Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 343, 19 June 1894, Page 2

Local and General News.

The human body when cremated is transformed into about eight ounces of ashes. For every four shillings spent iv England on drink, only a halfpenny is spent on education. The annual expenditure in England and Wales on funerals, it is estimated, exceeds i:6,000,000. There are 200 fishing clubs in London with a membership of over 12,000 enthusiastic anglers. It is estimated that over i.700,000 worth of property is stolen each year by thieves in Great Britain. Drunkards in the Argentine Republic are punished by being sentenced to sweep the streets for eight days. Mr Webster, the manager of the Palmerston branch of the Bank of Australasia, paid an official visit to Feilding to-day. The adjourned meeting of the Feilding Debating Society will be held this evening, afc 8 o'clock, iv Miss (ioodbehere's schoolroom. Sickness Ls rather prevalent in Pal-ruci-Ktuii at present. Quite a number of people are suffering from the prevailing epidemic of influenza. — Standard. A it; an named William Scott has been anvstc-il at Wellington on a charge of passing gilded sixpcuMes for half-sover-eigns on three Chinese fruiterers. A veteran of the First Napoleon has just celebrated his hundredth birthday in France, surrounded by Ins children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Some Babylonian tablets which have reached the British Museum prove that faith in one God existed in that part of the world as far back as 3000 years before Christ. An important notice from the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, announcing the reconstruction and resumption of business, will appear to-morrow. Mr Win, Syms, who has had a long experience as an apothecary in this and the South Island, is about to commence business in the same profession iv Birmingham. Mrs Langtry is said to be greatly alarmed at the appearance of what is supposed to be a cancer in her nose. It is stated that she is cancelling her theatrical engagements as a consequence. This morning Messrs Rutherford and Sou had seven fine specimens of fat sheep in their butcher's shop. They were 2-tooth ewes, bred by Mr D. P. Buchanan, and averaged in weight from lOOlbs to 1301bs. Tho concert which was to have beeu given in the Cheltenham Schoolhouse was postponed owing to the inclemency of the weather and the rain which foil on Sunday and Mouday flooding the Kiwitea stream and making the ford on the Cheltenham Cross road impassable last evening.

A West Coast paper says that a Blue Spur girl, Mary Isabella Browne, has not missed an attendance at school for six years, and is nearly half through her seventh year with the record still unbroken. A young fellow named Alfred McLean nearly severed several of his toes with a slasher while bushfelling at Fitzherbert on Saturday. He was taken to the Palmerston Hospital, where it was fouud necessary to amputate one of the toes. In the civil case of F. G. Thompson v. Bkmdell Bros. (Evening Post), which was instituted to recover .£looo damages for alleged libel, the parties have arrived at a settlement, and the action has consequently been discontinued. Some years ago, in Victoria, a bride, when asked at the altar whether she would have the man for her husband, replied " No." " Well, what have you come here for ? " demanded the disgusted clergyman. "To tell him so," said the heartless girl.— Sj r dney Daily Telegraph. Vincent Pyke could not resist his little joke eveH on his death-bed. " How arc you, Pyke '? " asked an old friend, who went to see him a few days before he died. "All I have to complain of," the veteran replied, " is shortness of breath, which has carried off many a good man ere now." There are 62 licensing districts in the colony ; 496 committeemen, with 55 clerks ; 1421 publicans' licenses, 7 New Zealand wine licenses, 240 accommodation licenses, 56 bottle licenses, 61 packet licenses, and 189 wholesale licenses. The license fees paid to local bodies amount to .£60,299 per annum. A congregation down South presented their minister with a sum of money and sent him off for a holiday. A gentleman just back from a trip met a prominent member of the church and said to him : " Oh, by-the-by, I met jour minister. He was looking very well ; he didn't look as if he needed a rest." •' No," said the church member, very calmly, "it was not he ; it was the congregation that needed a x*est." — Exchange. A painful accident is reported from Hunter ville. On Friday afternoon Mr Donald McLaughlan, of Turakina, was riding along the Mangahao road, when his gun went off, the charge going through the right arm below the elbow and grazing the right temple, thus nearly proving fatal. The wound was bouud up and the sufferer brought into Huntcrville, where he was attended to by Dr Smith. The road between Birmingham and Pomberton is in a ten-ibly rough state, and since the recent heavy rains the road has been almost completely blocked Avith slips, and drivers of vehicles experience great difficulty in effecting a passage past them. This state of affairs is very trying to the mail carrier, Mr S. Daw, but he struggles bravely on, and manages in some way or another to laud his coach and mails at their destinations as near time-table date as possible, The visit of the famous Dr Taltnage to Auckland is looked forward to with pleasuro. LI is leavo of absence from New York is for four months only, which will only en u bin him to give fifteen lectures iv New Zealand. The first of three lecture?, which be will give in Auckland ni iho Opera House, is entitled •• Tho Bright Side of Things." The otlior two lectures will bo selected from tho following : — ', Bis Blunders," "Is tbe World Bettor or Worse r" " Happy Homes," «md '* Tho School fir Scandul." A few days ago, says the Sydney Moruiug Herald, a tuau, said to be a well-known Melbourne man, arrived in Sydney for the purpose of taking a last farewell of his two comrades Montgomery and Williams. He presented himself at the gaol, but was not granted permission to interview the condemned men, and shortly afterwards was arrested by Detective West on a charge of burglary in Melbourne. The accused was brought before the Central Police Court and remanded for a week in order that an escort may arrive from Melbourne to take charge of him. The death is announced of two old Canterbury eetilera. Mr T. H. Anson, who died of pleurisy, was born in Itdia and came to Canterbury in IS6O He engaeed in pastoral pursuits, but took an active part in all public matters, and was for some time chairman of the North Canterbury Education B'»ard. The second death is that. Mr John Bilton, who came out in one of tbe first four ship 9to take charge of the church schools in the new settlement. He was afterwards a master in Christ's College. Mr Bilton was organist at the Pro cathedr»l in tbe early days, when Cbrisfchurcli was the proud possessor of the only organ in the colony. For the lusl 20 years be has resided in Timaru.