LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hastings Standard, Issue 73, 21 July 1896, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The lady who left an umbrella in the Kinetosco'pc premises may have same on calling. The Kinetoscope still continues to draw the crowds. After Saturday next it will be moved on to Waipawa. The Council authorities are to be complimented 011 the draining of the " swamp" at the crossing of Warren and Eastbourne streets. Previous to these improvements being made this was a veritable trap at night time during wet weather. Mr P. I). Hogg has definitely decided to contest the Wanganui seat at the forthcoming election. There are now 246 pupils attending the Wellington College, the largest number at any secondary school in the colony. A Scotch paper gravely informs its readers that 1000 French convicts recently escaped from New Caledonia and landed in Australia. It is computed that there are in London some 50,000 families in such a miserable plight that each family has only one room to live in. The late Government Printer (Mr S. Costall) resigned his position at the request of the Government, and it is not prepared to award him any compensation. The number of bicycles imported into New Zealand last year was 1770, valued at .£20,000. In 1892 the number was only 342, of the value of £4525. The duty is 20 per cent, ad valorem A writer in the Wanganui Herald makes the unique suggestion that, in order to prevent landlords from building mere "apologies for houses," every owner should be compelled to live in the house lie erects for one year after its erection, so that he may have practical experience of its draughts and other defects. The New South W T ales Minister of Lands has received a letter from New Orleans in which it is suggested by the writer that the Government should make an importation of the great horned owl to mitigate the rabbit pest. This owl " prefers rabbits for food where they are obtainable, and its destruction of them are marvellous." A singular shooting outrage took place recently at Goodwood, a suburb of Adelaide. Thomas Wallace, a cook, living in Adelaide, was walking towards the station, when he was accosted by a strange man, who suddenly drew a revolver and shot "Wallace in the back. Wallace grappled with the man, who fired two more shots, which also took effect. The second bullet lodged in Wallace's back, and the third in his cheek. Wallace managed to crawl to the station, and was immediately conveyed to the Adelaide Hospital,

Mr J. Sexton, of Woodville, has won the first and third prizes in the Leeds Mercury chess problem competition against the world. Poisoned wheat is having its effect on the early sparrow throughout this district, and hundreds of dead and dying birds are to be seen in the fields. In New South Wales the solicitor who framed the bye-laws for a newly created borough was fined 2s 6d and costs for driving without lights. A valuable fox terrier, the property of Mr D. O'Reilly, was run over by a trap in the Heretaunga Boad to-day, sustaining such injuries as necessitated its destroyal. In the Native Land Court this morning conveyances from sellers in Piripiri were underconsideration. This afternoon Poukawa is being gone into, evidence being taken in claims under Nukanoa, deceased. The X rays of Professor Eontgen, according to the latest intelligence, have revealed the nature of the malformation of the Kaiser's arm, and a simple operation, it is thought, will give him the partial, if not complete use of the limb. Mr Pirani is urging on the Minister for Lands the necessity of subsidising the local bodies for the re-erection of the Lower Gorge bridge, which has been destroyed by floods, and will cost .£12,000 to reinstate. Detective Eodgers, of the Victorian Police Force, arrived in Christchurch on Thursday en route to Monte Video to bring back Geake, the solicitor, of Daylesford, Victoria, who recently absconded. Detective Eodgers leaves by the Bimutaka. The Canterbury Trotting Club brought an action the other day for damages of £5 each for trespass against two bookmakers who appeared on the course notwithstanding a rule of the club forbidding bookmakers from being' present at the race meetings. Judgment was entered against each of the defendants for £2, with £1 lis costs. At the Stratford Police Court on Friday, B. E. Phillips, storekeeper at Strathmore, was charged on three informations with sly-grog selling. He pleaded guilty to one charge, and the two other charges were withdrawn. The Stipendiary Magistrate fined him .£lO, saying he would make the fine light, as it was the firstoffence. A representative meeting of natives was, according to the Wanganui Herald, held at Putiki last week for the purpose of discussing the relative merits of the candidates for the Western Maori electorate. No definite decision seems to have been arrived at as to the selection of any particular candidate. The Ilev. W. Saunders, of Dunedin, says :—lf we could really succeed in developing a taste for serious pursuits by means of our secular system it seems to me that the demand for the Bible in schools would lose much of its force. In his report of the prospects of viticulture in New Zealand, Sign or Bragato says : —The Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa Provinces are pre-eminently suited to the vine, and I look forward to the time when these provinces will be studded with vineyards. A money changers' office in the heart of Marseilles was entered the other day by a gang of up-to-date thieves, who carried with them a steel saw with a small portable petroleum gas engine, with which reinforcements to their natural dexterity they found little or no difficulty in penetrating the iron safe and removing its contents, valued at £6OO. Difficulties have arisen with regard to the administration of Baron Hirsch's estate. More than one of the executors named by the testator have refused to act, and complications have also arisen from the manner in which the will is drawn. It is expected that the property in England which will pay duty to the Chancellor of the Exchequer will fall litttle short of £3,000,000. The transactions of the Cremation Society of England, just to hand, show that the number of these operations performed at Woking during the year 1895 amounted to 150. Strangely enough, in 1894 only one took place, whilst in 1893 there were 101; in 1892, 104 ; and in 1891, 99 During the last eleven years, the total number of operations performed at this centre has been 733. As an instance of the manner in which a liability could be .brought home to a defendant, Mr Hall (says the Southland Times) quoted a case in which a person who was responsible for the keeping in order of a fence and did not fulfil his duty -was held liable for the value of a horse which escaped through that fence and made its way into another paddock where a haystack fell and killed the animal. Sugar-beet growing at Tenterfield, on the New South Wales and Queensland border, is reported on most favorably. One experimenter describes how one test gave 17.2 per cent of sugar and 16 tons scwt. to the acre, the financial return being £l4 12s per acre. Other tests went as high as 19.9 percent of sugar, giving a return of 21s per ton. Not one crop was worth less than 18s per ton of root. Three roots which had been transplanted gave a return of 18.3 per cent of sugar, while all the authorities had previously agreed that roots transplanted were absolutely worthless. Up to the present time about 120 persons had agreed to grow beet, the total area being 466 acres. It was necessary that at least another 680 acres should be promised before a mill would be erected and names are being handed in to complete the necessary acreage. Neil's Compound Sarsaparilla. A household medicine for purifying the blood and toning up the system. In large bottles at 2s 6d at Neil's Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. Stop that Cough by taking Neil's Balm of Gilead, a positive cure for coughs, colds, chronic bronchitis, influenza, &c. In large bottles at 2s 6d, at Neil's Botanic Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. Neil's Celebrated Liver Tonic, a pure botanic remedy for all affections of the liver, biliousness, jaundice, yellowness of the skin, indigestion, &c. In bottles, 2s and 2s 6d, at Neil's Botanic Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. Neil's Corn Cure removes either hard or soft Corns. A few applications only necessary. Is per bottle at Neil's Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. It's a fact, says a well-known Christchurch divine the other day, to a friend, that Cough Mixture, called Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, is the very best thing for throat Irritation and Cough I have ever taken ; I notice all the Grocers and Chemists keep it—a never failing remedy. Wholesale Agents, N.Z. Drug Co.—Advt, " Drunkenness is not a sin—simply an excess of conviviality," says a thirsty philosopher. " Nothing like a good skinful of whisky for a had cold." Don't you belive it, my friends, take that unfailing remedy, Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for one shilling and sixpence.—A© yt.