LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 833, 30 April 1910, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The attendance shield at the local school was won this week by Standard 11., with an average attendance of 95.8 per cent. The Transvaal Parliament has allocated ,£123,000 for the benefit of burghers who were disabled during the war. The many friends of Miss Duncan will regret to learn that she is at present seriously indisposed with an attack of influenza.

The Rev. G. K. Aitken will conduct both morning and evening services in the local Presbyterian Church to-morrow. In the evening Mr Aitken will take for his subject “ Christ the pre-eminent.” A temperance address will be delivered in Main Street to-night, at 7 o’clock by Mr R. A. Wright, M.P. lor Wellington South, who is looked upon as one of the best open-air speakers in the Dominion.

The chairman of the local school committee has received advice from the Education Board that Miss E. Elavall has been appointed to the position of probationer, and will lake up her duties on Monday next.

Mr John Burns, President of the Eocal Government Board, states that 16,800 carcases of pigs imported from China were refused admittance to the United Kingdom during March on the ground that they were not in compliance With the Food Regulation Act, inasmuch as the backbones had been removed.

Mr Robert McNab is returning to New Zealand by the Ruahine, which left Loudon for Wellington on the 14th inst.

A resident of Mastertou claims that he can make honey from quinces that so closely resembles the genuine article that it will defy detection, on the part of the ordinary consumer at least. He also claims to make preserved ginger from carrots and coffee from parsnips. Whilst a young lady was looking out of a window of the mail train at Inglewood (says the Taranaki Daily News) some juvenile miscreant threw a handful of cement fairly in her face, almost blinding her. She suffered excruciating pain, and on arrival at New Plymouth was conveyed to a doctor’s. The matter was reported to the guard, but no trace could be found of the offender.

In his early manhood Mr Alfred Deakin was keenly interested in Spiritualism, and it was while pursuing his studies in the occult that he first met his wife, who was the daughter of Hugh Browne, for several years one of the leading figures in spiritualistic circles in Melbourne. Thus, when he first emerged into political prominence, he was almost invariably depicted by cartoonists in a white sheet, and in mysterious ghostly attitudes.

An atttempted flight in 1739 ! “Let this small monument record the name of Cadman, and to future times proclaim how by’n attempt to fly from this high spire across the Sabrine stream, he did acquire his fatal end. ’Twas not for want of skill or courage to perform the task he fell. No, no, a faulty rope being drawn too tight, hurried his soul on high to take her flight, which bid the body here beneath good-night. Feb. 2nd, 1739. Aged 28.” The above is on a small tablet in the spire of St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury. A correspondent writes to the Waimate Witness: We hear a good deal from time to time about record shearing tallies, but we seldom hear anything about tallies in cow spanking. Let me give you one, then. I know a young fellow not a hundred miles from Manaia who milks thirty cows twice a day single handed, doing the bailing up and carrying away the milk himself. I happened on him a few evenings ago when he was finishing off the last two of his big contract well within two hours. I hold this to be the champion record for the district. “To my mind there is no doubt about who will win the sculling race on the Zambesi. Arnst will row the head off Barry.” So says Mr T. E. Donne, the New Zealand Trade and Immigration Commissioner in London. Mr Donne saw Arnst defeat Webb on the Wanganui river, and he has seen Barry rowing on the Thames. “Barry,” he said, “reminds me a good deal of Webb, although he is not so pretty a sculler. Webb has the most finished style in a boat that I ever saw, but he hadn’t the stamina to hold out against Arnst, and neither has Barry. Arnst is not a pretty rower ; he has no style ; but what a grip he can get on the water! You never saw such driving power. I can’t see that Barry will have any chance at all against him.” An interesting fact in connection with the South African war was mentioned by Sir Joseph Ward during his visit to Gisborne, to a Poverty Bay Herald reporter. It will be remembered that a great deal was heard during the campaign of the “Elusive De Wet,” and the popular mind pictured him as a dashing general who galloped about the country in all directions, evading his British pursuers and harassing them considerably. Sir Joseph Ward stated he had it from Lord Kitchener that it was subsequently ascertained that De Wet was unable to ride. He was a burly personage —a butcher by trade —and got about the country in a Cape cart, frequently leaving camp on foot, and going to a quiet farmhouse nearby whilst his pursuers were, supposed to be hot on the trail of a galloping horseman. A general ol the British Army who could not ride, and chose to get about the country in a cart, would be considered somewhat of a rarity.

“During the early part of my business career,” says Sir Thomas Dipton in his Reminiscences in the Strand Magazine , “I became imbued with the idea that it was possible to prosper quickly in America, and at the age of sixteen I left home and started for the United States. I had not dared tell my father and mother, so they only knew of the great step I had taken when I had gone. Had it not been for ttie kindness of my fellow-passengers my journey would have been very miserable, and once or twice, I confess, I lost heart. As the steamer drew alongside the pier I took up my few belongings and rushed away to the nearest hotel before anyone else had left the vessel. As it seemed a clean, well-kept place, I asked to see the proprietor, and told him that I could get him forty patrons provided he would board and lodge me for a month. To this he consented. I made my way back instantly to the boat, and was just in time to catch my fellow-pas-sengers and persuade them to go to this hotel, where I assured them they would get excellent accommodation. And they did.” If in want of Birthday, Wedding or other gifts, go to Pakkes’, he jeweller, the shop for presents.* Owing to the absence of wind during the past couple of days, the trough at the windmill in the Avenue has been dry.

The limestoning of the footpath along Avenue Road is a great improvement, and is much appreciated by residents in that locality. Rarly risers had a splendid view of Halley’s comet yesterday morning. The sky was beautifully clear, and the comet was particularly distinguishable. The Powelka scare evidently affected the attendance of pupils at the public schools in Palmerston. At a meeting of the Terrace Kud School Committe the headmaster reported that during “Powelka week” no fewer than 6c pupils were absent from school the whole week. All arrangements in connection with the staging of the farcical comedy, “Our Regiment” by the local amateurs at the Public Hall on Friday, May 6th, are well in hand and intending patrons can rely on the piece being staged on the same high level as previous performances. Mr John Cobbe, draper, of Feilding, has an advertisement in this issue of particular interest to all in need of drapery, boots, etc. Mr Cobbe makes a speciality of his mail order department, and all orders received will be promptly attended to. A sixty-page mail catalogue describing winter goods will be sent post free to any address on application. It makes very little difference how cold the weather is if one is protected with suitable apparel. To those who are not so protected the announcement of Messrs Collinson and Cunuinghame, Ltd., in this issue, will prove of particular interest. It has reference to a fine assortment of coats and costumes offered at prices which are claimed to be especially attractive.*

As evidence of the quick way in which money can be made out of dairying, a man who went to the Maraura district ten years ago with a £5 note in his pocket is now about to take a trip Home. He has a 450 acre farm, on which he runs 100 cows and does a little cropping. He generally makes per cow per annum, and altogether last year his gross receipts amounted to ,£1,950. Besides making a competency for himself, he has, during the ten years, given his brother a good start on the land, paying for him.

Mr R. A. Wright, M.P. for Wellington South, will arrive in Foxton to-day, and will deliver a temperance address in the Main Street at 7 o’clock this evening. Mr Wright will also conduct the services in the Methodist Church to-morrow, morning and evening, A special service will be held in the afternoon, when Mr Wright will deliver a brief address to the children, after which he will distribute the prizes. Parents are specially invited. Mr Wright’s subject for the morning will be, “A Talk to Christians”; evening, “ Proving the Divinity of out Lord.”

Messrs Barraud and Abraham, L,td., have been favoured with an order from the Government for the seeds that are grown in this district, and which have now reached such a high standard and are so well - known throughout the colony. The order includes ryegrass, crested dogstail, meadow foxtail and prairie grass, and the seed is being sent to the Argentine Show. Messrs Barraud and Abraham have had the seed specially dressed by the well-known seed cleaners, A. Palmer and Co. and the quality could not be surpassed.