LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 87, 5 April 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Sportsmen are requested to remember that tuis are not included in the list of native game, to be shot or taken during the season. j The Manchester Horticultural Society will start their new year of business with about £18 in hand. This speaks well for the popularity of the institution and the energy of its Secretary and Committee. We are informed that the Feilding Temperance Societies purpose holding a public meeting in town shortly, and that Sir William Fox will take a prominent part in tbe proceedings. In a paragraph, in a recent issue, giving the names of gentlemen forming the committee to canvass the district anent the Cheese and Butter Factory, we omitted the name of D. H. Macarlhur, Esq.

We draw the attention of our local sawmillers to the alteration in the Government advertisement for 100,0^0 sleepers, lhe minimum of 10,000 has been reduced to 5,000. In several gardens in and around Feilding, fully ripe raspberries and strawberries are to be seen at the present time, these being the second crops these plants have produced this season. In one instance, that oE Mr TV". D. Nicholas, a third crop has been gathered. At the Supreme Court held at Christchurch on Tuesday, Ratima Jacob, a Maori, was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife at Kaikoura. The j ury recommended the prisoner to mercy on the ground of certain very aggravating circumstances, but the judge held out no hope of a commutation. We are glad to find that the something more than unsightly drain in front of Mr Crichton's Glasgow House, Manchesterstreet, is at last to be covered in. Tenders are about being accepted for the work, which is to be done at the joint expense of the proprietors of the adjoiuing property and the Borough Council. It is gratifying to learn that, in the opinion of Judge Johnston, expressed in his recent charge to the Grand Jury at Christchurch, the increase of convictions shown by the Judicial Records of the past 2or 3 years is not to be attributed to an increase of crime, which he says shows a tendency to decrease, but to the increased efficiency of the police in bringing about convictions %nd the present improved modes of prosecution. At a meeting of the Wanganui Harbor Board, held on Tuesday last, applications for road construction on the Pohangina Block were received, and it was i resolved, on the motion of M r Craig, that { no money be voted for roads on the block, except such a? would open up the | unsold seclionx. The set tiers who have I already bought sections and require roads to get to them, will be deeply grateful lo the Harbor Board in general, and Mr Craig in particular, for the extreme liberality displayed. At a meeting cf the merchants and importers of Wellington, to consider the bye-laws of the Harbor Board, it was resolved that, " Jt be a recommendation to the Harbor Board that the import wharfage be 2s 6d per ton, and that export goods on which import wharfage has been paid shall be free." It was also agreed to recommend that wharfage on wool be levied on outward and transhipped wool only, at 6d per bale. One gentleman remarked that the tone of the discussion was against Wellington being a free port. On Tuesday evening, a lady hailing from the land of the Shamrock, look her ticket at Palmerston for Wanganui, but arriving at Halcombe, appears to have got confused about the trains, and got into the one bound for Foxton. She found out her mistake when it was too late, and, alighting at Feilding, she stayed in town until next morning, when she proceeded on her journey. We were not able to catch the words of the benedictions she pronounced on the heads of the railway officials for allowing her to make suck a mistake. Several new buildings are in course of erection in and around Feilding just now, are others are in contemplation, to say nothing of considerable enlargements and improvements now being made in various quarters. Mr Heald is building Eor himself a substantial .dwelling-house in Derby-street. A new shop is to be erected next to Mr Pollock's, for a local tradesman, and Mr Roots has part of the timber on the ground for his proposed new and commodious dwelling-house, facing the railway line, near Mr Fitzherbert's residence. It seems they can grow applos in Nelson. The Colonist learns that from one tree of King, of Pippins, in the orchard of Mrßoddington at Lower Wakefield, no less than 53 bushels of sound apples were picked off at the gathering, whilst seven bushels were blown off by the wind and thus renderd unmarketable. The tree in question is 30 years' old, and covers a spaco of 105 feet in circumference. Sixty bushels from one tree is the largest yield we have heard of in Nelson. With such trees apple growing should be more "remunerative than the culture of hops. ■ Last Tuesday two of our best local I marksmen agreed to go out for a day's shooting together, but, hefore sallyinsj forth, appear to have partaken rather too freely of the cup that is capable of doing something more than merely cheering. One of the twain at last expressed his intention of staying at home. His brother sportsman, however, determining not to be disappointed, set out companionless to the bush, adjacent to a farm-yard, where, seeing what he thought was a pheasant, but what in reality proved to be Ja fine game rooster, seated on a low branch of a dead tree, "let fly," with the only result of inducing the bird to shift its position, whereupon our 1 crack gunner returned home, mournfully reflecting on the many disappointments the best men meet with in this sublunary sphere. Farmers had better keep a sharp eye on their feathered stock, lest they should find their number sensibly diminished by the numerous amateur j sportsmen.

We have received the British Mail for February. It contains the usual amount of useful and interesting information. We regret to Jlearn that Mr Childs, licensee of the Halcombe Hotel, has had to be taken to the lunatic asylum, at Wellington. The Rev J, Clover arrived in Feilding last night, from Oamaru, and will preach special sermons in the Primitive Methodist Church on Sunday next. Captain Edwin reports : — Bad weather approaching between west and south and south-west. The glass will fall soon, and there are strong indications of a good deal of rain. Toothache way be speedily ended by the application of a small bit of cotton saturated with ammonia to the defective tooth. Mr H. Adsett is the successful tenderer for Messrs Downes and Aherns' contract for the supply of 40,000 feet of totara timber for the Newmarket Railway Workshops, Auckland. We have received from the publisher, Mr A. Fergusson, of Palmerston, " The Settlers Friend," for April. It contains the usual amount of interesting reading matter. From a Home paper we learn that [ water bicycles have been tried at Ports- j mouth, and have proved a success. It is ] said they are easily worked by a lady or a 12-year-old boy, and that the operation is identical with that of a road bicycle. The machine is strong, durable, propelled with great ra; idity, and altogether desirable pleasure and touring boat. The first annual meeting of the Wellington - Manawatu Railway Company was held Yesterday. The directors reported the affairs of the company as very satisfactory. Contracts have been let for £72.863, several of which are completed, and the others in progress. The survey of tlte line has been advanced considerably. There will soon be 35 miles in progress of construction. Messrs J. Plimmer and Shannon were elected directors. An instance of honesty on the part of a boy nimed Gould, residing at Makino, occurred at Tuesday, which is worth recording. It appears that a gentleman in Feilding had by mistake paid the boy a £10 note for a £1. On returning home the boy found out the error, and immediately returned to the payer the £10 note, to receive what was intended. £1 as a reward for his integrity was presented him. Here, however, singularly enough, another mistake was made, two notes having been given him instead of one, which fact only appears to have been discovered when the little fellow got home, whereupon he at once returned with one of the notes.