NEWS AND NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume VII, Issue 464, 22 July 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

In the list of Southland J.P.'s recently Razscted (6ays the Southland Times) are the name* of at least four who have been dead for some time —in one case years—whilo another has resided in England for the last three years. Similar remarks might be made about the roll as regards Taranaki.

There is some dissatisfaction up Edendale way among the milk suppliers over the price they are receiving tor the raw material. One dairyman has taken the cow by the horns and invested in a separator ; three or four others are thinking of following this example—we have it from the parties themselves. There is also talk of a public, separator being started in the township in the interest of all who cire to pay a small charge tor its use.—Wyndham Farmer.

Some little time back a paragraph went the rounds of the press relative to the peculiar dental development of a rabbit which was caught somewhere in the southern portion ol Otago. A still more curious freak in this direotion has come to the hands of Air R. S. Black, of Dunedin. In this instance the rabbit has four teeth projecting from the front of the mouth in the most peculiar fashion. The two on the upper jaw are ourlod upwards similar to those of a boar. There is a well defined rib running down the centre of each, and underneath two similar teeth in an incipient stage are to be seen. The two teeth oa the lower jaw are still more strangely shaped. They are about half an inch in length, and curve sharply upwards towards the points. All the rest of the animal's teeth are in a natural state. A good deal of speculation has been indulged in as to the cause and the meaning of this abnormal development, and some Bee in it a natural evolutionary change, the outcome of bunny's efforts to circumvent the wire netting and othsr obstacles devised by mankind to check his progress here on earth.

As the time draws nearer for the sailing of the gnat raoa for the American Cup, interest deepns in the building of Sir T. Lipton'a yacht, the Shamrock, which was recently launched, (writes a Home correspondent). It is commonly understood that there are important novelties in her construction, but what these are is a jealously guarded aecret. No Derby favourite could be more closely watched than the new vessel. A young man who was found prowling in its vicinity with a camera wai at once taken into custody. It was expected that the Shamrock would be launched in the last week of May, and the precautions as to secrecy were to be maintained on that occasion. When launched the vessel was to be draped with cloth, aud the keel further concealed from view by running between covered-in piers specially constructed for the purpose. She will either go to Glasgow or Belfast to take on board her crew and provisions, and the crew will not be allowed to land again until after the race is run. The Shamrock will Bail yawl rigged for America towards the end of this month. Needless to say her performances will be followed with eager interest in the Motherland. The race will be sailed in October. The latest craze is the book tea (says the London "Daily News")- A number of guests—the sexes equally represented—are asked to afternoon tea, and each is to wear a badge denoting a book. The book is not necessarily a novel, though the sun is on novels, nor is it necessarily a modern book, though these are moro generally selected. The badge, which is a little toy, must express the title of the book. The guests arrive decorated, supplying and wearing their own decorations, and each has to guess the titles of all the others. Some people are very stupid at it; some very quick. And there is skill, too, not only in guessing the titles, but in making the orders. Two little wooden shoes, for instance, announce themselves. A pair of very email wooden dolls are the Heavenly Twins. A little bronze devil, with crystal drops in his eyes, is (or are) the Sorrows of Satan. A bicycle attached to a ribbon is the Wheels of Chance. And so, with Mudie's catalogue, one could go on indefinitely. There are two prizesone for the guest who guesses most, and one for the guest whose badge has been most difficult to interpret. Much tea and some time are consumed, and men and women show themselves to be children of larger growth.

A gentleman who visited Naples not leng back, with a view to making some observations of the eruption of Vesuvius offered some interesting remarks on the popular aspects of the subject. '• I was particularly struck," he said, " by the apathy and indifference of many of the peasantry who reside in the neighbourhood of the mountain. No one would suppose from their demeanour that they lived in hourly peril of the destruction of their lives and property. Of course, this recklessness islargely a matter of habit. They are accustomed to the rumblings of the fire-breathing voloano, But the danger portended by the recent outbreak is none tho less real. In 1872 the eruption destroyed property to the value of over £150,080 and of the vast crowds who ascended the mountain slopes 'to see the fireworks' more than 300 met their death. But tho light-hearted Italian has learned little by the disaotor. The present eruption is treated as an amusing epectaole, although the lava has burned some of the neighbouring forests and worked other damage. V A« an example of the precarious conditions under which those dwelling in the neighbourhood of the volcano are now living, I may mention that a leading scientist in Naples told me that the present indications are those whioh have always iu the past preceded a tremendous outbreak." In the Christchurch Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, a woman sued her husband for arrears on a maintenance order. As the husband had been out of work for some months the Magistrate adjourned the caso for a month to give the defendant a chance to pay off the arrears. The two litigants then retired to the gallery of the Court. The wife got the husband in a corner and energetically belaboured him with her fists. He managed to escape, but she pursued him halfway across the body of the Court furiously hitting at him. Before she was secured she almost over-powered the first officer who took charge of her, aHd though a second policeman came to his assistance, the woman, who had now become slightly hysterical, was with difficulty overcome. She kicked and fought for freedom. She was takeu into an ante-room where she was detained until her paroxyism was exhausted. The solicitor who had defended her husband in the Court had aroused her ire, and she made arrangements to ambuscade him on his way to his office. The legal gentleman took a circuitous route from the Court to his rooms, and was well on his way when a yell from behind followed by a quick patter of feet on the asphalt told him that he was discovered. An exciting race ensued, in which the solicitor managed to hold his own, and reached safety breathless but unharmed. The female relieved her feelings by smashing windows in the Clarendon Hotel, for which she was promptly apprehended.

Mr Norfchcroffc, S,M., used rather a striking illustration the other day when endeavouring to show the licensed victuallers at a licensing meeting that they ought not to allow themselves to bo tempted into a breach of the law for the sake of temporary gain. " You see," said he, "you have an important monopoly, and when a man comes along and wants you to break the law, you should look at it this way : that he wauts you to wager, or stake your interest of the value of, say, £SOO or £6OO, as the case may be, against his sixpence. The odds, looking at it from a wagering point of view, aro too long."

A report issued by sanitary inspector Lichtblau ravcals revolting cases of over-crowding in the Kaiserstadt, tho Jewish quarter of Vienna. A man named Pearl Siernschuesa conducted a ing house" consisting of threo small rooms, opening into one another. Each room contained four beds, and each bed was occupied by an entire family. Sixtythree persons were living in the three rooms, giving an average of 21 in each room, or five in every bed The whole "boardinghouso" was entirely without ventilation, or the most elementary sanitary arrangements, and the ceiling, walls, and floor were thick with filth and vermin.

Inspector Lichtblau expresses the opinion that neither of the three rooms bad been washed or swept or in any way cleaned for at least threa year*. Inspector Licatblau discovered quite a number of " boardinghouses ' in which persons of both sexes and all ages were huddled together in a similar way. In one case, one of the sixteen inmates of a room was a woman suffering from typhus. Most of the occupants of these plague dens are destitute Polish Jows from Galicia.

Living poison by post is a novelty. The New York correspondent of the Daily Mail says that Miss May Cook, a cornet soloist and ballad singer, while appearing at Eochester (New York) Theatre, received a box by post. On opening it a large copperhead snake wriggled out, curled itself up, and prepared to strike. Her screams brought one of the attendants to her assistance. He killed the reptile. The police are investigating the matter. There is no clue to the sender. It will probably go hard with that persou, man or woman, if caught. Curiously enough, the Washington correspondent of the Chronicle states that Mr George E. Sterry, •ecretary of a New York wholesale drug firm, received through the post a small box. When he opened it out darted a small snake, which was afterwards pronounced by a naturalist to be a poisonoii3 asp, of the same species that Cleopatra is supposed to have used to kill herself with. Its bite is almost instantly fatal. Mr Sterry cannot account for anyone wishing to kill him, as he says he has no enemies.

The attention of the New South Wales Board of Health has lately been directed to the question of the adulteration of bread. Several samples were analysed, the result being to shew that many of the specimens contained a great excess of water. Bread should not have more than about 35 per csnt of water, but some of the samples oontained as much as from -13 to 45£ per cent. Bread with 34 or 35 per cent of Water has nutriment or solids amounting to Go or 66 per cent. In those examined, which had from 43 to 45£ per cent of water, the solids consequently fell as low as olh per cent. The bakers who supply such bread, therefore, make 54 per cent of nutriment, or flour, do duty for 66 per cent, so that the purchaser is deprived to- the extent of 12 per cont he pays for; This is bad enough, but too much water means several other things, the chief being that the bread does not keep. It becomes sour and mouldy, and is specially injurious when given to children. Tho Now South Wales Board has now under consideration a standard of moisture for bread, which must not be exceeded.

The year is 365 days, 49 minutes long; 11 minutes are taken every year to make the year 365:}- days long, and every fourth year we have an extra day. This was Julius Ciesar's arrangement;. Where does the 11 minutes come from? They come from the future and are paid by omitting a leap year . every hundred years. But if a leap year is omitted regularly every hundredth year, in the course of four hundred years it is found that the 11 minutes taken each year will not only be paid back, but that a whole day will have been taken up. So Pope Gregory X111.,_ ; who improved Ciesar's calendar in 1582, S. decreed that every centurial year divsible - by eighty should be a leap year after all. So we borrow 11 minutes each year more than paying our borrowings back by omitting three leap years in three centurial years, and square matters by having a leap year in the fourth centurial year. Pope Gregory's arrangement is so exact, aud the borrowing aud paying back balance so nicely that we borrow more than we pay back to the extent of only one day in 3,869 days.

The Governor-general of the Sondan has lost no time in completing his organisation of the administration of the province. Just a year after the victory of Omdurman the Soudan will be opened to European trade, and opened on that principle of equality of opportunity which we consistently offur to others, although we never get it from them in return. No import duties will be levied, beyond a small registration fee at Wady Haifa, and Europeans will be permitted to acquire laud. Railway rates will be fixed on the general basis of those prevalent in Lower Egypt : but the heavy cosb of coal, so far from the sea, will necessitate the imposition of somewhat higher rates than choso which obtain in the Delta. Export duties, again, on the staple articles of Soudanese production will be as high as 20 per cent. ; but itr must be remembered that the general taxation is very light, and Lord Kitchener is able to announce that taxes are being paid with regularity. In sho>-t, the Soudan is entering, slowly on the path of regeneration. The Loudon Standard's Paris correspondent says : —A few days since the arrest of a doctor was spoken of as probable in connection with certain incidents which were alleged to have taken place at a certain establishment. On May 8 it was announced that a doctor, in order to escape certain disgrace, had taken his life, and now the following details are published of the manner in which he carried his design into execution. The physician first informed his wife of the position in which bo had placed himself, and of his intention to end his days. The lady, who is young, of considerable personal attrac« tions, and very rich, listened to her husband's sad story, and, having vainly endeavoured to deter him from carryiug out his intention, finally acquiesced iu his proposal. The doctor then announced that it was his intentioii to suffocate himself by opening the gas brackets in his study, and, having kissed his wifci that lady withdrew. She talked with? him through the door whilst he pasted paper over all the cracks and apertures, and listened with her ear at the keyhole to his death struggles after he had turned ou the gas. Finally, hearing the body fall to the ground, she concluded that the gas had done its work, and she theu left the house, and went and in« formed some friends of the occurrence,