LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 458, 27 May 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The secretary ol the Palmerston North Hospital desires to publicly acknowledge receipt of a donation of £2 2s from Mr T. Bowe.

The Dunedin Star states that the Rev. C. G- Blathwayt has returned the gratuity that followed his services as the officiating minister at Amy Bock’s marriage. On May 6th, when the barque Lakemba, which reached Wellington from Liverpool, was off Cape Leeuwin, she cut a sixty-foot whale in two. The sea was covered with blood and blubber for a considerable distance.

A representative .of Messrs W. Woods and Co., of Christchurch, perhaps the most extensive hemp buyers in the Dominion, visited Foxton on Tuesday, and entered into a contract with a local miller for the supply ol a three mouths’ output. We understand a contract is pending with another local firm. The horse which Colonel Porter took to South Africa with him, and the only one of about 10,000 sent from New Zealand which returned, died last week at Gisborne from the effects of a severe chill. He was twice wounded in the Boer War, and was ridden by Colonel Porter during the Coronation celebrations in Loudon.

At a no-license meeting at Ashburton, on Monday night, attended by 800 people, a resolution was carried without emphatically contradicting the statements made by Mr I,esiua, member of the Queensland Assembly. The motion was of considerable length, and denied in detail, under five headings, the Queenslander’s charges. Sir James Mills, speaking at Dunedin, remarked : “ I might say that we are told outside that there are evidences of easier conditions of finance beginning to prevail, and I think it very probable that unless there is some serious disturbance in the Old World—in which case no doubt everybody will suffer—we shall soon see a cessation of the present stringency,” ‘T see no prospect of a rise taking place in the price of sheep for a' considerable time, ” said a well* known stock dealer to a Wairarapa Daily Times reporter recently. ‘‘Farmers are not keen on buying, as they are at a loss to know what wethers will fetch off the shears at the next shearing, and at present you can get as much for store wethers as for fats. ’ ’

Thus the Christchurch Evening News on the Connelly murder case :—lt reveals such an extraordinary amount of bungling and incompetence on the part of the officials entrusted with the maintenance of law and order. The Coast has always enjoyed a reputation of being a fairly “hot shop.” We are inclined to think that it has earned it largely through the slackness of the police. Mr Alexander McNab (brother of the ex-Minister), who has just returned from Europe, will be a candidate in the Opposition interest for the Wakatipu se’at at next election (reports the Tapauui Courier), as it is stated that Mr Wm. Fraser will not again contest the seat, owing to advancing years. Mr McNab says that all the best men in England are on the Conservative side of politics, and he intends to don the “ true blue,” also, even it his brother sits on the other side of the House.

Among other applications received by the Wellington City Council, was one for the management of the Crematorium in the Karori Cemetery, which will be ready for use in two months’ time. Mention was made of the fact at Monday night’s meeting of the City Council. A Councillor: “I think that the application should be referred to the Committee.” Another Councillor: “Which Committee will have control of the institution?” “Abattoirs,” replied a third Councillor amidst laughter. “The ravages of the Irish blight in potatoes has been far more widespread in this district than might be supposed,” remarked a Masterton farmer on Saturday. “Several farmers who go in rather extensively for the cultivation of tubers, and who have had clean crops up to the present, find that this year’s returns from their potato areas will be practically nil through the destructiveness of the scourge.” Inquiries from various reliable sources go to confirm previous statements that the potato crop in this district is to be next to a total failure this season.