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Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9366, 8 February 1909, Page 4

Archie McNeill, the prisoner who escaped from the Terrace Gaol, Wellington, a short time ago, is supposed to have been through Wanaannion Thursday morning. He stayed on Wednesday night at the residence of Mr Mclntyre, Wanaaehu. McNeill is wearing, besides ordinary attire, a pair of buckskin gaiters, spurs and cap, and is riding an upstanding bay horse, McNeill is supposed to be making for Taranaki.

The Times reports that Mr Mathew Todd, a Feilding baker, has disappeared. He went to Palmerston on Friday and was expected to return that day. He was seen to leave the train at Terrace End. Since then, so far as his family and friends are concerned, he has vanished from ken. Last night there was a rumour that he had been seen at Foxton, but it is so f*r unconfirmed. Mr Todd was believed to have been in low spirits for some time. He recently sold up a boardinghouse which he kept in addition to his bakery business. Mrs Todd is an invalid and there are four grown-up children.

On Friday judgment was given at Wellington by Mr W. G. Riddell in the charges against J. T.;McKinnon, publisher, of selling a copy of the newsnaper New Zealand Truth, of 2nd January, 1909, which contained advertisements by P. J. Flanagan, O. Westbrook, E. Martin, and Stellin and Davidson, whereby it was made to appeal that they were willing to make bets or wagers on the result of certain horse races in New Zealand, that is to say on the horse races to ho run at Wellington on the 20th, and subsequent days. The Magistrate held that the advertisements were a breach of the Gaming Act and fined defendant £5, with £3 10s, costs.

■ It is understood that in May n'ezt, tbe Crown tenants in the Wellington provincial district will be given an opportunity of electing a member of the Wellington Land Board. At a meeting of the Manghana Miners’ Union on Saturday night, it was decided to institute proceedings by tbe federation against the mineowners for a lock-out at Christmas on account of tbe placards and notices re medical examination. An offer 'of a live stag for the sum of £SO was submitted to the Napier Borough Council meeting on Wednesday evening by a visitor from Palmerston North. The Council, however, agreed that the town did not require the specimen, 'one member suggesting that the offer be referred to tbe Abattoirs Committee.— Telegraph. In accordance with his promise to have a Royal Commission set up to enquire into the alleged charges of bribery in connection with the Ohinemuri Licensing Committee of some years ago, the Prime Miuister has asked the Chief Justice to arrange for two of his colleagues the Supreme Court Bench to accept t he office of Royal Commissioners for the purposes of inquiry. A Palmerston party, who were driving yesterday to Tiritea, met with an accident owing to the drag going off the road on tbe hill near Mr Foster Pratt’s place. The occupants were all more or less injured. Mrs and Miss Ohippenden had their collar bones broken and were otherwise bruised. Mrs Fowler had a compound fracture of a thumb. Another young lady had her eyes blackened and hurt. The three named were sent to the Palmerston Hospital. Miss Gascoyne was one of those slightly hurt, and the driver had his nack braised. The statement of T. A. Durran, canvasser,- Feilding, who has filed a petition in bankruptcy, is as follows ;—Unsecnred creditors, £249 19s 9d ; secured creditors, nil; total debts £249 I9s 9d ; assets, furniture £2O; deficiency. £229 19s 9d. Unsecured creditors: Feilding; Dr. Willis £l4 16s Feilding Star £8 Is. Marten: Nuttall Bros. £3 5s Id, Nielson Bros. £7 3s 2d, Brice £6. Patea: R. A Adams £162. Dunedin : Albfeld Bros. £lO. Palmerston North: Manawatu Times £4 "10s. Taihape ; Daily Times 18s 6d. Pahiatna ;W. R. Godfrev £33 18s. Wanganui : Thain and 00., £1 2s 6d.

The Standard gives the following account of the drowning of Elsie Hansen in the Manawatu river. She with Florxie Thompson, each 13 years of age, residents of Terrace End, went with a boy of 10 to bathe in the river below Brightwater Terrace. At the point mentioned a big tree juts out from tbe bank into the river and the two girls walked out over the water on the tree. Florrie Thompson slipped and both girls fell into the riyer. Florrie Thompson was washed down with the stream about two chains where the current carried her against the bank and she was able to scramble ashore. Her companion must have got further out into the stream for the rapid current carried her right down to within two chains of the next groyne where she sank and was seen no more. The water in this portion of the river is exoeedinly deep. As Minister for Roads and Bridges, Mr Hogg is not likely to please the Departmental officers, over whom be has been placed. When opening a Dawson suspension bridge at Hamna on Friday, he said that the engineers of the Public Works Department, like the door spider, were content to work in one groove. They looked npon the Dawson suspension bridge with contempt, yet the designer was a practical man of 26 years’ experience, and knew more about bridge construction than so-called engineers who despised his work. The different Government Departments wdre progressive in everything but bridges, and in those were content to erect heavy, cumbersome structures at big expense, which should be carefully conserved and placed in the museum as a monument of the work of presentday engineers. Had the Government engineers designed the present structure its cost would have been five ' or six times greater, and consequently prohibitive.

An amusing scene occurred at Wellington Supreme Court when a Chinaman was being sworn. In reply to a question as to how he wished to be sworn, the Celestial nonchalantly said: “Oh, anyhow.” The crier repeated the oatfi, but as he himself held the match to be blown out instead of handing it to the witness, the ceremony was declared to be invalid. Then the witness decided that he would be sworn in tbe orthodox fashion. When a Bible was placed in his hands, so willing was he to imprint a kiss upon the pages that the crier, while he was reciting the oath, had to restrain him. At length the formula came to an end, a plstol-libe, report woke the echoes of the Courtroom, the unemployed in the back seats tittered, the Bench assumed its gravest countenance, and the lawyers cleared their decks for action. John Chinaman was sworn.

Boldly thirty-seven Kaitaugata ooal-trnokers, who were supposed to be on strike, faced a strolling snapshotter’s camera. They were to be taken by a special professional, and thousands |pf copies of the group were to be circulated, because the picture was to appear among the illustrations in a weekly paper, and for all this glory the charge was nil. Therefore the men scarcely needed the customary request to smile or look happy. The beautiful - content that comes to the person who id conscious of getting something for nothing beamed from their faces. But to-day that sweetness is changed to acidity. They are the next photographer brave enough to approach the coalmine, and they are aching to give him a lovely positive (with right and left) for his negative. The picture of the group of strikers was used to identify tho men who had broken the law, and the result was that they were ordered to share a fine of £3o.—Post.

People say that times are bad and that the season is out of joint. That is so; we all realise it to be a fact A great lot of summer stock is still with tia and the drastic cutting down of prices at Neal's Gigantic Stock Quittance Sale, Feilding, is a wonderful surprise. Men’s and Boys’ wearables at the keenest of prices. Come along and you will buy all right.* “A bird is known by its tune and so is a man by his reputation,” Mr O. E. Gibbons, Marten, claims to have the reputation of manufacturing tho best cordials aud aerated waters on the Coast. Orders solicited for the Christmas season, and punctually attended to. *

'Mr and Mrs Prior, of Feilding, are leaving for a visit to;England by the Tnra-kina next month. They will be absent from the Dominion about eight months, t The native black rat, which is generally supposed to have been exterminated by the imported variety, is well-known in Belvedere, where Mr ;E. Eagle, jnnr., informs the Carterton News it is very numerous at the present time, v

The Turakina, which is due in Wellington on the 13th, is bringing 70 assisted immigrants, including fourteen children and twenty-one people who have been nominated by their relatives in New Zealand, and have work or homes to go to. There are among the number eleven farmers, ten farm labourers, fourteen domestic servants, and three women with families who are coming out to join their husbands. Large hauls of kingfisb were made in Wellington harbour last Friday morning, nearly one hundred were brought ashore on the Mniitai beach by the Italian fishermen who live at Bona Bay. In one oast of the net there were over 30 fine fish, the smallest weighing about 401 b. The fishermen themselves were unable to bring the net beaohwards, and a number of Europeans brought their muscles into play by dragging on the ropes for ail they were worth, until the fish were landed. For some days prior to the arrival of the kingfish in Port Nicholson the Kona Bay fishermen had had bad luck, very little fish of any kind having been netted. With regard to the carriage of grain on railways it is worth noting that sacks are not counted in calculating the mininuxn of SOOlbs. The Gazette states that the following method of computing the tonnage of grain will be followed :—Wheat, 12 bags of bushels to the ton; barley, 12 bags of 4 bushels to the ton ; oats, 14 bags of 4 bushels to the ton; flour, bran and pollard, 22001bs to the ton; oats, crashed, and other grain, by actual weight; 601ba of wheat, 501bs of barley, or 401ba of oats count as one bushel. The value of this statement so far as wheat is concerned is discounted by the fact that it is not lawful to put bushels ot wheat in a bag. Extraordinary interest has been aroused by the news that the Emperor has become a teetotaller (says the Berlin correspondent of the Standard). His Majesty, it is stated, has pledged himself to abstain from all alcoholic drink for the remainder of his life. But the Emperor, in taking this decision, has no wish to compel the members of his Court to follow his example. He has a special temperance drink of the colour and effervescence of chaHpagne, so that the contents of his glass appear in no way different from the contents of tin glasses of his neighbours at table. When the Emperor is invited to dinner his especial drink is supplied to his host in advance, and lis served from bottles similar to those containing champagne. One feature of New Zealand’s trade in the Old Country was referred to by Mr F. W. Haybittle, in conversation with a Post reporter. “I Visited the Smithfield markets,” he said, “and, judging from the manner in whhdi New Zealand beef, mutton, and lamb is displayed and eagerly taken up, it would appear as if the old. time prejudices against the colonies’ products of this character had-entirely disappeared, and to use ‘frozen’ is now a recognised proceeding in connection with the daily round of the busy culinary environment of London’s great hotels and restaurants. It is significant, however, that the visitor very seldom hears of or happens across New Zealand butter or cheese on the London tables. These are either supplied and referred to under another name, or on arrival distributed for consumption in the provinces.” The tall and stately giraffe, at present occupying a prominent position as a show feature with Wirth’s circus, has provided a very anxious time for his owners. Owing to the animals’ excessive timidiy, lie is liable to sudden death from fright or from seasickness. All this had to be taken into consideration when Messrs Wirth Brothers decided to ship this unique creature to New Zealand. During the trip from Melbourne to Bumie, Tasmania, the giraffe fared very well, ,hut during the tour in Tasmania he suffered scare from some means or other, and the tall fellow went “off’.colour,” and it necessitated the services of two attendants to watch him night and day. The voyage from Hobart to Bluff was a trying one for both Mr Wirth and the attendants, and at one stage the odds j.were a bit against the giraffe making land alive. However, owing to extreme care, the giraffe landed in a better condition than was anticipated. This animal cost the Messrs Wirth £IOOO, and by the time he was ready for exhibition the expenses had reached £llOO in round figures.