NEWS ITEMS.

Motueka Star, Volume I, Issue 32, 29 November 1901, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

While a reaper and binder cutting a crop of 40 acres ble, New South Wales, between 400 and 500 rabbits were killed. The last harvest in the South of Ireland is reported to be the best record during the last quarter of a century. The r o cro; s v. e~e at one time iik great je pardy owing to the pieval-" ence of the drought, but the weather broke ju.~t in time, and a steady downpour proved their salvatioi . Oats and barley are well up to the average ; wheat is not a. favourite crop, but where grown it has done well, and has been harvested iu first class condition The potato crop is also a satisfactory one, and for the first tme in many years past there are no complaints of the exigence of blight. An M.H.R , on the East coast was addressing an agricultural meeting,, and in the course of his remarks expressed the opinion that farmers do not sufficiently vary their crops, and make a mistake in always sowing-wheat. One of the audience opposed to him in politics asked him what crops he would reoomrnend. "Everything in turn," he replied. "Well said his interlocutor, 'if sweeds don't come up, what then?" "Sow mustard," said the M.H.R., "And if mustard don't come up, what then ?" And so he went on through a whole of crops, unt'.l, the M.H.R.'s patience being exhausted he put an end to his questioning ad midst roars of laughter by saying : "Oh, sow yourself, and I hope you won't come up."

London "Cricket" fathers the following lie : —A funny incident happened in a little church in Tasmania recently. The parish clerk was a great cricket enthusiast, as well as a notable umpire. One hot Sunday he was dozing in his official- desk at church, ~ dreaming doubtless of the great match to be played next day. At the close of the sermon, when the time came for him to pronounce his customary "Amen," he astonished-the minister and highly delighted the congregation by shouting in stentorian tone, "Over !" Lieutenant Lionel Phillip Russell, son of the. Hon. Captain Russell, M.H.R., is an officer of the West Yorkshire Regiment, at present in" South Africa.

Mr Carnegie is credited with having said that to die rich is to die disgraced. There is another conscientious American who goes one better than Mr Carnegie by laying it down that a man should not use money which he himself had not earned. This gentleman, Mr James Eads How, is a millionaire, yet not a millionarie ; that is to say. he has inherited a huge fortune, but declines to appropriate a dime out of it to his own use. Recently he founded a fund of ,£IO,OOO for distribution among trie poor of St Louis, and he lives like a pauper himself. His ideas are not necessarily eccentric, but rather Biblical. He is a highly educated man and spends most of his time in travelling about the country, and studying various social evils. In order to do this he aasociates'" with tramps and other outcasts, and he pays his way by doing any sort of work that offers. He arrived at Ghillicote, Missouri, this week, says a London correspondent, writing on the 11th October, and chopped wood for his hoard and lodging, a large crowd watching him with great Mr How dresses shabbily, but it is reassuring to learn by cable that he "always -wears a clean -white shirt."

At a meeting in Auckland last week Mr~ Jacob H. Wright, president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, urged that all farmers from North to South should join in" one band of unity: At the next gdneral election they should be prepared, as one man, to place agri_

culturists iri the =Hbnse, who would up-r hold the interests of ;■ "fanners. ..Unless they brought this power to bear their aims would.lncome to, Tiieir only hope was in unionism. It they broke up .into sections their power would be nil, but if they combined they would be "able to twist the present Ministr-y as they liked.' He -would not be surprised to see the Premier president of the Farmers' "Union yet. (Laughter.) The veteran Scottish athlete, Donald Dinnie-, has taken a hotel at ford, in England. At a meeting of the management committee of the ' Hawke's Bay Rugby Union the financial statement shewed that the Southern tour of the representatives cost ,£l5O. The union realised .£2OO from a bazaar, and will stait, the season with a credit balance of over ,£1 60.

Some Maoris, fishing at Wairarapa Lake the other day, caught a monster eel, 7ft 10|in long, 25|in in girth at the thickest part, and . weighing 671 b 3oz. The native -who got the eel on his line was pulled into the water, but three other men and two wahines came to the rescue, and by their combined exertions hauled the catch ashore. The whole hapu subsequently feasted on the fish, and a small portion of the eel, still unconsumed, that -was shown to an inquisitive pakeha, was a section about a foot long, split open, and spread out fiat, resembling very much in size and shape an ordinary hack saddle. The half-mile championship x>f Queensland was won by C, C. Saunderson, in 2min. ssec. With Wentworth and Campbell as well, the northern State is strong at this distance.

At the London Athletic Club's autumn gathering C. H. Jupp won the 200 yards' open handicap-from scratch in 10 l-ssec.

A very sensible man called upon lan Maclaren recently. He was tall and thin, and alert, and followed his card so quickly that lan Maclaien had barely time to read it before his visitor was in the room. Then the visitor, says "The People's Friend," spoke as follows : —"My name is Elijah EL Higgins, and lam a busy man. You are also busy, and have no time to fool away. Four days is all I can give to the United Kingdom, and 1 wished to shake hands with you. Good-bye, I am off to DrumtochtjV He left the room swiftly, but the novelist caught him at the. door. Asked if he knew where Drumtoehty was, "Guess I do,"" replied Mi Higgins. "Got the route in my pocket, north-west from Perth, N. 8."

Pickpockets in Melbourne are pastmasters of the art. Recently a miner from the west was standing on the Post Office steps, when a gentlemanly looking individual trod heavily upon' his toes. Then stepping up to the miner, he placed a hand upon his shoulder, and sympathetically apologised for his clumsiness. The apology -was willingly accepted, but some little time later the miner found that the polite apologist had relieved him of a pocketbook containing 15 sovereigns and other valuables.

Truth's Wellington correspondent says :—"lt is reported that an illicit retail business in intoxicants is being carried on in the King and especially along the line of the North Island Main Trunk railway, by all sorts and conditions of people. The profits to be made are sufficient to tempt men to run all risks, with the result that sly grog-selling is rampant. At the Erril sports (says the London Daily Mail) about the end of September C. Ryan, a well-known Limerick hammer-thrower, broke the world's record in putting the 281 b. The previous figures were 35ft lgin, by the late W.. Real, and Ryan beat.' this by

3|in.