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Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9334, 2 January 1909, Page 4

The Public Trustee invites tenders for leasing sections in the Awarua block, i !

The gold exported from Otago daring 1908 totalled 97,844 ounces valued at £395,809. The religious body known as the Brethren are holding a three days’ meeting at Feilding and a large number have assembled Irom many miles around.

Anckalnd Mining Companies have resolved to impose a medical examination on workers in order to reduce the risks of compensation being payable for miners’ disease under the new Act.

The steamer Daldorch went aground on leaving Auckland on Thursday. The captain who was paying his first visit to Auckland deemed a pilot unnecessary, and ran his vessel ashore in the Kangitoto Channel. Tugs got her off on Friday night.

The rainfall recorded for the month of November in Christchurch showed only a trace, and farmers feared gthey were about to face a season of drought. December shows a rainfall of ever inches, andfthe total for 1908 is nearly 25 1-5 inches, which is not up to the average. The weather is beautiful to-day and grain prospects are the best for many years. Harvesting will be general in the vicinity of Christchurch in a week or ten days. The area under cereals is very large and the yield is expected to be abundant. Labour is plentiful and weather conditions excellent.

J. and F. Coats, Ltd., the great sewing-cotton company of Paisley, to some extent felt the effects of the depression in trade, as their net profits in the year to June 80th were only £2,701,697 as compared with £3,056,125 in the previous year. The 30 per cent, dividend is still paid to the shareholders, but only £500,000 is carried to reserve, as against £675,963 in the previous year, and the balance carried forward of £836,234 is over £17,000 less than 5 that brought into the account. The average man, however, will hardly think the concern fared altogether badly.

Some time ago I happened to be looking [out of one of the diningroom windows of a bouse situated on the north side of Edinburgh, when glancing down into the area, I noticed a very old and dirty oat sitting, Or rather crouching, in the centre of the area, gazing intently at the cellar door, which was shut, and would be at least four or five yards away from him. Just at that moment a rat put out bis head from a hole in the corner of the door. He looked straight at the cat and then withdrew. This performance was repeated once o r twice, the rat coming forward a little further each time, till he was out altogether. Then he rushed in again, only to reappear immediately, as if he could not resist some compelling force. All this time the cat never moved. Then Jtbe most interesting thing happened; the rat came out, and running in a slow, szizzag, hesitating way, approached within a foot of the oat, who then pounced upon the rat, but could not hold him. The moment the cat moved the spell was seemingly broken, for the rat, squeaking loudly, ran for his life, and escaped under a cellar door at the opposite end of the area, where the cat was seen vainly inserting a paw under the door, in a last attempt to capture the prey.—G.B. in the Scotsman.

The attention of subscribers and advertisers is specially directed to the announcement which appears before the leader relating to accounts due to the Raugitikei Advocate. During the past year the amount outstanding has been so largely increased that it has become necessary to close the books, as from December 31st, and clear these at the earliest possible date. All accounts due ransc be paid by Saturday, 16th January.

Mr William Wallace, TarrawarraT, Roto, via Hillston, N.S.W., writes; “I make it a point to always keep Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy in the house, having never known it to fail when given for coughs or colds, ” btULSflle everywhere.

London is dull, and after _ 12.80 a.m, quite hopeless. That is the view of many Americans, who complain of the impossibilitty ofjobtaining food at a late hour. An American arrived in Loudon in a halffamished condition the other day. The clocks gtold him it was half-past twelve, and his hotel waiter gravely shook his head when the unhappy man asked for a chop and a small bottle of somebody’s ale. “In my desperation,” said left the hotel and wondered out into the. Strand. By a happy accident, I passed a cabstand, and there saw some happy jehus eating a tender loin steak in the cheerful glow of their little shelter. The hungry man has no conscience—and no‘side’ —therefore, I put my head inside the shelter and said, ‘For the love of Moses, 1 am starving; may I have some?’ The cabmen seemed to regard it as a good joke, and immediately invited me to enter.' I had the square meal ‘of my life’ on that rough little deal table, and amidst those excellent fellows. ”

In its October issue,: Liberty and Prorgess, the anti-Socialistio monthly published in Melbourne, examined thejlast balance-sheet of Jjthe Port Elizabeth and Seddonville collieries, which showed a net profit of £8440 for the year. Our contemporary discovered, however, that the manner in which tnis profit is made to appear is extremely curious. It points out that" of the 287,309 tons of coal sold from the two collieries, 166,018 tons were sold to the railways and other State Departments for the sum of £160,52,5 while 71,291 tons were sold to private consumers and shipping companies for £88,780. “These figures,” it is remarked, “contain the whole secret of the of the New Zealand State coal mines, which is achieved by the Government charging itself (by far the largest consumer) about 20s a ton for coal which it has to sell in the open market for half the price. The railways were actually charged £116,324 for 114,673 tons. In Victoria the Government pays 14s and 13s a ton for railway coal. Three formidable piles of letters from Americans who are to settle in Victoria are having a depressing effect on the officers of three State Departments, says the Age. When- the American -journalists accompanying the fleet were entertained in Melbourne they promised to advertise this State in.their country. One of them has done so with a vengeance. In the syndicate of American newspapers which he represented has appeared a sensational article under the name' of Mr H. L., Olotworthy, entitled “Australia Offers fortunes for American Colonists, ” and declaring, in a sub-heading, “Victorian Government will give 10,000 dollars laud and cash to Jeach settler to make white country.” In it he informed the people of America that “the tremendous financial sacrifices the people of Australia are willing to make to perpetuate a ‘white Australia’ is strikingly showm in a colonising plan just inaugurated by the Victorian Government, under which American or English agriuclturalists are offered an advance of passage money out to the Commonwealth, and a cash and land credit aggregating 10,000 dollars on their arrival. ’ ’ Of course the whole statement is an absurd exaggeration, but it has been tkaeu seriously by many hundreds of readers. Several of the applicants state that they are particularly attracted by the fact that Australia is to be a white man’s country, with an advance of 10,000 dollars;

Commenting on a paragraph from the New York Sun with reference to the bestowal of the freedom of the city upon two Amexicau officers during their short stay in Hamilton, the Waikato Argus states r ‘ ‘ The real facts of the case are that Mr Franklin Matthews, representing the New York Sun, and Lieut. Keyser, of the Louisiana, were so engrossed in collecting dividends at the Ellerslie racecourse that they missed the special train set apart to take the visitors to Rotorua, and coming along by the ordinary 4.15 p.m. f r om Auckland, became stranded in Hamilton for the night. Next morning, while putting in time till the departure of the train for Rotorua, a local wag conceived the idea of presenting the freedom of the city, and with the assistance of our jobbing foreman, an illuminated card, a couple of keys, and some red, white and blue streamers, the necessary document was soon prepared and duly presented. The recipients entered heartily into the joke and were delighted at the fruition of the novel suggestion. Appearing in the New York Sun, however, it takes quite a different complexion, and it appears to have been taken seriously in more places than Auckland.”