LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9584, 2 September 1909, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the teams match at the Manawatu Golf Tournament, which will commence at Palmerston North on Tuesday, the Masterton Golf Club will be represented by Messrs J. C. Bidwill, C. C. Holmes, C. C. Cox and A. B. Lawrence. An organ recital is to be given in Knox Church by Mr Purcell Webb on beptember 15th. Miss May Driscoll, of Wellington, and leading amateurs will also assist. All the Wairarapa rivers were floo !ed yesterday as a result of the heavy rain which fell throughout Tuesday night. The Ruamahanga riv'-r rose rapidly until late in the afurnoon, and there was an unusually large volume of water in ll;e Waingawa river. During the discussion Oil the 4ques- ■ fion of establishing farmers' sale--1 vards at Eketahuna, Mr H. W. Bridge stated at the meeting of the ' Eketahuna branch of the Farmers' Union that he estimated the cost at £1,500. The sum of £BOO would be • required for the land and £7OO for yards. The notice given public servants ( under the retrenchment took effect from Tuesday last No exact figures have been made public by the authorities as to the number whose • services have been dispensed with, > but the number is estimated at between 400 and 500, tugether with ' some 420 from the Railway Department. Parliamentary sittings in Home arc ; more exciting than a serial story, i One day last month the Italian Pre- ' mier, Signor Giolitti, had one of the fingers of his right hand injured during a riotous scene in the Chamber. Signor Falcioni, a deputy, hac : his face* scratched, and Signor Mirabeilo, Minister of Marine, was struck . full on the chest by an ink bottle, the contents of which poured down his clothes. Good progress is being made with 2 the demolition of Messrs Abraham t and Williams' oJd building, which is t to be replaced by a new brick structure. It was found necessary to completely dismantle the front portion oi 3 the old building, but the back part, i will be removed bodily as soon as } it is ready. This part is comparatively new, and it is the owner's • intention to partially utilise it foi ■ a dwelling-house, which is now un- > der construction. i A witness at the Police Commis- , sion at Auckland, who asserted ( that there were a great many whisky stills in the Dominion, paid ! a high tribute to a certain constable i who had been sent to Kawhia to help in the suppression of sly grog-selling. , "He did the work well," said the witness. "He even went to the length of burying himself in the ■ sand, leaving only one ear sticking out, which he kept open." Theresuit was, he added, that with the assistance of Mr Northcroft, S.M., the place was madß too hot for the sly grog-sellers. •It ia not generally known that quail have in some districts increased enormously since their introduction to New Zealand. The Otago Acclimatisation Society recently authorised a man to secure t number, if possible, in order thai they might be sent to other parts oi the country. He spent four days at Tarras Station, in Central Otago, and has since reported that the birda are there literally in thousands, appearing to thrive out on the open run. He was, however, unable to catch any. The birds are very shy and can only be easily taken alive when a heavy fall of snow is on the ground. The ease with which some men can make a living without work is demonstrated by the "Temuka Leader." A young man called at a Temuka shop and saw some cakes of pink soap on the counter. Learning that the price was 2d a cake, he bought a dozen, and a few days afterwards bought the entire stock at a slight reduction. The tradesman who sold the soap next discovered that his customer had done a brisk trade re-selliog the article at a shilling a cake as a valuable substance for removing greaae from clothing. The Poverty Bay correspondent of the "New Zealand Herald" draws a dismal picture of had roads. He says some idea of the slate of the I roads between. Gisborne and Wairoa may be gathered from the fact that at one spot on the Wairoa side of Stewart's crossing on Saturday nine swingletrees were broken and futir or five traps were piled up on the side of the road through breakages. The Wairoa county engineer was one of the unfortunate travellers who was thus stuck up, and a party of ladies who were with him had to get out into a sea of mud. It required the assistance of a party of eight Natives, using levers, to extricate one vehicle from the bog. At the same spot on Sunday the Hon. James Carroll's buggy came to grief, the swingletree being broken. The Mayor of Gisborne, when returning to town, had the axle of his trap smashed at another place ori he road.

During the month of August there was one birth, one death and one marriage in Greytown. New Zealand imported 4,099 pianos in 1905-6, in the following year 4,075, then 4,025, and 3,781 during 1908-9. The output of coke from the Gas works for private consumption is not nearly so heavy this winter as last. This is attributed to the extreme mildness of the weather conditions experienced this season. "There is too great a tendency tor farmer* to value their wool at so much per pound instead of at so much per sheep and per acre," said Mr J. T. Cahill, at a wool-classing demonstration at Wanganui. At the fortnightly pay night of the Workers' Mutual Benefit Building Society, last evening, the sum of £265 was received. A ballot for £3OO free of interest will take place on September 16th. . A Press Association telegram from Gore states that the discovery of a lich quartz reef is reported from near Waikaia, about forty miles from Gore. A sample analysed in Dunedin gave a return of 13oz to the ton. At the Police Court yesterday morning, before Mr ulli Smith, J.P.* two first offending inebriates were fined, one ss, in default 24 hours imprisonment, and the other 10a r in default 48 hours imprisonment. The value of friendly societies has been well demonstrated by the casa of a member of the Palmerstoa North Foresters' Lodge, who had the misfortune to be overtaken by Illness. While incapacitated he drew from the Lodge funds as a matter of right a sum of £249. The debate on the subject "Are Fire Boards Beneficial?" will take place at the Y.M.C.A. Building on Wednesday, September 15th. Messrs A. Donald, G. Sykes and D. Hebenton will take the affirmative, and Messrs A. Haughey, E. Pragnell and L. H. Lewi3 the negative. Some choice old wines were put up recently for auction at Christie's rooms, London, the highest price realised being for two dozen bottles ot" Balfour's liqueur brandy (1801 vintage), which were knocked down at 280s a dozen. For three dozen Pommery and Greno champagne (1892) 158s a dozen was given. A resident of Cross' Creek named Sylvester met with a somewhat serious accident on Monday, last. He was attending to an acetylene engine lamp when it exploded, bursting full in his face. He was severely burned about the face and head and his eyes injured. Sylvester was conveyed to Featherston, where Dr Palmer attended to him. A Bowling Club has been formed at Martinborough with a membership of sixty. The annual subscription was fixed at £2, and the following officers were elected for the ensuing year:— Patron, Mr W. C. Buchanan; President, Mr J. Martin; Vice-prebidents, t Messrs W. J. Martin and G. Pain; Secretary, Mr Lawson; Committee, Messrs Dick, Hutton, Hale, Spiers* i Wright and Orbell. I There, appears to be a great de- ; mand by families for milking on , shares in Cambridge district, largely due, the Auckland "Herald" thinks, to the healthy climate and excellent dairy herds. One settler, a few weeks ago, was inundated with applications, and another dairy farmer, who has milking machines in use, received no Jecs than 58 appli- ' cations from all parts of the Wia- | kato. Some of the replies also came . I as far as from Taranaki. The lengthy trial of Arthur Frederick Wimsett, charged with complicity in the extensive robberies by James Hemingway from the parcels department of the Wellington Post Office, where accused was employed, came to a conclusion at Wellington yesterday afternoon, states a Press Association telegram. Without leading the box the jury found Wirasett not guilty, adding that the trijil left no stain on his character. Automatic tablet exchangers have been erected* at the Featherston and Woodside stations, and will be put in to use in a few days. They consist of a post with two swinging bars, one to hold the tablet for the next station and the other to catch the tablet from the engine as it comes into the station. isy this means the necessity and danger of a porter having to stand on the station platform to deliver and receive the tablets is done away with. The ordinary meeting of the Fire Police was held on Tuesday night, Captain Dixon presiding. J. Budd was elected to the position of third lieutenant. The corps decided to hold their meetings on Xuesday nights in future. The foliowing members were appointed to act as a committee in conjunction with a committee from the Fire Brigade, who have decided to help the corps to raise tunds for the family of a member who met with an accident while bushfelling recently Captain Dixon, Lieut. Attwood, and Constable Lewis. This afternoon the ladv members of the Featherston Golf Club play a stroke competition for the trophy presented by Mr J. Cotter. The handicaps are as follows:—Mrs Saunders owe 1, Mrs Toogood 3, Mrs Allen 7, Mrs Lucas 9, Mrs Speedy 9, Mrs Wickens 11, Miss Yiles 21, Miss Jackson 23j Mrs Carlyon 29. On Saturday the men will play the second Cleek Competition, for which the handicaps are.—G. T. Fenwick owe 2, F. K. Bladen 3, G. Fenwick 4 r B. Speedy 4, A. J. Toogood 5, G. T Allen 5, J. T. Bicknell 5, J. W. Card 6, F. W. Burt 8, A. W. Gray 11, F C. Everton 11, A. J. McCarthy 11, Q. Donald 12, C. J. C;irlyon 15. W. A. Donald 25, W* Bi-nton 25. The Wnirarapa Rnring Club stewards met on Monday ;vf(rvnoon. One re*ignatim) was received and accepted, and Mr W. E. Bid will was elected again to the position of chairman. W. Healey was recommended for a jockey's license, a trainer's license was issued to D. Milne, and a gentleman rider's license lo' L. J. Hay ward. The programme finance and course committees were realected, with one alteartion to the tatter, in which Mr A. G. Tver replaces Mr Q' Donald. The"matter )f appointing a clerk of course was leld over. It was decided to erect a galvanised iron fenco from the back if the office to the end of the property. The matter of issuing passes it the saddling paddock was left to ;he Course Committee.

While trie start' ot trie "Jack and Jill" Pantomime Company were arranging the scenery at the Town Hall last evening, a portion of the temporary J"gridiron" above the stage came down and narrowly missed striking three of the men who were underneath. A similar accident chirred TOhen the pantomime {JHumpty Dumpty" was staged in the Town riail some time ago, and it has been suggested that owing to these -accidents a proper "gridiron" snoulu ba erected. Messrs E. B. Hare anrl Ca., land agents, of Pahiatua, advertise particulars of a number of first-class {properties which they have for sale. Spring an;l summer suit lengths in :great variety are now on view in Mr W. Pauling's Queen street store. The goods are in most pleasing shades and excellent in quality. Mr Pauling has proved his ability at suit-building, and during the next few weeks, with the new goods avaailble, largely increased business will doubtless be done. Mr David Brown, cycle manufacturer and impurter, has indented a very large number of first grade machines for the coming spring and summer trade. In an advertisement appearing in another column he publishes a price list, which should prove of interest to those contemplating the purchase of a bicycle.