AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1764, 25 October 1883, Page 2

AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Equal .md exact justice to all men, Ot \\h itsoc\er state or persuasion, religious or political. Here shall the Pi ess the People's riffle maintain, Un.twed by influence and unbnbed by gain.

THURSDAY, OCT. 25, 1883.

Tn an age of agitation against the use of alcoholic and narcotic stimulants, hops and tobacco form a rather delicate subject to deal with. The temperance movement used to bo laughed out of court, and the crusade against tobacco was sneered at as the effort of a number of mild lunatics, who, not not having- enough brain - power themselves to -withstand the effects of the pipe, desired, like the tail-less fox, to deprive everybody else of the luxury. But reformers of this class are no longer simply tolerated. They are looked up to now-a-days as tho apostles of a new, and much superior creed. Total abstinence is now as fashionable as it once was uncommon among the higher classes, and the best and wisest have, strangely enough, not damaged their reputaWlion by becoming the advocates of teetotalism. This is very encouraging in one sense ; it argues a marked change for the better in society in general ; it means increasing the sum oi human happiness very considerably ; and it affords us reasonsonable ground for reckoning upon a large and growing decrease of crime, ttut circumstances Jike this render it a difficult matter to treat, from an agricultural standpoint, of the merits of those plants which are used exclusively in the preparation of stimulants, and are n't for nothing else. Baiiey is equally adapted for the purposes of pig feeding and for making beer > wfcoELt, oats, potatoes, molasses, and rwa»yi other articles from which, so we are told at least, various strong drinks are distilled, are capable of filling other places in the economy of life. But hops and tobacco will, when we have finally abandoned drinking beer, smoking, chawing, and taking snuff, not be worth the growing ) unless intteed the former be used | for niediolotij, and the latter for sheep-wash. B# then, again, there are newer, better, #nd cheaper methods of cleansing kheep fchan by using tobacco, and if ' the world drops all its bad habits medicine .q£< pourse will be at a .discount, It is quite evident that piaaite wfrich, do not possess, ftdonptwemil -#m$

outsid&of "fchqJF^Be &'& vf ood for depraved' habits", fast facing into disuse, niustj ' fbe uprooted and left to withdr in! the t sun. Meantime, whije these mighty changes are disclosing themselves, it does not make any groat ."demand upon our credulity to bi'lieve that a fairish proportion of mankind will, in spite of loud :>nd repeated warnings, still cling to the dreadful habit of blowing tobacco-smoke. As a matter of fact, indeed, smoking is not without its advocates among the learned; any more than it is without devotees in every rank of life. We have kept this pleasant truth in Xhe background, but it is not right that we should suppress it altogether. Hecent enquiries into the subject disclosed the fact that famous Englishmen, men celebrated in art, in science, in literature, in the church, and in politics, are just about evenly divided, onehalf deprecating, and the other justifying the practice of smoking. When such high authorities are found to be at variance on the subject, humble laymen will smoke or cease to smoke just as the humour takes them ;so that, whatever its faults may be, the habit bequeathed to us by Sir Walter Baleigh, or Sir Somebody Else, is not by any means likely to die out for a century or two, at any rate. Consequently, it is in the highest degree probable that the plant which yields the soothing weed will continue to be grown, bought, and worked up into the various shapes with which we are familiar. Having settled this point, then, we may be permitted to draw attention to the New Zealand Tobacco Growing and Manufacturing Company, an institution just started, with head - quarters in Auckland. This company is prepared to offer inducements to fanners to grow the tobacco plant in the shape of a good price and a steady market. The northern portion of this island at least is admirably suited to the cultivation of the plant. The natives have clearly demonstrated this, and they have;, by the rude methods known to them, succeeded in turning out an article, the excellence of which colonials have often extolled. So far as the mere growing of the leaf is concerned, no difficulty whatever need be experienced, though some knowledge of the business is necessary in order to cure it ; but this knowledge is communicable, and the company are prepared to afford the fullest information on the subject to intending cultivators. We are informed that already some 700 acres of the plant has been promised, and we do not doubt that this area will be augmented when the question has been fairly considered. The industry involves the expenditure of a good deal of labour, but the profits accruing are proportionately large, while the chances of failure are small. We want new channels for our agricultural energy — we ought to, increase the number of our egg baskets, so to speak — and in the cultivation of the tobacco plant we recognise another profitable branch of rural industry.

Owing to an interruption in the cable communication between Poit Dai win and Banjoewanjio, we did not receive our usual European messages hist night.

A cricket match, Married v. Single, will bo played on Sydney Square, Hamilton, on Saturday. Membeis and intending members are requested to put in an appeal ance.

At the inquest on the body of the man John Durham, found strangled in his house at Lyttelton on Sunday morning, the jury found a verdict of " suicide while temporarily insane."

The properties of Mr John Wood in Hamilton East .and West, tenders for the purchase of which close to-morrow, comprise some very valuable sites, either as business positions or for villa residences, and the terms are such as should ensure applications.

The unreserved sale by auction of Mr Moses' stock of drapery at Cambridge will be conducted by Mr Kno\ to-day, to-morrow and Saturday. As Mr Moses has made it an unreserved sale, there will be some baigains offering for pei sons able to attend.

No definite reply has assyet been received fiom the Government to the application of tho Cambridge Town Boaid for the loan of £700 under tho Roads and Bridges Construction Act. Tho town board is exerting itself in the matter.

A correspondent at Piako writes: —The residents of Te Aroha, Morrinsville, and surrounding districts, are praying tho postal authoiities that they would rather the Aroha mail service run to its old time table, and stop so until the train is plying between Hamilton and the goldfields. Great hopes are entertained that the railway will be completed to Morrinsville with all possible speed.

At a meeting of the Cambridge Domain Board, hold on Monday evening last, for the purpose of considering the reply from the Government to the petition of the domain land leaseholders, it was agieed to forwaid a copy of the reply to the petitioners, and stating that the board was unable to take any further action in the matter. A copy of the reply referred to has already appeared in these columns.

The Eev. P. Luck, 0.5.8., desires us to thank the ladies and gentlemen who no kindly and efficiently assisted at Tuesday evening's concert, in aid of the funds of &. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hamilton. It was Father Luck's intention to offer his grateful acknowledgments at the close of the concert, but as he was unable to do this he requests us to repair the omission.

There was a good attendance at Mr J. S. Bucldand's sale of the property of Messrs Bruce and Bell, at Waitetuna, yesterday. The sale took place at Suttons Hotel. A first-class luncheon was provided by the vendors. The uuexpired lease of the Peninsular, 916 acres, was bought by Mr Bruce for £225. The horses, cattle, t&, t fetched fair prices, and were chiefly puroija*«4 t° pome to Waikato.

Mr f B. KiMim Jiotifies through our business columns, tnqi |j# flas taken the Premier Hotel, in the rising iawwfejp of Waiorongoniai, Te Aroha. The house \\m been thoroughly renovated, and visitors to that district will find there first-class accomuwdnfcion. The stock of wines, &c, is of the bes£, -w4 particular attention is paid to the eukine. are livery and bait HtnWes attached $9 m Jjfljtoli which is also the booking offies for ms4\qy and Cos coaches to tho Thames and Qhrngmufy $ ft

By common consent, says the New York Herald, the Presidential esuivass next year is to be made on a very simple issue. The Democratic cry will be —"Turn the rascals out." The Republican cry is to be—" Keep the rascals out." Tm (4ii will be dropped by common consent. It i/hs«£gfB promises to be whatl vulgar poHtieiflfls' #»# % "campaign of dirt." By that l» meant, of &wtp? W #»»- vass in which each party. d«w whs* ft ■ fiW i to persuade the .voters that(the othepparty, cannot safely,, be trusted/with the, Govern;nent, by reason of the pecuniary dishonesty] ,^n«ji^gjieral t ,Aviqk'e(dneBBpfrite leaders. > ,

>•' A conifcrifetpr»to tlie CornishTele-J .mteph, -tf'Aiigwjk Jflftp sayWr-IniUthe

Mr Bolitho's TrewWden house, near Penp zanco, a fine planraof New Zealand flax?' tho Phormium tenl||Colensi, may now be seen blooming, witMaa magnificent flower-, stem njfie ijpejt loftlplt. rip planted"'vout\ three xl^rs ig"» Arsw i R n?J? flowering* for* the firif'time.' Has^it ever,'been known to bloom .'out of doors in the disfcri ct before t I believeiiiot^" Phormium tenax; itself', and the vanegated'variety are also doing well at" Trewidden,' and passed through' last winter' without injury. These plants have as companions two graceful specimens of the New Zealand tree fern.

\ Regarding the revolt in the Soudan, a letter dated Khartoum, July 27, from a correspondent of a German journal, contains the following:—"General Hicks Pasha intends to begin the march to Kordofan at the end of the rainy season, towards the end of August or beginning of Septembor. He will probably select the fortified camp of Duom, about 100 miles south of Khartoum, on the. western bank of the White Nile, as the basis of operations. His army consists of 0000 regular infantry, 1000 Bashi-Bazouks, 500 cavalry, one battery each of Krupp and mountain artillery, and six Nordenfeldt mitrailleuses. A reinforcement of 2000 infantry, and another mountain battery, which started from Cairo at the beginning of July, are -soon expected. About 3000 men will be left for strengthening the garrisons of Khaitoum, Sennaar, Karkog, and Kana. By the great defeat of the rebels by' General Hicks, the whole province of Sennaar and both banks of the White Nile have been wrested from the grasp of the False Prophet, all the principal sheiks and tribes up to the loth degree of latitude having made their submission. Mahommed Achmet—which is the true name of Mahdi — now only remains master of Kordofan. All reports received from there at Khartoum tend to show that the number of his adherents is daily diminishing, in consequence of their late defeat, and that serious dissensions have broken out between the Mahdi and his chiefs. While ho was formerly at pains to take good care of his men, and make their life in his camp ab agreeable as possible, he has now become an exacting tyrant, who .punishes the slightest offences with the cutting off of hands and tearing out of tongues. Since this letter was written news has come that the Mahdi's followers have broken out near Stiakim, oti the Red Sea, hundreds of miles north of General Hick's position. This rising complicates-matteis veiy much, as Hicks' communications are threatened by it.

The red sunsets observed during the past few weeks have been the subject of much .speculation, and the foliowing remarks by Mr Kllory, _ the Victoi ian Government astronomer, will beinteie<ting to our readers :—" The beautiful sunsets, accompanied by a strong red glow in tho western sky, which have lately prevailed, loom to have been universal throughout Australia. The sunrises also, whenever it has been clear, especially inland, ha\ c been of the same character, and correspondence lus been received at the observatory fiom nearly all quarters upon this subject. Several l'eports of the appeaiance of auroras in tho western sky have been leceived at the observatory, but in fact there have been no signs of auroias, and tenestial magnetism has been modeiately quiescent. A somewhat favorite speculation is that it is in some way connected with the late volcanic eruptions in the Straits of Sunda, and the red glaie is pioduced by tho illuminations of volcanic dust, or something of the kind, in the upper regions of tho atmosphere. It is well known that dust is frequently liiised to great altitudes by atmosphere and torrestiial disturbances 1, and it has been soon coveiing large areas from 15,000 ft to 20,000 ft high, and has sometimes been carried immense distances by aerial currents. It is, however, difficult to imagine that a purely local volcanic outburst, like that near Java, should project enough dust oi other matter to prevude the atmospheie coveiing an area over which the peculiar led sunset hine been teen of Lite —ovei neaily all Australia. in fact. On the third evening of its occurrence, I examined the light cai cfully w ith a spectroscope. As I expected, the spectrum was remarkable for the great bieadth of what are know n as tellmic or atmospheric lines, especially of those shown by M. Jamison to be due to aqueous vapor in certain conditions in the higher strata of our atmosphere, and I was satisfied at the time that the cause of the gorgeous sunset was simply a peculiar hygrometric condition of those regions, and I still believe this to be the (Explanation. Such sunsets in the Noithern Hemisphere are often regarded by old sailors as poi tending a period of hi ok en and stoi my w eathui, and indicate anywheio tho existence of a large amount of aqueous vapor in tho higher legions of tho ittmosphere. Whether, as I am inclined to think, they will be found on this occasion to point to a period of stoimy and wet weathei, which we naturally look for about this season, especially in the southern paits of Australia, will soon be detei mined, I may also point out that this is the season when the zodiacal light is often at its brightest, and has, in fact, been very bright nearly every night .since the red .sunset have been noted ; this, while adding nothing to the colour, has certainly added to the light of the evening sky, and intensified the red glow."

The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Herald telegraphs on Tuesday as follows : — " You may possibly have noticed that the Wangamii Heiald and Rangitikei Advocate recently averted that the attempt lately made to find a practicable route for the Wellington-Auckland railway northward of New Plymouth, by way of Stratford and Makau, had totally failed ; and the Herald further stated that " there is every prospect of the Mokau route for the central railway being abandoned, and the survey of the route inland from Rangitiki prosecuted with vigour, it having proved so far thoroughiy practicable. There is an altitude on the Mokau route, which the .surveyors who have examined it allege to be insurmountable, and it will consequently have to be abandoned in favour of the interior route." The Wangamii Herald also alleged that "it is intended that Mr Carkeek <<hall join Mr Rochfort in examining the topography of the country west of Ruapehu at an early date." T have made careful inquiry into the truth of these statement**, and find every one of them is wholly inaccurate. I am informed on the best authority that there is no failure to discover a practicable route via Mokau ; that not nothing " insurmountable" has boen encountered, and that no intention has been formed of abandoning the Mokau line in favour of the interior route, and that it has never been "intended that Mr Carkeek should join Mr Rochforfc" in exploring the country west of Ruapehu, I am assured that the intermission of the survey of the Mokau line h.vs been solely due to its being deemed advisable to com. plete certain native negotiations befoie carrying the survey beyond a particular point which had been reachad. That ciuse of delay is expected to be removed very shortly, when, 1 understand, the survey will be resumed. I hear that Mr Bryce is now in communication with certain native chiefs on the subject, and that a satisfactory arrangement i» anticipated at an early date. In answev to a telegram from the chairman of the Auckland Chainlw of Commerce, the Premier haw wired to say that the survey of the Taranaki and West Coast Railway is only stopped temporarily, pending the removal of certain native objections, and that it will soon be resumed, and the route thoroughly explored.

A notice by the Hamilton poundkeeper appears in our advertisement columns. One Shilling. — Francis J, Shortts' Popular Art Union.— Ten first-class Oil Paintings by celebrated artist*. 5000 tickets at Is. The prizes are magnificent and costly. Country subscribers sending stamps or otherwise will have tickets by return post. Enclose stamped envelope for reply.— Fkancis J. Shorti, 140, Queen -street, Auckland.— [Anvx.] Life in the Bush— Then and Now. — It is generally supposed that in the bush we have in Pttf HR V'" 1 man y discomforts and privations in tno *h»pV fit fe9,d Formerly it was so, but now, thanks to T, R, Hif,*,, wjjo has himself dwelt in the bush, if food does CDBiisJ: phicfly of tinned moats his Colonial Saucu gives to them a most delectable flavour, making 1 them as well of the plainest food most enjoyable, and instead as hard biscuits and indigestible damper his Impkovkd Colonial Baking Powder makes the very best bread, scones, cakes, and ( pastry far sup/srjpp and more wholesome than yeast or leaven, Sfll4 by #1 storekeepers who can obtain it from any ij^rcb. a}?|: fa Aupkjand. You will do well to furnish your ko^e from 'Garllck and Cranwell's. They'h^ve now the most complete Furnishing Warehouse' in Auckland, furniture to suit all classes, good rtrcng, and cheap., .They havejTapestry Carpets irpm 2s 3d per, yard, Brussels t from 3s ljd; per 'yard, Linoleum from 3s y 9d tp ss, Oil Cloths from J iy'6'd fo'4s 6d per -yard,' gbod Jl2' feet' wide Oil Cloths at 3s 6d per yard. Immense assortment , of Iron Bedsteads from Infants' Cots to 5 feet yfiile halfrtoster Bedsteads. Double iron. Bedstiads Jrd&iWs., '*aO Bedsteads in stock to select '- from. Beddings of iU iWtof ?»4 «£« kfyt in re*din>K< iPinlne, Sitting^ QrifynWYaftta' U ur.- , Gndtb'riticsYißodk Catalogues Jent^frert'ltd.dn-, .tending; purchasers; '^r#k|find g^ell,