LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 44, 18 November 1882, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

» Several persons were affected by fish poisoning, on Thursday, in Feilding. A very brilliant Aurora Australia was visible in the southern heavens last night at midnight. John Edwin M.icdonald has bejn appointed Chief Judge of the Native Land Court. A boy, six years of age, named Yardly, was drowned while bathing, at Aramoho, on Thursday last. Mr Wm. Whisker killed a thice-year-old heifer on Tuesday last, tho carcass of which turned ihe. scales at B.^ cwt The beast was reared oil Mr Whisker's farm iv Feilding. A trotting match, for £5 aside, between horses owned by Mr J. Johnston and VV. Jago, of Sandon, takes place to-day. The course will be from Mount Stewart to Sanson. Ob Thursday and Friday last the Rangitik«i and Oroua Rivers were in high flood. The Railway Manager took every necessary precaution for the safety of t!ie Irulges. Wo understand that little or no dam ige has been done. A special meeting cf the parishioners of St John's Church will be held in the Immigration Barracks, on Monday evening next, at 8 p.m., for the purpose of electing a Churchwarden, vice Mr Haultiin, resigned. Those of our readers who have not yet seen (he comet, will be enabled to do so by waiting up until midnight. The nucleus of tho comet is getting rather indistinct, and the rays of the tail are not now so brilliant a.s they were a fortnight ago. The train from Foxton, on Thursday evening, was half-an-hour late in arriving at Feilding, owing to the engine getting off the line near Foxton. The trains crossed at Feilding, so there was little or no delay to passengers in consequence of the mishap. As showing the attractions of the Melbourne Cup ltacc, a Press Association telegram recently stated that on the Cup Jay H.M,S. .Nelson was to be docked, but the labourers could not bo induced to work. An offer of 30s a day was refused by the labourers. On Wednesday afternoon Miss Annie Hadfield, eldest daughter of the Bishop of Wellington, was married to Mr John W. Marshall, son of Major Marshall, late of the 58th Regiment, and now residing near Marton. The newly-married couple leave on Monday on a visit to theMnrqui-3 and Machioness of Norinanby, at Melbourne. We are glad to find our frequent references to the want of improvement in the appearance of Morphy's Stables lias borne good results. Messrs Pope and Pearson (the contractors we named in our last issue us having the necessary repairs in hand) are now pushing on vigorously with the work. The building, when finished, will add considerably to to the appearance of the adjoining premises, as well ns remove what has so long been a disfigurement to that portion of the town. On Thursday last the wife of a settler in town had been sweeping up her hearth after dinner, and had put the dust, together with some ashes, into a bucket. On leaving it standing for a moment or two and quitting the room, a loud report was heard, and the contents of I he bucket were scattered in all directions. The cause was discovered to have arisen from a dynamite cap having accidentally got umong the sweepings of the room, and, of course, exploding when coming into contact with the hot ashes. It was fortunate mo person was near the bucket, or carrying it at the time, or the consequences might have been very incotivenien f , if not serious.. The incident points to the necessity of persons who use dynamite appliances for blasting purposes keeping them in a secure place, and so remove the possibility of their getting amongst the ordinary refuse of the house.

Mrs A. F. ITnlcombe arrived in Auckland by the last 'Frisco mail bout. Dunns the last week about eight inches of snow foil in the Upper Kiwitea. This will account for the sudden, rise of the Rangitikei ;uul Oroua Hirers. John Brady, an unfortunate fellow wlio has several times been in the Mount View Asylum (and discharged eacli time imperfectly cured), has been ag-iin arrested on a charge of lunacy at l'alnierston. He was remanded for a week for medical examination, and was taken to Wanganui by train (in a horse box) on Thursday. A "pink ribbon" army has been organised (says the Taranaki Budget) at Geraldon, Western Australia, the members of which exclude spirits, hut noi liver A " red ribbon " army has also been started, the members of ■which refrain from drinking water except when it is mixed with spirits. Those who can't afiord to buy a ribbon color their noses. In Smith County, Virginia, a welldigger dug 3GO feet into the earth without striking water, and then went through with a plunge into a subterranean lake. Being hauled to terra Jirma again, he and his assistant let down a small boat, and, as the distance between the top of the water and the earth was several feet, rowed over five miles without finding the outlet of the lake— a spring in the side of a hill. The lake is a great wonder ! The Resident Magistrate at Dunedin, in fining a man named Walters on Thursday last, for using a totalisator, said : — '" Before I commoner passing sentence T should mention that it is competent for the Court, on proof of a case of t'i i sort, without inflicting a money penalty, to send a person to gaol for three months with hard labour. I would also point out that, under section 15 of the Act, any any person can sue the party receiving the money from him in a Court of competent jurisdiction ; so that if ft person chooses to receive £800 and to pay away the money in prizes, he can afterwards be sued by those persons who got no prizes. and they can get their money back again." We (Mnnavratu Herald) are very pleased to be able to state that the matter of a bridge over the Manawatu Hirer near Foxton is not being lost sight of by the County authorities, who have been in correspondence with the Government on the subject, and we nowlenrn thnt the District Engineer has been instructed to survey a site for the proposed structure. We hear that there is just a possibility ' that the work may be undertaken by the Government, but if they do not take the matter in hand, the bridge will be erected under the provisions of the Roads Construction Act. It is intended, at next . sitting of the Council, to have a committee appointed to choose the locality where the bridge shall be placed.