Local & General News.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 23, 7 August 1884, Page 2

Local & General News.

The new House of Representatives contains six journalists and nine lawyers. Tenders are invited in our advertising columns by the Feilding Borough Council for lighting the street lamps. We are glad to see Mr Downes back from his tour to Fiji. He certainly looks all the better for his trip. We are informed that Mr Thomas Fraser has sold 460 acres of land near Awahuri for £4000. The purchaser is about to build and permanently settle on it. Mr David Murray, ironfounder, Ac, of Wanganui, has received the oider to supply the machinery and plant for the Palmerston Cheese and Butter Factory. Tbe work could not be placed in betler hands.

I A man named James Barlow, recently ! ■ arrived from Home, was killed by being , thrown from a horse on the Onehunga road, Auckland, on Tuesday night. , Is it likely the new House of Representatives will impose a proper land tax P ! There are 27 members who each own an average of over 5,000 acres of land. Nine years in prison for blasphemy is the sentence meted <>ut recently to a poor patient in a Vienna hospital, who trampled on a crueific aud cursed tho hospital authorities. ' A company has been formed in Wellington by the amalgamation of three ' mercantile firms — Messrs Smith and Wilson, Messrs Zohrab and Co., and | i Messrs D ran s field and Co. The company i thus formed is to be called the United | Importers' Company of Wellington, and j its capital is i"SO,iKJO. | It is estimated in Milwaukee that the I wheat crop of the next harvest will be I about 505,800,000 bushel*, which is 50 millions above the average of the last five years. Spring wheat is especially promising. The congress on the proposed reform of the French constitution met at Versailles on Monday. The proceedings were of a very disorderly nature ; several scenes of tumult arose, and the congress had finally to be suspended. Messrs Halcombe and Sherwill's stock saie yesterday was well attended, and everything ofEercd, except horses, passed off at upward rates. The poultry of Mr Retemeyer, offered at the auction rooms after the sale, were all sold at fairly remunerative prices. Last night's Herald says :— The Feilding Star has evidently been misinformed when it states that Mr Ward, R.M . is seriously ill. That gentleman, we arc glad to say, so far from beins* indisposed, was yesterday attending to his duties as Resident Magistrate in Wanganui. An advertisement from Mr John Taylor, shoer and general blacksmith, appears elsewhere. He has recently opened his new establishment, nearly opposite the state school in Manchester street, and intends to do his best to have a fair share of patronage, and to please all customers. The first instalment of the contemplated mprov etnents in Manchester street were commenced this week by the approaches to the Reading Room and the Bank of Australasia, including the whole of one side of the road between these two places, being metalled, as well as the metalling of the footpath completed. This work was much needed, and will be a great convenience to many. Persons who are tendering for con* racts should be careful how they make bets, especially within hearing of other intending tenderers. Some tenders were invited by the Borough Council last week for certain work, and one of the applicants bet that it would not be done under 12s per acre. The Council let the work at lis llfd, and the bet was lost. The advantages of breeding from polled rams are summed up by a Missouri sheep breeder, after a nine years' trial, thus: — " The animals fight less, aro never flyblown around the horns, are more conveniently sheared, and, what is of most importance, keep easier and grow larger." If this be true, the sooner horns are dispensed with the better. If they keep easier it must be accounted for on the grounds they are more peaceable and quiet. There appears to bo in this district too wide a separation at the present time between the vendors and the bidders for horseflesh as regards prices. At the last two cattle sales held in Feilding a good number of horses were offered bnt very few sold, as the reserves put upon them were either utterly prohibitory, or the highest bids wero ridiculously too low. There will have to he a little " budging " on both sides before many transfers are effected. Fireworks appear to he the order of the day, or rather of the night, in Feilding just now, and it is common to see rockets going up in various parts of the town afler dark. We would caution persons letting them off to keep far enough away from public thoroughfares in doing so, as there is a certain amount of danger connected with the falling sticks, and, as we have said before, in no case must any fireworks be discharged in a public street. The Wellington and Manawatu Bailway Company received a consignment of •* plaut" by tbe s.s. Coptic. The principal feature of it is a Priestman's dredge, described in the Post some months ago when it was ordered. This is intended to be used in draining a large swamp of 14,000 or 15,000 acres in the neighborhood of the Manawatu River. The punts in connection with it have been built in the locality where they will be required. The Coptic also brings out a large number of rails and a quantity of iron castings, such as wheels, hinges, clamps, Ac, to be used in the munufactureef goods waggon*.— Post. Ons of the most urgent cases of need which ever called for the charitable consideration of tho people of. Feilding is that of the unfortunate' man Wells and his family, with whose distressing cir. cumstanees most of our readers are already familiar The Borough Council is all wing them a slight temporary assistance, but this, of course, is much too inadequate to meet all the necessities of the case. As will be seen, a concert in aid of the family is to be given in the Fublic Hall on the 15th instant. Some of the best talent in the district has been engaged, nad the affair promises to be a big success. The object is indeed a worthy one, and should command a large sale of tickets und a crowded house.

Wild dogs are becoming a dangerous nuisance in the Wairarapa valley, near Wellington, and steps are being taken to destroy them. Mr Thotna-i Kelly's failure to secure re-election foi- New Plymouth will render vacant the office of Chairman of the : Public Petitions Committee, an office Mr Kelly h: s filled in the House of Representatives for many years past. There is a salary of £100 (in addition to the honorarium) attached to the office. I It is not altogether to be regretted that a change should take place, for Mr Kelly, , though conscientious and painstaking, had got into a groove, and anything like a fair hearing of a case was practically out of the question under his regime. A Wellington paper says :— The Taueru alleged child murder case presents some curious features. The principal evidence on which lhe accused was committed for trial was that of Dr Beard, who deposed that when the child was dug out of the closet it had a deep clean cut extending from within an inch of the left ear horizontally across the mouth to the right cheek. The doctor says, in his opinion this cut was done before death, and was the cause of death. A young man named Ole Anderson, a brother of the accused, deposed that at the request of the doctor he dug up the body, and he believes that he inflicted the cut described with the sharp edge of the spade. It is not unlikely that the case, when it comes to trial, may turn on this point. The Post says : — During the l«st few days there has been a slight revival of interest in the Terawhiti goldfield, and enquiries havo bet-n made for Golden Crown .shares, some parcels of which have changed hands, but holders generally aro not inclined to sell. So far as | we can ascertain there ib nothing what- | ever to justify any excitement, but the indications recently met with in the lower drive are regarded as encouraging. This drive is 270 feet below the old workings and as now reached a position immediately below where the reef was met with in them From the lay of the strata it is expected that the lower tunnel, already in nearly 80") feet, will cut the reef, if there is one, in about another 160 feet. Already several small leaders have been intersected.