Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 166, 12 January 1895, Page 2

Local and General News.

A South Australian matron the other day acquired her eleventh husband. Of £500 raised to build an Anglican church in Wrexford street, Sydney, the resident Chinese subscribed £400. During last quarter there were 210 civil cases and 90 criminal cases dealt with at the Palmerston S.M. Court. By the new South Australian Suffrage Act (awaiting the Quean's assent) adult women in that colony can not only exercise a vote, but may be elected to and sit in Parliament. During the past three evenings Mr W. McLean, evangelist, has been preaching in the Gospel Hall to very large congregations. To-morrow evening Mr McLean will preach in the Assembly Rooms, at 8 o'clock. It is stated that Mr William Douglas, the well-known racehorse owner, has decided to give up his racing establishment at Hastings. The estate will be cut up in small blocks, and disposed of on easy terms. Mr John Coutta writes to the Dunedin Star pointing out that one of the names down on the published list of conjectured appointments to the Civil Service by the Hon. John McKenzie, is that of his stepson, who died six months ago, and owed his admission to the Civil Service to the Hon. G E. Richardson, in 1889. It is necessary to again remind the public that the postage on newspapers to the United Kingdom and foreign countries is now fixed according to weight. For the first 4oz the rate is Id, and for each succeeding 2oz or fraction thereof an extra half-penny is required. The New Zealand Times states that of 6000 newspapers despatched by Thursday's English mail from Wellington, ' fully one half went away with docket slips attached, notify. ing penalties to the recipients foe de. (jcleiit postage.

The attack of the bot fly may be resisted by a solution of kerosene and water. A Cup cricket match, Carnarvon v. Feilding is being played on the local ground to-daj r . A man named Thomas Wrigley was fined 10s arfd costs, for smoking on the Wellington Railway Station platform. A worm 10 inches long, a pleasant fellow to take down with a mouthful of water, came the other day through a tap from the Nelson water supply. A Sydney paper says : - The partners in one of the largest Melbourne firms of solicitors declared the other day to a Sydney visitor that they hadn't seen a conveyance for three years — had " forgotten all about them," in fact. Their staff of a score of clerks was occupied almost entirely in bankruptcy business. Proportionately to the size of the insect's body an ant's brain is said to be larger than the brain of any known creature. Ants seem to display reasoning ability, calculation, reflection and good judgment. — Journal of Zoopbily. Is there no way of getting a few of these insects into the New Zealand Legislature '? The Arkansas editor puts it thus : — '• You may hive all the stars in a nail keg, hang the ocean on a nail to dry, put the sky in a guard to soak, unbuckle the bellyband of eternity and let out the sun and moon, but never delude yourself with the idea that j r ou can escape tnat place on tbe other side of purgatory unless you pay the printer." We hear that part of the extensive purchases made by Mr Smith during his recent visit to tbe various manufacturing districts in England arrived in Feilding yesterday for the Te Aro House branch. Next week town and country buyers will have ample opportunities of judging for themselves at the Te Aro House sale. The funeral of the late Mr George Wilkinson took place yesterday afternoon. A large number of Druids, representing the Marton and Wanganui Lodges, followed the remains of their late brother to the grave side, where the ceremony was conducted by the Rev T. B. McLean, A. D. Bro. McLeod, of the Bishop Lodge, performing the last Druidic rites. The ordinary fortnightly meeting of tbe Manchester Lodge was held last evening there being a very large attendance. One member was proposed and initiated. P.P.G.M. Bro. Nix acted as lecture-master. Two delegates were appointed to attend the district meeting, to be held in Wanganui on the 25th inst. The quarterly balance sheets were read and adopted, and showed the Lodge to be in a very satisfactory condition. Correspondence waa received from the Seaman's Union, and Union Mutual Benefit Society, and held over until next meeting. On the loth of March next two township blocks in the Awarua, the first of that land to be brought into the open market, will be submitted to public competition at Ohingaiti. One of those is the township of Mangaweka, hitherto known as Three-Log Whare, which there was a proposal some time since to call Stevensvillc. It has been cut up into quarter-acre township and suburban lots, which will be sold for cash, while the village settlement sections will be offered for lease in perpetuity. On the same date similar sections in the township of Taihape (hitherto known as Hautapu and also in the Awarua Block) will likewise be offered. — Times. The Hawera Star states that a painful scene occurred in the District Court on Wednesday last air the termination of the case against the young man Lett, who was convicted of indecent assault. When His Honor commenced to deliver sentence, the father of Lett, who had been in Court all day, rose, and in most excited tones implored His Honor to hang the boy rather than imprison him. His whole life, he said, was bound up in the boy. He was ordered to sit down, but would not until threatened with ejection. When the lad was being taken to the police station the father followed, yelling at the police to release his son. The affair created a painful impression on those who witnessed it.