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Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3047, 26 January 1892, Page 2

A conference between Great Britain and the United States on the silver question ia being arranged. A special meeting of the Pukekura Road Board will be held on Friday to confirm the rate levied at the last meeting. M. Bibot, Minister of Foreign Affair?, announces that the minimum tariff will be applied to Great Britain after February Ist. Mr. Hasling, M.P. tor Worcestor, charged with obtaining large sums of money by means of fraud, has been committed for trial. The Liberals in England are organising a great campaign, to be held in London in February and March, in view of the general election. The annual meeting of the parishioners of S. Peter's Church, Hj.milton, will be held in the Public Hall tomorrow evening at 8 o'clock. Mr W. J. Hunter will sell at Cambridge on Saturday next, at noon, the whole of Mr D. Fallon's contracting plant, which is one of the most complete iu the district. Friday next, 29rh inst., being the anniversary of the colony, will be observed as a special holiday at all branches of the Bank of New Zealand in tho Waikato District.

The aggregate meeting of the miners at Newcastle unanimously resolved not to strike, but to adhere to the general agreement previously recommended by the general secretary. Swimmers and others interested are reminded that entries foi the 220 Yards Amateur Championship of New Zealand, the Hamilton Handicap of 130 yards, and the Rob Roy canoe race close tomorrow evening. The North "Wairarapa Babbit Board has decided to spend tha surplus at its disposal, £1000, to the importation of ferrets. The establishment of a rabbit freezing factory in the Masterton district is spoken of. The swamp between the Hamilton Stitinii and Franktou has been burnins? fiercely for the last few days. It was started by a apark From the engine and during the strong wind blowing on Friday and Saturday, extended its area su rapidly that tho railway men were busily engaged pulling down the fencing along tho line. Notwithstanding thftir efforts a good many of tho posts were doitroyed. Owing to the inclemency of the weather last night, there was not a quorum of the committee of the South Auckland R icing Club present at the hour appointed a.st night. The meeting was adjourned till to-morrow (Wednesday) night, of which ■me notice a pears in our advertising columns. Tlih secretary is particularly nnxious to get the members of committee together, as he has some business of importance to lay before them.

New Zealand hemp is in fair demand in London at an advance of 10s por ton. The Queen's Bench has quashed tho conviction of the Salvationists convicted by the magistrate of unlawful assembly in Eastbourne. By a decision of the B, M. in Auckland, a tin loaf does not come under tho definition (it fancy bread, and consequently must be of the full weight of two pounds. Messrs T. and H. Cooke's furniture factory, in Upper Queen Street, Auckland was destroyed by fire on Sunday night. The total insurance on buildings, stock and machinery is £825, but the linn's loss will be considerable iia regards machinery and interruption of trade. In referring in last issue to the Messrs Karl Bros, honey harvest at Patatere we were considerably out in our figures. It should have read that during the last month, not the last threo months, they secured five tons of honey, and five days during that period produced one and a half tons. This looks rather better.

With reference to the recent outbreak of glanders and farcy amongst Messrs Sell Bros, circus horses, in Sydney, the p->ny which was first suspected of having glanders has been destroyed, and the nature of tho disease confirmed by a, post-mortem examination made by Mr Stanley, the Government veterinarian and veterinary sur geons W. 3<xitt aDd A. E. G. Robinson. Of the horses transferred to the quarantine at Shark Island, one has shown symptoms of farcy, and been destroyed.

A meeting of the members of the Claudelands Syndicate was held yesterday, when the letter from the Ground Committee of the proposed Waikato Agricultural Association, asking for the terms upon which the Syndicate would grunt the Association the use of their grounds, was considered. The Secretary was directed to reply to the effect that the Syndicate would grant the Association the use of their grounds free until the expiration of their lease in May 1893, and further that in all probability the Claudelands property would be secured, in which case a further term of two years free usa of the grouuds would be granted.

Mr H. Howden, watchmaker, has imported a new thing in stop watches. These have been made specially to his order, and register for a full hour, not only for ha,lf-in-hour, as Mr Howden informs us ia the limit on other ctop watches. They are of sterling silver, two open-face dials with flint glasses, and complete with stopaction and fly-back. The chronograph is entirely distinct from the ordinary mechanism, and is thus not sa liable to get out of repair as the ordinary stop watches. Mr Howden has received testimonials as to their reliability from Mr J. McNicol nnd other well-known gentlemen, and as no sportsman can dispense with a stop watch of some description, we have much pleasure in drawine their attention to these.

About midday on Saturday a spark from one of the engines on the railway set fire to the grass near Mr Devery 8 house. This soon spread into Mr Jolly s boundary fence, between his property and the Domain lands, and communicated itself to the furze growing upon this thoroughfare. Wβ regret to say that a great many chains jf fencing were destroyed before it could be checkod. During the progress of the fire Mr Jolly must have felt a good deal of anxiety for the safety of his four or five large stacks of grain standing a short distance hack from the fence. The high wind blowine carried sparks and considerably sized lakes of fire long distances, and if these had dropped upon the stacks nothing could have eived them from total destruction.

The numerous fires started by sparks from the engine? at different parts of the line, causing considerable damage and loss to settlers ha? naturally led to the question being asked as to how far the Railway Department is responsible for the losses so occasioned. We have heard that the department has been written to on the subject, but the officials disclaim any liability. How far they may bo upheld by law in New Zealand we do not know, but we believe we have seen reports of cases tried in England where tho companies W6re mulcted in heavy damages. The precaution of having spark catchers attached to the funnels at one time in force seems to have been discarded. This does not look like even ordinary care being observed. A certain Hamilton resident, gifted in repartee, got off more than an unusually good hit the other day, the victim being a certain well-known insurance agent. The gentleman in question was a smart man, and always had lots to say at the table—not unusual gifts for insurance agents—and when discussing his cheeso on oue occasion, confessed to a weakness for mouldy and mitey cheese. " Oh !" said our friend, " I see you ara like Samson." " How do you mean ?" queried the insurance man. " Why, because you lika to kill your thousands with the jaw bone of an ass " came as pat as you like, much to the delight of the party, who were delighted to see the irrepressible taken down. The insurance man failed to see the joke, and he and our friend have been utter strangers since.

Even the relief we had anticipated, says a Melbourne exchange, from the renewal of plenty in the rural districts has failed us. Our wool clip is much larger than ever, but the price of wool has fallen twenty per cent., and the receipts in that quarter will not be as great as they wore expected to bg. The harvest looks well, and the price of wheat is lively and likely to keep up, and that is about the only gleam of sunshine in the horizon. Orders from the country storekeepers are very plentiful in Melbourne wholesale houses, but as the Melbourne trade itself was never worse, the total output is not what it should be, and so every clerk and salesman you meet is shivering with apprehension lest his principal should suddenly meet him with " Mr Jones, I'm vory sorry, but wo find ourselves forced to make reductions in tho staff, &c." which means dismissal.

Clever as they all are, says a writer in a Melbourne paper, they have all been hit by the fragments of the last explosion of the Land Boom. Many of them thought themselves safe. "They h:>d got out in time." But what is the use of "getting out in time" that is of selling at a high price to a bogus bank pioneered by brother speculators if just when you look to receive your plunder the bank bursts and chejudge orders a compulsory liquidation in scathing terms. In such a case after spending half the gains you counted upon, you find that not only the other half is not forthcoming but also that you are expected to disgorge. This is the fate that has overtaken some of the cutest of the party and that is why you hear that one magnific "has resumed the px'jotice of his profession" and another is " about) to join a firm of leading solicitors" and a third " is likely to accept this that or the other post" which he had declared he would not look at. Miss Moucbev in David Ooppecfield declares that " this is a world af gammon and spinach." Had she known our political world she would have declared that it was composed of gammon only.. The Napier Telegraph has the following sub-leader on the late Wellington election :—" Ministers are fairly entitled to all the credit of having beaten Air H. D. Bell. It was a fair fight, and a gnodhumoured one : and, though it was a ' closo ehave,' it was a victory all the same. Who and what Mr McLean is does not appeal , to be of the slightest importance. It is quite sufficient for all political purposes of the present day that ho is a supporter of the Government, and with that qualification to go t<) the poll with, the votes of a mnjority of the people are assured. With universal suffrage and one man one vote, the assertion vox populi vox dei has a more significant meaning in this colony than, perhaps, in any other country in tho world. We are, therefore, not going to quarrel with the result of the Wellington election. By a narrow majority. Mr McLean has been preferred to Mr Bell, and there is an end of the matter. But though we are not going to find fault with tho choice of the electors, we can at least deplore the loss the colony has sustained through Mr Ball's rejection. Mr Bell is a thoroughly representative man, New Zealand born, and a credit to the country of his birth. He would bean ornament to any Parliament in the world, and we are exceedingly sorry that he has been shut out of that of New Zealand. That Ministers ware frightened of him goes without sa-ying. They would never have exorled themselves as thoy did unless they

had thought his prosonco in tho House would menace their position. No stone, consequently, was left unturned to socire his defeat, and no sense of shame prevented Ministers from enacting the parts of both

wet and dry nurses to pull their own nominee through his infantile troubles. Their care and trouble have been rewarded. Mr McLean will take his seat in the House, and Ministers will have the satisfaction of knowing that his presence will in no way interfere with tho appalling mediocrity into which our Parliament has fallen,"

Onr attention has been called to danger existing on the road near to Mr Raynes' house,' through tho contracts for gravelling mi the Olianpo K/md, excavating on the road and leaving the pit so formed nnfenced. Anyone proceeding in this direction at night will be wise to ride easy.

A grasshopper plague in New Caledonia is causing .serious apprr-liension to the community in the French ponal colony. From the iiLst of October to the 11-Stli Novombpr, more than 30 tons of grasshoppers were killed. In one district two tons were trapped in a single day, and the total for three weeks, 'from 15 districts amounted to 30.58S kilogrammes. Two detachments of natives, each numbering 200 are employed by the Government to destroy the pests. Steamers arriving in Sydney siuce then bring news that the grasshoppers »re in myriads, and are roported to have eaten every blade of grass from great tracts of the country.

An extraordinary haul of mackerel Hah was made (says tho Dunedin Star) by three Pm-tobellofishmen on Thrusday last. Then- net was put down in the ordinary manner near Porlobello, and on being drawn in it was found that an enormous nnmber of fish had been caiiturad — sufficient to fill three boats—which were weighed down almost to the water's edge. The fish were subsequently sold to Messrs Thomson Bros, manure .•nanufactmv.rs, of Port Chalmers, where on being weighed, they turned the scales at 5.p tons. Allowing 84doz of the fish to the ton, ther-5 were close on 6000 fish in the haul. On Wednesday last the men caught 120 dox of the same fish, which they offered for sale at the Stuart street landing at the rate of Is per dozen, hut only Sdoz were disposed of, the remainder being, sold to bo converted into manure.

" Woomera'' in the Australasian of the 26th December has the following :— A New Zealand legislator is as popular in his constituency as he is invariably hard up, and a little time ago some of his friends got up a testimonial for him. Having raised £200, they had to find some other excuse for sending it to him than the fact that he wanted it badly, and accordingly a letter was written explaining that m ap-

preciation of his Parliamentary services, and as a small token of esteem, they begged, etc. The law, unfortunately, forbids a member to accopt any more material recognition of his Parliamentary services than indigestion from a second-class banquet, so the recipient of the £200 following the advice of a, much older statesman, replied that he could not accept the money, even had it been £2000, and begged to return his private cheque for the amount. And members of the committee remarked what a high-minded chap he was, until tho cheque was returned from the bank marked "Account overdrawn."

An interesting correspondence on the Sabbath question has lately been goinff on in the columns of a well-known weekly devoted to the interests of religion in the north of Eneland. A farmer, who had the frankness to give his name and address, wrote to ask whether, the season being so unusually wet, he should be doing right to father in his corn on Sunday when Sunday happened to be fine. A great many replies appeared. Some timidlv told him to go on, some boldly declared that it wa? his religious duty to go on and save his corn, some gently reprimanded .h> m > an ° some condemned him for even thinking of such profanity. But the most significant fact is related by the inquirer himself in the lettor which closes tho correspondence. Locally, he fays, he ha? been subjecMo treatment which he thus describes:—"! am almost ashamed to relate that, at a large meeting held in this neighbourhood last week to celebrate the centenary of a Congregational Church, ministers aud deacons combined ti condemn me for even writing on the subject; and can you believe that a man from the Western College, of Cheshunt, should state in a public meeting that I had even dishonoured my own name by writing such a letter, or that I ought immediately to resign my office as a deacon ■and superintendent." They take a different view of matters in Cumberland. The other Sunday morning, the Rev. Mr Kennedy, vicar of Plumpton, at the clo3e of his sermon advised farmers who had corn outstanding to spend the rest of tho day in securing it, as there was no virtue in allowing good grain t-> rot. Many followed his advice, and a deal of corn was led ant) housed during the day.

How much, the principle of the one-man-one-vote affects the action of the Hon. W. Reeves, the "Liberal" Minister for Education, may bo gathered from the fact that he has caused his name to be inserted on the Wellington electoral roll. If Mr Reeves were an owner of freehold property in Wellington, there would not bo a word to say against him taking up any privilege to which such a qualification would entitle him. But he doe 3 not possess freehold property, or even leasehold property, in that city. He is a mere sojournor there, occupying a house for which ho nays no rent, which belongs to the State. However, by viitue of his residence, he has enrolled himself as an elector, and his name figures on the roll as " W. P. Re«ves, Minister of the Crown." To the credit of his colleagues, bo it said, Mr Reeves rs the only Cabinet Minister who has had the hardihood to button up his alleged political principles in his pocket, and t.i come out in the character of a professional politician. Mr Reeves has a property qualification, we believe, in Christchurch, and has taken out a manhood suffrage qualification in Wellington, and we make no doubt he exercised his vote at the lato election. If there were an election in Christchurch on Monday, we scarcely think his modesty would restrain him from travelling down there at public expense and recording his vote. It will thu3 be seen that Mr Reeves, on the subject of the one-man-one-vote principle, is very much in accord with that parson of lax morals who exhorted his congregation to do as he told them, and not that which he did.—Napier Telegraph. Broken Hill is suffering , from a severe water famine, the misery of which is aggravated by dreadfully hot weather. The local supply of water has given out, and the South Australian Government are filling the breach by despatching water trains from Mingary, about fifty miles away. The distribution of the svater as it arrives is undertaken by the municipal council. One establishment in Main-street is d-.iing a good trade in filtered rain water at 3d per glass. A few carters, vending water of a questionable quality at 3d per small bucket are goine from house to house. Residents possessed of a fair quantity of the precious fluid—2oo gallons is regarded us sufficient store—are most of them freely snaring ic with those who are less fortunate, so much confidence is there that South Australia will keep the town going. The carters have been charging from 15s to 35s per 100 gallons. West Broken Hill is occupied almost exclusively by the poorer classes of the working people, and in many instances they were absolutely unable to pay the excessive prices asked by the carters ; indeed, the carters seemed disinclined to go so far out, and several householders have been on very short commons for days past. One case came to light in which a household had been using tho same water for washing and for teamaking. They actually washed with water, it is said, using no soap, and afterwards, when it had settled, have poured the water off and boiled it for tea. Very high prices have been demanded for what little water has gone out there. One woman, the wife of a smelter hand, earning £2 10s a week, and having seven children, deemed herself fortunate in being able to o'otnin 1000 gallons of fairly good water for 25s ; another, in hardly a bettor condition of life, paid 12s for twenty-five gallons. The prayers for rain offered by Bishop Dunn ara being continued in all the Catholic Churches in the Diocese. The daily supply of water ranges about 30,000 gallons.