FIRE AT FEATHERSTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3123, 7 February 1889, Page 3

FIRE AT FEATHERSTON.

D'eatiiebston, Thursday. A seven-roomed house owned by E. J, Eowe, and occupied by Miss Connolly, also a bouse owned by W. Skeet and occupied by J. H. Parkes, adjoining, wero destroyed by fire at {£n to-day.' Insurance onEowe's is £l6O in Colonial, but Skeet's is not known. The furniture in each-was partly saved.

Prize Fighting. The patronago wliich some newspapers are given to pugilists, remarks the Christcliurcli Telegraph, appears (o be bearing (ho kind of fruit which one might expect. At Dunetlin, on Saturday night, a knocking out match took place between, two of thoso gentry who believe in eking out an existence in this vagrant-like manner rather than by honest work. Heavy wagers depend upon the < result, and as the backers of one man lost their money through the flat of the umpire, naturally great

/indignation prevailed among them. #This was well reflected in their man, Ivho, having lost the fight, commenced an attack on the umpire, vttgeed not be told that the scene tmrtTollowed was not of an edifying description, and that the police had to be appealed to for assistance. What took place in-the Dunedin theatre on Saturday night is what we may expect in an intensified form if fighting for stakes is to bo regarded as a legal act in this Colony. It is about time that the Legislature should interfere and put a stop to the scenes of brutality which are becoming altogether' too frequent. The spirit of larrikinisra is rampant enough without seeking to add to.it by encouraging a class of combative follows who are too lazy to earn their living, They should be taught that nature intended them to make other and better uses of their, physical powers, than creating disorder and injuring- thc-ir fellow- ■ men, ' We hope that the Legislature . will step in and give them the necessary lesson and put an end to the P.R. as a New Zealand institution.