LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 864, 12 July 1910, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The ftertie, coal laden, arrived at the wharf yesterday and the scow Echo, with a similar cargo for the West Coast Steamship Co. on Sunday.

We are informed that thefts of timber have been frequent of late at the Beach. Certain Palmerston residents who contemplate building on their seaside sections have timber stored there and it has been growing less. They have certain persons under suspicion and it is possible the matter will be placed in the hands of the police at an early date. The Wanganui Jockey Club has agreed to pay the costs (over incurred in the recent litigation over the racecourse right-of-way, which were given against local residents in an Appeal Court action. Another action is now being instituted by Mr C. E. Mackay, the Mayor, to upset the trustees of the racecourse and secure their election by the public every two years, as provided in the original Act. At the Public Hall to-night the management of the Royal King’s Pictures will show the films of the funeral of the late King Edward. The programme will also include a large number of industrial and scenic films of exceptional interest and variety. The prices of admission are 3s, 2s and is. Now is the time to rug horses and cows. You cannot do better than place your orders with me for my famous rugs. W. E. Bullard, saddler and harness maker, Main Street.*

Mr A. Lazarette has just received a consignment of cray fish. Devonport’s Dramatic Company staged “Gone Beyond Recall, 1 ’ to a fair audience on Saturday night. On Saturday the Albion seniors defeated Manawatu at Sanson by 5 points (a goal from a try) to 3 (a penalty goal. A property of four acres with well-built house erected thereon, is advertised for sale. Full particulars at this office.

Holiday excursions in connection with the Wellington Racing Club’s meeting are advertised in this issue.

A meeting of members of the Rowing Club will be held in the Council Chamber, on Thursday next at 8 p.m. Business, important. The Manawatu County Council notify that all roads in the Kawa Kawa riding, including boundary roads, are closed for traffic until 30th September next. An application was received at last night’s Council meeting for the position of turncock or foreman of water works. The applicant is to be informed that his application is just a little previous. At last night’s Council meeting the Mayor brought up the question of whether the Council intended observing Arbor Day in any way. It was decided to take no action.

One of the Councillors at last night’s meeting in speaking of the poor light that the street lamps were giving said that it was necessary to strike a match to find out if they were alight or not.

Mr Berthold informs us that unforseen circumstances have compelled him to retire from the committee in connection with the forthcoming juvenile ball.

“ I believe our educational system will have to be revived in a revolutionary fashion,” said Mr Laurenson (Lyttelton). He complained that the primary school course was almost wholly literary. It taught the children how to know things, not to do things. Forty Parisian apaches, or hooligans, who set out to avenge the recent execution of their leader Liaboeuf, encountered eight police and stabbed three of them. Six of the apaches have been arrested. M. Lepine, the chief of police, has received many letters threatening his death since Liaboeuf was guillotined. Ashburton, which has an unenviable reputation in regard to its temperature, which reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade in the summer, and gets far below freezing point in the winter, experienced 17 degrees of frost on Saturday morning, the thermometer falling to 141 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a record for the past three years, though 17 degrees were recorded last winter. Mr Massey has touched something anomalous in the Harbours Amendment Bill. He mentioned that if a man suffered forty-eight hours’ imprisonment for some minor offence he was debarred from being a candidate for a seat on a harbour board, but if a person worked a big swindle, involving thousands of pounds, he could be eligible for membership so long as he was not liable to imprisonment. Wishing to interest his son in the deeper things of life, a proud parent took him to Mr McCabe’s lecture on “Evolution.” He listened carefully to the account of how man has a third eyelid like the parrot, breasts like the mammals, a third eye like the tuatara lizard, etc., etc. When the lecture was over, he reached for his hat, and said, “Come on, Dad, let’s hustle back to our menagerie.” A fatal bicycle accident occurred on a steep grade of the Island Bay road, Wellington, on Saturday night, ending in the death of a sixteen-year-old lad named Roy Cornish, and also the serious injury k of a retired banker, Mr Fenton. It appears that Cornish was cycling down the steep grade at a fast pace, while Mr and Mrs Fenton, an aged couple, were walking on the road in the same direction.

The tedium of the Address-in-Reply debate was relieved by Mr Wright’s badinage directed against that member of the Ministry who is frequently stigmatised by his opponents as suffering from too much ‘‘taihoa.” The Hon. Mr Ngata, he said in effect, had given the House a realistic impressiqn of the labours performed by the Native Minister, From Mr Ngata’s remarks he fancied he saw that Minister, with his coat off and his sleeves turned up, working in his Department, the perspiration pouring off him. He saw him doing work quietly and stealthily, and doing most excellent work. He heard Mr Ngata saying that the Native Minister was not only a diplomat, but an exceedingly hard worker, and that anything that had been said to the contrary was very unkind. He heard irom the Hon. Mr Ngata that the newspapers and the public had been misled because the Native Minister did his work on secret lines, that he lit his candle and placed it under a bushel, that he did not let his right hand know what his left hand did, and that the whole reason for the criticism directed against him was his unassuming nature and bis bashtulness.

Now that Halley’s Comet has passed us all interest in it is beginning to wane, and all the previous eagerness for information concerning this mysterious visitor has disappeared. The latest event of widespread public interest is the Great Half-yearly Sale at M. Hamer’s, the “ Economic,” Foxton,*

Messrs Ross and Co., of the , Bon Marche, Palmerston N., dis- \ 4 tribute an inset with this issue. 'V

Mr Levett desires us to notify skaters that he is prepared to let the rink to private skating parties at reasonable terms.

The death is announced of Mr George Clunies-Ross, proprietor and chief of the Cocos (or Keeling) Islands, in the South Indian Ocean.

A meeting of the stewards of the Foxtou Racing Club will be held tp-morrow (Wednesday) evening at 8 o’clock to receive applications for jockeys and trainers licenses. The Queen Mother, Princess Victoria, and the Dowager Empress Marie of Russia (the Queen Mother’s sister) will go to Copenhagen on the 17th instant.

The friends of Mr and Mrs Anderson will regret to hear of the death of their three years and eight mouths old daughter, Majorie Lurline, which took place on Sunday. The cause of death was inflammation of the brain.

Skating has “taken on’’ in Foxton, and all buildings in any way suitable for the purpose are being used. They include the local band room, which according to information received by the Mayor, was used for this purpose on Sunday afternoon. The matter was brought up at last night’s Council meeting and the Town Clerk was instructed to write to the secretary of the baud pointing out that this will not be tolerated, and the building is to be used for band purposes only. A suggestion on the subject of race suicide led the Hon. J. Barr, in the Legislative Council yesterday to advocate a tax on bachelors. “Bring down a stiff tax on bachelors,” he said, “ and I would also suggest that it be made a graduated tax, so that the longer a man remains unmarried the more income will be derived from him by the State to be used in assisting those who have families and doing their best for the country.”

At the Diocesan Conference of the Church of England Men’s Society at Wellington, on Saturday evening, Archdeacon Harper briefly outlined his views on gambling and allied questions. Horse-racing he considered in itself a good and wholesome sport, but he maintained that the number of our race meetings might with advantage be reduced seventy-five per cent. The totalisator he utterly condemned, on the ground that it had enormously increased the gambling evil. It hadjmade betting so respectable a pursuit that many people, including women and girls, now habitually invested money on the totalisator who would not dream of approaching a “bookie.” On the ground that it would tend still further to elevate the machine in the public estimation, and so encourage a further increase in gambling, the Archdeacon said he was strenuously opposed to a proposal that totalisator takings should be heavily taxed and the proceeds applied in charity. A tribute to the efficiency of the letter-carriers of New Zealand was paid by Sir Joseph Ward in the course of a speech last week at the gathering in honour of Mr and Mrs J. A. Hutton. The people oi this country should appreciate the work of the letter-carriers, he said. In season and out of season, they were closely allied to the interests they had to serve in their important branch of the Postal Department. There were people who sometimes did not make allowance for slips or mistakes in delivery of mails and letters in the course of the year, but we could congratulate ourselves on having a very fine postal service. Without any egotistical boasting or ideas of superiority to other countries, he could say that we had a modern post office, which for progressiveness in the truest sense of the term, was such that probably no other country in the world could come up to. Its executive officers were keenly earnest to do all they could to maintain the service, to make it more progressive, to get a better revenue, and to get better money for those who were working up from the lowest rung in the service.