LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 129, 30 April 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

'• The amount of property tax. remaining unpaid for the year ended 31st March is only £400, and for the recovery of this summonses gainst defaulters are now being prepared for issue. ... Mr Ri»bt. Gardner, so long well-known to everyone m Wellington, has resolved to retire from business to enter upon acouu~ try life. The question of a legal receipt was a point of evidence m a civil case at the Wellington Resident Magistrate's Uonrt on Monday last. One ot the parties to the notion said that ' the only receipt he had received was th it he and the other men went and had it drink together.' This is certainly a new way of liquidating old debts. A curious accident occurred a few days Kgo at Ky hope Station, near Sunderland. A bullock jumped out of a cattle truck just as a train from Newcastle was passing, and falling between the two trtioa nearly threw the passenger carriages off ithe line. The animal was run over and 'killed, and the passengers were much shaken. An Australian farmer has been experimenting to show the wonderfully prolific nature of wheat. Six years ago he planted one grain, and has replanted the product* of the same each year, it yielding no less th.in 260 bags this harves'. One single stem was found to contain nearly 250 grains. The Circe, which has been loading tim- ■ ber at the Wanganui wharf for the last three weeks, is now taking on boird some unusually heavy blocks, which are beiijg (stowed on deck. These, we understand, j are for Auckland, where they will be used m connection with the new railway station. The timber comes from the Feilding mills. The Dubbo Express newspaper has sue- . C'imbed, owing to the fearful state of things arising from the drought m New South Wales. It writes ;—' Our friends and supporters will please accept this I intimation that, m c msequence of the 6n»ncial deprf&sion of the iliatrict and the difficulty of collecting our outstanding accounts, we have decided to suspend the: issue of the tCx press with the close of the: prevent quarter until the drought breaks up, and we are favored with more prosperous seasons.' * Here is an amusing tale from the Grippslan*i haunts of the commercials. A gentleman travelling" recently met with some voaah treatment ut th« hands of a quiet looking waiter at a well*knovu hotel. The commercial gentleman spilled some salt at table. Being of a somewhat superstitious i turn oF mind, he quickly threw over bis left shoulder a good spoonful of the brin} grain, never heeding the fact that immediately behind his chair stood the Waiter. An emphatic • bank hanrter. 1 delivered full on the side of his head, knocked him end*' way.*, and the irate wai'er intimated that he wo aid servts anyone the aatae vtaj who would throw salt m his eyes ! v A class of school-girls, highly educated on the newest principles, were pouring forth to the Bishop of .Manchester a list of Latin Words, with the English equivalents, and they came to the word which we elders should pali vicissim. ' We-kisa-im,' Slid the girls. '^We-kiss^im — by -turns.' 'Oh, do you?' answered the JJishop. ' Then I don'c wonder at your adopting the new pronunciation.! (A,, clergy mnn who is very fond of a haTld at whis,t, on taking his seat at the card table at the house -of one of the wealthier members of his congregation pulled oat a number of threepenny pieces; One of the party suggested that he had made a mistake and brought the church collection witb'him, but the clergyman turned the laughter, and at the same time gave ft sly hit at his friend? by remarking 'hat he was surprised they had so soon recognised the coins they had put m the plate on the previous Sunday.