ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43115, 18 July 1907, Page 1

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

An Auckland correspondent states that a bookmaker stiffened Barry, the favourite in the final, the public present falling in for a tell amount. Barry was disqualified for life, whilst the Club are inquiring further into the bookmaker’s connection with this sultiy affair. Our Waihd correspondent writes: “Mr Joseph Tanner, formerly resident of Waihi, and at one time a! Borough councillor, was a visitor here. Mr Tanner was a member of the first Council elected, and took part in some of the stormy scenes which characterised the early history of that bodv.” A'batch of Parliamentary papers is to hand..’ The papers include reports on the Costley Training College, Native Schools, conference of inspectors of schools and principals of training colleges, immigration, consols account, loans to local bodies, abstracts of revenue . and expenditure, and a host of other more or less important papers. It is interesting in connection with the appointment of Mr W. G. Aback, editor of the Canterbury Times, as judge of the literary competitions in connection with the home industries section of the recent International Exhibition, that the,essays were lost in Australia when Dr. Fitchett, the first judge, left for England, but were found again. There are about 150 essay*. “We are not seriously troubled—that is the plain truth —that a large number of onr children are growing up in ignorance of the Almighty.” • Bishop Willi®, of Wellington, at the Anglicatu Synod. 'Settlers in the Te Awamutu district are suffering considerable loss through their sheep being worried by dogs. Messrs O’Connor Bros. lost 14 one ' night, whilst 16 others were terribly mutilated. During the same week. Mr •Tames -Henderson had six valuable breeding ewes killed, whilst Mr John Elmsly lost five. A Waihi resident, writing to a friend at Thames, describes the Thames forwards who- played against Goldfields as one of the best packs that have yet donned the jersey for Thames. The men Smith and Gubb, who were recently injured while working in the Talisman mine, and were brought to Thames are making satisfactory progress. In each case the leg was broken. The Ohinemuri people are fully alive to the possibilities of the Piako The Gazette slays: “When the Piako is opened up Paeroa should be one of the busiestt inland towns in the colony. The flax land in. the Piako must be worth some millions of money.” More attentipp is being paid to the the Maharahara copper mine at Woodville, and application is being made on behalf of a Napier syndicate for 100 acres and water rights. The Ciutha Free Press .states that farmers on the ridges are heavilj' handicapped in their ploughing opera tions owing to the continued Weather. ‘Give us rain; or even snow, anything to soften the ground,’ is the crv. A Rotorua correspondent writes: 'Mrs Fowie (Te Rlangi Pai), the Maori lad-w with the grand contralto voice, is at. present in a bad state of health £nd there is a doubt as to whether she HjdU ever again appear on the concert •WlltrAWr-l ” Fallowing are the vital statistics for the borough of Auckland : Estimated population January ,1907, 41,498; total births'. 99 • total deaths, ’ 45 ; n-onortiion of deaths to 1000 of population, 1.08. Totals: Auckland and suburban boroughs, 69,149, 144, 6-8, 0.98 ; total population of Greater Auck land, census 1906, 82,101; including suburbia not in boroughs. The efficacy of the finger print systom as ai means of identification of criminals has once more been demonstrated. At the Nelson Polite Court last week a man, giving, the name of William Albury Lloyd, was sentenced to, tiwo months? imprisonment in the Terrace Gaol for theft. Ota the prisoner's finger print being taken at Wellington be was found to be identical with one Michael Delaney who was sentenced at Lyttelton in 1904 for a similar offenlcie. Go-Id imported into New South Wales during May was valued at £363,846, chiefly in bullion from New Zealnd and Queensland. The first, five months of the year showed total imports of gold to be £2,174,6-19, against £1,823, 629 in 1907, a,nd £2,132,935 in 1905. The exports of gold for the two periods (May and the five months) were £455 161 and £1,327,672 respectively. At thie rectent inspection of school children in Dunedin, the dentists ex- • amining these children endeavoured to find out the percentage of those who used .tooth brushes, but the answers . . could not be relied upon, for the mouths of some , who professed to use the brush Were in a most shocking state. One pretty 'little "girl, one of a large family, had not •■’‘gleaned her teeth lately, as her sister had lost the only 1 tooth brush they had in the MSr ■. m

Several new families, immigrants from the Old Country, have settled in Huntly. La.sb year the telephone exchange subscribers have increased from 15,333 to 17,403, the latter number paying £100,814. Articles of the total value of £ll,* 050 8s were opened in the dead letter office last year, in addition to many articles of jewellery. The Masterton Rifles adopted a novel method of increasing their library. They held at book social, the donation of a book entitling the donor to admission. West Alustralia has one policeman for 506 inhabitants at a cost of 9s per head -of the population. New Zealand! has one to every 1375 persons at a cost of 3s. With a view to the provision of pure milk, mainly in the interests of the infantile population, the local authority at Salisbury, Rhodesia., is considering the question of taking the milk business of the town into its own hands. How much beer can a m-an drink before he becomes incapable? One man before the Wellington magistrate on a charge of theft, remembered drinking thirteen pints during the course of the afternoon. That’s! all he did remem- - ber until he found himself in the police cells!