laOCAIa AUTO CHENTERAXi.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 226, 21 August 1884, Page 2

IaOCAIa AUTO CHENTERAXi.

At the last sitting of the R.M. Court at Waipawa, Ben B. Johnson sued Jay and Haynes, formerly contractors at Taharaite for £50 5s 8d on a dishonoured P.N. Judgment was given for plaintiff, with £5 14s costs, execution to issue forthwith.

Wo remind our readers of the general meeting of the members of the Racing Club to bo held at the Commercial Hotel, this evening, at 7.30 o'clock. The business comprises election of stewards and office bearers and general. Mr Levostam is to introduce a Bill for better securing the purity of intoxicating liquors. We have to correct a mistake ia yesterday's issue relative to the meeting of the Manawatu Railway Company. The meeting does not take place till Wednesday, September 3rd. During the hearing of a case at the Wellington Resident Magistrate's Court, Mr Wardell, R.M., remarked that he was glad to see the police were moving m the right direction m trying to enforce the law against publicans who supplied intoxicated persons with liquor. Mr W- H. Sheen, a gentleman who for samo time past has been m the employ of Messrs Thompson, Shannon, & Co., and Messrs Kirkcaldie and Stains, and up to quite recently m the service of Mr Munro, of Bulls, died m Wellington on Friday. The cause of death was paralysis. The deceased gentleman was ouly 21 years of age. At a meeting of the Wellington Benevolent Society. Mr Wardell expressed the opinion, gained from an extensive knowledge of the Wairarapa district, that few men need want work if they looked for it m the country. This assertion was combattedby another gentleman, who aserted that there were at present time no fewer than 250 men swaging it m the Upper Wairftrapa looking for work. ! The question whether school boards have the power to enforce the learning i of " home lessons" by the scholars (says the N.Z. Herald] has just been decided by Justices Matthew and Dale, m the Queen's Bench Division. The mother of a child attending school at Bradford served a notice ou the schoolmaster that she objected to home lessons. In spite of this the child was detained beyond school hours as a punishment. The mother prosecuted the schoolmaster fpr a technical assault ; and as the magistrate refused to convict, the opinion of 1 this Court was sought. Both learned judges concurred m deciding that school boards had not the power to enforce " home lessons," and they remitted the case to the magistrates for a conviction. One of those sad instances which, alas, are too frequent m the colonies, cropped up at the weekly meeting of the Wellington Benevolent Society on ,Tu«aa«y . when the case of a man with a wife and fou* .wur nnwafl mentioned as-applying for temporary reheir: Gout* cillor McKenzie stated that from personal inquiry, he believed the applicant to be a most deserving object for assistance. He was only a recent arrival m the colony, and was related to a wealthy wool,*Btapler m the North of England, where ho himself had lost £12,000 m business of wool merchant. As the man was said to be a good wool sorter, it was decided to obtain employment for him m the country during the coming shearing season. Judge : ' Prisoner, have anything to say before judgment is passed upon yoi ?' Prisoner : ' I would entreat you to consider my counsel's miserable speech for the defence as an extenuating cinuinstance.' It is stated that the Princess Alice wasthe most original thinker among the Queen's children, and made her famjly nervous about her freethinking tendencies, but after the death of her chill she rejoined the Church. There is an invention spoken of which it if thought may abolish the bit. It is conposed of a steel band placed over the f rent bone of the horse's nose, and to this appliance the lines are attached. The inventor claims for this substitute for the bit that it gives complete control to the driver over the horse without iuflicting the least discomfort or torture on the animal itself. It haa been tried with satisfactory results. A flower has been discovered m South America, which, it is stated, is only visible when the wind is blowing. The shrub belongs to the cactus 1 family, and is about three feet high, with a crook at the top, giving it the appearance of a black hickory f cane. When the wind blows a number of beautiful flowers protude from little lumps on the stalk. The Taupo correspondent of the Bay of Plenty Times says : — "Some of the shepherds m the employ of Messrs Morrin and Co., who aro living at the foot of Tongariro Mountain, inform me that one night last week they heard loud and ominous subterranean thundorings, and these were kept up from about 11 o'clock until 4 a.m. They describe the rumblings as follows : — "For upwards of about 10 minutes loud rumblings could be heard m the direction of the volcano ; these noisos would increase, and finally wind up with a terrific blast. This sort of thing continued for a long time. Diving the convulsion there_w»»-iio perceptible motion of tho"cTrater, as the whole of the mountain was enveloped m clouds. There seem to be a general disturbance, and even the shepherd's dogs gave warning of something unusual." The paper-pad shirt, it is needless to say, is a Yankee motion. The bosom of this novel garment consists of several layers, of which one can be torn off every day, on the blotting-pad principe, exposing a clean white surface m its place. A still more enterprisiug inventor is now trying to perfect a plan for printing instalments of a sensational novel of thrilling interest on the back of each of the layers. He shrewdly expects that, having once commenced the tale, the wearer of the paper-pad shirt will be unable to wait a whole day for the next instalment, and so be tempted to peel off the successive layers of his shirt front at more frequent intervals. " It's the easiest thing m the world to tame a rat," says a rat-fancier. Take the most ferocious rat, throw it into a pail oj water and leave it there until it becomes exhausted and is about to drown. Then take it out, roll it m i wadding and put it m a warm place. When the rat comes to it will evince the deepest gratitude. It will lick your hands and follow you about life a dog, and can.be taught a number of tricks. At prices ranging from 23 cents to 40 cents a number of so called old maids were auctioned off at the close of the recent Union Armoury fair m New Haven, Conn., all the ladies being masked. Each lady was " purchased" by a different gentleman. When the market was exhausted there was an unmasking, and the lowest figures proved to . have been expended upon the wealthiest and handsomest young ladies m the oity. Says the Napier Herald :— Mr Tanner has now received the returns on his hop crop. Two bales sent to England to test the market there were sold at the rate of £7 per cwt., and 32 bales sold m the colony brought eighteenpence a pound, or £8 Bs. per cwt. The average yield was over 4£ owt. per acre, and this, ! it must be remembered, was from cuttings — not rooted sets — planted only six months before the hops were gathered. Such a yield was never heard of m Sagland. This year a crop four times as large is looked for, and if expectations are realised the returns will be considerably over £120 an acre, calculating the price at £7 per cwt. Mr Tanner is putting 26 acres more into hops, and is. en-, larging the present drying-house and adding another kiln .

An interesting connecting link with the past was severed last week by the death of the venerable Lady Dukinfield. She was at the celebrated ball at Brussels the night before Waterloo, immortalised m verse by Byron. She saw the officers called away, witnessed the subsequent dcparluro of tho troops, and the noxt day h:iw tho Duko of Wellington ride out from the city followed by. his aide-de-camp. Lady Dukinfield was on the ramparts throughout the day of the battle, and saw the wounded brought m. Her eldest brother was killed at the head of his company. -