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Manawatu Herald, 4 February 1904, Page 2

Considerable additions are made to the N.Z. Loan & Mercantile Agency Co.’s Oroua Downs stock sale. The Austrian population of New Zealand is now 2000. They are going in largely for vine growing in the north. Two subscribers of the Lyttelton Telephone Exchange have been " cut off” for allowing persons other than their own employees to use the telephone. Turnip-thinners are In demand all over the Clutha district at present. The usual rate of pay is a half-penny a chain, and a smart man or youth can make from 10s to 12s a day. At the Court yesterday, before A. Fraser, Esq., J.P., Chris. Hampton for drunkenness was fined 5s or 24 hours. John Walsh for drunkenness was convicted and discharged; the same offender, for begging, was sentenced to 7 day’s hard labour.

A litnaru resident recently imported a motor-car that cost-him £tooa. The Otago Daily Times says that the inclusion of Mr J. A. Miller in the Ministry would be one of the shrewdest steps Mr Seddon could take. It is rumoured (says the Feiiding Star) that Mr A. D. Thompson, S.M., is to be appointed District Court Judge at Wanganui, vice Mr Kettle. By an explosion of acetylene gas at Cape Juquonas, in the south of France, ten persons were killed and seventeen severely injured.

A cable from New York states that it is expected that Congress will increase the Naval Estimates. The order includes six first-class fighting ships. At Wirths’ Circus, while performing at Whangarei, a fight took place between two panthers, male and female. The male panther killed and half eat the female.

We hear (says the Mail) that dead trout arc to be seen in hundreds in portions of the Ohau river-bed, the water having completely dried up below the main road bridge.

A Maori woman got a dress made at Manaia the other day, which took 23 yards of material to complete it. The extent of her avoirdupois is only a little over 23 stone.

The London Daily Mail states that Mrs May brick will be released on a special license stipulating that she must not appear on a stage, write a book, or attract attention. The funeral of the late Mrs R, Wood, of Rongotea, took place on Tuesday afternoon and was attended by a large number of friends. The salvation Army Band escorted the cortege to the Feiiding cemetery. Arthur Cundy, of Featherston, while harvesting last week, met his death in a terrible manner. It appears he was stacking hay, and in jumping from a cart, landed on a hay-fork, the prongs piercing his stomach. Death was instantaneous.

As a result, says the N.Z. Times, of invitations issued by the powers that be, quite a number of resignations from the public service of the colony are likely to be gazetted next week. Some officers in the Defence Department will be amongst the number.

. At the Dannevirke Police Court on Monday morning, a young man named O’Rourke was fined £io of two months in Napier gaol for assaulting a native. This incident was the cause of a riot in J uly last. Accused escaped at the time and evaded arrest, until Monday last. The fine was paid. A shag shot recently in the vicinity of Eketahuna had a pretty good “ take away.” It had only been hanging about the stream for a day or two, but according to the Express, its stomach, when opened, was found to contain no fewer than thirty trout. The largest was three inches long. Mr R. H. Kivell, the well-known handicapper, of Stratford, has received a letter from an athlete offering him “ a good cut out of what I win, also out of the betting "--if the writer is favourably handicapped. Naturally Mr Kivell is incensed, and it is likely more will be heard of the matter.

In defending a moneylenders’ claim in the City of London Court, it was stated that in xBB6 a clerk borrowed £2O. He had paid £IOO by way of interest, and was now summoned for £153. Judge Rentone.made an order for the payment of one farthing per month, so that the debt could be paid in 10,000 years.

A youth, aged 15, charged at Christchurch with using obscene language to his father was ordered to come up for sentence when called on. The youthful reprobate, it appeared, used very objectionable language, locked his father in the bouse, and then threw stones on the roof.

The barque Concordia has been sold in London for about £4OOO. The barque, it will be remembered, was cast ashore at Kaipara about two years ago, and being abandoned to the underwriters, was purchased by Messrs J. Stewart and other parties at Helensville. Being re-floated, the vessel came to Auckland and loaded for London.

At Cobra, New South Wales, some boys took the sprags out of three- railway waggons standing at the copper mine siding, and let them run down to the dead end. They came into collision with three loaded waggons, and completely wrecked them. Four men working on the line noticed the waggons just in time to get away.

At the Supreme Court at Auckland on Tuesday a Danish labourer name° Victor Harper, for committing criminal assault on a married woman, was sentenced to ten years’ hard labour, with two floggings of fifteen lashes each. His Honour, in passing sentence, said it was a shocking crime, and the worst that could be committed short of murder.

A unique feature in connection with the banquet to be tendered the Premier and other guests by the South African Veteran’s Association at Palmerston to-night will be a souvenir of the occasion to each guest in the form of a service biscuit. The alleged indigestible preparation will be tied with patriotic ribbon on which will appear the toast list and menu.

A distinguished visitor to the colony at the present time is General Sir Robert Cunliffe Low, who distinguished himself at the time of the Indian Mutiny, conducted the Chitral campaign, and took a leading part In the numerous achievements of British arms in India. At present General Low is in Wanganui, After visiting the Hot Lakes and Auckland he goes to England, via Melbourne and Canada.

The cost of dealing with Loudon’s mud is tremendous. The city of Westminster alone spent £106,000 on road cleaning and scavenging last year. There are twenty-eight boroughs in the metropolis, and together they spend over £ 1,000,000 a year in keeping the mud under. Thus nearly £3,000 is daily spent in more or less vain efforts to keep London clear of mud. Thousands of carts and scores of barges are employed to take the mud away. Aml yet still more mud comes.

During the last quarter of 1963 £641,982 was collected in Customs duties in the colony. Aucklancrovas highest with £172,381, Wellin|toh second with £161,845, and. Dunedin third with £100,493. For the corresponding quarter of 1902 the amount collected was £593i°30A few days ago a boy named Connaughton disappeared from his home at Cowra, N.S.W. Search parties and police were looking and dragging dams tor some days, but the boy was found on the Goodalong Road, tramping to Forbes. He had made up his mind to abscond from home rather than go to school.

It was mentioned in the N.Z. Times of Tuesday last that an octopus had been captured in Oriental Bay near the spot where children are in the habit of bathing. On Friday night a shark 9ft long was captured A little farther round the bay, at a place whett? night and morning men and children by the score are wont to swim.

From all accounts the hop crop in the Nelson district is likely to prove disappointing this season. The dry weather has had an injurious effect, and the red spider is reported so prevalent in some gardens that the owners will hardly trouble to pick. With a% view to saving as much as possible, some have already commenced to pick their crops, but the yield is not expected to be one-fourth of that of last' year.

Some excitement has been caused in Reefton by the discovery of some very rich quartz at a newly- opened mine called the Dlster, The specimens are said to be probably as rich as any ever brought into Reefton from the Inangahua district. Some yeafs ago such a discovery would have set Reefton half crazy, but that time has gone by, though applications for shares in a company which is being floated td work the ground in question are coming in very rapidly. At the Wanganui Police Court 00 Tuesday a woman named Mary Railston was charged with tresspassing oq the Government railway line on the 29th January. Defendant pleaded guilty, and stated that other people, regularly went that way to the station. Sergeant Norwood mentioned that the circumstances were that on the day in question the woman was seen by the driver ot the mail train walking along the line. He whistled, but no notice being taken of the warning the brakes were applied and the train eased up. However, the woman would then have been knocked down and probably killed by the train, but for the stoker running along the platform of the engine and pushing the defendant out of danger. The woman was carrying a baby >at the time, and the chances are that both would have lost their lives but for the action of the stoker. A fine of 5s and costs 7s was imposed by the J’s.P., Messrs F. A. Krull and J. Stevenson.