Untitled

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 43, 17 March 1877, Page 2

A meeting of the members of the Palmerston North Reading Room was held m the Public Hall on Wednesday evening, for the purpose of appointing a committee and laying out the future conduct of the institution. Mr R. Leary was voted to the Chair. It was stated that the institution had been organized nine months previously at a time when only a private room at a high rental was available for use. That at the end of the first six months it was deemed expedient to suspend the functions of the institution until they could operate less expensively. That recently the directors of the Public Hall Company had kindly granted the gratuitous use of the up-stairs room, and that henceforth the Reading Room session would continue under more favorable auspices. A large number of home periodicals were already on the table, the supply of which would continue under the existing provision to the Ist of June. The liabilities of the institution were at present m excess of the assets, but now that there was no rent to pay these would very soon be met, and if the organization received a fair share of public support it

would have ample funds to keep up the supply of the best periodicals published. Mr Keeling read the balance sheet, after which a committee of management were elected, with power to add to their number, consisting of Messrs Cottam, Hobey, Paton, Wray, Hanson, Waldegrave, Leary, Keeling, Railing, Kent and Bisson. Mr Keeling was elected Secretary and Mr. Waldegrave Treasurer." A Sub-Committee was also formed for executive purposes, consisting of Messrs Paton, Leary, and Cottam. It was decided that tlie supply of periodicals should go on after the Ist of June, and that the reading room should be open to members every day, ancl lighted at night on and after Monday "next. We understand that the periodicals already on the table consist of the Illustrated London News, Graphic, London Mail, Weekly Despatch, Saturday Review, Home News, Pictorial World, London Punch, Belgravia Annual, London Society, Chambers' Journal, Macmillan's, Cornhill, and Blackwood's Magazines, Templebar, Atlantic Monthly, besides the chief Colonial serials. In addition to the above, other important names will soon be on the list. The Reading Room may therefore be looked upon as an institution that the public might subscribe to out of motives of selfinterest, apart from any desire to help a good cause. Quarterly tickets at ss. are to be obtained from any member of the committee. Tenders are called for m our presentissue for cutting two miles of main drains m the Motoa Swamp. The Napier will leave Wellington, .for Foxton to-night, and will leave Foxton for Wellington again on Monday, after the arrival of the morning train from Feilding ancl Palmerston. The adjourned public meeting to take into consideration the advisability of bringing Palmerston under tlie control of the Municipal Corporations Act will be held m the Foresters' Hall this (Saturday) afternoon at 4 o'clock. A private picnic, under the auspices of the Bachelors of Palmerston, took place yesterday at Mr Waldegrave's farm. This was followed m the evening by a subscription ball m the Public Hall, which was tastefully decorated with ferns for the occasion. The Excelsior Variety Troupe have arrived m Palmerston,' and will perform this (Saturday) evening, and again on Tuesday evening m tlie Forester's Hall. This troupe brings a first-class reputation from every district m which it has performed, and its members (as the name imports) form a rising company. By advertisement m another column, the Wellington Board of Education offers to lease by tender certain education reserves m this and other disti-icts amounting m the whole to about. 22,000 acres. These reserves may be leased by public auction or public tender for a pei'iod of 21 yeai's, but not longer. Lists have been prepared showing the district m which situate, and giving description, contents, and remarks upon the several sections. Mr Linton is the Palmerston agent, and will furnish lists to applicants. A nasty accident happened on Wednesday last to a young man named Samuel Lane, m the employ of Mackie ancl Aubert, butchers, of this township. Lane was riding a bad tempered horse, and had just delivered some meat at Mr. Pollock's residence when his horse commenced to play up without any apparent cause, and succeeded m throwing his rider. When Lane was picked up it was found that his arm was broken at the wrist — a very bad fracture. We have since learned that tlie arm has been set by Dr. Akers and that the patient is doing well. Tlie Wanganui Borough Council is " a frightful example " of what municipal institutions may come to. The Herald states that it contains " a rowdy bacchanalian element," that some of the councillors attend the meetings disguised m liquor, and that one councillor named Howe, at the last meeting, broadly accused certain brother councillors of being drunk — having made which statement he left the re om m disgust. To judge by what the " Herald " says, some of those Wanganui councillors must be a nice lot. The "Herald" should endeavor to raise their moral tone, while the " Chronicle " should get Mr Fox to give a lecture on the evils of strong drink, and the virtues of total abstinence. Just think of it ! A town councillor drunk ! What next — and next ?— " Post." Writing of the case of Pooley, the English cricketer, who committed a violent assault recently, the "Lyttelton Times " says that the Court was densely crowded at the hearing of the case against Pooley, the English cricketer, charged with assaulting Ralph Donkin, and m a case m which Pooley and Bramhall were jointly charged with wilfully ancl maliciously damaging clothing valued at £36, and certain plans and tracings valued at £60, the property of the aforesaid Ralph Donkin. In the former case Pooley was fined £5 and costs, and m the latter the defendants were committed for trial at the next sittings of of the Supreme Court. The defendants were liberated on bail, each having to enter into his own recognizance of £200, and to find two sureties m £100 each. Messrs. J. Hirst and W. Haddrell were sureties for Pooley, and Messrs. J. Hirst and J. Oram Sheppard for Bramhall. The Wanganui " Chronicle " says : — A little episode connected with the late horticultural show will bear relating. A shortsighted visitor was admiring with a critical eye the floral beauties then displayed, being somewhat an enthusiastic amateur m the art of gardening. Bending forward to apply the nasal test to a particularly brilliant floral specimen, m his eagerness he did not observe a fair one, whose beauties of person

werescarcelydistinguishablein rich soft coloring from the^gurrounding flowers. With his face alrnoWfoj^Jhing hers, and proboscis extended m Jftnanner suggestive of a longing for forbidaen*bliss, the admiring botanist rather startled the onlookers by ardently exclaiming : " Yes, very pretty, but no scent." The young lady, who thought herself personally addressed, appeared scarcely to appreciate the compliment.. The Inangahua " Herald " says that m some parts of Otago owners of orchards have taken extraordinary precautions to preserve their fruit from pickers and stealers. A southern says, m some cases a supply of strong fishhooks have been procured, and will be so adjusted that the hand that plucks the fruit will be caught, and should the thief get off, he will be identified when he goes- to the doctor to have the lrook cut put. Iri addition to those placed at the fruit to catch the handjsothers - will be so laid as to bite the feet and iegs. These measures may be thought by some to be too severe, but the hooks have been' successfully employed to catch garden thieves m the home country, and everything else seems to have failed here. A nightman m Wellington threw quicklime on two dogs that annoyed him. The eye of one of the poor animals was burnt clean out ; the other dog, which was seen by its owner m great agony, was, it i 9 supposed, made away with by the defendant, for he disappeared m the night. The magistrate couldn't give the brute brutes' punishment — the lash — but he fined him. 40s or 14 days' imprisonment with hard labour; and the defendant, who declared that Ire had done nothing to be ashamed of, accepted the alternative. — " Otago Guardian." . ~^j^^ We are informed that it is prop-^ea-to start a weekly paper m Wellington iv connection with the temperance party, and that a conference on the subject is to take place between the Hon. Mr Fox and the late editor of the " Temperance Times," Dunedin. During the past quarter, ended 31st December, 1876, the Australian spring, there were regisl ercd m the city of Sydney and its nine suburbs 1466 births and 787 deaths ; giving a natural increase to the population, by the excess of births over deaths, of 680 souls. The Inagnahua " Herald " states that the Hutt railway bridge is sinking seriously, and the Oroua, Wanganui, and other railway bridges although only barely out of the contractors hands, are already found to require strengthening. The N. Z. "Times" of the 14th inst. says: — During yesterday the divers, Mr. Gough aud son, were engaged at the hulk Eli Whitney, and they managed to recover the two donkev-engrnes, valued at about £400.