Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 246, 20 April 1895, Page 2

Local and General News.

• Captain Edwin wired at noon to-day . — Indications for frost to-night; glass rising. The estimates for the Borough revenue and expenditure for the year ending March 31st, 1896, are advertised to-day, Colonel Fox has taught the volunteers in the South Island to respect themselves and now they begin to like him, To-morrow night the Rev. J. Cocker will conduct the service in the Primitive church and will take for his subject the different degrees of reward in heaven. Strangers are specially invited to the service. A man named John D. McLaurin, who has been residing at Cofyton for some time, was committed to the Wellington Lunatic Asylum yesterday on the medical certificates of Drs Johnston and Sorley. Mr Stanford, S,M,, was the presiding Magistrate. The New Zealand Clothing Factory begs to draw special attention to their advertisement with regard to waterproof waders for the shooting season and would urge customers to call early in order to have them made in time, these goods are invaluable for keeping out wet, The sooner the Manawatu County Council take the necessary steps to effect the repairs to the bridges on the FeildingA.wahuri road, the better it wiiJ be for ail parties. At present the traffic is diverted through the land of private owners who, nod unnaturally, object to their farms being cut up without the slightest chance of being in any way compensated for the damage. In Australia, where, in the absence of local bodies and ratepayers, as in New Zealand, who tax themselves to make their own roads and bridges, thej have to be economical m bridge building, a plan is adopted of making artificial foundations for fords by laying down beds of concrete. These are very seldom injured to any /»i'eat extent by the Hoods, but if any portion is washed away it can easily be re« placed at a very small outlay of labor and material. This plan might be adopted here with advantage. Tobacco will have to go. A sum of .£14,000,000 is annually spent on tobacco and pipes, and it is calculated that one third of the cigars, one half of the cigarettes, and two thirds of the package " tobaccos " made up and sold in England are not made of the nicotian leaf at all. More money is actually wasted in this alleged luxury than there is in alcoholic drinks and the crusade against it is increasing in force day by day. The New Woman, has taken to smofeing — and. that is the beginning of the end. At the foot of Cinder Hill where the Makino stream crosses the road, there is a sieep dip which, u>be» the w&tsrsave «p, is a source of considerable danger to wheeled traffic. It has been suggested that " when in funds " the Manchester Road Board should erect an inexpensive bridge at the spot. Numbers of our readers will remember that not many months ago the mail coach came to grief there, the horses were nearly drowned, and the driver and passengers were badly scared, if their lives were not endangered. A series of experiment? are being conducted by the Railway Department in the conveyance of butter in insulated cool cars from Taranaki to Wellington. A quantity of butter brought from Eltham, as we reported some time since, was found to be in excellent condition, and another consignment has now bsen brought from Inglewood. The car was insulated with double roof and in the centre was a trough containing 2cwt. of ice covered with rock salt. Three thermometers seen through glass dooss enabled the temperature to be teated at intervals on the way to Wellington. — N.Z.Timea.

The Standard says something like two chains of the Palmerston racecourse, in the direction of the grandstand, was washed away during the recent flood. Says the Wairarapa Daily Times : — A valuable horse owned by a settler near hhe Ruamahuaga, after standing and looking at the rushing torrent for some time on Monday last deliberately jumped into the river and was drowned. The attendance returns of the Wanganui Educational District for the quarter ending March 31st last showthatthe number of children on the roll was 9612, of whom 4992 were boys and 4629 girls. The average weekly attendance for the same period was 9703 and the working average 7604. The strict average is shown at 7440 made up of 3862 boys and 3577 girls. During the quarter 791 boys and 804 girls were admitted, or a total of 1595. There were 225 teachers in the Board employ on the 31st of March, 118 of whom were males and 112 females. — Chronicle.