MISCELLANEOUS NEWS

Motueka Star, Volume I, Issue 30, 22 November 1901, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS

—o Quite recently the health of a phone girl broke down entirely under the strain,, and she was sent to her nome to recruit. The vicar of the parish called upon her after her arrival, land to him she poured out her woes; " It is not so much the work," she said,* "as the wovry. You cannot imagine what it is to work the telephone hour after hour, day altar day, week after Jweek, year after year. It has simply ;got on my nerves." " Are you sure it ;is the telephone V be sympathetically : asked. "Oh, yes, quite sure," she replied, "for I find myself saying, ' Are ' you there V when I kneel down at night to say my prayers." —Onlooker.

"We all gamble. I don't say it is wicked. But Ido say it is infinitely harmful. It causes much ruin in innumerable cases. Yet we all gamble —ladies as well as men." Bishop Julius, in the course of a sermon at Christchurch recently.

Buckwheat is the best food for fattening poultry. When buckwheat is freely used the flesh of fowls becomes very white and firm. Much maize gives fowls flesh a very yellow tinge, which is objected to by nearly all poultry eaters. A contemporary seriously states that during Sir Hector Macdonald's visit to a town in the South Island the local gaol had a fine gas effect over its gate, and called it "Welcome."

Mr Alexander Reid, who recently returned to Waikoikoi (North Otago) from the Old Country, gives, according t > the Oamaru Mail, a deplorable account of the state of the farmers in some parts of the Old Land. In England he noticed two men working a single furrow, one leading the horses and the other holding the plough. Mr Reid attended the Inverness show for a couple of days, and he considers that the stock exhibited there was inferior to that to be seen in Otago. Messrs Friedlander Bros., of Ashburton, have purchased (says the Guardian) the Waihao Downs estate wheat, consisting of between 40,000 and 50, 000 bushels.

The united friendly societies of Sydney have put up a building at a cost of LI 610 to be used chiefly as a dispensary. A large hall is subsequently to be erected as a portion of the building, arid this will bring the total cost to over L2OOO.

A miuimum wage of 7s a day, introduced by Mr O'SuHivan, the New South Woles Public Works Minister, is the cause of much complaint amongst the farmers, as it is almost impossible to secure casual handsatreasonable wages. In the Gundagai district the farmers threaten to revert to primitive methods, doing the work themselves and " slogging" long hours, as they cannot afford t"> pay inferior nien double their worth. —Exchange. A Wairaiapa resident informs the Master-ton Times that he believes that within a very short time .£SO will be about the figure of a staunch sound draught horse.

The demand for first class dairy cows '» the Hawera district continues undiminished. Two farmers on the plains attended a sale recently, each of them wanting to buy about 30 cows, but every animal was sold under the hammer, and at pretty high prices, too. "Rambler," in the Hawera Star, says that land in Taranaki has again commenced to change hands, and, thanks to the' dairying industry, is maintaining its value. The only living man who has sat in the Engl"sh Parliament at the accession of both Queen Victoria in. 1837 aid King Edward ih 1901 is the venerable- Earl Fitzwilliam, now in his eigkty-seventh year.

The poverty Bay Herald states that ;a" shocking case was brought under the notice of the local police last week, when a boy ten years of age was discovered to be in a disgusting state of intoxication. He was subsequently removed to t e Gisborne hospital, and a man was arrested for giving him beer.

MrL A. Cuff, the old Canterbury and New Zealand cr'cket representative, was married on October 15th, to Miss E Mod.d- x, daughter cf Dr W. G. Maddox, of Launceston. Tasmania. Major George, of Auckland, who has been one of the principal patrons cf the turf in New Zealand, and who has leai a large investor in the Northe r. mine--, is leaving the Colony for gcod. An Auckland paper says his departure is due to the disgust at the eccentric trend of our labour legislation.

"This scheme of Municipal music has come to stay," Councillor C. M. Gray said at a meeting of the Christchurch City Council. The Band performances promoted by the Council in the Rotunda are going to be a big thing. Two or three thousand people attend each time a concert is given. Whole families come out, including father, mother, baby, perambulator and all. The best individual record of Taranaki farmers that " Rambler" has so far heard of is thsitof Mr J. G. Harkness, of Mid hirst, whose dairy herd consists of Jerseys and a few half-bred Jerseys. From milk alone Mr Harkness received .£8 15s per cow. Mr Wright, of Rowan from half-bred Holsteins, took ,£8 ss. These take a lot of beating. I have heard of several who gioup all their vcelpts and have nteted over .£9 ss, which niu.-t be considered very good, and with the increased price for butter fat this year things will Boom right merrilv. The Rev W. J. Elliot, who has just returned from a brief visit to the Cluth 1 district, writes describing the progress made there owing to prohibition. " Six months ago," he says, " I left Balclutha, and though the population of the town is just about 1017 the improvements in building, etc., have been at the rate of .£IOOO a month or «£6OOA for the six months. There is considerable enterprise among some of the business men, and everywhere I saw s'gns of progress. Mr Watt has re-bu It his water-gas works, the former ones having been destroyed by fire, ami the gas mains are being considerably extended. Sly-grog selling is nothing like so rampant, and it is being rapidly reduced to a diminishing quantity by the vigilance of the local police. 1 am quite convinced that a great libel was recently perpetrated when it was declared that drunkenness was on the increase among the young men of the Clutha. Though Ispent nearly five days in Balclutha last week, I never saw a single person the worse for liquor, but I regretted to see s~>me traces of it'ona special trip I made w.th 150 others up the Clutha River."

A minister was one day walking along a country road, and to his astonish nen t he saw a crowd of boys sitting in front of a ring with a small dog in the centre. When he came up to them he put the following question :

"What are yorr doing to the dog ?" One little boy said : "Whoever tells the biggest lie wins him/' "Oh," said the minister, "when- I was like you I never told a lie." There was silence for a while, until one of the boys shouted, "Give him the dog."

The finances of friendly societies have been receiving attention from, the New South Wales Government, and a Bill dealing with them has. been introduced into the State Legislative. The Government wants to see all the societies placed on a sound actuarial basis, and in many case| this will necessitate increased contributions from members. The societies, however, have objected to compelling their old members to inci ease their contributions, as they consider this to be a violation of their contracts. Thus a difficirlty arose with regard to the Bill, but a compromise has now, it appears, been arrived at. The societies proposed to the Premier that while the contributions of new members were increased old members should be allowed to go on as at present for another five years, and if at the end of that time actnarial valuations showed the position to he still unsound, and then should meet the new situation. The Premier agreed to fall in with these terms.

Thirty three applications were received for the position of head master of the College-street school, Palmerston North, held for ten years by the late Mr George Grant. The Department of Agriculture has sent another order to England for purebred fowls. Sixty birds of different breeds are being obtained on this occasion.

As a result of the recent census, there will be six additional members in the new Parliament. The Representation Commissioners are to meet during the recess to arrange the boundaries.

A Southland paper tells a yarn of a man who was driving a buggy along the Waipapa beach, when a big wave rolled in and capsized the trap, pinning the driver underneath. The next wave, however-, turned the vehicle over again, righting it with the man in his place ! Just before his departure for Amorica, Mr. John Redmond, M.P., addressed a large meeting at Waterford city. In the course of his speech he said that, speaking for himself and his party, they were willing to join witht the Tory Party, or the Lroeral Party, or the Radical Party, or the LabourParty, or, in fact, any party that would cede to the Irish people their national rights. Home Rule, he thought, would come gradually and by force of eir cumstanees. Its time was near, and, though he might say it alone, he said it advisedly, that Home Rule would be proposed by some English party, not in answer to an appeal from Irishmen, but for their own eafety and for the salvation of their own Parliament. Things could not go on as they were going on in the English Parliament. The burden of local affairs was becoming intolerable. The present state of things was wholly due to the spread of Imperialism. The greater the spread of Imperialism the more ; absolutely necessarp it would be for the business of the House of Commons to develop upon local assemblies. As instancing the vicissitudes of fortune in minin7 speculation, the Southland Daily News is informed that one Dunedin investor, who made from £10,090 to £12,000 in a few months in a dredging venture on the Molyneux, has since lost all in other "good things," and is now* in search of a billet. Others whose cheques for four figures would have been unhesitatingly honoured twelve months ago are now practically penniless. A case of general interest was heard at the Lumsden Court last week (says the Southland News). Dr Todd sued for £4: 5s 6d, fees for medical attention and defendent resisted the claim on the ground that the visits were not authorised by him. Mr S. E. McCarthy, S.M,, said that a doctor could see his

own discretion when to cease attending his own patients, and added that if a parent or other, authorised person ordered a medical man to discontinue visiting the patient, and he or she died, a serious responsibility would ensue. Judgement was given for the plaintiff. At the last, meeting of the Westport Chamber of Commerce, on the motion of Mr Stitt, seconded, .by Mr Atkin, it was resolved that' it is to the interests of the general public, especially the pastoral interests, that the road from Collingwood to Westport via Klaramea and the Heaphy should be completed ; also the road between Westport and Greymouth ; that a copy of the resolution be forwarded to the Collingwood, Takaka, and Greymouth County Councils, and to Messrs Guinness, McKenzie Colvin, M.H.R's.,,and the Minister of Lands, Mr Stitt said it had come to his knowledge that if the roads were completed stock owners could obtain at least 10s per head more for store cattle and 5s per head more for sheep. This would open the way for supplying the great Westland grazing districts with store cattle from the dairying districts of Collingwood, Bain ham and Karamea districts. It would also open up the well known auriferous area known as the Heaphy and Crowe districts and give ample facilities for prospecting the carboniferous beds extending to the north of- Mount William, and give a splendid route for tourists. A correspondent of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph says :—" I saw in the Corso at Rome a phaeton with two spirited horses bolt. They were driven by a lady, and I expected to see instant destruction. But the lady coolly grasped a thin cord, and within 30 yards the horses came to a full stop." The cord is fastenedto the dash-board, and there is a running noose round the animal's neck. When, a horse bolts he always takes the bit in his teeth, and the skill of the driver is useless. The moment the pressure comes on his windpipe he knows he has met his master.

Mr R. W. Perks, a prominent Liberal Imperialist member of the House < f Commons, touched upon the state of political parties during a recent address t) his constituents. It was sometimes asked, he said, whether a fusion wjuld take place between the Liberial Imperialists, represented by such politicians as Lord Rosebery, Sir Henry Fowler, Mr Asquith,. and Sir Edward Grey, and the Liberal Unionists, who claimed to be still an independent political party. The Duke of Devonshire, speaking at the annual meeting of Liberal Unionists on 3rd July,, and Mr Chamberlain, speaking more recently at Blenheim.under ducal auspices, had given the best answer to that quest'on. The Liberal Unionists, the Duke of Devonshire said, were opposed to religious equality : they objected to place the education of the country under popular- control or to sever it from sectarian teaching ; they declined to reform the Horn e -of Lords ; and they refused to attempt any temperance reform to which the drink interests would not assent That being the programme of the Liberal Unionists, the 'common with them. Home Rule no longer d.vided them, for no practical man now proposed to set up a separate Irish Parliament- on College Green.