LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 40, 15 July 1885, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

On oar fourth page to-day will bo found Cable N«ws, ...Australian' News, Telegrams, and a . quantity o£ interesting news with regard to Russia. and England. Messrs G. M. Snelson and Co. will' instructed by Messrs 'Bentley Bros., hold a two days' auction sale of the bankrupt stock of drapery m the estate of D. AI. George. Tho ualc, which commuiioes on Saturday next, at 2. p.m. will bo cdiitinued on the following Monday at the same hour. A notice ">vith regard to tho "cheap excursion fares to Wellington will be fouiid elsewhere. T?ho Borongh Council meets this even" iugat the uhual time and place. ' A person to clean and light the Prosbytoriau Church is wanted, application to be made toMLr F.Pirani, Tiriies office; -■'■ ''' '■ ' '".. ' *'■'■ ;':''■■; .""'•• ■'■ '■ ; ' ■' "■■''"• lii Japari,,f where a -than/" possessing ' "'jE2OO a-yenr v is reputed wealthy, 'anil' a peasant or farmer who has laid by £20 for -a rainy day is regarded almost m the light of a capitalist, there are less than 10,000 paupers, m a population of 37,000,000. Hore is a "iacVior sociologists to ponder on and investigate. Mr George Fawcett Rowe, the actor and playwright, will not revisit, these colonies until after the close of Mr Boucicault's engagement. He" has just written the libretto of a comic opera", and has engaged four composers to furnish' him with 'the music — the one' English^, a SBCoud French, a third German, and a fourth American. Scene— Parsonage m Ha-upshire.: Vicar, to Scotch gardener who has giveu: up his situation : " Well, Sandy, I hear, you are about to leave us." Stfiidy : , v Ay ay, sir, its quite true." Vicar : "I thought you were well pleased with.your- — '— — -." iSa,udy : " Oh, I hae nae faut tae fin' wi' aitheryou or the leddy ; but, man, the foltf about. here dinna respect the Sawbbath, an'they koepawfu'badwhuskey 1" As showing the hardships which the ; new tariff will inflict- oh- some unfortu'- , nates, tkd Lyttelton Times gives, the following : 'A short time, , ago a contractor undertook to put up a bridge for the jGovernment, his tender for , abput JBBOQO being accepted. THeVe 'are ii'o'nbark piles and timber m lihe contract to the value of £2000. Under thW new I tariff the unfortuuate contractor will find himself minus £250, which he will have to hand to the Government for duty." .■■ '; -V' : ' .-, •,.;:'.■■-"•■ Says the Wellington Times .'-^An interesting return was laid 'on the table of the 'Legislative Council yesterday, on the motion of Dr Pollen. It shows the amount of the fees paid during the past three years upon the issue of the various classes of licenses authorised by the Licensing Act. The "respective amounts were as follow :— Publicans' Licenses. 1881-82, ,940,044; 18*2-83, £26,854: 1883 4, £54,604 £ New Zealand wins Vliceuseß, £5, £25,'£22;accomrnodation ? licenses, £1150, £1429, £1530 ; bottle licenses, £3047, i' 4472, £3862 ; packet licenses, £180, £490, £446 ; wholesale licenses, £3368, £53/4. £4409'; conditionaUiceuses, £484, £898, £775. The total siiins receive^ m the three yea,rs res^ pectively were £57.'276', £69,539; atid £66,668. ;■ ' . ' : : : Tho Waipawa Mail says :— About every third cliiltj one meets m Waipawa at the present time has his or her face bandagod ap with flannel : the reason for which is that the unpleasant malady kuown as the mumps i» {almost an "epidemic- amongst th« young people. We learn that the same thing exists m Kai-; koura and other places. Fortunately the cases are very mild. Wo were quartered m the West Indies,, and the Roman Catholic priest, a jovial fellow, used often to dine at the mess. One of our subs said to him : " Father O'Flaherty, I wish you were, the Pope and held the keys, of heaven." 11 Faix, me boy," replied his reverence, . "it would be butter for ye if I hold the. keys of the other place, for. then I could let ye out." • The annuhl .general meeting iof the Mauawatu Raciug Club, will bo held jon Tuesday eveniug next at : the Commercial' Hotel. The business to transact will be reception of Gomthittee's report and statement of accounts, e|eptiou,of stewards, (ppnnni'ttep,' judge, clerk, 0f scales, handieapper, starter, tiirjekeeper, treasurer, fccoretary, and general. The Dramatic Club unwittingly treated the Palmerstou public to a copywright play m its inaugural entertainment. The Club's secretary received a .polite note yesterday from the agent at Wellington, requesting the payment of a small fee, which the forme*' gladly forwarded.

Amongst the latest Parliamentary papers to hand is oiie giving an approximate staty.iient of the payments which would be paid to local bodies under the proposed Local Bodies Powers and Finance Bill. A summary of the various kinds of local bodies shows that town districts would get £5775, boroughs; i' 37,942, counties containing no : road districts £30,832, counties containing road districts £125,741, gold-fields counties £26,000; : total £226,290; The Wangahui general rate 'collectable for 1884-5 was £2088, the rate collected was £2022 aud on this latte'f 'amount the subsidies would bo Jj'lOll, being at the rate of 10s m the pound. In JRatoa the collectable was ;2428, the' rate 'collected £238, and the subsidy (pound for pound) £238; hi Wuvorley town district the collected rate was only £57, and the subsidy would be a similar amount, Milton wjjuH seoijpo £&%l, Peking-' £20Q and RalmrKston * North. .£s6o, Counties without roa<l hoarfl|a are tp be subsidißK«l by a sum of £2 fpr every £1 of general rates Wvied and collected, not exceeding £1000, and a subsidy of poupfl for pound on all rates, cfljlccfeg m excess of that gum,

A return laid on tho table oE the House shows that there are 474 poliocm-n m the cul.iay, an.l th.it tho cost is £199 6b 4.1 per dead. The raport lai.l on tho table o£ the House shows that tho books m the CimuM-iI Axsumhly Library number •iv.GOO volumes, 1000 having been" added thisi year. At a meeting of tho Manchester and Kiwitea Acclimatization Society hold m Feilding last week, a letter was road from .Mr Brewer, Honorary Secretary of the Wauganni Acclimatization' Society, j on the subject of American trout, and 'the hatching of trout at AVanganui, 'advocating: the introduction. oF fullgtown instead of small lishi The letter made reference to the hatching process adopted by Mr Beethaiu, of Mastertou. DrJdhuaton proposed aud Mr Curtis seconded, That tha President write to Mr Beetham, ascertaining the coat of a number of large tish and also all particulars with reference to their beiug conveyed here. — Carried. •iTbe following concise verdict was returned by a jury at Idaho. h month ago : " We find that the deceased \«auie to his death by calling Tom VVatliugs a liar." Thefoliowing are .the numher of bankrupts which have tiled tv the' four principal tovrns of Now Zealand up to the 30th June, 1885, under the new Bankruptcy Act •— Chriatchurch, 336 ; Dnnedift, 150 ; Auckland, 93 s'Vyeltington, 78. It will be seen that there wore fewer iri Wellington than any. other of the chief cities.-' .'■■ . . _- •. ' v ■;;■ '* . ' ;v -

An amusing story is to hand by_the last Cape mail. It appears that just a> the Union Steamship Company's mail steamer Moorwas. about to enter Table Bay, on April 16, a fog, through" which she had b«en passing for some hours, liOted, and m her immediate neighbourhood a big, strange steamer was observ- 1 ed bearing dowu upon her.. The idea that the stranger was a Russian cruiser, at once took hold of those on. board the : Moor, aud . tracks . wore immediately,: made for the ocean wide. ' The stranger, was, however, the. New Zealand steamer Aiawa, and, observing that the Moor was flying mail steamer's "colours, her captain, who, it is said, " was not acquainted with the coast." thought he would be! quite right m following her wake. The Moor, thinking she' was being pursued^ stood still further out to sea, and it was not for some time that the mistake was- discovered/ when both .ships entered the bay; after considerable enjoyment of the fun. y _ ,V ' ■'. v. -i Under the Police Offences Ad; ,1884, clause 3> 4ection 30, we fiiid/ the follow-; mg offences for which, auy person guilty ."thereof is liable to a'pisnalty nut excoed•ingifive .pounds:—" Distiirbs any; congregation assembled ' for publid' worship or auy public meetiug, or any rrioetiug; for any lecture, concert, or. eutertainmeiit, or any audience at any theatre, whether money is charged or not for such lecture, concert, or entertainment or theatre, or interferes with, the orderly conduct of any religious service m any church, chapel, cemetery, burial grouud, or other building or place." , ;

I The Salvation Anpy were disturbed m. tho exercise of- their religious sorvices on Sun<lay.night by some of the larri- . kins of ; Feilding. Proceedings have lieeu initiated and Mr Ward R.M., will hear Whattliey have to a.iy m. defence «f their conduct.-^-Sifar, Says " Puff "m the Wellington Press : —Debate "on the great Barmaid questio.n all over! Rather mom than halfatulrhalf m- favour of ; the fair poison. •mixWs! Stoiit ratijcr bitter, than otherrwise, but the tniljority inclijied to| behold )and| mild'!; Guinnessr oiJght to.! have backed up Stput, though! Hurathouse been m America "mashing " th» '1 pretty Hnxiy cashiors ! " Fourth Avenue or the Bowery old aonY" Atlantic ' Gardens," eh? Pyke waated to know ifthe bar-' maids were all 1 to be thrown into the. •sea! Sly old- fishy :Pyke ! . : jHow the fresh water sharks would bit© if folks trolled for them with bar-mermai.ls ! •■ . As showing the effect which < such ill advised attempts as the ,one recenjily made to alter- the tariff have on the cpnsumihg public; we may mentibn that we know of one cpmparitavely small dealer m a particular line m this city who boasts that the new tariff during its brief cpn tiiiuance put £&Q into his pocket, Imme- '■ diatelythe new duties were announced he raised the iprice of his stock-in-^rade, whether imported or of Colonial make. Everything which he bought from wholesale, houses was on an understanding that if the new tariff was not passed',, the extra duty would be refunded. The extra duty, however, was charged to the retail customers without .any corresponding undertiaking, and ;now the .retailer finds himself i'6o m pocket,, and his customers are of course the poorer.-r-Posi. ;; ■ Wonders will never cease. A new cart has been invented inilndia which is so v riice3iy balanced th\at when going down a' 'hill; a^ turn <>f the crank raises the.;shafts, " and wAh f the'na' the horse,* :who is > suspen- ; ded m mid air taking a rest till level ground is. once more reached. If^. the horse attempts to run away th© friendly crank is once more brought into requisition, and the recalcitrant, quadruped moves its legs between heaven and earth This is what St. Paul calls "beating the air."