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Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 263, 24 March 1898, Page 2

The service a" Marshmeadows will be liplil oq Sunday afternoon next by the Wesleyan Minister. . The Rev. W. Smith, of Ngaruawahia, will conduct the Presbyterian services at Te Rore and Ptiterangi on Sunday next.

Lieut.-Col. McDonnell, who has left Wellington by the Ruahine for London, will endeavour to aiiMige for the publication of a bo -k on the Maoii war.

The Martini-Henry rifles with which the Nap'er volunteers are supplied, and which have had a far opportunity of being tested, are voted " very inferior weapons and all to pieces."

A temperance meeting wiU be held at the Cambridge Public Hall on Friday evening to enable the adherents of the cau-e to say good bye to the Rev L. Hudson. The Rev. Dr. Uoskmg will speak. A harvest festival will be held at Trinity Wesleyan Church, Hamilton, on Sunday. Rev. Dr. Hosking will preach twice. There will be special solos and an efficient orchestra v ill rendu* musical selection?.

The quarterly communion will be held in t'ne Hamilton Presbyteiian Church on Sunday morning, and the Rev. Thos. Scott, of Cambridge, will conduct a pre-conimunion service in the church this evening, commencing at 7.30 o'clock.

On Monday, at Auckland, a wellknown man, Mr W. Bobbett, passed away. At one time he was a prominent figure ou the turf, having owned several well kmwn horses. He was by trade a butcher, and carried ou business at the Thames for many years.

During the meeting of the Wai kato Amiteur Athletic Club held last night, the gold medal won by Mr Chas. Lines iu the championship race at the late sports gathering was presented.

A quiet little w« tiding was contracted at Ngaruawahia yesterday, when Miss Isabella Nicol, youngest daughter of Mr A. Nicol, of that town, was married to Mr John Ragg. The ceremony was pciformed by the Rev J. M. Mitchell, of Hamilton.

The Grst innings of South Australia in their match against the Englishmen resulted in a score of 287. The Englishmen in their second innings, when the stumps were drawn on Tuesday, had lost five wickets for 348, Wainwright (105) Leing the highest scorer.

Messrs Jno. Knox and Stitchbury completed their task of valuing at the Club Hotel, Huntly, on yesterday morning, and the new proprietor, MiHarris, took possession immediately. Wu understand that stsps will at once be taken for thn removal of the building.

The Huntly Athletic Club's sports gathering takes place to-day. There is every appearance of fine weather, and there will doubtless be a largo attendance of the public. The track is a good one, and as the fields are large, an excellent day's sport should be provided.

At Cast, Canterbury, on Monday morning, Gardiner's roller flourmill was completely destroyed by fire. The insurance on'the building and machinery was £OOO in the Standard office, but there is no insurance on the stock. It is estimated that the value of the property was nearly £2OOO.

A meeting of the Ohaupo Sports Committee was held in Mr Laurie's hotel on Monday evening. A programme was decided upon and arrangements made for carrying on the sports on the Queen's B : rthday. We understand they are to take place in Mr R. Mears' paldock, the same as last year.

The season for taking oysters iu the Hauraki Gulf, Kaipaua, and Hokiinga harbours, and those beds in the Manukau which are held on lease, will open on April 1. The beds iu the Hauraki Gulf (including'the Great Barrier) have been closed for the past three yeais. The South Island season opened on February 1.

The programme for the Thames Valley Jockey Club's annual meeting, to Lc held at Tirau on Easter Monday, 11th April, will be found in another columu Nominations close on the 30th March, weights will appear about the 2nd April, acceptances bein j due on the 6th April. These dates arc not the same as those appearing on the p sters. To morrow Messrs MdSTicol and Co. Aill hold their Autumn Horse Fair at Cambridge. Cvsr 300 horses are euteted from tte best breeders in the district, and buyers should have no trouble in suiting their requirements. They will also offer Mr Chas. Hibbs' contracting plant, and the well-known racehorses La Grippe and Kingswood. The sale will commence at 10 o'clock sharp. In connection with the local which appeared in our last issue stating that no vote of thanks was accorded to the Secretary at the meeting of the membt n of the Waikato Hunt Club ou Saturday last, Mr M. H. Pickering informs us that at the close of the meeting he brought forward a motion to this effect, but in the confusion at the breaking up our representative apparently did not hear it.

An inquest was held at Huntly on Tuesday by Mr T. H. White, coroner, and a jury of s : x, of whom Mr R. R. Ralph, J. P., was chosen foreman, on the body of Henry Deßlois, a bookmaker, who fell dead on the Kimihia Racecourse on the previous day. The evidence went.to show that deceased had been suffering from heart disease. A verdict of death from natural causes was returned. He leaves a wife and two children to mourn their loss. The remaius were taken by the afternoon traiu to Auckland for interment.

The annual picnic in connection with the Triuity Wesleyan Church was held in the paddock of Mr R. Dellicar, which was kindly lent for the occasion. About 200 in all were present, and with Mrs Hosking, Miss Pe'.crson, Miss Tnomas, Mrs Dellicar and Mis 3 Hosking at the head of affairs, it is perhaps needless to add that the youngsters received every attention. Delightful refreshments were dispensed by these ladies. The usual races and games were held, and a very jo'ly day was spent.

A very fine specimen of salmon trout was received from Rotorua by a Hamilton resident yesterday. The fish turned the. scale at 19Jlb, and was iu excellent condition. Some few weeks ago several large consignments of trout from Rotorua passed over the line for the Auckland market, and should the efforts of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society in stocking the head waters of the Waipa and Waikato rivers prove as successful, as we all could wish, we may look forward to a considerable business being done in supplementing the Auckland fish market from the Upper Waikato district.

The Council of the New Zealand Institute of Purveyors have held a meeting in Wellington to discuss tender.* for various survey works appearing in the papers. The system of. tendering for such work is considered most pernicious alike to the surveyors and the public, and the meeting instiacted the secre'ary to at once communicate with other centres of the colony urging co-operation in not tendering, and pointing out that a Government schedule rate was provided for this purpose, and was a fair re-mune-ation. 'lhe Council a'so decided to conveue a general meeting in Wellingtm, and to invite delegates to discuss and alter the system of tendering for surveys.

There was a sitting of the Magistrate's Court, at fe Awamutu, yesterday, Captain Jackson, 8.M., presiding. In the action brought by the Kihikihi Town Board against Joseph FratU3, claiming the sum of £l, for damages done to a fence erected by the Board across Bryce-street, the evidence of which was heard last court day, His Worship gave his decision in favour of the Board for Bs, without costs. Mr Swarbrick appeared on behalf of the Town Hoard, and Mr Gresham for the defendant. The following cases were also daalt with :—Lewis v. Rewi, claim .CI 10i for good supplied. Judgment for amount claimed and cost, 12s. Culver v. Matttson, £2 19.'. Mr Gresham appeared for the plaintiff, and the defendant conducted his own defence. Order to pay 15s per month. A meeting of the Waikafo Amateur Athletic Club was held in the Waikato Hotel, Hamilton, last evening, when about 25 members were present. The principal business was the consideration of a circular received from the New Zealand CycMsts' Alliance. After mature consideration the Club dte'ded to record its vote in fivour of resolution No. 2: "That the Alliance be instructed to open up negotiations with the League ot New Zealand Wheelmen, with a view to an amalgamation on terms to Le agreed upon " In was decided to hold a bye meeting on Sydney Square, on Wednesday, May 11th, when a varied programme consisting of cycling and running e\euts, and a seven-aside football tournament will be submitted. A tournament of th's kind is practically, unknown in these parts, and it should prove an interesting item, or rather, series of items.

The death has just occurred of Colonel lbbetson, a gentleman whose name, forty four years ago, was in everyone's month in consequence of his elopement with Lady Adele Villiers, daughter of Lord Jersey, and riieir subsequent marriagn at Gretna Green. The marriage was tl-.e last of any .noes at Gretna Green Colonel Ibbetsou survived his wife thirty-eight years.

Returns prepared from the census reports by the Registrar-General show that whereas in 18SU there was an excess of bachelors over spinsters in New Zealand of 12,339, it is now convened into a surplus of 1786 women. Canterbury has cow 3997 and Otago 2066 more spinsters than bachelors, these two districts having lost a large number of men by departure to the North Island. Mr Justice Williams has given his decision in the matter of the remuneration of the liquidators of the Colonial Bank as reported from the Registrar. Mr Tigers was allowed £ISOO per annum up to October 31, 1897, and up to £I2OO per annum up to February, 1898. Messrs Simpson and Ramsay arc to be considered paid in full to August, 1896, when the 3" drew £7OO. Dp to November, 1897, the remuneration is to be at the rate of £IOOO a year. Up to February 28 they had drawn £SO per month. He thought they should be considered paid in full up to that period. An extraordinary shooting affair took place recently at Keystone, West Virginia During a dance at a ball Vance Vaughan, an awkward country youth, accidentally trod on the foot of Mi-s Laura Snapp, a girl of unusually good looks, and the acknowledged belle of the ball. She called upon him to apologise, but he declined, as he was unconscious of having touched her foot. She thereupon whipped a revolver out of her pocket and shot him dead. Miss Suapp, who was promptly arrested and placed in gaol, says she is glad she shot him. The town is greatly excited over the murder. Many persons believe that the ru leness of the youth was nut the real cause of the shooting. In the Christian Globe of February 3rd, Dean Farrar comes forward as a champion of a pure and elevated stage. In the article wlrch he has specially written on the subject the Dean protes's acainst the prohibition to witness a play as " a narrow and unreasonable one " and combats the Puritan view of theatres as " dens of sin and temples of the devil." Warming to his subject, he declares that the youth who could take any harm from seeing Irving in " Macbeth " or " Hamlet" should be kept under a glass case, and even such a youth could not be kept untainted. The witnessing of " some great drama interpreted by some gifted actor" is held by Dean Farrar to be consistent with the highest Christian life.

At the meeting of the Board of Education on Tuesday Mr Coopsr, on behalf of Mr Reed, gave notice of the following notice of motion : —" That the resolution of the Board adopting new readers be rescinded, and that a committee be appointed to confer with the inspectors and report to the Board as to the relative merits of various school readers," A request from Messrs Collins Bros, that the Board would postpone adopting a new series of readers till the inspector had an opportunity of inspecting "The Graphic" reader was received and consideration was deferred till Mr Reed's motion should come on. The annual meeting of householders is fixed for Monday, 25th April. There was no other business of interest to this district

An American paper writing on the Dreyfus case says :---" It is not only that the Jew is a power in international finance, and knows how in that quarter to return evil for evil. He is strong intellectually and morally. There is no sphere of modern life in which, wherever a free field has been given him, he has failed to show himself the equal of his Christian or infidel neighbours. Nor is the Hebrew to be numbered with vanishing races. He is probably mor<'. numerous to-day than he ever was before. There is reason for believing that theie are close upon 12,000,000 of the chosen people on the face of the earth at the present time, at least twice as many as there were of them in the days of Solomon. This obviously is not a force to be done violence to with safety, and we doubt that France will suffer from its antisemitic spasm unless the Government takes speedy and effective means to prove that it is only the madne3B of a despicable minority."

The London Star is responsible for the statement that the world is about to witness a battle of giants between the Rothschilds and Mr Bockefeller, the American " multi-millionaire." It is a batt'e for the possession of the mineral oil market of Great Britain. The Rockefeller combination, by means of its Standard Oil Trust, has long controlled the

oil market of America, and it now cherishes the lofty ambition (if giving light to the world. The Rothschilds would like to illuminate at least a corner of it, with the oil from Baku, in the Caspian; and, in the pursuit of this modest aim, they have crossed the path of the Ameiican giant. But moat ot the means of the distribution in this, as in other couutries, are in his hands, and his presumptuous rivals have hid to create a totally new sy-tem lor themselves. They are now, it is said, prepared to put a new oil on the market, white and pure, with a flash point of 103 degrees. And this is to be as cheap as the article with the flash point of 73, wlr'ch so many public authorities consider to be the cause of many accidents with mineral oil lamps. At this rate the close of the century will witness a conflict unparalleled in the annals of war. Travellers who knew Mercer—or rather, Point Russell, as it was then called—in its busiest times, when passing through the settlement of late years must have mentally contracted the recent and former appearance of the place and iuwurdly ejaculated " lohabod : thy glory has departed." Dining the past few months, however (writes our coirespmdcnt), the township has shown some signs of resuscitation. At early morning the etring of vehicles—sledges, drays and carts—passing through on their way to the creamery, give the place quite an animated appearand', which has been foreign 'o it for a long time past. The new hotel, too, is another improvement which commends itse'f to notice. The exterior of the bnilding is neat, but unpretentious, whi'e of the interior it may be said that everything visible points to comfoitable accommodation. Nor aie appearance deceptive in this respect, as those whose business or pleasure has caused them to sojourn at the new hostelry can amply testify. Host Hallott and his good wife invariably exert themselves in the direction of providing the best of " creature comforts" for their guests, and in this-Hicy are eminently successful. The many advantages Mercsr possesses in the matter of Mtuation, etc., undoubtedly make it the bea' outlet for the Ppyuu.tia district, and when the talked-of ferry across the Wai ka'o diverts the trallic from the new settlements on the other side of the river to Mercer, as a central distributing depur, the last-named place should be in a fair way to " boom again."