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Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3027, 8 December 1891, Page 2

A settler in Hawke's Bay is said, to have sold two thousand fat wethers for freezing purposes for £2000. Those persons who have not paid their property tax have until -I p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) to do so, after when they aro charged 10 per cent. Mr Beet, ot Harapepe, has left with us a sample of very fine gooseberries, PannerV Glory, showing the capability of this part of tho district iu the matter of fruit raising.

The usual monthly meetings of the Waipa County, the Hamilton and C imbridge Borough Councils, and the Hamilton Domain Board will be held at various times to-day.

The herring harvest on the north east coast of Scotland has been a good one this year, amounting to about £020,000, and the number of marriages among the timber folk has largely increased.

iieligion has taken a very practical aspect in the Canadian village of Sydenham, where a number of women made a bonfire of their corsets, exclaimng, we '* Will die as God made us."

Mr W. J. Hunter's next CamIri'tge sale will be held on Thursday, December 17th instead nf Saturday, December 19th, the latter dafe being that of the second day of the S 'Uth Auckland Kiting Club's Summer Meeting.

The Napier Telegraph hears thit many of the small settlers in the Seventy-mile Bash have any amount of grass, but no money to buy stock to eat it off. The consequence is that soma of them are letting the grazing of their paddock's to .sheep farmers while others have sold nut their holdiugs, ono settler having bought up tive adjoining small properties.

The annual concert given by the children attending the Hamilton Ea-t Public School will take place <m Tluu-. day evening, in the Oddfellows' Hull, Hamilton Eist. Tho enteitaiiiment will consist of carol* and the extriivaganisn, Snowdrop and t ie Seven D-varfs, the parts in which will tie taken by the sehoublnMrai, who have been rehearsing tho piece f"i' smna tune.

It is generally supposed that rabbits will ii.>t fnca w .ter except when hunted or driven int i it, but a correspondent to a New South Wales contemporary writes On tho H 'Pkins River ra'ibits abound, and :i small C"lony of them is situated on a bail;, where the herbage is rather scanty. On the other side of the stream, however, erras.s is abundant, and an observer states tha' »n several occasions lie has seen three tr fourof therabbitsswiui boldly across to g, ~->y side, wnero they commenced to feed. Un the centlemau showing himself, they i.i. i without the least he.-itation down to tiie water's edge, jumped in as fur as they could, and swam boldly home again.

The weather lately has been very pleasant, and although the days are h c ming warm as the summer approaches, tho nights and mornings are always clear aid cool. Refreshing rains; li.no also fallon at intervals, just in sufficient Quantity to keep the crops and pasture growing, and the roads tolerably free from dust, What is move invigorating than to go forth in the early looming while the grass in the meadows, :-.ua the leaves ot shrubs and the orchard trees are banding beneath the wi lit of sparkling dewdrops, the bracing ni figait with the ooent of a thousand a ... r , \ •• • t . ' v s-I '.^Tv

rs >.w e'.-. • t u Jk- spiiugtiine it .» not without iw charm;.

Tho Mn.tama.ta Racing' Club Arill l>-.ld their annual races "n 11 .\iug-1 lay, at Ma'amata. The programme which is pub-li-hed in this issue includes seven events a id a good day's sport may be expected by those who make up their minds to attend.

An extraordinary vacancy having occurred in the Wl.aiiitiaroa Road I'., .rd by the death of Mr G. Moon, nominations of candidate-- t'> (ill the vacancy will lie received bv Mr W. I'. Cogswell at h:s residence, Waitetun i, up t i INth inst. A pull, if necessary, will be taken on the 2Kth.

We have to draw attention to the United ln*urmce Company's advertisement, notifying that the company is now prepared to accept tire and marine insurances at. lowest rit.es. As the company's financial position is a strong one, aorl it ha.< thu repnt 'tin of being prompt and lineral iri the sctrleinent of it* claims, if will no doubt receive a share of put,lie support. The. principal office for New Zealand has be.-,i e>t ihib.hed in Wellington, tinder tho management-of Mr J. S. Jameson the resident secretary.

Our Cambridge correspondent write.-:—Greuu gooseberries hava caused much illness ill Cambridge lately and unfortunately one cue has proved falal Mr John Ferguson having lost, a son, aped live, through inllammation of tho bowels broueht on by eating tho fruit when green. The funeral on Sunday was largely attended, much sympathy being felt with the parents of the child. It. was reported on Sunday that Mr Clias. Tuck had also lost a child from the same cause, but upon interviewing him yesterday I happily found it was not so.

Some ot our readers not having a personal knowledge of the matter, will have doubtless considered that the great value occasionally put upon old pastures in Great Britain s rather absurd, and that new grass, i.e., pastures only a few years laid down, would carry more stock etc. It has indeed, been frequently found that New Zealand pastures require breaking up and re-sowing, owing to the better grasses having died out. But n recent instance on the Waipa which has come to our knowledge, shows that it does not alwaye answer to break up an old pasturo. The WhatawhaU flat which is well known as an excellent piece of grazing country, was never laid down in grass, in the sense generally understood. The land—originally covered with bush — became cleared through one cause or another, and the grass gradually spread over it. A year or two ago a portion was fenced off and cropped, but in such a manner as not to exhaust the soil, then it was laid down in grass in the most approved style, but although the land is admitted to be of splendid quality, the result has been most disappointing. The grass having neither the substance nor the colour of the pastures adjoining, which have never been disturbed. This new grass will probably requiro another ten or twenty years of grazing to come back to the dense green sward again.

'Tne following is a Dunediuites' criticism of the personality of General Booth For a man full of milk of human kindness, and out of whom philanthrophyis leaking at every pore, General Booth carries a phiz that is somewhat disappointing. It is of the hawk type, the phiz of a middle aged Israelite who has prospered on billdiscounting. I had picutred a patriarchal personage. Quite a mistake I Nothing of the patriarch about General Booth, He has too keen a business look in his eye and too sharp an edge to hi- tongue ; his joints even are too limber for a patriarch, and his bodily movements decidedly too mercurial. At the end of his Knox Church speech the General bagged a personal fa vour to himself that somebody would there and then ask him a few questions. Two or three temerarious persons endeavoured to oblige him. As each questioner rose the General shot up from his chair like a spring-heeled Jack, peered at him sideways in the attitude of a seagull looking into a bottle, and then, in a twinkling, before the man had well sat down, snapped otf his head with some truculent witticism, and had tho audience in a, roar at his expense A smart man is the General ! Not the least bit of a sobersided patriarch,—doesn't even dress for the part. The uniform worn by him was a cross between the synodical suit of a country parsou and the costume of a stage bandit. Belltopper hat, broadcloth coat, and under it, instead of the clerical waiscoat, a Salvati.m jersey of brilliant, scarlet —there you have the General. Effect very fine ; something of the dandy, no doubt, but a Salvationist dandy. The General is no orator, has no lungs for a crowd, talks in reedy, asthmatic voice and drops all his h s ; but anybody who tried to swop horses with hi tn on the supposition that he is a fool would probably come out of tho transaction only second bent.

At the Otago Show luncheon Lord Onslow referred to the resources of the colony, and said an insignificant portion of tho colony's possessions would defray the national debt. He referred to the growth of the dairy industry, and said with care Iho fears he had seen expressed that New Zealand would be Denmark s greatest competitor would be justified. " I have noticed in New Zealand a strong antipathy to plurality either in nature or in politics. I urn told that, iu the Islands of the South there are albatrosses that have one eggs, a-id sea lions that, have one whelp. Here one man has one voto, and I am told ono man is to have one run, but I hope t.he day is far distrant. when iu New Zealand one woman will have one babe. (Laughter and applause.) Napoleon told Marie Do Stael that he considered the greatest woman in tho world was she who had borne most children, New Zealand has been blessed by God with a genial climate, a fertile soil, and Anglo-Saxon race. To become a great nation she must rely on the strong arms of her sons, and leave the rest, _ to her daughters. But whether colonisation is fed by a, torrent of immigration, or by tho gently flowing stream of natural increase, we must not create a leak at the other end of the cask. It is the business of statesmen to make the colony attractive to those who are in it. To me it seems already a. happy hunting ground for the poor man ; but statesmanship may make it a paradise. The matter is entirely in your own hands for no Government approaches more closely the ideal of President Lincoln —" A Government of the people for the people. " No Governments have committed greater errors than those committed by an ill educated democracy with low minded and fanatical rulers such as Prance had at the time of her revolution ; while on the other hand no Government is so capable of doing greater things as a well-educated democracy with high-minded and unselfish leaders.