FEILDING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5189, 8 November 1877, Page 3

FEILDING.

(prom our own correspondent.) Feilding, November 5. I have to record another step which , has been taken towards developing the social fabric of this district. The place has hitherto been without any organisation of the Church of England communion; but now a district, including within its boundaries the four townships of Palmerston North, Awhahuri, Halcombe, and Feilding, is being constituted a parish of the Church of England, and the first meeting of the parishioners will be held at the Immigrants Depot on Saturday, the 10th November, when the Bishop of the diocese will preside. The business to be transacted will be the election of churchwardens and vestry. The Bishop will hold divine service at Feilding at 11.30 a.m. The choir are making preparations for having full choral service on that occasion. I have to notice this week an unusual occurrence at Feilding, viz., that two men were taken into custody for having been drunk and disorderly one day last week, and were fined five shillings each. It is remarkable because no other case of the kind has occurred here within the last twelve months. You are already aware by means of the telegraph of the result of the games of billiards played at Mr. Roe’s Denbigh Hotel. Mr. Roberts played against one of the best amateur billiard players in the colony when he played in Feilding against Mr. Lash, a storekeeper residing at Halcombe, so it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Lash won the game of 600 up by 84 points, when he received from Mr. Roberts 300 points start. The wonderful fancy shots played after the matches took everyone by surprise. Mr. Roberts, whose opinion ought to have some weight on the matter, said the billiardroora in which he played at Feilding was one of the best in the colonies. The Feilding Temperance Society held a very successful meeting here last week, and the number of its members was more than doubled before they separated. There were twelve members when the meeting began, and seventeen new members joined it at the close. I have heard many temperance speeches in my time, but those I heard here last week were the most temperate, and free from that egotism which often characterises such addresses. A difficulty in the matter of an election for a member of the Highways Board occurs just now that deserves the notice of the Legislature. The matter will be best explained by giving a resolution that I am informed was passed at the last meeting of the Manchester Highways Board, as follows : —“ That as there is an apparent difficulty with regard to the forthcoming election for No. 1 Ward, in consequence of the Wellington Highways Act, 1874, giving qualification to voters under a valuation of the [selling value of holdings, while the valuation list for the district under the Bating Act, 1876, gives a valuation under the leasehold valuation, the Board is of opinion that the presiding officer should be instructed to accept the leasehold valuation as being 5 per cent, ou the selling value.” I referred some time ago to the question of the damage done to the roads by the use of narrow wheels for drays carrying heavy loads as having engaged the attention of the ratepayers here, but I was not then aware that the Wellington Highways Act, 1874, provided a remedy for the evil complained of in any highways district in the province, and as it does so it is a matter of vital importance to every district affected to bring the Act into operation? It seems that the Manchester Highways Board found during the past winter that the coat of maintaining the roads was very much increased by even a few drays with narrow wheels being used to carry heavy loads over the roads, and I learn that the Road Board resolved to bring the 84th clause of the Highways Act 1874 into operation. The clause provides a penalty for carrying more than twenty-five hundredweight on two wheels narrower than five inches, or fifty hundredweight on four wheels. The Road Board resolved to request the Colonial Secretary to proclaim the clause to be in force in the Manchester Highways District. I regret having to notice that the severe weather lately has done a great deal of damage to the fruit this season. No amount of shelter could avail much against the rough gales we have experienced for some time past, and it is remarkable that they should have commenced here at about the time of the heavy storms reported to have swept over tho British Islands last month. The settlement of the district is steadily progressing. I am informed by two young men who are carrying on a business of butchering at Feilding, that they have secured 500 acres of first-class land from the Corporation, on which they intend to settle at once and to commence to improve it. Every bona fide settler going on land is a decided gain to the whole community. A working-man of the name of John Crook has been sent to tho Wanganui Hospital by the Feilding Benevolent Society, which pays £1 per week to the ho pital for hia maintenance there. He has been long ill, and will require to undergo a dangerous operation to give him a chanec of recovery. Such cases as this show the benefit of having such an iustitu-

tion in our midst as the Feilding Benevolent Society. ' ' ' _ : The contribution .being remitted from Finding in aid of the. Indian /Famine Relief Fund is over £22. AJiput £l6 was the proceeds of two concerts'given by a number of ladies and gentlemen, and about £6 was received from donations. I understand the amount was remitted to Wellington last Monday.