Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 3, 3 July 1896, Page 2

Local and General News.

.» Next Saturday the Manawatn Golf Club visit Feildiug to play the Feilding Club. The .weather was very boisterous last night and the showers of rain and hail were exceptionally heavy. Mr C. E. Armstrong, of the Public Works Department, is taking up his residence in Feilding. It is announced that Sid Frifcb, the American burlesque and fancy skater, will appear in the Skating Riuk on the Stli instant. The irreverent members of tbe House say tliat Mr Seddon as Goliath, looks on Mr Pirani as David. Each thirsts for the otheis (political) gore. A meeting of those interested in providing winter evening amusement for the youth of Feilding will be held in the Foresters' Hall this evening at 7.30. The Railway Department have been working night and day since Sunday driving stringy bark piles to strengthen the approaches to the Pohangina Bridge* After seeing the results of the flood there should be no doubr, in the minds of the Pohangina Councillors where they should erect a bridge across the Pohangina. Roughly speaking, says a Southland paper, the J. G. Ward Company, during the three and a half years of its existence, lost money at the rate of £100 a day. Mr A. Eade has just received at the Corner Furniture Warehouse a fine assortment of new goods, including perambulators, rush chairs, and otber articles which are mentioned in his advertisement today. Mr Walker, member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, bas been appointed by the Good Templars to take up the temperance work in New Zealand, and is expected to commence almost at once. The punt which should have been at the Lower Gorge ferry was fouud high and dry near Stoney Creek. Thepuut has sustained very little damage and tho Board intend hauling her up to her original bearings for use uutil next flood. It is supposed she will be iv working order by next Monday. Our readers are reminded of the usual weekly sale to be held at Messrs Wood and Judkins auction mart to-morrow at 1 p.m. An allotment of land in Manchester street, 16 x 66, adjoining Mr S. Svendsen's boot shop, the property of Mr W. Stevens, will also be offered. Particulars of sale are given in the advertisement. The present system of school committee elections, under which nominations are taken right np to the moment of election, does not give general satisfaction, and Mr Graham is introducing a Bill which he considers will improve it. It i 3 a simple measure, merely providing for all nominations being made exactly a week before the annual meeting of householders, when the ballot is to be held. An easy billet or two is foreshadowed in a question given notice of by Mr Stevens, viz., whether Government will place two caretakers in chargft of the totara forest comprising about 20,000 acres of the best milling timber in the colony, situated in the Waimarino Block, near Taumarunui, for the purpose of preventing its destruction by fire, the value of this timber having been estimated by the late En-gineer-in-Chief (Mr Blackett) to be worth at least £750,000?— Standard. Every person who goes in for gardening, whether amateur or professional, has no doubt experienced at various times the j disappointment consequent on the nongermination of seeds sown. A repetition j of this annoyance may be easily prevented by purchasing this season's seeds from Mr F. Mackenzie, grocer, fruiterer, etc., Manchester street, who has just received a large supply from Messrs Gibbons and Co., of Wellington. The reputation of this firm as suppliers of thoroughly rehable seeds has long been firmly established, and intending purchasers would do well to give them a trial. At a committee meeting of the Feilding Harmonic Society held last evening it was arranged to hold the first miscellaneous concert of the season on the 13th Ang ust next. The programme will consist chiefly of choruses and orchestral pieces by the members of the Society but will also include several piano, viola and violin solos by well known players from Palmerston North, who have kind- ' ly consented to give their assistance to help to make the concert a snccess. In view of tbe above the members are particularly requested to make an effort to attend every practice from now to the date of the concert. There is in tbe beautiful cemetery of New Orleans a small plot where each humble gravestone bears the legend "He did not pay for his paper." The grass grows green on these plots, but no floral wreaths deck the stones. All of these men had beeu shot. Did this simple but pathetic rule obtain in New Zealand, the Hanmer plains in Canterbury, and the Ruatanewha plains in Hawke's Bay, would scarcely find room for the many deserving candidates. The dead would jostle each other like fish in a trout hatchery, and the unhappy earthworms would die early of lead poisoning. Fiat justicia mat coelum. For the second time Cr Reid moved in tbe matter, at last night's meeting of the Borough Council, of giving the roadmen instructions to grub up gorse and briars along the roads where they might from time to time be employed. He pointed out that in various streets in the town briars and gorse were spreading and threatened to become very expensive to get rid of if allowed to grow as they had in the past few years. Several councillors spoke against tbe proposal, considering the owners of property opposite which the gorse grew should be made to grub it up and eventually Cr Reid agreed to withdraw his motion. Mr Robbins, representing the Hawera Chamber of Commerce, was introduced to the Minister of Lands last week, and represented the views of the chamber with regard to sending a man to America to make enquiries on the subject of the pork industry. The Hon Mr McKenzie said that the Government would not be disposed to subsidise local effort. Tbey would prefer to send someone at Government expense, and therefore nnder the control of the Government, and to report to the Govern mont. The matter , had received consideration, and he was convinced that now^tbat tbe dairying industry had progressed go f ar something would have to be done to push the pork industry, but uo decision bad yet been arriy^at^^W«»»^ :^?. ,; ,„, . ■

The Oddfellows Assembly dance will j be beld on Wednesday next. j The vital statistics for the district of : Ashurst for the quarter ending June 30th were : births 13 : deaths, 2 ; marriages, 8. Captain Edwin wired at noon to-day : — N.W. to W. and S. heavy gale with , much colder weather, and glass rising soon. Tbe gathering at the Boy's Club to be held in Glasgow House to-morrow after' noon promises to be very pleasant and successful. The boys will carry the programme through, and some time will be | spent in playing at parlour games. vWe advise the boys to roll up in good numbers. ■ ■ t - War is verily " a gentle pastime." Concerning the Lee-Metford rifles! which sends a bullet through a soldier without the latter being bothered much, Conan Doyle writes to the Westminster Gazette — " One topic on which I haye heard very little difference of opinion will be of vast importance if British troops come to be employed. That is whether the small light bullet of the Lee Metford will stop a charging Dervish. The universal opinion seemed to be that it would not. 'You might as well fire peas at them,' said one who had seen much of Arab warfare. It is one thins in a European campaign, where a soldier who is hit can exclaim, ' They have got me 1' with a comfortaDle feeling that he has done his fair share of the work, and can look forward to medical comforts for tbo rest of the campaign. Any bullet will do for him. But the Dervish will come on until he really is stopped, and tbe universal opinion seems io be that the drilling of small holes through him with high-velocity-low-tra-■jectory bullets will not have the slightest offect upon his career.