Local & General News.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 84, 18 December 1883, Page 2

Local & General News.

It is intended to erect an Oddfellows' Hall in Pnlmerston North. The San Francisco mail arrived at Auckland last night. The next regular sitting of the Feilding R. M. Court will be held on Wednesday, January 9th, at 10 a.m. Property tax to the amount of L245,000 has been paid in. It is expected that an additional L10,000 will yet be paid. We are glad to be able to announce that Mr Peter Bartholomew is steadily proceeding towards recovery from his recent severe accident. Our worthy Postmaster, Mr J. H. Stevens, will leave to-night for Napier for a few days' holiday. He may be expected to return about Christmas Eve. The Borough Council will meet tomorrow at 12 noon for the instalment of tbe new Mayor, and the transaction of ordinary business. There was a meeting of the Kiwitea Highway Board called for yesterday afternoon, but lapsed for want of a quorum. Mr Williamson was the only member who attended. We are requested by the Secretary ot the Feilding Boxing Day Sports to state that in the boys' race, under 12 years, entries will be received from boys residing within a radius of eight miles of the Borough of Feilding. We learn from the Daily Telegraph that Major Atkinson, who has never been in Hawkes' Bay, will pay a visit to Napier as soon after Christmas as he can get away from Wellington. The gallant Major will find this is a pleasant change. We understand that a collector will call on those gentlemen who have put down their names for amounts in aid of the Feilding Boxing Day's Sports. This is an excellent idea, and will save a lot of trouble, as people are not always disposed to pay up after the event, and a lot of useless worry is thrust on the treasurer. Patrick Duffey was charged at the R.M. Court this morning, before D. H. Macarthur, Esq., J.P., with a breach of the peace by being found drunk on the streets yesterday. Accused pleaded guilty, and asked for leniency to be shown on the ground of its being bis first offence. He was fined 5s or 12 hours' imprisonment. The Chronicle says a summons for the maintenance of herself and family, brought by a wife against her husband, was to have been heard before Mr Ward, R.M., on Saturday last, in Wanganui, but owing to the absence of the husband, who is carrying out a road contract near Feilding, the summons had not been served on him, and the case could not be gone into. Speaking at Auckland a few days ago, Baron Hubner said — "The reason why I think of coming back here to go to Europe by America is because of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. I do not mind the heat. I can bear that very well; but the air is positively bad. The Suez Canal is the receptacle of a mass of drainage ; it is simply a common sewer, and there is no flow of water to carry off the impurities." We are indebted to the courtesy of the Hon. Secretary of the Presbyterian Church committee for a complimentary ticket of admission to a lecture to be delivered by the Rev. J. Treadwell on Thursday evening next in the Presbyterian Church. The subject of the lecture will be "The Old Man of Cromagnon." As this lecture has already been favorably received in other parts of coast we hope to see a full attendance. According to a correspondent of the Hawera Star, Mr Foulis, the School Inspector, was called upon to address a meeting in the schoolroom at Normanby. The correspondent adds that the spontaneous burst of enthusiasm with which that gentleman was received by the large and influential company was not only a voluntary tribute to his well-earned popularity, but an impressive and indignant protest against the unwholesome bigotry and ignorance of the Wanganui Education Board. The committee of the Wanganui Benevolent Society appear to be still much exercised among themselves as to the matter of having prayer at their monthly meetings, one reverend nlember of the committee insisting on the meetings being opened with prayer, and another protesting against it. A notice of motion was given at the last meeting that the rule requiring prayer be done away with. Should this be carried, benevolence, like our colonial education, will be secular, which, when there are conflicting opinions is perhaps the better way, while the recipients will probably care little as to whether help has come to them through prayer or otherwise. " A " Conservative"' writes to the Daily Telegraph on the subject of the represen tation of Napier in Parliament, and states his fears that "It is probable that Mr Buchanan and Mr Sheehan, will both be nominated, and that at the last moment one will retire in favor of the other; in any case the whole efforts of the party are to be directed to keep Mr Ormond out should he stand for Napier. "Conservative" does not appear to be aware that an undercurrent of feeling in favor of Mr Ormond has been observable for many months among electors of all shades of opinion, and we firmly believe that he will be the elect of the people at the next, general election. Mr Sheehan will find it better to confinehimself to the representation of the Thames, where the electors and the member are so admirably suited for each other. If Mr Buchanan stands against Mr Ormond he may safely calculate on a humiliating defeat.

A letter from " Settler " will appear in our next issue. This morning an information for assault and threatening to shoot was laid by two residents of Feilding against another. The case will be heard before our local Justices. A son of Jay Gould, the American millionaire, is about to wed Miss Carrie Astor, of the famous Astor family, a union of wealth that is stirring New York society circles profoundly. It is now announced that Hicks Pasha was not killed at the time his army was annihilated by the rebel Arabs, but succeeded in escaping, and he is now at Berket. A Mississippi man has just invented a big gun, which he thinks " will fill a long felt want." The "long felt want" referred to is its ability to kill and wound 800 men out of a regiment of 1,000 at a distance of 100 yards. And yet they say that barbarism is dying out. Just before we go to press we hear of an accident having befallen a daughter, 13 years of age, of Mr Humphrey, of Makino. She was swinging in the bush on a supplejack, which gave way and she was thrown on the ground, sustaining some injury to her shoulder, but it was not sure that dislocation had taken place. The Insurance and Banking Record (Melbourne) states that at a meeting of the Associated Banks the question of a reduction on yearly deposits from 6 to 5 1/2 per cent, was discussed. If the Bank of New South Wales agrees, it is probable the reduction will be made. Mercantile people would be pleased see a reduction in New Zealand. The rise in the price of wool may tend to cheapen money. Let us hope so, at all events. Redwood forests exist only in California, and a company has been formed to dispose of redwood lumber. Redwood is a patriotic sort of lumber, and so no doubt it will be encouraged in the United States. It begins to grow just south of Canada aud quits just as it gels to the Mexican border. It is expected that redwood lumber will be used chiefly in the Eastern cities of the United States and in Europe for inside house finishing. California has 25,825,000 feet of redwood for sale. — Detroit Free Press. An accident which might have resulted far more seriously, happened to Mr F. Evans, late of the Rutland Hotel, Wanganui, on Saturday last. He was driving through the Gorge in a buggy and pair from the Club Hotel, Palmerston. The horses shied at the water-fall, the baggy was capsized over tbe side of the road, and Mr Evans received some rather severe cuts aud bruises in the face and various parts of tho body, and it is almost miraculous that no bones were broken or that he was not killed on the spot. The death of an old and respected Nelson settler is announced in the Post, which says' —By the last mail has arrived news of the death of a gentleman who, not long ago, was well known in Wellington, and who formerly was equally well known in Christchurch and Auckland, as one of the most thorough musicians and accomplished violinists in the colony. We refer to Mr Charles Bonnington, whose death occurred at San Francisco on the 26th Sept. last. Mr Bonniugton will be remembered as having been the leader of the late Choral Society's orchestra in its palmiest days, and having carried on a large music business in the city. A rather amusing spectacle was witnessed on Saturday last at Palmerston. As the mid-day train from Feilding got within half a mile of the station, a foal, which appeared to have lost its dam, was attracted by the neighing of a horse in the train, and at once set off in a determined chase with the engine, with such success that it soon got right in front, and persisted in keeping on the line. Mr Feasey, the driver, slowed, and tried to beat the little animal off, and several times the cow catcher almost touched it. It kept its place till the train stopped at the station, the platform was crowded, and this novel race caused much amusement and even excitement among the spectators.