Local and General.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 78, 28 February 1884, Page 2

Local and General.

Traps.—We note that the trap on the unsightly culvert in Gladstone Road has not been repaired yet, and there is yet another at the crossing near Mr. DeLautour’s house, where the surveyors have left several stones around a hole in the tramway. Fire.—Our Auckland telegrams give a report of a most serious fire, which broke out in that city yesterday morning. The Fire Brigade was, it appears, prevented from giving its services, and a poor fellow was burnt to death. Such are the horrible features of the fire, and details will, of course, be anxiously looked for. Narrow Escape.—An old and well-known identity, rejoicing in the euphonious sobriquet of General Jackson, and by profession a bullock-driver, had a some vhat narrow escape yesterday afternoon. One of his team struck at him with its horns, and, penetrating through his shirt, slightly gored his left side in such a manner as to prove that, had he stood one inch nearer, the result must have been most serious. As it was, the “ General” soon squared accounts with his assailant. Licensing Committee.—At the Makaraka Hall, yesterday, the following gentlemen were elected : —Messrs. D. M. Murchie, William King, James Wallace, Abraham Skillicorn, and William Judd. The Committee will meet on Saturday next, for the purpose of appointing their Chairman. Gisborne Institute.—A meeting of the Institute Committee will be held in the Library Committee room, to-night, at 7.30 o’clock.

Patutahi Licensing Committee. —The three following gentlemen were yesterday nominated as candidates for members of the Patutahi Licensing Committee: —R. Crail, proposed by Stevens and seconded by Twohy ; A. Stevens, proposed by Twohy and seconded by Crail; and J. Price, proposed by Stevens and seconded by Crail. Ferocious Dogs.—A number of complaints have reached us lately from individuals whose business compels them to be abroad during the “ small hours of the night,” about being attacked in the streets by ferocious dogs, which are allowed to roam about at night. That this complaint is well founded we have had ocular demonstration of a most positive nature. On Sunday evening last, as a gentleman was crossing the vacant section at the right-hand corner of Gladstone Road and Grey Street he was attacked by two large black dogs, and it was only after the greatest difficulty that they were beaten off. Another night a gentleman was passing up the Gladstone Road, when just as he arrived opposite Mr. Bishop’s old shop a huge mastiff sprang at him, and had he not leapt into the road the huge animal must have pinned him. The dog had been chained to a post there and held undisputed control over the pathway. To remedy this state of things is somewhat difficult, for a man may be worried by a dog in the dark and not have the faintest chance of recognising the animal or finding out its owner, and so render an appeal to the law impossible. If something is not soon done to abate the dangerous nuisance, recourse must inevitably be had to firearms for protection. Shipping.—The Wairarapa, having been detained South, will not arrive here till early on Monday morning, and not on Sunday as expected. J Battery.—The members of the J Battery will parade for the ordinary monthly inspection in the Drill-shed, to-night, at seven o’clock. Roman Catholic Church.—lt is particularly requested that all members of the congregation of the Roman Catholic Church attend a meeting to be held immediately after the last Mass on Sunday next, at which business of importance is to be transacted. English Fish, Flesh, and Fowl.—The N. Z Times of the 22nd instant discources thus:—Real British fish, and fresh fish at that, and British fowl, on pale in our good city of Wellington, is something unique in its way and to be recorded, as is also the enterprise of the well-known fishmonger, Mr. Liardet, that led to the introduction of such dainties. This, of course, is another outcome of the direct steam service and its refrigerating chambers. And even as New Zealand beef and mutton can be delivered fresh, and sweet, and well-flavored in England, so can the British Isles return the compliment by sending us its fine-flavored fish and fowl. Mr. Liardet’s importation comprised salmon and sole, and cod and whiting, whilst the fowl included turkeys and ducks, and fowls and geese. They came to hand hard frozen and in good condition, and were very soon disposed of, nothing, we understand, being left of the consignment last night. There have been free opinions as to the flavor of the fish. Salmon, of course, holds its own in supreme majesty, but of the others we heard it remarked, and arc of much the same way of thinking that ‘ our ain’ flounders and gar-fish and frost-fish are not one whit behind British cod and whiting, and run soles very close indeed for first place. As for British fowl, New Zealand is right up level in comparison. There is nothing in the way of poultry that our dearly-beloved adopted land cannot produce as well as Great Britain, and even better; while her artificially-fed beef and mutton must yield the palm to the flesh of sheep and oxen reared on the sweet, wholesome pastures of the ‘ Britain of the South.’ These exchanges of edible products will do much to clear away a lot of extravagant ideas of the super-excellence of everything Great Britainish. We are very well provided for here—excellently well provided for, if we only knew it.”

Rewarding a Brave Girl.—“ Through the instrumentality of Captain Lillicrip, of Invercargill, the Australasian Humane Society intend to reward with their medal Mary Ann Woolliams, who so bravely, some months ago at Waipahi, saved the life of her brother from drowning when he fell from his horse while crossing a stream, and was being dragged under water, his foot having caught in the stirrups. The Southland Times says that the presentation of the medal will be made through the Governor.” Smart Government Work. — “We are informed (says the Woodville Examiner) of a rather extraordinary piece of Government work in the Bush-Mills settlement. It appears that, when some of the land was sold there some time ago, five acres were reserved for road purposes. Eventually the time came when the road must be laid off, and it was found the land reserved was insufficient to give a road a chain wide. If our informant is right, the surveyors have now come to the rescue, and are about to surmount the difficulty by laying off a road which will take up five acres and no more, and will be a chain wide at the one end and about half a chain wide at the other.” The Cost of ’Education.—“ In the course of a letter to the Wanganui Education Board, Sir William Fox made the following remarks as to the cost of education in this Colony:— ‘ As regards the cost of elementary education, it amounts to considerably less than the value of a quarter of a glass of beer per day on the entire population, or half a glass on the adults; and the taxpayer who objects to pay so small an amount in return for the education of his children, or even his neighbor’s children, deserves to have neither babes nor beer.’ ”