Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 1903.

Manawatu Herald, 27 June 1903, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 1903.

A petition is being largely signed in various parts of the colony, for presentation to Parliament, in favour of a State Bank. The Anglican Synod, which usually meets in the month of June, will not assemble this year until the return of the Bishop ot Wellington, about August. In mistake for sweets, Henri Despard, of Acachou, France, swallowed a collection of sample medicines in sugar-coated tabloid form. They included a sleeping draught, an influenza cure, a strychnine tonic, and a headache powder. Next morning his eyesight had almost gone, the hair was falling off his head, and he was foaming at the mouth. The Tourist Department has been fortunate enough to come into possession of a very fine photograph of the famous Waimangu geyser, taken by a visitor when an upheaval some 1500 ft. high was in progress. The photographer has presented the Department with the negative, and it is intended to have several enlargements made, and after being framed these will be hung in the art galleries at the various agencies of the Department. Quite the last craze is the new game called “ Bubbles.” The once popular “ Ping Pong ” has gone to the wall tor a time, and been washed out by soapsuds. A long narrow board is lodged “ on the slant ” on two chairs, one, of course, .being higher than the other. At the lower end of the board a miniature bridge is fixed, which forms the goal. Then»the game is to blow the bubbles .through short pipes. Get one to rest for a moment lightly on the higher end of the board, and then blow it over the bridge. “ Bubble parties " are likely to become all the fashion this season. Cablegrams have reached the colony authorising the official receiver of the Midland Railway Company to accept payment on behalf of bondholders of the Company of the amount agreed upon by the Government (£150,000) in bonds. Payment will be made in a day or two, and this will close negotiations between the Company and the Government. The great and only Baden-Powell is still getting riches showered on him. Latest is that the defender of Mafeking is to marry Miss Daisy Leiter, of Chicago. Miss Leiter is the daughter of a German Jew millionaire, whose other daughter is the Lady Curzon, Vicerine of the Indian Empire. The little difficulties of creed, at one time considered a bar to these alliances, seem to be unconsidered trifles nowadays. Perhaps it is better so. '

Mr H. Austin is leaving Foxton today on a pleasure and business trip combined to the. South Sea Islands., An excellent programme is published in another column of the Foxton Vaudeville Minstrels’ entertainment which will take place next Wednesday veiling in the Public Hall. The object of the entertainment is a worthy one, so that there is bound to be a big attendance. Tickets are now on sale at as and is, children half-price - j The “noxious" rabbit is now being | turned to profitable account in Victoria, and trade is now worth £SOO,- 1 000 a year. One large buyer of rabbits has expressed his belief that there is room in New Soulh Wales for 8000 to 10,000 men to be profitably employed as trappers. A Thames resident remarks : “In Queensland, schnapper is sold at the rate of about 4,d per lb. I wonder if a trade connection could not be made between Thames and, say, Brisbane, for smoked schnapper, I am sure, would meet with a ready sale at prices that would leave a good margin of profit.” Surely the experiment is worth trying, for few places can excel the Hauraki Gulf for schnapper fishing. An Arctic expedition, under the leadership of M. Fiala, fitted out by M. Ziegler, an American capitalist, has sailed from Trondhjem for Franz Josefland, where it will winter, and will explore by means of dog sledges. The vessel provided by M, Ziegler for the expedition is named the America. It is officially stated that the MaryleboneClubis prepared to make itself responsible for a team visiting Australia in 1903, subject to conditions which will probably be accepted. “The Times” says:—The preparations are far advanced. P. F. Warner captains the team, which will number fifteen. The Marylebone Club enters on sharing terms, paying the professionals and expenses of the amateurs. A bill making provision for granting the franchise to women will be intro* duced into the Queensland Parliament in the coming session. It shows how careful one should be in throwing stones. The other day ah Arrowtown resident, while driving a cow, threw a stone at it. The stone apparently struck a vital part, for the animal dropped as dead as a doornail—Lake County Press. If we take the average family as consisting of five persons, that gives 8,000,000 families in England, Soot** land, Ireland and Wales. With a review of 161 millions, it is apparent that each family pays on the average just £zo a year for the army, the navy, education, police, law, and justice.A Frenchman named Canno, who has just died in Buenos Ayres, appears to have ecliphed all misers of recent -times. He left behind him a fortune of about £40,000 and for eleven years he had inhabited one of the worst rookeries of the city, in a condition of personal destitution and squalor exceeding that of the average mendicant. He had never removed the garbage and refuse accumulating in his room during this long period. On the contrary, he had concealed under it all his scrip and bonds, and here it was found after his death. As he left no heirs, the French Consulate at Buenos Ayres has stepped in to appoint a liquidator on behalf of the State. The flea-bitten gray Arab charger which was ridden by the late Sir Hector Macdonald, and always at traded general admiration at parades, etc , was put up for sale by public auction recently in Ceylon, and was bought for 400 rupees. The horse is said to have been a great pet of the late General, having gone through the South African campaign with him. A supposed case of child murder was 'brought to light at Newcastle (New South Wales) on June 13th. While going along the railway line near Ironbark Creek, eight miles from Newcastle, and a short distance from Hexham, Mr Michael Clark, a ,settler, ■found a brown paper parcel, and on opening it saw that it contained the body of a child. At first it was thought that the little one was dead, but a closer inspection revealed the fact that this was not the case. Mr Clark took the baby to a house at the Hexham railway gates, and the pblice were communicated with. Sergeant Salter of Lambtoh, and Dr John Harris, Government medical officer, went up to Hexham, and the doctor attended the child, which lived until five o’clock in the afternoon. Dr Harris formed the opinion that it was about 3 months old. It was a female, rather puny, but must have possessed a lot of vitality to have survived so long the treatment to which it was subjected. The spot at which the baby was picked up was just on the Maitland side of Ironbark Creek, a shallow tidal stream, about a chain wide. There was a mark on the ground as if the human bundle had been dropped with some force, and had then skidded away from the creek some little distance, ; The child was fully dressed in clothes of good quality, which were perfectly clean. On its breast there was a small flat stone, about lib in weight, wrapped in a brown paper bag. The supposition, apparently a very reasonable one, is that the child was first drugged, then wrapped in the paper, and taken in a train running from Newcastle to Maitland, for the purpose of being thrown into the creek as the train passed by. The shot miscarried, and instead of the little one being drowned right away, it was left exposed in the open air through the bitterly cold night. There is a slight wound on the top of the head which might have been caused by a fall.