Local and General News

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 156, 2 August 1888, Page 2

Local and General News

♦ We will be obliged if subscribers to the paper will pay their accounts to the runners without further solicitations. Advertisers are also requested to send m their cheques. The Auckland shipwrights are out on strike. Vincent Pyke's Otago Central Eailway Bill has been thrown out, The Borough Council will meet thiß evening. An illicit still has been seized at Menses' Ferry, near Wvadhain> Invwcargill.

The New Zealand Parliament is now passing through its paleolithic age. An article from Old Grumble on Church Socials, and Dead Languages in Parliament, will appear in our next issue. Some people want to know when an inspector of weights and measures will be a ppninted for Feilding. Mr H. Washbourn lectured in Woodville on Saturday last on "practical prospecting and mineralogy." Abundance of spurious florins are m circulation in Canterbury. They are the work of amateurs and therefore easily detected. At Aden the first of the new guns sent out for the fortifications has been mounted, but it is useless, as no ammunition or eights have heen supplied. Whitebait haye been caught lately m the Avon, at Chnstchurch. This is unusually early, and it is said to augut an exceedingly early spring. Dick Seddon has taken up the role of Champion for the Chinese. He considers the "fan -tan" players were harshly treated by being handcuffed when arrested. The London Times says : — " At this moment our most serious deficiencies are of a kind that cannot be rapidly supplied, no matter what efforts are made. England is a present practically without guns." The Post says:— Had it not been for the Manchester Corporation, the greater part of the fertile Manawatu district would probably have been still in a state of nature, and the Manawatu railway would not have existed or indeed been wanted. Now that the shooting season is over the Government will shortly be asked to take such steps as may be necessary to put a scop to shooting on Sundays, at times and in places which constitute a reasonable source of annoyance to a considerable portion of the community. He was a bold, bad, man. He parted his hair in the middle. He smoked. He drank whiskey. He used language. He read Zola's novels on Sunday. He ahot hares without a license. But he had one redeeming virtue which whitewashed him as clean as the Bankruptcy Court — he paid the printer. We would suggest that the tickets for the Protection Banquet to be held on Saturday next, in Wellington, be printed on the same plan as the " Soup Tickets'' so necessary in poverty stricken countries, as a slight hint to those present of what we will come to under the existing system of taxation. On Tuesday Mr Eawson. of the Public Works Department, and his family, took their departure for Palmerston North. He is the forerunner of the others, and in a very short time there will be no Public Works office in this locality. This is the beginning of the end of the Public Works policy. — Wanganui Herald. The Premier remarked on Tuesday that anyone who read Mr Eitchie's Local Government Bill mast see that the English Government were very much indebted to New Zealand for the main provisions of the Bill. Seeing how much New Zealand is indebted to England this is a very little thing to make a fuss about. We have received a very welcome parcel from Mr Edwin Young, containing samples of pine apples, oranges, apples, coco nuts, Barcelona and hazel Jnuts, and various packages of flower seeds. That the whole of the fruits are of the very best quality, we can warrant, while the seeds look fresh and new. We refer our readers to a new advertisement which appears to-day. The announcement that a new tale by Eider Haggard will commence in the next issue of the Yeomam is causing numbers to send in orders for that issue. An extra supply will be printed to meet this demand, and there is every probability that this will not prove more than sufficient, for which reason we advise these who want to read the novel to give their orders to Mr Carthew in tune. The Melbourne Exhibition was opened yesterday with great eclat. The Governor accompanied by all the Governors of the Australasian colonies were present. The ceremony was commenced by a prayer for the success of the Exhibition, and " The Old Hundredth" was sung, followed by a song of thanksgiving. An address was then read by the president, at the conclusion of which the exhibition was declared open. A contemporary says that an Auckland export of a somewhat unusual character was made, by the s.s. Wairarapa for Sydney, for transhipment to India, in the shape of 400 boxes (20 tons) of potatoes, which were shipped by Messrs. L. D. Nathan & Co., to aa order from Calcutta. It is to be hoped that this consignment will be the forerunner of many similar reatures, aad that a new market for «ur local produce will thus be opened. Te Kooti has taken to preaching and prophesying. At Opotiki lately he prophesied that a dreadful epidemic, in the form of a skin disease which would affect almost everybody, would come over the ■ land sometime between now and next New Year's Day. He exhorted his hearers to pray fervently to Jehovah, as nothidg else would avail or would help to ward off this disease but prayer. [A little brimstone with the prayer will De of wonderful assistance.] In the course of business yesterday we received some notes issued by the Bank of New Zealand, which were so filthy that we almost dreaded to handle them for fear of receiving some horrible infection. The exigencies of newspaper proprietorship, however, overcame our scruples, and we accepted them as a legal, if very dirty, tender. An awful " blow" was made some months ago about " new i noteß," and people of cleanly habits are wondering when they will arrive in this dißtnct. Cornell Univorsity has, Bays the New York correspondent of the Sunday Timeß, organised a department of journalism, with Professor Smith, a veteran newspaper man, at its head. Students will be taught how to collect and write out news, and how to comment upon it editorially. Professor Smith will act ac managing editor, Jand detail the pupils to the work of the various literary departments of the newspaper. The collecting and canvassing department will be bossed by professors Sullivan and Slavin, who will teach how to get in old accounts and scare up new term advertisements. The latter is the first and last care of every newspaper proprietor. ADVHETISISTG Cheats. — It has become so common to write the beginning of an elegant, interesting article, and then run it into some advertisement, that we avoid all such cheats, and simply call atlenation to the merits of Dr Soule's American Hop Bitters in as plain honest terms as possible, to induce people to give them one i riil ,as no one who knows their value wiH ever use anything else.— Providence Advertiser.

The Pleioue will be loaded with wool 'or Home at the beginning of the season. Mr W. D. Nicholaa has commenced auilding a new shop on his land in Vor»usßon street. The piles were put in yeaberday. The Duke of Marlborongh is going into business as a market gardener and grower of orchids. If he keeps steady, and advertises well, he may make a good thing of it. Yesterday afternoon some magnificent cabbages were brought down from Mr Lowes' place at Birmingham. One of them turned the scale at Sllba when stripped of all outside leaves. In the House yesterday, in answer to a question, the Government stated subsidies to local bodies would be paid out of ordinary revenue this year. The Crown and Native Lands Bating Act was, after debate, read a second time. The Offences against the Person Bill has been circulated among the Members of the House. It raises the age of " consent" to 16 years, and provides that the unsworn evidence of children may be taken in certain cases, but must be corroborated to support a conviction. Mr W. J. Havbittle requests us to contradict the statement recently published relative to the probability of bis proceeding home for the purpose of training at a dramatic school. We may mention that the statement was made to us on good authority, and was in general circulation prior to its publication. — Manawatu Times, A writer in the Chronicle, "A well wisher to the Unemployed" says — " There is any quantity of work in the Ashurst, Birmingham, and Ktwitea districts. I have heard of contractors for road-mak-ing in the Birmingham district offering 9s per day for men ; whilst going through the Kiwitea district lately I made inquiries, and there was not a man there who wanted work." We can endorse this statement as true in every respect. At the annual meeting of the Wan* ganui Jockey Club it was resolved to reduce the stakes for next year to £2500, as against £2634 of last year. A proposal to ha^e the handicapping done by the committee was not entertained, and Mr Evett was reappointed, most of the members speaking well of his handicaps. New totalisator rules were adopted, and tbe Club decided to appoint Mr Sam Powell paid starter if the other clubs on the Coast would agree to assist in making up his salary. The English Oourt of Appeal has just given a decision of yery great importance iO the railway travelling public. Tbe question directly at issue was whether in the event of a passenger losing his ticket a railway company can insist upon im mediate repayment of the fare, and eject the person from the carriage if the money is not forthcoming. The Lord Justices have ruled that a company cannot do so, and incidentally they have expressed themselves pretty significantly upon the subject of the conditions under which passengers' tickets are issued. At a meeting of the Wanganui Educa« tion Board, held yesterday, the following among other business was transacted : — It was decided to delay the work of starting the additions to the Bunnythorpe school until after the examination, provided satisfactory arrangements can be made with the contractor. — A letter was received from tbe ."tan way School Com* mil tee requesting the Board to erect a master's residence as goon as possible, Kesolved, That the Secretary inquire oi the Committee what amount they an willing to contribute towards the cost oi the erection of a residenoe. — It was decided to notify ,the teachers of the various schools that the system of giving medals for attendance will be discontinued, the Auditor»General having taken exception to the expenditure. Despite all arguments and statements to the contrary the fact can scarcely be controverted that unlooked for international complications will arise within thirty, twenty, or even ten years. In effecting insurance, where security is one of the main objects, our people should do their work at home. Insurance in foreign companies must always be attended with the additional risk mentioned. The N.Z. U-overnmentlnßuranceDepartmentis one of which we can justly be proud, its actual results being eminently satisfactory to all concerned, so much so that the premiums collected in Feildmg district alone, amount to nearly fifteen hundred pounds per annum. The bonuses alloted being cent, per cent, upon the sums paid in. This result can only be understood when it is known that the interest earned serves to pay all claims without encroaching on premiums. The following extract from the Chron" icle should interest those whodo — ordonot — subscribe to to lecal watchman fund :— "A prominent insurance agent, in the course of conversation remarked, with regard to the withdrawal of tbe support of several of the business people from the night watchman's fund, that were the watchman's services dispensed with he would immediately advocate the increase of insurance premiums by 10 per cent. This would mean an increased expendU ture for insurance, on say a L3OOO stock, of £15 per annum. The fact is worthy of notice by those who have expressed their intention of withdrawing or reducing their subscription." 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. Theße 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.