Local and General.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 20, 20 February 1906, Page 2

Local and General.

By order of the Colonial Secretary the Waipukurau Press has been appointed a Government gazette —that is, Government advertisements will be inserted in this paper as occasions require. The Press has also been registered with the Post Office for "Transmission as a newspaper. Mrs J. Nidd, dressmaker and milliner, publishes a notice thanking ladies for support. The triumph of Marconi.—The inhabitants of Iceland were informed by wireless telegraphy of the death of King Christian. During the Rev F. W. Martin’s absence in Island (about a month), Mr Thornton, at Te Aute College, will conduct services.

Mr J. Wren, a noted bookmaker, who has lately had a dispute with the Victoria Racing Club, lately wrote to the Premier of that colony offering to rent the Flemington racecourse at £25,000 a year, paying two years’ rent down. He undertakes to give at least two race meetings a year for charitable purposes, to increase the stakes for all events, making the Melbourne Cup £lO,OOO, to conserve the rights of members, and to pay a wage ot 4s a day more than that paid by the V.ILC.

The New Zealand football team left San Francisco in the Sonoma for Auckland last Thursday. Wallace and Roberts, of Wellington, are staying at San Francisco until the next steamer leaves — three weeks hence.

A movement is on foot in Cambridge to form a company to i*un a hotel on the Gothenberg system. Already substantial monetary support has been promised locally; while several Auckland firms have written for prospectuses, and it is considered certain that good financial support will come from the city towards the project. There appears to be a slump in the bacon business. The Stratford bacon company has closed down, and the Eltham company shows a deficit of £3OOO —partly due to a fire, however.

The list of intending members of the proposed Waipukurau Bowling Club is filling well,and it is believed the club will, be successfully established. The committee meets on Thursday evening, when progress will be reported. It is reported that a curious fact disclosed in connection with the examination of native children candidates for scholarships at Te Aute College is that the papers shows that the candidates are gradually losing a knowledge of their own language; and that in consequence of this, changes are to be made in Maori school work.

There are nine newspapers printed in the Hawke’s Bay provincefour Opposition and five Government. In the district-from Pahiatua to Wellington there are tw’elve, eight being Opposition and four Government. Taranaki boasts of four and seven respectively. Japan is fifty times smaller thau Russia, and her population onethird that of the latter.

The Premier has gone to the South Island, and attended a banquet to the Hon. T. Y. Duncan last night. On returning to the North Mr Seddon will attend a large native meeting at Waimarama. He has also, while in Napier, to discuss the land settlement question. We suggest this would be be a good opportunity for Waipukurau to send a deputation to urge the Premier to acquire some of the estates in the south-east of this town for closer settlement. In the course of his sermon at the Church of England on Sunday evening Rev F. W. Marfin referred in sympathetic terms tu the late Mr George Winlove. President Roosevelt’s birthplace, an old-fashioned New York house, has been purchased for the nation at a cost of £12,000. Mr Edison and Air Carnegie are among the subscribers.

Speaking at the road board meeting Mr Wells said that the chief object of the KapongaToWn Board appeared to be to get a road to the cemetery. Those that were in could not get out, and those that were out surety did not want to get in, so he didn’t see the great need of it. (Laughter.)—Hawera Star.

Life can be sustained for thirty days on water, while on dry food one could only live a quarter of that time.

Apropos the retirement of Mr H. Labouchere from politics, the following good story of his university days is being told: On one occasion he “bluffed” his anxious parent with an audacity almost sublime. Young Labouchere, who always boasted that he “never allowed his studies to interfere with his pleasures,” ran up to London, as he said. “to get his hair cut.” In the Strand his father saw r him, and reproached him with sorrow and with anger. The erring son, however, absolutely denied his identitydenied, indeed, that he ever set eyes on his father before. Then, passing on, he hailed a hansom, and was just in time to catch a train for Cambridge. His father, unconvinced, also went to Cambridge, but by a later train, so that when he got to his son’s rooms he found him working with wet towels round his head. Apologies from the now completely deluded father were followed up by a handsome and most welcome “ tip.” We learn that the Waipukurau Hospital is gaining a reputation for the successful treatment of eye complaints, a number of serious cases having been successfully operated upon —some where outside doctors had given the patients no hope. Persons afflicted come from far and near for treatment.

At Boston, U.S.A., the authorities are closing all saloons and hotel bars within 4(10 yards of schoolhouses. As a matter of fact, all the hotels are within the prohibited distance.

Waitress (at railway refreshment counter) : ‘‘ Do you want to eat this sandwich here or take it with you?” Customer: “Both, miss.” A Waipawa man had the audacity to say the other day that, owing to the expansion of Waipawa, in 30 years hence Waipukurau would be “ swallowed up” in that town ! Several crops of potatoes near Hastings have been attacked by a little green worm, which causes the plants to blacken and wither off as if visited by frosts. The tubers, nowever, are not injured. A Mr Andrews, aged 76, died suddenly in St. Mark’s English Church, Wellington, on Sunday morning. Heart failure was the cause of death.

Many paupers have lived to be a hundred years old, but there is not a single record of a millionaire attaining that age. The programme of the Waipukurau Jockey’s Club’s Easter meeting has been circulated.

A striking feature of the occurrence of the bush fires [says a Melbourne paper] has been the way in which both wild and domes! ic animals rush in, in their alarm,towards the habitation of man. Hoisesand cows flocked round the homesteads, and when that refuge became hopeless they followed their fleeing owners. In the ruins of many of the houses the charred bodies of hares and wallabies were found, and in the case of one deserted dwelling, which had escaped the flames, the inhabitants when they returned found it in the occupation of two opposums and a native bear. Mrs Singleton, when escaping from her home before the advancing flames, encountered a big black snake so intent on getting away from the fast-following destruction that when she trod on it it took no notice. The bodies of many snakes have been found in the track ot the fire.

At a church service at Manakau recently, there were only two persons present, the minister and a visitor. Nothing daunted, the service was fully carried out, the visitor, being of a musical turn, presiding at the organ. A mysterious disease is attacking the horses on the West Coast, says the Grey Star. What it is is not known, but several horses have of late dropped dead in their stalls.

Rape and turnip crops in the Palmerston North district (says the Standard) have suffered heavily owing to depredations by the fly and bug. In some cases these fodders have had to he planted three times.

Shooting for ihe Coleman shield takes place at Waipawa to-morrow Eight volunteer corps have entered.

“We have never borrowed a shilling nor spent a shilling in legal expenses since the inauguration of the county system in Waitaki, nearly twenty-nine years ago,” was Chairman Duncan Sutherland’s boast at a function at Oamaru on Thursday. This is surely a’unique experience among the of the colonv.

A Kaikora correspondent writes The rumour that the Government intend to acquire part of the To Aute property gives great satisfaction, and all are united in thinking it will be a great boon to the district. The new Admiral of the Fleet will be popular with our colonial youth, his cognomen being endeared to them by joyful celebrations, the inntier meaning of which is lost to them in antiquity. If he could only be persuaded to nrriie on November Fifth instead of in February their cup would be running over, and if they could find a Guy in his given-names there would bo little more to wish for. Anyway, if he ever has occasion to attempt it I hope he will have better luck, in blowing up the enemy’s ships’* than the historic Fawkes had in blowing up Parliament. It is noteworthy, by the way, that we don’t think as much of Parliaments as they did in the old days, and a resolution that all Parliaments should adjourn after sitting five months or be dynamited would probably be unanimously carried in any democratic legislature. — Mercutio in Weekly News. A school excursion to Napier is spoken of. The Black Family appear next week. “ The worst summer weather in my experience,” remarked the oldest inhabitant while standing in this morning’s shower. A fire at Hastings-st, Napier, did some damage to Conroy’s butcher’s shop. “ Disgusted” writes from “ Starvation Camp, Hungry Raurimu,” - King Country, to complain that men on the railway co-operative works are only averaging 3s to 7s a dry of eight hours’ hard work, and asks us [Weekly News] to settle an argument on the point whether the Premier knows of the low wages made by the men.—lt is hard for us to say exactly what the Premier knows, and to set doubts at rest “ Disgusted” might drop him a note from “ Starvation Camp.” There was a large entry of stock at to-day’s Waipukurau sale, and a fair attendance of buyers. Mr Ernest Chitty, a blind student of Auckland UDiversity College, has passed the final B.A. examination. Mr Chitty has been studying at the university for three years. He is quite blind, but has a remarkable faculty for remembrance, lie got through all his examination without a failure. This is considered a remarkable record. Five plague-infected rats have been found in one of streets of Sydney.