Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 204, 2 March 1897, Page 2

Local and General News.

The following are the vital statistics for Palmerston for February :— Births, 22 ; deaths, 8 ; marriages, 4. The Palmerston lawn tennis players visit Feilding on Saturday next, to play the return match with the Feilding Club. Additions are made to tbe entries for Messrs Abraham and Williams's Palmerston sale, and Messrs Gorton and Son's Waituna sale. Mr William Manson, of Edcnki lie Park, Rangitikei Line, left Feilding yesterday en route for England via Melbourne. Mr Manson proposes to be a sent about nine months. It is notified in the Gazette that the following sections will be sold by auction here on May 12th : — Section 86, Jackeytown. 5 acres, atshe upset price of £75 ; section 1401, 1403, 1405, Bunnythorpe, 3 acres, at the upset price of £15. Until the arrival of new winter goodß expected shortly, Messrs Spence and Spence will continue to sell the remains of summer stock at reduced prices. Messrs Spence and Spence report haviui> had a most successful sale, the Ben M^rche becoming more popular than ever. " Everybody has heard the tale of the goose that laid the golden egg, but very seldom is gold found in bullocks. Edward Pascoe, a butcher residing at the Lizard, in Cornwall, recently found a spade guinea, in splendid preservation, and dated 1788, embedded in the stomach of a bullock he waa dressing." The annual picnic in connection with St John's Church, which was postponed from Saturday last to yesterday afternoon on account of the unfavorable weather, had to be hastily concluded owing to tbe threatening nature of the weather and the children's races could not be hold. The races for the toys will be held at some future date on the Oval.

Mr William Heald was the successf al enderer for the erection of an eightroomed residence at Sandon for Mr Charles Edwards. A steam merry-go-round will open in Feilding to-morrow afternoon in the paddock opposite the Empire Hotel and will continue every afternoon and evenIng for one week. Mr Beckett will hold a special sale o 3tock at his Marton yards next Friday, an account of Mr T. H. Bredin and other vendors, entries for which will be published to-morrow. Tomorrow the opening banquet in connection with the new Methodist Church at Rongotea will be held. A special programme has been provi^"' for the public meeting, and given fine weather a large attendance is expected. A correspondent of the North Otago Times says that at Maheno, at one time a stronghold of prohibition, so little interest is now taken in the subject that at a lecture announced to be delivered the other evening at the public hall by the Rev Mr Walker there was an audience of one person only. The Rev Wm Watt, for 27 years missionary in the New Hebrides, is to give a free lantera lecture in the Presbyterian Church to night. Now that France is seeking to annex the New Hebrides group the subject of the lecture will have special interest. As is well known the proposed annexation is boing resisted by the Australasian Governments. The annual barrest thanksgiving fes tival was held in St John's, Feilding, on Friday last, and was continued on Sunday evening, the services on both occasions being fully choral. The Church was beautifully decorated for the occasion. The Vicar entoned the services and also preached. Mrs Butler presided at the organ and Mr Butler sang the solo in the anthem with great expression ; the singing throughout being capitally rendered by the choir. A case of importance to owners of bush land was decided in the Masterton Magistrate's Court on Friday morning. John Broderson, of Mauriceville East, claimed £12 from Thomas Hillas for damage sustained through a fire spreading from the defendant's property. The fire was started by a contractor for Hillas, who set fire to a stump, and the flames spread to the plaintiff's property, and destroyed a quantity of firewood. Mr Haselden, S,M., gave judgment for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed, with costs. Mr Freyberg, scientific timber expert, has received from London, from the cdi tor of the Timber Trades Journal, intimation of bis intention to publish an illustrated work on the American timber trade. Full particulars Lave been gleaned for this work specially in the United States, and the book, when completed, will be of great value. The editor further states that he will publish at a later date a similarly exhaustive work on the timber trade of New Zealand and Australia. When Mr Freyberg was at Home the timber Trades Journal published a series of articles from his pen on the timbers of New Zealand. The secretary of the Feilding Library reports the following new books and magazines that have come to hand : — 1 Eric ; or Little by Little,' Farrar ; ' Lady Adelaide,' Wood ; ' When London Burned,' Henty; 'Nancy Noon,' Swift; ' More Bywords,' Young ; ' Weir of Hermiston,' Stevenson ; ' The Lower Life,' Gribble ; * Woman Regained, 1 Barlow ; ' The Juggler and the Soul,' Mathers ; ' The Princess Desiree,' Black ; ' The Stickit Minister,' Crockett ; ' A Capful o' Nails, 1 Murray ; Sentimental Tommy, 1 Barrie. Magazines — The Australasian, Pall Mall Magazine, St. James 1 Budget, Illustrated London News, Punch.