The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. TUESDAY, FBBEUARY 8, 1885. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 52, 3 February 1885, Page 2

The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. TUESDAY, FBBEUARY 8, 1885. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In some parts of the district (says the CJironiclc) the crops are looking very well indeed. In the Waverley district particularly, the fields of wheat and oats are m splendid condition. The feed is excellent, the warm rains we have had lately causing it to spring up most luxuriantly. Great complaints are being made m the Carterton district about the destruction of the turnip crop by the fly, or some other insect. : -At the meeting of ratepayers m the Lethbridge town district, heid at Turakina on Friday, a resolution was carried m favour of placing local affairs under the sole control of the County Council. It is rumoured that the Government have promised the Resident Magistracy of Wellington to Mr Warden Strattord. We (Post) hope the report is not true, as such an appointment would be by no means a satisfactory one. The Wairarapa Jockey Club's Autumn Mee&ig has been postponed from the 18th a»d U9J& February to the 20th and 21st ultimo. The first day's racing was inadvertently fisod for Ash Wednesday. A petition is m course of sjgnajture m EeiWing asking the Mayor to call a public meeting to discuss matters m connection with the formatioa.of a Small Farm Association to take up land m some of the Government blocks now open for selection.

It is probable (says the Star) tliat the Borcmgh Council may find it necessary to reviso the Borough Bye-laws, to make them consistent with several clauses m the Police Offences Act, and to expunge a clause said by the Borough | solicitor to be vires. It is stated on the authority of Mr Archibald Forbes, that the present Sir Robert Peel has run through everything bequeathed to him by his illustrious father. " Drayton house, with all -its art treasures, gone to the hammer ; the ' last racehorse sold ; the town house gone and nothing left but the insatiable appetite for gambling." The steamer Hauroto, which arrived m Wellington from the South on Frida}' had on' board 134 horses and 450 tons general produce for Sydney. The late Mr Wagg, of Masterton, is said to have died worth £10,000. A lecture on " The Ten Commandments " was recently delivered m a western town, and the local paper spoke of it as a novel and brilliantly original code of morals, which will be likely to make a stir m the world when it becomes more widely known. Recent accidents at level railway crossings m various parts of the colony have led to the framing of a new bye-law for better securing tho safety of persons travelling by road and rail. By this it is enacted that no animal or vehicle shall be driven across a public railway crossing at other than a walking pace, and no person shall cross without first obeying the injunction, " Stop-^-Look out for the engine." The penalty for each contravention is a fine of £10. The Woodville Examiner has the following rather spiteful paragraph : — "The Palmerston Special Settlement Association have applied for 15,000 acres m the Mangatainoko Block/ This must be the Block known on this side of the range as the Mangahao, for the Minister has stated that this is the same land applied for by the Masterton and Woodville Associations. Palmerston's little game is , upset this time, and the Pahnerston people are as likely to get Woodville and Masterton people to use their road over the range, as they are likely to make Palmerston the premier city of New Zealand. They are|rightly served for their selfishness m flegleoting to have the Lower Ferry Bridge carried out ere now." Speaking at the Napier Land Board meeting, Mr Haggen mentioned that m the district around Woodville the land was principally taken up by people of < Canterbury and the South, and the j people from these districts proved themselves desi: able , residents, being of the working classes, who knew how to work their land. In this issue Messrs T. Kennedy McDonald & Co. advertise a large sale of sections belonging to the WellingtonManawatu Railway Company, situated m the Fitzherbert Block and the township ot Linton. The sale takes place on Thursday, 19th Feb., m the Athenaeum, Wellington. For full particulars', we advise a perusal of the advertisement. Writes the Wellington morning paper: —"A very successful social gathering was held m honor of the centenary of Thomas Paine at the Lyceum Hall on Friday evening, under the auspices of the Secular Society. Songs, recitations, &c, formed part of the programme, and subsequently dancing was entered into and kept up to a late hour." Bather a " mixed " kind of a programme. Two officers of the Salvation Army were fined £2 10s each under the new Police Offences Act, at Waunate, for .obstructing the streets. On judgment being given the following colloquy took place - — Defendant Buckingham: What's tho alternative ? The Eesident Magistrate : You'll find that out. (Laughter). The accused : Hallelujah I Everything is mmy wife's name, and you can't do anything. ' Inspector Peter Pender is gazetted a First-clas Inspector m the A.C. Force, and the commission of First-class Inspector William Henry Jamas is antedated from Ist July, 1870, to 2nd Nov. 1867. The St. Helena Guardian says : — •' There is some hope, it is rumoured, of St. Helena being made the calling port of the steamers of the New Zealand Shipping Company instead of Capetown." It is understood (says a Napier newspaper) that every effort will be made to have the railway line through the Manawatu Gorge completed witliiu tho next eighteen months, by which time it is estimated that the Wellington Manawatu Railway will bo finished. Mr Amos Burr has returned from the Otaraakapua, whence he went a few days ago, to select land for the Maaawatu Special Settlement. Ho inform us (Feilding Star) that a block of land containing 10,0U0 acres has been fixed on,which is situated next the KiWitea Block, bounded on the east by the Oruua river, ou the west by the Kiwitoa stream, running five miles north, The surveyors' pegs were put m on the 26th instant. The land is of 'first-class quality, The London correspondent of the Auckland Star contributes the follow- j ing menis. " An article of n most gloomy and damaging character has appeared m the Scotsman about the New Zealand frozen mutton trade. Some men no carcases have been sent Home from Aubt ' tralia for comparison with the best English mutton. Ward and Stiinpson pro* nounce the merino mutton far too fat for butchering purposes." The Wellington Post seems to 'be wavering m m its support of the Govvernment, for it says it is difficult to see that the Cabinet has any policy except that of expediency. . From Auckland comes complaint of small attendance at the school committee election meetings. There are about 2400 children attending the city schools, and yet this large number were only represented'by some twenty or thirty householder^ at the meeting.