Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 129, 29 November 1895, Page 2

Local and General News.

The local banks will be closed to-mor-row, St Andrew's day. The Manawatu Farmer says there is a probability of a sawmill being erected at Shannon. Two volcanoes are advertised for sale in a Copenhagen paper. The price is only £150. The owner of Auraria is said to have won by that filly's success in the Melbourne Cup. The Athletic Sports committee will meet at Mr Sherwill's office this evening at seven o'clock. * The usual fortnightly meeting of the Loyal Manchester Lodge will be held in the Foresters' Hall this evening, We have to acknowledge receipt of a complimentary ticket for the performance in the Assembly Rooms to-morrow evening. The friends of the late William Pussell, of Beaconsfield, are invited to attend the funeral which will leave his late residence on Sunday morning at 11.30 a.m. Messrs Stevens and Wood, proprietors of the Awahuri sawmill, have decided to remove their mill plant to Danevirke, having worked out all the good timber in the district. An additional train on the Hunterville branch will commence running on Monday, December 2nd, between Mangaonoho and Marton, every Monday. For other particulars see advertisement. In our report yesterday of the tea meeting at Kiwitea the name of Mrs T. E. Taylor was inadvertently omitted. Mrs Taylor was one of those who kindly gave the tea and presided over a table. Our readers are reminded of the Minstrel entertainment to be eiven in the Assembly Rooms this evening by the Feilding " Tuis." The programme is lengthy and the " bill of fare " good. The expenditure on strong drink in New Zealand for '94 was £2 17s Id per inhabitant. Ten years previously it was £4 5s per inhabitant, and fifteen years back (in '79) it is alleged to have been as high as £6 10s. The light ordered by the Western Australian Government for Cape Leu win is ready for shipment. Experts pronounce it to be an excellent plant. It is of the first order, and will be visible for twenty miles. The cost is £10,000. The British Consul at Salonica has promised the Queensland Agent-General that be will report on the methods of I culture and treatment of the Turkish I tobacco most suitable for the English market and likely to grow in Queensland. A Chester man who has just died had been charged 130 times with drunkennes and assaults. His father was charged 85 times, one sister 69, and another sister 29 times, the prosecution of this family having cost the Chester ratepayers £-2000. The Christmas advertisement of Mr Watts, the proprietor of the Manchester Hotel, appears to-day. It will be seen that he intends to continue the time honored custom introduced by his predecessor, Mr Bastings, of a free lunch on | Boxing Day. " After a lengthy trial of prohibition, the people of Waiwera," says the Clutha County Gazette, " are apply for a cemetery. Perhaps it's a coincidence." This, too, is peculiar in a prohibition district : The first prize in one of the races at Clinton is a bottle of whiskey. The proprietor of the Empire Hotel, Mr P. W. Corby, announces to-day that he has effected improvements in his commodious hotel for the convenience of visitors to Feilding during the coming festive season, while his cellar has been replenished with the best wines, spirits and ales procurable. Maiwatchin, one of the borders of Russia and China, is the only city in the world peopled by men only. The Chinese women are not only forbidden to live in this territory, but even to pass the great wall of Kalkau and enter into Mongolia. All the Chinese of this border are exclusively traders. A sad case came before the Wellington Benevolent Trustees recently. It was that of a. highly-educated widow, recently from England, who is in delicate health. She has gradually parted with her belongings, and is now penniless. For some time past, although in a weak condition, she has been living on dry bread, in order that her son, aged 16, who is earning 6s a i week, might not go hungry. The Trustees | voted rations, and also 5s a week towards rent. The superintendant of the Board under the Advances to Settlers Actnoti fies money will be lent in sums of not less than £25 and not more to one applicant than ;£2500 on the security of the first mortgage of lands in New Zealand of the classes of which particulars may be obtained from any postmaster. The advertisement gives complete instructions in other respects for the guidance of intending borrowers. At Hobart on November 7th, John P. Griffiths, aged twenty-eight, a native of Ballarat, succeeded in breaking the world's record for club-swinging, having succeeded in lasting for twenty-seven hours. The previous record, that of T. Bax, of New Zealand, was twenty-six hours. Griffiths finished strong. His sole sustenance was beef tea and biscuits. He proposes exhibiting in Melbourne shortly. The clubs he used weighed 2^lb each. The Manchester Rifles paraded last night in the Assembly Rooms, and after inspection the company was exercised by Captain Kirton, Lieuts Barltrop and Bray, and Color- Sergt. Milson. At the conclusion of the drill Captain Kirton reminded those present of the fact they would be inspected by Colonel Fox on Wednesday, December 4th, when every absentee would be fined. The strictest punctuality was enjoined, as Col. Fox is very particular on that point. Last night as the 9 o'clock train from Wanganui reached the Palmerston platform a young woman attempted to alight while the train was in motion, with the result that she fell between the carriages and platform. Fortunately a passenger on the train and a couple of gentlemen, who were on the platform noticed the occurrence and managed to grasp the clothing of the woman and hold her in such a position until the train stopped which prevented her getting between the wheels of the carriages. There is a story told of Mark Twain and his friend Charles Dudley Warner. The latter is fond of long walks, while Mark Twain is nothing of a pedestrian. On one occasion Twain met Warner and said to him, " Warner, I have a verse in the Bible that just fits my case.' ' What is it ? " asked Warner. " Blessed is the man that walketh not," was the reply. •'• Oh, no," answered Warner, " That is not the verse that was written for your benefit was this—' And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain (Twain).'" In the five-mile Cycling Championship in Melbourne, won by Parsons, there was some difficulty in letting Porta, the Italian rider, know the state of the race, as he does not understand English, but at leneth Signor Tomaso De Alba's services were requisitioned. The eminent vocalist at once assumed a Garibaldian attitude, an*£ a,s bis .compatriot passed called in-deep resonant bass tones, " Cinque milia." The crowd, evidently thinking the cry was some weird patriotic form of Italian cycling slang, took it up emphatically, " Sink the* camellia 1 Yer can-'t do it Witb sTa^fc ?arsons j"

Two lots of cattle have been withdrawn j from Messrs Gorton and Son's Waituna I . sale. Entries for Messrs Gorton and Son's Feilding sale on the 6th instant are now : ; advertised. It will be seen they are I numerous and important. j The total losses of the Japanese Army i during the late war has been published in an official report. The troops in operation numbered 60,979, out of which number 4113 were lost — viz 734 killed in act. | ion, 231 died of wounds, and 3138 of disease, 1602 of these deathsibeing attributed to cholera, which is known to have made havoc on both sides. A rather droll incident happened the other day) as a shopkeeper was standing in front of his shop, which is situated in a small country town. A lady cyclist, who had just dismounted, being in doubt as to the road which she ought to take to bring her to her destination, came wheeling her machine in the direction of the aforesaid country shopkeeper. The lady, who wore the knicker costtume, much to the amusement of the shopman, came to him with the question lls this the way to Wareham ?" The retailer, not understanding the question or its purport, answered accordingly to the train of his thoughts, and said in his blunt way, " Well, mum, I can't say as ow it is. My wife wears em under her petticoats, so to speak." The lady cyclist remounted in haste.