Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 98, 22 October 1895, Page 2

Local and General News.

» Additions are made to-day to the entries for Messrs Abraham and Williams' Palmerston sale. Mr John Dunlop has just received a large consignment of n're bricks, fire clay, wire netting, and first class oaten sheaf chaff. It is estimated that over a hundred and twenty million people now speak the English language more or less correctly. There are 57 railway directors in the present House of Commons, each and everyone of whom is opposed to the "deadhead " system. Eain is badly wanted in South Canterbury. The Timaru Herald says the young crops are making no progress, and the pastures are grey and bare. Twenty Deal boatmen, all over sixty years old, rowed a race the other day, their united ages amounting to 1,446 years. The coxswain of the winning crew was 85. The finder of a gre^ gelding and a bay mare, gone astray, will be paid one pound for taking them to Mr Bath, at Beaconsfield, or tea shillings for giving information as to their whereabouts. Mr W. T* Watts, the proprietor of the Manchester Hotel, has a notification in this issue to which we confidently recommend the residents and travelling public to give their earnest attention. The laembers of the Pob angina Small Farm Association No. 2, and the ratepayers of Pohangyja Township are invited to meet Councillor Selby on Saturday, November 2nd, t« 4/ BPass8 P ass l° an proposals. The New Zealand Native Oyster Coi#'passy is proceeding vigorously with operations a£ PaAiojutamri, A large number of oysters from Stewart Island have recently been added to the company's, stock, and arrangements j&e being made I to make further additions, . •■

The session of Parliament to-day enters on its fifth month. The Oddfellows social will be held in the Foresters Hall to-morrow evening. Mr J. B. Beckley, of Sherborne House, has just opened up a large consignment of blouses, aprons, and shirts— very choice lot of patterns, The Postal Department have been ad--visecl that tbe R-M.S- Alaraecla, -with English mails of sth October, left San Francisco on the 17th, time-table date. The Premier hopes to bring the session to a close at the end of the present month. On and after Wednesday next the House will meet at 11 a.m., instead of at 2.30 p.m. Mr 0. H. Mills has prepared another measure with the object of allowing Chemis a new trial. The Bill is a general one, enabling any convicted person to appeal for a new trial. The travelling done by the preachers, Ministerial and lay, to supply the pulpits of the Sandon-Feilding Wesleyan circuit, on Sunday last, amounted to one hundred and fifty miles. Mr John Prior, of Feilding, solicitor, has been appointed under the Advances to Settlers Department, to prepare mortgages. This should prove a convenience to the clients of the Department in this district. On Thursday next Mr A. Laing will run a special coach from Birmingham, leaving at 7.45 a.m., to Feildiog, in time to catch the 10.20 a.m. train for the Palmerston Show, The ordinary time-table will be observed by the Apiti-Feilding coach. Mr N. Rich, of Campbelltown, who sent Home a consignment ot frozen mutton, has just received bis returns from the sale, which realised £40. The commission, freights, and other charges amounted to £23, leaving a net return from the consignment of £17. Our Cheltenham readers should not fail to attend the entertainment to be given in the Hall on Saturday evening next. The farce " A row in the House " is in itself well worth seeing as all the characters are represented by capable amateurs who have grasped the situation and act their parts to perfection. A conference of sawmillers will be held in Palmerston to-day. The conference will be attended by delegates appointed at meetings held at various sawmilliug districts, which include Taranaki, Hunterville, Manawatu, Hawke's Bay, Pahiatua, Wairarapa, Manawatu railway line. Marlborougb, Nelson, and Westland. — Standard. A violent hailstorm fell in North Sydney recently, smashed scores of windows in private dwellings. One of the hailstones struck a boy's cheek, laying it open. In several places the hail accumulated to a depth of three feet, and on level country it covered the ground to a depth of six inches. The area of the storm was not more than a mile in width. The skinning of dead sheep has been a considerable industry in the Mackenzie Country lately. On one station, the Timaru Herald hears of 13,000 skins having been got, and there are more sheep still encased in the hard snow. Sheep that are exposed are now too far gone to skin, and the hands are " plucking " the wool off them at so much per pound. It is now computed that on a general average no fewer than 8,000 persons disappear in various parts of the British Empire, and are never seen or heard of again. This makes no allowance for the class, whose disappearance passes unnoticed because they have no friends ; it deals only with the people who vanish from their homes and are sought after more or less diligently, yet concerning whom never a footprint, nor an echo, nor a conjecture is ever found. Two brave Picton young ladies, whilst alone one evening recently, were rehearsing how they would despatch a burglar if one suddenly appeared in the room. One of the heroines was armed with an old sword and the other flourished a hatchet. In the midst of the rehearsel a " frightful monster " in the shape of a mouse ran across the floor, when one of the girls incontinently fainted and the other smashed a mirror in attempting to climb up the side-board.— Press. Kauri timber seems to be making its way into favour in the Old Country. In a letter to a relative in Christcburch a gentleman in the timber business in Manchester says : — " We are using now a fair quantity of kauri pine, which, I believe, comes from your part of the world. The great advantage in it is that it is so wide and very clear from knots." The particular purposes for which the wood is used are not specified in the letter. " I should like to be excused, your lordship," said a man who had been summoned on a jury. " What for ? "I owe a newspaper man five pounds for advertising and subscription to his paper, and I want to hunt up the man and pay it." "Do you mean to tell this Court you would hunt up a newspaper man to pay a bill instead of you waiting for him to hunt you up ? " " Yes, your lordship." " You are excused ; I don't want any man on the jury who would lie like that." Mr Collins has yet another return in continuation of the one which so exposed the manner in which certain men were trading on local bodies in the way of travelling expenses. This one shows the amounts charged as expenses by members of Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards for the period 1892-5. It shows what an immense drag these expenses are pn the system. In that period, for instance, the Westland Board has paid L 427 to its members in expenses, the Southland Board L 236, Waikato L 262, North of Auckland Ll5O, Taranaki L 256, Palmerston North LIOS, Nelson 92. The Wellington returns are "nil." , . Cuzco and St Leon's circus played in Feilding last evening before a very fair attendance considering the short notice given. The feats performed by the various members of the troupe were very clever and evoked the applause of the spectators. The tumbling by five boys and a little girl was very good and equal to any we have seen in Feilding. Amongst other skilful tricks the two elder boys performed several with a barrel on their feet while lying on their backs. The horses were well trained and went through their tricks very intelligently. Mrs Cuzco gave an exhibition on thp trapeze and Mr St Leon performed sewer*! feats of skill including the spinning of a baft o# the end of a stick. The two clowns .assisted if) amuse the audience with their jokes and prajs#. On the whole the circus was well wortb I seeing. — __^__