Local and General News

Feilding Star, Issue 155, 31 July 1888, Page 2

Local and General News

* We will be obliged if subscribers to the paper will pay th6ir accounts to the runners without further solicitations. Advertise! s ere a! so requested to send in their cheques. The Borough Council will meet on Thursday night. The ship Pleione has been launched off the Waikanae beach. The Manchester Road Board will meet next Saturday afternoon. A lot of Chinamen were arrested in Wellington on Saturday charged with playing " fan-tan." The accused were brought up on Monday and dismissed. Sheep stealing is hinted at as being-' prevalent up the coast. Swaggers are suspected of killing them for food. We regret to learn that Mr Richard Hammond, of York Farm, is now lying dangerously ill, and no hopes are entertained of his recovery. A prisoner named Collins, or Simmons, bolted from Wanganui gaol on Saturday morning:, After a short run of an hour his capture was effected. The Coptic, which left Hobart for New Zealand on Saturday, has 94 passengers and among them are Lord and Lady Alfred Churchill. The man we want to see is Lord Randolph. The Government architect of Tasmania was severely caned in Hobart recently by a Mrs Webb, at whose house he had been a family visitor. No explanation was necessary. He knew what was the matter. The Wesleyan Conference in London has passed a resolution recognising the services of the pioneers of Wesleyauism in New Zealand. Several prominent representatives highly eulogised then: labours. The Syndicate which has purchased the kauri forests and mill properties in Auckland, will prove a * sweet boon" to tho "local bank." Many an overdraft hitherto looked upon as "very dickey," will have now become an "available asset." A Feilding man, who claims to have saved from drowning the late " Tommy Noon" (Kelly) who was hanged for murder in Nelson some years ago, is wondering whether the Humane Society would give him a medal if he applied for it. We have some doubts on the subject. Cobbe and Darragh, of the Cash Exchange, Feilding, have taken a step which ought to commend itself to all cash buyers of drapery, they have resolved that tney will in future allow a discount of 5 per cent, for prompt cash off all drapery parcels amounting to more than £1. These exceedingly liberal terms, coupled with the well-known low prices prevailing at the Cash Exchange, should have the effect of keeping in the district a good deal of money which now goes to Wellington and elsewhere. A gentleman in Manchester street found his domicile was infested with rats. He declared war. "Rough on rats," gins, and " dodges" were freely used with good, but only temporary, effect. Poison hidden artfully in tempting morsels, was was left untouched, and as for traps they were scornfully passed by on the other side. Careful examination discoyered that a regular track was worn by the ingenious rodents between two points, and in this track was laid a trap, on which a bait was placed that would tempt the most venerable grey beard to sin. So it did. In the morning when the trap was scrutinised, the sweet morsel had disappeared. It was then discovered that a piece of wood had been brought from some distance, carefully laid across the jaws of the trap, and used as a platform from which the bait had been pulled off in perfect safety as pressure was required to release the spring. This is a fact. A London broker, in a letter to the London agents of a well known Wellingtoo firm gives some very sound advice to butter makers, which should be useful t<» producers of this staple. He says that butter should not arrive m the English market before tbe middle of October, nor later than the end of March, and then nothing but the very best quality should be packed ; should be sent in a refrigerator, or cool chamber, the extra cost of freight beiug more than repaid. The packages most in favor are small kegs of white wood, with four galvanised iron hoops (plain iron hoops get rusty, and spoil the appearance of the package) aud square enamelled boxes holding about 401 b net, with lids screwed on. In each case uniform tares are desirable. The kegs should be perfectly ail-Might, and filled up with brine. Uniformity of quality under one brand is a most essential feature, %« now, when buyers come to inspect the butiers, they are often obliged to waste a lot of time in examining so many packages, and frequently reject the parcel on account of irregularity. If care be taken to fill all these requirements, a large increase of business may be looked for. -Taranaki Herald. A Losing Joke.— A prominent physic » ian of Pittsburg said jokingly to a lady patient who whs complaining of her con tinued ill-health, and of his inability to cure her, "Try Dr Soule's American Hop Bitters!" The lady took it in earnest, anrt used the Bitters, from which she obtained permnnent health. She now laughs at the doctor for his joke, but he is not so well ple/ised with it. as it cost him a good patient. — Harriuburg Patriot.

Sir Julius Yogel will not return to this colon}' until the beginning of next year. There have been heavy falls of ram and snow in Ofcago. Sydennam Taylor wants an income tax. What most, people want is the incoms. Lady Dudley, says a current item, sleeps in black silk sheets. They don't show the dirt. Mr John Notman has been appointed the Supreme Court receiver in tho Ohurton estate. The football match, Otago v. Native team, resulted in a win for the former by eight points to nil. Simmons, who escaped from the Wanganui gaol iast Saturday, was (says the Herald; sentenced to be kept in irons in a close cell tor thirty days. There was a very handsome four-decker wedding cake on view this morning in Mr Pollock's window. The " wedding bells" will ring out early next week. The Herald says that at the annual meeting of the Wanganui Jockey Club to be held to-morrow, the question of appointing a paid starter will be considered. The first line of railway in what is called the Holy Land — which is to be constructed by a Belgian company, under a concession from the Sultan — will run from Jerusalem to Jaffa. This will break the tapu and take the mana from the land. Dr Tanner, the famous faster, proposes to establish a foundling institution, and expects to rear good children, as well a*s long lived ones, by feeding them on one meal a day, of a light vegetable diet. His ranch in New Mexico he expects to make the place of the experiments. We have to report a few sporadic cases of " skating rink," but we are happy to say there is no liklihood of the disease becoming epidemic owing to the absence of a building suitable for its development. The cases referred to have been properly " isolated" at the barracks. The London correspondent of the Dunedin Star says : — At the half-yearly meeting of the P. and O. Company, the chairman, in the course of an interesting speech r intimated that they expected shortly to carry the mails between Brin- . disi and Adelaide m about twenty- live "and a-half days, or just a week under the new contract time of thirty-two and ahalf days. Messrs Caird and Co. were building two new vessels of the same class and size as the Victoria, which would be named Peninsular and Oriental, and used in the Indian service mainly. An indignant churchman, signing himself " Ishmael," has been expressing hia virtuous wrath in the columns of. the Feilding Star with reference to the singing of two slangy comic songs at a church social held recently in the Manawatu township. His letter concludes with the following Pecksniffian sentence: — "I would have you know, Sir, that there are yet left in Feilding a chosen few who have not yet bowed to the Baal of Vulgarity and Low Taste." "Ishmael" should have been a member of St. Andrews', Spit, during the Freeland regime. " Ri tooral h ooral li additty," as trolled forth by the harmonious H.J.F., would have simply made " Ishmael's" hair stand on end.— Napier News. The quarterly meeting of the Wanganui district of Oddfellows, M.U., was held on Friday night, P.G.M. Bro. T, W. Ferry in the chair, and D.G.M. Bro- W. Laurie in the vice*ehair. The delegates present were :— Wanganui Lodge: P.P. G.M. Bro. Bamber, P.G.M. Bro. F- M. Spurdle, ana P.G.M. Bro. E. Hollow. Manawatu Lodge: P.P.GM. Bro. W. T. Wood, and P \ G. Br<>. Relf. The Fordel and Manchester Lodges were not represented. The balance-sheets of the various Lodges, showing them to be in a most satisfactory position, were handed in and examined. At the- conclusion of the ordinary business P.P-G.M. Bro. J. Wright (of Feilding) was made the recipient ota handsome gold albert, as an acknowledgment of his services for a number of years as District Secretary. The next quarterly meeting is to be held at Palmerston on the fourth Friday in October. — Chronicle. New York is the first American State I to substitute death by electricity for hanging. The Governor has signed the j Bill passed by the Legislature, making the change after January Ist next, to apply to all crimes committed on and after that date. The Bill provides that a prisoner sentenced to death is to be immediately conveyed by the Sheriff to one of the State prisons, and there kept in solitary confinement until the day of execution. He is to be visited only by the officers, or by his relatives, physician, clergyman, or counsel. The Court imposing the sentence is to name merely the week within which the execution is to take place, the particular day within such week being left to the discretion of the principal officer of the prison. The execution is required to be practically private, only the officials, clergymen, physicians, and a limited number of citizens being allowed to b« present. These provisions completely abolish the present practice of allowing capital criminals to be visited by the public, to be interviewed by reporters, and to be finally hanged in a semi-public manner. Messrs G. Thomas and Co., the oldest auctioneering firm in Wellington, evidently do not intend to be left behind by the other leading auctioneers of tbe city in the general desire which at present seems to prevail among them to extend their bueiuess premises. Dunng the last few days they have completed arrangements for the purchase of the site in Panama street formerly occupied by Messrs T. K. Macdonald and Co.'s Exchange and Mercantile Auction Rooms, which were burnt down in the great fire last year. The site is immediately opposite Messrs Thomas and Co."s present sale rooms, which are not to be given up, but will in future be used for auction sales of fruit and produce. On the new site a mart of imposing dimensions is to be erected, the great sale-room on the ground floor haying an area of 85ft by 30ft, with suitable offices in connection with it. Here the firm will hold their property and other important sales. The new building is to be commenced in a few days. — Post.