VOLUNTEER REGULATIONS WELLINGTON NOTES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 299, 15 September 1888, Page 6

VOLUNTEER REGULATIONS

WELLINGTON NOTES.

Wellington, Supt. 12. MINISTERIAL MOVEMENTS.

The Ministerial diapqrsion could scarcely be more complete than ifc is juet now. The Defence Minister left for the South yesterday afternoon, en route for Melbourne, and will be away almost six weeks. During his trip he will report to his colleagues as to the representations of this colony at the Exhibition. The Premier is at Taranaki, and may return to-night, but is, not expected till the end of the week. Mr Mitchelson will not be back from Auckland till the end of the week. Mr Hielop is looked for to-morrow night.

New volunteer regulations have been drawn up by a committee consisting of Lieut. -Colonel Hume, Captain Humphrey, Under-Secretary for Defence. They have not yet been adopted. Their nature has not yet been made public, but the Minister informs -me that he expects them to considerably improve the" efficiency of the service, while also materially altering the condition ot volunteering. The regulations will be discussed at the mess dinners of the Canterbury and Otagoofficeis during this week, at which Messrs Fergus, Hume [ and Humphrey will be present. SYDNEY TAIWHANGA AND THE GOVERNMENT. Mr Taiwhanga is &till in Wellington ] breathing out threatenings against the Go- | vermnent in reference tohU personal grievance*. As he has failed to obtain any satisfaction by agitation, he now contemplate? tackling the Crown on different matters, viz., to set aside claims of the Government to 91 blocks of land in the Northern part ot the Island comprising about 700,000 acres, similarly to dispose of the Government claims to another block of 12,000 acres in the North on which quicksiivei is alleged to have been discovered, and to recover £12,000 said to have been promised by .Sir G. Grey and Sir Donald McLean in reference to the Rotorua claims, and recover arrears to the extent of £11.000 claimed by native owners at Rotoura as, arrears under Government leases of the Thermal Spring District. .Sydney is acting under legal advice, and talks ot retaining Sir Robert Stout to conduct his cases in the Supreme Court THE LAND LAWS. So satisfactory hat been theworUingof the land laws during the last few months, and so &tead\ is still the demand, that the Ministei of Lund* confidently anticipates that a larger area of land will be taken up this j ear than in any yeai since the settleI mt;nt of the colony. Poi petuallease ha.-, been , the most favourite tenuie. Out of a total I of 7 1 , 1 87 acres disposed of during the last few months, no less than 44,535 acres were taken up under that system by 194 selectors. Land t-oid for cash came next, with 17,016 acres, which realised £13,704, while under the deferred payment only 9,637 acres were taken up by 73 selectors.

Tlieie i.-* a «tory going the rounds- ot the Press that the propiietor of a vineyard ut l\igany, in the district of the Rhone, buthought himselt of introducing strawberry plant- between the row>, of vines-. The plants selected were ot a kind which produce large berries, because these berries cither engender or attract an insect which takes a, pleasure in .seek Her out, pursuing, and devouring 1 the phylloxera. It viv, like setting one pest to destroy another. The plan is amazingly successful. The stravberry insect sought out and killed the vine insect on so sweeping a scale that very boon not a phylloxera was left ; and the vines were left in peace to grow their grapes in perfection. This ingenious device has been followed by other vinegrowers with equal success ; and we are told that their vines have been perfectly healthy since the strawberry plants have been introduced in their midst The present j ear has been a remarkable one for fires in Russia. As in Russia nothing is done by halves, you never hear of a house having been burned down, but "a whole town, the inhabitants of which to the number of 8,000 to 10,000 are camping in tents and have nothing to eat." Russia burns every summer, but since 1881 there has not been such a year for fires as the present. The principal cause of all these tires is the insurance offices. As soon as a man has insured his house for double its value he sets it on tire without the slightest regard to the human beings inside, so causing the most distressful loss of life Of course, the incendiaries who are caught are judged, condemned, and sent, to Siberia ; but not one in 10 is caught, and most of the catastrophes attributed to evil chance are the work of incendiaries, or pyromaniace. Iv Finland, where the laws are so severe, and where a man who sets a house on fire wilfully is shot down like a dog, fires are of very rare occurrence. '