Local and General News

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 84, 3 January 1888, Page 2

Local and General News

Mr G-. H. Say well advertises for an apprentice for the coachbuilding, " Bail me out," said an inebriate as he stood in the station the other evening. " Well," said a bystander, " you had better wait till morning, for in your present condition you couldn't be pumped out, much less bailed." A serious fracas occurred among Mrs Langtry's theatrical company at Quebec on November 7, in which Maurice Barry, an English actor and a leading man, received a kick on the leg that will lame him for life. The editor of the Leader, Corvallis, Oregon, is to be hung for murder. The event should be celebrated by the profession. He is the first editor hung thai we remember. It is going to grent lengths to furnish an item for his paper. The post and telegraph department of this oolony employs 2044 persons. The number of miles of telegraph line is 4546 The revenue of the department is £306,460 ; the expenditure L 292.292. and the profit L 14.167 omitting shillings and pence. Yesterday Feildmg was almost deserted as everybody who could get away by tram to the Palnaerston Sports ; or by tram and trap to the Rangitikei Races ; or by vehicle, on horsel ack, or on foot to the back country for picnics, had cleared out to thoroughly enjoy themselves. A few unfortunates were left behind to look after the Borongh, but the sadness and gloom depicted on their melancholly countenances showed their stay was only under compulsion. Very odd, indeed are the signs and tokens of well- bred folk, according to some critics. Mr Kuskin once said that the line of demarcation was fixed by "the onion," a vegetable the existence of which respectable people ignore, save perchance when it is suggested in a salad ; but a quainter criticism was that of a certain Irish barrister, who is said to have defined a gentleman as " a man wbo ate jam with his mutton." Answkb this. — Did you ever know any person to be ill, without inaction of the stomach, liver or kidneys, or did you ever knew one who was well when either was obstructed or inactive P and did you ever know or hear of any case of the kind that Dr Soule's American Hop Bitters would not core? Ask your neighbor this same question. — Times. An elopement is reported from Wairarapa. The wife of a well to-do farmer and the mother of fifteen children went off with a shearer, taking one child, a blind girl, eight years old. The husband instructed the police to obtain and return the daughter. This was affected yesier day junt as the couple were on the point of leaving by the Wakatipu for the South. On Saturday afternoon, when some members of the Manchester Rifles, in the charge of Sergeant Evans, were practising at the butts, the sergeant had an unpleasant experience. The latter was firing at the three hundred yards range when the cartridge exploded backwards, blowing open the breechlock. The powder was driven into Sergeant Evans' face, and into the face of the man lying down beside him on the left. Of course the cartndge was one of Kynock's. The mean man who would rob a church has found his way to Hawera, according to the Hawera Star. A lady recently'put one shilling into Dr Barnadd's poor box at the Anglican Church, the subscriptions to be devoted to providing penny dinners for poor boys. She was present a day or two later when it warn opened, and it was found to contain only one sixpence and three-penny bit. The lady giver naturally wonders whether some thirsty thief finds the subscription box a frequent friend in need. Science and humanity do not always go together; an original remark, confirmed hy the fact that a young "Roman Catholic priest has not only been recently created a lieutenant in the French army in recognition of his "valuable discoveries in the production of a powerful explosive for war purposes," but now claims to have rediscovered the art of making Greek fire, lost about 650 years ago, when gunpowder took its place. Thin eotnpound «o»sists of nnphttia and two , other ingredients,, and its destructive > power i« declared to be marvel 'on*, 't [corrodes t»n, aad dissolve* it ; water instead of extinguishing it,3n<jrciisef« itade- • siructive.powew.

The hilarity in Feiiding on New Year's Eve was of a very mild description. The Feiiding Brass Band lent its valuable aid to rnnke things cheerful, and appeared to succeed very well. There was no rowdyism of any kind, and everybody appeared to be even painfully sober although, the hotels did a' splendid business there being plenty of money flying about. In the far West of New South Wales, says a contemporary, rabbiting seems to be a rabbit road to wealth. The bonus paid per scalp ranges from 3d to Is, and and the men earn from £3 to £10 per week at the game. The rabbiters grow rich as the squatters grow poor. It is a common experience to meet a rabbiter driving to his work in his own buggy and pair. In fact, the most of the folk in that part are rabbiters. At Wilcanoia recently, a rabbiter entered an hotel and called for a sixpenny drink. In liquidation thereof he planked down a cheque for £1,070 odd, and demanded the change. The man also gave the most gorgeous champagne supper Wilcannia has witnessed this season. Many men in New South Wales thus bless the rabbit as heartily as hundreds curse it.