ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43113, 13 July 1907, Page 1

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The value of flax -exported from • Auckland in June is approximately, £19,7*50. The Rev. Samuel Barnett, who six years ago was in charge of the Waihi Primitive Methodist Church, has joined the ranks of the Spiritualists. He is now in 'England. A! Napier resident offered to give a ; hundredweight of coal to every poor person- who needed it and cared to apply for it. His coalman, had to deliver 10£ tons. Bishop Wallis anounced to the Anglican, Synod at Wellington that after that date the proportion of marriage license fees available to himself would be reduced from) £1 to 10s. The Bishop said hie had never personally used .a penny of his (proportion of such fee. . The Hon. IMr Mills is asking the Minister of Immigration, whether owing to the difficulty nearly every mistress has to contend with in securing the services of a domestic servant in this colony, he Will take immediate steps to ascertain from* the High Commissioner in London if he can send out some respectable servant girls.

' Addressing a missionary meeting at Norwich, -the Bishop of Bath and Wells said a Bristol schoolboy was set to write ami essay on British Colonisation 1 . The lad wrote:—“l tell you . how England, obtains her Colonies. First, she sends out her missionaries, and they look, about for 1 tihle best land. When they have found it, they call the people to prayer, and when, their eyes are fast shut, up goes the Union Jack.’ The agitation by millers and merchants for the repeal of the Government reguiatVoiii prohibiting the export of hemp condemned by the Agricultural Department’s graders, has 'been successful. The department has agreed to allow the Sbre to be sent out of the colony provided it bears a tag showing that if has been condemned. A main named Smith met with a painful accident while working in the .. Talisman mine atl Karanigahake. He was engaged in his occupation when, a quantity of mullock came away and crushed his leg, 'breaking the bone. Medical attendance was secured;, but it was deemed advisable to convey Smith) to the Thames Hospital, at which, institution he arrived at noon to-day. ‘'You Save no millionaires here, and I hop© you never will,” declared Dr. - Starr Jordan in Wellington. He recommended; that men comfortably situated should remember the university. By and by the Cabinet would be

composed of university men, and then the university colleges would get. the attention that they deserved. Notwithstanding the increase in the population of Rotorua, the criminal statistics for the quarter ended June 30th Ehow that the offences exceed those of Last year by only two, which speaks volumes for the police in keeping the town dear of undesirables, and) is further proof of the law-abiding people residing in Rotorua. High dignities* have been foreshadowed for Wellington, Auckland, ChnstchuTch and Dunedin by Sir Joseph Ward'. Hie said he considered that the time was approaching when the four principle cities of New Zealand •should have the dignity of Lord Mayor conferred upon the men filling the highest civic positions, thus bring-ing-New Zealand into line with Australia and Great Britain. “inuring the last session of Parliament an Act was passed, to enable persons whose births had not been registered to register them within a period of one year. The 12 months’ grace expires on September 24th next, so fhat all whose births have not been registered should take immediate advantage of the Act, and register as early aa possible. Application for forms and any other information should be made to the Registrar-General, Wellington, a ib one©.

A curious illustration of an anomalv in our divorce laws is afforded by a petition presented to the House. The petitioner was Mrs Mary Wolfe, of; Efcetahuna, who states that on 6th' February, 1900, her husband, Arthur Reginald Wolfe, was tried at Wellington; on a'bharge of murdering his two children', and Wos found guilty and sentenced! to death, the jury recommending him to mercy. That sentence was subsequently commuted to imprisonment for life. Petitioner goes on to point Out that she is unable to obtain a dissolution of her marriage, although if her husband had 1 been sentenced to imprisonment for seven years for attempting to take her life that would have constituted a sufficient ground for divorce. Petitioner expresses the fear that if her husband should be released he would endeavour to compel her to Eve with him, and in that event she believes her life would be endangered. iSh© therefore prays that the law may be amended by providing as an additional ground for divorce thaic the respondent has been convicted of tmnrder and sentenced to death, and the death-sentence commuted, or that he passed enabling the SupgtteAJmr *^yoawu

Colonel Stuart Wortley, C. 8., writes that in 1903 he himself placed his old friend and comrade, Major General Sir Hector Macdonald in his coffin at Paris. The stories of Sir Hector Macdonald being still alive are absolutely false.

Two rivers are to be diverted* into the Homestake mine in South Dakota, one of the greatest 'gold producing mines in the world, which has been on fire more than a month. There are 100 'miles of tunnels in the mine and it will take at least a fortnight to flood them sufficiently to extinguish the fire.

Ai Wellington citizen;, living in Newtown, has cleared 1 £67 in the year from 150 fowls kept practically in confinement. The only attention the 'birds received was in the morning and at night.

The attitude adopted in regard to Mr Exhibition Mclntyre by some of the dailies 1 is justi a little, amusing. When Mlac so unostentatiously quitted this Britain of the 'South for other seemed, the daily press referred to the departure of “Mr Mclntyre.” When, later, it began to be whispered that investigations were being made with, a view to ascertaining whether there was anything wrong, the papers spoke of “The case ,otf D. C. Mclntyre,” and when, later still, iti was decided to' bring him .back to face the music, the' cross-heads in the dailies alluded to “the man Miclntyre.” If Mac is able to explain things satisfactorily on his return', the same journals will doubtless speak of him again l as if Mr McIntyre,” or even “D. C. Mclntyre, Esq.”—Tribune.