NEWS ITEMS.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 63, 21 March 1902, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

There has (says the Dunedin Star) been a rumour that an attempt may'be made next session to apply the principle of single electorates to the cities of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch,

and Dunedin, but we doubt very much whether it will be more successful than Mr Ell’s bill last year with the same purpose in view.

In future all perambulators and children’s mail carts must carry a light after dark in-the County of Kent. The penalty for infringing the bylaw is a sum not exceeding 40s. The fecundity of small birds is notorious, but a Geraldine farmer has lately made an observation which will surprise many a reader. According to the Christchurch Press, he had been watching a nest with five eggs in it, visiting it almost daily, and what was bis surprise one morning on going to the nest as usual to find no fewer than ten young birds just hatched. Twin eggs, and fertile, all of them. A story is told about the vicar of rural parish ■who had waxed eloquent in the interest of foreign missions on, Sundays, and was surprised on entering a village shop during the week to be treated with marked coldness by the dame who kept it. On his seeking to know the cause, the woman produced a half-crown from a drawer, and it down before the vicar, exclaimed, “I marked that half-crown, and put it on the plate last Sunday, and here it is back again in my shop. I knowed well them niggers never got the money !” A pear tree in the orchard of Mr Robert Linton, of Tiniroto, Wairoa, is said this year to have yielded fully 3000 pears. The tree is 13 years old, and of the Doynne Boussath variety, a capital dessert pear. .Under a recent date the Capetown correspondent of the Sydney Herald gives “one secret of De Wet’s success in eluding capture or injury. Although always on the move, he never runs unnecessary risks. If he is fighting a rearguard action he will often be found in the advance of his forces. On one occasion, when his commando was reported to be in difficulties and himself in imminent risk of capture, he was actually some two hours’ ride from the scene of danger. Whilst he displays “slimness,” an excess of caution, like this, it naturally follows that the risk of capture is not very great. His men do not seem to resent this, but instance it as a proof of his good qualities as a leader and ability to keep in the field. He ma\ be captured and shot any day, but the risk is not nearly so great as might generally be supposed. I have specially mentioned De Wet, because people at a distance attach so much importance on his capture. Such a contingency would be valuable as a feature in the grinding away process, but it would not. end the fighting. Many of the commandos are roving hands of bandits, seizing*what they can get —never fighting unless possessing a marked superiority in position or num hers. As the struggle continues the features of warfare are becoming less distinct, whilst those of brigandage are more marked. Some may regard it as guerilla warfare, but even that term would dignify many acts committed by those in arms against those. I don’t suppose the leaders are responsible for this, but their control over the personal acts of their followers is very slender, and of discipline there is none.” Reports from the Cape state that a splendid season has been lost through the war. It is years since the Cape was visited with such splendid rains as it had early this spring. Live stock was wonderfully healthy, the lambing season was a good one, and crops, where the farmers were allowed to grow them, were abundant. ,

Speaking to a Government; official the other day, a representative of the Taieri Advocate asked how, on the whole, rating on unimproved values had operated in those places where it had been brought into force. He replied that he, deemed that the general effect had been entirely satisfactory In .some eases it had been effective in inducing people to build on vacant spaces that were lying idle, and people who held a lot of sections unoccupied, when they did not build, improved their sections by putting good fences up and cultivating the ground so as to make it reproductive. A case of particular interest to publicans was heard before Mr C. C. Kettle, S.M., at Wanganui Police Court recently, when J. W: Hands, licensee of the Wangaehu Hotel, was charged with selling liquor during prohibited hours to one Leigh. The facts were practically not in dispute. Leigh was a bona fide traveller, and called at thehotel on a particular Sunday to see Mr David Hogg on business, the latter being a lodger at the hotel. Leigh “ shouted ” drinks for himself and Mr Hogg. The section under which the information was laid provides that liquor purchased by a bona-fide traveller must be consumed by himself and no other person. The parties to whom the drink was supplied were both entitled to be sei ved, one being a traveller

and the other a lodger, and their trouble was that while the lodger could hrve “ shouted ” for the traveller, the traveller could not “ shout ” for thelodger. Under the circumstances, Mr Treadwell (for defendant) asked the Magistrate to dismiss the information under section 87 of the Justices of the Peace Act, particularly on the groundsthat an endorsement of the license must follow a conviction, and that the offence jvas trivial, no one not entitled to drink having procured liquor. This being the first case of the kind in the Colony, Mr C. C. Kettle followed that course.—Chronicle.

At a meeting in Wellington last week, Mr Lyall, the evangelist, said that Lord Methuen is one of the finest Christian men in the British Army. In speaking on testimonies, Mr Lyall mentioned that at a gathering in South Africa similar to the present meeting, Lord Methuen stood up and gave his own personal testimony. The speaker also stated that in one of his meetings in Scotland Sir George Wnite, who was then commander of Ladysmith, had similarly come forwkrd.

Dr Kurt, a well-known medical man in Vienna, has, according to the “Yorkshire Observer,” propounded a remedy against diphtheria which, besides being novel, is a marvel of simplicity. His prescription is to place in the mouth a piece of barley-sugar or other confection capable of producing free salivation, which should then be directed strongly against the affected part. According to Dr Kurt, saliva possesses bactericidal properties which destroy the microbes more rapidly than the most complex formula known to medicine.

The design which is to appear on the reverse side of the new florin is that of Britannia standing upon the prow of a, vessel, her right hand grasping a trident, and her left resting on a shield. The Taranaki section of the Farmers’" Union has declared its intended political attitude for the forthcomings general . election. The Union is to keep its eye open for a good man who will pledge himself to the farming interest irrespective of party.

Since its formation the Dunedin. Starr-Bowkett Building society has advanced .£32,000 to shareholders.