Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 301, 26 June 1896, Page 2

Local and General News.

The Oddfellows Lodge will meet this eveuing. A concert, etc., will be given in the Colyton Hall this evening. An American authority recommends bran for the scour iv lambs. The Oroua river and its tributaries were in high flood last night. "Orders have reached Greymouth for 3,000,000 feet of timber for Africa. Entries for Messrs Abraham and Williams' Palmerston sale on July 2nd are advertised. The Oddfellows String Band Assembly dance bas been postponed from July Ist to July 4th. Owing to the inclemency of the weather the Manchester Rifles did not hold a parade last night. Onr readers are reminded of tbe grand ovgan recital to be given in the Weslpyan Church this evening. Mr W. Carthew notifies in our wanted column be is now prepared to forward Hansard to any address. Tbe Skating Rink was not opened in tbe Cheltenham Hall last evening owing to the downpour of rain. We have to thank the Government printer for a batch of Parliamentary papers and No. 2 of Hansard. The Rev Innes Jones will hold services on Sunday next at Birmingham at 11 a.m., and St Agnes', Kiwitea, at 2.30 p.m. Mr Withy will address a public meeting in the Assembly Rooms on Monday evening next, on the subject of the Single Tax. The address will commence at 8 , o'clock, aud all are invited. Colonel North was seized with a fatal attack of apoplexy while presiding over a meeting at the Nitrate Company's offices in London. He fainted in bis chair, and expired at 4 o'clock the same afternoon. Prior to the meeting, Colonel North ate a dozen of oysters and drank a bottle of ale. The Boy's Club, which exists for the pleasure and profit of boys between tbe a^es of 10 and 16, will meet in the Wesleyan school-room to-morrow afternoon. We wish to enlist the hearty co-operation of parents in this effort, and ask them to send their boys along. The Library Committee have added a complete set of the statutes of New Zealand to their reference library, embracing the laws of the colony from 1843 to 1895. These, in common with otber works of reference are open to the public free of charge during the Librarians hours of attendance, viz., 10 to 12.30, 2 to 4, and 7 to 8 daily. It is reported that the English Factory Act is already having an unfavorable efi leot upon the confectionery trades and allied industries, in consequence of the Act forbidding manufacturers either to work tbeir hands under eighteen overtime, or to put them on night work. One large firm is said to have placed an order with a German house for over three thousand gross of crackers ; and others are expected to follow the example, the result being a loss all round to the trade in the Home country. A correspondent ofthe Hawera Star records an instance of real practical Christianity at Elttiam. Two swaggers who were camped on the east end of the town for a rest were met by one of the townsfolk (noted for his generosity) with the question, " Can't yon get any work ?" "No," replied one of tbe swaggers. " Can you give us a short job ? We're ! stony-broke." " Here," replied the townsman, " come with me." And he took them into one of the stores and 1 bought tbem a sack of potatoes, 501 bof flour, butter, etc., and getting an old borse, handed them a pound note, with the remark, " Here's a start for you ; now get on, and don't forget to send the borse back." It is needless to say the swaggers were very pleased, and started along the Mountain road in high glee, steering for Stratford. A case of general interest to farmers and others was heard at Gore before Mr R. S. Hawkins, S.M., last week. It was one in which an application was made by plaintiff to compel defendant to erect his portion of a boundary fence under section 36 of Fencing Act, 1895. His Worship i decided that as formal notice had not been eiven under section 11, the jurisdiction of the court was not founded. Any prior yerbal agreement between the parties took the jurisdiction out of the court under the Act of 1865. Plaintiff s solicitor remarked th&b nearly every fence ia the country was erected acccording to verbal agreement and if the court ruled that notice to fence had to be given first, the cost of such fence could not be enforced. The application was dismissed with costs. From several somewhat disjointed letters received by bis friends in Feilding from New Guinea, it would appear that Mr Whit Monckton will take advantage of a direct steamer for Sydney and come on to New Zealand for a short visit. Oar young townsman has had a somewhat exciting time on his trading schooner wben afloat, for he managed to knock a hole in her on a reef, and when ashore also things were lively, for he was awakened one night by a snake squirming and prospecting in and around his bed, a difficulty he got out of by wrapping himself up in a blanket, and yelling to his natives to come and destroy the reptile. He brings witb him a number of Island curios which will doubtless prove interesting. After tbe accident to his schooner he sold her at what she had cost him at first. Barring a few touches of fever, and the accidents and discomforts always associated with a roving life, Mr Monckton has had a most cheerful time and writes in good spirits. He says Mr Sylvester will go Home to England,; from Gooktbwh, ' and l ' from | thence he will return to New Zealand.

Mr Haggitt, of the firm of Guy and Haggitt, solicitors,* will take up his resi dence in Feilding permanently on Mon day next. The Premier says there is a usurer in Wellington who ten years ago started business as a pawnbroker with £500. This man is now worth £12,000, clear of all liabilities. This is to prepare the way for the Premier's Usury Prevention Bill. The above no doubt, is good, but Hawke's Bay, as usual wbere money-lending is concerned, can go one better. We know of a man who some years ago was in business and got time from bis creditors. He has since blossomed forth into a usurer, and is now reputed to be worth £16,000 1 -Telegraph. " Since we went a-fishing " we have not read a better yarn tban that told of a pig by a correspondent of tbe Daily Telegraph. It was a female, and in process of time produced a litter of young, numbering ten. At an early age, the mother had the misfortune to lose her tail in an accident, and since then has gone through life with nothing but a stump. The young ones, however, were endowed witb tails like other little piggies. This did not satisfy the old one, who seemed to grow intensely jealous of these appendages to her off spring, and one day she got the litter in a row and bit off their tails one by one, notwithstanding their protesting squeaks. The mother is now quite pleased to see tbe family all alike. The London correspondent of the St. Petersburg Novosti reports tbat tbe following observations on the Soudan expedition were made to him by a British Cabinet Minister : — The British Government understands what it has to do to to satisfy France and Russia. Tbe Soudan expedition was undertaken for two reasons— to deliver Egypt from the incursions of the Dervish hordes, and to bring aid to tbe Italians. Moreover, Great Britain is resolutely determined, in the event of her evacuation of Egypt, not to permit any power to take ber place in tbe country. Tbat is why Great Britain wishes to strengthen her position in the Soudan. With tbe assistance of the Italians at Kassala, and of the Belgians, a great expedition, is projected from Dongola, Suakin, and Uganda. The communications of the Suakin column will be facilitated by a railway crossing the desert to the Nile. This railway will be constructed gradually to keep pace with the advance of the troops. If the expedition realises the hopes entertained of it, Great Britain will be enabled to hold the territories on the Upper Nile as far as the equatorial zone, and to secure tranquillity for Egypt, having a railway from Suakim to tbe Nile, and British garrisons at Berber and to the couth ol Khartoum. Then the British will be able to evacuate Cairo and the Lower Nile, and thus to satisfy France and Russia. Great Britain will remain on the Upper Nile at the gates of Egypt, but Egypt will be free from Berber to Alexandria, owning the Khedive as sovereign. If Enrope, nevertheless, insists on the neutralisation of Egypt, Great Britain will bave no objection.