The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1885. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 100, 31 March 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1885. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

' »■ We are requested to mention that the Palmerston post and telegraph offices wiil be closed on Good Friday, and on Easter Mondsy, the hours of attendance will be from 9 to 10 a.m. ■ Woodyear's Electric Circus is to open here this, evening, and will remain' tomorrow also. Mr J. B. Hamilton notifies the arrival otautuinn and winter goods which he is now displacing.' Mf 5 -Hamilton will open the winter season by clearing all the new goods at sale prices m order to make room for a second shipment, just to hand. It is anticipated that from the Wanganui district (that is, between Taranaki and Palmerston North) there will be fully 860 volunteers sent to Nelson for the Easter encampment. The arrangements made this year are more perfect I than ever before, and our Nelson friends will, we think, hear very few complaints when all is over. The Wanganui Herald states that Mr ; Gr. W. Russell, late of the Manawatu Times, was one of the last batch of candidates for the law. What a "jolly" lawyer he will make. From a Wellington paper we learn that Messrs Charles PownalL and Co. have been appointed agents for Messrs M. B. Miller and Co M stock and station agents, Napier. Maps and plane of various propertied for, sale m Hawkes Bay and Poverty 3as can be seen at Mesßra,Pownall ahd Gp.'s. i "' 'Bishop RedWood returned to Wellington from Auckland en Sunday morning. Amongßt the other measures io be i|»r troduced during to coming session 'will probably be an amended Stamp Act. Experience has shown that the present Act affords a variety of loopholes by which ingenious persons manage to escape paying the Stamp duties which the Legislature intended should attach to their transactions. This is especially the case m regard to the duties on native land leases, m which the law is systematically ovaded to the great injdry of the revenue. The Stamp duties are almost the only branch of ordinary revenue which this year will not exceed the estimates, and the deficiency is m considerable degreo, if not altogether, attributable, to the successful evasions pf the intentjpps of the law.

Th.c "Wanganui Education Board moots to-day when Inspector Bindon's report on the various schools will be submitted. During the iirst year the Wairareka Dairy Factory made 4 por cent on the paid up capital. The directors recommonA the amalgamation of several companies under one experienced cheeso'mdSeiF, so that a stall may bo trained by which cheese of an unformly good quality could bo secured. . Tho-survey of 22 miles of the Central railway at the Marton end has now been completed. Mr Hose and party have left tor the Hautapu to begin the fourth section. Mr Blacketfc and party are still engaged on the third section. The ship Halcione arrived m Wellington from London on Sunday. She left London on December Bth, but did not make a proper start until December 21, when she was towed clear of Portland breakwater, having been detained from some cause or other. She brings a large general cargo. Her agents are Messrs ■Levin anil Co. A school committee election m a country district was rendered invalid because some of tiie votes recorded did nut represent adults. One of these voters claimed to come under the definition of " adult" because ho waa eightweu yeara of age, 6ft m his stockings, . and turned the scale at 12st 61b. This definition of adolt was supported by a geutlmnau who ihad some authority at the meeting to efectjthe said school cominittoo, and who alleged that ari adult tvas a person of mature age, sound of limb, aud of full height. The solicitor to whom the problem was submitted for solution,, of course gave an opinion entirely opposed to the " adult," and the hous»hold«rs m the district m which he is a "blacksmith improver," are now nnder the necessity of re-electing seven gentlemen to mauage the affairs of the public school. Says last night's Herald.— 11 There is we hear a pretty general feeliug aiuoug the public, that they would sooner hear Mr Gerald Massoy lecture on Shakespeare or Burns, than on his Satanic majesty and Spiritualism. The latter subjects interest a much smaller section of the community, and though no doubt what Mr jlassey has to say on them will be worth hearing, he would be far moru likely to secure good audiences by treat ; ing on more popular matters. (..'." Where are we all going to ?" asks .£Mercntio," m the Auckland Herald. I the week a husband was seutenced to a fortnight's impriaonniunt, 'without the option of a fine, for sleeping under the. house of his wife. Some people may >cay, Why did he not change the renue t and sletip inside the house of "hi* wjfe,,? Thereby hangs a tnje. It appears his wife had a protectiou order ; and, consequently, whan, on his arrival from the country, he Attempted to roost under the house, she " ran him m." In tho-' dock he pleaded to her to let him off, but sht> was obdurate, aud ho was sent up m the Black Maria to the Kyber Pass for a change of air. I was reading the other day, & voty interesting little book of poetry, written m the Northumberland dialect iv 1812, called •• The Pitmau's Lay " (said Mr Trevelyan, M.P.) In this, incidentally, it was mentioned that those colliers who jived at some distance from the mines used habitually to leave their homes between two and three o'clock m the morning, aud did not return home till : eight o'clock at night, dragging out I with them aud dragging back with them their little childreu. ; Mr Kirk, who is an old Auckland resident, has been appointed to made researches into the diseases of fruit trees. He is at present m the Nelson district, and is to visit Waugauui aud the West Coast districts afterwards. As he is an authority on this subject, he may afford some information about the blight and other diseases with which our fruit trees have been affected this season.