NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 52, 28 December 1899, Page 15

NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

Mb. Lethbridge, the former member, and a supporter of the Opposition, has been elected for Rangitikei.

The election for the four Maori seats took place last week and resulted in the return of the late members.

The lessee of the new dining room cars on the Government railway between Christchurch and Palmerston North pays a rental of £1092 per annum.

The Christmas number of our Catholic contemporary, The Age Brisbane, is to hand, and a very creditable production it is. It consists of 48 pages of well selected reading matter, original articles, and some very good illustrations.

The total Bum subscribed in Christchurch for the widow of Lorraine, the young aeronaut, killed while attempting a parachute descent recently, totalled £333. It has been deoided to invest £300 for the benefit of Mra. Lorraine, to be paid to her quaterly at the rate of £1 per week for six years.

Speaking at a social given in his honour the other night in Masterton, Mr. Hogg, M.H.R., said that he believed the Government would still further assist small settlers by relieving them of taxation and placing in on the broad shoulders, which were well able to bear it, of some of those gentlemen who had offered the bribe of a freehold.

Messes. Mills, Dick and Company's Almanac for 1900 contains a quantity of very useful information in a compact form. The merchant, storekeeper, and farmer— in fact, every householder—will find it a most useful book of reference. The contents cover a large area, and the matters dealt with are, in many cases, more than of provincial interest.

We have been obliged to hold over several reports of school examinations, etc., which reached us too late for insertion in this issue. In consequence of correspondents not. complying with our request that their letters for this issue should reach this office not later than Saturday morning, we have found it necessary to considerably condense communications that came to hand during the Christmas holidays.

Messbs. Whitcombe and Tombs have published a cheap edition of that dramatic and highly interesting story, The Miner's Right, by Rolf Boldrewood. The volume is well printed, the type is clear, and the work is turned out in a very creditable style To those who have read this stirring tale of Australian life in the gold days, no recommendation is needed ; to those who have not, the present is an opportunity of becoming acquainted with a writer who gives a singularly vivid picture of life in Australia in the fifties.

To show the progress cf Cheviot, Mr. Seddon quoted the following figures at the banquet given by the Cheviot Settlers' Asscciation :—ln: — In 1891 the money orders issued at Cheviot amounted to £326, the money orders paid to £43, and the deposits to £810 ; in the year 1898-9 the value of money orders issued was £6962, of money orders paid £1599, and amount of deposits was £4448. This, he said, showed that the settlers were men of grit and worthy colonists, who, so far from squandering their money, had put by £4000 odd for a rainy day.

The Hon. J. G. Ward was sworn in as Colonial Secretary' Minister for Railways, Postmaster-General, Commissioner of Telegraphs, and Minister of Industries and Commerce on Thursday. The Hon. J. Carroll becomes Minister of Native Affairs. The portfolios of Defence, Mines, Justice, and Attorney-General remain open for the present. The Premier will probably take that of Defence on the retirement of the Hon. T. Thompson, which takes place at the end of the year. It is said that the Hon Mr. Cadman •will be called to the Upper House, and will retain his position in the Executive Council without a portfolio.

We (Nelson Colonist) learn that a movement, just set on foot within his church, to evince appreciation of the good services of the Very Rev. Dean Mahoney, not merely as pastor of his church, but also as a citizen, has been gladly taken up, not only by members of his church, but by many others who enjoy the privilege of calling the Dean friend and fellow citizen. The occasion it is intended to mark is the completion of the Very Rev. gentleman's twenty-five years' ministration and residence in Nelson ; and the proposal at first was to provide the wherewithal to enable the Dean to take a brief rest, and revisit his native land and Europe. We gather that the very rev. gentleman is chary of spending so much time away from his cure as would enable him to take so extensive a tour as was at first thought possible, but his many friends are desirous that he shall, at all events, take a brief rest, and that he shall be afforded an opportunity of visiting other centres after his devotion of a quarter of a century to his local duties. The suggestion has already met with very much favour, and its success is assured. The temporary absence of the very rev. gentleman would undoubtedly occasion regret to many, but the desire to evince esteem would be general, and a hearty welcome home would await the Dean after such a tonr aa his fnends hope might prove beneficial to him.