LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 268, 9 October 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Scotch papers are full ef the discovery at Oamaru, New Zealand, of Lord Reidhaven, the new Earl of Seaiield's son und lieir. According to the Glasgow Herald. His Lordship is not the only scion of an aristocratic house awaiting bettei;tiines m our colony. Two brothers; closely related to the Buccleuch family, have, it is said, been working incog, near Christchurch for some years past. % - : -. - So much has. been, written lately m this colony about continuous Ministries that it may not prove uninteresting to note the following. The Pall Mall Gazette of a recent date says : — " To-day Mr Gladstone has been Prime Minister for 9 years and 147 days, one day louger than lord Palmerston, whose tenure of power, like that of Mr Gladstone, was divided into two administrations. Upon being called up from the jury list at the Wellington Supreme Court a Swede pleaded inability to serve as a juror from the fact that he had not been naturalized, although he had lived m the country for thirty years. His HonA good deal of excitement has been created m Petono (says the Pott) by the< disappearance within the last few days of a prominent 'official connected with the Town Board- under circumstances which make it nearly certain that his flight has been caused owing to extensive defalcations m the accounts, which ho has been unable to make up. ' A singular blunder (says the Post) was fallen into by the Wauganui Chronicle, the Manayvatu Standaup, and some other papers, m a telegram which had reference to the death oi Father Forest. They stated the remarkable fact that he was the founder of the "Married order m 1834." We had.no idea that this order was of such recent origin. The version supplied to us was that he was the founder of the " MarLst Order." Housekeepers m Blenheim are getting very cheap bread just now, as the local paper has an advertisement to the effect that one baker is selling the 41b loaf for 4(1 ! The cause of this low price is a quarrel between tl*o local miller and the Blenheim bakers. I our remarked that he must of course excuse him, but that it was a disgraceful thing that a man should have been earning his livelihood m the colony for so many years without assisting m any way m the performance of public- business. His Honour advised the applicant to apply at once for letters of naturalization. The Star gives an amusing account of the baby show. recently held m Auck- | land at the Theatre ' Royal. It was found extremely difficult to maintain order, and at one tim* the stage became so crowded that Dr Walker was obliged to appeal to .all thereon (except mothers of competing babies and the Press) to withdraw. The appeal, however, was rain, and so after struggling on with their work for fifteen minutes longer, the judges threw up the sponge and incontinently abandoned the stage. The mothers, unaware of th» cause of this retirement, and seeing the reporters still busy taking down weights, pressed forward m great numbers to the scales, where th« wearied clerk plodded on with I his duties, ' huskily calling out the weights. ■ . Plausible, who is being so heavily backed for the Melbourne Cup, ia a five year-o'd bay gelding by Vagabond — Plaudid belonging to the same owner, Hon. W. Pearson, as Commotion, with the light impost of 6st 131 b. His only appearance last year was m the Melton Handicap, of 1 mile, which he won m lmin. 46^Bl'cs., carrying 7st 61b. It is! probable that the horse has" given a good account of himself m a spin with Commotion, Fryingpan, and Co. The firsi emigrant vessel, direct from Sweden for the United Stales, loft Gothenburg on June 4th with 44 first-class passengers and 468 immigrants, *

" Why are you so precise m your statement? Arc you afraid of telling an lint null?" asked an attorney of a witness m a Police Court. " No, air!" was the prompt reply. A brutal murder was committed m Kcverley lately, when two men named Ciirbury and Miller waylaid Constable Hackett and hammered m his skull, i'he remains were found m a terribly mutilated state next day. The constables and a number of settlors searched for the mnrdercitj aud found them on Monday m the bush. The rascals immediately fired oiv the police, who shot dg ad an escapid convict named Brown, who had join :d 'tliniu. Miller waa wounded during the affray, and it is reported that he "is dead. Oarbiiry, "who escaped, is armed, aifd is still at large. ! Under tKe heading of "A: Sad MisI take " -the Grisborne Telephone has the ■ following :— " Au amusing incident occurred this day, as evincing innocence of the Maoris m the matter of corporal punishment. A lad, charge with complicity m a horse-stealing case was sentenced to six strokes of a birch rod. His fellow Maori prisoners, under the impression that the boy. would be flogged/ with his trousers on, stuffed the seat wi h rags and (m old shirt. Fancy the t< rroi of the youngster when he was ordered to strip. It was an awful-mis-take — vory much so. The boy only too soon made the discovery." ' The ■Timaru Herald writes: — "If what wo hear from an old settler m tins district is true — and we have no reason to doubt his word — There is one important bird that" is proving quite a blessing to farmers both large and small. We refer to the starling. We are assured that: these birds settle on the backs of sheep aud pick out the ticks from the woo). The sheep take the mailer very quietly, arid are apparently as well satisfied with the operation as the birds themselves." While the usual monthly accounts were, being passed by one of the Ashburibn road boards the other day, members, expressed some surprise at the board's solicitor having charged two six-and-eigh'tpeuccs for one interview ; but on the chairman explaining that two separate questions had boeu submitted to counsel on the occasion, Mr Meggon quoted a professional precedent whei;e a doctor engaged for auiiriporlaut 'domestic occurrence at £5 doubled his fee on the arrival of twins. With this precedent before them, the members, of course, proceeded to pass their lawyer's double-barrelled account m smiling silence. The editor of the Woodville Examiner had a visit from a book agent on Monday. Our contemporary says the drummer commenced operations by saying:-— "I am travelling for— rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr— Jerusabm - — ." We told him we had quite enough to do to look after the people m this district, without bothering; our heads about those m Jerusalem, and asked him to look m again some time, next century, when we would go into the matter with Cim. One surveyor who was called to give evidence bf.foiv the committee regarding the Stratfnrl route says that at first he was of opinion that the country lobe opened up. by it oould not "feeu a goat." On further {consideration, however, he admits that a goat might, if it were of the chamois breed, inauage to eke out a precarious subsistence there if it "worked very long hours!" Another surveyor who was called as a witness for the Hefence of the Stratford route told a friend of ours that a railway might be constructed by this route by tunnelling all the way froinjStratford to Te Awamutu ! . „ The San Francisco mail closes at. Palmerston. to-morrow evening ;at 7;45 o'clock. i Mr Harker on Wednesday, offered for sale the Catholic Church property at Meanee, Hawke's Bay m small sections. 300 acres realised about £15,000. The Union Bank is the purchaser of the corner section- adjoining Monteith Bros' store, Woodville. From the Woodville paper we learn that tiie punt at the Upper Ferry has been rendered; almost useless by a bank which; had been Imilfc up by the late flood m the bed of the river. In consequence no heavy vehicles can crois and the coach has to change horses. The obstruction is a great nuisance to travellers, and the Wairarapa County Council should take some steps to put the Ferry m proper order at once. ■ The news of the success of the bold experiment made by New South Wales m putting a 3£ per cent, loan on the London market is good uewa to all the colonies. The. loan has been covered threefold, and it is expected that the average will be L 94, or 2 percent, above the minimum. The evident desire of English capitalists to invest m colonial loans should render it easy for Sir Julius Yogel to give effect to his scheme for the' conversion of our New Zealand debt. A railway bridge over the Murray river, (N.S.W.) has recently been tested by the Railway Departments of Victoria and New South Wales. The final test consisted of six engines, locked together m threes, passing over the river at the rate of 20 miles an hour. The weight of the six engines and tenders was 345 tons. The bridge bore the strain as if it were nothing, and the engineers expressed themselves thoroughly satisfied with the result. We wonder what the consequence would be were the sauie test'applied to Rome of the bridges on this line of railway. ■ ■ • ■ •' A correspondent writes as follows to tho Auckland Herald on the drinking' habits of the natives: — Sir, — In a letter from a friend at Cambridge (Waikato), bespeaks as follows: — "I have seen a Miaka' aud a largo 'tangi.' since I have been here. It is shocking to see the amount of liquor drunk by the natives. I may safely say that over two thirds of them, irrespective of sex and age, were druuk from Tuesday week until Monday. One. saw* even- boys and girls not more than ten years of age staggering about the streets, and takiug drinks from bottles of rum which they carried about with them. At the far end of the town there jure over, twenty childrendown with a low fever, and I fancy it will spread, as there are no sanitary nrranjements whatever m this place." I would ask, Sir, is there no possibility of putting an end to this vile murderous traffic ? Who is responsible ? A couple of gentlemen are now m the Rangitikei district purchasing draught horses for exportation to . Sydney. They require one hundred and fifty. The Pall Mall Gazette of a recent date contains a paragraph commenting on the great progress which the rearing of thoroughbred stock is making m New Zealand. « The 8.8. Tui wai expected to arrive m the Rangitikei river on Tueday afternoon. She will probably leave again for Wellington this evening. The Waipukurau Hospital is so' f nil'., at the present time that the new fever ward has had to be utilised for general purpose^ and should a fever cas* occur the committee will be m an awkward fix A proposal is to be made at next meeting of the committee for the enlargement of the Hospital. If the committee can see their way to do this, it will be a good thing, for the Hospital has rendered good service m many cases, and is a boon to the district. „ ; Last week a man with a broken leg had to be refused admittance at Waipuknran owing to the crowded state of the Hospital, and was afterwards sent ? to Napiir.i *

With reference, to the importance of fat as an article of food, it was stated by au eminent physician that the high price of butter was one of the causes of tbe prevalence of consumptive disease m England. *•' It is not generally known (observes the Mount Alexander Mail) that 1800 years ago the rabbit proved as great a. curse to the Roman settlers m Spain and the Balearic Isles as it does now m Australia and New Zealand. It is reported that a constable will be despatched to New Zealand f ;or the c p_UC?^pose of arresting William Shfiehan, who "" is suspected of having murdered his mother, aisterj and brother at Caatleton, a tgw.nsh.ip neat the-«boroagh- of-'^Roch-^'* dale, Lancashire; At a meeting of the Pirebtors of the Dairy Factory, Woodville, the resolu- • tion giving Mr Bowron, the total power * to secure a manager was rescinded, the directors having m prospect a very good man from Wangauui. It wififcptao de--1 cided (says the 1 Examiner) to^ciSer im. mediately a new engine, and boiler, from. - \ Mr Murray's works at Wahganui/ and* ' the manager of the Wanganui Dairy . Factory has offered to come to ?Woodville for a day and see things right. A correspondent of .the Woodville7 v { paper propounds the following, queries :' | —Ist. What is tho altitude of Wobdv.il.^e above the sea level ? 2nd . What tliat of Palmerston? 3rd. What 'are the' : steepest and what the average gradients v; on the Gorge Road ? - -i- :