Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 209, 8 January 1894, Page 2

Local and General News.

Mr C. Carr will hold a sale of stock at Birmingham to-morrow in the yards recently belonging to the Fanners' Alliance. The entries ef stock are very good, and uo doubt the attendance of bnyers will be large in proportion. A meeting is to be held in Foxtou on i Wednesday to consider whether a regatta i shall be held there this year. Seeing that the river is in every way suited for the purpose we have no doubt the object of the conveners will be attained. In the old days the Foxton Regatta was one of the most attractive and popular institutions on this coast. A Scottish DDBgTegatioa pT6s«Bte<i Cfajic mi rue tor with a sum of money and sent dim off to the continent for a holiday. A gentleman just back from the continent met a prominent member of the church .•nid said to him, " Oh, by the bye, I met your minister in Germany. He was looking very well ; he didn't look as if he needed a rest." " No," said the church member very calmly, " it was na him, it was the congregation that was needin' a rest." A Wellington paper reports a case in which a farmer brought some fire turnip seed which turned out to be rape. We can go one better than that. We know a man in Masterton who purchased turnip seed which proved to be gunpowder, The seeds have, of oourse, germinated, and in a few years the farmer hopes, with the as Bistauco of Colonel Fox, to have sufficient powder to supply every volunteer corps in the colony. — Wairarapa Star. On Wednesday the 17th instant in the Town Hall, at Birmingham, there will be exliibited Edison's latest improved and loudest phonograph ever heard in New Zealand. St Patrick's choir, of Palmerston North, will give selections during the evening. The proceeds will be devoted to St Patrick's Presbytery. We are informed by the Rev Father Patterson that the exhibition will be given in the Feildiug Assembly Rooms on Monday the 22nd mst. We learn from the Paraekaretu Express that the residents of Ohingaiti are

moyiog in the direction of getting up a presentation to Mr Joseph Ivess, who was a candidate at the election of the Rungitikei seat, but retired before the day of polling in favour of Mr J. Stevens. It is intended to convene a meeting of persons at Ohingaiti at' an early date, with a view of appointing a Committee and Treasurer to carry out the wishes of the promoters of the movement. In our Saturday's issue notice wan given by a correspondent that a meeting was to be held iv a certain place last evening of persons desirous of forming a Gaping Society, the principal qualification required being impudence. The weather was glorious, and n umbers of persons took advantage of the tine warm day to take an airing and to promenade the streets, but none of them seemed anxious to attend the meeting and consequently the initiation of the projected society had to be i»stponed. An Asliburtou gardener has produced a gooseberry measuring four inches in girth. This is, no doubt, very fair for the South Island, but a Feikliug mau has gone one better. The other day liin second son, aged six years, ran to his mother to have a large thorn pulled out of his k*»t. On making enquiries the alarm od parent discovered that the children had bwu i4tsi)jg a gooseberry as a football, and uue of tlui briwtkh has stuck in the lad's naked foot and biwkeu oil. The boy in ali r%Ut. Ne&£ !

The services of the Feilding Brass Band have been secured for the Druids Sports at Birmingham on the 18th inst. The Wairarapa Star says there are fully a hundred compositors out of employment iv Wellington at the present time. ! There are vacancies in the Manchester Rifles for a few 7 eligible recruits. Applicants are requested to send in their names as early as possible during the current month. i Mr Frederick Pope advertises to let about thirty acres of cocksfoot to cut for seed, and about eighty acres to let for grazing qurposes. For full particulars see advertisement. An opinion appears to prevail amongst certain persons who have been allowed to fence in roads, or portions of roads, that if they are not interfered with for twenty-one years such land becomes their own property. This idea is quite erroneous, as no such law exists in NewZealand, but we believe there is a law to that effect in England. The weather beiug tine, quite a number of enthusiasts were on the local tennis ground on Saturday, when the following heats of the tournament were played off : — Miss N. Fry (scratch) beat Miss Fry (scratch), 9-7, 6-4 ; Mr Brabant (owe lf>) beat Mr Matheson (half 30), 4-6, 6-3, 9-7. On Friday Mrs Hill (30) beat Mrs Barton (half HO aud a bistjne), 6-5, 4-6, 6-1. The Welsh in the United States claim that they are in number as many as their countrymen in Wales, and they also claim that one of their ancestors forestalled Columbus in the discovery of America by 272 j'cars. Quite so. But the said Welshman found when he lauded that a Scotchman was there before him who proved useful as an interpreter. Hoich. A .story is told about one of the newlj'electcd Mayors in the North of England, Entertained at a banquet after his election, he, in returning thanks, was anxious to make it known that no party considerations or personal feeling should warp his action whilst holding the high office to which he had been called. •' In fact, gentlemen," he said, " in my opinion the Mayor of an important borough like this, should be, like Ciesar's wife, all things to all men." At Apiti on New Years' night Mr Raukins entertained a number of his friends and neighbours. Dancing and singing were kept Nip until an early hour in the morning. Some good songs were given notably " The Life Boat ' by Mr Dickson ; " The ship that never returned " by Mr Geauge ; a couple of beautiful Scotch songs were well rendered by Mr Raukius and Mrs McMillan. Two of Mr Rankins children sang a piece composed by a local poet. About forty persons were present and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Bush felling has about finished for the season at Apiti, and so has the sheep shearing. Our correspondent there writes that the gardens are looking really beautiful and good crops of all classes of vegetables are promised. They had the Christmas waits there aud the singers aquitted themselves very creditably. What a change within the last few years ! It seems but yesterday wheu it was all a dense almost impenetrable forest, and to-day we have flourishing homesteads, schools and churches. Verily the bushman's axe is a great weapon. Oh ! those Scots ! The appointment of the Earl of Elgin to be the Viceroy of India (says the Scottish Leader) puts the coping stone on Scottish appointments abroad. At this moment Greater Britain is virtually ruled by Scotsmen. Then follows a list of Scotch Governors, beginning with the Earl of Aberdeen and ending with Sir J. S. Hay (Barbadoes). The Leader goes on to say — All in their turn are under Mr Gladstone, whose father was a Leith man. Our foreign affairs are entrusted to the Earl of Rosebery ; the army is controlled by Mr Campbell -Bannerman ; the home affairs are managed by Mr Asquith.