LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 91, 14 April 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

4ft. Mr Watt, M.H.R. for Wnnganui, addressed his constituents last evening, and received a vote of thanks for his address. The nuisance of wandering horses and cattle in the public streets continues unabated. i Aknroa, on Banks Peninsula, nnw exports considerab c quantities of cocksfoot seed to England. Alford forest, about 30 miles from j Ashburton, is the scene of the Canterbury diamond discoveries. During the month of March, there were registered in the Borough of Wellington, 44 deaths, GG births, while 33 certificates of marriage were issued. Mr Oscar Wilde has pronounced the American sunsets " rather tawdrj\" After this unfavorable criticism it is probable they will be discontinued. The cloud of insects supposed to be winged ants, which passed over Feilding a few days ago, continued their flight as far as Palmerston, where they came to the earth in immense numbers. It is announced that the Minister of Public Works has abolished the present system of issuing tickets at flag station.on the railway line. Passengers will now be able to book with the guard from any flag station to their destination. We are indebted to Mr Towler for some specimens of the winged ant which passed in such numbers over Feilding a few days ago. We have forwarded the specimens to Mr Drew, of Wanganui, for classification. Mr Murphy, of the Bank of Australasia, has been promoted to the Wanganui branch, to the position of teller. The many friends of this gentleman in Palmerston, Marton and Feildins will be glad to hear of his well-deserved advancement in the service. We beg to draw the attention of the school committee to the pool of water now existing under the schoolroom. As the exhalations from this must be positively injurious to the master and children, the evil should be removed at once, by cutting a drain, before some serious epidemic results. An American paper states that the Rev G. Cole, on being arrested and charged with " mopping the floor with his mother-in-law and firing her out of the front door," pleaded that "he had wrestled with her in spirit until he grew weary, and so he found out a more excellent way." The jury acquitted him. Mr Lundon, Collector of Customs, and the prosecutor in the recent still case, heard at Palmerston, has b; j en made the receipient of a bill for 6s, being the charge for clearing out the court after the case was over. As the work done was doubtless the result of the great crowd the case attracted, a contemporary suggests that in future a small charge made for admission would be more reasonable than debiting a Government official with the amount of charwoman's bill. A brass band for Feilding has been talked of for several years past, but little or nothing has been done in the matter, whereas the instruments have already been secured for a brass band at Makino and the members have begun to practice in good earnest, although the affair was only started a few months a£.o. The band is under the tuition and leadership of Mr John Curreen, and will constitute a brass, string or fife band, as circumstances may require. The hop market (says the Australian Brewers' Journal) is in a most unsettled state, and it is a difficult matter to give any forecast as to how prices are likely to rule, and looking back over the last six months, shows the extreme fluctuations to which the hop market is subject; prices for colonial ran up in a few weeks from 2s 6d to 3s 6d and ss, and then down to 3s 6d, and sales have been lately reported at even lower rates. However, the brewers cannot look forward to lower rates than quoted in February, namely, 4s and 4s 6d for Victorian. Many growers have yet to learn the paramount importance of having all their bnles exactly the same as sample. The Waipawa Mail says : — " The time for receiving tenders for the construction of footbridges over the Waipawa and Tuki Tnki rivers will close oh the 12th inst. In the meanwhile, workmen employed on the Waipawa bridge, are turning back foot-passengers who essay to cross. It is to be hoped the department will push on the construction of these bridges with all speed, as at present the children residing on the other side of the river, reckoning from the townships of Waipawa and Waipukurau, cannot attend school ; neither can adults cross the rivers except in a vehicle or on horseback, and even this privilege will be denied if a fresh should set in." This paragraph shows that Feilding is not the only place inconvenienced by the delay of the Government in adding footbridges to the railway bridges.

j'.!> .'.« '.'v-'j-'j-'aft' nv. .'■ ' *v.' -'««« .» . .'■ -.'. fc-jjtj.u'^wjw The t-risco mail closes at Feilding on Friday, the 20th April, (next Friday). Captain M"nir has been appointed to the .Native . evident Magistracy of Wanganui. Tiiis' gentleman has had charge of Native affairs in the S-otorua and anranga districts for the last seventeen years. A horse ran away in Manchester-street yesterday afterno-n. Eej-ond the usual amount of excitement displayed by parties who should have been disinterested, and the coolness of the person most concerned, there was nothing remarkable in it. It will be good news for sportsmen when they learn that the Maoris state there will be a continuous spell of fine dry weather for the next ten days. As the Natives are generally correct in these matters, they can safely anticipate a " good time," especially as game is very plentiful. A young man named Joseph McCafferty, belonging to the Armed Constabulary at Cambridge, Waikato, a carpenter jy trade, while engaged in the construction of a bridge, had the misfortune to run a splinter into his thumb, which caused blood poisoning, the result of which was that he died after much suffering. Ihe "Hallelujah Lasses" at New Jersey are suing a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church for 55,000, damages for having publicly denounced the Salvation Army as a " bold, shameless, religious rowdyism." We are not sanguine of the success of the " lasses" in this case, and think they may have to pay all the costs into the bargain. An anxious mother in Scotland, was taking leave of her son on his departure for Kugland. and giving him some good advice. "My dear Sandy, my am bairn, gang south, and get all the silver ye can from the southerns— lak everything ye can ; but the English are a brave boxin' and take care of them, and Sandy never fight a bald man for ye canna catch him by the hair." Female wrestlers are the latest and least commendable novelty of the Parisian stage. The troupe, consisting of four lady athletes, wearing very neat costumes, appear at the Folies Bergere, where they contend together every evening for prizes offered bj the management. The Paris papers state that occasionally ambitious amateurs enter the lists with these professionals, and are not always defeated. Both the Home and colonial papers team with accounts of the doings of the Salvation Army, some of which do not reflect the highest credit upon some of the members of this " force." At Melbourne the other day a prominent " soldier" was fined three guineas for giving an evidence of his being " saved " by assaulting two women, whom he knocked down, kicked, and jumped upon in a most brutal manner. Tt appears that several enterprising individuals have recently set up in business in the newspaper line in Wellington, and in doing so have adopted a very ingenious and economical method. The sphit of j the times seems to have caught hold of them, or the " New Zealand Times" at any rate, for we learn from that journal that as the runners deliver the paper on the premises of its subscribers, some nimble-footed thieves follow and quietly pick up the copies, and having collected an appreciable quantity o£ them, march off to the streets and sell them. A singular scene took place at Mr Sims Beeves' concert at Croydon recently. After the celebrted tenor had sung " Tom Bowling," the audience demanded an encore, and Mr Reeves came on and bowed twice. Other performers were then sent on, but the audiience refused to listen, and hissed the singers off the stage. The uproar continuing, the grand pianos were shutdown and the performers all went away, the audience being left to retire without the programme being finished, amid some confusion. In order to show the advantages of life insurance, we mention an instance that has come under our notice. Mr A. J. Thomas, of Upper Tutaenui, insured his life with the Government for £500 in August, 1882. After a fortnight's illness he died on December 27, 1882, without having made a will. Letters of administration were taken out by the proper persons, and forwarded to Wellington on April 2nd, and on April 7th a cheque was forwarded. Mr Rees Thomas, the father of the deceased, has expressed himself highly pleased with the promptness of the department in making payment of the claim for the insurance. An accident that was fortunately unattended with any serious result, happened to Mr Jacob's trap yesterday afternoon, when he was driving across one of the socalled bridges over the ditch alongside Kimbolton road. The horse from some cause or other swerved a little and the wheel of the trap, slipping over the side of the bridge, the whole affair capsized bodily into the ditch. Messrs Beattie and Swainson, who witnessed the occurrence, immediately went to the assistance of Mr Jacob, and their united efforts soon got the trap and horse out of the diiliculty, neither the horse nor the trap being anything the worse, and Mr Jacob having escaped injury of any kind.