Local and General.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 22, 27 February 1906, Page 2

Local and General.

The local Library’s share of the Government subsidy this year is £7 Is Bd.

The secretary of the Waipukurau Sports Club informs us that the total receipts for the last meeting were £lO4 14s. The expenditure amounted to £95 9s, leaving a credit balance of £9 ss. Mr J. N. Barrie has informed the committee of his intention of resigningthe secretaryship at the annual meeting.

A. big religious gathering of Maoris was held last week at Whakapara, North Auckland. The Wellington Education Board is appointing a “ master of a model country school,” at a salary of £3OO, in connection with its new training college.

Mr Thornton, rector of Te Ante College, will col duct the morning and evening services at the Church of England, Waipukurau, on Sunday next. Early on Saturday morning the body of Mrs Emma French, wife of a painter of the Lower Hutt, was found dead on the railway line at Thorndon esplanade, Wellington. The woman had evidently been knocked down and killed by an engine during the night. At the inquest the jury returned a verdict that deceased was found dead, but there was no evidence to show the cause. The coroner remarked that the mist reasonable thing to suppose was that deceased had fallen from the platform of a car.

On Saturday last there were 36 patients in the hospital, 7 having been admitted during the week and 7 discharged. Mr J. Miller guessed the correct weight of the bullock at Masterton show —8721 b. The prize was a £l4 10s sewing machine. C. Jones has been put to office work at the local post office, Master V. Mitchell taking his place as messenger.

Mr J. Fitch, of Christchurch, a horticultural expert, thinks Wairoa (H. 8. the best district for fruitgrowing in New Zealand.

At a meeting of the Loyal Tavistock Lodge, held on Friday night, Bros. Moffit and Bailey were appointed delegates to attend the annual district meeting of the H.B District of Oddfellows to be held at Hastings to-•norrow. P.Sec. Bro. F. Bailey was nominated for the P.G.M. chair.

A large native gathering took place at Waimarama on Thursday on the occasion of the marriage of Miss Hiraani Karauria, niece of Mrs G. P. Donnelly, and Tu te Teira. The Premier and Mrs Seddon were present, and expressed themselves delighted with this their first trip to Waimarama. They were received by Mrs Donnelly, the Tapaira brass band playing “ God Save the King.” About 500 natives were encamped all over the place, and their numbers were increased by the presence of many pakeha visitors. The arrangements for meals were on a huge scale, there being seven kitchens and a small army of cooks and attendants to cater for the requirements of the guests. Before leaving, the Premier made a speech, dealing chiefly with land matters.

An old woman who had received a cheque went with great glee to a bank to draw the money. “ This cheque is crossed; we cannot pay it over the counter.” “ All right, sir, I’ll come round then,” was the immediate reply. Eleven of the Waipawa Rifles will compete at Trentham. An Auckland hotelkeeper advertises in the Herald to say that he has got the only “ free ” house in the northern city, and that he will sell beer for 4d. The New Zealanders have not only given us a lesson in football; they have shown us the way to become strong, quick, adroit and supple men. —Paris paper. There was a big sale of horses at the Trvistock yards to-day. Rev J. Pattison intends holding a week’s mission at Onga Onga, commencing to-morrow. f

Summer weather. The Taranaki County Council has decided to rebuild bridges in steel for the future. According io its engineer the estimated lives of bridges are—Steel, 75 years ; ironbark, composite, 40 years; rimu, 18 years. In a private letter written by Mr Wm. Gray, Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, from Adelaide, that gentleman stated that already he felt much better in health through the rest and the change of scene experienced. He stated that the members of the [Sir Joseph Ward’s] had felt the heat somewhat in Sydney, but they had been treated loyally wherever they had gone. Mr W. Keetley (whose wife died last week) has dedided to move to Hastings. Last year 7234 marriages were s olemnised in New Zealand. John Brown, who was had up yesterday for drunkenness, wishes it known that he is not the John Brown who was hanged for high treason in 1749. —Bulletin.

The Black Family returned from Porangahau on Sunday. They expect to perform at Waipukurau in June. The family have shown in six hundred places in New Zealand —in all sorts of buildings, from an opera house to a fowlhouse. In a country case that came before Mr Justice Cooper recently one of the parties concerned was a widow aged 15 years.

We learn that spiritualism is becoming fashionable in this town, and several seances have been held, though nothing remarkable has taken place, the spirits not being yet fairly on the job.

An Auckland merchant who recently returned from a business visit to China and the Philippines writes to a Wellington Tesident:— One result of my visit to China is that I feel sure that, sooner or later, Australia and New Zealand will have to “ sit up” and make reforms in their manner of treating the Chinese and Asiatics generally. They can do without us, our reforms, and missionaries. We have judged the whole Chinese nation from the few samples of the Chinese working man that have exploited our tailing heaps,laundries, and cabbage farms. But you may take my word for it, there are as good brains in China and Japan, in fact all through the East, as there are in Europe, America, or Australasia. And one of these days the white man will be made to know it and feel it. This is the last week of Mr P. Barrie’s clearing sale. The Rev P. Cowx, of Waipawa, preached in St. Mary’s Church, Waipukurau, on Sunday morning. Mr G. H. Graham conducted the evening service.

Lord Ranfurly gave another lecture on New Zealand at Dunganon (Ireland) on December 18th. The lecture was entitled “ New Zealand, its scenery and its industries.” The proceeds were to be devoted to the funds of the Veterans’ Home in New Zealand. Speakingof the home Lord Ranfurly said that the “baby” of the establishment was aged 67 years, and the oldest man 88 years.

The Premier and Mrs Seddon went through by special train from Hastings to Wellington on Saturday night. From Government statistics up to the end of 1905 it appears that the liquor and wines imported into the Cook Islands were not half the quantity of the previous year. One European only was fined for drunkenness, but over eighty natives were fined for drinking bush beer. A Waipukurau case was heard before a Justice at Waipawa on Friday. B. Thompson charged A. J. Smith with using language calculated to provoke a breach of the peace, and applied to have him bound over. Evidence was called, and the charge was dismissed with costs (£2 8s 6d) against the complainant. The following is extracted from a letter signed “ Martha Jones,” in a Napier paper: —“The colony at large more or less, but emphatically Hawke’s Bay, is a vast snobocracy. We are all arrant snobs—living in deadly fear lest we should come in contact with anybody not in ‘ our set’ —unless they belong to the set above us. Then, of course, no objection —delight. Mrs Wholesale cannot possibly recognise Mrs Retail ; Mrs Bigshop will not know Mrs Littleshop. We of the banks cannot assort with tradespeople, and it would be impossible for professionals to mix with anyone outside their own clique —and so it goes on all through. It’s the women who are the snobs and uphold the snobocracy. Men have their faults, but snobbery is not one of them. *’ They don’t cut a man because he is in business or trade. They might not choose to ask a man out of their set to dine at their house, but they don’t object to meet him in a cricket match or to be one of the same football team. . . In colonial society it’s generally the golden key that opens all doors. The rich individual is admitted anywhere —never mind how the money is made if it is there to show.” >