LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 92, 17 April 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

If the masses could be persuaded to eat fruit after their meals (says Truth) drunkenness would cease to be the reproach of t'ritain as a nation. A hostler who had let out a horse for half a day, provided him with fodder, and fetched him home again, made out his account for the three items thus : " Osarfada 10s, afortheas 2 ; anagetinonimomeagen 6d, total 12s 6d ! We have to thank the compiler, Mr Deighton, for a copy of the account of land in cultivation, and of the agricultural produce thereof in Rangitikei and Manawatu, for the year ended February, 1883. Yesterday Mr F. Towler showed us a plate of magnificent raspberries. He informs us that the third crop is looking remarkably well, and if there is no frost immediately after the southerly wind now blowing, he expects to have a good supply ripened. The Oroua River rose bank high yesterday, in a few hours. In several cases parties who had crossed the river with vehicles or on horseback, were compelled to leave them behind and accomplish the return trip on foot. No damage is reported. A settler informs us that he planted 6 vegetabe marrow plants, which, for a time, owing to the drought which prevailed about Christmas, showed every symptom of dying off, but from these plants he has since gathered nearly 200 fine marrows — such has been, the marvellous effects of the autumn rains. A lad lost his feet through frost-bite in Otago recently, and some £300 was subscribed for his benefit. The question of providing him wiih artificial feet was considered the other day by the trustees of the fund, but one of the trustees thought the idea superfluous, " as a boy with £500 to his name was already set on his legs !" With reference to the matter of the proposed Cheese and Butter Factory for Feilding, we may mention that we have sampled some cheese made by Mr Davies of the Kiwitea, which in our opinion is quite equal to any of the imported articles, and we see no reason why it should not be produced on a much larger scale for exportation to other parts of the colony, and also to the Home country. We notice that nothing has yet been done by the Borouah Council in the matter of protecting tbe Kimbolton road, opposite Mr Norman's, from the encroach ment of the Kiwitea Stream. It is high time this work was done, as the road is fast becoming " beautifully less," and almost any day might bring a fresh sufficient to carry the remaining portion of it clean away. Unless immediate steps are taken to protect the road by an embankment, or some other protective work, the next heavy fresh in the stream will remove the road altogether. Mr Taylor, of Cameron's farm, on the Kbnboh'oa Road, was unfortunate enough to inflict a severe wouod on his hand, last Saturday, while cutting a piece of fresh beef. The knife slipped off a bone in the meat and cut into his left hand, between the thumb and forefinger, almost severing the thumb from the hand. Mr Taylor went to Mr Higgin, the chemist, to dress the cut, but he considered it of too serious a nature for any other than a surgeon to attend to. Dr Johnston was then visited, who soon performed the necessary operation. '

Our report of the t'ampbelltown tea meeting, held last evening, is held over until next i^sue. A son of Mr Dowling, master of the state school, Feilding, has been appointed to the temporary charge of the Halcombe school. A splendid specimen of the sun fish was recently caught iv Port Chalmers by two fishermen. It weighed seven hundredweight, and measured eight feet long by six feet wide. Tiie negotiations for the conclusion of a copyright convention between France and Germay are being prolonged, the main difficulty being the question of translations, Frauce demanding protection in this respect for 10 years, and Germany being only inclined to grant it for five. The Cosmopolitan Theatre at New York, formerly called the Alcazar, was die scene of a panic onthe occasion of the first performance after renovation. A careless attendant set fire to a curtain with a torch. A panic ensued in the gallery, but tolerable order was preserved in the stalls, though some ladies were crushed, There was no real danger, the curtain having been made uninflammable. Mr Molesworlh, a Victorian b arristcr, told a jury recently a story illustrative of the fact that every religious sect had its black sheep. The church wardens of a provincial township were in want of a minister, and telegraphed to Melbourne friends in the following terms: — "Send minister. Opinions immaterial. Sect immaterial ; but send a sober man." A correspondent of Truth states that a friend, who happened to find himself in prison at Cairo shortly after the entry of the English troops, is greatly surprised at Lord Wolseley's assertion that he never saw a drunken English soldier during the Egyptian campaign ; for he saw a considerable number of persons in the English uniform brought into the prison every night. One of the station clerks, of Wanganui (says the Chronicle), named Robert Hare, has been suspended in connection with the recent alleged robbery of £30 from the premises. We forbear to enter into any further particulars, as the circumstances affecting Hare, which have been in posI session of the railway authorities since \ the very day that the money disappeared, will hare to be properly investigated. Tho eldest son of the Tichborne claimait nv-eofly wrote lo the Home Secretary asking for a remission of his father's sentence, on the ground that he and his brothers and sisters were growing up and ought lo have a father's care and supervision. The convict highly approved of his son's sagacity. The Home Secretary held a diverse opinion, and refused the application. "Two young ladies, new arrivals, 20 [ and 23, wish to correspond with gentle--1 men, with a view to matrimony." Such is the businesslike and curt announcement in the daily papers that two gay young things, all agility and muslin, are ready and willing to enter upon " the heroic work of colonisation." We wonder if one of these young ladies is the : same who the other day, in an immigrant j ship, called over tho bulwark, before the | anchor was down, asking the Herald shipping reporter and the Customs i officials "how the Auckland matrimonial market stood."— Observer. A retiring tenant appears to have entertained conscientious scruples about leaving his house and premises in tbe same condition in which he found them, and an anxiety to comply with the terms of the agreement of his lease, advertised in an English journal as follows: — " Wanted immediately, to enable me to leave the bouse which I have for the last five years inhabited, in the same plight and condition in which I found it, 500 live rats, for which I will gladly pay the sum of £2 sterling ; and, as I cannot leave the farm attached thereto in the same order in which I got it without at least 5,000,000 docks and dockets (weeds) T do hereby promise a farther sum of £5 for said number of dockets. N.B. — The rals must be full grown., and no cripples.