BREVITIES.

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 15, 22 November 1904, Page 3

BREVITIES.

A I*ll take* place in the Masonic Hall next Friday. Mr. Blake. surveyor, returned from Auckland last week. Mangonui County Council meet tomorrow (animal meeting). Mr. O. Easton has completed the audit i of the County Council books. The Snowflake Minstrels showed at Saco last Saturday to a bumper house. There are 100 D»*fence Rifle dlubs, comprising 2,416 members, in New Zealand. The social giv«*n by the gentlemen of Totara last Friday evening was a great success. The Snowflake Minstrel Troupe will show in the Waipapakauri Hall on Saturday, December lrth. Mr. W. A. Johnson, representing Messrs. Hancock & Co., is due in Mangonui on or about November 24th. The number of persons who arrived in the colony in the year 190.1 was 30,863, an increase of 590 on the number for the previous y>?ar. A packed house greeted the performance of the Snowflake Minstrels last Tnosdav evening, a report of which apt pears elsewhere. The sum of £1,357,263 was invested by the public of N.Z. on the totalisator last vear, £20,486 of which was paid to the ( Treasury us percentage. I One hundred and thirty-two Chinese (all males) arrived in the colony during 1903, and 124 (all males) left, the arrivals exceeding the departures by 8. The Mangonui Mounted Rifles were favoured with beautiful weather for their annual ball last Friday, as a consequence of which there was a large attendance. Next week Mangonui will be professionally visited by that popular dentist, Mr. Hubert Dacre. His stay will extend from November 30th to December 14tli.^ > The s.s. Clansman, it is expected, will resume running on December sth, leaving Auckland on that date (Monday) and arriving in Maagonui on Tuesday, December 6th, at 7.30 p.in. At the hospital concert last Tuesday evening, a large amount of money was subscribed towards the County Hospital during the entertainment, independent of what was tuken at the door.

Tenders are now advertised for the supplying of telegraph poles and the delivery of wire insulators along the line of route of the new telephone wins which will connect Herekino w ith the Northern

The quantity of Kauri gum exj’orted last year was 9,357 tons, as apuinst 7,480 tens for 1902. Last year’s produce (£631,102) rave an average value of about per ton, w hile i/k r 1902 the average was £6O 11/11 per ton.

Residents of Kaeo who wish to register births, deaths, or man rages, are comT4*lled to travel to Whangaroa, and from them c across the harbour to Totara, and in consequence feel aggrieved that their application to have the local post office gazetted a registry office has been hitherto ignored.

Mr. J. Evans, sen., who Ims recently returned front a trip to the United Kingdom, informed the writer that not once whi Ist there did he see a pound of New' Zealand butter advertised for sale—always the best Danish or Cork. Mr. Evans advocates exporting butter from this colony in lib. pats only, with the label stamped as being New Zealand produce.

According to the “ Mangaweka Settler,” when the Baltic fleet ran amuck a - gang of Taihapeites surrounded a fislierman on the main street of Taihape and poured forth abuse* and maledictions. The man is a naturalised Britisher, married to an English woman, a prominent member of the Oddfellows’ lodge, and an exemplar}' citizen. He asked his tormentors why *he should be held responsible for the misdeeds of the Russian Government, but the intelligent men were not in a position to explain. They probably had not brains enough to think out such a complex question. New Zealand has had nioie than its share of this sort of unreasoning fanaticism.

Well and favourably known, especially in shipping circles, is the old-established firm of Messrs. Thomas Lane & Sons, shipbuilders and saw’-millers, whose shipyard and mills- are at Totara North. It ■ is pleasing to think that this firm has * earned on a successful and flourishing Business for many years past, and has added many noble vessels to the fleet of the mercantile marine, besides being the nieanß of circulating some thousands of pounds annually throughout the North. At this industry is a local oue, uid at our very doors, it will interest many of our readers to learn that at the beginning of the present month this progressive Ann shipped two launches to Wanganui, which have been built to the order of Mr. R. Arthur, of that plate. Last week they despatched a surf-boat launch, fitted with a 5-horse power “Mriiutrch” engine; also a lighter named “Ruru,” of about 60 tons. Both these latter were for the Gisborne Meat Freezing Company. There are many different types of engines now on the market, but the “ Monarch ” compares more than favorably with its rivals. These engines are being used in five surf-boats on the East Coast, and have proveAadmirably adapted for that trying work^