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Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2535, 9 October 1888, Page 2

The mail steamer Alameda sailed from Auckland for San Francisco at four o'clock yesterday afternoon. Captain Edwin telegraphs a W. and S.W. gale with much rain and very cold woithcr. The glass, however, is rising. One of the Auckland mills has already consumed 11,000 sacks of Waikato wheat this year, and has still some to be delivered. We understand that Mr W. B Lawson has purchased from Mr Isaac Coates an entire colt by Merrylegs, and is well pleased with his bargain. We are pleased to hear that Guard 6uch is doing well. Lists towards raising a testimonial on his behalt have been circulated, and we shall be glad to receive contributions from our readers towards the same object. Mr S. Vaile intends to pay the Waikato a visit towards the end of this week. If the Railway Reform League will take the initiative, Mr Vaile will be prepared to hold a public meeting on the question of railway reform. The weather during Saturday and Sunday was very severe throughout Waikato, a westerly gale blowing, accompanied by driving r.iin. Fortunately the fruit trees are not far enough advanced in bearing to have suffered to any great extent. The four roomed house of Mr FW. Littlewood, at Tanpiri, was Wurned to the ground on Friday last. Mrs Littlewood and her children weio at home, but before help could bo procured, the place was entirely destroyed. The house was insured in the Norwich Union for £100, and the furniture for £25. We have in our office some specimens of the curious vegetable deposits found in the excavations at the new tennis court in the To Aroha Domain. Pieces of fern, titree and lycopodium are beautifully encrusted with minerals, pyrites and oxide of iron and copper, and are very interesting objects. The lecture this evening in S. Andrew's school, Cambridge, will bu given by Mr Edgar Ward, M.P.S., the subject chosen being "The Great Pyramid." On the following Tuesday (the Kith inst.), the debate as to the merits of the different English poets will be resumed, in which all are invited to take part. Dr. Moon, who opened the debate in favour of Tennyson, will have the right of final reply. Family ticket holders will be admitted as usual. We have never before, in Waikato, seen anything like the amount of blossom on pear trees, such has been produced this spring. Mr G. Henson, of Cambridge, has a number of small trees, that a week ago, looked like balls of snow ; and after a storm of wind and rain the ground about them was completely co\ered with the white petals. This should betoken a good crop, for if one in every hundred fructifies, it will be quite as many as the trees can carry. We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the International Temperance Convention which is to be held in Melbourne during November next. A similar gathering was held in Melbourne in 1&S0 during the exhibition of that year, and was a gre.it success. It is also proposed to issue a Convention Memorial Volume, entitled "Temperance in Australasia," as a permanent record of the celebration. It will contain papers and correspondence of great historical, political, statistical and physiological value in connection with the early history of the movement in these colonies. It will be very useful as a textbook. Every contributor of 21s and upwards will be presented with a copy. The Wesleyan quarterly meeting of the Cambridge Circuit was held on Wednesday last, 3rd October, at the house of Mr Gane, Pukerimu. The Rev. J. S. Rishworth presided, and there was a good attendance of-office bearers. As Mr Ri.-h----worth will leave Cambridge on March next, his ministerial term expiring then, the meeting had to consider the question of his successor. It was unanimously resolved that the Rev. C H. Garland, of Ponsonby, be invited to succeed Mr Rishworth. Mr Garland is very popular in Auckland, and is not unknown in the Waikato, behaving preached and delivered a lecture in Cambridge about a year ago in connection with the Home Missions. It is understood that he is personally quite willing to come to Cambridge, if appointed by the Conference. After the meeting, the members were hospitably entertained at tea by Mt6 Gane,

Mr Dawson i of the Whatawhata Hotel, has rtold his interest in that house to Mr W. McLeish. junr. Mr J. B. Whyte, M.HR , arrived in Hamilton on Saturday, and is looking very well. He has been round tho district, looking up his friends, in company with Mr W. J. Speight, who is inspecting the Government Life Insuranco business in Waikato. Sunday was a red letter day for the Catholics of Cambridge, for they had three priests officiating, an event such as has not happened for years. In addition to Father Fox, there was the Very Rev. Father Bere, Prior of S. Augustin's, Ramsgate, England, and Father Sullivan, Superior of S. Benedict's, Newton, Auckland. All these priests belong to the Order of S. Benedict. There was not anything special in the service; the visitors are travelling for health and to view the country. Notwithstanding the recent reprimand administered by the Resident Magistrate, tho larrikins of Hamilton East have made it a practice for about a fortnight, every night the Salvation Army hold their open-air meetings on that side of the river, to interrupt them by "hooting down " everybody that speaks. Last Sunday evening was no exception to the rule, wlien about thirty senseless hoodlums congregated outside the ring and howled at every speaker like a lot of wild savages, and the row they made was something abominable. To say the least about them, it shows their ignorance and want of civilization. It is time this sort of thing was put a stop to, on Sunday evenings at anyrate, for if these people have no respect for themselves, they ought to heve for the Sabbath. Perhaps they think because they are all together in the dark it is not known who the ringleaders are, but that is an open secret, and they may soon see themselves figuring in print. Now is a most anxious time for bee-keepers, for tempted by the late spell of fine weather, the queens have been hard at work, and hives are nearly full of brood that hatches out by hundreds daily ; and now that a wet time has arrived, the supplies of food are getting very scanty, and even if it is fine enough for the old bees to go abroad, there is very little but tho blossom of willow and fruit trees for them to gather from, which is not sufficient for their daily increasing wants. A comb filled with syrup should be inserted in each hive that is short of honey, every alternate day, as long as this changeable weather lasts, and that wiil onry them through. The aduea is not to professionals, but to amateurs who keep two or three hives, and, we are soiry to s.iy, generally neglect them ; but nevertheless, we are aware that most of the professionals have lately been losing some of their last year's swarms, from this cause. That the hives are full of brood and young bee-', was clearly demonstrated in Cambridge a fortnight ago, when a poor ndserablo swarm was hanging about the upper part of Victoria-street for two days, and we supposed succumbed to one of the cold nights.

A Dr Jean Brouettier, of Sydney, who was lately making a tour of this Colony, writes to the. Boiler Miner (Westport) upon a discovery he mule in that district. It appears that the doctor visited a cue near Cape Foulwind quarries and carried away with him some of the stalactites to Sydney. When he got homo he took the specimens of the stalactite for a closo examinational count the seasons it took to grow. To bis great surprise he found that tho staliactito contained the finger of a man completely petrified—skin, flesh, bones and all turned into bard stone. He remembered that in visiting tho cave he noticed something strange about a certain cluster of stalictite.s that made him feel very queer. It looked twice as big as himself, and was just like the rough outlines of a man. But ho dismissed that feeling by what ho considered better judgment. Now that he is satisfied that something strange exists in that case, he offers a reward of £50 to anyone who will carefully remove the cluster of stalactites and stalagmites containing the man, and pack it carefully and forward it to his address. If there, be any truth ni the doctor's statement, would it not be worth the while of our museum authorities t' take steps to secure ouch a curiosity.

The San Francisco Bulletin writing of New Zealand, says :—To grow strong, populous, and rich has been the dream of the colony, ms cf all other young communities. To induce people to come there and to provide railroads for their accommodation it has run headlong into debt. It is staggering to think that that littlo community of 587,482 souls in ISB6, in the prosecution of these two objects, had piled up 'a mountain of debt, £37,588,553, or £57 12s od per head. The population which has to bear this crushing load is not double that of San Francisco. But then it has what may be called " groat expectations." For wild extravagance nothinglike this can be found in the history of any American State. The contrast between New Zealand and California, which docs not owe 1,000,000d015. though it is equipped with all the necessaries of a great State, an expensive capital, prisons, asylums, a university, and normal schools, and, besides, expends annually vast sums in benevolence, is striking in the extreme. It exhibits the superior practical statemausbip of the American people. It is true that New Zealand has 631 miles of railway operated by itself, against 88 miles of private companies. It does appear, however, that not fares and freights are low or reasonable, though tho element of stockholders is eliminated. Our Melbourne correspondent says:—l love to write about the bloated capitalist; it gives a sweet savour of reputability and weight to my lucubrations. I must confess I have a sneaking sort of affection for the moneyed man, per se ; there is something so patronising, so solid, so reliable, about him. But what I want to say lias reference to one of our city Midases, who professes great liking for pressmen, writers, and all and sundry connected with tho fourth estate. He has a decideil taste for literary affairs without Qoubt, for he is part proprietor of one paper, and is doing bis best to buy up another. Well ; this great financial Jove had an exclusive dinner last Saturday evening for journalists and pressmen only. I was invited, and went in company with the correspondent of a London daiiy, wdiose name T needn't mention. The dinner was excellent; but onr host proved a woeful disappointment, showing himself somewhat illiterate and a great boaster. His pictures, his plate, his furniture, his statuary—all were passed under review, the price boasted of, and their worth assessed. Departing at ten o'clock primed with whisky and a good cigar, young A of the Age, broke out into profuse admiration of our host. "Kind," "hospitable," "jolly," were some of the terms ho used. "I am sure," ho continued, "old C did everything in his power to make us enjoy ourselves." " Well, there's one thing more he might have done," returned my friend of the London Chronicle sourly. "One thing more. What is that?" "He might ha;e gone away somewhere on a visit, and left us to eat his dinner without boring us."