LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Feilding Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 36, 5 September 1905, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Mr J. B. Clarkson has a replace advertisement on the front page to-day. The annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce will be held in the Council Chambers this evening at 8 o'clock. The annual meeting of the Feilding Horticultural Society will be held in the Library this evening at 8 o'clock. Messrs A. H. Sutton and Co. have announcements in our wanted column to-day 01 interest to ladies. The directors of the Feilding Permanent Building Society met yesterday afternoon, and did a large arnonnt of good business. A solicitor at the Cliristchurch Court, asked if he knew the difference between whiskey and lemonade, stated that his experience did not extend to lemonade. There are unpleasant rumors current in town in connection with the intake of the water works, and these have created a feeling of uncertainty and distrust which, we hope, will be removed by the reports to be presented at the next meeting of the Borough Council. The Rev. Charles Kelly, the new President of tho English Wesleyan Oonferonoe, was the first W«»l«yan minister to oonduot services under the War Office's authority. He b«gan his work m the army in 1869. In 1900 he was President of the National Council of free Qburcbes. His age Is 72,

Sister Cecelia died yesterday morning at the Otaki Convent, from pneumonia, Mr A. fl. Atkinson will hold a sale of second-hand timber on Friday next, at 11am. The Carbine drag will leave tho Square to-morrow at 1.15 p.ui., for tho Australia v. Manawatu football matoh. A meeting oi the General Committee of the Band Contest will be held on Thursday at 7.80 p.m., in the Drill Hall, to receive the reports of sub-comraitteoH. The nominations for solos at tho Band Contest received, so far, aro very satisfactory As the ontries do not close until the 14th instant, many raor« may be expected. A meeting of all interested in the formation of a branch of tho Independent Order of Rechabites, will bo held in the Wesleyan Schoolroom on Thursday evening at 7.30 o'clock. Writs for £5000 pach are being issued by Mr Edgar Watt agaitst Messrs C. W. Govett and J. 0 George, of New Plymouth, for allegod slandor during tho Richmond bankruptcy proceedings at that place. The New Zealand potato crop this year has been a poor one, the total being only 134,608 tons, against 208,787 tons for 1903-4, 193,267 tons for 1902-3, 206,81 5 tons for 1901-2, and 169,042 tons for 1900-1. A hairdresser, when asked at Bow County Court why he could not obey a judgment order, replied, " Hairdressing is not all honey. What can you get out ot a penny a share P On some faces it's like going all round the world to earn it." To show how the value of land has increased in the Methven district, the Lyttelton Times says that Mr D. Thomas recently Bold two quarter-acre sections in the township for £66 and £63 respectively. Four years ago these sections were so)d at £'30 each. Our Wesleyan friends, and their friends, are looking forward with pleasurable anticipation to the Circuit ■ocial, which will be held on Wednesday evening in the Schoolroom, commencing at 7 30. A good programme and refreshments will be provided. Dr Shone remarked during an address in Christchuroh that he had noticed when at college in England that students from Australia did well whatever they tried to do, whether in study or play. " I may say," ho added, " that when they went to the dogs they did that thoroughly also." Our local cracks in the cycle line are having plenty of inducement offered them to take part in a road race on the 20th inst. Messrs G. Barry and Go. are donating one of their "Argylo" cycles as first prize. Particulars ot the distance and various prizes aro stated in our wanted column The attention of cyclists is called to Mr J. B. Clarkson's advertisement in another column about his road race, for which he is giving a Blue Streak Tribune oycle as firat priae. The course is along the Makino Road to Cheltenham (via Cinder Hill) and back along the Kimbolton Road. In reply to a deputation ot commercial travellers, the Minister tor Railways yesterday said the question of dividing the North Island into three sections, instead of one, for the purpose of annual tickets, was a big one, and required careful consideration. With regard to carrying return samples free, he would issue instructions to this effect at any early date. If we were wise (says the Sydney Stock and Station Journal) we would abolish all the land laws, and give men land free, and clear and irrigate it for them the only condition boing that this land is for use, and not for speculation. We ought to see that every man who wants land can get it, can get it for nothing, and it ought to be easier to get rich in the country than in the town. Messrs T. C. Fowler and Cos. oycles ran well up again in the big road race down South. Henderson, the Palmerston North champion, secured the second fastest time, after having sustained a nasty fall in company with Arnst, another rider of the firm's machines. There is no big race that does not see a Red Bird or a Massoy Harris in one of the three first places, and, as yet, none ot the firm's riders have lost a raca through any fault of the bicycle. There was a full house to hear the Rev. L. M. Isitt's addresa on Sunday night. He specially dealt with tho responsibility of the moderate drinker for perpetuating the evils of the liquor traffic. The Rev. Lawry and Mr P. W. Jones were on the platform. Many signed the pledge cards at the close of the meeting. A vote of thanks was accorded to the speaker. A cyclist had a remarkable experience in Melbourne ono morning recently. He rode down the hill from the Haymarket into the city at a rapid rate, and at the corner of victoria and Elizabeth Streets ran full tilt into Dr Charles Ryan's motor car, which was waiting near the tram track to obtain a clear run across Elizabeth Street. The cycle crumpled up against tho heavy motor oar, and the rider shot into the air, and, remarkable to relate, after turning a complete somersault, landed on the seat , beside Dr Ryan. j There was a good attendance at the j Band of Hope last evening. On account of the Choral Society requiring the hall, tho programme was not as complete as it otherwise would have been, but the following items were well rendered :— Recitation, Miss M. Carthew ; piano solos, Miss Gladys Lawry and Miss Milson ; duet, Mrs Pickering and j Miss Grooves ; violin solo, Mr Randrup ; reading, Mr Bagnall ; and a song by Miss Harford brought a pleasant time to a olose. The Rev. A. C. Lawry presided at the beginning, and on bis leaving for another engagement, Mr J. Brauiwell took charge. It seems paradoxical (writes the Dunedin correspondent of the Post) that a flood should oause a fire, yet the flood on the fiat actually caused a fire about three o'clook on Saturday morning at Mr Lambert's tile and pipe factory, near the Kensington railway crossing. It came about thus : The manhole of the eewer became the mouth of a great fountain. The spouting from this invaded and isolated the pottery. The water burst into the kiln and generated such a quantity of steam as sufficed to blow the burning fuel out of the furnaces by the tip-draughts, and thus set fire to the roof. The members of the South Dunedin Fire Brigade, who were summoned, had to wade kneedeep through the flood to the imperrilled building. In the huge Empire of Russia,with its 130,000,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 90 per cent, belong to the hand-working class, there is no State-organised poor relief system, and the burden falls not on the rich, but on the poor. In St. Petersburg as in other Russian towns, the inhabitants are divided into five classes, viz., nobles, priests, merchants, small traders, and hand-workers, and so far as poor relief is concerned, each class forms a separate community, and must provide for its own poor. But neither nobles nor priests require relief as a rule, nor yet merchants nor small traders. Except in case of sudden misfortune, a merchant can never possibly require pauper relief, as by one of the rules in toroe in his class, if his income ; falls below a certain amount, he ceases, at the end of the year, to be a merchant, and takes rank as a small trader or even perhaps as a hand-worker ; just as . a small trader, before sinking into destitution, becomes, as a rule, a hand- , worker. On the hand-worker class, therefore, falls the whole of the cost of the relief given. Moscow is an exception to the rule, as the municipality provides generously for its poor.