Local and General News.

Feilding Star, Volume XXI, Issue 204, 2 March 1900, Page 2

Local and General News.

At the meeting of the Feilding Borough Council last eyening~the Mayor reported that the sinking fund now amounted to JE3920. Messrs A. and W- Sowerby, wood carters, having dissolved partnership they insert a notice with reference to the business and accounts. At one time it was believed that the coming Easter Encampment would be hold at Palmerston Noth, but it would appear that Wanganui will be chosen as affording greater facilities. The Borough Council, at its meeting last eyening, resolved, on the motion ol Cr Carr and seconded by Cr R. F. Haybittle, that a special meeting of the Borough Council be held to discuss the water supply and scworago scheme on Thursday, loth instant at 7 o'clocki

Nominations for the Sandon athletic | sports close to morrow, March 3rd. ! A bicycle tool pouch found last evening, has been left at the Star Office. The Cheltenham Sports Club will hold a dance on the evening of March 7, after the sports. Captain Edwin wired at noon to-day : Strong nonherly wiuds and glass fall soon. The death is recorded of Mrs Hammond, widow of the late Matthew Hammond, of Killeymoon, Bulls. The Manchester Rifles will parade this evening at the Drill Hall to assist in the patriotic demonstration. The sheep advertised for by Messrs Nesbit and Has well were branded " 0 3 '■ and not " W O " as previously advertised § The funeral of the late Louis A. Black will leave his parents' residence, Warwick street, on Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock for the Feilding cemetery. On Monday last Mr J. Collingwood's boiling down shed at Awahuri was destroyed by fire. There was no insurance and Mr Collingwood estimates his loss at about £50. The District Railway engineer, Mr D. Molntosh, has advised the Manchester Road Board that the combined road and railway bridge across the Rangitikei river at Kakariki would be open for traffic on the morning of Monday, March sth. Mr Davies, a well-known commercial traveller, drove the first buggy into Feilding in the early seventies. He stayed at Taylor's boarding-house, situated about where the Manchester Hotel now stands. Mr Davies " sees many changes " since then. Mr Long, the station-master, has draped the British Ensign and the Stars and Stripes over the entrance to the waiting rooms of the Feilding railway station in honour of the relief of Ladysmith. A lsrge flag is also floatiDg gaily over each end of the station and a tattered ensign ornaments the centre. Last night when the alarm of lire was given, a man leaped out of his bed, rushed to a window and looked out, then he said to the sharer of his joys and sorrows " Its all right, its away behind a big hill, " and turned in again. When he went to look in the morning he discovered that the " big hill " was a haystack of his own. An additional event has been added to the prograiume for the Awahuri races which appears on our fourth page, to be held on March 21st, the proceeds from which will be devoted to the Transvaal war fund. The race referred to will be a trot and (lie distance 14 miles for a sweepstake of ss. The entries for these races close on March 10. Mr K. Andrew, a well-known and respected resident in this district, who has now decided to settle in Feilding, has a business notice in to-day to which we direct the attention of our readers. Mr Andrew, it will be seen, has for sale a portable steam engine and other machinery as detailed in the advertisement. We wish Mr Andrew success in his new venture. The autumn show under the auspices of the Feilding Horticultural Society is being held in the Volunteer Hall to-day. The exhibits are more numerically than any previous show held here, and not only is this show an improvement on its predecessors in this respect, but the quality of exhibits is superior. The show will be open to the public after 7 o'clock this evening and is well worthy of a visit. A good story is told in the Birmingham Daily Mail of the peparture of one of the Reservists for the front. As he left in the train a woman was to be seen weeping bitterly. Full of sympathy, a bystander tried to speak words to the griefstricken wife, when he was met with the following answer : — " Oh, it ain't 'im I'm troubling about ; it's them poor Boers I'm athinkin' of ; Bill's such a terror when 'c starts." The inquest on the remains of the late Miss O'Callaghan, burnt to death in the recent fire at Ashurst, will be re-opened at Ashurst to day. Since the occurrence the police have been making diligent enquiries into the circumstances sur rounding the fire. Serrgt. -Major Ramsay despatched Detective Bishop and Constable De Norville to the township yesterday to complete the investigation. It is reported one of the principal witnesses in the inquiry has disappeared from the district.— Manawatu Times. At about 11.30 last evening three stacks of oats, in a paddock at the corner of Churcher and Port Streets, were destroyed by fire. The alarm was given and the Brigade turned out. but the conflagration was too far away for them to be of any service. The oats were the property of Mr Ruff who is a loser by the fire to the extent of about .£SO, which was not covered by insurance. There was no fire in any of the adjacent paddocks and Mr Ruff believes someone must have purposely set rhe stacks on fire. He was residing about a mile away and did not know of Ins loss until this morning. Af'er about eight years' service in the Feilding State School Miss Ada Watts yesterday severed her connection with Lne school to take up a position in the Merc Mere (near Hawera) school, to which she recently received an appointment. Before the school closed for the ilny the head master, Mr J. C. Hill, on behall! of the teachers aod scholars, in a few appropriate remarks, presented Miss Watts with a handsome gold brooch, set with diamonds, as a slight recognition of the high esteem in which she was held, Miss Watts leaves for Mere Mere to-day ,md carries with her the respect of all those who knew her, and who will be pleased to hear of her success in her new sphere of usefulness. Last evening Miss A'atts was the recipient of a presentaion iv the form of a writing case and work box combined, from the choir of he Presbyterian Church, and also of uother from the Ladies' Oddfellows Lodge, of which Miss Watts was an ictive member. At least one man has confessed his mistake in hitherto believing in the pa;ific disposition of the Boers. That nighty hunter, Mr Helous, who has •haiipioned the Boers, declared that this >vnr whs forced upon them, and mainlined that they wera a gentle, noniK«ressive people, has the manliness to confess that he was mistaken in thinking the Boers had always desired to live at |)e>ce with the English. " I feel bound to ;idmit," he has told a representative of hfi Daily Chronicle, London, "that had I knosvn some months ago how extensively the Transvaal was arming, I should have probably foreseen and admitted the inevitability of a collision, apart from that tvhich might have been brought about in other circumstances by a section of the speculative capitalist element." He lurther adds that " Half measures now would probably result in more and worse trouble later on."