EKETAHUNA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3267, 27 July 1889, Page 2

EKETAHUNA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) The weekly meeting of the Debat. ing Society was held in the Schoolroom on Tuesday evening. Mr"%_ Copping in the chair. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. On account of the absence of the obstructionist, everything passed off quietly, there being order and sociality, for a wonder, throughout the evening. Several members gave readings and recitations. The subject for debate next was notified, viz; " Has the fear o*»\ punishment or the hope of rewamp the greatest influence on mankind, i^ There is some talk of removing the Post Office to tbo railway station. I hope it is not true, the present office is very convenient, being in the centre of the township, Those that agitated for the removal from the store thought the Government would build a post office in the township, they never contemplated they would have to walk half a mile for their letters. I rather think the agitators have got bitten this time, Yes, what ive reallyjdo not want is pressed onus, and what we do want and have been trying to get by public meetings, petitions, etc, we ia.ja/t get, I all ids to the want of a Magistrate's fourt. To my certain knowledge di t lore to the amoun. of £2OO and over have bolted from here this last month, and what remedy is there? I will state a case, out of many. A certain person had been stopping at one of our hoarding houses for a considerable time, out of work, eventually he (the debtor) got work which he finished last wejjP and got his cheque, returned to the boarding-house as usual for his meals and got time to pay his bill, protesting that he had not got a penny of ' his dues. When it was subsequently lound that he had been paid and that the money was in his pocket, of course payment of his bill to the amount of £lO was demanded. Now came the trouble; a summons could not be issued here in less than a week. Knowing that, he refused to pay and cleared out. The railway is a God-send for dishonest debtors.

The Sparrow Nuisance. Tho English sparrows are rapidly'' increasing and spreading over the United States and Canada. Li the Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture a series of experiments are detailed touching the best methods of getting rid of the pest by means oi poison. Experimenss were made with English sparrows with seven or eight different kinds of poison, tho result being in favour of arsenical pr|pi parations.. Full instructions a|* given to the farmers how to mix and use the poisons. The American farmers employ bird tenters exactly as tho English farmers do, but by way of assisting them the Government have initiated some trials to ascertain how far trained hawks may be made available to frighten away the birds that feed on cultivated crops. The trained hawk is setoff, and after skimming over the rice or wheat fields and frightening the rica birds or sparrows out of their wits, ' returns tamely to its master. GJ-to difficulty with the Gowmmmvma been in securing experienced falobners to educate the hawks. The expense of this plan of preserving the crops is said to be less than that of paying the birds tenters. The American farmers are under great obligations to their Government for assistance in this matter, as woll as in kindred and more important subjects. A comprehensive report on the introduction and dissemination of the English sparrow its relations to insects and to otherbirds, its general feeding habits p£ destructive propensities, is benfe prepared under the superintondance of Dr Merriam, the chief in-the Governmental staff in tho division of Economic Ornithology. This report is based on more than 3,000 circular reports which have been sent in by observers from all parts of the country, and will form a, oomplete history of the English sparrow in America,

Tragedy in Sydney, f Sydney, July 16. A terrible tragedy was enacted in Chambers streot, Globe, on Thursday night last, when a man named Win. Hunter murdered his little daughter, attempted to kill his eon aged eight years, and then tried to do away with himself. Shortly after eleven o'clock the neighbors heard loud screams, and two men crossing over to Hunter's cottage found Mrs Hunter sitting on the footpath with a child in her arms. She hurriedly gave tho neighbors to understaitiJ . that she feared violence to the childl. ren inside tho house, and yielding to ' hor entreaties, they burst the door open. They found Hunter kneeling on the chest of his son Frederick, who was lying on the floor. Hunter immediately jumped up, and the boy rushed outside c6vered with blood, which was issuing from wounds in his neck and face, Hunter retreated to the back room, The police on being called in, found HuntdJlKng on a couch, bleeding froiu a wound in his throat, while, in anotbor ' room, a little girl, Annio Hunter, aged four years, was lying in a pool of blood, with a fearful gash in tho throat and other injuries on the head. Hunter and tho children were immediately taken to tho hospital, but the girl died very shortly after admission. Hunter and the boy were not seriously wounded, and the man was suffering as much from delirium tremens as from anything. Mrs Hunter states that her husband, though hot drunk, was suffering from tho effects of_i excessive drinking, and that conduct had beon peculiar all day. He had never previously threatened violence to his children, At about half-past ten o'clock last night her husband said, " You are all going to be chopped up." He immediately threw the lamp at her, and added, "I was told to burn." She thon left the house with her babvtbe other children being in bed. Blwrtly afterwards her husband tried to drag her into the house, but she resisted and it was her screaming that attracted the attention of the neighbors and induced him to let her go. She did not remember anything else until she heard Freddy crying, and then she appealed to the neighbors to force upon the "door. Her husband was out of work, but was'not in difficulties. He ' drank •' to excess occasionally, but vcryseldom/" The nqiid3t has been '•' adjourned for a ortnight pending' Hunter's recovery, _ • ft