NEWS ITEMS.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 43, 10 January 1902, Page 5

NEWS ITEMS.

—o — A writer in the Greytown "Standard" waxes eloquent as to the Premier \s attitude'in'regard to the Eighth Contingent, as follows :—"Bravo, Mr Seddon ! You invariably rise to the occasion. When to diminutive minds a case is hopeless, you infuse new life into it. I. believe you could in one month, in a manner of a great leader, raise ten thousand fighting men. inclusive of our dusky brethren, and J would stake my life's existence that, supplemented w.th a similar number, you would lead them in person t.) vie tjry in the Transvaal ; that in six months after the arrival of the transport at Capetown giving you a. free hand with sufficient supplies, you would bring the war to a happy termination, and cease the useless spilling of blood ; and that you would not be second to '.Lord Bobs himself in your magnanimous treatment of the enemy, I would l>e willing to subscribe fifty pounds out < f my means towards your equipment, a.i well .as join in line under your banner."

A Palnie.rston paper has the following : —We do not know whether it is a sijin of prosperity or otherwise, but we V-ave never seen so many battered >peeimens of humanity about Palmer:*t»>n as during the present time. Not a single arrest was made by the i olice in Christen ureh on New Year's Eye, and all night long the cells at the ■police station were vacant. A police official who has been in all the large > ities of New. Zealand informed a rei.orter that Christchurch is the quietest a,nd soberest of them all. The Taranaki executive of the New Zealand Farmer's, Union has affirmed a proposal that in ordei to render the services of the Government Veterinary surgeons of greater value to farmers, they should be permitted to do private practice $z a charge of 21s for the first and 10s for each subsequent visit ; also that, it be part of their duty to deliver lectures in various centres of their dis-r on the different diseases in stock K pay special attention to the diseases %n.ost prevalent in their districts.. The executives in otbep centres have been* asked to approve the suggestion. The.firm of Nelson Brothers and Co, Iras notified that it will ?purchase sheep Poverty Bay districts thjs,, ib at an advance of Is over the,-prices.,ruling in December. The pre^ejat-inp,t}th's rates.are for wethers. l?Q 3 Cmaiden .£wes,9s, ojd GQlbjat an .average pro' rata ie-. d» ,„ '-" '

The Rev. Mr Gray, Wesleyan Minis - ter, died at G/reyrnouth somewhat suddenly on the '3rd of this month. Corporal Moore, of Turua (Thames), who is representing- that district in the Eight Contingent, was a corporal in the First Queensland Contingent, and took part in the ongagements at Belmont, Sunnyside (where the Queenslanders under Col Pilcher captured a large number of Boer rebels), Kimberley, Paardeberg, Osfontein, Poplar Grove, • Blomfontein, Sanria's Post, Brandfort, ELroonstadt, Johannesburg, Irene, Pretoria, and Bronkhorst Spruit. Lieutenant D. Taplin, who went into camp at Trentham last week, is a son of Mr S. Taplin, of Palmerston North. Four of his brothers are already at the front with different colonial troops.