Local and General.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 18, 16 February 1906, Page 2

Local and General.

It is understood that His Excellency Lord Blanket intends to reside for a time at Takapau. Wonder if His Ex. has mistaken Takapau for Wa : pukurau ! [Later. —The Governor has, sure enough, taken Mr Sidney Johnston’s residence near Takapau for 3 months.] Commenting on recent speeches delivered by Messrs Pirani and Hawkins, the Dannevirke Press says:- —“According to Pirani’s ethics, no charge is too dirty to be laid at Seddon’s door, and no opportunity is worth missing which affords him the means of traducing the man whose dominating influence has made such men as Pirani, Bedford and Taylor ‘ back numbers’ in New Zealand’s political history. . . . Seddon does, undoubtedly, wield enormous power in the colony, but if men want to counteract it they should fight with broadminded energy, and not howl every time they get hit.” Cricketers up this way are not altogether satisfied with the treatment meted out to them by the Napier portion of the Union. They say it is difficult to get a game on with those players, and writing is never satisfactory. Members of the clubs hereabouts believe they r possess as good players as Napier, though the latter do not appear to recognise the fact. Some go so far as to say that the AucklandHawke’s Bay match would have ended differently had a few of our bowlers been playing! The late Mr George Winlove took great interest in the Waipukurau Press, lie expressed pleasure when he hea d a paper was to be started here, and later said he was glad it had eventuated in his day.

The lightest saddle in the world belonged to Archer, the jockey. It was made in London, and its weight 16oz. The pigskin bad to be scraped with glass down to the thickness of |in to give such a light weight, as this. The saddle is a fine, strong one, and it cost £5O. We have to acknowledge receipt of a ticket for the Wanstead bachelors’ ball. It is stated that ihe potato blight is playing the deuce with the fern in Taranaki! A cable from New York announces that John I). Rockefeller, tiie millionaire, has mysteriously disappeared. Might have been kidnapped. A Taranaki contemporary has the following : —He told his son to milk the cows, feed the horses, slop the pigs, hunt the eggs, feed the calves, catch the colt and put him in the stable, cut some wood, split up some kindling for morning, stir the cream, put fresh water in the creamery after supper, and be sure to study his lessons before be went to bed. Then he went to the farmers’ club to discuss the question, “ How to keep boys on the farm.” Air D. Bruce, formerly of Wanstead and Waipukurau, has been on a flying visit to this town. Iriends were glad to observe that Mr Bruce has quite recovered from his late illness. He is now a resident of Tokomaru, East Coast. Extraordinary things in connection with the great match against Wales are reported by the Daily Mail to have happened in the Rhondda Valley. Scores of Welsh colliers had staked their full fortnight’s wages on the Welsh team. Never in the history of Rugby football has such unbounded confidence in Welsh sport been shown by the mining inhabitants of South Wales. One enterprising working collier at Perth, having bought a house and furnished it neatly, staked the whole of his property on Wales. Though betting, has not got a very firm hold on the more respectable Welsh colliers, the most extraordinary bets have taken place over the match. Two Rhondda tradesmen staked £lOO merchandise each that Wales would win. Rev J. Pattison intends to give shortly a popular lecture in aid of Sunday school funds.

A conference was held at Palmerston North on Tuesday last to discuss and recommend improvements in the railway train service. A Pahiatua representative urged that the Napier-Wellington express should travel at a greater pace, and that there should be a dining car attached to it. The same speaker expressed the belief that a good many letters sent out by the Railway Department were sent out without the authority of the Minister.

A social was tendered to Mr C Hall, M. H.R., at Waipawa on Tuesday evening. The Premier was Dresent and made a short speech. The affair was well attended and passed off successfully. An invitation to this paper came to hand too late to be of any use. All the Takapau sections offered on Tuesday were sold under the hammer.

“The number of bankruptcies in the Taranaki district have increased slightly, assets have doubled, and dividends have been very small,” said Mr E. Gerard, Official Assignee, to an Auckland Star representative recently. “ Dairying has had {every chance of flourishing, favourable seasons and high prices in butter and cheese prevailing, but artificial inflation of laud values in Taranaki has spoilt it there.” The chickens are coming to roost, and, in the opinion of Mr Gerard, it will take a good while before things can be cleared. “ Hundreds of small holdings and a few of the larger ones are mortgaged up to the hilt, and mortgagees who can afford it are very indulgent just now. They are refraining from pressing too hard tor interest, lest the dairymen mortgagors should throw up the sponge and let the land go to waste.

The “ wild cat ” train does not now carry passengers. Neither fare, love nor smooging can get a person through. This is because the postal department objects to people travelling in the same van with the mail.

Aucklanders had a good view of the eclipse of the moon last Friday. The moon rose totally eclipsed, and was seen at its best at 7.17 p.m. The shadow cast by the earth made the moon appear of an orangetawny colour. A peculiar and very beautiful effect was the reflection of the partially eclipsed moon on the waters of the harbour. A single shaft of silver light stretched across the water, and widened gradually as the shadow of the moon diminished. The next total eclipse of the moon will take place on 4th August, beginning at 9.42 p.m.; it will be visible throughout New Zealand.

The funeral of the late Mr Geo Winlove on Wednesday afternoon was largely attended, settlers coming from all around the district and the coast. Rev F. W. Martin impressively performed the burial service.

The London Daily Mail’s story of the tour of the New Zealand football team at Home, has reached this colony. The publication,which contains 100 pages, is entitled “ Why the ‘ All Blacks’ Triumphed ! ” and a special feature is made of the New Zealand captain’s name on the front cover, giving the impression that Mr Gallaher is the author of the book. His only contribution, however, is a three-page chapter on “The Secret of Our Success,” in which he denies the charges of unfair play as a wingforwarc, such as putting “ bias ” on the ball when putting it into the scrum. The latter suggestion he declares to be ridiculous in the extreme, as it is impossible to put “bias” on a football as alleged. Mr Gallaher sets forth the advantages of the wing forward and fiveeights. There are many other interesting chapters in the book, the contributionsiucluding the captains of the Welsh and English teams. Scottish and English international players, and “ Impressions ” by G. W. Smith, W. J. Wallace, and F. Roberts. The book is to be pkiced on the New Zealand market before the team returns. The Bishop of Waiapu is visiting this district. Rain in the morning interfered with the attendance at the Woodville Show. The weather was fine in the afternoon. Most classes were well represented, and in live stock there were many creditable exhibits. Mr G. Pirie’s dogs took first and second prizes in the rough haired class. Last year’s entries totalled 1143 ; this year, 1051. Mr J. McNiven’s Pickpocket won the jumping competition. During last month the Labour Department assisted 187 married men and 565 single men in obtaining employment. There were 616 persons dependent upon those assisted. Sixteen wives and 25 children were also assisted. Of the 572 men who obtained work through the departmental came from Great Britain, 37 from Australia, 223 from the South Island, and 420 from the North Island.

The draining operations recently carried out on the Waipukurau racecourse are said to have proved very satisfactory, the late heavy rains affording an ample test. Advice has been received by the secretary of the New Zealand Rugby Union, that Messrs Johnston and Seeling, members of the New Zealand team, had sailed for Wellington by the Gothic. Messrs Harper and Glenn are returning via Suez, and Hunter and Deans, and probably O’Sullivan, are returning via Canada. The Waipukurau team won the tug-o’-war at Takapau sports. Mr J. C. Wason (formerlv member for Selwyn in the New Zealand House of Representatives) has been re-elected to thelTouse of Commons for Orkney and Shetland. At Porangahau on Wednesday Mr A. Cameron was married to Miss Mabel Lambert. The bride was attired in white silk, with veil and orange blossoms. Misses Neilson and Cameron were bridesmaids and Mr De Lacey best man. The honeymoon will be spent in Wanganui.

For milk supplied during January the Ballance dairy company this week paid out to suppliers £5400. Blight is playing havoc with the potato crops in Hastings. << The lining of the Mataroa tunnel, on the trunk line, is now completed and it is expected that all will be ready for the locomotive to get through from Taihape in a week from now. The official opening of the section will probably not take place till the end of March, but meantime arrangements will be made to rail goods from Taihape. Bridesmaids are going out of fashion at Home (writes a Melbourne paper). And quite right too. In nineteen cases out of twenty the bride is putin the shade by the charming bridesmaids, and the guests wonder what “ George could possibly see in Susannah ” when her younger sister (a ■nuch prettier girl) was available. The bride, in her white costume, often standslittie chance in “ the beauty competition ” when she has six or eight bridesmaids, tastefully dressed in pink or blue or heliotrope, grouped round her. At a wedding in London, where there were no bridesmaids, a girl friend, seated in the front pew of the church, held the bride’s bouquet and gloves. In future brides will wear no gloves. Just before the down train from Masterton reached Carterton- on Monday evening, a young man in one of the carriages complained of heat, and went out on the platform. He immediately fell in a fit, and fell from the train, fortunately clear of the wheels. The man- was taken to his home in the station ambulance.

A sensation is made out of the fact that the Premier lost his hat at Waipawa. That’s nothing—a good many others lostgtheir heads I The mayor of Adelaide (Mr T. Bruce), who has just returned home from a trip to Nev Zealand, was impressed by the buoyant prosperity of New Zealand. “I never saw a poor man during my travels,” he remarked. “ There were no match-vendors in the streets, and I missed the übiquitous organ and the phonograph. Still I think our labourers with 7s a day are just as well off as the working men of New Zealand. The wages there are certainly better, but the cost of living is higher. House rents struck me as being remarkably high.”

Members of the railway conference recently held at Palmerston were practically unanimous in expressing the belief that Government should purchase the WellingtonManawatu Company’s line.

“Defendant believes that he cannot be charged with wife desertionif he has not left his wife for sixty days,” said counsel in Wellington court when appearing for a woman who charged her husband with this offence. “ He’d better not try it,” said the magistrate. “ I will risk it, and give him six months if he wants to te.-t the question on appeal.” The search for the Elingamite treasure has been abandoned, without result. The diver went down five times, but saw no trace of treasure. The wreck has almost disappeared. Mr Seddon visited Napier yesterday, and received deputations; It is expected that the Governor and Lady Plunket will take up their residence at Takapau early in March, Mr Sidney Johnston having lent his house, at Ornawharo, to their Excellencies until the beginning of the session. As an outcome ofa wife desertion < ase at Wellington, in which H. J. Read was sentenced last week to six months imprisonment, the wife appeared before the magistrate with her four infant children, ranging in age from seven monts to five years, with an application for them to be taken care of by the State. The woman stated that she was absolutely destitute. His Worship committed two to the Wellington Receiving Home, and two to the Orphanage. A meeting of Canterbury landowners passed a resolution urging the Government to increase the bonus of 6d each paid for keas z heads. Down Wairarapa way the other day a strange animal is said to have made grimaces at au old lady while she was haiing a nap in a cart. Her nev.vy was pulling out trout from an adjacent creek, but returned just in time to save the old girl from being swallowed up. At sight of the fisherman the monster fled into a rabbit hole. A settler, on being informed, promptly set himself up as a vigilance club, with gun, sword and uniform (a la the.Waipuk. burglar scare), but up to the hour of going to press, the awful brute had not been captured. The idea of its being the famous sea serpent from the China sea is not generally entertained. Il is said that trout are plentiful in the streams of this district. Mr James Watt, bricklayer, has a business card in another column. Upward of 23,000 sheep are already entered for next week’s sale at Waipukurau yards. The success of the New Zealand loan of half a million is now assured(says a Melbourne cable).