General News.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 145, 15 May 1900, Page 2

General News.

His Worship the Mayor requests the burge&ses to observe a half holiday on the nay on which Mafeking is relieved. The Flying Dutchman is no longer a mythical personage, but the expression should read " Flying Dutchmen." The New Zealand Times says that the Government has decided to purchase a second submarine mining boat for Wellington Harbour. A concert and dance in aid of the Hook School funds will be held on Thursday June 7th, and like all previous ones at the same place it will be very enjoyable . The Rev. A. Fowler will a lantern lecture on Thursday evening in St Augustine" 3 Schoolroom. He will take as his subject " Canterbury Cathedral" and as the views he has are over fifty in number, a treat may be looked forward to. The Customs revenue at Timaru ior the week ended Saturday last is as follows :— Customs, J9576 Bs lid; New Zealand beer, J6lB 12s 5d ; other receipts, JBI4 16s 9d ; a total of £iO9 18s sd. All hockey players are requested to turn up at the Park on Thursday, when a record practice is to be held. A movement is on foot to Hold a five-a-side tournament shortly, and the matter will be discussed on Thursday. Herr A dree went up in his balloon To try and find the pole, He must have perished all too soon Before he reached his goal. If he had only known the waj. Cold regions to endure, He might have been alive to-day, On Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. Among the rank and file of, the troops in South Africa betting is rampant just now. Odds of all land are being taken on the vital question of when we shall hoist the British flag in Pretoria. Some men are said to be even accepting bets a3 to their chances of going through the war without subtaiuing injury. A high officer, sent by President Steyn, is reported to be in Ladybrand with special powers to take charge of the southern district and commandeer by means of coercion, when necessary, those burghers who ' have returned to their farms, and are >'■ doing their best to avoid being drawn again into the fighting line. Lord Methven, in consequence of a number of soldiers at Kimberley 'having; been placed hors de combat by "Tanglefoot " and other drink supplied, has had samples taken of lijuor from hotels and canteens in the town. These will be analysed, and • in the event of discovery of any " doctoring " the bar from which it is t aken will be closed. In a late edition of the Standard and Diggers' News, in which vain efforts are made to explain away the Republican reserves, the remark is made that the Transvaal Boers will make such a stand at Biggarsberg as will stagger humanity, but this expression is getting worn a little threadbare. Transvaal and Orange Free State used postage stamps are being eagerly bought up, in anticipation of the Republics ceasing to exis^, in which case collectors would do well to hold on to any they might have, as prices, in course of time, are likely to rule high, and possibly attain fancy figures. It is fully expected that after the occupation of Pretoria by our forces a fierce guerilla warfare will be carried on by the enemy in the extreme uorthof the Transvaal, and even now enormous supplies are being sent thither by the Boers into the Spelonken district. This part of the country is about 60 miles south of the Limopopo. The nearest town of any importance is Pietersburg, the terminus of the railway from Pretoria, but this 4s some 80 miles distant. , Two thousand out of the eight 'thousand ordered copies oi the directions for the treatment of the apparently drowned have been received by the *RqyalMEum,ane Society "of New ZealanJL and'are hSiog distributed in schools/ factories, Government offices, swimming '.baths and boat sh»€ls. 'The directions are printed on calico. The Wairoa Gtiardian says : — «• We are informed that there is an alarming mortality among the Natives of Nubaka, Hawke's Bay, chest complaints being the principal disease. Eleven deaths have occurred ■ in six weeks, and the various settlements are full of sick children. If the Government .desire to abolish the calling of the ignorant, presuming tohungas, they should provide some medical|aid for the natives." Owing to the extraordinary increase in traffic on the Government railway, trucks ar« from 1500 to 2000 short of ' the necessary number to 4sarry on the work. All tins Government workshops are running at high pressure, but at the utmost cannot construct more than 1000 a year. The Government are enquiring as to the possibility of the required number being built bjr outside firms.

At court yesterday, before W. Coll man, Esq., J.P., an old offender fined 10s or 48 hours' imprisonniel for drunkenness. <® Preparations for the long-talke^ combined bazaar are in full awing, an* the bazaar promises to be the best eW held in Waimate. The Queen's Birt^ day may well be looked forward to, aj with a sports meeting and a baz^ Waimate will be quite gay. ■$ Christchurch Truth says that a litt)| corner in ferrets would appear to ha^l been instituted since the arat ext«& | mination has been started. Owns* of these enemies of the plague dit sfminator are said to be asking up d 16s apiece for the animals. :| " Gentlemen -of the jury," said 414 1 blundering counsel in the action aboij some pigs, " there were just thirty.^ pigs in that mob ; please retnew^ that fact — thirty-six pigs — just exacts three times as many as there areiy that jury box, gentlemen." Jg counsel did not gain his case. 4 Every day Mr E. G. Lane (cheufJ of Oamar-u) receives references to thi value of his creasoted emulsion rfi cod liver oil. We have been shows' a letter written bj a doctor in whW he states that he treated a case o| consumption with Lane's creasote^ emulsion, and was glad -to say th 4 after a course of treatment the patient had improved greatly. The Bpufo^ had diminished, the cough. l 4 During his southern tour the Hog J. M'Gowan saw one train which W carrying between 14,000 and 15,Q0j rabbits to the freezing o"hambers. B| ; also saw one -horse waggon which had ne fewer than 4700 rabbits on boat! and he was informed thai; one pro! prietor kept .one hundred horses fof. the rabbit carting traffic alone. * The insect known as the * * flyiu* ant " is proving very fatal to trout Hb year in several streams, says th» Napier Telegraph. In one localit/, recently, no fewer thnn 26 dead ironi were found, and on being opened co& tamed a large number of the insect We are informed that fowls which «i this insect .die as a result. Is there m' " natural enemy " of the flying ant which the Acclimatisation Societia could introduce ? A New York method for destroying rats is as follows : — The floor near tS rat hole is covered with a thin layerii moist caustic potassa. When the ratf walk on this it makes thei*- feet bom] these they lick with their tongun which makes their mouths sore ; am the result is that thoy shun tbi locality, not alene, but appear to W! all the rats in the neighbourhood about it, and eventually the house is entirety abandoned by them, not withstands the houses around may be teemi^ with rats. At i ie AddingtonMarki.tonWedn» day, a line of forty-eight extra pfiijij lambs from the Acton Estate fetchi the sensational price of 24s and 5$ at which figure they were secured i Mr 3 ClarksQn, who bought them f« shipment in a frozen state. Tb lambs were all exceptionally wdj grown and highly finished. Those « the first two pens were by purebd Shropshire rams out of thr^e-quarHf bred ewes, and those in the third pa ware by Border Leicester r anis out of three-quarter-bred ewes. A drtS from the same station last yai realised 25s apiece. — Lyttelton Tim* A somewhat unusual prosecuiioi urider the Licensing Act was recent| taken in Auckland. The defendant hotelkeeper at Henderson, was chargd with supplying drink to a man in & change for certain tools. The evident showed that a gum -digger, diuctl the time, but wanting more &M offered the .defendant his took (speai^ spade, and axe) in exchange for liqooij and so obtained it. The tools w«| indeed parted with piecemeal, andj one instance the defendant put dsyf and took up money, and in another third party was used as anint(f mediary. Mr T. Hutchison, SJfc before whom the charge was Jifid described the circumstance surrounJ ing the transaction as •" peculiarly k reputable," and inflicted a fine otiA No fewer 22 transports, some*! them with 800 men on board, arriw at Capetown between March 28th Jj April 2nd. Two steamers left Bom* Ayres on the latter day 4 one with J3 horses, and the other with 100& % Rippinghana Grange took outwWJ probably the smallest contingent «fl embarked on a transport, five ofiw* and three men. She had on bow however, no fewer than 850 remo]n^ One of the largest fcapsports WM f ( Winifredian, which left Queeistow with 38 officers and 1005 men, hesi| 500 remounts. A heavy conbigun^ of camp equipment left SouthamiS on March 30th, for the use oi Orfl? and the other prisoners at St. Hele| — London Weekly Times. %