Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 271, 21 May 1896, Page 2

Local and General News.

The S.M. Court will sit at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Captain Edwin wired at noon to-day : — Indications for frost to-night. Mr Beckett will hold a stock sale at Marton to-morrow. Mr C. Carr will hold a stock sale at his Feilding yards to-morrow. A dance will be held in the Cheltenham Hall on Monday evening. Mr Cutler, pianoforte tuner, is now in Feilding, and is staying at the Feilding Hotel. Mr Milson has just received a consignment of the latest books by the most popular authors. Ladies whose names have appeared on the electoral roll as spinsters, but are now married, are reminded that if they wish to vote at the next elections they must appear on the roll under their present names. From the Foxton Herald we learn that Mr F. R. Young has relinquished the agency of the Queen of the South, which he has conducted so successfully for many years. Mr Overend, of Wellington has been appointed in his stead. The music of the cantata entitled "The Ancient Mariner," by Barnett, proposed to be taken by the Harmonic Society this season, arrived in Feilding yesterday, and will be practised for the first time in the Fore6(ers' Hall at 7.30 this evening, when a good attendance is requested. Mr F. Weiss, champion billiard player of Australasia, gave an exhibition game at Marton last evening, where be played against Mr R. Hunt, conceding him 600 in 1000. The game was declared closed when the scores were — Weiss 900 odd Hunt 700. Mr Weiss' highest break was 126. At the meeting of the Feilding Debatine Society on Tuesday evening next the subject under discussion will be " That a single tax would promote the happiness and prosperity of mankind." Mr E. Witby, of Auckland, will lead in the affirmative and Mr G. Wilks in the negative. There is every prospect of this being the most interesting debate yet held by this society. The Railway Department have decided to charge a maximum rate of 30s per truck for firewood from stations between Woodville and Kopua, inclusive, to stations between Hastings and Spit, inclusive. This rate will operate for 6 months in order to test whether an increased firewood traffic can be worked up. It is equal to 10s per cord. The Wellington correspondent of the Napier Telegraph says : — The latest gossip is to the effect that the Premier intends to try and pull off a double event at the next elections by standing for Westland and Wellington suburbs, and there is this much truth m the yarn. Some devoted admirers of Iho Premier in the latter electorate are hawking a requisition about, asking him to contest tbe seat with Dr Newman." Cremation does not appear to be making much headway. According to the annual report of the Cremation Society of England last year there were only 208 cremations carried out in the United Kingdom — 150 at WoUing and 58 at Manchester, this is an increase compared with previous years, but the figures show that the idea of cremation still commends itself only to a very few. Glasgow has now, however, got a crematorium, and Liverpool is thinking about it. Men think they know, because they are sure they feel ; and are firmly convinced, because strongly agitated. Hence proceed that haste and violence with which devout persons of all religions condemn the rites and doctrines of others, and the furious zeal and bigotry with which they maintain their own ; while, perhaps, if both were equally well understood, both would be found to have the same meaning, and only to differ in the modes of conveying it. R. P. Knight. | An unpleasant sensation has been caused at Dimboola, 250 miles northwest from Melbourne, by the vagaries of a locomotive on the overland line from Adelaide. This particular engine started of its own accord, ran out of the shed on to the main line, and made for Melbourne at a speed of fifteen miles an hour. The line was cleared by telegraph, and an engine which started in pursuit found the wanderer five miles away, and brought it to a standstill on a stiff grade and with waning steam power. Mr F. Hunt, the well-known and popular Marton cyclist, made a successful attempt to break the cycling record from Marton to "Wanganui yesterday, which was previously held by Mr Allen, of Wanganui. Hunt did the distance in 1 hour 15rnin, beating the previous record by 12, and this notwithstanding that he was unpaced and also capsized through running into a mob ofcsheep. Mr Hunt took the tram home, and on his arrival started for Bulls with the intention of lowering E. Finn's record of 59min 55secs from Marton to Bulls and back, and in which, notwithstanding his previous journey, Mr Hunt wap also successful, covering the distance in 57min. — Mercury. The Carnival concert and variety company with a very strong repertoire consisting of ballads, comic songs, banjo solos, dances, humourous sketches and farces, will tour up to Cheltenham tomorrow night, then on to Birmingham on Saturday evening. On Sunday a grand sacred concert will be given in Birmingham, when Miss Florence Vane, Messrs Power, DeLiisle, Blake and ftiley will render high class musical items. A short lecture by Mr DeLisle on " The sublime in religious worship from a Poet's view," will close the concert. On Monday Rangiwahia will be afforded a treat by tbe appearance of this strong and accomplished company, Avho return to Feilding on Tuesday for a tour as far as Wanganui. The timber-fellers of Sweden, Norway, Russia, and several other countries, as well as those of Canada, have a way 'of felling forest giants which beats anything that can be done with an axe iv the hands of the most experienced woodman. It is one of the most simple operations imaginable and consists of binding a series of compressed cakes of gun-cotton around the tree trunk wjth a small copper wire. To this wire a battery of sufficient strength is attached, and at the proper moment a current of electricity is tnrned on which explodes the gun cotton. The force of such an explosion has the effect of felling the tree instantly, tbe severed portions of the trunk being almost as smoothly divided as though the work had been done by a saw. A- conference of members of the various school committees in 'Palmerston — College street, Campbell street and Terrace End — was held yesterday afternoon to consider , the question of secondary education in Palmerston. It was resolved that this meeting does not approve of the conversion of either of the local schools into a high school, but is strongly in favor, of a separate college being established in Palmerston ; and that the members of the Wanganui Education Board be asked to take steps to set apart a fund for the establishment of a college ia Palmerston and that the member for the district be asked to use his best endeavours to obtain an endowment for the same purpose. The opinion was expressed by several speakers, that, a portion of She reyen uc derived from the Wangsinui Girls' Cpliege Endowment should be .d^svotedto establisUing a rCoUeg§ in Palmerston, and Mr^ Pirani promised to ask Parliament to grant :endowinen|i for secondary education : £po Pjj^mej^ton.U

Mr W. S. Barber has been appointed ranger in the Kiwitea County. Sir Robert Stout delivers a political address at Wanganui next Monday night. An inset is published in today's issue from Messrs Nelson, Moate and Co., tea merchants, Wellington. There are now on view at the shop of Mr McKenzie, Manchester street, some real blackthorn sticks. The Premier is announced to speak at Hastings on Friday night, and at Danevifke and Waipawa next week. The Rev Innes Jones will hold services on Sunday next in Birmingham at 11 a.m., and St Agnes', Kiwitea, at 2.30 p.m. The Engineer-in-rCliief, Mr W. Hales, invites fresh tenders for railway sleepers sawn and hewn, for the EketahunaWoodville railway. The Rev F. W. Chatterton will lecture in St John's Sunday school room to-mor-row evening, on his recent travels in Japan, illustrated by limelight views. A race between a cyclist and a skater for a distance of two miles was won by the latter in Masterton. The bike conceded the skates a quarter of a mile start. The residence of Mr Martin Boyle at Carnarvon was destroyed by fire on Monday night. The fire was caused by a child upsetting a lamp. Nothing was saved. According to the Greytown Standard a resident of Featherston was caught redhanded at sheep-stealinsr, and the owner of the sheep has given him a month in which to leave the district. Messrs Wood and Judkins announce that they will hold their usual auction aalo at the Feilcling Auction Mart on Saturday next. A varied assortment of goods will be sold without reserve. A meeting of the burgesses will be held in the Drill Hall, Stafford street, on Friday nest, at 8 o'clock in the evening, to consider the proposal to light a portion of the Borough by electricity. For other particulars see advertisement. Mr G. B. Healey, saddler and harness maker, has removed from the premises lately accupicd by him in Fergusson street to more commodious premises in Kinabolton road, opposite Mr J. Bishop's blacksmith shop. A meeting of the trustees and committee of the AVeslej'an Church was held last night iv the church wben it was resolved to purchase an orgau. The instrument, which is a first class one, will be in its place on Sundaj 7 , olst iust. A second ■wrestling contest between Douald Diunie and J. Sutherland lias been arranged, the latter laying odds of £30 to i2O that his opponent cannot throw him three times, Groeco-Roman style, within the hour. 'The match is to take place at Auckland this week. We understand that Mr E. J. Allen, who has been agent of the Bank of New Zealand for some years in Feilding, has been promoted to the position of rnauager of the New Plymouth branch of the Bank. We congratulate Mr Allen on the fact. Three important events will take place in Feilding to morrow night. The meeting of burgesses re electric light, Mr Wr Watson's famous war lecture, and the Rev. Mr Chatterton's lecture on Japau. It is a pity that some mutual arrangement could not have been made to prevent this clashing. Our Pobangina correspondent writes : —I understand the Government have set aside ten acres of that ground, just above Messrs Adsett's mill, as a recreation ground, and that a meeting will shortly be held for election of trustees in whom the ground will be vested. — Standard. The Rongotea Dairy Factory returns for the month of April were as follows : — Quantity of milk put through 40,453 gallons ; average test, 4*2 ; from which was made 17,6241bs of butter, sold at 8d per lb, equal to £'578 9s 4d, which gave a payment to the suppliers of 3 5-6 th d per gallon of lllbs. At the District Court at Hawera three witnesses who had been summoned did not appear. The Court was told that they were at the Stratford races. His Honor District Judge Kettle remarked that they would have to be brought before the Court to explain. Horse racing he said, appeared to overrun everything else in this country. At the Wanganui Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr Justice Kettle, James Markham, licensee of the Railway Hotel at Turakina, was charged on information with having permitted drunkenness on his licensed premises on Sunday, 23rd February, 1896. Three witnesses were called by Constable Moon, and the charge being proved, accused was convicted and fined £20, also all costs of Court, and license endorsed. An invention has been patented by Messrs W. W. Rising and W. M'Kenzie, of Carterton, for improving the tone of violins and other stringed instruments, including pianofortes. A strip of wood is fixed longitudinally inside the back of the instrument, and bears three low projections, on each of which is laid a thin glass disc two and a half inches m diameter, held in position by a peg passing through a hole in the middle. A largely attended meeting was held at the Wesleyan Church yesterday afternoon, the Rev W. Keall presiding. Representatives were present from all parts of the FeiJding Circuit, and from the Fowlers and Palmerston Circuits. Various methods of work were discussed with a view to more systematic working of the whole district. In the evening a meeting was held in the schoolroom, addresses being given by the Revs Peryman (of Fowlers) and C. C. Harrison. There was a good attendance at the social given last night in the Assembly Rooms under the auspices of the Oddfellows Lodge. About thirty couples " graced the floor " to music supplied by the newly- formed Oddfellows' string band (which is improving rapidly), and a very enjoyable evening was spent by those present. The officers of the lodge worked well to ensure the comfort of their patrons, and the success of the social was well deserved. Thanks is also due to a number of lady friends who assisted at the supper table, etc. Mr C. Aitken filled the duties of M.C.