LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 702, 23 December 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

On the fourth page in this issue will be found the engineer’s full report and estimate of a water and drainage scheme for Foxton.

Police Commissioner Dinnie’s resignation has been accepted, and he has been granted six mouths full pay. It is not intended to appoint another Commissioner, The department will be managed by Mr E. Waldegrave, Under-Secretary for Justice. Eater, a Chief Inspector will be appointed under Mr Waldegrave.

Mr G. W, Morgan returned from a health-recruiting trip on Tuesday.

A parcel containing boy’s clothing, found between Foxton and Moutoa creamery, and left at this office, awaits an owner. Miss Doull notifies parents that Miss Aitken will continue the day school for infants after the Christmas holidays. The body of the late Sebastin Ott, who met his death by drowning whilst bathing in the Manwatu river on Monday evening last, was conveyed by train to Wellington yesterday. Messrs Eazarette and Haslett, have secured a portion of the premises next Messrs P. Hennessy and Co. for their fish and oyster saloon, and hope to have everything in readiness to open at an early date. At the Presbyterian Church on Sunday next the services will have special reference to Christmastide. In the morning the Rev G. K. Aitken will conduct the service, and in the evening the Rev W. Ritchie, m.a., will preach. The Foxton Brass Band, which has been diligently practising new music under the baton of its new conductor, will render an open air programme in Main Street on Christmas Eve, commencing at 7 o’clock. A collection will be taken up in aid of the band funds. In a recent issue, we stated that Mr W. Carter had purchased Messrs Newth Bros, farm and milk round. So far as the milk round is concerned Mr Carter will go into partnership with Mr J. Newth which will still be conducted under the latter’s supervision.

The Church of England Temperance Society has adopted the idea of a “ cradle roll,” which originated in New South Wales. Under this system parents are pledged to bring up their children abstainers. The Society intends to organise cradle rolls in its six thousand branches.

A river excursion and picnic, to the Beach, under the auspices of the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, is advertised to take place on New Year’s Day. Boats will leave the wharf at 9 and 10.45 a.m. returning at about 5.15 and 6.30 p.m. Hot water and milk will be supplied free to excursionists. The return fare will be is, children half price.

Donaldson, a Settler near Inverell, (N.S.W.), got into debt through wagering on his son’s boxing contest. He attempted to shoot his family who lived at his son’s farm. His daughter was not seriously injured, and he missed his wife. His son got a gun and exchanged shots with his father. The latter ran away and was found lying dead, having been shot twice in the back. The son has been arrested.

Quite a number of peers’ eldest sons will be candidates at the general elections at Home. Among the Unionists are Viscount Bury (eldest son of the Duke of Albemarle), Lord Lewisham (the future Earl of Dartmouth), Lord Wolmer (Lord Selborne’s heir), Lord Kerry (the future Marquis of Lansdowne), Lord Duncannon (the future Earl of Bessborough). Mr J. F. Macedo, who was married to Miss Wright, of Foxton, this week, was presented by the Feilding Operatic Society with a dressing case. Dr. Willis, president of the society, made the presentation, referring in congratulatory terras to Mr Macedo’s new dignity, and expressing the appreciation of the society for the excellent help he had always been as an active and valued member.

One of the new regulations in things postal iu the Wellington office is that customers must “lick their own stamps and place them on the telegrams they wish to despatch.” A visitor to the city the other day handed over three messages. The clerk duly counted the words, took the preferred coin, and then handed back the forms and three 6d stamps, saying, “Please put on the stamps.” A remark to the effect that business must be getting brisk was met by the reply, “A new regulation.”

The following paragraph appears in a parish paper published by a church in a New South Wales town. The paragraph is headed “A Candid Church Notice,” and reads as follows: — (< The service on Sunday morning is at rx a.m. The supposition that it is ten minutes later is a mistake. Men are not excluded from the service. The seats in the front portion of the church have been carefully examined, and they are quite sound, and may be trusted not to give way. It is quite legitimate to join in the singing. The hassocks are intended for kneeling upon.”

Mark Twain once told a newspaper proprietor, who had complained of not being able to get in his subscriptions, to see a doctor. The subtle humour contained in the remark, savs an exchange, is apparent enough when one comes to consider that medical men have sometimes to wait three and four years for their bills to be paid. No doubt the intention of the great American humourist was to afford the newspaper gentleman in question some insight ink the philosophic methods adopted by the medical profession to catry on uncomplainingly, while the tightness lasted. But, in any case, it would appear from Mr Clemens’ own experience that there is i close analogy between the financial cares of the average newspaper proprietor and the family doctor.

If in want of Birthday, Wadding or other gifts, go to Parked, the jeweller, the shop for presents.*

At the Stratford Police Court v fines totalling /18 were inflicted on a man named Thomas Rice fotXjf assaulting the police and ging property.

A very old Napier resident in the person of Mrs Henry Nesbitt died on Monday, evening. • The . deceased lady had been a resident of Napier for upwards of 40 years. The King Country Licenses Bill, which was introduced bn Tuesday, provides that the existing licenses shall continue till December 31, 1910, and that no ; further licenses be granted.

The Austral Wheel Race •resulted : Pianto 1, Harris 2, Glencross 3. Won by four Time, 4mm. 471-5 sec. The win- J ner is a West Australian rider, j and was one of the ‘ ‘front-markers” in the race.

The parents of a Hindu girl child in Madras were prosecuted at the end of October for selling their child for 5s 4d. The mother of the child states that she sold the child because it was born at an inauspicious hour and was certain to bring ill-luck. Shop early at the . Bon Marche, Palmerston North, on 'Xmas Eve, we expect an unprecedented rush as the day advances. Try and get there in time for some of the bargains offering.—C. M. Ross and Co.*

The importance of the postscript was illustrated in a Sydney court on Monday. The defendant, a school teacher, had written: “ My only desire is to get enough gilt to enable me to marry my darling Patsy. P.S.—There is a breach of promise in this.” There was. The jury gave a verdict of “ A great thing about the scout movement,” said Bishop Julius in a sermon to the Boy Scouts in Christchurch, “is that it teaches the boys useful things. There is very little ceremonial drill, although a little drill is very good : it teaches boys to walk properly. Half the boys in Christchurch connot stand on their legs, but walk like cows going to market.” *

Mr Scott, a member of the Strike Congress at Sydney, who is a descendant of the late Duke of Buccleugh, has, together with his sisters and brothers, been left the estate of Selkirk, valued at ,£IOO,OOO. He ran away from home and became a cabin boy, and also served in the Boer war. Afterwards he went to New ux. Zealand, and then to Newcastle, where he has since resided. • " Lord Richard Cavendish, in a speech at Diversion, said that the - plea of the House of Lords of re- j ferring the Budget to' the people was the most nauseating cant__w The House of Lords rejected the y Budget because it knew it wovld be the death blow to Tariff Reform which was a disease comparable to smallpox. He appealed to all moderate men to support the Liberals.

The death occurred on Saturday evening of Mr Joe Ward, one of the oldest identities in New Plymouth. He was born in Dorsetshire in 1834, au( l arrived in New Plymouth with his parents in February, 1842. He took part in the war, and subsequently filled various public positions. He leaves eight children, all grown up, 42 grandchildren and three great grand-children.

The Right Hou. D. IdoydGeorge, Chancellor of the Exchequer, addressing a large meeting of Free Church men jn Tendon recently, said : “ The Methodist, Congregational, and Baptist chapels were the only places in the villages that stand up to the baronial castles. All who declined to cringe and crawl are there. The chapels are the sanctuaries and citadels of village independence, said the Chancellor; consequently the Peers put the Methodist and the poacher in the same category.

General Booth, who has returned to active work again, tells the story of a lady who, on one of his motor campaigns, being unable to get into a meeting, waited for his car in the street. “ She waved her hand at me, and I smiled,” he remarked. “It was such a beautiful smile, such a heavenly smile, that she drove off to her lawyer, and told him that he was to put General Booth in* her will for a legacy of £IOOO, If I had had goggles on I am not sure that the Chief of the Staff would have got that thousand.”

On Christmas Day there will be special services in All'Saints’ Church. The Holy Communion will be celebrated at 7 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. This is one of the great festivels of the year—a day when all churchpeople should be present at the Blessed Sacrament. The church will be decorated, and in the evening there will be a special carol service at 7 p.m. when a number/ of Children will assist the choir in the singing. The Sunday services will be of a festive nature in keeping with the holy season.

One of the most important developments in education in New South Wales, says the Daily Telegraph, is that in connection with the school garden plot, which not only forms a field for Nature-study, but affords opportunity for studying the pridciples underlying scientific agriculture. The Department of Public Instruction has arranged to supply every school with a selection of farm, flower, and vegetable seeds, including grasses, clovers, corn and other cereals, kale, millet, mustard, tobacco, peanuts, saltbush, and a score of other The quantities supplied will not, exceed one dozen packets each of flower and vegetable seeds and two dozen packets of farm seeds.

’ MfPerreau notifies by advertise-j meat, that a bran tub is provided at his shop. lor the little ones. Threepenny dips and good value. The Manawatu County Council offices will be .closed for the Christmas holidays from the 24th inst. to the 4th January, x Mrs Baker desires to notify the public and especially the children, that she will have a Christmas Tree at her shop on Christmas Eve.

Messrs Gray and Dalzell, of the Post Office Hotel, advertise Christmas greetings and prices for liquors. MrO. Cook notifies by advertisement, that a drag will leave the Post Office on Saturday (Christmas Day), Sunday, and Monday (Boxing Day), for the beach. A press message, without foundation in, fact, was wired to a number of papers throughout the Dominion yesterday to the effect that Mr F. E. Baume, M.P., died in the Main Trunk express on his way to his home in Auckland. Mr Baume is still in the land of the living and is making good progress towards recovery. The Rev. G. K. Aitken wishes us to intimate that a special retiring collection on behalf of the Palmerston Public Hospital will be taken up at both services ou Sunday next at the Presbyterian Church. Mr Aitken will also be pleased to receive and forward any donations that persons not attending church may desire to contribute. The mid-day train on Tuesday last was crowded with Palmerston people, who intend spending the Christmas holidays on the beach, a large number of the passengers being ladies who have gone ahead of their families to make arrangements for the holiday. For scratching a railway carriage window, with a diamond ring a man named P. E. Debreceny was fined xos and costs 10s at the S.M. Court in Palmerston by Mr A: D. Thomson, S.M. The wnidow had to be replaced, as it was cut too deeply to be safe. The University of Pittsburg has lost its only female law student, Mrs Mary C. Collins, of Tyrone, Penn., recently passed the examination for admission to the law department and was admitted. She attended three lectures, and then left. Secretary A. M. Thompson received a letter from Mrs Collins recently, in which she resigned her scholarship, stating that being the only girl in the school, the 123 boys laughed at her. She said every word she spoke attracted attention, and the male students sniggered. The strain was too much for her, and she gave it up. Vital statistics for November, 1909, are gazetted. The following arc the death-rates per 1000 of population in the four principal cities:—Auckland, 0.73 ; Wellington, 0.69; Christchurch, 0.59 ; Dunedin, 0.80, If the suburban boroughs are included, the deathrates work out as follows (the figures for November, 1908, are given in parentheses) ;—Auckland|| 0.60 (0.7 x); Wellington, 0.67 ■“ (0.56) ; Christchurch, 0.58 (0.82) ; Dunedin, 0.81 (0.69). The total births in the above cities and boroughs amounted to 576 against 623 in October —•& decrease of 47. The deaths in November were 180—a decrease of 23 on the number in October. Thirty-three of the deaths were of children under five years of age, being 18-33 per cent, of the whole number; 27 of these were under one year of age. There were sixty-five deatns of persons of 65 years.