Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 339, 14 June 1894, Page 2

Local and General News.

The Mutual Improvement Society will meet as usual this evening in the Primitive Methodist Church. The New Zealaud Loau aud Mercantile Aj»eucy Company will commence busiuess agaiii on Monday, the 18th instant. The trustees of the Wesleyan Church will meet the choir at the conclusion of the services which will bo held in the Temperance Hall this evening. It i< stated that Leonard Harper, the financial manager of the bankrupt firm of Harper aud Co, is a resident of Jersey, in the Channel Islands. He is in possession of a large sum of money. Mr D. A. Ogilvie, ironmonger, Palmerston. lias been declared a bankrupt. His liabilities amount to £-2127 2s 2d, and his assets to £1723 10s, leaving a deficiency of £103 12s 2d. Last week there were nineteen bankruptcies in Christchurch an ageut, a baker, a saddler, a carrier, two plumbers, four farmers, two croppers, a storekeeper two hotelkeepers, a plasterer, two tailors aud a chimney sweep. Mr T. J. Thorton, travellin" agent for the Australian Mutual Provident Society is at present on a visit to Feildiug aud surrounding districts, and will be pleased to call upon anyone wishing to invest in the above Society. Communications may be left with Mr E. Goodbehere. A -sensational divorce case is on the tapis in Wellington, to bo beard probably ut tbe next Supreme lourt sittings. All the parties to the suit ara well known Wellington ro>idenl<, and tho co-respon-dent is said to be inlimati-lv aspociatod wilh business ci reins in tbe Empiro City. The Masterton A- and P. Association hove written to the Manawatu and West Coast A. and P Association, Dointing out that tho date fixed by tbe latter Society for their annual show, Oct. 2oth. had already been decided upon as the dale for the Masterton Show, nnd requesting tho Manawatu Association to altor their date. Probably one of the most important decisions of tho recent Wesloyan Conference at Adelaide was the expunging of the regulation prohibiting women from preaching, except to their own sex. This matter was debated so far back as 1802, at the Irish Conference, when the practice was declared to bo " contrary both to Scripture and prudence" for woman to preach at all. The English Conference in tlie following year did not go so far, but gave permission to any woman who thought she had an extraordinary call (the conference was sure it was an extraordinary call) to address her own sex and those only, and then not in the circuit in which she resided. I A meeting was held in Miss Goodbehere's schoolroom yesterday afternoon to consider the advisability of starting a debating society in Feildiug. About twenty gentlemen were present. The convener, the Rev. A. S. Innes Jones, was voted to the chair, aud he suggested that a society of a purely unsectarian nature should be formed. Although he had called tlie meeting, it was his intention to avoid sectarianism and he thought there should be a rule prohibiting the discussion of theological subjects in the society, should one be formed. It was resolved, on the motion of Mr A. C. Matheson, seconded by Mr O. Cooper, That a debating society, to be called the "Feilding Debating Sooiety," be formed. Resolved, That Messis Jones, Matheson, Cooper aud Dyer, be a provisional committee to draft rules and report at a meoting to be held at the same place on Tuesday evening next at 8 p.m. The doctrine of materialism teaches us that the creation of the world is the result of a gradual aggregation of matter floating about in infinite space, which, in the course of countless ages, has gradually developed or evolved iuto tlie state we now see it. Evolutionists, oi whom Darwin was the foremost apostle, affirm that the human race has also been subjected to a process of evolution, passing from the lowest stage of animal existence to the highest developments of human life. Our puny intellects are unable to solve the great mystery. We do know, however, tliat the gradual evolution of a blend of tea by mauy and varied processes is a thing wbich is accomplished by experts. The Empire Tea Company's blends are cases in point. By skilful manipulation these bleuds, after infinite trouble and paint-*, are at last turned out ready for die market, and the universal verdict is fchat the blender has evolved a most delicious article out of the various leaves with which he works. In the good old days in a part of the colony wliich grows moro wool than wheat and more lawyers than legislators, the country districts were represented by a good euough man in his way, and one altogether entitled to be called in the best sense of the term a gent'eman, but tlie alleged softer members of his family were " not built ou tho same lines," as the following anecdote will show. There was a Government official within easy distance of the " family mansion," who combined in his owu uulucky self the offices of statiounns'ier, postmaster, registrar of births, deaths and marriages, telegraphist, and everything else that could be piled ou him. He was, it goes almost without saying, a thoroughly efficient hand, or he would not have been there. But "Pa" became a Minister of the Crown ono fine day, and during the brief i period he occupied the billet the " •.eatle " members of his family made the unlucky official's life a misery to him. He was long suffering and slow to vrith, because he did not see 1 i; way i clear to luck anybody, aud billets were scarce. One day, however, when one of the •' sweet ones" ordered him to perform some menial ofiice his feathers rustled at last and lie said, looking her firmly iv the eye (she has or had two) : " I'll see you first." He is still alive, but is a Eank Liberal of the deepest type.

The Marton School Committee are getting up a concert to provide funds for improving the school grounds. A concert and coffee enpper will be held at Cheltenham, in the Public School, on Monday, June 18th., in connection with the Primitive Methodist Church. The Manawatu Farmers Co operative store in - Pahuerston took £180 over the counter on Tnesdav morning last, before dinner. There is " corn in Egypt " yet. Mr aud Mrs Fcnncll and family, from South Australia, -were passengers by today's train from Wellington, having , come over to reside on their recentlj* purchased property at Colyton. A party of ten men arrived at Wellington on Tuesday from Timaru for the porpose of taking up 1000 acres of laud I in the Hautapu Block (Hunterville district), under the Minister of Lauds' assisted settlement scheme. A pretty wedding took place in the Buunythorpo Wesleyan Church on Tuesday, the contracting parties being Mr A. Yette and Miss Christensen, members of families long resident iv Buuuythorpe. The Rev. Mr Lee was the officiating minister, aud the bridesmaids were Misses Clcvely and Christensen. Mr J. Dixou, ou behalf of the trustees aud members of the church, presented the happy couple with a handsome bible.