LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 143, 25 May 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Temperance gathering on Wednes* day evening, numerically speaking, was riot a saocess, chiefly' owing no doubt to the very tinpropitious weather, which prevented- the attendance of -■many' who otherwise would have peen present. The addresses m the evening, especially that by Sir, W". Fox, were very well received, and evidently produced a considerable impression. . ; •■-■ A . H. Malcolm was arrested m. Wellington, by telegraph, and: brought up. on Wednesday, charged with' having '6n ' of about' the 20th February, being then' the bailee; of the proceeds of a certain bill of exchange for , the sum of f £19" 18' 6d, ; drawn by 'Charles • Tricklebank J on the Colonial Bank ot New Zealand, feloniously and fraudulently converted, the same to his Own use. Chief Detective* Browne conducted the prosecution. The warrant not having arrived the. Court decided .not to proceed with the charge, and the accused was .released. . ; ( We remind our reader's of the public meeting this .evening to taJce. into consideration) c,ertain mattersto be laid before our representative m Parliament. We trust there will be a full attendance. We are requested to notify that mails for London direct; per Bri'isu Qaeen, will close at Palmerston North. 'on Monday the 28th inst., at 7-45 p.m. We hear that tenders' for the furnishs ing of the new hotel' are to be called .for very shortly. The contract will be an extensive one, , as- the famishing is to be of the best possible description. The street m front of Messrs Pym and Py vis' place is a terrible quag-mire, rendering ingress and egress nest to impossible. A ferry or pontoon bridge should be established during the winter season. According to the Wang.uiui Herald, one of the worst conducted' railways 'm the colony, so say the travelling public, is the line between New Plymouth and Hawera. The carriages and plant are m a bad state of repair, and, a 1 deal of time ia wasted on the journey, the train sometimes stopping for several minutes at the side stations. The main excuse for slow travelling is that the line'is unfenced and stock are. frequently :found trespass ing on it. As it is, the settlers have al« ready lost heavily m the matter of stock by the railway, and it is time that this " penny wise, pound foolish " policy was discarded on the New Plymouth line, and the rolling stock put m decent condition.and the line fenced m. ~ * Rapid progress is being jiade with the required for lighting the Government Printing Office m Wellington with electricity. All the wirea have been laid, and the lamps will be hung as soon as the dynamo machine. h&s been put' together and connected with the steam engine which is to drive it, and it is expected that the whr.le;will be m working order by the end of the week.- : The London scientißo correspondent of the Australasian writes;— " Another comet is reported. It was first seen on 23rd February, when its right ascension was 22h. 5pm M and its northern declinntion 28aegJ It is now m the constellation Andromeda, but its daily motion will soon carry it out of that region. We are begin, ning to lose all our faith m comets heralding hot Bummers, ]ust as we are| losing faith m the barometer. Lately, with us, the Mter instrument seems to have been 'goingiup' m proportion as the rain has persistency come down." '.'/.' Advices have been received that the New Zealand Shipping Company's char* tered steamer British King left St. Vincent for Plymouth on the 16th instant, that being the 38th day out from Lyttelton. This is very excellent work, for, seeing tiiat she made the^putward run from Ply* mouth to St. Vincent m nine days against exceptionally unfavourable weather (being hove-tb for 28 hours), the Homeward run ought,! with moderate weather, to be done easily m seven or eight days, m which caee the complete passage from New Zealand would be made m 45 or 46 days/ when, the British King left St. Vincent her refrigerating machinery wrts working to per* fection, and the frozen meat was m capita order. The pioneer Homeward voyage of the Direct Steam Service bids fair, therefore, to be a great success. & A late supplementary Gazette contains a number of special orders relating to Road Boards made by the various County Councils, and also the boundaries of road districtsih the North IBlanddefined under the Road Board Act, 1882. The merging of the Foxton Highway District- into the Maaawatu County ia also gazetted.