LOCAL ADD GENERAL NEWS.

Feilding Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 28, 25 July 1904, Page 2

LOCAL ADD GENERAL NEWS.

Prom to-day a Money Order and Strings Bank office will be open at Cheltenham, and will be in charge of Mr W. J. Horn, Postmaster. Entries for Messrs Abraham and Williams' sale at Marton on the 20th inst and at Palmerston on the 28th idem are now advertised. With to-day's issue will be found a circular, from Messrs Kirkcaldie and Staina, of Wellington, giving particulars of the great winter sale which will commence on Thursday next, July 28th, and will continue until the 13th August. The entries for the Feilding Poultry Show have already outnumbered those of last year, but by special request from outside fanciers the date for closing of entries has been extended to 4th August. Mr W. M. Smith, for the past 15 years manager of the Bank of Australasia at Marton, was on Saturday presented with a gold watch and chain, suitably inscribed. In the course of his sermon at the Wesleyan Church last night the Rev. A. C. Lawry dealt with the " English Education Act " and the "No License " question in New Zealand, making special reference to the recent lecture on the latter subject. An Anti-Chinese and Asiatic League has been established in Sydney with the object of conducting a crusade for the rooting out of the Chinese and other Asiatics in the Commonwealth, for the regulation of those living there, 'and to secure the repeal of legislation which permitted them to come to Australia. On Saturday night, in the Square, Mr Parlane, a temperance advocate from Ashburton, together with the Revs. Murray and Olphert, addressed a large gathering on the prohibition question. Mr Par lane refuted the statements made by Mr T. M. Smith in his lecture last week, and maintained that the no-license area in the South Island was far cleaner than in the days of licensed houses. We beg to draw the attention of dairymen to the clearing sale of dairy stock to be held by Messrs Gorton and Son at Rewa to-morrow (Tuesday) on behalf of Mr E. H. Crabbe. The herd consists of pure bred Jerseys and Jersey Shorthorn cross of high testing and milking qualities. The average test of the whole heed is 44, and the. inaividual tests run from 3 - 4 to 6. Date of calving and test will be given out with each cow offered. According to a decision given by the Circuit Court Judge , at Newark, N. J., a boy's lite is twice as valuable as a girl's irbm the legal standpoint, ami damages in the action were assessed iceordingly. The judicial theory, says the Telegraph's New York correspondent, was that whereas » girl would, probably always be ail expense to her parents, a boy would prove a source of revenue and maintain his parents if iecjissary in their old age, The jury

A purse containing coins, found in Manchester Street on Saturday night, ms been left at this office. Mr G. Fidler and the members of his 'amily return their grateful thanks to ;heir many friends who sympathised ivith them in their recent bereavement; David Evans, 61 years of age, a carpenter in the employ of the Timaru Harbor Board, dropped dead on Saturday while talking to a comrade. Several dogs, useful as well as useless, have been poisoned recently up Colyton way. Sheep must be protected even- by the sacrifice of pets. According to received in Christchurch, the health of Bishop Julius considerably improved on the voyage Home by the Tongariro. One striking circumstance connected with the Pahiatua contest is that not one of the four candidates is prepared to advocate the abolition of the freehold tenure. The Oamaru death rate for June is the lowest in the Colony, only two deaths being recorded, the proportion of deaths to 1000 of population being 0-37. A Napier wire says that the late Major W. A. Richardson, who served with distinction in the Maori War, was accorded a military funeral, which was rery largely attended. A large number of military veterans and of the early settlersjof the province, followed the remains to the cemetery. The American expert of the famous " W. 8." corsets, Madame Britten, arrived in Feilding by to-day's express, and we would remind our lady readers of the demonstrations in the art of fitting these corsets, to be made at John Cobbe's to-day, to-morrow, and Wednesday. Entries for the show of the Manawatu Poultry Association closed on Saturday. The approximate total is 800, the heaviest lots being Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks. The entry is considered to be very satisfactory, owing to the season being virtually closed. The Premier has received a cable message from the Agent-General, stating that one 75-m.m. (Sin) quick-firing gun, one 75-m.m. breach-loading gun, one Maxim gun, and 600 Mauser rifles, captured during the South African war, have been allocated to New Zealand as trophies, in recognition of this Colony's participation in the South African war. The shipment of these arms is at present being arranged. The demand for white pine timber was never so great as at the present time. The mills in the Auckland district are working night and day to supply orders from Australia, where the timber is used for butter-boxes, and milleca in the southern part of the island have also large orders on hand. One firm in Hawkes Bay has chartered | two sailing vessels to carry between 3.000,000 and 4,000,000 feet of pine to Sydney. The Hon. T. Y. Duncan, Minister of Lands, is to leave Wellington this morning for Dannevirke. He goes to inspect the Tamaki and Mangataroto j blocks, ana will report to his colleagues I with a view to thp Government taking j these blocks over for close settlement. The Minister will also endeavor to arrange with the local authorities for the early construction of the lower bridge over the Manawatu Gorge in accordance with the report of the Commission which recently sat at Woodville to apportion the cost. A student engineer living in Charlottenburg (says the Telegraph's correspondent) has taken a drastic method of silencing a piano which was being played eternally in the flat over that occupied by him. Finding remonstrance useless, he bored a fine hole through the ceiling of his study and the floor of the room above, into which he fitted a fine rubber tube. Through this tube he passed the acrid fumes of sulphuric acid gas, which in a short time drove the piano player from the room. The process was repeated day after day until the minute hole in the floor was discovered. The piano player brought an action, and the engineer has been fined for an attempt to do bodily harm. The name of Robert Butler alias Donnelly alias Midway alias Lee, the notorious criminal, says the Dunedin Star, only requires to be mentioned to be remembered by the old and even the young residents of this city. The Cumberland sbreet tragedy is never likely to be forgotten, and the fact that Butler was due to be discharged from Pentridge Prison, Melbourne, on the Bth of this month is not by any means pleasant reading. Yet it is a fact. Butler, it will be remembered, was sentenced in 1880 to 18 years' imprisonment, and was discharged from gaol in 1894 on the understanding that he went to South America. He, however, soon afterwards turned up in Melbourne, and received another long sentence there for having house-break-ing implements in his possession. According to latest advices Butler, who is now about 54 years of age, is a free man once more. In an article commenting on the increase in the price of wool, the Poverty Bay Herald observes : — '• With wool and wheat at such satisfactory prices, a check will probably be given to some extent to the development of dairying. A pound of crossbred wool is at the present moment of greater intrinsic value than a pound of I butter fat, and that being so it is not surprising if pastoralists who have been thinking of turning their sheep farms into dairy runs decide for the present to continue the growth of wool and mutton. There is room, however, in the country for the two great industries. Dairying, even at present prices, is profitable, and will attract the men with small means and large families and provide for them, as the result of their industry, a thoroughly comfortable living. The coincidence of several cases of arsenical poisoning occurring iv the Colony within the last few years through the medium ot oatmeal has directed public attention to a matter which has assumed grave interest in view of the recent case occurring at New Brighton, Christchurch, and now the subject of a Cdroncr's enquiry. It is understood that an effort will be made during the present session of Parliament to introduce legislative safeguards which may be calculated to m some way lessen the danger to the public. It is now proposed to ask Parliament to make it law that storekeepers must keep a poisons register, and likewise follow the practice of chemists of storing poisons in a separate compartment, and keeping them properly labelled. This, it is believed, will form a better safeguard than has formerly existed against possible accidental mixing. A resident of this district who is not a poultry expert, although an enthusiast in Pekin ducks, recently met an acquaintance well versed m poultry points, and suggested the latter should have a look at some ducks in his possession. In due time the visit came off. "Yes," said the knowing one, "you have two or three gqod ducks. I will give you 2s each for three of them — two ducks and a drake." The owner held out tor 3s each, and the purchase was completed. The drake was taken to his new home, had his mane and tail pulled, carefully groomed up, and was put in the Poultry Show the following week. There he attracted the attention of the judge, and was awarded first prize. Following the award the abovementioned enthusiast accosted the owner of the drakein eulogistic terms as to the quality of the bird. "Yes, he's for sale; but «l'm' not particular/ said the owner; "I will take a guinea for him." The price was paid. "By the way," said the new owner, "how is the drake^ bred P- *f I haven/t the, faintest idea," replied the exhibitor ; " it's the same .bird that I gave you three bob for last week,"-— Standard.