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Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2426, 28 January 1888, Page 2

In our telegraphic news will be fouud a full and interesting account of the festivities now taking place in Sydney in celebratiou of the Centennial of the colony of New South Wales. The display on Thursday, \va3 on a scale of great magnificence, and was witnessed by over two hundred thousand people. Many distinguished public men, including the Governors of the various colonics, members of the British nobility, and naval officers of high rank are taking part in the proceedings. The English mail, via San Francisct, closes at the Hamilton past-office this afternoon at 3.15 o'clock. Parliament is further prorogued, to 28th March. The Hamilten East School will re-open on Wednesday, Ist February. The Native Minister has postponed his visit to the Waikato for a few days. Post entries will be received for the childrcns' races at the races 011 the lake 011 Monday. It is notified that boys must produce certificates of age at the swimming races on the river to-day. The Dowager Queen Isabella, who was ordered to quit .Spain, has been granted permission to reside in Seville. The report of St Andrew's Church meeting, Waikato County Engineer's report, and other matter, are crowded out. The Marquis of Lothian declines to make any advances to the Crofters to enable them to emigrate to New Zealand. The report that Mr Chamberlain was to succeed the Marquis of Lansdowue as Governor-General of Canada is denied. We hear that the caterpillars are in great numbers in the Tamahore district, and causing much anxiety to the farmers. An Association telegram states that the barque May Queen has been wrecked at Camp Bay, Otago, and has been abandoned. The New Zealand Tablet has la severe article on the Catholic Times established at Wellington, which it calls "The English Catholic Organ." Barnum is endeavouring to charter the Great Eastern to convoy his vast menagerie, re-constructed since tiio late fire, 011 an exhibition tour round the world. Cold strong winds prevailed on Thursday, inflicting some damage to orchards ; no serious injury has been done to the standing crops. Mr Knox will offer, by public auction to-day, the right to erect a refreshment booth at the aquatic sports to be held on the Hamilton lake on Monday. The Finance Committee of the Cambridge Borough Council met 011 Thursday to appoint a dog registrar. There were ou!y three tenders received, Mr George Dickenson's being accepted at Is per collar. It is reported in Wellington that owing to the faulty wording of the Loan Act of last session the Government will be unable to raise any further loans in London beyond that for the North Island Trunk Kailway. The following tenders were received by the Tamahere ti»a<l B>ard for gravelling about a mile of the Junction and Tramway Jloads: —J. Kennedy, lOd per yard ; J. Coombes, 81d ; 11. Waitc, 8d (accepted.) There are on view in Mr Davey's shop window Hamilton, some of last year's apples ' (French Crab) ' grown by Cap. Mcl'herson. of Kirikiriroa. They are in a capital state of preservation and look more tempting to the eye than this year's fruit standing alongside. We have an enormous ripe fig grown by Mr J. C. Booth, ot Hamilton, which takes the palm of anything of the kind we have .sunn in New Zealand, and proofs the suitability of this soil and climate for the cultivation of many varieties of fruit. This specimen is live inches long, with a girth of nine inches. Ismail Pasha, ex-Khedive of Egypt, has formally abandoned his claims against the British and Egyptian Governments in respect to property, of which lie alleged he was deprived at tlio time of his abdication. He has also renounced the allowances made to him by the Turkish Government, and has accepted a palace equivalent to a million and a quarter, and one hundred thousand pounds in cash. The subject of Dr Kenny's lecture 011 Wednesday next is such an interesting and instructive one, that we are sure everyintnlligeiit member of the community will be present to hear it. We would suggest that arrangement bo made for the admission of the pupils of the higher classes in various schools, to whom the object lessons in the various experiments will doubtless prove impressive. Cattle breeding is carried on extensively in many parts of Siberia. In the Ob and Irtish region of Western Siberia there are about 2,000,000 horses, 1,500,000 head of horned cattle, 3,000,000 sheep and 100,000 reindeer. For Eastern Siberia the figures are approximately Soo,ooo horses, 1,100,000 homed cattle, 1,120,000 sheep, and 50,000 reindeer. In Western Siberia the Siberian plague makes great ravages, and the average losses are estimated at about 37.5'J0 head of cattle annually. We have been shown a piece of board on which three experiments in painting have been made with a mixture of sour milk and lime. The first is with paint made of tho milk mixed with Portland Cement, the next with Cannell's lime, and the other with Wilson's Hydraulic lime; one coating of each. If the wood were to receivo three coats of this, it would be endowed with wonderful durability and would be impervious to tho weather. The samples referred to above were exposed to rain and wind for three weeks without lo; inga shade of its clean appearance or thickness.

The Harvest Festival at St. Peter's will be bold on Sunday, I:2th I'Vbriiiiry. In view of tho bountiful harvest before us, there should be a great number ready to offer their thanks. Snake, Britannia, Dacciver, Pretemlur, Memorandum, Sheet Anchor, Pereiri, Leila and Protection were out at Mr Alhvill's course on Thursday morning, doing fast work. Snake left yesterday for Tak;!|mna. It is announced in another column that ii now journal, to ba called The Waifciit" Telegraph, will shortly makr. its appearance in Hamilton. The new venture is undertaken hy Mr R. K.lwards, late on the stall of ihn paper, and who has had the experience, of a lifetime in the journalistic profession. The preparations in connection with the Waikato Amateur Swimming Races on the laltc are in an advanced .stage, and a good number of entries are to hand. Tho jetty, from which the swimmers will start, is ;i very handy structure. Ladies and girls h.ivo been practising on the course. There is no doubt, judging from the pains taken by the committee, that the affair will be a great .success. We have been requested to publish the following statement of the Waikato Anniversary Swimming Sports held last year :-—Receipts : To cash— subscriptions, £14 Is; entrances, £3 (is; Thb Waikato Timks (contributions), £1 10s ;S. MeLernon, do., £1 10s. Total, £20 7s. Expenditure : By first prize, silver cup, £5 17s 0d ; second prize, silver cup, £1 Is; third prize, silver cup, £1 la; three silver medals, £1 10s; silver albert, 17s 0d; gold scarf pin, £1 18s ; special prize, S. McL';rnon, £1 10s ; engraving names of winners and events, £2 4s 0d ; advertising, £3 4s lid ; one pair ash sculls, 12s ; carriage do., 4s ; sundries, 7s. A lawn tennis match between four members of the Mount Eden Lawn Tennis Club and four local players has been arranged to take place this afternoon on the Hamilton Court, play to commence at 3 o'clock. The gentlemen forming the visiting team are Messrs Blyth, Macfarlane, Lindsay and Hall, and will arrive from Auckland by the first train. After playing at Hamilton it is their intention to proceed to Cambridge, where they meet a team chosen from tho Cambridge Club on Monday. The players who will represent Hamilton are Messrs Von Stunner, Edgeciunbe, MeLernon and Dr. Muruli. Some fun has been found in the latest eiiihrnßlio of the rival Cambridge bands. The other evening, as a quiet practice was being held at Mr J. It. Lamb's house, a member of Mr Newrick's contingent dropped in, jiud was asked to take the euphonium for a few minutes. He took the instrument, and also took advantage of the back door being open to clear off with it, and though followed both with pathetic entreaties and considerable objurgatory language, declined to return. Legal proceedings are talked of, and no doubt each band will do its best to keep possession of the instrument, as each disputes the ownership with the other. One musician says, that the trouble comes from those who were practising at Mr Lamb's endeavouring to play a symphony in an impossible key— viz., four flats and one sharp ; but he is clearly wrong. Four flats are right enough, and tho sharp was only experimentally introduced as an accidental, and unfortunately produced a discord. The svimming races on the river will be held to-day and will no doubt attract a considerable, number of spectators, as the various events promise to be keenly contested. Tho accomplishment, or rather art of natation, has taken a foremost place, as it should, amongst modern athletics. Not only is it made a sine qua non in the training of young men for the Royal Navy and merchant service, but also the necessity of acquiring a proficiency in swimming is strongly insisted upon as being essential in the education of our boys and girls. Every effort that that tends to promote this, and to give a spirit of emulation to tho young in the art, deserves all the encouragement we can give it. We, therefore, see no reason whatever why the residents of Hamilton East, who have gone to the trouble of organising swimming competitions for today should not be supported. There may possibly be thought to bo a display of rivalry between to-day's sports and those to take place on Monday ; but it is a sort of rivalry that does no harm ; on the contrary, we cannot have too much of this class of healthy sport which cost little and does much good.