The Waikato Argus. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1901.

Waikato Argus, Volume X, Issue 913, 27 March 1901, Page 2

The Waikato Argus. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1901.

The History of the Past Century is continued on our fourth page.

In nil ollieial documents Queen Wilhe'miiia is referred to as " the King."

A telegram from Auckland states that Dr. McAriliur has resigned his law lectureship at the Auckland University College.

The monthly meeting of the Te Awamutu branch of the Waikato Farmers' (Hub will be held next Friday ev.ning, at the usual time ami place.

The advance in educational methods is aptly indicated by the fact that the ideal headmaster was formerly a bit: man with a big stick, while we now urefer a great man with a good staff.

The Thames Borough Council declines to pay the interest demanded by the Sinking Fund Commissioners in connection with the conversion of loans. It has placed the facts before the Premier, and asked him to decide.

It is very interesting, if true, as stated in the IJritish Weekly, the King wrote a larte part of the obituary notice of his mother which appeared in The Times on the day following her death. It is said to have been written some years ago. .Mr W. G. Woolnoug, demonstrator of geology at the Hyduey Uuversity, has returned from a geological expedition to Fiji. Asa result of his investigations, ho declares that it may he considered definitely settled that Fiji is a relic of what was once a large continent.

" His Lordship Primate (Bishop Coffie) will dedicate the new Church at Pirongiaatll o'clock on Sunday next, the 31 s: inst. Iu the owning His Lordship "ill hold an adult Confirmation Service at St John's, Te Awamutu, when a special offertory will he asked for to wipe out a deficiency of £l2 on the current expenses this deficiency having arisen owing to so many wet Sundays iu the yepr. The Manawatu Standard states that Mr A. J. Cobb, 20 years ago, had, as a boy, fired a large kidney bean into his left ear. and, as it had become imbedded in the organ, he was unite deaf in th it ear. A few days ago he felt something coming out of his ear, and, with some trouble, brought forward the missing bean. Mr Cobbe is quite delighted to find that his hearing is now completely restored.

Easter Bay, as commemorating the central fact i.f our religion, has always been looked upon as the chief festival of the Christian year, and has been from the earliest times observed with a stately and elaborate ceremonial. It is cmnected with m.uiy interesting and popular customs, sending of curds being the most wide-spread. Jn our advertising columns to-day Mr W. H. Paul, Tin-'. WAIKATO Alices Buildings, advertises having received a large stock of Easter cards, hirthday cards, etc. As showing how the Alaoiis are able tc look after themselves in the matter of piovidoring, it is said that at a station in the Poverty Bay district, the Maori shearers engaged a butcher, who was to keep them iu wild pork and tc buy she. p occasionally, to vary the diet, receiving a remuneration 50s a week. At the cud of six weeks' shearing the hapless butcher found himself 30s iu debt, having to buy such a nun,her (if sheep to satisfy'the cravings of his hungry customers.

In llie clays when the printing of the Bible was an open trade, even tinRoyal printers were summoned for taking tlie" most cxtrnonlinwry liberties with the sacred text, says the Sun. Nonsense ami blasphemy were often in!induced, and libertines, when taken to task for bad behaviour, would quote the corrupted text iu- their defence. To such leDgth was this state of affairs carried that one of these early Bibles is said to have swarmed with no fewer than six thousand faults.

A gentleman at present staying in Gisborne, and recently from Cheviot, with the greater of which lie is thoroughly familiar, says that the prospects of success are assured iu the case of fully 90 per cenf of the settlers there. The best test of their position is, perhaps, that they would net be willing to sell out except at a considerable premium. The outlook, he considers, with the pros: cot of rapidly Dealing railway connection, is of the most hop ful. Blunders there certainly have been in the establishment ol the settlement, but not more than there would have been under any other administration. It is s;\iil thiil the, Queen left only a moderate amount of money to the KiiiK. it "as her belief that Parliament would niatie adequate provisions for him, so she left her money chiefly to those of her poorer relatives for whom Parliament cou'd not be asked to provide. The Kiufl. however, will inherit, savs the Free Lance, most of the priceless art. treasures, plate and jewellery which belonged to his mother. Queen Alexandra also receives many jewels. The Koh-i-lSeor, which was the Queen's personal property, is to become a Crown jewel, while Balmoral will probably be sold to the Duke of Fife.

It is very probable (says the New Zealand Times) that the Government will announce in a few days the amount of subsidy that will be given to either the New'Zealand Shipping Company or the Tvser Company for the institution of a regular steamship service between this "ountry and South Africa. One of the conditions the Government will insist upon is that the rates of freight shall he fisoil for a definite period, and in order to earn the subsidy the service will have to be regular and adequate. 'I he Premier has been assured that « London shipping company < s willing to establish ii service between Cape Colony and New Zealand, so that there will be no dearth of shipping facilities fur the development of a Hade which, it must be confessed, him been ton lung neglected. In determining to offer a substantial subsidy for such if service as this eouutry needs, the Government is only following the example and policy of all commercial unlioiiß.

A remarkable instance of the time resisting properties of " hard luck " is mentioned by one of the troopers who returned to Melbourne by the Coogee. He stated that among the boxes of biscuits which were supplied to them in camp were several which bore the date of 1379. Twenty-two yeais' confinement iu the Government stores at Durban had failed to give the biscuit even a tinge of mustiness. The biscuit referred to had doubtless bceu sent out dminu the Zulu campaign, when it is stated that the men were supplied with beef which had been in brine since the outbreak of the Crimean war 1

The Resident Magistrate has requested us (Oudtshoorn Courant) to publish the following extract from ;i letter written by a Boer prisoner of war, now in goal here, to lis wife, the writer having expressed a wish that it, should be made public: "Oudtshoorn, January 29ch, 1901, Mrs G. Pretorius, Brandlort. Esteemed wife, —I am in the hands of His Majesty's troops, whereof I am very glad. lam well, and be assured that I a... treated like a gentleman. As we have always been stuffed with lies, I now have experience tiiat everyone is well treated.—Your husband, G. J. Pek TOKIOTJS.

There are many birds and animals which originally, no doubt, were of great, assistance to man, and therefore worthy of his protection. But the present state of affairs reveals a sad tale of demoralisation. The sparrow, rinding that a breakfast of corn was procured with greater ease and more sustaining than grubs and caterpillars, has become more or les< of a vegetarian ; the rook, only in a more marked degree, has done the same ; an.l the mongoose, originally introduced in the West. Indies to rid the colonies of rat-, having discovered that poultry are quite as palatable, if not more so, than vermin, has wrought such havoc in the poultry yards of the colonists, tlut they would much prefer the disease to the cute.

In our day no very great comment is made of the kissing on the cheek by European Sovereigns on meeting, says tile Daily News. When the hue Queen of EnL'laud and the Prince Consort visited France early in the sixties, she was saluted on the check on arrival at Cherbourg by the Emperor Napoleon HI. The incident gave rise 'n ii dramatic scene in Parliament. John Blight was speaking on the war in the United States, and ot the animosity of Mr Roebuck, the member for Sheffield, belter known as " Tear 'em," and said, "When the lion, and learned gentleman came hack, I think, from tlie expedition to Cherbourg, does the Home recollect the language he used on the occasion —language which, if it expressed the sentiments which he felt, at least, J tii ink he might, have been content to have withheld ? If lam not mistaken, referrine to the salutation between the lCnipcror of the French and the Queen of these kingr/oms, he said, " When I saw his perjured lips touch that hallowed cheek."