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Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 328, 16 August 1898, Page 2

The ordinary meeting of the Piako County Council will be helrl at the County Office, Morrinsville, on Thursday, 10th inst., at 11 o'clock. The Secretary of the Waikalo Hospital thanks Mr James Shaw, Tauwhare, for a donation of illustrated papers for the use of the patients. At his Cam bridge sale on .Saturday next iMr W. J. Hunter will offer a large number of well-bred young cattle, some choice dairy cows, and some wellbred heifers at calving. Mr W. J. Hunter has received instructions from Messrs W. Nichol and Co. (who have given up contracting) to sell at the Cambridge Yards on Thursday, September Ist, the whole of their contracting plant. Full particulars will be found in his column. That spring delicacy, whitebait, was on sale at Mercer yesterday for the first time this season. Only two small bags were offered at the high price of two shilliugs each, but they were soon snapped up. "With a spell of fine warm weather the supply will soon be almost unlimited. A mpeting of the delegates from the various Waikato creameries will be held at Ohanpo at 11 a.m. this morning. The business is chiefly in connection with the formation of a Waikato Milk Suppliers Union, a movement which has been taken up with great enthusiasm throughout the district. Last week some twenty Austrians arrived at Taupiri to dig gum on the Minsion land at Hopuhopu. The field was recently leased to a local resident, and we hope the importation of this batch of foreigners is not the thin edge of the wedge which has caused so much trouble on the gumfields in the north. The Mayor of Cambridge (Mr A. Bach) met with an accident when following the hounds on Saturday. His horse came to grief over some rails, throwing the rider and straining the muscles near the lower ribs. We are glad to see Mr Bach is not confined to the house, but he has to walk.very circumspectly now. The Postmaster-General of New South Wales (Mr Cook) says that even if the colonies agreed to subsidise the Cape cabls there would be no substantial reduction in the rates, the _ Eastern Extension Company having distinctly declined to agree to a reduction in ordinary messages, because the construction of the Cape cable will swallow up the profits the company are now making. In Messrs McNicol and Co.'s •olumn this morning will be found full particulars of their Spriug cattle sale, to be held at Cambridge on Saturday, 3rd September. Upwards of u'oo head of cattle have been entered, including a large number of choice young stock. The cattle which are entered from Pateterc are well-bred, almost all killablc, and have been on turnips since May. A young man, named Win. A. Clarke, alias Powdril, \vas arrested at Cambridge, on Saturday, by Constable Cahill, on a charge of horse stealing. The accused was brought up at the Police Court, Hamilton, yesterday, before Mr Jno. Knox, J.P., and charged with having on the Ist of July last, at Waraboe, stolen a brown mare, valued at £l4. the property of Win. Douglas. At the request of the police, the accused ivas remanded to the Thames. The Girls' Club is now fairly started in Hamilton. Miss Hirst has undertaken to be the secrotary and already 21 members are enrolled. At the meeting of the Club on Thursday last, it was decided to hold the social afternoons in St. Peter's school-room every Wednesday, from 2.30 to 5 o'clock (excepting only the first in the month, when the members of the Mothers' Union meet there). It is hoped that there will be many new members next Wednesday.

A suggestion was niacin at a recent meeting of the New Plymouth Horticultural Society to provide a prize for shirt ironing, but the idea was met by one speaker with the remark that the award would fall to a Chinaman. Champions of the shirt-ironing abilities of our women folk were conspicuous by their absence. « Tho following sums, collected by Mr P. E. Stevens on behalf of the Public Reading-room Building Fund, have been handed to Mr Barton, Secretary of the Library Committee : —Messrs Isaac Coatcs, £2 2s ;G. W. Sare, £1 Is; S. Tucker, £1 ; Mrs W. A. Graham, 10s6d ; Messrs A. Furze, 10a 6d ; W. T. Uavidge, 5s ; L». Salmon, ss. Rich developments have been met with in the New Guinea goldfield. Four new gullies in the vicinity of the Gira River are yielding payable nuggety gold from sdwt to soz. Twenty-three men in another gully, seven miles away, obtained 12()()oz in three months. Locally, satisfaction is expressed at the acceptance of the New Guinea land ordinance, as it is believed that only a powerful combination can develop the resources of the Colony. At the recent prosecutions for sly grog-selling at Balclutha, Mr Hawkins, the presiding magistrate, remarked that soon a dictionary of synonyms for liquor in prohibition districts would be necessary. Apparently, custom in the Clutha has forsaken the names of temperance beverages, and medical terms are now becoming the fashion for alcoholic stimulants. During the hearing of a case it was elicited that drink was known at Balclutha under the titles of poison, pills and toothache powder. A great deal of the time of the Law Courts in some of the centres of population is taken up with labour disputes. At Dunedin recently a master painter was fined £1 and costs for employing a man who was not a member of the Painters' Union, or any other properly constituted union of painters. Another tradesman was fined £1 and costs for employing a man after 3.30 p.m. on a half-holiday, while a third case, in which a publican was charged with employing a barmaid after 11 p.m., was dismissed. At Wellington litigation is threatened in connection with the action of a baker in setting his men to work at 3 a.m. instead of 4 a.m. At the meeting of the Farmers' Co-operative Association at Christchurch the Chairman said :-1 regret very much to have to allude to the item " defalcations "in the balance-sheet. This is the first time we have been troubled with any disgraceful proceedings of this kind. From what I can learn, gambling was at the root of the evil, a vice which appears to be increasing at a very rapid rate. The fact seems to be that the quiet, respectable, Governmeut-.supported machine, the totalisator, is drawing into its net and coiniag fifty gamblers, not only men but women and children, tor every one that the noisy " booky" was formerly responsible for. A strange fatality occurred in a Melbourne suburb recently. The story illustrates a fact long patent to many men how unfit women are to be mothers. The child of this particular woman was taken ill with bronchitis, or something of the kind, and the doctor recommended a steam bath, but did not think it necessary to explain the difference between a steam bath and a fire escape, so the woman was left to carry out her own idea of what a steam bath ought to be. She fastened a piece of hose to the spout of the kettle, and placed the kettle on the fire. The other end of the hose she introduced under the blankets of the cradle in which the baby lay. Then the mother went away, and thought no more of the patient for some time, and when at length she lifted the child from the cradle it was so horribly scalded that portions of its body remained attached to the blankets, and it died very shortly after. Before leaving Tasmania Dr. Duff, .who recently visited the Presbyterian Churches in these colonies, indicated what would be the main lines of his report on the colonial churches to the Free Church of Scotland. He says that so far as the Presbyterian Church of Otago is concerned it does not need help, nor does that of Victoria, both being very strong. Of course, really good men from Home, would be welcome, for though they are training men for themselves, they are not yet doing so in sufficient numbers for their own requirements. The Church in New South Wales is also in a promising condition, though not so strong as in Victoria or Otago, and depends very much on a supply of men from Home. On the other hand, Queensland, West Australia, Tasmania, and to some extent South Australia and North New Zealand, have need of help from the Home Church, in the way of supplying suitable ministers, and, in case*, to assist them pecuniarily for two or three years ut the beginning. Dr. Duff, it will be remembered, visited Waikato to ascertain its requirements. It is reported from Wellington that the Minister for Lands has promised to make the Noxious Weeds Bill permissive so Jar aa the Auckland Province is concerned. The power to bring it into force is to vest in the local bodies. This concession is the result of opposition to the measure by the Auckland members. It is clause 16 which has mainly caused the objection to the Bill. This clause provides that ill the event of a local body omitting to administer the Act to the satisfaction of the Minister, he may appoint an Inspector to clear the land in the district of such local body and generally to exercise the powers and functions conferred upon the body by the Act, the cost of so doing to be a charge on the funds of the local body, and may be deducted from any subsidy by the Colonial Treasurer or other money payable to such local authorities. The option given to local bodies removes the principal objection to the Bill, they are able to judge of their own position and will avoid any harsh measures calculated to harass settlers unduly. There is the danger, however, that these bodies will be unwilling to court unpopularity and risk the danger of rejection at the next election, by enforcing the eradication of weeds in a manner which from an enlightened point of view would benefit all concerned. But anything is preferable to the übiquitous Inspector. _