Local & General News.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 47, 22 April 1884, Page 2

Local & General News.

... Mrs Hampson, the well-known lady evangelist, is at present in Wellington. To-morrow, being St. George's day, will be observed as a bank holiday. The Borough of Palmerston North has been divided into four wards. A meeting of the Oroua County Council will be held at the Council offioe, Feilding, on Wednesday, 30th April, at noon. We have to acknowledge receipt from the Resident Seoretary of the report of the Australian Mutual Provident Society for the year ending December 31st, 1883. Mr J. W. A. Marchant is gazetted Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Land District of Wellington, to act during the absence on leave of Mr J. G. Holdsworth. We were shown on Saturday by Mr James Laird, of Wan&anui, a monster specimen of a fluke potato. It measured ' 13 inches in length, and was only one ounce short of 3 pounds in weight. Bret Harte's first poetic "fragment* commenced in these words — " I sipped the nectar of hei lips ; I sipped and hovered o'er her." And the last two lines were as follows — "Her father's hoof flashed on the scene. I'm wiser now and sorer. Never speak of your failings my son. Everybody who knows you knows them. Never speak of your good qualities. N obody but yourself believes you possess them. In short, never speak of yourself at all. Of course you will appear eccentric, but you will be readily forgiven by everybody. Rev Henry Ward Beecher told his Brooklyn congregation a few days ago that they might "as well put a provision in the Constitution against total depravity as against the manufacture and sale of liquor. Get the sense of the community behind the law, and it will stand ; otherwise it will not. It is for you and for me to cease blaming others and go to work ourselves." At Newton Abbot, the Rev T. Yard, a Church of England clergyman, was fined £8 for having allowed a horse to remain five weeks in a barren orchard without a particle of food, until it was literally starved to death. He knew it was in the orchard, and when expostulated with said , he had wished to have the horse destroyed but his mother-in-law would not allow it because it had been so many years in the family. During the quarter ending 31st March, 1884, there were 62,2810z of gold valued at £249,579, entered for duty for exportation from New Zealand. The figures for the corresponding qaarter last year were 70,9670z, valued at £283,797. The great bulk is entered at the West Coast and Otago districts, the quantity in eaoh case being a little oxer 27, Q000z, valued at upwards of £109,000. Since the Ist April, 1857, there has been exported altogether from New Zealand 10,364,6140z of gold, valued at £40,707,074.— P05t. When Mr Ivo Bligh married Sir W. J. Clarke's adopted daughter, the happy pair retired to a house at Maeedon, whioh had been prepared for them to spend the honeymoon. The bridgegroom strolled out to smoke a cigar, leaving the lady to prepare for rest. This she did, but ber lord did not return. She pasted the night alone and inconsolable. At daybreak she roused the house, and began to search for him. He had wandered too far. and had got bushed within 300 yards ofthe house.

A foreign Princess is now singing at a London music hall. The District Court will sit at Palmerston to-morrow. Mr A. McCrae, a Christchurch merchant who was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy, has been acquitted. E. Dixon, was brought up in Wanganui and remanded for seven days, for medical examination as te his sanity. A Masonic Lodge, named St. Mark's, E.C., has been established at Masterton, Wairarapa. The Countess of Dudley has a coronet of pear-shaped pearls, and her whole collection of pearls exceeds that of the Queen in value, and is said to be the costliest on record. A parcel of knives and other table furniture was lost on the Race Course on the day of the races. An advertisement appeared in the Stab on Saturday last, intimating the loss, and on Monday morning the articles frere handed into the Stab office. Mr Chamberlain left Feilding by the mid-day train to-day en route for Sydney, where he intends to spend the^winter, in accordance with medical advice. He will be followed by the good wishes of many that he may greatly enjoy the change and return with much improved health. The London Echo has the following : — " Some lime back a story went the rounds o£ the papers that Noah's Ark had beea discovered on Mount Ararat. Tiiis tale was said to bave been copied from the Levant He r a.d. a defunct paper. It now appears that it was the concoction of an aoonymous writer in a New Zealand paper, who mukes merry over a hoax which has gone all round the world." The yarn was an old one, and originally appeared in a> San Francisco paper about 1869. Speaking at a meeting in Peterborough the Dean of Peterborough said he pleaded for lhe use of wine and beer as innocent enjoyments aad healthy slimulents. Local option meant the deprivation of a large I number of honest, hard-working and res- J pectable mea of lawful enjoyment, , because a number of otber men had no , self restraint. It might mean that the rich, who could afford cellars, mi.nht drink ' as much as they liked, but that the poor ( man might not have a glass of beer. In our advertising columns appears an adverlisemeat annouaciotj the sale by auction of the landed estate of John Whitcomhe, Esq., ia the Manchester Block, by Messrs Halcombe and Sherwill, on Saturday, May 3rd. This estate bas a frontage of 50 chains on the Kimbolton road, is well watered, and has plenty of timber sivtable for sawmilhog. A great portion is cleared and laid down in English grass. The cottage is fourroomed, and the outhouses are commodious and sub.staotial. The whole of the land is well fenced, and sub-divided into , five paddocks. There are also sixty head of cattle, which caa be taken at a valuation. Without exception this is one of the best properties in the whole district, ■ and will prove an almost invaluable acquisition to the purchaser. Mr Whitcombe is only selling because it is imperative he should return lo Englaud. We are glad to hear that the sufferers from the coach accident near Sandon on Friday night last are progressing favorably. It now appears that all were more or less injured. It was Mrs Hawkins who was injured in the elbow, and not Mrs J. D. Lightbourne, as previously stated. We may mention that the wife of Dr Lightbourne, reported by the Advocate to have been one of the injured, was not among the company at all. Great credit is due to the prompt action and kind attention of Mr R. Port, near whose house the accident happened, Mr Henry Sanson, who brought his buggy and conveyed the wounded ladies into Sandon, Mr G. Williams, and Mrs Williams, by whom every attention was paid to the sufferers, to Mr Daw, and the members of the Feilding Band, and numbers of others who rendered valuable assistance. Mr Parr is of over course the greatest sufferer, as having sustained a compound fracture of a leg he must be some time before he is able to resume his business, which will be a great loss to him.