Local & General News.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 80, 8 December 1883, Page 2

Local & General News.

We are glad to be able to report the rapid progress Mr F. V- Lethbridg* has made towards complete recovery from bis recent most painful illness. We learn from the Mnnawatu Daily Times that Mr J. Linton is now convalescent, and is able to take a lilfc'e exercise. The horse- steal ing cases will be heard at the R. M. Court here on Wednesday next. Inspector James will conduct the prosecution. There is little hope of saving the Triumph, which is sow almost on her beams ends. The water is in her secondcompartment, and the vessel is breaking up along the keel. As a sign of the times, it is rather ominous of the future of Patea that at the present moment there an nearly one hundred empty houses within the borough. Mr Gregsou, cashier of the Auckland branch of the Bank of Australasia, comes to Wanganui as accoantant, vice Mr Webster, promoted to be manager at Feilding, of which branch he took charge to-day. It is now known that Martin Weiberg, the Avoca gold robber, was not drowned at Waratah Bay, as reported a few weeks ago, but is alive, and was a passenger to England by steamship Strata, which left Melbourne on the Ist inst. Mr A. P. Halcombe, manager of the celebrated Patetere Estate, who has been absent from his home for upwards of 12 months, came into Wanganui by train yesterday afternoon en route from Auckland and New Plymouth. Mr Halcombe will arrive in Feildingby to-night's train. The many friends in the Manawatn district of Mr W. S. Staite will read with interest the following telegram :— At the Appeal Court, Wellington, yesterday an order was made reinstating Mr Staite, of Canterbury, a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court. In our report of the Horticultural show .held on Wednesday, -we- should have mentioned the large and beautiful collection of pressed ferns sent for exhibition by Mr Wildbor*. of Ta«nui. Th*v were exceeding well dried and pressed, very j neatly mounted, and the whole collection, as seen at one view, was the object, of much admiration. Several lengths of the fencing rails on a certain curve on the Awaburi road, round a very high bank of theMangaone stream, are broken- down. As this is a dangerous part of the road, especially dn ! a dark night, as in a case of a horse shying at this particular spot a yery serious disaster might occur, we think the road authorities should at once hay* th« pnK ketiveraili put into propwwpai*. ■**■

The Greymouth people intend to present Mr Petrie with a substantial testimonial in recognition of bis services in Parliament. In the old days, John Brown, the brother of the Queen's giliu 1 , worked as a miner on the Caledonian Terrace, Westport. A man named Daniel Wilkinson, at Dnnedin, died suddenly on a tramcar last night, of heart disease. Deceased leaves a wife and nine children. He was seized with a fit as the Mornington tramcar was going up High Street, and died before medical assistance conld be rendered. An inquest has been decided unnecessary. Owing to several members of the Feilding School Committee being also members of the Borough Council, which meeting they attended, the meeting of the School Committee which should have been held last evening lapsed for want of a quorum. We would advise that the meetings of two important public bodies, including gentlemen who bflong to both, should be differently arranged, and not allowed unnecessarily to clash. We hare r ceived samples of two picture almanacks for 1884 from the store of Mr J. C Thomps n, the first, we believe, that have yet been introduced into Feilding thin season. They are entitled respectively " The Tournament," and *' The Playmates." They are very pretty ornaments, are exceedingly well executed and do great credit to the establishment of Mr H. I. Jones, of Wanganui, where they were produced. On Thursday afternoon the chimney of a house near the railway line caught fire, and as a he/ivy gale was blowing at the time, burned with such terrific fury and bore down towards the roof, so threateningly that strong fears were, fora considerable time, entertained for the safety of the whole building. Fortunately two sons of Mr T. Smith were working near, and hastening to the scene, they succeeded by the aid of blankets and water in preventing what might hare been a serious calamity. The Taranaki News says : — From Waitara we learn on excellent authority that Mr Carkeek, the surveyor, has received a letter from the Tuhua country forbidding him to proceed upon his survey. The letter, we believe, was tent through Te Wetere, of Mokau, who, for some some inexplicable reason kept it to himself for over a month, and only sent it to VI r Carkeek when that gentleman had commenced his journey. Mr Carkeek lias communicated with the Government, and is now at Pukearuhe awaiting instructions. In another column appears a notice from the Secretary of the Kiwi ten Highway Board, intimating that a poll of the ratepayers will be taken on Monday, the 7th January, 1884, in re a special rate of 7-16 of a penny, which must be struck in oraer to comply with the Government regulations, and to enable the sum of : £3,473 5s 7d to be received and expended under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act. We may mention that this is j only a legal necessity, as the revenue of the Board is now sufficient to defray the interest without the ratepayers being railed on for any further disbusements. Ratepayers will understand that in voting for the special rate, as above, they will not jb any way increase the amount they are now paying. In all caies of public gatherings whatever the purpos* or object may be, their success, or the want of it, lies in the hands of the individual who accepts the cares and responsibilities of secretary. 7 he duties of this office, when conscientiously performed, require the exercise of rare qualities of patience, consideration, and tact, and it is rare that these are all found combined in the same person. In the secretary of the Horticultural Society these are found. We are pleased to be able to bear testimony to the able manner in which he performed the difficult tasks allotted to him. His quiet and judicious management was a great factor in making the show, which has just passed, one of the best we haye had to chronicle. Mr Goodbehere spared neither time nor trouble while laboring for the society, and we have no doubt that this evening the committee will take the opportunity to place on record the high estimation in which they hold their secretary. -