NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 48, 16 June 1880, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES

A GOYBRNMENT QF COMMISSIONS. — It is reported that the bulk cost to the country of the pleasure tour of the .Royal Commissioners will be, m round numbers, £10,000. We should suggest that the Government should cap the climax by appointing a further Royal Commission to discover of whatearthly service their predecessor* were. To-morbow's AuoilQif;— rWe would draw the attention Qf persons requiring tjrees or shrubs to the saje of fruit and forest trees, flowering bulbs, and greenhouse plans; which takes place to-morrow at Mr. Snelson's sale ro,au)3. The lots are from the celebrated nursery of Mr. Laird, of Wan* ganui, and have been selected with phe greatest care. Founq Guilty.— The charge of perjury, which was preferred ' against J". R. Davis, a well-known settler at Eivvitea, was heard at the District Court, Wanganui, on Monday, and resulted m the conviction of the prisoner, who, however, was recommended to mercy on account of his . previous good character. He was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, with, hard labor. Died ibom Fbight.— lt may not be generally known that excessive fright has an equally fatal effect upon the feathery trihe as is sometimes experienced by bipeds' One day last week a valuable Spanish hen, belonging to a settler on the Foxton Road, strayed upon the railway track just m front of an approaching train. Thft poor thing did not notice its danger until the whistle was blown, and then, instead of getting off, commenced to try conclusions of speed, with the iron horse. After about a quarter of a mile had been covered^ jt fUd what it should have done at the first — gave the engine bast — and hopped clear of the line. The fright • however, had been too much, a* it merelyreached a place of safety, to lie down and d iw its last brent _^ "j " Osb Mobb UwrqBTPifATH." — Charles Andersen, qliqs Pater Home, was fined five shillings on Monday morning, for an over indulgence m the "flowing bole." The money was paid, but beforg he was clear of the precincts of the Court he was again arrested upon the more serious charge of issuing a valueless cheque. It appears, that on Saturday he after some difficulty obtained a blank cheque, and S,vbw upon a Sandon, bank m his own name for £3. As; Mr. An.dcr.son was not a customer of the b.ank so favored, they repudiated fixe accom.mot dation, which, w.^s provided m another manner by Constable Giilespie. Th,a accused was. brought up yesterday mqrning before his Worship the Mayors, an.d remanded u»til to-morrow. Just is t^e Njc^; of Time. — It will be seen from a notification which appears elsewhere that Mr. Linton has now macje. hia. final arrangements with regard to the. land m the suburbs of Palmerston, which he ojfers m sections of. twenty-five acres each, upon deferred payments for five years. In a former issue we gave a sketch of- the plan to be pursued, the vendor giving every facility tp. enable, si ruggling settlers to take up the land. We understand a mere nominal deposit will obtain immediate, possession of the land, and it is then completely at the option of the purchaser whether he pays yearly or at the end of fcU,e allotted term offive y6.nrs. As might have been expected, there have been several applications already, but as we before stated, none of the land will- be parted with unless the whole be sold, Thb Sandok Railway.— - The annual meeting of the shareholders m the Sandon Railway was advertised to take place on loit Friday night, at Sandon, but there being nineteen short of a quorum, it had to be, postponed until the following evening. On that occasion however, the attendance was even more scanty, and, those present were necessitated to further adjourn it until the 25th. We heartily sympathise with Mr Sanson, who since the initiation of the project hag been indefatigable m his endeavor to push the work forward, and it certainly is not at all cheering to B<se such apathy evinced toward a movement which would materially benefit the people of the Sandon District. It is pretty well known' that our Wanganui friends are beginning to experience the fruitlessnsss of fighting against nature, and that their river or harbor will never be made navigable by aitifk-ial means. Consequently with, the increased facilities for export which Foxton will soon postess, it certainly would be to the interest of the s andon settlers to have railway communicatio.n, with it. That iNTEtiTaENT Com.pos.itob Aoa.ds(. — Numberless are the. faults laid at the door of that very convenient scape- goat— -the intelligent compositor, not a few of which,, however, w.e ijancy,. he is entirely guiltless.. The disciple of Caxton who snatches the. type for our. Feilding contemporary .must be a bit of a wag, for although he manages to earn, the refutation for blunders which hat, been bestowed upon the craft, his mistake* are generally cf a ludicrous character/ In its. S.aturdu/« issu.e. he. announces that " a slaughtering license, has been granted to Mr. Teal." The alteration may be. very" amusing, but we very much query whether Mr. Benle will relish." the. pke._ A littl^ further down the column, attention is invited to Messrs^ Halcpmbe and SherwiU's cat- 1 ' and while the reader, stops short to wonder wWtf peculiarity there is : about the auctioneers' pussy, he loses sight of the fact that it is a playful little way that the facetious compositor has of dividing the word " catalogue"

meat has its advantages, furnishing as. it doss plums for the editorial pudding, although of course there is always the fear that the fruit will be thrown m at the wrong stage. ' '■_' . . *■. s- . ■"■"'.[ ■".•'- }^ ■. ■ T#* Awa Hrai Hotbl.— We would ask bur readers to read carefully, ponder upon) and inwardly digest, the remarks which appear m our leading columns with regard to the action of the Feilding Licensing- Bench, When all the facts m connection with the case are taken into consideration, we imagine that the universal verdict must be, either that there "are wheels "' within wheels," or a portion of the Bench has been "got at. 1 ' We.haye ppp, or perhaps two, of the members going, dead agaiust their fordecitions, for if must be remembered that Mp. Macarthur signed the petition upon the ground that a licensed house was a nepessity at Awa Huri ; and Mr. Ward actually weut to the length. — when the licence was refused at Foxton — of openly stating from the Bench that he was not a party to the refusal. Since then a mass o,f evidence has been collated, and petitions circulated to prove the want.of the hotel, and m the face of :_ their former aofcjons, either Mr. Ward or M r t Macarthur-r-br perhaps': both — flatly ignore their previously expressed opinions. Such conduct is so unacpountable that no applfoapt is safe m trusting his interests to snch a shifty tribunal, and the expenditure of or £1500 has been lost to the district, for which, . no doubt the saw- millers and builders of the, cqutity wil duly bless the gentlemen m power. s Thb Bobough EißoxioNS.— Cbntrary to the usual custom there is to be a contest for the vacancy of the seat m the BoroughCouncil, Mr. Batchelar having been .nominated by Messrs. Deards and Waldegrave. Although we consider that personally Mr. Batchelar - would make 'a' very, desirable representative, we freely confess we are not favourable \q the candidature of publicans. Our objections, however, are by no means directed- against the class, but experience has proved to us, both here and elsewhere that hotelkeepers. can not spare the. $me to attend the. Council meetings with any, degree of regularity. This statements borne "•! out by a reference to the minute, book from which we find that Mr. Owen was absent 15 meetings out of 24, while Ms. Q-Übert only attended six meetings out ef nineteen, Moreover, m%ny of the meetings, for which hath, those gentlemen received credit should not strictly speaking h.ave been given to them, as they merely put m an appearance, took little or no part m the deliberations, and left early m the evening. On an. average the meetings of the Cp.u,nci} last three hours and, a half, apd there a,re few publicans who care tobe abseqt from business for that lencsh.of time. Of course w» by no means wish to. insinuate thatjf Mr. Batchelar be elected he will not conscientiously carry out the obligations, he will have incurred j- we merely give an experience m the pftst. -. %- ; ' . !' ' ' "Nqi so BtAo^ as ThexVe Pads^kd." ; —We do not believe m party, feeling exercising such an influence as to lead to the perpelration of an injustice, and we ar^ster^ advocates for. gifing credit where credit has been honorably earned. It-was that feeling which ]^orap.ted us upon a former, occasion to bear: testimony to the thoroughly imparti^ maiiner m which {,ha Hal} >Ga?erp» Uienfc iv the di«twbntio« of ad; vei'tiging favors, and' time has since con*, fli-n^ed the good impression we then enterta^ue4t We did not,. nor we do not) believe m thie political programme" enunciated by the present, occupants of the Treasury Benches; we have not been delicate or chary m expressing our criticism upon their actions, and we shall still continue to do so whenever and wherever, we consider a necessity . exists. • From this it will be seen that we are ho blind admirers of .Messrs. Hall and OOno n but we wish to give our testimony to not only the impartial distribution of the QoYer^ment advertisements, but the prompt manner m which liabilities so incurred have been . liquidated. In our own • case, alfckoughnsre gave a fair support to the Gtrey Administration, our vouchers troubled the Treasury very little, while^ considerable portion of the very -small amount earned, after & lapse of som,a eighteen months still remains due. By no stretch of imagination could we be called friends of Jibe present . Government; still we feel -bound, as far as we are concerned^ to substantiate the state- j ment of the Premier the other evening, that the advertisements were distributed without favor or fear to friend or fo«u ; A Case op Rbai Distebss^-— We desire to bring-promjnantly under the v notice of the charitable of Palmerston a; case which; m well deserting >pf~ their generous assistance, well knowing that no appeal for ; real distress was e,Ter made m vain. Most of the , townspeople are aware ihatj'Mr. fiykes, the station master, has, been seriously ill for the past three months, and his case has at last become .so critical that as a last resource he had been, ordered,, and has since gone, to the Wellington hospital. We all know, how expensive, even when a person is possessed, of means, medical attendance and other necessaries are, but when we state that during the three months of his- illness Mr. Dykes' salary was religiously stopped, andfor that period he did- not jreceive a single penny from t lie' Department; i it is. unnecessary to picture m what a state of distress the family must be m. Nbwv ; after passing through, that^tryiQg time, he has had to be' conveyed to the hospital; and to mend the matter Mrs. Dykes with her thre« young children has received potice to quite the cottage, without delay, as the new station master is waiting to go into it. The poor woman, who is stranger m Palmeraton, is thus 'bereft, of the breadwinner, Trhopj a} 1^. iajs bp?o, separated under circumstances which lekves it dou bt • f ujt whether. Bhe , : wi|l e 7 e ?r > eB him »gain, Helpiees, penniless, and friendless, she now; appeals to tbe bes^ sympathies of the people o| and we feel confident that. het, one l?eeds^^oi^yite^ known to ensure assistance. It is proposed to give a.monster concert on her behalf; but'as it'is absolutely necessary that some immediate steps should be taken to meet her present- wants, fwe uwierßtund "some, of ijhe^dws o^ PJlaier-

•ton bare kindly taken the matter m hand and we trust that tb«ir labors will be nobly supplemented by the generosity of the people of the town, The concert will be an after consideration and we hope by the means of providing sufficient to place her m a position to support herself and her helpless charge. AXTAOSRD TX A. YvVSJtmVUt PIiAOB.— =• Gtentlemen who select as. their calling m life the yerj peculiar profession of sheriff's bailiff should noL be susceptible; to the savoury flesh-pots of the Egyptians, a weakness for which caused the .discomfiture of ope qf the fraternity a few days ago. The officer was m charge of Mr. Bertram's - store, and house m Haleombe, the auction of whose furniture was to take place on last Monday morning, On Sunday, however, a polite invitation was conveyed to Mr. Jones, the' victim alluded to, to visit a supposed friend and partake of a delicious dinner. Mr. Jones hesitated 'for' some; time, and brought to mind the fable of the wolf and the lamb j but the -bait was too tempting, and duty was ..sacrificed for the delights of / the dinner. When, however; Mr; Jones returhed to his charge; he found the building effectually barred against him, the Phili--B|inea m the oitadel^ and he,in undisputed possession of the outside. Monday morning's train brought fete auctioneer, the legal gentleman m charge of the case, and a host of speculators who had attended to pick up, " unconsidered trifles," and there, they found the victimised J. ones carrying on a^ unequal parley frbin; the gutters i with the wily strategists m possession. .' It is said that "an Englishman's god is his stomach,',' and evidently Bertram's friends knew the.deity q'efofe which the guiless bailififba^red his heacL It isneedjess. tq say thtre was no. auction on Monday; the sale took place on the prerions day, »nd the sheriff's officer was the article scild., V.