The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25. 1885. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1565, 25 November 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25. 1885. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In conversation during the passing of accounts at the monthly meeting of the Bulls Town Board, the chairman, Mr Remington, stated that during his five years' connection with the Board, the Provincial District's Auditor had not paid a visit o£ inspection to the Board's office. Some extraordinary and daring attempts have been made on several occasions recently to wreck trains on the i Ballarat side of the Beaufort Bailvray m Victoria. On several occasions piecos of sawn timber and watri'-pipes have been inuud on the line. Tho latest attempt was the placing of a large quartz stone, weighing about I Gib, on the points near the Beaufort station, and lashing it down to the rails with a piece o£ rope. It was discovered by the constable m i the morning before the Ballarat train ] arrived, and the fatal consequences which would .probably have followed were j averted. | English lawyers know how to charge. " A case at Manchester before the ViceChaneullor of Lancaster," says the Li»ndon Truth, " was concluded recently, after a trial of fourteen days. The luading counsel for the plaintiff had a fee of 1000 guineas, and a refresher of 100 guineas r>er diem. The senior, junior had v fee of 400 guineas, and refresher of 50 guineas per diem ; and the fees and refreshers ot the two other juniors were m proportion. Altogether the fees of the plaintiffs counsel must have amounted to 5000 guineas." It is to be feared that -the palm)' days of the British Association have passed away for ever. The Committee mot to consider invitations for its session m 1887 — next year's meeting being at Bir minghain — but instead of there being quite a large number of invitations, as has usually been the case, there was only one from Manchester, which was ac cepted, antf gratefully too, for the situation would have been' somewhat ridiculous and entirely undignified if no invitutions had come m, but the dearth is decidedly significant of the doeadenoe of the Association, and of similar bodies, m the public estimation. The excellent qualities of the Brunner coal on the Groymonth coast have been commented on m She Colliery Guardian, which mentions, m the course of an arriclc on the coal industries of the antipodes, that the comparative illuminating properties of the coals from New South Wales and the West Coast of New Zealand are m the following proportions : — New South Wales produced, pur ton, 9000 ft of gas ; West Coast of New Zealand, 11,988 ft of £.is. This faot will probably not be without its influence m connection with, the raising of the fund for the construction of the East and West Coast Railway, which runs m close J proximity to these rich coal deposits. Before Sir Charles Dilke's marriage the London correspondent of an Irish paper .wrote that Sir Charles was a suitor i for the lady's hand before her first marj riage, and, her late, husband being aware ' of it, he desired that after his death his i widow should marry Sir Charles, the Rev. Mark Patfiison enjoining his brother to see the lady through her widowhood and into the socoml wedlock. Mrs Pattison was left a fortune of £40,000. Mr Frank Pattison was to give the bride away m discharge of the trust confided to him by his late brother, and provide the wedding feast and propose the health of the bride, Mr Joseph Chamberlain to be the best man. The correspondent thinks that noi much more will be heurd of the Crawford case. A Press Association telegram was published m our second edition on Saturday stating that the smelting of 50 tonß of ore from the Crown mine at Karangahake by the La Monte proceßs. was considered disappointing. As-many of our readers have been for jnme time anxiously awaiting the result of the La Monte test at the Thames, And may he under the impression thnt the telegram m question related to that test, it may be an well to inform them that such is not the casr>. The Crown mine is m ! the' Upper Thames, some 30 miles di*B--t«nt from Grahamstown, where the looked -for smelting 1 is to take place. There is aLa Monte furnace at Kar angahake, but the one at the Thames, which has been erected by an influential company, is on a much larger scale. The furnace is not yet ready f «r smelting and the r> suit of the first tott will not be known for a few days. — Post. Mr George Elliott Barton, formerly a barrister practising iv Wellington has been appo!i>t»d cominimuoner to enquire into all restrictions on native lands m the North Island. Mr Barton will commence bin investigations without delay at Taurangn, and will report to the Government m due course as to how much land tho natives hold, what has been disposed to Europeans, the manner m which it has been obtained by them and what restrictions have been imposed upon it by the Lands Court or otherwise. Mr Barton's report should be of considerable general interest. The Nelson J. P.'s still remain contumacious, and absolutely refuse to form a rota as required by law until the Government explains its conduct m appointing Mr Harley to tho Bench. They have again adjourned for another ten days. We stated some time ago that Mr E. 1 J. Riddiford had turned out a number of stoars and weasels on his run, and we are informed that the result has boen most satisfactory— »d«ad rabbits are to ho met with all overth* run. The henuficial result of thn last shipment encouraged Mr Riddiford to send home orders for 300 more, and by tha last mail he had advices stating that already 150 have been seen rod, and inrnvdiatalv on the requisite number bving obtained they will be shipped. These, like the last lot will be turned out ajt Te Awiti.

The closing sestiion of the Wesleyan l istnct meetiu a' at Wellington , t wwa r •ccupied m considering the case :GJM.r. Otlo Chri<t»ffi rsen, a candid ite tor brv; linntioii, and f\ favorableVvreport bfci«j£ (•ivt- u of his t-xmniiiijiUun., Supers' ftnlof liia four years' probationary work he \v=iis unanimously recommended to tha Ctmfcr»nce. An ingi-nious burglars ladder was lecently taken from a negro thief m Washington. It wascontrncted of Ms i but strong rope, and at one end bad tv. sharp hooks, fitted to fasten on a window sill. These were attached to an iron rod caivible of being extended 80 or 40ft. The whole coidd b« wnpped m a bundle about thosize of an ordinary umbrella. As the a[>p.irat<is had a booked handle, and was enclosed m h case, the owner could carry it along tb" street without attracting attention, while iv two minutes it could lid tinned into a rope ladder and securely fastened to an unbolted window, giving a bur-, glar easy means of entrance to a bouse. The Timmi Herald reports that con vidciabb; excit-Miient amh mused at tin* railway station by th<; peculiar conduct of a Norwegian n:iin««<l lluus ' Otaen. On being informed that a coin ho had tendered was it -t sufficient to pay his fare to Oainnru, he duto'ied the 1 dge of the window and begun to roll bis head about m a snout alanuin ,' way, stamped bis feet, and apparently worked himself into a perfect state of frenzy. On attempts being mode to remove him from tbu window so as to allow others to secure tickets, he seized bold ofc the. iron railing m front of the ticket window, coiling bis lesjs round those, and hanging on so tenaciously that it took six strong men to remove him. In the Police Station it took four constables to hold him down. An examination ny Dr Lovegrovc showed that ho was sntij"<:t to epileptic fitH, and was then suffering from acute mania. The marvels and triumphs of modern surgery are vividly illustrated by a case treated by Protessor Nusxbauin of Munich, and described m the Garten laube Kahriider. Eleven years ago he took charge of a boy so malformed and crippled that he was obliged to crawl about on all fours. 'Nine serious ooe.r;iliona were performed, four crooked bun< s were broken, three stiff joints forcibly extended, several sinews cut through, ami nerves stretched. Weights wen* (hen attached to certain muscles, and by means of massage, baths, ointments and el-ctricity so much progress was made that m a few years the boy was able to walk erect with the aid of crutches and a special apparatus fastened to his feet. Suhsequente'y he was able to throw away this appifrai lus, and exchange bis crutches for a • ane, and to-day, after eleven years of treatment, he is a healthy and vigorous youth, who cannot only walk lik« other young men, but dance, rido on horseback &c. MrChas L. Garland, ah Auckland native, and well known iv this colony, has been returned to the New South Wales Parliament as senior member for Carenar, l>e.iting the second member, a Minister of the Crown, by over 100 votes. The last monthly police retimia show that the iv are 29 houses of ill-fame known to the \ olice within the city of Wellington, with upwards of sixty prostitutes. - Since the Mosjriel Woollen Company has been m operation it has paid £46,00U m dividends, £17,000 has li.«en laid aside as a reserve fund, aud £22/100 has been written off for depreciation iv the value of machinery. A soil may be abundantly rich m everything exrept, for instance, phosphoric acid. Two pounds' worth of ground bones applied to mich a soil will be of more value than twenty pounds' worth of ordinary putresccnt manures. The ground bones, iv supply iutj phosphoric acid, meet the deficiency of the soil ; the putrescent manures, heavily applied, meet the deficiency also ; but they increase tenfold the labour and expense by supplying at the same time other things not needed. — 'American Fanner ' A month before the Caulfiold Cup was run Mrßeid. the train or of Grace Darling, backed that mare for -th* double event— Oaulfk'ld Cup and Melbourne Cup— taking m all £50,000 to £100. The mare won the first and lost the second by a head. Here was indeed a grand coup within, an ace of coming off. A new machine for shorthand writing is described by a paper called ludustnul 'America, It claims that 300 words a minnle can be written by the aid of the machine, on which the paper observes : — " We doubt it very much, though we have seen good stenographers do better than that." We should like to bear the names of those stenographers. Knowing something about the subject, we (Hawera Star) venture the assertion that there is not a stenographer m the world who can writ* 300. words a minute. Wo hardly know of any Biibject nnder the sun about which more rubbish ia written and talked than shorthand. The Western Medical Reporter says, a grocer who had an aged and disabled horse wished to get rid of him by as painless a death as possihle, and gsfve him forty grains of morphine. Having made preparations the for funeral, thf grocer proceeded to the stable, whrre, lo bis astonishment, he found the horse m excellent spirits, and eating bis oats with his former habitual haste, so as to. be ready for the early trip to marked. Opium is said to have been usad sue : ceasfnlly m India for many years m relieving horses from the consequences of old age and overwork. v A Wairarapa paper states tnat a «uck girl, the daughter of Dr Wilford, of the Hutt, was brought down trotn Epar.iima the station of Mr G. Moore, on Thnrs ! day, having been carried on a covered stretcher the whole of the way. The sufferer was attended . by her father and Dr Collins, who both considered it ndt visable to bring h«r into town. The Ma tance from F.paraima to Masterton is ! about forty miles, and this was covered m two days. A start was made on Wednesday morning, a vehicle ("conveying the two medical men, the child's mother, and Mr MooreJ accompanying the two men who carried the stretcher. Kumurau was reached m the evening, and it was decided to stop there for the night. Masterton was reached about 5 p.m. on Thursday, thn patient being pone the worse for the journey It may be mentioned that the patient was not conveyed m a vehicle because the roads are too rough, and the jolting might have brought about very serious consequences.