Local & General News.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 103, 12 May 1883, Page 2

Local & General News.

! - — r— - A telephone station is now open at Ashurst. | The banks will be closed on Monday, the 14th instant, being Whit Monday. The shoemakers of Northampton are \ about to erect a church to tit. Crispin, ! the patron 6aint of their craft. The Salvation Army is declared by Dr ■ Singleton to be producing a rapid change in the back slums of Melbourne. I Pressure on our advertising space compels us to hold over a number of advertisements and a quantity of reading i matter. j There is a serious outbreak of measles at Carterton, (Wairarapa). It is stated that fully 150 scholars are absent from the public schools on accouat of illness. Another of the gang of tho Phoenix Park murderers, viz., Timothy Kelly, has been found guilty, and sentenced to death. The Kaiapoi Woollen Manufacturing Company bas declared an interim dividend at the rate of 10 per cent, per .annum for six months to 31st March last. There never was a time in the political history of this country (says tho Canterbury Press), when plain speaking on the part of pubiic men wa*s more necessary than it is just now. News is to hand of a destructive fire at Riverton. Ten buildings were des. troyed, and the damage is estimated at £10,000. Most of the buildings were insured in the New Zealand, Union, aud South British. Te Whiti has written to Te Aroha (a Waikato chief) expressing his disapproval of the action of To Mahuki in seizing and tying up the surveyors, and saying tiiat his doctrine was a religious peace and a diligent cultivation of the grond. The Hokitika Sfear says hop-growing seems to have some effect on the Banks. It is well-known that Motueka is a hop j growing district, and it is only a week ago that the first Colonial Bank opened there, and since the Bank of Now Zealand is following suit. A novel excuse (says the Wellington Post) for not being sworn in the usual manner was made by a female witness at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday morning. She stated that sho was an Irishman and enceinte, and did not think the usual oath would agree with her. She was at length, however, prevailed upon to take it. In the year 1784, eight bales of cotton grown in the United States were sent to England, where, upon arrival, it was seized and condemed hy order of the Privy Conncil, on the ground that so large an amount of cotton could hot possibiy havo been raised in America. This year the cotton crop of the United States will not be far from 7,000,000 bales. One point about potatoes is pretty well settled, and that is that the natural life of a variety is from 14 to 20 years; hence the importance and necessity of getting new seedling varieties from the most prolific, vigorous, and best known varieties. After a few years the variety begins to deteriorate, even under the best conditions season and soil until it is no longer profitable to grow. At the inquest on the body of Samuel Chesson, who, as reported by us on Thursday, was killed on the railway, Canterbury, by falling between an engine and tender, the jury brought in a verdict of accidental death, with a rider that " there is evidence of the want of proper supervision over material and workmanship used in New Zealand locomotives, as shown by the couplings of tho engine in question." A contemporary says that the so-called Salvation Army appears to be an organisation not only for saving souls, but also for saving money, as its statistics show that tho " common people" contribute £88,700 a year, though what the uncom- ■ mon people subscribe is not stated. We see, however, that £13,697, is set down as the " general spiritual fund," and as tho word is given with a small g, it would seem to convey that it has no connection with " General" Booth. The Wanganui Chronicle says it was pointed out at the dairy factory meeting that, if some scheme of the sort were not speedily adopted, the settlers of this district would have to throw their farms , into pig holdings, and Wanganui would sink dow to the level of Turanina, which, as Mr John Pawson regretfully remarked, " was a flourishing place twenty-four years ago." The gloomy threat thus held out did the work, and a dairy factory was instantly resolved upon. . . The warning given by Constable Price on Thursday 'morning to those 'persons who own cattle not to allow them to be at large on the streets, was not, we are sorry to find, heeded by every such owner, as yesterday morning, early, some considerable "hauls" of cattle were made and conveyed to the public pound. We are glad to find that our stalwart and impartial administrator of the bye-daw* j relative to stray animals is doing his duty in good earnest, and his recent action should act as a double caution to all owners of cattle, not to allow them to graze on the streets of the Borough.

It is rumoured that Mr Gladstone intends to accept a peerage, and to assume the title of Earl of Midlothian. The longest sentence on record was pronounced by an Irish judge. He sentenced a murderer to imprisonment for life, and afterwards added two more years to the sentence, because the prisoner called him " no gentleman." The car, so prominently associated with tbe Phoenix Park murders, has been purchased for exhibition at Madame Tussaud's, but it will not be allowed to leave Ireland until after the trial of the murderers. The wifo of a German settler in I Queensland, left her infant, 12 months' ! old, for a short time, and on returning found a pig gnawing the infant's limbs, flesh having been bitten off the hands and feet. The child is in a precarious condition. There are said to be a million office holders in France, every one of whom considers himself entitled to treat the public with contumely and contempt, and yet we complain because there are only eleven thousand m New Zealand ! We call the attention of the ratepayers to the meeting to be held this evening at the Town Hall, to consider the £0,001) loan and how it is to be expended. It will be the duty of every ratepayer to attend and take part in tho proceedings in order that the proposals to be discussed may be fully ventilated. According to a Dunedin contemporary, a railway employe has thus expressed his opinion of the service : — "I really believo that no one succeeds in tho Government service, especially in the Railway Department, better than a man with a good dense wooden head. Such a man is on a par with his superiors, so then there is no jealousy."