LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 849, 7 June 1910, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Killing the Knyvett agitation. In the course of a political speech in Auckland on Thursday night, the Hon. Geo. Fowlds said that when the new commraandant selected at Home by Lord Kitchener arrived he would appoint a board to enquire into the charges against Colonel Robin, and in due time Captain Knyvett and his friends would thus have an opportunity of the fullest inquiry that they could desire. Such an enquiry could be made only after Parliament had made rehearing legal, and the Government would give Parliament an opportunity of making this provision duriug the coming session. “You wonder what has been the trouble with American cities,” said Dr Henry in the course of an address to men in Christchurch. “ They have been a disgrace, and characterised by misrule, more than any other cities, but you must remember that the average man outside the States knows nothing about it. It all arose out of this problem of aliens. In a recent Roudon census it was shown that less than 2 per cent, of the population was foreignborn, but in the United States for the same year the thirty-three leading cities had precentages ranging from 30 to 91 who were either foreign-born or the first children of foreign-born parents. Unscrupulous politicians used to meet at the wharves and make them citizens before they crossed the road, and then line them up to vote according to the direction of these pothouse politicians. They knew nothing about liberty and cared less. We got 75 per cent, of the ex-convicts of the South of Ireland, and it was a question what to do with this heterogeneous mass. The wonder is not that the American cities have been cqrrupt, but that these aliens have not damned the whole community long ago.” For Chronic Chest Complaints Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure, is 6d, and 2s 6d.

Messrs Millar and Giorgi have a replace advertisement in this issue. The local Oddfellows' lodge has from ,£SO to ,£too to lend on approved freehold security. The opening of Parliament has been definitely fixed for Tuesday, June 28th, at 2.30 p.m. Lord Islington, the new Governor, is to be publicly welcomed at the old Parliament Buildings on the day of his arrival in Wellington, viz., June 22.1 There is a split in the Labour camp at Auckland over the choice of Mr McKnight to represent the party at the Auckland by-election. Mr McKnight intends to go to the poll. John Trembath, the prisoner who escaped from the express train on Friday night, has been traced as far south as Raugitata, but has not been recaptured by the police.

The Sandon tram will connect with the Foxton to Palmerston train at Himatangi, on Wednesday morning and run on to Bulls returning the same night. A coach will connect at Bulls end. This to meet the convenience of those who desire to attend Messrs Keiller Bros, clearing sale. Yesterday afternoon two men engaged in the Miramar cutting, Wellington, were entombed by a fall of earth. One of the men, Wilson, was rescued about five hours afterwards. He was severely injured about the legs and body and was immediately conveyed to tne hospital. The other man Phillips has not yet been rescued.

At the Palmerston S.M. Court yesterday, before Mr A. D. Thomson, S.M., Messrs G. Craw, C. C. Higginson, E. Porter, Ross and Redshaw, A. Seifert and Co., D. Seifert, W. G. C. Smith, H. Jarvis and the Koputaroa Flaxmilling Company were each fined £i and costs, for failing to send to the Secretary of the Union a list of employees within one month of the coming into operation of the Flaxmilling Award.

It would seem that New Zealand is still a terra incognita at Home. A man who has just arrived in Timaru from Great Britain, sold his bicycle before leaving, because (says the Timaru Herald) he had been given to understand that the roads here were not sufficiently good for cycling; he also disposed of his golfing requisites, never dreaming that he would see links in the Dominion.

At the Supreme Court, Palmerston North yesterday, Joseph Powelka was re-tried on the charge of robbery under arms at Awapuni, on April 2nd, when Mr and Mrs J. Kendall were stuck-up at their residence at Awapuni by an armed man. The evidence given was practically the same as given in the previous case, after hearing, which the jury retired, at one o’clock. They returned at 4.40 p.m. with a verdict of not guilty, and added a rider to the effect that they had no doubt such a thing did take place at Kendall’s, but they were not satisfied that the identification by Mr and Mrs Kendall was sufficient. Powelka will come up for sentence on the charges to which he has pleaded guilty, and the arson charge in connection with the High School fire, at 10 o’clock to-morrow morning.

An ancient and interesting witness to Maori musical skill was exhibited at a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society by Mr A. Hamilton, director of the Dominion Museum. It is an instrument, which in form and other attributes is rather more like a flageolet than a flute. Elaborately carved in high relief it is apparently of very great age, and had, said Mr Hamilton, probably come from the Bay of Plenty. It was procured for the society by Major Robby, an ex-New Zealander, who is a well-known collector of Maori antiquities. The instrument is about eighteen inches in length, and had for a long time been in the possession of the family of an early missionary.

An Australian correspondent writes in "correction of a recent statement by Mr Millar. The Minister was reported as having said, apropos of the suggestion that a second express should be put on the Main Trunk line, that one express per day was sufficient between the capital cities in Australia, and that the speed of our trains and the time occupied in travelling compared very favourably with those of the Commonwealth, which were little ,if anything faster than the New Zealand trains. The correspondent says there are two express trains from Sydney to Melbourne daily. The first makes the journey of 552 miles in 17 hours 2'6 minutes, and the second in 16 50 minutes, the average speed in the second case being 34% miles an hour. Our Main Trunk express takes 18 % hours over the journey of 426 miles, the average speed being miles an hour. In addition to the two Sydney expresses there is also a mail train.