NEWS AND INDIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 947, 28 January 1911, Page 4

NEWS AND INDIES.

The Ohura district, on the railway route from Stratford to Auckland, is evidently making headway. A new township, Matigavoa, has now got two banks, and sections which cost from £lO upwards seven years ago are now wortn about £2OO. Recently one of the banks paid £350 for a section on which to build. The section was unimproved and covered with logs. They are to have an A. and P. Sb.-w there in .V a nil. Land values are . ..ays on it-' :: crease.

A new road-sprinkling apparatus has been given a trial in Christchurch. it consists of a largo piece of perforated pilling suspended about sixteen feet above the roadway. When connected with the high-pressnro water service, a stretch of about forty yards was watered in less than half a minute. The idea is to suspend pipes throughout the streets ami thou water them in sections, a.s being more expeditious and effective than by the ordinary horse drawn sprinkles.

One of tlie lorumost advocates of vivisection is Lord Cromer, who recently stated, when the subject was under discussion, that a.s the result of bacteriological research eight thousand human lives were saved timing the outbreak of plague iu India fourteen years ago. A very large amount of most important scientific knowledge had been gained through vivisection. There has been an exceptionally dry spring and summer at the Chathams, anil many parts are quite dried up. This is a rather unusual experience for tlie Chathams.

Miss Kate flair, a Wellington girl (she was the only daughter of Mr Wrigglesworth), and a former member of the Brough-Boueicault Comedy Co., lias returned to Sydney. While travelling with Mrs Brough in Now Zealand, Mise (fair met I Jr. Robert Schaehner, Professor of Political Kconomy at the University of Jena, who was gathering material for his work, “Tho Politics, Keonomics, and Gulturo of Australia.” The meeting ot the actress and the philosopher led to an engagement, and Miss Gair is to be married in April in Munich. After an Italian honeymoon Professor and Mrs Schaehner will settle in Jena.

With reference to the recent, motor car accident at New Plymouth, by which Mrs T. W. Pishev and several other persons were injured, Mr George, of Wailara, who was standing with County Foreman Holmes, witnessed the accident. His report, of tho accident is as follows: The car was seen approaching, ami just before reaching the deep quarry on (lie left, a loud report, was heard like a gunshot, presumably from the bursting of the inner tube of the off back wheel. The car swerved and the wheel collapsed. The oar then skidded obliquely across the road, and turned two complete somersaults. dually resting on the side of the road in its natural position and facing New Plymouth.

Before Frank Wilson, an advertising .solicitor, of St. Louis, died in a hospital he told the police he had swallowed several articles of a foreign nature and that they had better put the X-rays at work, lie was operated upon oil the theory that he was afflicted with appendicitis. Three incisions were made in the man’s abdomen, and the following articles were removed: One shoe button hook, lady’s hatpin, three keys,’one lead pencil, one belt buckle, one tin toy pistol, three small nails, one needle, and one thermometer. Wilson, according to his physician, had been in a depressed mental state for some time, during which he swallowed anything that he could get down his throat.

In Manchuria, with its climatic rigours, vegetable growing requires some ingenuity. No gardening can he done until -May, when the seeds are planted, and the soil being very good the growth is proportionately rapid. Usually there is a spoil of wet weather in the middle of the summer. Cabbages and vegetables of that kind grow well, but it is when tho winter approaches that the hard work comes in. An underground chamber has to be made at a depth ol about eight feet. A hot bed is prepared, and the vegetables are traiisplatcd. In these underground rooms the vegetables will practically keep all the winter, so that a supply ot green vegetables is nearly always available. I'otatocs, pumpkins, etc., arc similarly stored in winter time.

U is to be hoped, for tlie credit of humanity, that tow worse eases than tho following come before the Courts in the Dominion An elderly man was charged at Gisborne with having failed to contribute towards tho maintenance of ins two children at. tho Wellington Receiving Home. Tho police stated that it was one of the worst cases they hud over had to do with. Accused lived in the Ormoudvillo district and had had a family of six children. He frequently went away and left his family totally destitute. On returning to his homo ho used to spend liits earnings on drink, fll-treat his wile, and leave his family to bo maintained by charity. At Dannevirko ho was ordered to contribute 25s a week, but this ho managed to evade. Subsequently his wile died, and later, during accused’s absence, two ol the children died, and had to be buried with money collected for the purpose. Afterwards the man took the two older children with him, and the two vounger ones wore sent, to the Wellington Receiving Home. The accused was ordered to pay 15s a week towards their support.