THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3815, 21 March 1881, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1881.

The Quarterly competition ?by jthe Thames Rifle B?.ngers for the Manning Champion Belt came off on Saturday lasf'. A good number of shootista competed', and as will be seen 5, the old veteran volunteer, Sergt. Gibbs, v&n the present -winner, Vol. Bobeit Long p/etly close as he came back to the If strange, but fell off at the sCOyds, losing the coveted trophy. The distances were.2oo, 300, 400, SCO ya?ds, 5 shots at each distance. I The! scores were :-rVol. Long 61, Sergfc ;Gibbs 58) Vol.'J. J. Woods 56. The day wes u:ifavorable for good shooting. On Friday next, the Thames will lose one of its oldest-and most respected citizens ia the person of Mv Henry J. Lee, who is moving with his family H Auckland. For many years, Mr Lee has cau'ied on business here as mining and commission agent, and hea always been known as an upii^ht, honest, and aolive member of the community. We wish Mr Lee success in wbatover sphere of life his lot may be cast. . . •. A COBIMIIIBB . mealing of the Thames County Council, was-being held this afternoon for considering the question of biinging the Hiki creek into the water rare. The County BDginoer reports thp.t the cost will be about £800. The work is a,most desirable one, and we hope that the recommendation of the commitfee will be favorable to the propoael. The Borrd of Works of the County Council'opened tenders for works on the Te Aroha rord; to-ciay. Out fall dvains, af; per chain, A. Butler,. £L 9i 6d, p.nd 128, (acept-d.) Quinn £113 6d; Tbo\ Logcn, £1 15s Ci, and £1. Earthwork at per cubic yard :•—- Butler, 2s 2id, (accepted) ; Ct.rsey, 2 j 3d; Quinn, 2s 6i ; Grayden, 2s 7id. Oir Saturday one of the large supply mdnß near,the Herald battery burst and a considerable waste of water ensued before the valve could be: closed. ; A mjs&s. named Bennett, employed in the Queen of Beauty Claim, had a narrow escape fromjdeath on Saturday evening. It appears that one of, the passes being choked, he went up from below to clear away the obstruction, and while so engaged the whole mess in the pass !feU_away, burying..him. Fortunately some of his matc3 hearing the unusual noise .rushed to his assistance, and had him extracted little the; worse of his perilous adventure. The authorities of the Admiralty, England, have decided to revise t->e limited examinations for Navel cadets. Four of the positions wjll be reserved for caadidatas from the colonies. A RBW days ago an aviicle appeared in the '-olumns of a contemporary commenting on the neglect of sawmill proprietors and bush» men of our district to subscribe to the funds of the Thames District Hospital. This article has, we understand, caused a good deal of dissatisfaction amongst the latter of the classes referred to, several bushmen having informed us that in the bushes in which they were employed, ncmely the Kahikatea and Kauaeranga, for years past it has been the pvistise of owueia and contractors alike to deduct a shilling per month from each man's wages for the Hospital. It is not their fault if the money does not; find its way iito the proper channel. It has been suggested to to that were.the secretary to the Hospital Committee or some duly authorised person to visit the different seats of the timber industry on a day previously fixed, an exceedingly large sum would accrue to the institution. The idea is not a bad one at an. We regret to lea. a that Mrs Boyd w;u much injured by a full she sustained while travelling up tho creek the other day to the Emily batter/. A stick she was rung whi!e crossing from boulder to boulder broke, she fell heavily j receiving severe bruises.—Mail. " Yott boys will have a chance in the affairs of fie colony, and I hope you. will make a better use of it thpi some constituencies have done, and trust you will not, like them, assht in returning drunken bankvupts f > Parliament i (Applause.) I can _say_ something that.other people could nofcf anirl do not care whether I tbey are plensed' or not ; but I tbinft every right minded person ia the colony will agreer with me in what I have now said." The above is an extract from a speech delivered by the Governor of Queensland at the breek'ng up of (he Ipswich. Grammar School. " That we shall have to raise at leaßt one more Colonial loan, or at any rate to make the attempt, appears certain. The public mind in England is therefore being carefully educated in. advance, with a view to the application which ia expected, arid probably, with accuracy,:to be made towards the end of 1882." It is further rumored that the contemplated new loan will be three millions, and that in his next-Financial Statement, Major Atkinson will indicate the necessity for again going. upoa the London market to this extent, with a view to making it a test question at the ensuing general election.— Poßt, Wellington. . Ambbica is" again to the front with another wonderful invention. A Massachusetts man has invented a machine which he calls a pulse meter,; and it is operated by the pulse. The machine, which has taken him four years to make, when placed on the wrist, records the pulse. At every beat, a hand advances one degree over a dial, thus recording the number of beats. Another hand sweeps over a graduated scale, which ghows the force or intensity o y f the pulse, More remarkable still, a hammer is mado to strike a bell, and give forth v,' clear and distinct sound, thus making the human puke audible as well £3 visible.

Fiftx of the Coromandel Volunteers wi attend the Easter Review at the Waikato. To say that a train had been stopped by caterpillars would sound like a Yankee yarn, yefc.BHch a thing, according to the Bangitikei , A dvoeate, actually took place on the local railway a few days ago. In the ueighbourhood of Turakina an, army of caterpillars, hundreds of thousands strong, was marching across the line, bound for a new field of oata, when the train came along. Thousands of the creeping vermin were crushed by the wheels of the engine, and suddenly the trahi came to a dead stop. On examination it was found that the wheels had become so greasy that they kept on revolving without advancing —they could not grip the rails. The guard I and; .the engine driver procured sand and strewed it on the rails, and the train made a [ fresh B^art, bat it was found that during the stoppage caterpillars in thousands had crawled all over the engine, and over all the camngeß inside and out. ;