Local & General News.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 57, 16 October 1883, Page 2

Local & General News.

■©■ The Manchester Rifles will parade tonight at the Public Hall at 7 p.m. A gentleman who has been travelling up the coast informs us that at Waverly recently and other places snow fell rather heavily, and the old game of snowballing was freely indulged in. To da.v boing the twenty secon.l anniversary of tiif Biirik of New Zealand, was observed as a holiday by tlie oiik-er.^ of that institution. Ali the Bivnches and Agi-ncifs in llu- Colony were ciosad. We have to thank the Secretary of t'ue Wanganui Agricultural and Pastoral Association for a member's ticket and ticket of admission to refreshment room, at the forthcoming show. Mr Ellery Gilbert is at present in Feilding, on a professional visit. Persons desiring to have their pianos tuned are requested to call on him at the Empire Hotel. We have to acknowledge receipt of a copy of the Woodville Examiner. Iv a rising township like Woodrille this journal is bound to succeed with ordinary careful management at the outset of its career The Wanganui Herald complains that the Press Association forwarded no telegrams from Feilding of a case of child drowning which occurred at Aorangi. Full particulars were wired by the agents here to the Wellington office of the Association and the laches consequently lies with that office. The bad weather during the last few days is the severest experienced since the foundation of this settlement. Fortunately the amount of damage done or ioj ury to proporty amounts to very little. Fruit trees have been denuded of a surplusage of fruits, but happily we have no bush accidents to report from falling branches of dead trees. A brass band in one of the Wairarapa districts has found it necessary to draw up rules for the preservation of good order at its meetings. The Grey town paper asserts that one rule runs thus — " Not more than four members to get drunk at one meeting for practice-room one evening listening to the band trying to play " The Dead March in Saul" (adds our contemporary), and one poor fellow has not been right in his head since. The 48 hours walking match between Scott and Edwards, at Dunedin terrainmmated at 10 o'clock en Saturday evening, Scott winning by one mile and three quarters — all but a lap. Edwards gave up when he had completed 191 miles exactly and retired for good. Scott walked the time out and covered 192 miles 16 laps. Edwards walked nearly 10 miles further in the time than he ever did before, aud was defeated fairly on his merits. We learn that M"adame Moeller the celebrated cantatrice, who has been for j some lime past a resident of Nelson, proposes to make a professional tour from New Plymouth down tue Coast. This talented lady will be accompanied by her daughters who are also ski]led»Tiiusici:ins and charming singers. Mr Ellery Gil bert will act as agent on this coasf, and will also take part in the performances, this gentleman bein.'jf possessed of a rich tenor voice. Feilding will be visited about Christmas. The Wairarapa Star says : — The cold weather of late has be2n playing havoc with the sheep arid lambs on the East Coast. A Whareama farmer was lamenting his losses the other day to a neighbour. "Don't you know the cause?'? asked the other. "No." "Well, I'll tell you. The refrigerating apparatus has broken loose from Wellington, and it is killing the sheep far and wide." " Ah," said the unsophisticated listener, getting really alarmed, "then, by Jove, I'll muster at once." Yesterday afternoon, allured by the verdant charms of the grass in the Corporation paddock near the Manchester Square, a horse attached to & dray, made a frantic bolt from Mr I. ewers' store and dashed through the paddock fence, apparently with a view to enjoy a good feed, for after a short canter over the grass he settled down to its enjoyment. His very natural desire was frustrated by his owner, Mr Munro of the Flaxmills near Feilding, who promptly removed him. Beyond the breaking down of a panel of the fence no damage of any kind was done.

Women are in the majority in England and Germany, while in France there are only S8 females to every 100 males. Singular to say the women in France lire an average of 13 years longer than the men. Woodyear's Circus was opened in Wanganui yesterday. There were abrmt { 2250 persons present, the tent being I crowded. The Circus is described by the Chronicle as being a success, everybody present being well satisfied. It is reported from Durban that the Transvaal Volksraad hns determined on breaking up the tribes recently conquered, the members thereof being apprenticed to Boer farmers for five years. This looks remarkably like slavery. A telegram from Peril), Western Australia, which appeared in the Argus the other day, contained the pleasing and promising announcement : — " The Chief Justice sings to-night at the people's Free Concert in the Town Hall." A few flakes of genuine snow (says the Post) fell at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Falling snow is a very unusual spectacle in Wellington. It is curious that the last occasion on which it occurred during many years past was also in the month of October. Professor Steadman Aldis, the gentlerann selected to fill the mathematical chair at the Auckland University, is a scholar of very remarkable attainments ; indeed, he was senior wrangler at Cambridge, and as long been a recognised authority at both Universities. Mr Aldis is tin advocate of Women's Rights, and has written a book on arithmetic. Tlie Auckland and Wellington men submitted the football dispute for the decision of the Town and « ountry Journ«il, of Sydney. That paper decides that in all matches f c referee's decision is final. Wellington should not have waived its right. The try does not count if a ball is not brought out and kick taken at goal. The match is, therefore, a drawn one. A piano firm in Berlin has bought the oaken piles which have just been taken out of the Rhine at Mayenee, and which are said to be the original timbers of the bridge which Julius I'aesar constructed. Many a father of a family of musical daughters will groan over this paragraph, 100 well he knows that it means anew and fashionable instrument which he must buy if he hopes to enjoy any peace in this world. The Home paper records a meeting of the creditors of William Dawson, cattledealer, of Winterton, an absconding bankrupt, held at Grimsby. It was stated that the bebtor's liabilities amounted to some £40,000. On the day before abscording, the debtor, who is a local preacher, preached from the words, " Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake and that they accom* panied him unto the shin." It is believed that the debtor has fled to Spain.