The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1892.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 133, 7 May 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1892.

One of the most useful institutions in a town or settlement, is an efficient Fire Brigade supplied with all the necessary requirements. In Feilding we have this. The men are smart and active, the officers know their work, and the fire engine and appurtenances are all of the very best obtainable. But there is one serious drawback. On the engine there rests an unpleasant load of debt. The actual amount is not much, only £110, towards the liquidation of which the Borough Council has voted the sum of £25, so that £85 has yet to be collected to put the Brigade on an independent footing. The captain and members have determined that they wiU accomplish this, and propose to do so by giving a series of entertainments, the proceeds of which should reach the desired amount. For every shilling the public contributes there will be good value given. Still, it is hardly fair that the members of the Brigade should be left to do all this unaided, therefore everyone residing in Feilding able and desirous of assisting should come forward at once and tender their help. It must be remembered that these Firemen are the most unselfish in the world. They undertake heavy duties and responsibilities without hope of fee or reward, while to make themselves competent members arduous practice, involving much hard work, ia absolutely required of them. For this reason they should not be burdened with worries and anxieties of the nature now indicated. We hope, then, when the time comes whatever appeal is made will be responded to cheerfully and ungrdguingly.

The resolution adopted by the Borough Council to the effect that the Railway Commissioners, and tho Directors of the Wellington Manawatu Railway Company, be invited to make arrangements to connect the train which arrives from Welling to Palmerston in the afternoon with the train which at present leaves Palmerston for Wanganui at 5.30 p.m., is one which certainly deserves consideration. Residents in the towns along the Railway line between Palmerston and Wanganni, would thus receive two mails each day, instead of only one as at present. Another advantage would be that visitors from the country would have more time to do their business in Wellington. Thk result of the Bruce election was a crushing defeat for the ministerial candidate. Ministers fought hard to win but the good sense of the country electors defeated all the efforts made to hoodwink them. This victory of the opposition may looked upon as the beginning of the end. The ranks of the opposition in the House have been gaining gaining strength with slow but certain steps, and this latest acquisition will induce several of tho waverers to join them. Auckland members have lcm<j been doubtful in their allegiance, and now that Sir George Grey has, to all intents and purposes, thrown them over, Ministers must be counting heads with some considerable anxiety. We were advised by cablegram yesterday that the English House of Commons had rejected a Bill embodying the principle that local councils should be empowered to confiscate the unearned merement. Of courso the Liberal leaders supported the proposal. The very words confiscation and repudiation have the same charm to Liberals as "that blessed word"Mesopotama " had to the old women.