NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 374, 27 April 1910, Page 7

NEWS BY MAIL.

TAMMANY'S < iREAT MISTAKE. HOW TT ERRED IX ELECTING MR. GAYNOR. New York, February 'iß. Now York City is undergoing a remarkable change in the administiation o£ its Government, due to the reforming zeal of its new Mayor, William J- Gaynor. Mr. Gavnor, elected as the Tammany candidate for mayor, has refused to rceuauisc any Tammany claims on him, and "he is giving the city, for the hrst time in its history, the same kind ot an administration that a business man would give to a commercial enterprise. The new mayor has held office only since January 1, and yet not only has he won, in the short time of six weeks, the enthusiastic support of every newspaper that combated his election, but the New York Herald, a strong anti-Tammany organ, has begun ail insistent boom for the nomination of Mr. Gaynor as the

Democratic candidate for President. The whole country is watching the change that Mr. Gaynor is forcing 011 New York, and many papers in the West also are urging him as the most available man for the presidential nomination. The Mayor has jumped into popularity with phenomenal rapidity, and he bids fair to rival Mr. Roosevelt us a political idol. | All indication of the Mayors methods is contained in the following letter lie sent to the Street Cleaning Commissioner during the recent heavy snow-, storm in New York:— Sir.—As I walked down Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, 011 my way over this morning, I noticed that all of the drivers of along line of snow waggons which were being filled by the shovellers, were standing about doing nothing or sitting on their waggons. 1 called one of them to me and asked him if the drivers did not help to load the waggon. He answered: ''No, sir. not wllen the city removes the snow, but when the contractors remove it, then we do." How about this please? they not take a shovel and help? Tliey 111' ay freeze to death —Very truly yours, W. J. Gaynor, Mayor.

This letter has galvanised into business activity all the departments of the municipality, and has scandalised the old-time politicians who considered it unfair for the pity to compel its employees to do more than a minimum amount of work. Politicians, are anathema to Mayor Gaynor. He lias sought for his executive oilicers rum who have not taken an active part in political life, and he has refused to consider the ciain:- of all persons vho brought poll-; tieal influence to hear on him. His liiO't popular move ?ia* been to deal summarily with de.inquent policemen accused of using their elutis 011 prisoners. and he has announced that, any police brutality must he investigated personally by the C'ominissionei of Police, and 'not by any subordinate. The clubbing habit of T ew York police, which would not be to., ".1 ted 101 a moment in London, has L ■ passed as a necessary ipart of a coh; s duties, but Mr. Gaynor has succeeded since •fanuary 1 in stamping it out a.most entirely. Tiie flavor's activities would pass in Loudon probably without notice, as simply a. normal part of his duties, but in America t.liey amount to a revolution in municipal government. The strangest phase of the situation is that: Mr. (lavnor, elected on the Tammany ticket, is giving New York the kind of administration it has vainly expected from many previous reform, anti-Tammany Mayors. The reason is that the former reform mavors were all imbued with the idea of using their office to build up political machinery. Tammany or anti-Tam-many, but Mr. Guvnor is bent solely on giving a first-class government to New York. liis methods provoke the constant comment of, "Why, that is the obvious thing to do! Why didn't somebody think of it » before?" ' Nobody thought of it before because it was not consistent with the rules governing party machinery. Mr. (»aylior, by ignoring the party machine, is fast becoming the greatest man in his party. HONEYMOON ON SKIS.

Geneva. February 2G. A voung bride and bridegroom, natives'of Pontresina, yesterday arrived on skis, with a .wedding party, at St. Moritz, where they were married. On reaching the church they piled their skis against the walls of the building. The bridegroom wore knickerbockers, a sweater and a coat. She wore a, ski-ing cap, and carried a small bunch of edelweiss. When the bride and bridegroom lett the church the party pelted them with snowballs instead of throwing rice. They then chased thein on skis from the town. pelting them with snow and stopped the pursuit higher up, when two guides joined them by arrangement to accompany them 011 a ski-ing honeymoon 011 the Alps. A halt was to be made at the first hut on the Bernilia range. A fortnight will then be spent in visiting the summits of the lesser peaks, staying nightly in the huts on the mountains of the Swiss-It alia 11 frontier.

PIRATES' HOARD. REMARKABLE. DISCOVERY OF BURIED TREASURE. Lisbon, March 3. An interest-ma discovery of buried treasure concealed by buccaneeis dining the eighteenth century, is reported from Colmcnar. A workman who was digging on the sit of a ruined castle near the town unearthed a number of oid Spanish gold and silver coins. He reported the discovery to his employer, and a systematic search was made in the castle ruins. . After laying bare the foundations ot the castle, which date from the time of the Moorish occupation, the explorers uncovered a dungeon which had been carefullv sealed by the buccaneers. In this apartment, the walls of which were of extraordinary thickness, were two rusted iron chests filled with treasure. The contents of the chests were carefully examined, by experts, wlio believe that they form part of the booty obtain-

Ed from ships captured more than a hundred years ago. Old Spanish and Portuguese money formed the hulk of the treasure, but many gold and silver ornaments. including vases, jewellery and ecclesiastical plate, were also contained in the chests. The discovery has caused great excitement throughout the district. The excavations continue under Government supervision. LONELY COTTAGE TRAGEDY. OLD GAMEKEEPER MURDERED T!Y A BOY. London, March 4. A terrible double tragedy occurred on Wednesday night in the Warwickshire village of Bentley, near Atherstone. William Lane, a retired gameueeper, 70 years of age, was sitting in front of the kitchen fire reading the newspaper to Mrs. Lane when Edward Mitchell,_ a boy of sixteen, crept up to the uncurtained window and shot Lane with an old double-barrelled breechloader through the glass. Lane was killed instantly. A° pathetic incident followed. Mrs. Lane, seeing her husband lean forward, gentlv pressed him back into his chaii and asked. "Why don't you speak?" .She received no repiv, and then found that he was dead. She was so panic-stricken that she was unable to move from her chair for some time, but eventually she found her way to the cottage of a laborer near bv, and asked for assistance. She thought that the shot had come from a poacher, and, seeing a light in the barn, and hearing another shot fired, she made her way there, and found .Mitchell lying near the stable. He apparently had" put the muzzle of the gun to his head, pressed the trigger with a. stick, and killed himself. Mrs. Lane then tramped across two fields to fetch another neighbor and the police. Three live .cartridges were found on Mitchell, and it is believed that the mn belonged to Lane's son. ° Laue recently had to talk seriously to Mitchell with reference to the treatment of some cattle, and tile boy had told Mrs. Lane that he would get his own back. 011 the day before the tragedy Lane's son had to speak to Mitchell about kickintr a pig. The boy lived with the Lane family in their cottage, which is a quarter of a mile from any other house. Lane's son yesterday said that he had noticed that' the lad had been rather "fun 11 v" latelv, but, beyond the remonstrance referred to. there had been no unpleasantness between his father and Mitchell.

A TRAGEDY -OF (il'X-RUXXIXO. Tans." February 27. Telegrams from Tangier -state that the Dutch schooner Lorliv Urron lms been wrecked on the Rill (-oast while I'li.cairi'il in jrun-runninjr. After landimr her eai'L'o of anus a in; ammunition the Lorbv Cm'ii attempted to escape from a Spanish jrnnboat, ami went aiii'or.nd on a sandbank. I went;, - 0110 members of-the crew lnanairod to reach Tetuan, but five others were drowned. The Temps slates that the schooner carried 10,(Hit) revolvers, SHOO lilies and a million cartridges, which had been paid [for in advance by the Riff tribes.

killed BY mistake, tragic; ending to a duel in VIEW" A. Vicuna, February 27. Baron Hermann Widerhofer, a Government agent, and a prominent member of the Austrian aristocracy, was killed here yesterday in a duel by Dl". Oscar .Mayer, bis friend and colleague. They quarrelled about what is described as a "private affair,'' and during a dispute in public Dr. Mayer assaulted his friend, who immediately challenged him. The seconds, who were four army officers. arranged a duel with smooth-bore pistols, the combatants to fire tliree shots at each other at a distance of thirty-five paces. The unusually long distance shows that the seconds did not consider the insult a matter of life or death. The duel took place yesterday afternoon near the rifle butts on the outskirts of Vienna. Baron W'iderhofer, as the aggrieved person, fired fir=t, using his left hand, as his right ami had been injured during the struggle with Dr. Mayer. lie missed his opponent.

Dr. Mayer then fired, and his first bullet pierced Baron Widerhofer's forehead. The latter died in a motor ambulance while being conveyed to a hospital. Baron Widerhofer was well known in iVennese society. He was a son of a former private physician to the ]Cmperor Francis Joseph. Dr. Mayer, who is grief-stricken at the tragic conclusion of the duel, states that he aimed at Baron Widerhofer's feet, but that the heavy charge of powder caused the pistol to kick upwards.