LOCAL AND GENERAL

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 815, 17 March 1910, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In connection, with ihe poll on the proposal to raise a loan nl A 20,000 for a combined water supply and drainage system to be taken to-morrow, ratepayers are reminded that a qualification to vote held by the husband also extends to his wife, and vice versa.

A number of ratepayers are advocating a water supply from the Shannon hills, as against the scheme submitted by Mr Climie, and in order to obtain information as to the probable cost of such a scheme, the Mayor telegraphed to Mr Climie for an estimate of the extra cost. The reply received was to the effect, that a water supply from the hills would cost, at the least, ,£15,000 above the the present scheme. While returning from a concert at Orepuki, Mr Denis Corkery, a well-known farmer, aged 60 years, got his leg caught on the step of his trap. The horse bolted, and Mr Corkery was dragged round the paddock. When found by his sons he was dead, his neck being broken. He leaves a wife and a grown-up family.

“Te Kniti is progressing rapidly,” writes a resident. “There are two banks here, two dentists, two doctors, plenty of lawyers, land agents, surveyors, etc. Quarter-acre sections in the main street are selling at £ 1000 each.” Te Kniti is on the Main Trunk Line, and was at one time the terminus of the railway from Auckland.

An interesting personality is Mrs Evans, lessee of the railway refreshment rooms at Hawera, who was one of the band of nurses organised by Florence Nightingale to nurse the wounded in the Crimean war. Lately Mrs Evans paid a short visit to Wanganui to see her old friend, Mr Neville Thornton, who was one of the wounded under her charge in the hospital at Scutari. Though 80 years of age, Mrs Evans is still active and hearty, and takes a keen interest in current events.

Henry Burkin, single, was killed at the railway crossing at Waipawa on Tuesday night by the express train. “I have yet to meet the man,” said the Rev. F. Rule at the annual meeting of the Presbyterian Social Service Association, Christchurch, “ who has not, when a boy, stolen fruit.” During the past week Mr S. R. Lancaster, of Fitzherbert Ivrst has taken 22 tons of onions off about an acre of ground. Neither the ground nor the onions had any special preparation or attention.

Mr Greenwood, Liberal, will introduce in the House of Commons a Bill to amend the law of murder, to enable verdicts of guilty in the first degree or guilty in the second degree to be returned.

Mr J. T. Levett, agent for the local hall, informs ns that additions are to be made to the building in the shape of supper room, kitchen, etc., and also that the building is to be installed with coal gas. A brother and sister named Noalk, aged respectively eight and twelve years, were found dead in a paddock at Perth, on Tuesday. Each had a bullet in the forehead, and a broken pea rifle the hoy had been carrying was lying near. It is surmised that the boy shot bis sister accidently, and then took his own life in remorse.

Dr Benson, aged 73 j'ears, and his wife, aged 67 years, swallowed poison at the breakfast table in a Philadelphia hotel. They died immediately. Dr and Mrs Benson were disappointed owing to their failure to win a prize of ,£40,000 offered by the French Academy of Science for a cure for tuberculosis. Speaking of that dreaded pest in grain crops, the caterpillar, a well-known farmer remarked to an Age reporter The caterpillar has wrought considerable damage amongst crops in the Wairarapa during the past season, but had it not been for the presence of the starling, no doubt many more acres of crop would have suffered." The Rev. William R. Tuck, M.A,, of Island Bay, this week ceases to be a minister of the Methodist Church of Australasia. He preached his last sermon at Kelburne on Sunday. The doctrines respecting which he judged it necessary to apprise the conference of his views were those of revelation, the divinity ot Christ, and the atonement. He states that such a narrative as that of feeding the multitude is reasonably explained as the transformation of a parable ; while the stories of a virgin birth, and of a physical resurrection are rightly regarded as beautiful and suggestive legends. At a special meeting of the school committee held yesterday it was decided to hold a concert to raise funds to defray the cost of the school picnic. It was pointed out that people had been canvassed so often of late for subscriptions that they were getting tired of it. A sub committee consisting ot Messrs Betty, Bullard, G. Coley and J. T. Devett was set up to carry out the details. The date decided on was Wednesday, April 6th. It is hoped the concert will serve the double object of assisting the committee and giving subscribers value for their monej 7 . Speaking to an Auckland Herald reporter last week the Prime Minister stated that money had become much more plentiful and all branches of industry and commerce were feeling the benefit. With regard to the State Guaranteed Advances Act, application had, he said, already been made for loans totalling ,£750,000 by various local bodies. The necessary money was available, and provided that the securities offered were satisfactory, the applications would he granted. Three applications under the band Finance Settlement Bill had been marie to date. On the subject of Native land settlement, Sir Joseph remarked that negotiations for the purchase of blocks in various parts of the North Island were now well in hand.

At the inquest regarding the death of James Trengrove, who committed suicide last week at Christchurch, the deceased’s wife, who was well enough to give evidence said that Trengrove was given to intempereuce, and had often ill treated her. On Wednesday morning she had packed her clothes intending to leave the house. Trengrove said that she would never leave. He had got a tomahawk from the washhouse, and raising it with both hands struck her heavily on the head. She was stunned by the blow. Her husband had often threatened to “do for her 1 ' and himself. He had been acting strangely for some time. The Coroner, without comment, returned a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind.

Among the economies that Sir Joseph Ward intends to effect in the Post and Telegraph Department is the cessation of the present system of taking duplicate copies of telegrams, and the abolition of telegraph envelopes by the substitution of a combined sheet and envelope, similar to that used for the Post Office Savings Bank receipts. Savings in this and other directions are expected to reach from ,£is)° 00 ,£20,000 a year. The proposed rural postal delivery will be accomplished by carriers on horseback or on bicycles. Sir Joseph Ward seated to a Herald reporter at Te Aroha that when all these changes are carried out and the proposed system of wireless telegraphy is installed we will not be merely abreast, but will be far ahead of any other country in the world in regard to postal and telegraphic facilities.

Despite the prevailing epidemic of sickness the attendance at the local school j'esterday morning was 306 and in the afternoon 309. To encourage a medical man to take up his residence in the new country of which Ohaknne is the centre, the Wellington Land Board has given Dr Satchraore, of Ohakune, the right to take up two Crown residential sections in the township tor ,£tio. Mr Radcliffe, a settler in the vicinity of Jerusalem, an up river Wanganui settler, reports that an outbreak of typhoid fever has occurred in a Maori pah at Jerusalem. Six cases have occurred up to the present, and several deaths have taken place. Mr Radcliffe says that a native doctor was there a week ago, but so far nothing has been done to check the disease.

At the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, on Tuesday, Jessie Martha Parish, Wellington, and Louisa Christina Stansell, Parapara mu n, claimed ,£6l from George Alexander Gray, of Marton, being ,£7 proportion of rent on the Post Office Hotel, Poxton, and ,£54, which plaintiffs claimed to be a reasonable amount, for the use and occupation by defendant of plaintiffs’ interest in the hotel from September 4, rcjoS, to November 6, 1908. After a partial hearing, the case was adjourned until Friday afternoon.

At the Palmerston North Borough Council meeting on Tuesday evening a letter was read from the Manawatu County Council asking if the Palmerston Council would contribute towards tne cost of a road to the Foxton Beach. Councillors were of opinion that this Council would not be justified in contributing to the cost of the road, and further that the money paid by Palmerston visitors to the beach fully justified the work being carried out by the local bodies concerned' That portion of the district got the whole benefit of a growing revenue, and that portion ot the district should do the work. No action was taken.