LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 21, 22 December 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Till more room can be made m our advertising space, over a column of new Wanganui advertisements are held over. They will appear next week. By the Post's London letter we see that at the meeting of the Linttfean Society, a paper on " Changes m the Flora and Fauna of New Zauland," was read bp Dr. S. M. Curl, and greatly appreciated. The New Zealand Shipping Company have moved into ' their new office's. BasiuesV is so brisk that they think of despatching two steamers monthly. The sailing date of the sister ship to the Tort" gariro and Aorangi, which has pot been launched yet, is fi*ed for 20th January. Meearo $hnw Saville alao hope to send away the brat of their 300(Moa boats early m the p©w year. , Ship-building on the Clyde is not nearly so brisk now as it was ten months ago, and owners able to give orders for new vessels oun secure moat fabonrable terms. Many firms are gin d to take contracts for 10 per cent, and 15 per pent, less than they acpepttd this time lasf year. ( . We (Post) are informed that, m order to complete the judicious distributiou of their almanac?, Ma^ri, Nelion, Moate, and. Co., after each of their ruatoraera has received one, will, as far as they go, give one to each purchaser of a pound or more of tea on Saturday next. The which il&'m ending out, \ 9 one of the. mQ|t hettut}f»l JBsye4 sflaaoji.. TJije.Ntev -Zealand Sb^ppjng Qompacy's steamer British King is 4(3 daya out from Prymouth to-day, and may therefore be. looked lor.at any moment, It i's reported that the representation •of Selwyn^yacent. .^hroiiKh the deathof Mr E". J. Lee, will be contested by either Mr E/ Kichardson or by Mr K. Wake.field! It is not known yet if anyone, is coming forward aa a Miuisterialiai candidate. ■' '

A chart;* of stealing two horses from a liveryatable keeper iv Wellington was to come before the Wellington Resident B£ngißtratt>'a Court yesterday. George Gage, alias H. WitliariiP, having been apprehended at New Plymouth, charg«d with larct^oy as a bailee of two_hor9es, with saddles, &j, (hiied on< the 13th Norember from Mr and afterwards sold, one horse at Otaki and the other at, Fdxfon. Yesterday was the " longest day." It" was also ' midsummer day' m New Zea« land. At least it wa3 miilsumiiisr m name, bnt as we have not yet emerged from the winter which set mat the be* giniring of iasfc- March, there is a cruel irony (vsays the Post) m tue theory which supposes us already to have enjjyeJ half our due summer. Yesterday waa also the , solstice, which is, usually characterised even more prominently than the equinox by gales and storms. We have had them all m advance -this time, but that may not cave us from coming solstitial : troubles. . No fewer than 42 letter!: have been re* [ ceived by the directors of the Wellington Meat Export Company m response to the ' advertisoai'ent inviting applications for the position as secretary vice Mr Henry ' Wright, resigned; but we understand tint none of them will be opened for a few days m view of a possible amalg.am.a- . tion of tho company with the Wellington Meat Preserving and Refrigerating Company. / In the course of a lecture at Blenheim on his recent visit to Palestine, the "Bis-" hop vt Ne ? la6n (we learn from the Marlborough Times) said th»t his party had gone by the Red Sea to Egypt, und, strange to say, one of the last things they, saw was the embarkation of General Hicks Pasha and the British officers and the Egyptians accompanying him to the Soudan. They did not present a- promising array ; there was not' much, discipline', vi'tality^or order among the men'; the* decks were crowded. with ragged soldiers, and they resembled a lot of Baahibazouks more than a regular army. as an illustration of the' litigious, propenalties of the Gisborne people, it may be mentioned that no fewer than' 19 actions are to be disposed of, at the current sitting of the Supreme Court. Several ot the suits are of an important nature, and it is not improbable that his Honour the Chief Justice will be unable to return to Wellington until after the holiday?, m which case his departure for England will be delayed until February, Ihe inward San Francisco mail, was the heaviest ever yet received at tht Wellington Post Office. It comprised 490 bags, containing m all 5572 letters, 2130 books, and no .fewer thaii 20,700 newspapers. There wai also a simultaneous arrival of another English mail (via Brindiuj, heavy Australian mails, brought on by the Roiorua, and several New Zealands mails, making an additional 170 bags, containing' 6441 letters, 680 books, and 4250 newsoapers.