LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 16, 19 July 1887, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Many will regret to learn that Major Porter is indisposed. Chamber business was taken before tha Supreme Court ail yesterday afternoon. The bankruptcy business before the Supreme Court begins this morning; Sir George Grey is to sneak at ’Woodville, Hawkes Bay, at an early date. Mr Ballance is to address the Wanganui electors to-night. At the B.M. Court yesterday Alfred Wsston was fined 10s for drunkeneas. Thera is a large hula in the Lowe street footpath in front of Mr Jagg’s shop which tha BOrOiigh Council should attend to, Mr Allan McDonald's address to the electors of the East Coast appsats this morning in our advertising columns. Mr B. Hallenstein has withdrawn from Dunedin Central, and will not contest any seat. _ The merry burglar full twenty times in Welling.on within a fortnight. And yet the Wellington papers are forever lauding the efficiency of the “foorce.” A big sum. For the year ending March 14, L 15.352 14s 4d was expended by the Christeuureh Charitable Aid Board. MOOT was for actual charitable aid. A complaint has been made to the County Council t.iat the road between the Maraetaha School and Llurewai is in a wretched state, and nearly impassable for traffic of any kind. Owing to a number of solicitors being engaged in the Supreme Court, the Trust Commissioner’s Court was adjourned until next Monday, Should any special application be m-de during the week it will be taken by the Commissioner. The County Council meets next Thursday when Or. Gray’s motion to sell the Bose Hotel will be considered. This is the property which formed such a feature in the proceedings of the County Council in the HaigComrnon Shelton and Co. affair.

The Harbour Board meet to-night, when owing to the non-eleotion of the chairman (Mr Graham) as a Government nominee, a new member will have to be elected to the chair. The question of changing the name of the district will also be discussed. Mr Bold, Inspector of Telegraphs, arrived from Napier on Sunday, and is at present up the Coast making complete arrangements for the working of the Tologa telephone. It appears that the line had been closed owing to its not having been officially opened. Messages can now be forwarded. There was a good attendance of members and visitors at the Wesleyan Mutual Improvement Society’s meeting last night, when a lecture on “ Books, and How to Bead them ” delivered before the Society for the extension of University education, by Mr John Morley, came under discussion. The meeting was a very interesting one. The Town Clerk has received from Wellington all the documents in connection with the Harbour Board Bill. Owing to the dissolution of Parliament all the preliminary work, such as advertising, &c., in connection with the Bill, will have to be again gone through. This will mean considerable extra expense. The following are the estimates of the available revenue for works in the Cook County Council, 1887Waiapu Riding, £3859 6s lOd; Tologa, £137 14s 7d; Gisborne, .£1325 19s sd; Arai, £465 7s Id ; Waikohu, £930 Ils 4d. The Waimata riding shows a deficiency of £616 17s Id. The total amount available is £5602 Is Bd.

Oh consistency, glorious is thy name, and few he thy followers I The Directors of the Wellington Woollen Factory are all strong Protectionists, and yet they imported last week 100 tons of Newcastle coals for their mills, and this in spite of the fact that the Grey or Buller coals are just as cheap and good. A Sydney paper sayslt has cost the N.Z. Government L 70.000 in cash to give away 900 farms for nothing. Most of the naw settlers have taken to growing pumpsins, because with that particular crop it is only necessary to stick in the seeds and the rest of the work goes on by itself while the farmer is away sinning. Some obtrusive politicians are grumbling, however, and complain that there is too much pumpkin in the world already. A would-be member's smart repartee. Says the Woodville Examiner" Mr MeCardle was not provided with a chair at the meeting on Saturday night. At the conclusion of his speech, one of those prerent got up and in reply to Mr MeCardle, said ne was looking for a seat for him (the candidate). “ Oh, were you,” replied Mr MeCardle," well, I am seeking for a seat myself." This smart specimen of repartee “ brought down the house.” An exciting incident occurred in Gladstone road on Saturday afternoon. A horse, encumbered with a side-saddle (which had slipped round under its belly) clashed round Derby street and then full speed up the footpath, past the Royal Hotel, and up to Cobden street, where the animal’s impetuosity was somewhat checked. After some trouble, attended with considerable danger to children and pedestrians, the horse was again caught. At a place called King Sterndale near Buxton, Derbyshire, recently a party of ruffians entered the premises of a dairy farmer,, named Skidmore, in the dead of night, and cut off the tails of forty-one cows. The motive of this diabolical outrage was neither political nor agrarian. It was not even dictated by private malice. The only object which can be assigned to it is the desire to obtain the hair in the tufts at the ends of the tails.

A very laughable incident occurred in Lowe street the other night. A young gentleman on his way homeward came in contact With something close to the fence of a private residence. The night being pitch dark he was unable to distinguish that which stopped his progress, and for the moment imagining he had knocked up against a female humbly apologised. The female, however, turned out to be the branch of a tree which was bending over the fence. In utter disgust he was about to proceed onward when his ears caught the sound of approaching footsteps. Rather curious to hear in what manner the next person would conduct himself or herself under the same circumstances he watched the course of events with considerable pleasure. On came the unsuspecting pedestrian until he met the obstruction. Evidently thinking he had met with some rough character he let out first with the right, quickly followed by the left. Judging by the eloquent flow of language which was immediately heard, the blow was well aimed. One of our respected citizens has had the skin removed from off his knuckles, but, of course the striking of a tr e need not necessarily account for this. The owner of the tree has thought it n.eess ry to have the branch imprisoned insi. eth bars of the fence, as he complains br.terl. that some one has been barking it. The in ident will show the difference in the el ararter of two people. One miets a branch of a tree, and apologises for getting in the wav, the other meets the tame object and barks his knuckles over it.

On our fourth page will bo found an interesting article on Fair Trade. The article formed part of a leader in the London Times. An account of the present circumstances of the informers on the Phoenix Park murderers is also to be found on the same page. What should prove a most enjoyable evening’s entertainment toffies off to-morrow evening at McFarlane's Hall in aid of the funds of the Gisborne Bowing Club. A number of well-known local amateurs are taking part in the entertainment, and as the prices are tlior'S known as popular, Ss and Ip, there (should be a capital nouse. Not the least unworthy part of the programme will be the farce of “ The Happy Man." This is said to be aside-splitting prcdiiotion, and as most of the performers are well and favourably known to local fame, we look forward to a hearty laugh or two, which is belter than a whole host of medicine in these bad times. The Timal’tl ’Mail' says it's noneehse about Toni Hall dying of asthma, The wdnieh at Sydney are raising £5OOO for the, purpose of founding a college in connection with the Sydney University. Thirty-one murders were committed in San Francisco in 1886, and only one murderer, a Chinaman, was hanged. The ostrich feathers which were sold recently at Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, realised £26,245. The Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association has got into a bad way. Some £4OOO has got to be provided without delay, the. Mortgagee having given notice to sell their property if the interest is not paid. A gem in the way of local loans was authorised the other day in Wairarapa North, The proposal was to borrow £5O for forming a piece of road, and there were but two votes exercisable, both of which Were given in favor; and so the loan was carried unanimously. Tha Emperor of Germany received no fewer than 1648 telegrams of congratulation on his late birthday—lsl7 from Europe, 23 from Asia, 92 from America, 10 from Africa, and 6 from Australia. In the event of the ensuing Agricultural Show in Melbourne partaking of an Intercolonial character,, it is understood that Mr John Deans, Mr W. Bong, and probably two or three more breeders in the Christchurch district, will send animals for competition. The English House of Commons recently spent more than half a day discussing an item involving £lO. A disgusted member offered to pay the £lO himself if his doing so would expedite matters, but hfs proposition was looked on as revolutionary, One fact mentioned by Mr Goschen in his Budget speech recently is distinctly interesting. There are no fewer than ninetyfive people in England who have incomes of £50,000 a year. This, in round figures, represents £lOOO a week, or about £l4O a day. Mr John Grigg, of Christchurch, has, it is stated, nearly completed the purchase of horses for the consignment of 300 he is about to send to India in the s.s. Bucephalus. Mr Hawken is also preparing a shipment for the same market, and will probably send it by way of Melbourne.

A Melbourne paper, speaking of the disclosures likely io ba brought to light in the Mount Bennie affair, says:—“We laugh at the Americans for their habit of keeping a convict in gaol for months and months before executing the sentence of death. But aren’t the Americans right ? Is it not a very poor sentence which will not stand the test of six months’ consideration ?” The Dublin Evening Mail, a rabid organ of the Unionists, speaking of the Parnell trouble, gives the Thunderer away rather cheaply by observing : “ If the Nationalist leader electsnot to fight, the leading journal will, in due course, forge other links in the chain of evidence on which its serious allegations rest.” “ Forge ” is “ good, very good, very excellent good,”—Bulletin. It is all very well at times to quote Bobby Burns about seeing ourselves as others see us, but when there exist such insane writers as the person who contributed the following to an Auckland paper, the line must be drawn “We are glad to hear that at last Tauranga is becoming known as a clean and healthy locality, Several people from Gisborne, in consequence of the typhoid fever which is raging there, nave decided to throw in their lot with us, and still there are more to follow. Typhoid is almost unknown here, there not having been half a dozen oases the last twenty years. We take nothing stronger than measles and ten per cent, hop beer.” We can afford to congratulate Tauranga—not on its possession of such ignorant scribes, but as to its climate, and the local brew, too, if it comes anywhere near Crawford’s in point of excellence. It might also be as well to spare the Tauranga people a repetition of comparisons recently made between *' Poverty Bay " and “ Bay of Plenty " by a member of our Harbor Board, whan the question of changing the name was being discussed,