LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1464, 25 September 1885, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

On our fourth page to-day will be found the following items : — A London Scandal, Action Ag inst an Insurance Company, Vessels Crushed by Ice, Daring Rubbery at a Bank, Stanley and Livingstone, An Unexpected Windfall, and Tragic Ending of a Love Suit. An extraordinary and tragic accident is reported to have occurred near Paris. A horse was seen galloping wildly along tho road to St. Germain, the vehicle to which the animal was attached being enveloped in flames. Several persons having succeeded in catching the horse, a dreadful sight presented itself. In the bottom of the burning vehicle the body of the driver was found reduced to an almost indistinguishable heap of cinders. It is supposed that the man, having lit his pipe, fell asleep, and that the burning ashes set fire to the old woodwork. A shocking case of parricide is reported from Krouna, in Bohemia. A youth, aged twenty, was engaged with his father in mowing a meadow, when the two fell out. After some hot words the lad made a blow at his father with a scythe, and cut the old man's head clean off. A very considerable time since one of the then much respected Dalrymple family lost his way one dark misty night on a hill. After wandering about for some time he came to a small cottage, and having knocked at the door of the same, said, " Let me in, please, I have lost my way." " But fa are ye ?" cried a shrill voice from within. The reply was, I am Sir J. Dalrymple Elphinstone, of Logio Elphinstone, West Hall." " Preserve me," exclaimed the woman, "my housie wudna haud the half o' ye!" Messrs Cash & Esam notify that Mr W. B. Retemeyer will apply for an order of discharge at tho District Court on the 28th of October. A meeting of creditors will be held at the Courthouse, Bulls, on the 13th prox., for the purpose of assenting or otherwise to the bankrupt's intended application for discharge. By cable we learn that Greece is opposing the proposed union of Macedonia with Bulgaria. A letter for C.E.M. is lying at this office. Mr Robert Fairlie, C.E., the inventor of the "double bogie" engine, died on July 31, in the 55th year of his age, and after an illness of only 24 hours' duration. Mr Fairlie gave evidence from early boyhood of the mechanical genius he afterwards so signally displayed ; and on becoming an engineer, devoted himself to that branch of his profession which deals chiefly with the construction and equipment of railways. Colonel Gorton, who has returned to the district from Wellington, informs the Marton paper that he has been successful, in conjunction with the member for Waipawa, Mr C. Smith, in getting a promise from the Government to have telephonic communication established between the Manawatu Gorge and the ferry. This will be found to be of great convenience to persons in charge of sheep or cattle, as it will prevent the droves meeting each, other in the narrow road round the Gorge. An advertiser in Wellington intimates by advertisement in the Post that he has found " a set of teeth." The news which we published recently, of cholera having become epidemic in the Island of Timor, in the Arafura Sea, is a matter of serious interest to the Australasian colonies. Timor is unpleasantly close to the northern portion of Australasia, and if the dread disease has reached it, there is but too much reason to fear that it will make its way to a place which is in every way so suited to its fatal development as the Northern Territory. If it once reaches Australia, and especially in the summer time, its ravages are likely to be something almost unprecedented even in cholera history. As the disease appears steadily making its way towards us, the authorities in our various centres of population should bestir themselves in time in looking closely to the sanitary condition of the towns, and rendering these as complete and healthful as is possible.— Post. Several Woodville settlers are going in for tobacco culture, having been supplied with seed by the Auckland Tobacco Company. They have picked out nice, sheltered, good soiled spots on their sections, and confidently calculate on obtaining £60 an acre and upwards. A new method of washing butter has been patented in Germany. It consists in taking the small particles of the churn when they are about the tenth of an inch in diameter, and placing them in a centrifugal machine whose drum is pierced with small holes and lined with strong linen cloth. Pure water is added from time to time, until that which is thrown out contains no milk. Thursday's N. Z. Times says : — Before the ordinary business of the Resident Magistrate's Court came on yesterday, Mr Travers got up and apologised to Mr Wardell for what had occurred the previous day. He sincerely regretted that he had been connected in any way with such discreditable proceedings, and desired to apologise. It was quite true that he had lost his temper, but the irregularity of which he had been guilty was unjustifiable within the precincts of a Court of Justice. He trusted his Worship would accept the apology. Mr Wardell said he did so with great pleasure. He was often placed in a very difficult position, and he expected that counsel who appeared before him would assist him in maintaining the dignity of the Court. Intelligence received in New York announces that a great fire has occurred at Les Cares, Hayti, by which 100 buildings were destroyed and 1000 persons rendered homeless. The loss is estimated at 2,000,000 dollars. A temperance demonstration was held at the Exhibition (Wellington) last Wednesday. The procession was a mile long. A half-holiday was proclaimed, and an immense concourse of people turned out to witness it. Speeches on temperance were delivered by the Hon. Mr Stout and Mr Fulton of Dunedin. A new evening penny paper, entitled The Globe, is about to be started in Sydney, and the projectors intend also bringing out in connection with it The Sunday Times which will be the first Sunday paper issued in the Colonies. Depravity in Auckland. Alice Fowler aged 16, confessed to consorting with a Chinaman and smoking opium. Mother a drunkard, father a drunkard. Girl turned out at night with usual result. Salvation Army as usual grappled the question, and got the girl away to their Female Refuge. The Army is undoubtedly doing a great deal of good n Auckland. The above is ample proof,

The village of E nsworth, near Ports mouth, was this season visited by a r markable plague of flies, which simal taneously covered an area of one mil At some places it was impossible to move without closing the eyes and mouth. Around every lamp in the town the spectacle was most curious. Attracted by the light thick swarms abounded, and their buzz resembled that of a hive of bees. At the post office, where the upper portion of the door is open for ventilation, and where necessarily the light is kept burning till the early morning, the insects covered the sorting boards, letters, and bags, and had to be continually swept off with brushes. At one lamp they simply hung down in clusters. Bicyclists coming from Harvant were in several instances compelled to alight, so thick was the swarm ; and at the auction mart at the bottom of the town, the tray in which the money was taken was covered an inch thick. Lord Salisbury's Cabinet contains thirteen members of the British aristocracy, who own 650,000 acres of land, and derive therefrom an annual income of £900,000. The editor of the Marlborough Press recently demonstrated the soundness of his claim to the character of a modest man in the following terms :— " In our opening leader we expressed a conviction of our ability to run a paper, and we have no douht, now, that such conviction was well founded.. We do not boast — it is not in our nature to do so— but in the interests of our readers we cannot help announcing that for the future we shall be a long way ahead of any other paper published in the district for news local and general ; for unbiassed views on political and other subjects — in short, that the Marlborough Press will be the best edited, best printed, most reliable, instructive and amusing paper in New Zealand, if not in the world. We repeat that boasting is not in our line, but our profonnd reverence for genuine worth compels us to add that we have secured the best editorial and reporting ability available, and we mean to make this valuable publication " Boom." Under the new management all errors will be avoided — as we intend to approach as near to perfection as possible in every way, provided always that we do not become too perfect for this work-a-day world." This style somewhat reminds us of a paper published somewhere in Manawatu. The Feilding correspondent of the Wanganui Herald says : — A man named Thomas Thompson, of Halcombe, gave a cheque to Mr Riley, butcher, of Halcombe, for the sum of £12. It is said to be signed by J. H. Murray, of Marton, to pay an account of £1. Riley gave £11 change. The signature is a forgery. Thompson is said to have gone to Wangauui. For the first time in history a dressimprover has been of some use. A tall, majestic lady was the other day walking along the pavement of an English town when, from the upper storey of the house which the " buttressed " one was passing, a two-year-old child fell out of the window. It would have dropped on to the pavement, and been killed or maimed for life, had not the dress-im-prover which is said to have been of enormous dimensions, intervened. The infant fell on that buttress of wire, and a gentleman, who was walking behind, caught the little creature before it had time to roll off. The child was unharmed, and the story goes that the ladies of that town have one and all, from that day forth, determined to adopt the dress improver as part of their toilette. Enormous demo ition of old houses in the West End of London at present. Two gigantic new streets are being made at a total cost of £25,000.000. The St. Giles and Soho slums are all being cleared away. Wirimu Ringi, a chief of some note in the Wairarapa district, died on Sundny afternoon. The date of his funeral has not yet been fixed. The deceased was the father of Ranginui, the well-known footballer. In Jacob Faithful's consultation on the Hawkesbury Grand Handicap, the first prize was won by a storekeeper at Frasertown, Hawke's Bay ; the second prize fell to the lot of a printer in Wellington, and third prize was also won by a printer in Wellington. Jacob has now a consultation open on the Hawke's Bay Spring Handicap, to close on 6th October. A Napier paper denounces as essen tially mean and underhand the habit too common with some newspapers, with but slight pretensions to respectability of opposing a movement by attacking it under the guise of letters to the editor. Only a "contemptible" newspaper would be guilty of such a practice, and we suppose there must be ''contemptible " newspapers, the same as " contemptible " individuals, which one meets with in the world, but to whom as wide a berth as possible is generally given. From the list of awards made by the judges at the Exhibition we note that for wool presses —Mr David Murray, Wanganui, was awarded 1st prize. Fire hose-reel, Mr John W. McDuff, Wanganui, 1st prize. We have received several letters in the subject of Mr Smith's action with regard to the Lodge Meetings advertisements. We must ask the writers' permission to hold them over until after the threatened writ of injunction has been dealt with. Some of the letters are couched in rather strong terms, which we should feel bound to modify in publication. An English mail, per R.M.S. Kaikoura will close at Palmerston this evening at 745 o'clock. The mail will be due in London on the 8th November.