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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2597, 3 September 1909, Page 3

Replying to the toast of ‘‘The i J ost and Telegraph Department” at the letter-carriers’ annual dinner in Welihgtcn Mr. D. Robinson, Secretary to the Department, said that, the lettercarriers in Wellington—o 9 in number —made only 48 mistakes last year in. delivering 10\ million articles (says the “dominion”). Nine years ago there only twenty-two letter-carrieTS, who were required to deliver a total of 21 million articles. According to Mr. F. Sisson, chairman of the Canterbury Fruitgrowers' Association, the orchardist of a few years ago was troubled with only one pest, which could be combatted, with lime and sulphur, squirted bn with a syringe. ■ Nowaday.?, however, the fruitgrower had to be practically a chemist with a knowledge of - insecticide ..preparations and an intimate acquaintance with the character of the gentlemen he had to tackle. ’ \ . ; A writer in the Dunedin “Star” speaks of the old digging days. He says: “A callow youth would land,from the Old Country, -knowing as "much about, mining as a (;ow does about metaphysics, would arrive at a field, peg out his first claim, strike it rich right away, and go Home and marry his village maiden, and live happy ever after. Others would spend their substance in riotous living, and when health and sanity returned, and stern necessity drove them to it, would go to a fresh field and pick up another fortune. An old man had come to the Otago diggings from the Fatherland in his youth, and ‘humped his bluey’ from field to .field, year after year. He had no luck, and eventually settled down in his little sod hut and worked a poor claim among the lonely hills. Then me day, when hope ,had fled, ho .saw the yellow metal lying thick in his boxes, and inbi Couple of months or so he nad i-7(JCO in the nearest bank. So lie: m.t to T)lined in to set out for his hol-j/cd FatherJand. He hooked his passage, but on tho day the ship was .to. sail lie met some diggers, former mates, and—well, he missed his ship. That ship was the Tararua, and she was wrecked.” While at Rotorua recently, the Hon. A.'T. Ngata met the Maoris, and discussed with them the repeal of the Thermal Springs Act, for which: the Hon. Jas. Carroll has a Bill drawn up ready for the consideration of Parliament. According to , the Auckland “Star,” the natives wero divided in opinion, hut largely favored the repeal of the Act, whoich it is believed would do- much to facilitate the disposal of the largo areas of native lands how locked up, and enable tile Maoris to. sell tho freehold if they see fit. One hundred and twenty-two miles of wire ribbon are used in the construction of-a 12in naval gun. One knot equals a mile and an eighth. - . <7 ;