LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume VIII, Issue 125, 4 November 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A London correspondent writes to the Town and Country Journal :—" There is a scheme afoot iv London — I have seen the prospectus— to erect m Sydney a grand hotel, at a cost of £150,000. The building is to be seven storeys above the basement." few songs have been so popular as " Dream • Faces" and "Ehren on the Rhine.," the author of which, Mr Hutchison, is making a fortune from them. , A recent notice m a musical publication named the quantity sold of the former at 50,000,. and still goiug on. This gentleman was m the colony not many | weeks ago, acting as pianist to an Operatic Company ; and it may be interesting to some to learn that he once lived m the neighbourhood of Waipukurau, and has near relatives living there still: ' According to the following Parlia« ;raentary yarn, the member for Kumara intist be a man of far more than ordinary strength. One day not long ago, he took Wahanui up m his arms,, and catlied him the length of a corridor m the Parliamentary Buildings. The old chieftain grunted out " Humph ! no Maori bould have done that." Wahanui is a magnificently made man, weighing over SOOlb's, and as he iB not particularly fat, his enormous weight must be mostly | tiue to bone and muscle. Mr Seddon Would be an awkward customer to meet m a football scrimmage. i In the "French Postr-office .it is proposed m future to stamp all letters by juachinery, to save time and make the imprint of the stamping clearer than by hand. - • When I die,' said Mrs Fishwacker, ?I want to be bnried m good oldfashioned style, and not burned to ashes m one of those creameries ,yo» hear of.v i; .« :.■;■:• V. -.- o -■;,: ; How many are aware, asks Dr Page, jthat the thinnest fruit of all, the watermelon, contains, pound for pound, more nutriment than beef tea, being absolutely jpure... ;. .- ... ; .. ■ ■v"' ' i ..-A daily mail between; New York and London is. a, a near future possibility. It is stated that ex-Postmaster-General tfames says 'it is • practicable,' and ' [Poßtmaster-General Greshani favors it. • A curious discovery has been made at jWoodville m the shape ;• of a chicken with a double body, but Only one head. The specimen shews four distinct wings, four legs and two bodies, all of which are, perfect m construction, but just above the shoulders, the necks became united) ending m one complete head. The curious circumstance is that the creature was alive, and showed no signs of dying, until the mother hen put an iebd to, its semi-duplicate existence by pecking it on the head. It is the intention of the gentleman who found it. to forward it to the Wellington Museum, .where no doubt it will form a subject of some interest; Tjjose who went to see the last of the circus and the departure of the steamer Omapere (says the Napier Telegraph) were rewarded by the spectacle of an unrehearsed , combat between Signor Chiarini and one of the grooms, -I The 'Signor having expressed his dissatisfaction with the conduct of the groom, drjdered him to go forward to do something •or other. The man turned to obey, and as soon as his back, was turned the Signor rushed and knocked him down. A struggle ensued, m which the secretary took a hand. Once more oa their feet the groom went 'for Chiarini and gave him an expression of his opinion. The ashore, Chiarini waving his adieux with a bleeding nose, a cut lip, and a crack uuder the ear.' ' ■ " ' • A cyclist, seventy-two years 61d, won a slow race at Orleans recently. Sir Arthur Sullivan has been nominated to the post of conductor of the old established London Philharmonic Society. . Mrs Hampson, the lady evangelist, has been holding crowded and highly successful meetings m Geelong. ' According to Mr Galcraft's report to' the Board of Trade not a single passenger by railway, was killed last year m; England except as the result of his own carelessness.- :' |)uring .the v past year 14,702 Germans! have been sentenced for attempting to iemigrateto avoid military Service. ' ; ; There are about 1000 cheese factories iin Canada, turning but an annual product of 59,000,0001 b. -; . i; • With regard to the relation of alcohol to permanent insanity,: it is stated that ' out of 1271 maniacs, whose previous history was investigated, 649 weye traceable to drink. - Chicago has decided to pave every street m the business portion of the city, with granite. : It is ' stated that the grass m the Hawera district is shorter than it 'has : been during. r »he winter, consequently fe^d is scarce. ... ; ;_ ■ . . Not, a single life' was lost from ship?-, wpeck on the coast of New Seuth Wales duriag the last year. ' :' .'■ It is rumoured, that ajager beer brewing company will shortly begin operations m Melbourne, with a capital of £30,000. \ . :■ ' The rabbit has developed' quite new insiinctpin Australia. Amongst other, peculiarities it swims rivers and surmounts fences. „;■ ,;,-,». Many.of our readers who remeberwith delight Wombwell's Menagerie will be 86rry*tbhear the' whole collection has been sold by auction. The menagerie was established m 1805, and the sale realised a good many thousands pounds. A riovelty iii a proof of debt was produced at a meeting of creditors m j Napier **To cash lent without interest for | the purpose of keeping Mr out of ' gaol for fourteen days for debt; con- j .tracted at Taupo.' ■ , I Writes an exchange : — " Apparently ! th^ press is a great deterrent of crime, judging from tho number of those who request the: reporters to keep their names out of print. Not a week passes without such requests being made, the applicants at times getting liberal and freely offering crowns, and half crowns as inuuernents to their demands .being complied with. It may just as well be understood that offenders making themselves amenable to the law will have their names published, and thus the press will still further increase its usefulness by keeping men from crime. The Indianna judges stand no nonsense from the bar. A lawyer, there, lately, m the course o£ his argument, used the word disparagement. " Stop using Lating wprds," said . the judge, "or.sit down." The poor lawyer, undertaking to explain was ruthlessly fined |20 for contempts •: v i - • r ' Does your head ever swim, Mr Snifkihs?' aßked little Tommy Popinjay of his sister's beau. ' Yes, Tommy, I suffer occasionally from dizziueas,' said the slim. I thought so,' replied Tommy, 'fa B,afd l^e\i pitch you out into the horse pond, only your head w«wW keep you from, sinking*

We remind our readers of the general meeting of the members of the Manawatu Racing Club, this evening at 7.30 o'clock at the Commercial Hotel. It is uotified that the collector for the Manchester Road Board will attend at the Corporation Office, Ashurst, Wednesday, November 12, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., for the purpose of collecting the current year's raies. In the House on Saturday the New Zealand Loan Bill, Property Tax Bill, Native Lands Settlement Bill, were read a second time; and the TimOer Floatiug Bill and Impounding Bill were read a third time and passed. At the last meeting of the Rangitikei County Council the Chairman said there were 170 miles of roads m the districtmore roads, he believed, than any other of like size m New Zealand. A number of important additions have been made to the entries for Messrs Stevens & Gorton's sale it Palmbrston .on the eleventh inataut m the bankrupt estate of Mr H, J. Hayns.. The dairy cows are especially good. The Rangitikei County Council has accepted the tender of Messrs Bailey Bros, for the supply of timber, at 15s per 100 feet at all stations. One of the grandstands on the Christchurch race-course was destroyed by fire yesterday. It was insured for £500. An adjacent stand had a narrow escape also. Some workmen had left a fire m a 'stove, and it is believed the south-east «gale of this morninec blew embers on to >a quantity ;of inflammable material lying about. „ >l: :.'... „ . i It is notified m the Gazette of October 30th that > ;<m and After the 15th instant ;the following shall be the'rates of postage via Suez or Brindisi : — On all letters one shilling per half-ounce or fraction of half-an-ounce ; on all book-packete and iparcels, threepence for every two ounces or fraction of two ounces; and on all jnewspapers, twopence each. The said ipostage shall, m nil such cases, be prepaid m New Zealand by postage stamps, i In a recent debate m the' House Major 'Atkinson remarked : — " One of the curses of the colony had been that land Had ;been over-valued, over-sold,' and finally !oye.r-mortgagedj yet the policy of ,tbe Treasurer merely meant to give on 3© inpre a fictitious value to land, which value, most fortunately, was gradually going down to a fair level. The value of the land was purely what }t could produce. The country was being led into a path at the end of which wa? disaster, which disaster would be the re? suit of Sir Julius Vogel's gambling policy." . ; The District Manager, has informed Mr W. C. .Smith that letter boxes have now been fixed m Jthe guard's van on the Napier railway as requested. This be a great convenience to mauy people, especially at road-side stations, or m case of late letters after the postoffices have been dosed the mail-bags for terminal stations. Instructions for their use have not yet been given by .the postal authorities. In the debate on the second reading of the Consolidated Stock Bill Major Atkinson denounced the proposal as one ■Which s really meant that the colony should borrow more money m order to pay its debts. This was the usual resource of the spendthrifts The object of the Bill was absolutely to obtain further borrowing powers by borrowing money. It was another " dodge" to again enter the Home money market. It would prove of no relief to the colony to borrow for the purpose of finding means to pay off the sinking:fund. This proposal 'would land the colony m such a position that,, so far as the public indebtedness was concerned, it would be impossible to" jtrace it,. and no one would then know i" under which thimble the pea was." (This political; " jugglery" would m time ,' lead -to disastrous results. ; The Doric sailed from Lytteltoh for London on Saturday afternoon with a - Iji-ii. c ■>■•--■" — r*». ■"""'>■ cabin, and 79 steerage passengers. She 'took, some boxes of frozen whitebait as (presents for the Prince of Wales and •tho Agent-Geaeral. * . , On her last trip, the s.s. Tui brought the first instalment of the season's wool clip from the Rangitikei district, consisting of 100 bales. . In the House on Friday, Sir Julius Yogel said the action of the Legislative Council when throwing out the District Railways Purchasing and Leasing Bill ;had been quite unconstitutional, as the Bill was a money Bill; which the highest Parliamentary authorities had long ago ruled could not be thus treated by the Upper Chamber. < ; :'. To-day Mr Beetham Js to ask the . Minister of Lands if the Government : will, during the present session,- take ; any action to carry but the fecbm>mendations 6i the Waste 'Lands -Board of the Wellington District, relating' to the advisableness of falling timber on roadrlines/ previously to the blocks being thrown qpen for sale. : , , {>. t ■,. In the House of Representatives on Saturday, Mr Wi Pere, m contrasting , the, actions of tho hereditary chiefs who were wont m bygone days to rule the land with those of the European arbiters of the present day, made some remarks which exhibited an unusually keen if i quaint philosophy. "m those days," said the honorable gentleman, "the : natives, were, able to bring such pressure ito bear that those chiefs would die with. I shame. But the Europeans have no 'shame, They are like stone images— 1 theblushdf shame will never be seen on thteir faces. Their love is ail outside, and their hearts are hearts of stone." Wabanui took the opportunity of his ; appearance at the bar of the House to allude to the deplorable consoqueuoes of the liquor traffic m the King Country, and to express a hope that the Government would take steps to prohibit the sale of liquor to the natives m that country. V The repairs ,to the Ringarooma's machinery having been completed, she sailed on Saturday morning for the Bluft. I ; For a oonsiderabl* time past shipments of horses have been sent with great success to Sydney from' the southern ports of New Zealand.' The first batch sent from Wellington, how- ; ever, was despatched last Saturday evening, when thirty horses were shipped to Sydney, via Auckland, by the s.s. Waihora. The horses came from the Ran- I gitikei district, and are being sent over 'to Sydney by Mr Archibald Bishop on his own account (not as has been stated as an agent for a'■ Sydney firm) to. test the' market. The majoiity of them : were heavy draught horses, only about twelve beinjr of the medium class. , ■ ; Probably the most- interesting item m our cable messages to-day is that referring; to the price obtained m London for frozen beef. Sevenpence halfpenny per pound— the price brought by the Tongairo's shipment — is high enough to suit the most sanguine shippers, whose hope should now be that tho price remain unaltered. ■ , The Napier Telegraph affirms that Mr Ormond is a strong advocate of the Gorge line. In the estate of a Wellington ■' baker, lately deceased, the book debts amount to £7000, Sixty-nine years ago one lone missionary carried the atandard of Presby-" terianisnv beyond the borders of Indiapnainto the wilds of Missoari, At present there are m that region, which he opened, 17 synods, 1700 inihisters, \ 2000 churches, 130,000 comrauaicants. .