Local and General News

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 80, 15 December 1885, Page 2

Local and General News

The Manchester Rifles will parade this evening at the usual hour and place. The Bank of New Zealand has promised £50 towards establishing a school of mines at the Thames. On Sunday morning, a few minutes after seven o'clock, a severe and prolonged earthquake was felt hero. The tender of Mr F. Berry has been accepted for the additions to the school house at Taouui. The installation of P. Y. Lethbridge, Esq., the Mayor elect, will take place tomorrow, at noon, in the Borough Council Chambers. A saw mill was erected near London in the year 1633 ; it was afterwards demolished that it might not deprive the poor of employment. We have received the catalogue of thoroughbred yearlings, stud Hereford and Shorthorn bulls, &c, &c, from the New Zealand Stud and Pedegree Company, to be sold at the Company's farm, Auckland, on January 4, 1886. The Minister of Justice has i*sued a circular in which he explains that the power is in the hands of Justices to grant leave of absence to their brother magistrates for as long a period and as often as they wish. " Can dogs find their home from a <Hs« tance P" is a question frequently asked. A correspondent answers the query thus : — " It's according to the dog. If its one yeu want to get rid of, he can find his way back from California. If its a good one he's apt to get lost if he goes round the corner." To-day Mr A C. Bishop, of Poxton, announces that he is a cash buyer of wool in any quantity. In order to give greater facilities to vendors he informi them that immediately on receipt of a collect telegram or post card at his address he will wait upon them and purchase their wool at the highest market rates. The advertisement from the Railway Authorities intimates that an extra train will commence running on Thursday next, and each succeeding Thursday until further notice. It will leave Palmerston at 9*55 a.m. for Feilding, arriving at 10*45 a.m.. Leaving Feilding on the return journey at 3 p.m., arriving^in Palmerston at 3*45 p.m. The Feilding Brass Band will give a grand Musical and Dramatic entertainment in the Public Hall on Boxing night, December 26. The proceeds of the show will be in aid of the funds of the band. As the members of this band have always given their services gratuitously to the Eliding public, we hope the latter will respond liberally to the appeal made on this occasion. At a recent meeting of the Palmerston New Year Sports Committee, the following tenders were received for supplying music for the day : — Feilding Brass Band 20 players, £14, to include ball ; Makino Brass Band, 14 players, £6 for the day, and £4 10s extra for the ball; Palmerston Brass Band, £10 15s to include ball. After a deal of discussion it was resolved that the tender of the Palmerston Band be accepted providing the number of players be not less than twelve. — Times. In our Wanted Column, Mr Cottrell publishes to-day some very interesting items of information to his numerous customers. A perusal of these notices will prove, to even the most prejudiced, that Mr Cottrell is determined to sell his stock at the lowest rates ever offered in Feilding or any other township on the coast. The quality of the goods is undoubted and the prices paid for them in many instances far exceed those now asked. It is almost needless for us to remark that since the Clearing Sale commenced, tho shop has been crowded with eager purchasers. A house belonging to John Jones, a bushman, working at the Taonui saw mills, was burned down on Saturday night last. It appears that Jones, in the company of another man, started early in the morning on an eelfishing expedition. When Jones left, the fire on the hearth had been extinguished and everything left safe. In the evening, about dark, a neighbor discovered the house was in flames, which had such a hold that nothing could be done to save the household furniture and effects. Among the debris the remains of two watches and a clock was found, but everything was absolutely destroyed. It was in the height of the gale that our only parson came trembling on the bridge, and in faltering accents implored the captain to say if there was really any great danger. The captain took him forward to the forecastle companion and asked him to listen. The men were playing cards, and their language was not quite what you find in Sunday school books. "Do you think," said the captain, " that those men would be going on like that if there was any real danger ?" The parson was satisfied, but half an hour afterwards a figure was observed creeping anxiously forward again, and in a few moments was heard to exclaim, " Thank heaves, they are swearing still !" A girl named Susan Annie Biggan, residing with her parents at Epsom, has just died from the effect «f the sting of a bee. On the Ist of December the girl was stung by a bae while at school, and blood-poisoning at onco set in, from the effects of which she died within three days. This is rather an alarming occurance, coming bo soon after the death of a strong active yountg man at Bay of Islands from a similar cause. It is well known that at some seasons of the year New Zealand honey is poisonous because of the bees feeding upon tbe blossoms of a poisonous plant, and it would almost seem as though the virulent principle also affected the beet and rendered their stings dangerous. Those working among bees, and children who may encounter those lively insect* in the course of their rambles, should be very careful about setting stiing by them ; and it would also be well if some of our local scientists turned their attention to the subject.— Auckland Star. A shocking case of suicide (says the Sydney Morning Herald),occurred recently at the Qneentcliff Artillery Barracks. A young man named John Summartgill, 29 jean of ace. lately from Sydney, put the muzzle of his rifle to hit right ear and blew the top of bit head off, scattering the blood and brains over his sleeping companions. A magisterial inquiry was held the same afternoon, and a verdift wan returned to the effect that the deceased shot himself whilst of unsound mind. There <rai no evidence to show any cause leading to the ra*h act, at when he went to bed the previous night he was of the best spirits. He was a native ot Preston, Lancashire, and it supposed to have friends in Woollob. mooloo, Sydney, who lire requested to communicate with the officer oommanding the Battery. The deceased bore a good character with the officers, but wat noticed by hi? comrades to be of a melancholy and reterred diapositiwi. . ; '„..