ALEXANDRA.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1303, 4 November 1880, Page 2

ALEXANDRA.

Our townsfolks are determined to lose no time in preparing for our usual annual hpints. A meeting- was held on. Saturdayevening last in the Public Hall, which was fairly attended, for the purpose of electing a committee, &c, to carry out the Alexandi.i annual races and sports. Mr J. K. Pierce was called to the chair, when the following gentlemen were duly proposed and elected on the committee, vi/. : Messrs Thomas Finch, J. Steele, T. Kirk, P. Ctonnull, J. C. Grierson, G. A. Ahieo, and H. Khkwood. Mr Thomas Finch was elected treasurer, and Mr P. Pistrueci, hou. secretary. It was also decided that the spoits be held on Boxing 1 Day, 27th December. A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceeding. Although now close season with the g.imo lovers of the gun can obtain a good days *pert at rabbit shooting in the vicinity of Te Ron. Parties are frequently made up here for the purpose, a good number of otherwise useless dogs being always obtained in the township at the sight of the guns. Messrs Douglas, and K. Hill, from Hamilton, and others went out yesterday, and knocked o\ cv some half hundred rabbits, enjoying a capital days sport. The repairs at the Alexandra bridge are at a stmdstill, and the contractors have left until such time as timber can be procured to <fo en with the contract. Had proper instructions been given at first to them, no del.iv need have occurred. It will, I am afiaiu, be a most unsatisfactory lob even when finished, as some of the framework of the biid»e to bft left in is in :i most unsound condition. A half-oasto n lined John Davis, who lately .swnowlut prominently figured in an Arm's case :it the Thames, is now amongst the native^, somewhere in the vicinity of Kilnkihi, and has written to Ta.vbiao, informing him of the Government* intention to remove Te Puke from oft' the Imd he his now cultivating at Orakau, it having been purchased by a Euiopean. D ivis would evidently wish to changes his residence fiom the Thames to the King country. Ta whiao had a letter sprit to him in reply, infouning him as there was plenty of land being disposed of and taken possession of by Governmcn at the Thames, he had better return there and look after the interests of' the natives in that direction, as his interference in this district was not required. — [Correspondent.] November 2nd.

The Grand Duke of Hesse has been on a vihib to the Emperor Francis Joseph, of Austria, and the Viennese papers bring the somewhat surprising news of the betrothment of the former with the Princess of Asfcuria, the eldest sister of King AlfoiihO of .Spain. The betrothment took place in Cattle Weilburg, near Baden, in the neighbourhood of Vienna, m the presence of the Emperor of Austria and his son. Crown Prince Rudolf. The Grand Duke, as well as his fiancee, have been, married before — the former to the late Princess Alice of England, and the latter to the Count Girgenti, the brother of the former King Francis 11. of Naples. The Grand Duke is forty- three years of age, and has five children ; while the bride, a Roman Catholic, is twenty-eight years of age, and childless. It was said some time ago that tne Grand Duke of Hesse was a suitor to the hand of his sister in-law, Princess Beatrice, and that Queen Victoria of England, as well as the Prince of Wales, and the other English princes, were greatly in favour of that union, which Jwould have given the orphaned j children a loving stepmother, and the people of the Duchy of Hesse a princess in whom they would have fully trusted, being the sister of the revered late Duchess Alice, and the daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of England. But the strange law of Great Britain stood in the way, as it forbids the so natural union of a widower with his late wife's sister ; and although in Germany no such law exists, the bill to abolish the law put before Parliament was rejected the House of Lords, although supported by all the English princes. At present little seems known about the Princess of Asturia, but it is to be hopod that she may possess some ot the excellent qualities for which the late Grand Duchess was bo justly beloved. — Paris Correspondence.

A Fallen Angel. — The other eA-emng an old gentleman advanced the proposition that never in the course of his long life had he ever seen a woman who was not charming. "01), really, now," said a lady whose nose was of the purest Ukraine breed, " don't you think I'm ugly?" "Not at all, madam," replied the gallant old gentleman; "you are an angel fresh fallen from heaven, only you fell on your nose !"