Local and General News

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 110, 25 February 1886, Page 2

Local and General News

The English mail via San Francisco will close to-morrow afternoon. During harvesting operations the weekly parades of the Manchester Rifles will be dispensed with. Our reports of the Assessment Court, Licensing Committee meeting, and R.M. j Court, held at Halcombe this morning, ] will appear on Saturday. Messrs Stevens and Gorton's market sale was hold this afternoon. The attendance was very good. A full report will appear in our next issue. We understand that a Christy Minstrel entertainment will shortly be held in aid I of the Church of England Bazaar Fund. Further particulars will be published in a few days, Hop picking is now in full swing at Awahuri. It is estimated that the crop will be heavier this season than it has been since this industry was established in the district. Mr A. D. Willis, of Wanganui, has secured the contract for supplying calendars for one of the largest insurance companies in the colony. This work has hitherto been done in London. We are informed that an officer in the telegraphic department, now stationed in this district, has fallen into a considerable fortune through the death of Earl Cairns, to whom he was related. To-night at Awahuri in the school, the Charing Cross Amateur Christy Minstrells will give an entertainment. We understand that the proceeds will be devoted to a charitable object. The band will consist of two violins, two cornets, and piano. An auctioneer in Adelaide the other day not being able to dispose of any laud or other properties he had for sale, finally offered a £1 note to be sold to the highest bidder. The bidding commenced at los, and eventually the note was knocked down for 19s. The work of shifting the engines, and preparing a suitable. building to contain the working sawmill plant for Messrs P. and J. Bartholomew's mill, is proceeding with all duo speed. We will be glad when the mill is in fnll working order as it will give a great impetus to business of all kinds in Feilding. Mr J. Manson, who already owns a large block of land in the Manchester Block, has purchased a second one containing nearly 7000 acres. We are informed that tenders for bushfelling will be invited at an early date as the land is to be brought under cultivation as soon as possible. Another gontleman purchased several thousand acres from the E. & C.A. Corporation, a tow days ago. Weather permitting, the Foilding Brass Band will play the following programme on the Square, on Saturday evening next, the 27th inst. : — 1. Quick March — "A. I." 2. Valse — "Fairy Voices." 3. Polka— " Sylph." 4. Lancers — " Excelenza. " 5. Overture — "Symphoma." 6. Schottische — "Witchery." "7. Varsoviaua — " Miranda." 8. Glee — " Of a' the airts the wind can blaw." National Anthem. — Sam. Daw, Bandmaster. The Auckland Star says : "We believe the Government have resolved to submit next session a tax on baulk timber exported from the colony. This step is recommended in the interests of local labour, it being believed thai the demand for kauri m Australia will not be interfered with, while the tax will compel the sawing of the timber m the colony, " This tax is not likely to be accepted by the House. " Puff," in the Evening Press, writes --Frozen meat going up ! Yes, s£d per lb will pay very well, if it can only be maintained ! The New Zealand farmers are not going to have such a bad time of it this year after all ! No, they're going to have a pretty good time, if they'll only live low and manage their business in a business like way ! Keep out of the hands of the money lenders and watch the markets ! That's the idea sonny ! On Tuesday last a public trial was made of a new fire extinguisher of which j Mr Dryden is the travelling agent. A large packing case was prepared by being filled with •wood shavings saturated with kerosene oil. When ignited this beeaine ■ a mass of roaring flame, which, shot up to J a height of about fifteen feet. A grenade of the extinguisher was thrown in which on breaking, caused the flames to dis- [ appear as if by magic. This experiment I proved that these grenades are almost iv- . valuable as enemies to fire. Their price ' is very low placing them within the meaus ef everj'body. For further information on the subject we refer our readers to the advertisment which appears to-day in our Wanted column. A writer in the Southland Weekly Times says: — "I got a wrinkle the other day from an Old Identity who is deeply in^. j forested in the welfare of the colony. He told me that he had clearly foreseen the beginning of the present dull times but that he did not so clearly foresee the I end of them. For months and months he I has been peering into the future, strain- ; ing, so to speak, his prophetic eye, but ' ' nothing can he porceivo save one limitless expanse of depression. He has no groat ■ faith in a ten million loan, or a prohibitive tariff. Men only sink the deeper , when they begin to borrow to save them- j selves, and what doos Protection mean ' but living on our own fat, which is a pretty sure way to grow lean. What . then would you have people- do, I asked. Well, I'll teil you, lie answered; offer the public creditor 9<l in the pound (the ' average yk>l<l of New Zealand bankrupt estates), and suspend your Pariiaraentry Government for at least ten years. _ If that floes not answer you may then sink the colony under water. And so saying j he turned on his heols^nnd walked off with the air of a Sir Oracle." i-*

We learn that steps are boing taken to form a Caledonian Society in Palmerston. The promoters intend holding a meeting shortly when the necessary preliminaries will be decided and the date of holding the first Caledonian gathering will be fixed. The Palmerston stock sale to bo held by Messrs Stevens and Gorton on ThursdayMarch 4th is advertised to-day. Among other items we observe 500 Romnev lambs in wool, 10 Lincoln rams and s' > pure bred Roinney rams, raised by three of the best breeders in the colony. The necessity for keeping yards and closels clean at the present season of the year must he apparent to every sensible person. There are, however, a good many who are neglecting the most simple laws of health in this respect, and these are warned that the Inspector of Nuis» ances will take proceedings against all offenders brought under his notice. Konini, or wild fuchsia posts, are likely to be much in demand in the future in places where there is any danger of fires. It has been noticed that where pine or the ether woods uuwally used in Taranaki for fenciti? have been subjected to the action of fire, the pines have been entirely burnt away while the fuchsia has simply been scorched It appears that the latter wood has great fire resisting properties, and in wire fences where other timber has been totally destroyed the tuchiia has not even been so badly charred as to have the staples loosened. — Budget. The Government sale of small grazing runs in the Wanganui up-river district, comprising some 84,000 acres, which took place at the Masonic Hall yesterday, must be pronounced a failure. Mr Marchant, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, came up from Wellington to conduct the sale, but all the response he could get from the persons in attendance at the sale was two bids — one for a section of 214 acres in the Parapara block, and the other for a 900-acre section in the Tokomaru. Both, were taken at the upset price of sixpence per acre.