LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3742, 17 January 1907, Page 2

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

The Moutoa Syndicate has sold 317 acres of land to Dr Wall of Wanganui. We understand the doctor has land adjacent to that which he recently purchased.

Mr, Mrs and Miss Jeuks leave Foxton on Saturday to ”do ” the Christchurch Exhibition.

C- Smith, draper, Palmerston N. inserts a supplement in this issue in reference to the summer sale. In the case Osborne v. Dunn at the local S.M. Court on Monday the initial of the latter should have been “ E ” and not “ F. ” The Rev. Mr Southern has been appointed in charge of the Methodist Church in this district for another year. A committee has been formed at Otaki to make enquiries into the necessary steps to be taken to form Otaki into either a town district or a borough, and present a report at a public meeting. Preparations are well forward for the Foxton Racing Club’s meeting to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday next. Given fine weather the meeting should be a great success. A meeting of old boys and townspeople will be held in Mr Perreau’s rooms at 7.30 o’clock to-night to make final arrangements in reference to the Stewart presentation. It is hoped that there will be a large attendance.

While attempting a double somersault at the Woodville Swimming Bath, Mr W. H. Mandill slipped and fell heavily on the concrete. An ugly wound on the thigh, had to be stitched up, and there was a nasty bruise on the hip bone.

The Port Chalmers branch of the United Temperance Reform Council has passed a resolution viewing with alarm the number of cases of young persons charged with drunkenness coming before the Police Courts of the colony, and has entered an emphatic protest against the licensed liquor system.

Mr Francis George Heath relates a story of a working man who complained of the charge of 2s 6d a doctor made for a bottle of medicine. “ Why,” he said, “ I suppose there ain’t sixpennyworth of stuff in that bottle?” “Well, no,” answered the doctor, “ I doubt it there is more than twopenny worth of ‘ stuff ’ in it. But I will tell you what I will do. The next time you want to consult me you pay me sixpence and you shall take your choice from all my bottles,” “Oh ! but,” said the man ; “ I should not know which to take.” “Exactly,” retorted the surgeon, “ and that is why you pay me half a crown.”

The recent celebration by Sir Theodore Martin oi the ninetieth anniversary of his birthday has produced an abundant crop of reminiscences, but, so far, the “Glasgow Herald ’ ’ points out, there has been no mention of the fact that he was an eye-witness of the historical reconciliation, after a five year's estrangement, between Dickens and Thapkery. The meeting took place at the Athenaeum Club, of which Sir (then plain Mr) Theodore Martin was, asjhe is still, a member. Thackeray was standing in the entrancehall when Dickens passed him. Thackeray ran after Dickens, and, catching him at the foot of- the grand staircase, said something to the effect that he could not bear to be on any but the old terms. Then, to the gratification of the little group of onlookers, who were keealV' - interested in the denouetook the band heh| (lliiiirhim, and what bias bed| JW. described, as ‘‘Jwpas^Sj

Mrs Hamer, of the Economic, will commence her summer sale of drapery on the xqth. Eook out for bargains. A meeting of the members of the Flaxmills Employees Union will be held in the Temperance Hill this evening at 8 o’clock.

Fourteen Russian Doukhobor fanatics, who are in gaol at Winhave refused to eat, and food is pumped down their throats three times a day under the supervision of a doctdr.

The recent heavy rains have caused the Manawatu river to overflow its banks. A large area of land was inundated yesterday but the water has receded to-day.

Mr Speirs, the well-known local builder and contractor, has disposed of his flaxmill at Waipukurau to Mr Thomas Johnston. We understand that the latter has again sold the mill to a local resident-

Probably the oldest elector who entered a polling booth in Victoria at the Federal elections (says the Argus) was Mrs Parker, who recorded her vote in person, at the Casterton booth, in the Wannon division. She is in her 94th year, and still hale and hearty. In the Mataura district the other day a freak of nature in the shape of a four-legged and four-winged fowl was hatched amongst a clutch of less fortunate brother chickens, and the owner of the bird is going to send it to the Exhibition. Mr C. B. Fry mentions a curious coincidence in “ Fry’s Magazine ” in connection with the South African team which has been touring Great Britain, Their average weight (last gib) is exactly the same as that of the New Zealand “ All Blacks.”

The youngest woolbuyer in the colony, if not in the world, was an operator at the Timaru wool sale last week, a lad of nine named Labura bidding for and buying a number of lots. He was, of course, under the tutorage of his lather. Another lad of 13 named Palmer was also a bidder.

The day has come, says the Post, when fathers and mothers should realise that if their cradle is to be kept tenanted, the baby will require more attention than a common cabbage. Yet some parents appear to look upon an infant as a species of vegetable which will thrive somehow so long as it is irrigated now and then with watery milk.

Tokaanu, on the southern shores of Dake Taupo is a veritable paradise for anglers. A Wanganui sportsman, who had been spending his Christmas holidays whipping the rivers that flow into this beautiful lake, met with wonderful success, and brought home to the hotel bags ot fish every night. One evening he landed a beauty weighing 16£2lbs, and shortly after another weighing aalb swallowed the minnow and was safely netted. The fish are in splendid condition and, being free from mossy flavour, are splendid eating. On Tuesday Mr N. T- Pearce, organ-builder of Sydenham, Christchurch, arrived in Foxton. together with his son, to erect the pipe organ imported for All Saints Church. Mr Pearce is making good progress with his work and expects to have the instrument ready for use by the latter end of next week. Arrangements for the dedication of. the organ are not yet complete. It is hoped that Mr C. F. England may be able to play on that day; and the date will probably be Sunday, February 3rd. In the meantime the old (American) organ will be used for the services.

It has been reported to the police (says the Hawera Star) that a respectable elderly man went to two hotels last night to procure a bed. Both houses were unable to accommodate him, and he communicated his predicament of being unable to get a bed to a couple of young men who were on the street. The young men volunteered to get him a bed, and led him away toward the railway station. As soon as they got him a little out of the town they knocked him so violently that he fell down, and they took all his money from him. The victim’s face bears evidence of his having been severely treated. The police have the matter in hand.

On Monday last a cowardly attack was made on the wife of a settlor at Clandeboye (South Canterbury) who recently arrived from South Africa. It appears that in the absence from home of Mr Pemberton, a powerfully built man, apparently a swagger went to the house, apd on Mrs Pemberton going to the door he asked it her husband was at home. Not liking the appearance of the man, Mrs Pemberton replied that if he wanted him she would cell him. The man then attempted to enter the house, but Mrs Pemberton pushed him back. He then dealt her a blow on the face severely cutting her cheek. Mrs Pemberton looked round for some weapon to defend herself. Luckily there was a window blind roller within reach, and with this she dealt him a heavy blow on the head breaking the roller into three pieces. The man was evidently cowed by the plucky defence made by Mrs Pemberton, and took to his heels. Information was sent to the Temuka Police, who were quickly on the scene of the outrage, and every effort is being made to secure the man’s arrest. —Press.

Holiday railw-o- oxcnr-don arrangements arc advertised for Anniversary Day.

The following inters wore unloading coal at the "’tharf yesterday •icdv They for

A similar change.in the water of the-Waikato River took place last week as the Wanganui River has undergone during the past few days, says the Herald. During Friday last it was running bright and clear, and at about its summer level. During the night it rose hilly 2tt, and was very discolored, something like it was after the eruption in June, xBB6. The surface on Saturday was covered with pumicestone and foam and the change was probably due to warm rains on the mountains at its source melting the show, which had brought down with it more of the debris thrown out by the volcanoes.

James Tatraan, a farmer of Topeka, Kansas, was seriously injured recently through a calf eating dynamite. The calf fpund three sticks of dynamite which Tatman was using to blast a well. As Tatman ascended to obtain the explosive, he was horrified to see the calf calmly chewing the last stick. He hurried forward, shouting and waving his arms in a frantic effort to drive the animal away. Suddenly the dynamite exploded with a roar heard a mile and a half away. The animal had chewed a dynamite cap with the rest of the meal. Mr Tatman was* knocked back into the well by the terrible force of the explosion and seriously injured. Only fragments of the calf could be found.

‘‘ Do the Maori people seem to be increasing ?” was a question put by a Press interviewer to the Chief Justice on his arrival at Rotorua on Friday. Sir Robert replied “ I cannot understand ©ur last census. Either the previous censuses were wrong or this census is somehow inaccurate'. Whereever I go in native districts the natives seem hardly half what they were twenty or twenty-five years ago. The Maoris at Tokaanu are not, I should think, half the number they were, for example, in 1885 —twenty two years ago. And they do not seem to engage in farming operations as they did then. Some of them, I understand have sold timber on their lands, and this is giving them a present revenue, and has had the effect of making them cease to live an industrious life. I was told that the Maoris used to have sheep running near Tokaanu, but that the high price of sheep induced them to part with their flocks, and now, there is no stock on their lands, which are becoming overgrown with manuka and fern.”

The Feilding Star records the death of Mrs Shannon, wife of Mr E. Shannon, of Waitnna West. Heart failure, following'on an attack of pneumonia, was the cause of death. The deceased lady was 5z years of age.

Remarkable conditions are said to prevail amongst school children in a Swiss canton. A cable.message to the New York Sun from Geneva says:— “ It is the custom in canton of Licino, whare liquor is very cheap, and large, quantities are smuggled across the frontier, to drink before and after every meal. Black coffee and Cognac often replace coffee and milk at breakfast, with the result that young often arrive at school intoxicated? 1 The other day a school inspector, dropping in unexpectedly on a class of some fifty children of both sexes, varying in age from seven to fourteen years old, found more than half the class completely intoxicated and sleeping, and theother pupils more or less under the influence of liquor.

Exposure to cold and damp causes rheumatism. The skin cannot give off the excess uric acid and it become desposited in the blood, Ehecjmo will quickly cure the trouble. All chemists and stores, 2s 6d and 4s 6d. 4