LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 71, 25 February 1885, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

News is to hand that tho Pacific Company's pipes for tho Gisboruo oil wells were down 420 feet on Saturday last, m shelly bastard sandstone. Oil is again showing slightlty m the sand pump, and gas 18 abundant. Everything is very Favorable.

In Fulton county, Ga., the comity m whicli Atlanta is situated, there is a colored church of 1500 members, and the pastor charges cents a head for all to whom he administers the Lord's Supper. In that way he obtains his salary. He- is said to advocate a froqucut observance of the supper. A good story was told by a member of the Napier Board of Education : When others were complaining that there was a deficiency of accommodation m this school and that, he contented himself with saying a bush school was so full that the road m front was blocked up, and vehicular traffic was m consequence stopped. We are requested to anuounco that the half-yearly cash clearing sale of Messrs Ross and Co., of the Bon Marche, will commence on Saturday next, the 28th instant, and will continue for 14 days only ; particulars of which will appear m to-morrow's issue of this paper. Mr Ross wishes us to remind his customers and the public that the reputation of his firm for clearing out the remains of their seasons stock at the end of the seasson is is proverbial and doubtless many will avail themselves of this opportunity of buying serviceable goods cheap. A pious father entered an hotel and to hit} infinite uurpriso and unspeakable niortifienlion, discovered his only son seated at a card table and indulging m the wicked game of euchre. He bounced the youth unceiemoniously, then, looking at the vacant chair at the' table, he noticed that his heir had left a very promising hand, and no ho sat right down and finished it and raked m tho pot. Thus is virtue rewarded. We (Martou paper) understand that the wheat harvest m Rangitikei this season will not be nearly as good as was expected. Mr Thomas Hammond informs us that the result of the threshing up to the presont on tho Yor* Farm estato has been only about ten bushels to the acre. Writes the Patea correspondent of the Wangauui Herald :— ." Taken, as a whole, business affairs appear to bo improving, and I hope soon to be able to inform you with certainty of brighter prospects m store for our small town." The coast road from Napier to Wairoa is pretty well divested of herbage, so many mobs of sheep having been driven along that route lately. Recently, (says the Telegraph) a traveller along that road passed three droves consisting of 12,000 sheep, their destination being 5000 for Ruakituii run, lately purchased by Messrs Dalgetty and Co., aud 7000 •■in two droves, tor tho Te Kiwi run, recently bought by W. Mien from Mr M. R. Miller. " Marry m haste and repent at leisure" received another illustration the other day. Some little time ago a bushman, when drunk, got married, and two months afterwards his wife presented him with a bouncing boy, though he had never seen her till one month previous to marriage. An order hi Court was recently obtained against him ('says the Telegraph) for her support, and he was ordered'to pay 15s a week out of his wages of 255. A bottle was picked up a few days ago on the beach at Nuhaka, near the Mania (says the Napier News), cootaining an apparently genuino statement of the wreck of a vesssl named the Elizabeth on the coast of Samoa, m July, 1883. The paper purports to be signed by the captain of the vessel The bottle and contents were given to a gentleman to brine; to Napier, but as hois coining overland, has not arrived yet. A good deal of wrecuage has been washed up lately about Wairoa, the origin ot which should be enquired into. It is possible that this and the bottle came along together. Among tho wreckage is a quantity of candles, which residents along the beach have been able to make good use of. The' Victorian Wesleyans have detorrnined to celebrato the jubilee of Victorian Wesleyanism next year, and to signalise the event by raising a thanksgiving fund, m recognition of God's goodness to the Church m Victoria during tho past half century. The prupo sed jubilee fund will be devoted to the liquidating or reducing of the existing debts ou the churches, schools, and parsonages, and to supplement the fund fur building the college, which is to bo affiliated to the Melbourne University. It is'currently rumoured m Wellington (says an exchange) that further reductions are still contemplated m various departmental offices thioughout th« colony. Mr Ballanco is credited with the intention of cutting down the Sur veyor-Gcneral's department to almost skeleton dimensions ; and the latter offi cer's tour throughout the North and South Islands m company with M. do Harven (ostensibly for the purpose of pointing out to that gentleman the agricultural resources of the colony) is held to have some connection m tho matter. In all likelihood, the 31st March next will bo a dark day to many m the Civil Service. Scrying notices on dead people seems rather a hew idea, yet it appeared from the baliff's evidence this morning (says the Wanganui Herald) that he had " served" several dead people, giving them notice that they could not vote m the Waitotara electorate. This seems carry ing the formal portion of the Act to its extreme, the fact of a voter being dead and his death registered should suffice for the Registrar of Electors. The assets m the Dunedin Savings Bank, after allowing for all liabilities, amounted at the close of the year to £9,514 10s lOd. Nearly £36,000 was lodged by depositors last year. In one of the suburban courts of Melbourne, George McQueen, a publican, has been fined m sums amounting to £200 for evasions of tho Trades Marks Statute iti selling brandy m Hennessey's bottles which was not of Hennessey's manufacture. From a Wellington paper we learn that Mr Callis, secretary for the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition, expresses himself as being perfectly satisfied with his visit to Masterton. The residents there have taken the matter up with considerable enthusiasm, and already a large number of exhibits have been promised. Messrs Beetham Bros, will send wool, tallow, and preserved meats, whilst other promises have been made of grain, timbor,&c. It may be as well to mention that applications for space m the general branch close on next Saturday. The Mataura Bridge was within an ace of becoming the scene of a terrible tragedy last week. The facts are thus recorded m the local Ensign : — " It seems that a messenger was m the afternoon sent over from the Gore Station to inform the bridgekeeper of a special train passing through on Sunday m connection with the Hon. Edward Richardson's visit to Southland ; and while the instructions were being examined, tho 4.58 train from Clinton hove m sight before there was time to close the gates or warn some. people with animals and conveyances on the bridge of their danger. There was a good deal of traffic on the bridge at the time — a four-horse waggon, a double express- a draft entire, a saddle horse with- its rider, and some foot passengors being m the act of crossing from Gore to Gordon. The driver of the train saw tho danger of tho position, and applied the brakes, with the result that the speod of the train was reduced just m tune to avaid a collision. The matter is being enquired into, and the bridgekeeper has been suspended,"

We (Martou paper) have seen a magnificent sample Jof sparrowbill oats, grown on Mr John Cameron's farm, Turakiua. Mr Cameron has nine acres of this crop, and he estimates thn yield at 120 bushels per acre ! The work of demolishing the old gaol is being rapidly proceeded with (says the Taranaki Herald), and many people to whom the inside of such an establishment is a novelty were on Monday inspecting the stone vaults and other gloomy appurtenances of Her Majesty's prisons. The stone cells look very solid, but many yarns are told m connection with escape from custody. Four prisoners, one a murderer, were many years ago confined to one of the vaults, and they succeeded during a boisterous night m lifting up the flagged pavement and burrowing under the ground into the Government store behind. Here they helped themselves to the commissariat liquor with a tree hand. Before morning they burst out of the side door, and taking the best part of a case of brandy, ,fled into the country. They were all eventually retaken, the murderer being found at Oakura. Several times a wholesale exodus would occur, and the police would be sent round to the public houses to look up the truants and tell them " to go home."