Manawatu Herald. [Established Aug. 27, 1878.] SATURDAY, JAN. 7, 1905. Esperanto.

Manawatu Herald, 7 January 1905, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. [Established Aug. 27, 1878.] SATURDAY, JAN. 7, 1905. Esperanto.

Thk idea of a universal language for the world has been mooted for •ome time, and several schemes have been formulated for the purpose, but none seem to have taken the popular fancy. A new tongue, known as Esperanto, has now been brought forward with some degree of success, and several famous men, notably Sir William Ramsey and Count Leo Tolstoy, speak very highly in its favour. Its chief virtue is its extreme simplicity. It is claimed that the average child can learn the language in six months. Count Tolstoy says that with the aid of a dictionary he was able to read Esperanto fairly well in two hours! There are 12,000 Ksperantista in various parts of the world who are anxious to correspond with students of the language, and this will no doubt encourage many to study it. We live in an age of marvels, but that it should be possible to have one language for the 1,500,000,000 souls who inhabit the earth seems beyond the expectation of the most fantastic dreamer.

Mrs M. A. Whyte has a nine-roomed house to let in Harbour street.

The local grocers received advice to-day that sugar has again risen 20s a ton.

Messrs O’Connor & Tydeman advise the public to watch” their space for startling announcements.

The Foxton Borough Council meet on Monday evening next, when tenders for lamp lighting will be dealt with. Mr J. M. Johnston and bis daughter have returned to Palmerston North from their trip home, much improved in health.

The Kaiser has directed commanders not to retain sergeants convicted of maltreatment of soldiers after the current time of service has expired. Three arrests have been made in London in connection with the forgery of the Bank of England £5 notes. The forged notes have been circulated on the Continent.

The War Office anticipates that twenty months will be occupied in the completion q£ the re-armament orders distributed at Woolwich, and with Cammell, and others already cabled. The London County Council is organising a drainage scheme which will cost seven million and involving three hundred miles of main and flood sewers.

The s.s. Storm, bound from Wanganui to Foxton, grounded as she was steaming up the river this morning, and up to now is hard and fast. No doubt she will be floated off on this evening’s tide.

An escaped Wolf killed a hundred sheep in Northumberland. It was chased by foxhounds in the country* side for a month. Eventually the animal was killed by being run over by a Scotch express train. The Premier has agreed to give £7500 towards the re-erection of the Nelson college, provided a similar sum is provided by the Board of Governors. This arrangement is subject to ratifu cation by the Cabinet, which is looked upon as certain. The London Times states that the War Office last week ordered from Messrs Vickers, Sons, and Maxim, Armstrong Company, the Whitworth Company, and others, a sufficient number of 18J pounders to re arm the whole army. The Standard’s Rome correspondent states that Italy and Britain are prepared to assign the Mullah a settled sphere with grazing rights in British and Italian terriritories if he will keep the peace. Lord Roberts, after visiting the South African battlefields, writing in the Nineteenth Century, says that he is more than ever convinced that the reverses were chiefly attributable 'lo the inability of the British troops to shoot. He advocates a universal compulsory military service. A rather unique incident at the Maori village at the New Plymouth Exhibition on Sunday was the christening of a Maori baby born there on Friday. “ Carnival ” was the name bestowed on the infant, - who was presented with an inscribed mng by the Exhibition Committee, some of whom were present.

Mr John Plimmer, who has been •Styled “ the Father of Wellington ” died at his residence in the city on Thursday morning, aged 92 years. Of late years he has been in failing health, and the end was not unexpected. He arrived in Wellington in 1841, and had been closely associated with the growth and development of the city.

In Russia there are a vast number of Grand Dukes. Probably, says the London Truth, those least dangerous to their country are those who squander money in leading a fast and disreputable life in Paris and in other resorts ot idle fools, -.and the most dangerous are those who niay the part of political and military adviser to the head of their family at home. Says the Timaru Herald:—lt is said to be part of the native lore of the Maori that a prolific growth of flax and cabbage tree flowers betokens a dry summer. If this is true, this district is going to be burned up, for there surely never was such a quantity of either of these flowers seen before. The same thing is noticeable throughout the Wairarapa.

With this issue we would draw our readers attention to “Malko” malted Coffee and Kola, a most wholesome beverage now on the market. Composing as it does, the finest ingredients known, and absolutely no adulteration, everyone can rely on getting a good cup of coffee. Old and young can take it, alike reaping the same results. See that you waste no time in securing some at one.

The Russian calendar contains 132 holy days, upon which the peasant is strictly forbidden by law. to do any work. Ignorant, struggling against fearful odds with disease, working hopelessly an impoverished soil, crushed with taxes, half-starved, the Church yet forces the poor peasant to remain in idleness more than two and and a-half days each week, that she may wrest a few kopecks from him when he comes to her services.

Lord Charles Beresford is not without readiness of retort. His father, who began life as a clergyman, was a very keen sportsman, and all his sons followed in his foot-steps. A friend of the family, who did not approve of this kind of education for a clergyman’s son, approached the youthful Charles, and said severely, “Do you suppose that the Apostles shot on the Sabbath Day ? ” “ Perhaps not,” was' the quick response, but I am quite certain they fished.”

When the news of the surrender of Port Arthur was communicated to the Japanese wrestlers with Fitzgeralds Circus at Napier, says the Herald, they at first assumed the stoical indifference supposed to be characteristic of their nation, but almost immediately afterwards there were evidences of emotion and audible exclamations ot “ Banzai, banzai 1” This word, in Japanese, is one of jubiliation, and may be roughly interpreted to mean either a gratified appreciation ot good luck or an exultant “ Hip, hip, hurrah,”

The Fnglish Treasury offered Beck £SOOO compensation for false imprisonment.

The Foxton Borough Brass Band is putting in some strong practices lately in view of the forthcoming races. The British quarterly revenue was £34,879,090. The Customs contri billed £9,677.000, excise £10,827,000, and stamps £2,080,000. The Gaikwar of Baroda, speaking at the Indian congress, advocated the abolition of caste and the appointment of the King’s near relative as Viceroy of India.

President Roosevelt has been presented by an admirer with a bed quilt composed of 22,642 different pieces of material. The pattern represents the national colours.

A final reminder is given to horseowners that general nominations for the Foxton race meeting close with the secretary (Mr J. R. Whyte) at g p.m. this evening.

A body found at Day’s Bay has been identified as that of Horace Hobday, one of the crew of the Te Aroha which foundered off Pencarrow Head on Monday.

The New Vork bankers have offered their co-operation with the leaders of the movement in the Southern States to withhold produce until the prices cover the cost of production.

A carpenter) aged fifty*six, living at Lebanon, Pa., who had his stomach removed recently owing to a growth, which . prevented digestion and assimilation of food, is now in /good health, and able to eat solid food with comfort.

Captain Jensen, of the barque Silicon reports that while trading in SouthEast Greenland, he Met a party of copper coloured giants, from the interior, They were from seven to nine feet in height, and resembled North American Indians, The birthrate in the German Empire is steadily going down—urlore so in Berlin and Hamburg than in some of the South German towns. In the first-named it has fallen since the seventies from 47 per iooo to 23, A couple of instances ojf the effectiveness of the manual training given at the Burnham Industrial School lay in the fact that two boys were about to leave the institution were able to earn sufficient wages to maintain themselves, one as a carpenter, the other as a bootmaker.

The world’s largest locomotive will shortly Make its appearance on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It weighs over 213 tons when in running order, and carries thirteen tons ot coal and 7000 gallons of water. The African pigmies at the St. Louis World’s Fair are negotiating for the purchase ot an airship with which to hunt elepkants. They declare that it will render a usually perilous pursuit free from danger. A clerk in the advertising department of an English newspaper was interviewed by a man from the country who wished to adveriise the death of a relative. “ What is your charge ?" he asked. 11 We charge four shillings per inch,” was the reply. “ Ob,” said the countryman, “ I cannot afford that, my friend was over six feet high 1” The Oamaru police, in their efforts to maintain respect for the law, visited a certain hostelry the other evening, (says the North Otago Times), and as they entered at the front door, an energetic and lively individual took a back window as a means of exit. It was a well-intentioned display of agility, but it was rendered valueless by the fact that the man fell into the arms of the police at the other end. Of late by almost every steamer that arrives at Hobart from Capetown young Australians are returning home wards, disgusted with the state of aftairs existing in South Africa. A good proportion of them tought the Boer war as volunteers, and either stopped behind or returned to South Africa in the hope of getting work. They complain bitterly of “ the Imperial Government’s shabby treatment." “We were good enough to fight for them,” they say, “ but not to work for them. Chinamen can do what they want.” They express the conviction that unless a radical change be effected, there will be an uprising of the whites against the yellow men. A white man can sometimes get one day’s work a week, while the Chinamen are employed regularly.