LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 191, 14 February 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Feilding agents for the Phoenix Fire Assurance Company are Messrs A. H. Atkinson and Co., and not Mr Carty, as stated yesterday. It is the intention of some prominent membeis of the Makino Lodge of Druids to take steps to open a Lodge at Rongotea. The Borough Overseer has made a start on the asphalting of the footpaths. Pedestrians and business people will appreciate this. At the meeting of the Feilding Horticultural Society's Committee last night, the question of holding a show in conjunction with the Feilding A. and P. Association was mooted, and the matter will be brought up at the annual meeting. Yesterday, Mr A. Watson brought into' our office a mushroom that would have made a breakfast in itself. The extraordinary growth was found near the abattoirs, and weighed 2ilbs, measuring 12| by 10 inches. The Feilding Horticultural Society intend to issue the schedule for the autumn show on Bth March, as an inset to the Star on Tuesday next. We have been asked to suggest that the recipients should preserve the copies for reference. Mr George McCaul, at one time headmaster of the Hiwinui School, and who for some years past has been on the Wanganui Customs staff, severed his connection with the Department yesterday, he having decided to enter the legal profession, for which he recently qualified. At a meeting of the Directors of the Cheltenham Dairy Co., held on Monday, Mr W. Mills was elected Chairman vice Mr Mitchell resigned. Mr Mills is an old and highly respected resident of this district, and the Directors are to be complimented upon their perspicacity in electing him as their leader. The Makino Lodge of Druids will be represented at the district meeting, to be held at Nelson, on the 18th inst., by Bro. R. Robinson. The Oroua Lodge, Palmerston, will be represented by Bro. C. S. Rush. Both gentlemen leave by the mail train on Saturday afternoon en route to Nelson. The manhole in Warwick street, which has been emitting an offensive smell, was Hushed out yesterday, but the work does not appear to have done much good. It is very necessary that this matter should be dealt with in a complete and satisfactory . way, as there is danger of disease from the evil odour arising from the drain. A peculiar find of gold has, it is said, been made oy a resident of Linton, Victoria. A goose was killed, and on being opened, rough specks of gold were found, the lot being about three-quarters of a pennyweight, valued at 3s. Evidently the gold had been picked up whilst the goose was feeding on the roads. Referring to the Newcastle Band at the Christchurch Contest,, the Chronicle's correspondent says : — Mr Barkell is a conductor of the strenuous order. One minute he will be shaking an infuriated baton under the nose of the B-flat bass, and then, with one kangaroo-like bound, he is across the rotunda, and apparently cajoling the cornets to better work. The receipt by the Official Assignee (Mr fi. Gerald) of a cheque for £844 Is Bd, proceeds from the reversionary interests of Richard Knibb Davis, adjudicated a bankrupt in June, 1886, with liabilities of £10,---196 15s lOd was responsible for a meeting of creditors in the estate at Auckland last week. Mr Gerard announced that the sum received would pay a dividend of Is 6£d in the £. Mr Robert McClymont, the popular secretary of the Rongotea Athletic Club, was called away at yesterday's meeting to obtain the services of a doctor for his child that had the misfortune to be thrown out of a conveyance the previous day, when its back was injured. At the doctor's request, the child was removed to Palmerston to-day, but Dr Greig is of.Wpinion that there is nothing of a very serious nature amiss. At the Manawatu County Council yesterday some discussion took place on the subject of noxious weeds. Councillors expressed the opinion that, if some of the weeds, such as Californian thistle, were left alone, they would die off, whereas by cutting them down the weeds were civ couraged to keep on growing. Several instances were given by Councillors, who referred to their own experiences. It was also stated that pennyroyal and rabbits were on the ir crease in the County. Last month we were informed by cable that Count de Szimere, one of the wealthiest landowners in Hungary, had lost £2500 playing cards ac Budapest. The correct sum was £32,500. The Ziet declares that the play lasted from seven o'clock in the evening until nine o'clock the following morning. The Count is notorious for his gambling proclivities. A few years ago he figured in a remarkable affair at the Vienna Jockey Club, when he and his friend, Count Andor von Pechy, were credited with winning no less than £100,---000 from Count Josef Patocki at one sitting. A meeting of the Committee of the Feilding Horticultural Society was held last evening, Mr Prior (President) in the chair. Present, Mesdames Shenvill, Cobbe, Barton ; Misses Lethbridge and Bray, and Messrs Amor, Wilson, Fred. Pirani and Sopp. Some discussion ensued in reference to the autumn show, and it was decided to bold it on the Bth March. It was announced that Mr A. It. Mayo had donated £1 to the show. The schedules for the show were approved, and it was decided to issue them with the Stak on Tuesday next. A number of routine matters were settled, and it was decided to hold the next meeting on the 27th inst. Mr H. G. Hammond, of Bainesse, having disposed of his farm, has instructed the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Coy, Ltd., to sell on his behalf the whole of his live and dead stock. The sale takes place on Tuesday, the 19th February, and everything will be sold to the highest bidder. The sheep have all been carefully classified, and this should prove an excellent opportunity for buyers to secure really first-class young ewes. The train leaves Palmerston at twelve noon (after the arrival of the Wanganui, Wellington, Masterton, and Dannevirke trains), and returns to Palmerston North at 4.40 in time to connect with these same trains back. Bainesse Railway station is on the property, and within 100 yards of the Homestead. Inquiries made this morning elicited the information that the Feilding Borough Council have not given any instructions to their solicitor for the recovery of Fire Brigade uniforms, as stated by Captain Cleland at the Brigade meeting. The Mayor stated that, if the Fire Brigade have taken legal action in the matter, they are doing so at their own expense. We may point out that the Fire Brigade, being an unregistered society, and having no trustees, have no power to prosecute, and of this fact the ex-members holding uniforms are well aware. However, the Brigade will shortly be vested in the Borough Council, and, no doubt, everything will then be placed on a satisfactory footing. The most remarkable of Christmasdays matrimonial experiences was that of a young woman who was to have been married at St. Paul's Church, Brentford, to an employee of the local district council. TKe bride and her relatives arrived at the church at nine o'clock in t the morning. The bridegroom failed to appear, and the party were accommodated with seats while another marriage was celebrated. A messenger was despatched to the house of the missing bridegroom, who was found fit breakfast. He had gone out to work at six o'clock, returned to breakfast at nine, and forgotten all about his marriage arrangements, the prospective bride in the meantime was weeping and waiting at the altar. He hurried into his marriage clothes, rushed post haste to the ohurch, and was duly married.

A movement is afoot to start a Camera Club in Feilding. The Wanganui Education Board 1 meets on Wednesday next. j The Rev. Innes Jones, vicar of ! St. John's, is at "present confined to i his bed through illness. Constable Henderson returned to Feilding yesterday, after a holiday trip to the Exhibition, and will resume duty to-morrow. The result of the guessing competition at Rongotea was that Mr E. Good guessed the exact weight of the sheep ; 1191bs. The proceeds of the guessing will total £3 15s. Mr W. Mitchell, of Kiwitea, who has resigned the chairmanship of the : Cheltenham Dairy Company, owing i to pressure of private business, has ! ably filled the position for more than a decade. Mr MitcHell has recently : purchased a farm at Apiti, which J will no doubt take up a good deal of his spare time. ! The Bible Society's agent at Bag- : dad reports that in the last consign- | ment of British Bibles which he reI ceived there all the maps had been I torn out which referred in any way !to Armenia. The dragoman of the ; British Consulate at Bagdad ex- ' plained that the name of Armenia on a map is forbidden in Turkey. j In the case of a woman who sought ■ relief from the Wellington Benevolent Trustees, it transpired that on the previous day she had been offered a situation as servant with an Island Bay resident, but had declined it on the ground that Island Bay j was so far away, and that she . could not get out at night . 1 A Press Association telegram from Greymouth says:— Mrs Seddon, who is on a visit to Greymouth, received a cablegram yesterday announcing that Mr T. Seddon, M.H.R., had passed his second section of the LL.B. degree examination. Mr Seddon is on a visit to the Wilberforce Reefs, and will not return to Hokitika before Saturday. The Feilding Gun Club's pigeon match was shot off on the Feilding Racecourse yesterday. The birds were strong and the shooting was good. Following are the results: — T. Signall, Marton, W. Beard, Kimbolton, and J. Simpson, Feilding, divided the prize of £20. The first sweepstake was divided between W. Woolven and A. Rogers, the second was won by W. Nesbit, W. Woolven beiiiK second. Dr. A. Holland Rainy, who seconded the Address-in-Reply to the King's Speech, is a son of the late Principal Rainy, who died in Melbourne recently. Born in 1862, he was educated at Edinburgh Academy and University, Berlin and Vienna. He holds the degrees of M.A., 8.M., and CM., and practises as a surgeon oculist in London. He resided in Australia and New Zealand for a period of eighteen months. He was returned for Kilmarnock Burghs in January, 1906. The Palmerston morning pa"per, tired of inculating canands about this district, has now started on the work of correcting our statements. Wo advise our contemporary to first start on its own vivid imagination and tell its readers that it was only romancing when it stated that Mr E. Short was going Home for a trip, that Mr W. J. Williams was starting a coursing club at Palmerston, that a motor-bike knocked a boy down in Feilding, that — oh, bother, we have not space to-day to allude to all the tarradidoles our contemporary fills up its attenuated columns with. A remarkable experience happen ri at midday on Saturday, 2nd February, to two recent arrivals at the Poseidon rush (writes the Taragulla correspondent of the Melbourne Age). Two men named Hannon and Gascr.yne came to the field a few days ago almost "dead broke," and secured a claim which did not, for the time being, respond to their hopes of fortune. So low were their finances that on Friday night they spent their last threepence for a loaf of bread, and sent to Melbourne to borrow a few shillings. During Saturday morning they sunk a hole in tbe shallow ground about five chains from the prospector south, and to their joy unearthed a nugget of almost pure gold weighing 887oz. The latest addition to the cost of living is a rise in the price of Dunedin manufactured woollen cloth of ten per cent. In two years the price of wool, which is governed by the London market, has risen by about fifteen per cent., and this has reduced the profits of the mills to nil, or thereabouts, thus threatening ito kill a valuable local industry. , The mills have endeavoured to cope 1 with the situation in various ways ; some mills were manufacturing woollen goods into which a considerable admixture of cotton found its way, , the object being to cheapen the cost of production. This, however, threatened to kill the local article in the local markets. To prevent i this from happening in future will be one of the objects of the recentlyI formed Woollen Association, but to ' pay evon moderate dividends the ris-» | ill prico above mentioned has been found imperative. — Post. i The concert and dance at Rongotea last night was a great success, , the hall being crowded and the pro- ; ceedings very entertaining. The , following was the programme: — OvI erture, orchestra ; Miss Ettie Webb, coon solo ; Mr Dan Heagarthy, popular stump orator, representing the "American Quack;" Bob Grace, comic song; Mr George Fowler, "Davy Jones Locker;" Mr Percy j Jeffries, catchy items ; Mr Skleners, I sailor's hornpipe ; Mr E. Sutheri land, coon melody ; instrumental item, orchestra; Mr George Fowler, solo; Mr Dan Heagerty, representations of some, noted politicians; Miss Ettie Webb, sentimental solo; Mr Percy Jefferies, comic items; Bob Grace, comic; Mr E. Sutherland, Haunted Village." The musicians were Messrs W. Cargill, piano, and W. McLean, violin. The ball was crowded. Mr H. Turner proved a capable M.C., and Messrs Barrows' string band supplied first-class music. We deeply regret to have to record the death of Mrs E. A. Young, of Kauangnaroa. The deceased lady had lived for 30 years at Kauangaroa, and was held in the very highest esteem by all who were favored with her friendship. Recently her health began to fail and she came to live v ith her son-in-law, Mr E. D. Reid, on St. John's Hill. She gradually sank, however, and passed peacefully away last evening. Mrs Young had been postmistress at Kauangaroa for over 22 years continuously, and was ever steadfast in her duties, never failing in the carrying or delivering of the mails, no matter what adverse conditions prevailed. She leaves a husband and a grown-up family of seven daughters to mourn her loss. Her daughters are Mrs E. D. Reid, St. John's Hill; Mrs Jack Reid, Waipukurau; Mrs Thomas Harper, Waipukurau ; Mrs Thomas Stockwell, Lawerence, Dunedin; Mrs James Reid, Aramoho, and Misses Grace and Amy Young. — Chronicle. We were informed by cable recently that, after remaining a mystery for five years, the disappearance of the Allan steamer Huronian had been explained by a message found in a bottle. Yesterday's mail brought further details. The message was as follows: — "Huronian sinking fast. Top heavy. One side under water. Good-bye mother and sister.— Charles McFall, greaser." These are the first tidings received of one of Britain's great ocean tragedies. It was contained in a bottle cast up at a gentleman's feet as he was walking along the seashore at Castlerock, on the north coast of Ireland. The bottle had been secuerly corked, and contained an envelope on whioh the above brief but tragic words h~A ' -*en hastily written in pencil. It was on February 11, 1902, that the large cargo steamer Huronian left Glasgow with j only one passenger for St. John, New Brunswick. From that day she disappeared, and nothing has been heard of her till this bottle was washed up. Inquiries showed that a fireman (or "greaser") named McFall had been on board the ill-fated vessel. When the vessel became overdue the Allan Company sought the assistance of the Admiralty, and a cruiser Thames was despatched to the North Atlantic in search, but returned to Queenßtown on May 11, 1902, with no news.