Local & General News.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 45, 17 April 1884, Page 2

Local & General News.

We hare to apologise to our subscribers on the Ashurst and Taonui roads for the non-delivery of Tuesday's paper. Mrs Hampson, the well-known revival preacher, who has been labouring in Honolulu for aome time back, has returned to Auckland by the mail steamer Australia. The grand hall and promenade conoert held at the Foresters' Hall on Monday hight was well attended, aad, under the efficient conduct of Mr Turner, was highly successful. Dancing was kept up to a late hour. On Monday morning last the residence of Mrs Coleman, at Palmerston, was entirely destroyed by fire. Tha origin of the fire is unknown hut an official investigation will probably take place. It is not improbable that aa aetion for libel, against one of onr contemporaries, will he taken in order to clear the reputation of a Palmerston man who was mixed up in an attempted turf swindle at the recent .Feilding races. < Mr Chamberlain is now so far recovered from his long and severe illness, that, nnder advice from his medical adviser, he will proceed to NiS.W., where 'he J will" spend tHe 'winter. We 1 hope, he will ..have, .^..pleasant .holiday/ and return +o hiis family' and friends with renewed health .and vigor..

On Friday next the usual 4.15 p.m. train will not leave Wanganui until 5.15 p.m. In Sydney, N.S.W., it cost two years to steal a revolver, and one year to shoot a girl with it. It is not easy to get a good revolver. According to the last census there is one milliner to 37 women, while there is only one tailor to every 79 men. " Comment is needless." The first meerschaum pipe was made in Perth, by Karol Eowates, a shoemaker, and is still preserved in the museum of the city. The pipe was made in 1723. Tbe case of the young woman named Kate Boyle who was convicted of infanticide recently, has been considered by the Government, and a recommendation has been made to His Excellency the Governor for her release. In connection with the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, recently rowed, it may be interesting to state that since 1839 there have been 39 of these contests ' between the two Universities, of which Oxford has won 21, Cambridge 17, and one (in 1877) was a dead heat. The Halcombe Christy Ministrels and Brass Band gave an entertainment in the Awahuri School to a good house on Tuesday evening last. The band drove through Feilding yesterday afternoon, and stayed for several hours, playing at intervals some lively musical strains. It may be of inferest to those who make the subject a study to know that there are only five genuine signatures of Shakspeare known to be in existence. One is iu the London Library, the other in the : British Museum, one attached to his will at Doctor's Common, and two in possession of private collectors. Mr Patrick Galvin. formerly part proprietor of the Hawera Star, and latterly i of the Egmont Courier, has gone to Gisborne, whero ho will again enter tho ranks of the Press. He is a capable journalist, and the settlers on the Plains presented ' him with a purse of sovereigns before 1 leaving. 1 At present (says the Napier Telegraph) 1 hops are a complete glut in all colonial markets, and shipment to England has become a necessity. Mr Tanner purposes forwarding two bales to London by the Tongariro, sailing this month, not so much with a view of testing the English market as to get a report on the Hawke's Bay growth. In our report of the races in our last . issue we inadvertently omitted to mention , the good service rendered by A. FitzHerbert, Esq., as Clerk to the Course. [ This gentleman not only did his work [ well, in keeping the course clear for the horses, but with such tact and good t humour that the people, who invariably crowd on to the track, were easily kept t out of danger's way. l Over the door of Shandy Hall a large stone tablet has just been placed ; on it I is this inscri ption : " Here dwelt Laurence 1 Sterne, for many years incumbent of ■ Coxwold. Here he wrote 'Tristram • Shandy' and tho 'Sentimental Journey.' ■ Died in London iu 1768. aged 55 years." ' Shandy Hall has been converted into - cottages, but it retains all its old features i and is practically precisely the same as i when Sterne lived there. One of the members of the Alexandra Cavalry (Trooper Hayes) having shown ' signs of mental derangement on the trip ' down, he was placed iu the Hospital on ' arrival at the camp, and on Sunday removed to the Lunatic Asylum. It is supposed that Hayes was affected by the excitement caused through joining tho troop, which he only did a day or two 1 before they left for Wellington. — Chroni- ' cle. I The attendance of such a large number of Palmerston people at the Feilding 1 Easter Races was a strong evidence of the good feeling which exists between the two places. We have every confidence that on the 24th of May the Feilding residents will return the compliment and muster in good force to witness the events of that day on the Palmerston turf. Gatherings of this kind do more to prevent or remove mere local jealousies than can be easily estimated. The building of the Makino Butter Factory is now practically finished, and the whole of the work has been well exeouted by the contractors, Messrs Berry and Heald, who have faithfully carried out the plans and specifications of the architects, Messrs Atkins and Clere. Mr Atkins inspected the work yesterday, and found it satisfactory. Operations at the factory will now commence almost immediately. A Wairarapa paper saya : — *' What ia this we hear about hotelkeepera having to provide better means of escape from fires that at present? One indignant landlord writes demanding the* name of the party who first suggested putting uoils of rope in sleeping rooms as a protection against fire. He says he provided every bedroom in his house with a coil of rope, and the first night- three of his guests lowered their baggage from the window and skipped, leaving several days' board bill unpaid. It was in a tram-ear. Tha man in the oornerwas telling what he knew about lizzards and aaauring the passengers next to him that one was ooming from the country at that moment. " Yes, sir ! it's on ita Way from Dekoty, straight as the crow M flies." ;.*f la t^tV.^'^Ja^ojrieaV factP": asked, the other, grayely., no croaker," was the positive reply .^"Let me out 1 let me- out J before I go rdv'en i mad!" screamed an old lady, as she. pulled ' the ; •fi-ap^tedted^ • carrion on. 'l must' aay !" .remarked jjlio < | last passenger that was left, indignantly. I • - ;'■■■■ y " A ffi -'• . • ■>.■!■' . ,

The talk of an Euglish regency is revived among London Court gossips. Last night the Ranger could have | made a good muster of stray horses and cattle in Manchestei street. But he didn't. The Feilding Variety Company will give an entertainment at Sandon tomorrow evening. A young man sends the following advertisement toan exchange: — ''Wanted, by a handsome, virtuons young man in easy circumstances, of brilliant talents, refined tastes and loving disposition, situation as son-in-law in a wealthy family." If he ever gets what he is advertising for, this will be another instance of the value of advertising. Dr Grabham, the Inspecter of Lunatic Asylums, who is now on an official visit South, has been instructed to report on the sanity of the prisoner Donoghue condemned for murder at Greymouth. It is understood that the examination has been made and Dr Grabhams's report will probably reach Wellington this week. Donoghue will not be hanged. It is rumored that Messrs 8. P. Andrews and Berry Cass intend contesting Christchurch North at the next elections. Mr T. S. Weston is also spoken of for the same constituency or St. Albans ; and for Stanmore it is said that Messrs Hulbert, Flesher, and Clephanc will oppose Mr Pilliet. For Kaiapoi, Messrs Richardson, Saunders, and Parsons are mentioned. We call attention to Mr Vivian's announcement elsewhere of an auction sale of drapery, clothing, &c, to take place at the old Borough Council office on Saturday next, at half-past 1 o'clock. As the stock is large, and the goods are of excellent quality and must be sold, there will doubtless be a large attendance, and many good bargains will be secured. We hear complaints of copies being frequently abstracted from bundles of newspapers thrown out at the railway station. We are sorry to learn too that the principal " victim " is the Feilding Reading Room, the visitors to which are thereby made the sufferers. We would warn those persons who thus take away papers without proper authority that such a practice renders them liable to prosecution, A private letter from Auckland states that the Observer was sold by auction, owing to a disagreement between the j partners, Rev. Mr Bruce and Mr Wilkin son. There was a considerable attendance at the auction mart on day of sale. The firat bid was £500, and the price gradually rose by bids of £50 to £1,100. From that figure it crept by £25 bids up to £1,500, when it was knooked down to MrN.G. Lennox. This has been going the round of the press, but it will bear re-printing. — A " sporting" clergyman wbo was addicted to the use of spirituous liquors labelled his hunting flask with the word " poison" in big letters to keop off intruders. One day he detected his groom in the act of taking a vigorous pull at the said flask. "Fellow!" he exclaimed, "can't you read P Don't you see that it's poison P*' "Yes, but I — l-1 couldn't bear the thought of out-living your reverence." Napoleon married a widow ; Madame De Maintenon ruled as a widow ; Gibbon abased himself at the feet of a widow ; Rousseau did the same ; Disraeli married a widow ; one of the greatest rulers of modern Europe was the widowed Empress Catherine ; and the three most distinguished women in Europe at present — Queen Victoria, ex- Empress Eugenie, and ex-Queen Isabella — are all widows. Isabella of Spain needs an adjective to qualify her widowhood. An Arabian woman, when left a widow mourns her husband devoutly, hut not infrequently marries again. The night before her second marriage she pays a visit to her first husband's grave. There she kneels and prays him not to be offended. - As, however, ahe feels he will be offended, the widow brings with her a donkey, laden with two goat-skins filled with water. The prayer ended, she proceeds to pour the water on the grave, to keep her first husband cool under the circumstances about to take place; and having well saturated him she then departs.