2446
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 90

the same cause. Gardeners complain that flowers and vegetables were long in germinating, or altogether refused to grow. Plum and early pear trees were in flower at the end of the month, but no apple blossoms had appeared. Willows were in full leaf, but other deciduous trees, as oak, ash, and chestnut, had not burst their buds.” Mr. J. Guylee, of Waituna West, Feilding, wrote : “A stormy month, particularly so from the middle to the end, when it was one round of gales from N.W. and S.W., with driving storms of hail and rain. This was, of course, a decided check to spring growth and farm work. Fortunately, stock do not seem to have suffered to any extent.” Mr. J. Pearce, of Pahautanui, near Wellington, mentions : “The unusual cold has retarded growth, and the spring in grass is in consequence late. I hear complaints of general heavy mortality in lambing-ewes, and milking-cows are in poor condition owing to slow growth of vegetation. Fruit-trees are promising, having much bloom ; plums, pears, and quinces, with favourable weather conditions, should give a heavy crop of fruit.”

Mr. W. M. Hamilton, of Waimate, in South Canterbury, says, “This has been a record month for rain in this locality. Never before that I know of has any monthly record been as high as this one ; at the same time I have known much greater flooding. For nearly the whole month the atmosphere has been excessively humid. At the beginning of the month the rain was with a rising barometer and east wind, and high pressure continued while the rain lasted. The wind worked round from E. by S. by W. to N.W., when the barometer fell, and with more clearly marked cyclonic conditions the weather became drier. The first indication of change was the appearance of harder cumulus clouds and changing of the wind. The low pressures appeared to come from the W. or N.W. Growth was fairly well forward, but grass not of much feeding-value yet.” He also noted from the returns how the rainy zone had gradually worked from north to south over the colony during the last two or three months. From Tapanui, in Otago, Mr. R. G. Robinson reported : “A most exceptionally mild winter was experienced, enabling excellent headway to be made in all farming and forestry operations in this district. An early spring was generally anticipated, but from the 15th to 30th the almost continuous wet and boisterous weather, with an occasional snowstorm, has checked and in many cases permanently injured garden growth.” From Birchwood, in Southland, Mrs. R. McKenzie, in the September return, mentions : “The weather during the first half of the month was very fine, with the exception of a heavy fall of rain on the night of the 1st. Since about the 19th it has been drizzly and damp, with two rather bad storms of snow and sleet. The snow did not lie any length of time, and the effect on stock was not so bad as might have been expected. The sheep are in good condition after the fine winter, and there is plenty of grass. Indeed, the grass seems to be unusually forward, while, strange to say, other forms of vegetation are slow to come on. The hedge leaf-buds (hawthorn) are only beginning to break, and a faint green is coming on the weeping-willows. Daffodils and violets are in full bloom. There has been very little wind for the time of the year, many days being perfectly calm. Cultivation is being delayed a good deal by the wet state of the ground.”

Meteorological Office, Wellington, 16th October, 1905.

D. C. BATES, F.R.Met.Soc.

Commissioner of the Supreme Court appointed.

NOTICE.—STANLEY ERNEST ELDER, Esq., of 45, Market Street, Melbourne, a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria, has this day been appointed by His Honour the Chief Justice a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in Victoria, under the 2nd section of “The Commissioners of the Supreme Court Act, 1875,” for the purpose of administering and taking all such oaths, affidavits, and affirmations as in the said section mentioned.

Dated at Wellington, this 14th day of October, 1905.

W. A. HAWKINS,
Deputy Registrar, Supreme Court.

TENDERS FOR MAIL-SERVICE BETWEEN TOKAANU, WAIOURU, OHAKUNE, KARIOI, RAETIHI, MANGAITUROA, AND PIPIRIKI.

General Post Office,
Wellington, 15th September, 1905.

SEALED TENDERS will be received at the General Post Office, Wellington, until Saturday, the 21st October proximo, for the conveyance of mails by four-horse coach between the undermentioned places for a period of three years, and also four years, from the 1st January, 1906:—

Tokaanu, Waiouru, Ohakune, Karioi, Raetihi, Mangaituroa, and Pipiriki, thrice-weekly between the 1st November and the 30th April, and twice-weekly between the 1st May and the 31st October, in each year.

The attention of intending tenderers is directed to the terms and conditions of contract printed on the back of the tender forms, which may be procured at the principal post-offices.

No tender will be considered unless made on the printed form.

The contractor whose tender may be accepted must be prepared to carry out the service according to a time-table framed by the Department.

As this mail-route may be shortened by railway extension, the Postmaster-General may terminate the contract on giving one month’s previous notice in writing, or may reduce the subsidy in proportion to the number of miles the service may be shortened by the length of railway opened or extended.

Tenders should be indorsed “Tender for Tokaanu-Pipiriki Mail-service.”

The lowest or any tender will not necessarily be accepted.

W. GRAY,
Secretary.

Junior National Scholarships.—Date of Examination.

Education Department,
Wellington, 26th June, 1905.

NOTICE is hereby given that the next examination for Junior National Scholarships and for free places in secondary and technical schools will be held on Tuesday, 12th, and Wednesday, 13th December, 1905.

GEORGE HOGBEN,
Inspector-General of Schools.

Drawing at Junior National Scholarship Examination.

Education Department,
Wellington, 10th August, 1905.

NOTICE is hereby given that at the Junior National Scholarship Examination to be held on the 12th and 13th December, 1905, the exercises in freehand drawing may include drawing from actual objects, or from a representation of some natural or conventional form with simple outlines. (Public-school Syllabus, clause 44.)

GEORGE HOGBEN,
Inspector-General of Schools.

Te Makarini Scholarships, held at Te Aute College, Hawke’s Bay.

THREE scholarships of the yearly value of £35, tenable for two years, are offered for competition. One of these scholarships, to be called the senior scholarship, is open to all Maori boys under sixteen years of age at the end of the month preceding the date of the examination : the other two scholarships are junior scholarships, one of which is open to all Maori boys under fifteen years of age at the end of the month preceding the date of the examination who have attended a Native school or schools other than Te Aute or St. Stephen’s, and whose attendance at school during the previous year is considered by the Inspector of Native Schools to have been satisfactory ; the other is open to Maori boys whose attendance at any school other than Te Aute and St. Stephen’s during the previous year has been similarly satisfactory. The senior scholarship is open to Maori boys on the conditions laid down in the regulations of the Trustees of the Te Makarini Scholarships Fund, as printed in the Native Schools Code, 1897. Candidates for the junior scholarships will be examined in the subjects specified for Standard IV. in the Native Schools Code, 1897. The questions will, however, be somewhat more difficult than those set for the standard examinations. The examination will be held at convenient centres on the 11th and 12th of December, 1905.

Candidates must, either directly or through their teachers, send notice to the Inspector of Native Schools, Education Department, Wellington, of their intention to present themselves for examination. Such notice must be posted so as to reach the Department not later than the 8th of November, 1905.

Copies of the regulations and forms of notice may be obtained from teachers of Native schools and boarding institutions, the Secretaries to Education Boards, or the Secretary for Education, Wellington.

W. W. BIRD,
Inspector of Native Schools.

Wellington, 2nd October, 1905.