LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 67, 12 February 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Elsewhere will be found the full oata* logue of Messrs Stevens and Gorton's great ram-fair at Balls, on ths 20th inst., to which special attention is directed. It promises to b.e quite as successful as the* Oroua Stock Sale of last week. ' We learn that the Palmerston Brass Band has been : asked to consider itself engaged for some gathering on Easter Monday, and before accepting, the Band* I master would like to know whether any sports are likely to tak* place m Palm , eraton, on that holiday, at which the band might be required. , Mr John Knowles, the late Secretary for Public Works, leaves with his family for England next month by sailing vessel. Wp Jearp that Mr Knowles will probably be absent from the colony for two years, but .intends ultimately returning.

Our detailed commercial report pub* lished elsewhere of the great Oroua Stock Sale shows with what unprecedented success it came off, and testifies to the paltry character of the paragraph m the local Times of a few evenings ago, which inferred that the sale was a failure, because it was not advertised m its own columns! How supremely ridiculous journals and their managers make themselves m the eyes of the gen«ra] public, through these petty acts. , Messrs Stevens acd Gorton announces elsewhere the arrival of special shipments ot grass-seed, clover, fencing- wire, &c. Further entries hare been made to Messrs Stevens and Gorton's stock sale at the Borough Yards to-morrow. The long vacation of the Supreme Court has commenced, and will extend until the 22nH March. During this period the Supreme Court will be closed daily at 1 p.m., and only Chamber and bankruptcy business will be transacted. One Australasian (says the Argus) is worth. more to the English manufacturer than a dozen Americans, 18 Frenchmen, or 20 Germans. _>.:Tlie rabbits on the South Australian border are reported to have eaten all the feed' and barked all the trees as high as they could reach. The South Australian Gazette contains a list of nearly 1000 oredit selectors whose land, is, liable to forfeiture for falling .to make returns of improvements. : Disastrous fires are reported from the southern districts of South Australia owing to the fearful heat. Much damage >was done; and! many farmers are ruined. A woman has died from having been accidehtaly knocked down by a bicycle m Lonsdale-street, Melbourne, the bicycle .being ridden by some person unknown. : Mr A. B. Biggs, a Tasmanian aatrono* mer, asserts that the recent comet has already commenced the return journey to the sun, which he expects it will reach about next April. , The sparrows m South Australia are being destroyed m great numbers. From October, 1881, to the end of laaty.ear, 37 ;) 8?5 heads, and 260,793 eggs were paid for 'by the Government. iThe Ballarat School of Mines possesses the skull and upper and lower jaws of a whale weighing 1 ton 2owt* 2qrs. They are to he painted and mounted on a stand to be placed m the reserv*. Three girls, varying m age from ten to fourteen, "named. Cattaghah, were 1 drowned while bathing m the river at Oomering,i New; South Wales, being carried out of their depth by the tide.