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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 628, 25 November 1880, Page 2

Tlio Masterton Public Library Committee, in our advertising columns, thank those who so ably assisted at the late fire at tlio Institute. ■ An emergency meeting of Thistle Lodge is convened fur Wednesday, December Ist. ■ " A meeting of creditors in the estate of Edward Green, late of Eketaliumi, is convened for to-morrow morning. ■ Messrs J. Inrns & Co. hold a sale of Horticultural exhibits in the Town Hall, Masterton, to-day. We are glad to'learn .that Mr Proctor has decided to waive the question of guarantee, and proposes to deliver lectures at Greytown and Mastertmi. Mr J. H, Corbett offers £5 reward for the discuvecy of the person who stole opjons from his garden at Homebush on Sunday last. The committee of the Wairarapa Institnte held .an adjourned., meeting on Tuesday last, but beyond ordinary routine business nothing of importance was dune. Mr John Sheehan, M.-H.R., and MrE. Baker, Native Agent, were i assciigera by last w elhngtun tiain to Matterion. After staying last night at the Club Hotel the gentlemen started on horseback for Napier, to intend the Native Laud Court at i'apuliaeuoru on the 29th inst. The R.M. Court sat at Masterton yesterday, when the following cases were disposed of: —A. Mutrie v. Rhodes Donald, debt £4O 15a Id—judgment for plaintiff; and .Walter J. Nathan v J. Stone, dobt £1 18s 3d-Mr. Beard for plaintiff, and Mr Parker for defendant—judgment for'plaintiff. The Court sitting will be continued this morning. The only members of County East who attended the meeting convened for yesterday were Councillors J. V. Smith -and H, 11. Buuny. The only business done was the consideration of the Blairlogie tenders, The following were received fot 17t>-67 chains of formation on the Munga-pakeha-Tenui road E. Lanculy A (Jo., £525; Henry Cornelius, £404; Madsen Bros,, £490; Guuriii it Doiioluie, £503 10s; W. Kibhlewhito, £7lO. The tender of Mr Cornelius was accepted conditionally, on satisfactory sureties being forthcoming. A meeting of tlio Carterton Rabbit Trustees was held at the Marquis uf Normauby Hotel on Saturday last, when the followiiig'resnlutious were passed That the Secretary write to Chairmen of Local and Highway Boards for a list of ratepayers from 40 acres upwards. That the Secretary servo, notices utider clauses 17 and 18 of Rabbit Act. on those persons upon whoso properties the Inspector has reported rabbits to be numerous. .That the Secretary will attend at Mr T. Golo's office, Carterton, to receive rates, attendance days to be advertised in the Daily, Standard, and Guardian newspapers. A meeting of the committee of the Upper Plain and Opaki Cricket Club, was held on Tuesday, 23rd inst., fcr the purpose of selecting a team for the match to he playetl in Mr J. V.'Smith's paddock on Saturday. next with the Greytown Club. The following members were chosen 1' Harrison, F. G. M»nre, P. Green, F.'Hare, C. A. Briggs, W. D'Arcy, J.Williams, D.McGregor, D, McLachlaiV, T, L. Til' mpsoii. Emergency—H. Dagg, A. Matthews, J. Welch, G. Harvey. The following are the naniesof the Greytown players .—Sheriff, Ronaldson, Maguire, Cuff, Day, C. Beard, Palmer, O'Connor, Freeman, Bishop, and Webster. Emergencies—J. Hawke jind W. Hirschberg. Mr J. G. Holdsworth, the Crown Lands . Commissioner, held a sale of 11 sections comprising about 2000 ae:es, in the Kiwitea block, Manawatu, at his offices at nood on Tuesday last. The attendance wad small, and there was not' much coinpetition, the total amount realised being £l5O more than the upset price which ranged from 21s to 27s 61 per acre. The sections were Noa. 291 to 208 in b'osk 15, 301 of bl. ck 2, 303 and 311 of block 3. The principal buyers were Mr Williamson, formerly of Ohariu, and Mr Izard on behalf of Londofi clients. The total amount realised was £2740 2a, but this Bum is likely to be mostly paid iu ijanawatu land scrip. The proprietors of the N.Z. .Electroplating Works, Courtenay Place, Wellington, owing to the large amount of patronage they have received, have decided to give the public the l ent fit of the reduced prices to the end of the present year. The goods exhibited by this linn lit the late Industrial Exhibition were inuoh admired, and pronounced by com petent judges to be equal to the heat English and American electroplating, The proprietors are prepared to electroplate on all kinds of metal, also on wood, glass, porcelain, fern and other leaves. Some time ago the Otago branch of the Auglo,Jewish Association wrote Home complaining of the visits of the Shelucliim messengers from the Holy Land—who it is said " drain the sources of real charity." The. Jewish Chronicle (London), commenting on this cbmmunionion, gives some information regarding the Sheluehini, which, we have no doubt will be news to most people. It says . " A messenger sent to collect money from his co-religionists iu all parts of the globe, for a presumably bcuiflcient object, invariably receives forty per cent, of the t ßum so raised, and travels, wherever his will leads him, free of cost,or charge. A case was mentioned, in our columns in which oneindividual on joyed a gratuitous, tour of two years, and collected no less a sum than £5200 on which his commission would be £2oßo—a colossal fortune in Jerusalem. He is now enjoying his otium cum dignitate in the happy consciousness . of having done his duty. The New York Herald puhlishes a letter from a correspondent who accompanied the Schwallta expedition to King Williams Land. He says the fate of the officers and crews of the Erebus and Terror was terrible, even to the utmost limit? of the imagination, and that the 'records of the Franklin expedition are lost beyond recovery. Old men and women of the Esquimaux.tell the story of those who were doubtless the last survivors of those Unfortunate vessels with a minuteness of detail and evident truthfulness, which place their fate beyond a doubt. Of wha,t b.ecame of their great leader and a large number ,of men who,constituted tlie crews nothing could, hp jdiscMyered. Only, a small party of officers, black about .the mouth with hardly any flesh on their bones, were Been dragging a boat across the ice, and then thej disappeared, and nothing more was seen of them until their skeletons were found under the bnat and. in a tent., a prey en wild beasts* and with' dreadful evidences- that: they. had been dnverj to feed on the weaker of their coin* panions before finally yielding to starvationand cold.'

' FIRE AT THE-INSTITUfIS. i ♦ * i Yesterday, about 1 p.m., the Masterton fire bell rang out a sumewlmt micertiiin peiil, mid people said tn one another there ' is another chimney alight, and there was leas running to and fro that ia usual on such occasions, evon the person who ' pulled the rope, after a very short time, abandoned thfr work he had undertaken. • However, this timo, the alarm was not by ,my means a false one, oneOf the largest buildings in Masterton, the Institute, ■ being on fire.. The Institute is a fine two Btorey building in. Chapol-Btfeet,; .contain* ing a commodious library, reading room, and committee room on the first floor, and a large assombly room on the upper one. Attached to the! main .building, is a somewhat smaller structure, the residence iif the custodian. It was from the roof of the latter, near the chimney; that Binoke was issuing when the alarm was given. A very little water would at the time'have extinguished it, as it had.evideiitly not obtained a good hold of the building. It was fully five minutes before.the Brigade arrived on the spot. Several persons an-, ticapated them in getting on the roof and throwing buckets of water there, Mr Robert Donald was, however; the first to go to work in .the right direction by knocking a hole in the-shingles, By this time the hose reel of the lijg engine was run out, and began lo play on. the smaller building, but too late to prevent the fire spreading to the main structure, For about a quarter of an hour the fire beat the Brigade, gaining upon them every., minute, and spreading all oyer the roof of the main building. At' 1 last,, however, the brigade came to the front, when they Brought their Becond hose to bear on the enemybuckets and ladders came 'better late than never,' the smaller building was conquered and ladders connected from it to the roof of the main structure. At Inst fireman Girdlestone worked his way on to the hiyli roof, followed by several of his comrades, including Captain Muirand fireman Ross. Holes were made in the shingles andall fire was rapidly extinguished. Too much praise cannot be given to the members of the hrigade for the way they won a losing fight, They did not make a good start and their hose was not quite in the order which it ought to have been, but when they once warmed to their work they did great tilings, Almost everybody declared that the building must go, and it undoubtedly would have done but for the pluck and endurance of the red jackets, There were of course plenty of hands available t>> save furniture and books. No accident occurred excepting one which befel Mr David Higgie, who was knocked down but not seriously hurt by a ladder which slipped from the. building. The hands: at the pumps worked long, and well. ;\Ve were glad to see the Borough Council ably represented at thsm by Mr Bish, and even the Church wiu in the front rank of pumpers in the person ot the Rev J. McKee, The brigade itself had scarcely a single man available for looking after the pumping, and .had not the volunteer element been good, there would have been a failure at this burnt. It was, perhaps, not altogether necessary thiii the doors and windows should have heen removed with the furniture, thereby increasing the draught and tho tire, but some excitable persons would do this. The origin of the fire was not difficult to detect. Weatherboarding was placed at back of the kitchen chimney, and the flue being, as brickwork often, is,- badlv built, the woodwork in its vicinity became ignited. We understand that tho damage will probably amount to £200; the building .was insured in the North-British Co. for £7OO. Had it not been for the pluck and enduranco of the Mastertnn Fire Brigade the full amount would have had to be paid. The members certainly saved the insurance company £6OO yesterday. ,y One incident of the fire is well worthy of record. Hosts Elkins and Corbett, ■seeinu the exhausted state to which many members of the brigade were reduced by their exertions, resolved themselves into a committee of supply,- and we heard aevaral firemen . declare that the must agreeable drinks they had taken f<»v a long time were the ones passed up to them amid smoke, steam, '."£'u'd> heat' from this source.. . •' : ' ..'•' •■''"'