Untitled

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 659, 15 September 1891, Page 2

THINGS appear to be very bright in Hawke’s Bay so far as the sheepfarmers are concerned. The Napier correspondent of the Wairoa Guardian writes “Up to the present time the season has been a marvellous one, and the sheepfarmers are in ecstasies. It is estimated that the increase of the flocks will be over it>o per eent. unless something very unforeseen happens, as the lambing has been something wonderful. Jtwes with twins and triplets are common, there are numerous instances of quartettes, and Mr Rathbone, of Waipawa, is able to boast of a fine stud ewe with five lambs at foot, all of them doing well, I do not think there was ever such a lambing in Hawke's Bay before. Indeed, I doubt whetner the history of the pastoral effort south of the line can equal the result of this year. Our farmers are going in for quite a different style of feeding to what used to prevail, roots being largely availed of, and the plough is kept going almost as much as if we were purely agricultural.” In the Poyerty Bay district also the sheepfarmers are having a splendid season, and the lambing promises to give a highly satisfactory percentage. Some flocks will yield over the 100 per cents

News by the mail gives some queer reports concerning the German Emperor. He is said to be succumbing to the morphine habit, and the mania is reported to have broken out for the first time when he assumed command of the Royal yacht. The report in the Paris papers continues—“He took the vessel at her maximum speed out into the open ocean, and caused every flag on board to be displayed. He ordered repeated salutes with the yacht’s guns, while the band played vigorously. These scenes were kept up all night, the Kaiser, in the meantime, changing his uniform, wearing in succession those of German, English, and Italian Admirals. In the course of this drunken row he struck Lieutenant Schroeder, who immediately went below and blew out his brains, as he considered himself irretrievably dishonored. Some sailors who revolted at the Imperial caprices were unmercifully flogged and put in irons. Next morning, the Kaiser, renewing his 1 mad drunk,’ was thrown, as if accidentally, from thebridgeof the vessel to the deck, his feet being badly injured by the fall.” Other reports are set off with minute details, as to swearing, foaming at the mouth, the use of a straight jacket to restrain the Emperor, and so on. The details, in fact, are so minute as to throw discredit on the whole story, and make it appear nothing more than the outcome of French spite. They are denounced as ‘sensational inventions’.by the German authorities. Possibly the Emperor may have indulged in a spree, but beyond something of that kind the stories do not seem worthy of credence. It is one of the penalties of greatness to be ever the butt of sensation-mongers.