The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18. Local and General.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 311, 18 December 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18. Local and General.

The Golden Isle has been got off the beach at Palliser Bny.

The first pile of the new bridge will, it is expected, be driven to-day. An exhibition of the present season’s clip of wool will be held in Wellington. The Rifle Association programme for March 9 is issued- The prizes amount to £750 exclusive of trophies. The Colonial Secretary left Wellington on Monday for a tour of inspection of the Southern hospitals and charitable institutions.

The Wellington Jockey Club will hold a meeting on May 23 and 25, and a two days’ steeplechase meeting during the time the exhibition is opened At the inquest on Pearson’s fire in Auckland a verdict was returned that the fire was caused wilfully, and the Coroner was requested to sec that further proceedings were taken.

Messrs Stafford, Buckley, and Fitzherbert will act as solicitors for Sir Julius Vogel in his libel action against the New Zealand Tinies. The Attorney - General will be retained as counsel.

Mr. D. Johnston received a telegram from Napier yesterday afternoon stating that Maude Farmer and Albert Lewis, both pupils of the Gisborne school, had been successful in obtaining scholarships.

The direct steamer Kaikoura will a'vait the arrival of the Rotomahana at Wellington on Sunday next. Correspondence for the United Kingdom may therefore be posted until 3.30 p.m. on Friday next, per Rotomahana. On Saturday, the 17th January, a “ go-as-you-please " contest will be held on the Roseland course. There will be three prizes, viz., £7, £2, and £l, and the entrance fee 10s. Bee advertisement for full particulars, The entertainmeiTt given hy the school children in aid of the school library, took place last evening in Mai farlane’s Hall. The programme was gone through in a manner which reflected credit on all concerned.

At the R.M, Court yesterday an apprentice named Alfred Wade was charged with absenting him?elf from work without leave. The evidence cf Mr. Wade and the lad's employer having been taken, he was cautioned and ordered to return to his work. In addition to the three gentlemen who have signified their intention cf contesting for a seat on the Board of Directors of the Government Life Insurance Society, Mr. W. K. Bifhop, of Wellington, who is well-known here, also signifies his being in the field.

By advertisement in another column it, will he seen that a summoned meeting of the United Ancient Order of Druids will be held in the lodge room this evening, when the nomination of officers for the ensuing six months will take place. The attendance nt the concert given on Monday evening la«t for the benefit of Mr. Edwards, who is about to leave the district, was not so largely patronise ! as might have been expected. The programme was throughout fairly rendered, and seemed to give general satisfaction. The Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. at Christchurch have heen advised that while foreign mutton killed in London is worth 3s 6d to 4s 2d per B‘bs New Zealand frozen mutton is worth 4s to 2d and cons- qnently Dutch and German sheep killed at Deptford are frozen in London for sale as frozen mutton, and at Liverpool English sheep are wrapped in colonial cloths with the same object. Speaking at the banquet on Tuesday Mr. J. W. Johnson raid he believed the changes about to take place would greatly benefit this district. The railway would feed the harbor and create a great export trade. Why was not grain grown now as it was many years ago? Simply because the roads were not good enough. In former years if a road was bad in one place the carter could go round another, but now as the result, he supposed, of their civilisation the roads were all fenced in, and their state was such that it would not pay to grow grain owing to the expense of getting it to the shipping place. If they had the railway they could grow grain as cheap as formerly. It is our painful office to record the decease of Mr. Henry Hartlebury Staite, brother in law of Mr. W. L. Rees, solicitor, who died yesterday morning at his residence in the Palmerston road. For some time past this much lamented gentleman has been suffering from diabetes, but the sickness had not assumed any very severe nature until the las? two days, since when he has been confined to his bed. Dr Pollen has been unremitting in his attention to the unfortunate gentleman, who, surrounded by his friends, passed away quietly at seven o’clock yesterday morning to “ that bourne from whence no traveller returns. ’’ Mr. Staite leaves a wife and five children to mourn his loss. He was an old colonial, having been engaged in business as a merchant, on the west coast of the middle Island. Subsequently he was connected with the large mercantile firm of Wilson and Co., of Melbourne and Sydney, and was well known and largely exteemed in the commercial circles of those places.

At a meeting of the Education Board in Napier yesterday it was decided to grant the usual allowance to the head master for instructing Misa Oatridge should she pass. On Tuesday a railway train near Christchurch ran into an express load of pionieere,. The occupants of the waggon were thrown out, and two of them have since died-from injuries received. The driver of the van is in a prenarons state, and the other occupants of the vehicle are all more of less injured.