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Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2901, 17 February 1891, Page 2

Mr W. S. Allen and family will pass through Haiiiilton to-morrow, on their way to Ainiandale.

At the Police Court; Auckland, yesterday, fmur boys were ordered a wliippinp for .stealiiiH; plums. The election of Licensing , Commissioners for the Nfjarimwahia Licensing District, bus been poatpoued until further notice. A special sale of horses will be held by Mr \V. .f. Hunter at the Cambridge Yards on Wednesday, March 18th (the day after the Cambridge Itaces). Entries are invited. The entries for the various events at the Swimming Gala to be held on Friday next, at the Like, Hamilton, close with the Sucretary, Mr C. G. Knox, tomorrow afternoon. There is a nasty hole in the watertable in Victnria-Btreet, Hamilton, just near the entrance to the Jubilee Garden, which requires the attention of the Borough workmen. The tender of Mr Kennard for paintintr the Bank of Now ZsaUnd premises, Hamilton, has been accepted. Mr Kennard has established a high reputation in the district for faithful workir.anship. The Hamilton East and West School Committees have granted a halfholiday to the children attending the schools, to enable them to be present nt the swimming sports on the Lake, on Friday next. The annual harvest thanksRivinj? service in connection with St. Pater's Church, Hamilton, will be held on Sunday week, March Ist. We are afraid the f.irmers have very little to be thankful for this Neason. The second of the series of popular dunces will be held in the Cambridge Tublic Hall on Thursday next, commencing at S p.m. prompt. The admission will be the same at' at the former one, viz., ouo shilling por individual. In connection with Messrs J. McNicol and Co.'s .sheep fair, to be held at Ohaupo on Wednesday, the 'Jsth inst., a special train will run from Auckland, conveying intending buyers to the sale, returning to Auckland at the conclusion of the sale. Acting under the Hamilton Borough By-laws tho police have summoned a person for riding a bicycle on the footpath, tho offence occi'rrinc, we believa, on Friday last. This case should serve :is a warning to other bicyclists who prefer the footpath to the road. The cases of negligence, in connection with the late accident at Huntly, against the contractors for the new dip at Ralph's mino closed on Friday evening. Judgment was reserved until Monday next, when the ca?o against the mine manager will bfi gone- -m with. A" Churchgoer" asks if it would bo ton great an expense for the finances to staid to have the lamp at the top of tho steps at St. I'eter's Church lit of a Sunday evening, when the Church people are coming out. If the expense would not be too £r.:at the light ot a dark night would bo n great 'oonvtnieiiCu.

Seven candidates having been nominated for the Kihikihi Licencing Committee, a poll will be taken on Wednesday, February S>th, on which date tho local option poll will aluo be held.

We understand representations have been made to the Mayor cif Hamilton by the Committee of the Waikato Anniversary Swimming Sports to proclaim a public half-holiday on Friday next. We havo no doubt the request will be acceded to.

We have to acknowledge the receipt of the Crowns Lands (luide for January. It contains the fullest information as to the waste lands of the colony, with instructions to applicants clearly laid down how to acquiro holdings under the different systems. On Saturday a child of Mr Skellern, of Huntly, was scalded to death. The child pulled a bucket of boiling water over it-inlf, death being almost instantaneous. Dr. Kroom was immediately called in, but before his arrival the little one was past nil human aid. To-morrow Mr W. J. Hunter will hold his annual Waikato Sheep Fair (it the Ohiiupo Yards. Fourteen thousand four hundred sheep of all descriptions Imvo been entered. Catalogues have been prepared, and will be issued at the sale, which commences sharp at 1 o'clock. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company (Limited) undertake the sale of fruit, on behalf of growers, in the London, Honolulu and San Francisco markets. Full particulars may bo obtained from the man.igar of the company, Auckland, or the local agent, Hamilton. The stone culvert on the Waipa Raglan road, at the western foot; of tiie mountain, which was washed away by the heavy fresh in November last, has been rebuilt, and the roadway is now open for trattie. The cotitractoi, iMr William Wilson, has made an excellent job, and there is not much fear of any accident of the same kind happening again at this part of the road. The Huntly people are evidently determined to further tho elforts of the Hamilton Amateur Dramatic Society, as we hear arrangements have been made to charter n steamer to convey passengers trom Huntly and Ngaruawaiiia to attend the entertainment on Thursday night next, when the great national drama of " Rob Hoy " will be produced, which has been so well received at the different centres in Waikato. There appears to be settled in Hamilton some person who belongs to tho cracksman type, as within a. short time past there have been three robberies from dwellings and stores committed. The first was from Mr N. R. Cox's storo, the next from Mr Warr's house and the third from tho Waikatn Hotel, on Friday night last. So far this gentleman has managed to elude tho police, but his tether is gradually getting shorter. Several times complaints have been made to us of men bathing off the jetty at the Lake Reserve on Sundays to tho annoyance of ladies who go up into the Reserve. This place is now getting a place of public resort and it. is quite time that a. stop was put to the bathing in public, some of the bathers not seeming to have the least sense ~\i decency. Surely the police can do something in the matter. Mrs Thornton, of Maung-akawa. has made a second very acceptable present to the Cambridge Public Librarv, consisting of a number of copies of "Tho Field" and "Land and Water," and two nicely bound volumes of "'The Nineteenth Century." The thanks of the frequenters of the library are due t> Mrs Thornton, and new chums will feel doubly grateful for being able to peruse the English sporting papers.

The Raglan County Council have been for some time in communication with the Government wilh tho view of opening up a road from the head of the Raglan harbour, through the Waingaro district, along the ranges between the Te rVkau run and the Waikato river, thence to Mercer, with the object of providing more diiect communication by road to Auckland for those settlers who are rapidly taking up land in this direction.

While the average yield o potatoes in the United Status this year is given hv tho Diipartment of Agriculture as • mly .Vi busliHls per acre, an offur of prizes by the American Agriculturist for heavy crops has hro-ight to light some cases of extraordinary productiveness. The first prize, £100, was won by a farmer ,n Wyoming, who raisjd !)7l bushels mi a, single acre uf virgin soil. The profit on this acre, apart from prizes, was JJUH. Tho land was rich in potash, and copiously irrigated by water containing much saline material. Taking UOlbs as the weight of ii bushel of potatoes this amounts to a little over 20 tons per acre.

Owing to the increase of settlement which is taking place to the West of Whiiiigape Lake, a request will be made at the next meeting of the Raglan County Council to have a bridge erected over the Tikotiko Creek, to give access to this portion of the district. Some years ago the Messrs Wade Urns, erected a bridge over this croak, which, owing to Ihn recent heavy traffic passing over it, has gjvon way, and it is now quite beyond repair, and impassable. Over thirty men are busily engaged iu clearing, ploughing and fencing, the land is of excellent quality, and a promising future is before the enterprising families who have selected their land iu this locality.

Very general regret was felt by the residents of Huntly, when it became known that Air Ord had resigned his position as Alanager of the Taupiri Reserve Aline. There is no ;>ne amongst the mining fraternity at Huntly held in higher estimation than Air Ord, and probably the masterly way in which he directed operations during the recovery of the bodies at the late disaster added to the previous respect in which he was held. The excellent manner in winch he has opened up the Taupiri Reserve Aline stamps him as a tnauager of exceptional cpialiticatious. Hβ will be succeeded by a Air Harrison, a gentleman of great mining experience, gained in America, Australia, and the southern portion of New Zealand. After examining the property Mr Harrison expressed unqualified admiration for the excellency of the work iu and about the mine. Air Ord has gained the respect and fullest confidence of his directors and is leaving with the view of undertaking a position opening up a larger field for his abilities.

According to the London correspondent of the New Zealand Times Sir Charles Clifford has burnt his fingers to a pretty tune over an American mining company, of which he was one of the directors. A disappointed shareholder sued him on the ground that there were misstatements in the prospectus, and recovered the entiro price he paid for his shares (£2000), together with interest and damages which will bo assessed. Of course all the other disappointed shareholders are now eoing for Sir Charles and Mr Nelson, of Nelson Bros., who are it seems, the only wealthy men on the board. At present it looks as though they would have to return between £40,000 and £50,000. The erratum in the prospectus which brought about this catastrophe was that the document stated that the mine had been reported on by Air So-and-so, and discovered to be a most valuable property. It omitted, however, to add that the report was made for the vendors and not for the company, as everybody reading the prospectus naturally supposed.

In reference to the agitation in favour of railway zonal tariff's a Horns paper says:—"The decay of h'rst and second class railway traffic aud the enormous growth of third class, at any rato in (ireat Britain, aro startling facts, and have caused many reflections on what lia.s been ealted the deniocratis.ition of our railways. In the last half-year there has been almost everywhere a sensiblo falling oil'in the receipts from the two upper classes, aud an enormous increase amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds in those of the third class. In a few years almost everyone over here will travel third, and second class will havo disappeared. One thing, however, is wanting for the thorough demoralisation of the railways, and that is a revolution in the fares. Tho years will bring that, too. What is the experience of Hungary? Less than a year ago the country was divided into zones, and extremely low fares were fixed for ordinary trains from any one point to any other within a given zone. Under this system one can travel from end to end of Hungary for about Bs. The change has resulted in a great success. I believe that long-headed man, Sir Edward Watkin, who is chairman of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire and South-eastern line, sent a representative over to Hungary .-.oino time- ago to watch tlii« experiment. It i.i only a question of time and \vu shall travel at a farthiuf,' a milo.

The same argument which was held to have so niucli foice in the case of the Akaroa seat, should have equal weifflit in that of Te Aroha. The petition afjainst Mr .loyce complained that somo ten or eleven polling places were closed an hour earlier than that allowed by the law. Here was a clear infringement of the Act, bin tho judges came to tli.; conclusion that the error of tho Returning Olticer could not have made such a dilference in the voting as to have affected the result of the poll. The petition was therefore dismissed. This is tho Krst instance in the history of New Zoaland in which it has been held that the electoral law can be broken, and the people deprived of their right to vnte by the error of an electoral olhc-er. Nov.-, iu the case of Te Aroha, Mr Allen was away in Kngland at tho time of his nomination and election ; he therefore did not sicn his nomination paper, and he did not take his seat in Parliament, and no one asked leave of absence for him. Hut none of these things made any difference in respect of the number of votes given him at the election, and if the law can be set aside, as was done in the matter of Akaroa, the Act ought to be equally ovnr-riddon in the case of Te Aroha. —Napier Telegraph.