The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1898.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 367, 15 November 1898, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1898.

The running of the express has necessitated several alterations in the times for closing the mails at Hamilton. These will be found chronicled iu the usual column. Messrs McNicol and Co. will hold their first Sheep Fair of the season in their Ohaupo Yards on Wednesday and Thursday, Ist and 2nd February, 1899, for which entries are solicited. In connection with Mr W. J. Hunter's Ohaupo sale to-day, we draw particular attention to the fo.ct that the sale will commence al half-past twelve sharp with the furniture. The cattle include a fine draft of bullocks from the Kawnia and Raglan districts, and the others are all of a good description. The Right .Rev. Dr. Lenihan, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, will visit the Waikato this week. Re will be presented with an address by the members of his church in this district, welcoming him on his first visit to the Waikato since his elevation to the bishopric, and congratulating him thereon. The following is the result of the annual examination of the Rangiaohia School, of which Mr J. S. Phillips is teacher : Standard I. : Presented 4, passed 4. Standard 11. : Presented 5, passed 5. Standard 111. : Presented 6, passed 5. Standard IV. : Presented 13. passed 13. Standard V. : Presented 7, passed 5. Standard VI. : Presented 5, passed 5. It is understood in Wellington that the various country volunteer corps have already had their positions allotted to them in the case of an outbreak of war. A council of war was held by the officers of the corps engaged in the review at Marton on the Priuce of Wales' Birthday, when it was stated that special trains had been arranged to carry the volunteers along the coast to Wellington if necessary. At the sale of the leases of the Education Reserve at the Hamilton Auction Mart by Mr John Knox on Saturday, the following prices were realised :—153 acres, parish of Mangapiko, £lB per annum, purchaser Mr J. B. Teasdale, of Te Awamutu ; Lot 2, sub-division Section SG, West Hamilton, 2'roods, £lO 10s per annum, Mr W. Allen ; Lots 3 and 4, sub-division of the same section, each 2 roods, £5 5a each per annum, Mr J. Bettley. The lion, secretary and treasurer of the late industrial exhibition held at Te Awamutu desires us to acknowledge the following donations to the funds which were received after the official list in the catalogue had gone to press : —Mr J. W. Ellis, 103 ; Rev. W. H. Wilson, 10a ; " Anonymous," ss. The full statement of receipts and expenditure in connection with the exhibition wiil be published at an early date for the information of subscribers and others interested. Colonel Frank Rhodes, the Times' correspondent in the Soudan, in the course of a descriptive article on the campaign, says: —"lt is wonderful to think that the whole campaign—that is, all the military operations since 1896 has only cost £2,000,000. This includes a yearlv increase of £50,000 on the Egyptian War Budget and £1,000,000 spent on Soudan railways. For this million there are 500 miles of railway to show. I think one may say it is the cheapest and best done campaign on record." A French scientist has been investigating the interesting question of which kind of employment most quickly wears out the brain. He has found that military and naval professions are the worst a man can enter if he wants to go sane to the grave. Out of 100,000 naval and military men, 199 are confirmed lunatics. Next come the liberal professions, artists heading the list, followed closely by lawyers, and more distantly by clergy, doctors, literary men, and civil servants. The number of those who go mad is 177 to each 100,000. Domestic servants and day labourers run the professional men very close, sending 155 out of each 100,000 to the asylum. These are followed at a long distance by mechanics, only 66 of whom go mad in each 100,000. And the group which is most favourable to sanity is contrary to general belief, that of commercial men, which sends only 42 out of every 100,000 to lunatic asylums. A meeting of the Hamilton West School Committee was held on Saturday. A notification was received from the Board of Education that £6 5s capitation allowance had beeu paid to the committee's account. The chairman reported that he had seen the chairman of the Hamilton East school committee, who informed him that nothing had been done with regard to the amalgamation of the schools. In accordance with the recommendation of the committee, £7 10s had been allowed to Mr Murray for improvements to the teacher's house. The following applications for the position of head master were considered : Mr J. Campbell, 1)1, Totara North ; Mr T. H. Chapman, Dl, Kihikihi; iMr J. Elliott, CI, Kohukohu ; Mr E. C. Purdie, Dl, Bombay ; and Mr W. H. Worsley, Dl, Warkworth. It was resolved to recommend Mr Purdie for the appointment; also, "that surrounding school committees be asked to join with the Hamilton committee in approaching the Auckland Exhibition authorities with a view to the granting of free entrance thereto to thechildren of the fourth, fifth and sixth standards, under the supervision of teachers " A committee was appointed to confer with the teachers and make arrangements for the annual school picnic.

Truly the vulgar, coarse, silly larrikin is a dread to the community, but that kind is harmless compared to the vicious brute who has no conscience, and whose whole aim in life appears to be to do harm to some one, be they of good or evil repute. This species of biped must be closely allied to the cobra to hold such an amount of venom. Cambridge West must possess some of the latter kind, for, from time to time we have to record some of their dastardly doings, and only last Thursday they cut a wire fence belonging to Mi - W. Wilson, of that place, and let a number of cattle, horses etc. into his oats, doing a considerable amount of damage. On the previous mcrning Mr T, Weatherill fouud his gate blocked up with some tons of sods, taken from the road which had been newly ploughed, and it took a man some considerable time to remove them. Such work as that must have beeu done by more thau one, and we trust the culprits may yet be brought to justice. There is getting quite a reign of terror at Cambridge West, and it is high time some measures were taken to stop the depredations. The larrikins carry on to such an extent that some of the inhabitants are talking of arming themselves, and we shall not be surprised if some of the larrikins do not have to pay the doctor a visit to get rid of a few shots in the lower extremities.

It is rumoured in Wellington that an attempt will be made to invalidate the election of Mr Rawlins for Tuapeka, upon the ground that the deputy-returning officer of the Beaumont booth struck the name of Mr Sim from the voting papers before they reached the hands of the voters. The Wairarapa Agricultural and Pastoral Society introduced an innovation in connection with their horse parade this year. The .Secretary, Mr Dorset, prevailed upon his executive to have sire horses judged at the parade instead of at the annual show, offered good prizes, and in addition placed on the programme several cycling events. The latter was enabled to be done by the Carterton Cycling Club having laid down a fine clay and cinder track on the judging oval. The success of the venture was amply borne out by the large attendance, between six and seven hundred people being present, and the cycling events proved a decided attraction. We recently chronicled the fact some peculiar gelatinous matter was picked up after a sho.ver of rain in New Plymouth, and after microscopical examination was declared by Mr Welch, a scientist who is now staying at the Coffee Palaci', to be a specie* alga. It was surmihed that the stuff might have been picked up somewhere among the South Sea Islands, and conveyed to this neighbourhood in the clouds. Mr Welsh has had the substance under examination ever since, and highly interesting developments have taken plane. The substance, when first picked up, had the appearance of minute jelly fish, but after a few days it began to develop life, and eventually what seemed to be small sucks or coverings opened, and from each a small animal emerged. These attained a length of about a fiftieth part of an inch, and have now commenced to build houses for themselves, evidently -preparatory to a propagation of their species. Mr Welsh has them in riyer water, in which they thrive amazingly. Salt was tried, but proved fatal, so'that evidently, what ever they may be, they aio not an ocean growth.