Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 145, 15 December 1894, Page 2

Local and General News.

On Christmas Eve a concert will be given in Mr Guy's Hall, Apiti, in aid of the Wesleyan Church organ fund. Major Elliot, secretary to tho Governor, fell downstairs at Government House, and fractured one of his ribs. The adjourned meeting of the Wellington Laud Board will be held on Thursday next, the 20th inst. A meeting iv connection with the Oroua river protective works will be held at Mr Bray's office at 8 o'clock this evening. Mr Trask, sem\, of Foxton, who has been a resident of the district for about fifty years, was taken down to the Wellington Asylum yesterday. A single polypus has been cut into one hundred and twenty-four parts, each of which in the course of time became a perfect animal. The Canterbury Jockey Club, recognising the success achieved by Mr J. E. Henry, as handicapper to the Club, has increased his salary by £25 per annum. Fraternal -recognition has been accorded by the Grand Lodges of Delaware and Louisiana, United States of America, to the Masonic Grand Lodge of New Zealand. Specifications for the Pohangina Public Hall may now be seen at this office. The building will be 45 feet by 25 feet, and not 40 feet by 25 feet as previously reported. Wo have received from the Department of Agriculture the report of the pomologist for 1893-94 and the report of the Government biologist for the same period. Those of our advertisers and subscribers who have not yet paid their accounts rendered up to the end of last quarter, aro respectfully invited to do so before Christmas. Mr C. S. Potts notifies in another column that he has started a fellmongcry business at Apiti, and is prepared to purchase wool, hides, and skins in any quantity. We have to acknowledge receipt of a copy of the Hawera Star Almanac and Guide for 1895. It is altogether a most creditable production aud should prove of great use to business people as well as settlers. Christchurch papers report that the Canterbury sheep farmers find it cheaper to send their wool to the port of shipment by road than by railway. The samo rule promises to apply to grain. Mr O. Samuel, who went to Syduey to arrange for starting petroleum operations in New Plymouth, telegraphed on Wednesday that a satisfactory agreement had been signed, and that drillers would leave by the Manapouri that day. A woman — Mrs J. F. Christmas, wife of an Auburn tradesman -has been appointed Circuit Steward of tbe Wesleyau Circuit of Homebush, New South Wales. This is said to be the first appointment of the kind in any of the colonies. It carries with it an ex officio right to sit in the District Synod. i A meeting of the Raugitikei-Mauawatu Cricket Union will be held at the Feildiug Hotel on Monday evening, at 6.30 p.m. The principal business is to con. sider the advisability of sending a representative team to Wellington during the Christmas holidays. The Bunnythorpe Band of Hope and Gospel Temperance Society held a successful social gathering on Thursday night. A number of instrumental and vocal items were given during the evening, and the Misses Stewart and Dixon .and Mesdames Dixon and Mathieson provided refreshments. A short address was given by Mr F. Pirani, M.H.R., amongst other items. It will be heard with great pleasure by the Feilding playgoers that Mr Walter Bentley, of Silver King fame, will appear at the Assembly Rooms, Feildiug, ou Monday evening next, and wo arc sure that the opportunity to listen to one of the greatest living artists will be eagerly awaited. Tho play is not new to us, but there is no doubt of its popularity, and, as Mr Bentley is undoubtedly the. best exponent of the character of Wilfred Denver, the Silver King, there is certain to be a full house. A meeting of tho Feilding Sports Committee was held last evening. A Boys' Walking Race, of 1 mile, for boys not exceeding 12 years, was added to the programme. Tho prizes will be, viz., Ist, Mr J. Scott's gold medal, value £2 2s ; 2nd, Mr Basting's Waterbury watch; 3rd, Mr W. Reid's 10s. Nominations, accompanied by Is, will close at 12 o'clock on the day of sports. Messrs Reid and Saywell are to bo the handicappcrs. Mr J. H. Blackmoro will be judge of the singlestick competition. How circumstances alter cases! An up-country parent, not many miles from Awahuri, objected to her children being taught soldiering at school becauso when they were in the front rank tho rear rank trod on their heels. The grandmother of this good woman had a son eulisted in the 18th Royal Irish. After a time he wrote to his mother and said, " I have been promoted, and am now the loft hand man iv tho rear rank." The fond mother wrote back and advised her gallant son, "Don't bo too proud, and be merciful to them that's under you."

To encourage competitors to send n neat nomination papers, the Birrang Druids' Sports Committee will give i prize of 10s to the one whose papers j,re considered tho neatest. A young man named Charles Jacobs, 23, shot himself dead while going through a wire fence at Eketahuua yesberday. The hammer of his gun got saught in the wire, and the weapon exploded, the contents lodging a little above the heart. We are requested to state that this evening Te Aro House will have a special Christmas window display of lovely new millinery, sent up specially to suit the wants of the fair sex at this festive time of tho year. Fresh novelties have been opened up this week iv endless profusion. The two men Studdon and Mason, who were arrested on Thursday b) r Constable Tuohey, on a charge of breaking and entering at Otaki, were again brought up before Mr W. Carthew, J.P., this morning, and further remanded until 3 o'clock this afternoon. Owing to a concert being held in Feilding on Thursday evening, the ladies and gentlemen who are going to assist at the Colyton School Concert cannot go out on that evening. The Colyton concert has therefore been changed from Thursday to Wednesday. The first part of the programme will be contributed by tho children, and as they are well up in their parts a most enjoyable evening may be looked for. The co-operative men, under Mr Snow, arc making good progress with the bridle track across the Oroua river to connect Apiti aud Rangiwahia. When this track is opened up the distance between the places named will be about nine or ten miles. Mr Snow expects to complete the work early in January. A start was made this week on the Makura road, and next week a party will be put ou another section of tho Apiti-Norse-wood road. Both these roads are iv the Salisbury Block, and will eventually connect with the Pohaugina township. At present there aro 16 men working uudor Mr Snow on the co-operative system, but this number will be increased shortly. We learn from a Marlborough paper that : — " Another old settler has joined tbe great majority, in the person of Mrs Anne Buckmau (mother of Messrs J. aud G. Buckman, of Apiti), well known as an old resident of tbe Wairau Valley. Tho deceased lady came out from Homo in the ship Olympia, arriving in Nelson in the 3'ear 1841, and in the Wairau (where she has resided ever since) about 1854. She was one of the earliest settlers in the Nelson-Marlborough district, two of her contemporaries coming out iv the same vessel, being Mr C. Lucas, of Bleuhcini, and Mr Matthews, of Spring Creek. During her forty years' residence in the Wairau, where her husband wan engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, Mrs Buckman gained the esteem of a large circle of friends, and her demise will be heard of with regret by a large number of people. She had been ailing at intervals towards the last from paralytic affections, and other sicknesses, and died on Saturday evening (December 1) at the residence of her son, Mr W. H. Buckman, Manse road. A grown-up family mourns her loss. Anyone being shown over Mr J. H. Worsfold's new premises in Manchester street, which were opened to the public as an accommodation house on Thursday last, must at once be struck with tho general comfortable appearance of the establishment. On tho right of the main entrance is a comfortable little parlor, at the back of which is a very largo and airy dining-room with a table running down the centre capable of seat--40 persons. At the rear of the main building is the kitchen— large, and with every convenience. On the left, entering from the front, is the confectionery department, fitted with luncheon tables, and at the back of this there is a very cosy traveller's parlor, this being very nicely furnished. There are also two nice bed-rooms on the ground floor, and fourteen upstairs, all of which are very comfortably furnished, the rooms being lofty, well ventilated, and nicely papered throughout. A fine, large oven has been built in the bakehouse at the back of the premises, while a large aud airy safe, kept cool by a cistern tank overhead. Visitors to Feildiug during the holidays should give Mr Worsfold a call, where they will find cheerful and suitable accommodation.