fresco gambling concern regularly every Sunday in full public view.