LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 29, 5 January 1885, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Three well-known adult residents ware yesterday caught m jiar/rantc deliclo m the act of robbing Mr Carroll's orchard, which has suffered very heavily from these depredations of late. Mr Carroll has, we understand, expressed a firm determination to prosecute the delinquents. He says that had the thieves been lads, he might have overlooked the act, but m the case of presumably respectable and certainly responsible citizens he considers the case very different. He has lost a large quantity of fruit this . season at the hands of various depredators, (some few actually disco vered.others only suspected, and he thinks it about time an example were made when the time chosen is Sunday morning, and the perpetrators individuals who should be a little above a mean act of petty larceny. A Chinaman whose name has not been ascertained (says the Tuapeka Times) committed suicide by hanging at the Chinese Damp on Friday morning. It appears that he has been unemployed for a long time, and that he was also suffering from the effects of disease, besides being an opium-smoker. Finding himself unable to keep up the supply of this narcotic, he took the quickest way of putting an end to his miseries with a rope. Mr Whiting, who for many years past has" been engaged as overseer of the Wellington Corporation works, has recently perfected apian for drying fish. Mr Whiting's system is a peculiar one, and he claims that he can by a process brought abqut by exhausting air preserve fish for any length of time, without salting or smoking. Says a Wellington paper :— The Society for the Prevention of .Cruelty to Animals would do well m the interests of the cause they have espoused, to turn their attention to the state of the animals employed m the traffic to ragecourses. It is noticeable that m many instances horses — some of them m anything but good condition — are worked all day long without the slightest sustenance of any ' sort whatever ; and the consequences of this treatment may be seen by any casual observer. An investigation into this matter would produce results beneficial as well to the animals as to the comfort of visitors, A seaman named Gaorge Bettams was observed on New Years Night on the Auckland wharf behaving m an extraordinary manner. He said a child had been spirited away by his grandmother. His behaviour was attracting attention, when he suddenly said, "Here goes," and attempted to jump over the wharf. A waterman succeeded m arresting him. He was charged at the Police Court on Thursday with drunkenness, and remanded to ascertain his sanity. A Wellington paper reports for the past month the usual briskness of business which is characteristic at this season of the year. The state of trade is good, with country and town orders quite up to the average. A discovery of gold has been made on the Bommel Island, on the west coast .of Norway. An English company has been floated, which has now prospected the island, opened shafts, and erected buildings. It was expected that the mining operations would commence last month. Last month a block of auriferous quartz valued at about MAO was found by a workman on the property of this con.cern. The discovery of gold m this island has led to a great many prospectings of other parts of the island by Nor- , wegians and foreign capitalists, and, it is stated, with considerable success. Apropos of the wretched weather we haverecently been " enjoying " of late, j a good story comes from Well_gtpn, where at a social gathering one evening, , which Mrs Captain Edwin attended, one of the guests exclaimed, as the house shook with the severity of the passing rain squalls, " Dear me, Mrs Edwin ; I why don't the captain give us some better weather ?" To which the captain's better hall promptly made answer, " What can you expect for .£3OO a-yearl" As the lair enquirer was the wife of 'a Cabinet Minister, let us hope the hint will be taken and some better weather ordered. ! ■' It isunderstood that it has been decided to issue for the present only the first million of the three million loan. The advertisement calling for tenders within the next lew days would probably appear m the London papers. The Melbourne correspondent to the Otago Daily Times says it fins been proposed to refer the dispute m the boot trade to arbitration. Some idea of the mishief this imbroglio is causing may be gleaned from the fact that orders to the amount of £27,000 that would have come to Melbourne have gone to Sydney It is also not very satisfactory that a large number of workmen who have been m the habit of receiving £'6 a week have to ask their wives to manage upon 25s shilling a week during the festive season. It there were an established court of conciliation to which all trade disputes could be referred, this unfortunate collision between masters and men over the " sweating " system wouldnevcr have occurred. A cable message from London states that the members ofcthe Stock Exchange protest strongly against the alienation of the. New Zealand Sinking Fund. Mr Walter Turnbull, ol tne firm of W. and G. Turnbull and Co., arrived, m Wellington on Thursday by the s.s. Arawa, accompanied by Mrs Turnbull. A man has been charged m Welling- ! ton» with the larceny of a railway sleeper. Tenpence per lb cash is now being given by the Napier storekeepers for the best fresh butter. . At the aquatic contest there was the largest crowd of people that had ever been seen m Riverton, numbering 3000 ' people. An impression got abroad that J Harrington had been guilty of foul play, i but those who saw the accident and knew him best, including Hearn's backers, scouted the idea, and agreed that the swamping was purely accidental. races, owing to a certain decision of the stewards. The backers of the disrated animal raised a fearful clamour, and payment at the totalisator had to be stopped for peace. It was proposed to wreck the totalisator, but the police prevented any violence. The Foxton paper says : — il Last week a magnificent bullopk was sent to Wei* lington, with other oattle, by Mr Wm. M'Kenzie, for the Messrs Barber Bros., The beast was .from a.Woodville farm, and is expeGtpd to turn the scale at thirteen or fourteen ' hundredweight.. The bullock referred to was one ot a mob gent by Mr Campbell from Mr Orinond's property. " General " Booth, was recently [ charged at Simderland, England, with ! non-payment of the poor-rates on the Salvation Army " barrack " at Monkwearmonth. Exemption was claimed on the ground that the building was used for the purpose of worship. The prosecution urged that the sale of the War Cry within the building precluded any such exemption. The magistrates made an order for payment. The extensive alterations at the Feilding Hotel are now complete. The parapet, balcony, &c, have given the building a greatly improved and quite an imposing appearance. Mr Hastie is to be commended for making his establishment such a great acquisition to Manchester Square.

Finnish newspapers report that Professor Baron Norclenskjold is about to vary his Arctic experiences by an attempt to reach the South Pole. Recently, it is stated, he left Stockholm for St. Petersburg, m order to interest certain influential persons m his new enterprise. The Pope having officially warnod M. Ferry that ho cannot recognise the new French Divorce Law, as the irrevocability of marriage m the fundamental dogma of the Church, the French Government has replied that it is a purely civil measure, and that His Holiness I can use moral suasion through the bishops to prevent Catholics from adopting.it. Policy-holders xinder the Government Insurance are reminded that their voting papers should be posted here to-night m order to reach Wellington on the evening of the 6th instant. If fine weather should set m for a ■^eek, there shquld be some magnificent •jburns " m the Kiwitea and Wanganui Harbor Board Blocks. Many hundreds of acres of bush are down waiting for a dry spell. Messrs Rochf ort. Holmes and HurstHouse (says the Waikato Times) have finished the field work of the first fifteen miles ot the trunk line, and are now engaged at the office work. Plans will be forwarded to Wellington m a few days. It is expected that teudets will be called for by February. The plans will be lithographed and specifications thade out as soon as possible after arrival m Wellington. Ttie success of Captain Russell's filly Tigredia m the Auckland Derby was satisfactory to d Hawke's Bay sporting men, (says the Napier Telegraph) many of whom had backed her heavily, knowing! they ;would have an honest run for their money, which opinion, it is evident was shared by tho Auckland people, as thfcre Were so many on her m the totalisator that the dividend was not equal to the odds the bookmakers were laying at the post. Some of the southern papers are expressing astonishttient because the Chief Justice of Queensland recently committed a man to gaol for twenty-four hours for driving a spring-cart past the Supreme Court and causing a noise after he had been warned not %o do so. They would have been still more surprised if they ,had been m formed of the fact that some few years ago a Judge of the Supreme Court m Napier threatened to commit " a respectably dressed person," as the Judge called him, for standing m the middle of the street smoking his pipe opposite the door of the Supreme Court." The Feilding Star says that the railway authorities lost about £30 m passenger traffic by their faulty and insufficient advertising, on Boxing and New Year's Day, between Palmerston and Feilding. In such abhorrence is the Salvation Army held iv Napier that daring the New Year celebration, the most fun seemed to be created by the procession of a burlesqued Salvation Army, m the midst of! which and proceeded by torchlights, was carried an effigy of a *' Captain," who was duly consigned to the flames m the course of the night.