Local and General News

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 101, 4 February 1886, Page 2

Local and General News

The Borough Council will meet this evening. Press of advertisements to-day compels us to hold over a quantity of interesting reading matter. I Mr Remington Jones, of Taonui, is expected to return by the direct steamer Rimutaka in March next. We have to acknowledge receipt of the January number of the Industrial Gazette. , Even the most determined economist seldom demands a discount off his grog score. i Mr W. Godfrey, of Beaconsfield, will ; probably visit England during the current year. He will be absent about five months. At the next sittings of the R.M. Court a Borough Councillor will appear as defendant for allowing his chimney to take fire. Tenders are called for the purchase of eight acres ef standing oats, en Mr llughey's late property, for particulars apply to Halcombe and Sherwill. Charles Swift, of Dubuque, attempted to burglarize his own house to secure 500 , dollars his wife bad laid away, and she put two bullets into hun with neatness and despatch. The Government Insurance Association have, it is understood, cancelled the proposal for a valuer for the whole of the colony, and consequently no appointment will be made from the applications sent in. i We are pleased to learn that our article j on " Carnage Lamps" has had the desired effect. One offender will be sued next court day, and all others failing to have properly lighted lamps affixed to their vehicles at night, will be prosecuted. Tenders are invited to-day by Messrs Halcombe and Sherwill for the purchase of that desirable property known as Menzie's, about four miles from Feilding. The land is of splendid quality, and is most conveniently situated. We regret to learn that the Auckland Butter Factory have found it necessary to stop operations in this district, and Mr Cummins, of Wanganui, has sent post cards to vendors to that effect. The reason assigned is the sudden fall of prices in Sydney. There are eight Justices of the Peace in Palmerston. They have formed a rota by which two of them are in attendance in the mornings of five days in each week. We would like to see a similar rota formed by the Feilding Justices. On Monday next Messrs J. H. Bethune and Co., auctioneers, Wellington, will sell at their auction rooms, Featherston street, a number ot valuable actions of land in Palmerston and Feilding. All of these are well situated ia the centres of both townships. The members of the Juno Company, which will play here on Saturday next, are very well spoken of by the Napier papers. The Napier News says :— ' * They ought to be well patronised, as it is very seldom so good a dramatic company makes a call at inland towns.'.' Messrs Bailey Bros, invite tenders for the supply of logs to the Taonui Sawmill for a period of twelve months. Separate tenders will also be received for delivery of totnra logs on railway trucks at the Taonui siding. Intending tenderers are notified that the specifications may be seen at the mill, Taonui. The good people of Feilding will have no lack of amusement for the rest of this week. To-night Dr Gilbert will lecture in the Foresters' Hall on " Heads and Faces," and to-morrow night on " Love, Courtship, and Marriage." On Saturday night, in the Public Hall, the Juno Company will play "East Lynne," to be followed by a farce, entitled " Barney's Luck." Yesterday afternoon Feilding had a strange visitor from the sea. A large gull "came in from the west," and alighted in the Corporation paddock, where it rambled about for a time " laying in stores," among the horses and dogs, utterly indifferent apparently to the novelty of its position. The weatherwise prophesied "foul weather" from seeing this bird so far inland. Dr Gilbert will lecture in the Foresters' Hall this evening on "Heads and Faces," when admission will be free. To-morrow evening he will give his instructive and amusing lecture on "Love, Courtship, and Marriage," which is said by the press to be his best effort. The Wanganui papers have commented favorably on the skill and taste of the lecturer, and we have no doubt the Hall will be densely packed on both evenings. The particulars of a curious wager, of a class which should scarcely bring down glory on the heads of anyone connected with it, are supplied by the Goulburn correspondent of the Sydney Globe. It appears that one day last week a Goulburn resident backed himself to drink a bottle of Old Tom in a minute and a half. He did it, and fell down senseless immediately, and never woke for over twelve hours, during which time it was feared that he would expire. A doctor was called in, but he could do nothing until the man awoke. Many people in all parts ot the colony will regret to hear that the illness of Mr Justice Johnston is of such a nature that his return to the Bench is very unlikely. Already there is speculation in Wellington as to who is to be his successor, and, on the principle that the " wish is father to i the thought," Mr Travers is a hot favor- ; lte. We believe, however, that the colony iat large. — Marlborough Express. (Mr • Travers has written to the Wellington Post saying this is entirely without foundation.) At a meeting of the parishioners of St | James' Church, Lower Hutt, on Tuesday night, called ostensibly ior the purpose of , considering the finances of the parish, but in reality to call upon the Rev. Mr Cross, incumbent, to resign, the latter being in the chair, refused to put the resolution calling upon him to resign as being out of order. He also refused to put a modified resolution, as he had no intention to resign. The meeting broke up without any result. j The following delightful sketch of the residence of a teacher in the Greymouth district on the West Coast is given in a recent inspectorial report : — "The teacher was living in a hut m the immediate vicinity of the school. The hut was purchased by him for £1, and he has expended upon it the sum of £2 10s in {)rocuring tongued-and-groved timber for inmg. The necessary labor was performed by himself. He has also made a very good swing for the children, and an easel for the school. As he has shown a disposition to make the best of the circumstances, I beg to recomm< nd that the commissioners refund the sum of £3 10s j expended by him on the hut. If a new • school is built, the hut will be handy as a fowl-house."

The sawmill owners of New South Wales intend urging on the Government the absolute necessity for increasing the duty on foreign timber, as at present they are working at a loss. The 400 mills in the colony employ about 10,000 men. Last night's Herald says — It is rumoured m town that there is a probability of Mr E. Wakefield, M.H.R.. running for Waitotara at the general election. This is not at all unlooked for, several of the Waitotara electors having an idea that this was his object in visiting Wanganui. Mr Larcomb, says the Palmerston Standard, informs us that Messrs Aiunro Bros, tender (£600), has been accepted for the erection of Mr S. Leary's premises, also that of Messrs Powell and Daniels (£23.,) for additions to the old printing office in Main- street, lately purchased by Mr McNeil. Since Mr Halcembe took persession of the property recently purchased by him in New Plymouth he has net been idle. Ond hundred acres are now under the plough with six teams going, and ten acres have already been laid down for winter feed. The timber for oat houses, dairy, _cc., is now on tbe ground. This is the sort of farming that pays. At a meeting of the Star Boating Club of Wellington a resolution to the effect that it is desirable to define " amateur" as one who had not rowed for- money himself nor made any pecuniary profit from prize meney, was carried. It was also decided to ask the clubs in other parts of the colony to accept the resolution. A meeting of influential friends and supporters of Mr Bryce was held at F R. Jackson and Co.'s rooms yesterday afternoon, to consider the course to be parsued in the event ef a dissolution taking place shortlp. After a general conversation on the prospects of an early dissolution, the following resolution was carried : — ** That baring evidence that in tbe event of a dissolution of the House of Assembly, Mr Bryce will contest the Waitotara seat, this meeting pledges itself to snpport him against all candidates." — Chronicle. At their last meeting the Foxton School Committee resolved :— *• That the committee having considered the Board's committee report and consider that it shows a strong bias against the school." Dr Roch strew and Mr Baker voted against the resolution. "That a sabcommittee consisting of Messrs Robinson Purcell and the mover be appointed to lay a statement of the correspondence between the board and the Committee before Minister of Education." Dr Rockstrow and Mr Baker also voted against this resolution, and subsequently re» signed their seats. Sir Patrick O'Brien, we read, wtiu always a gentleman, sometimes audacious, often rollicking, yet never offensive, and always ready with a most ample apology, except to the Parnellitefc. A few nights before the House rose last autumn, he had a fearful encounter with one of the Redmonds in the smoking-room. He chaffed the young man beyond endurance, tillatlast Mr Redmond said — Sir Patrick, do you desire to provoke n duel?" Te which the gallant baronet replied : "lam an old man and duelling is not in my line, except with gentlemen ; if it had been otherwise, there would not have been one of you Parnelfite vipers left to soil the House of Commons." This is what the Auckland Watchthinks about it : — " The Parliament of the aristocracy, the representative of Land rings, Bank rings, and other gigantic and grasping monopolies, meets periodically in Wellington with great pomp and pageantry at the people's tfXpense, and its haughty members are not ashamed te pocket their snug little honorariums, in addlition to the f-r more substantial pay of political shuffling, chicanery, and log rolling. Indeed their very first concern invariably appears to be to divide the fat billets of a well paid civil service, and all the other loaves and fikhes of pubhe patronage among those ruling families who have pitchforked them into power for the purpose, and whose tools and humble servants they naturally are." This is hard to beat. The Sydney Globe says-— This is Mr Parnell's view of the situation expressed by his Major-domo, Mr O'Connor : — " A solid phalanx of eighty six pledged Nationalists in the centre of the Honse ef Commons is the governing fact of the situation. The Liberals may go in, the Tories may ceme out, but that makes no difference to us. We shall use both parties with a single eye to Ireland's well-being. We have a dennate purpose, a resolute leader, and a party as solid as a stone wall. We hold the fortunes of the Conservatives in the hollow of our hands. As for the Liberals — well, Mr Gladstone is enough of a statesman to wish to settle the Irish question." The programme is: — " Ireland like Canada. No Irish members in Imperial Parliament. No contributions for the imperial expenditure. No share in tbe National Debt. Ireland, in short, like Canada. That is my formula."