LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 265, 14 May 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A hint for Feilding. Levin has decided to cover the floor of Council Chambers with cork linoleum and provide furniture for the Town Clerk. As an outcome of the recent goldstealing charges in Otago, a writ has been issued by a well-known dredg«master against the Mount Benger Mail, claiming £500 damages. Our Apiti correspondent writes: — Mr Stephens has just sold his farm near the township to Mr G. Prince, and Mr F. Lucas has also sold out to Mr Viles from the Marton Block. At the annual meeting of the Feilding Fire Brigade last night, Mr H. R. Fitzgerald was re-elected secretary by 15 votes to 5. He was opposed in the ballot by Mr A. W. Parker. Forty-seven votes were cast for the two candidates at the district council election at Fritton, near Yarmouth. Forty-six of them were recorded for the successful candidate. The Borough Engineer has prepared a plan of the South Btreet reserve for the Beautifying Society for preserving the native bush, planting shrubs, and in other ways improving the reserve. The members of the Bethlehem (Orange River Colony) Literary and Scientific Society have decided, hv twenty-five to twenty-three votes, that poets do more good for a country than statesmen. Mr George J. Gould has decided to pull down his house at the corner o' Fifth avenue, and build another, which will cost him £2,000,000. The new house, which will be six storeys high, will be built of Indiana limestone. A Press Association telegram from Dunedin states that so far no student has enrolled in the veterinary class in the Otago University, though a number of enquiries have been made by farmers' sons and others concerning the course. Mr E. S. Lancaster's house at Levin was destroyed by fire on Saturday. The house was occupied by Mr and Mrs T. H. Brown, during Mr Lancaster's absence in the Old Country. Nothing was saved. The building was insured for £450 in the Liverpool, London and Globe, and the furniture in the Phoenix for £200. Mr D. Fabling, blacksmith, while driving a cart of grass seed along Symon street, Feilding, had the misfortune to be thrown from the cart. One of the wheels passed over his legs, and he sustained a severe shaking. Fortunately, no bones were broken. Dr. Willis attended Mr Fabling, who is progressing, but will be laid up for some time. The New Zealand Times understands that the well-known Happj' Valley estate, of 6535 acres, has changed hands, the trustees of the Jacob Joseph estate having sold «>ie property to Mr H. V. Hammond, a well-known sheep farmer at Knnbolton. The estate has been carryin; 7000 sheep and 200 head of cattle. The boundary of the property is only three miles from the heart of the city of Wellington, the homesto.y! being four miles away and within twenty minutes' walk of the Brooklyn tram terminus. The Gisborne Herald says :— A number of Mr Carroll's friends telegraphed to him to-day asking if ho, could possibly attend Mr Harding'funeral. The Minister replied stating that they knew what his feelings were, and that he would willingly travel night and day to do so, but owing to tho importance of pub 1 ': duty he could not possibly attend the funeral." Hum! Public business! According to the Lyttiron Times' correspondent, the "public business" included a rercarkabl? merry time. The King has approved of the apg ointment of Mr Sydney Olivior 1.M.G., to be Governor of Jamaica in succession to Sir J. A. Swetli'nhom, K.C.M.G., who has rosigne.l on tho ground of age. Mr Olivier, who cornea from the Colonial Office, has I had much experience of West Indian affairs. He was Colonial c r^ retary in Jamaica from 1900 to 1904, and acted as Governor in 1900. 1902, and 1904. Tfc was secret try to the West Indian Commission "i 1896, and went to Washington two years later in connection with the West Indian reciprocity negotiations. At the end of Mr Mak-ne's address at New Plymouth on Friday night, Mr Mehaffy wanted to irove a hostile amendment, but the audience would not listen to him. Event inlly he reached the stage, and while he was gesticulating and shouting, the chairman and candidate left the .stage and the curtain was dropped, but Mr Mehaffy continued in front of the curtain to try and get a Learing. An individual seized the .n---portunity to poke a hatpin through tho curtain into his leg. The lights were turned on again. Flo shifted his position, but his assailant behind tho curtain made another attack with the pin. Tho occupant of the stage was roused to fury. Like a wild bull he made a leap at the curtain, and then, whipping out a knife, he hacked at the material, and was not satisfied until it was in threads. liis assailants had vanised and the poopvin the building laughed themsolvvs hoarse. The cost of the curtain is £20. The New Zealand Times has been making some inquiries as to the reason for the bankruptcy epidemic, and under the heading of "Palmerston over-traded," says:— "An increase!" exclaimed the manager of one of Wei lington's largest mercantile firms, in surprise. " Our experience has been that bankruptcies have diminished. Where have the increases been, Palmerston? Ob, of course. Palmerston accounts for it all. The place is over-built." But Palmerston has been talked of as a place to rush to —the town of the future. "It is a place to rush away from. It is as big as it ever will be, or at nil events, as big as it ever ought to be. A farming centre? No. Feilding lias taken its place in that respect.' I have felt all along t.iat Palmerston has been over-built, ovei traded, and over-boomed. But here in Wellington we are becoming more and more prosperous." '* Mv owr. impression." saw" another merchant "is that thertf- is too much extravagance among the working classes They get good wages, but they spend too freely on the totalisator and othoforms of recreation. Outside of Wellington .you will probably find ' greater depression up the West Coast | than up the East. I have noticed i this circumstance, particularly for the last year or two. 1 have trie i | to find the cause of the difference and think that it can only be due Ito the heavy mortgages that the i Manawatu farmers are labouring under. Land prices have been serious ■ly inflated. The F- 'rt ;>t has escaped from that pestiienoe.' 'Tal--1 merston," said the same merchant | "has, I am sure, Jbeen over-traded. There are several large traders there and a great number of small ones, and the small ones are bound to find ;it hard to compete. I expect to find I others fail soon. I don't quite agree that Palmerston has reached her limit, but it has gone on too fast. The town is a residential centre for some of the farmers owning runs in the district, and with large supplies of all farm produce near at hand there is scope for activity. But th<. marked absence of chimney-stae.ka over Palmerston is bad. \. .". : ■-■.••- ■ .'

Mrs Mary Forbes, of Yardie, near Buckie, dropped dead recently from heart failure while she was whipping her son for breaking a window. An Indiana court has granted Mrs Felly Baker, aged sixty-five, a divorce from her eleventh husband. One husband died a natural death, one committed suicide, and nine were divorced from her. Members of the Feilding A. and P. Association are reminded that nominations for officers and Committee of the association for the ensuing year close with the secretary on the 17th inst. Mrs E. S. Loveland, a niece and inheritor of a large part of the fortune of the late Mr Collie P. Huntington, the Calif ornian millionaire, was killed in a motor-car accident at Oneonta, in New York State. She was driving a new high-powered car near her residence when she lost control of the machine. The car dashed into a bank, and Mrs Loveland was thrown out on her head. Her neck was broken, and she was taken up dead. From Dunedin to the Baltic ports of Stettin and Danzig is a far cry, but it 9coms nevertheless that shipbuilding at the latter places is affecting local activities a little. For some time past almost every Home steamer has taken a parcel of scheelite, small, but increasing. Exporters says that the price of this commodity has gone up £20 or £30 per ton during the last month, and is now higher than ever before. The mine at Mount Judah, Glenorchy, is amongst those now being worked. A product of scheelite, tungstic acid, ij used in connection with hardening steel for naval construction. Hence the demand from Germany. ', A member of the New Jersey State legislature has introduced a Bill in. posing a graduated tax on men with beards. This legislator has pronounced ideas on the subject of 1 beards, which, he says, men cultivate only to save barbers' bills and to hide their features for ulterior and often base motives. His . scheme for the tax is as follows: — s For ordinary beards £1, for a goatee £10, for whiskers exceeding 6in long • (per inch) £2, for a bald man with I whiskers £5. It is also stipulated that when the beards are red the tax shall in all cases be increased by 20 J per cent. In the preamble to the , Bill it is pointed out that Holmes, the trunk murderer, and Palmer, th.< 1 poisoner, had whiskers. An extraordinary series of accidents to cyclists happened on the , London road at Kingston-on-Thames, recently, owing to the too liberal \ watering of the road. The mishaps ' occurred just as the exodus of Lon- ' don cyclists was at its height. The centre of the road is occupied by «x wood-paved tramway track, and this 1 had been rendered so treacherous by ■ the water that cyclists and motor- ' cyclists skidded and fell by the 1 dozen. In a few minutes no fewer ' than seventy riders came to grief, • and opposite the tramway depot a confused heap of humanity and ! bicycles was seen struggling for some time before the riders could disen- [ tangle themselves. " At lsst a local . resident appeared with a box of sand, and the good Samaritan was loudly j cheered by the cyclists. A remarkable operation on the '- brain, which has the effect of giving back the power of speech to a dumb » man, has been performed at the r Bellevue Hospital, New York. The . man, Frank Deirlein, lost his power . of speech last November. No valid i cause could be assigned for the m- ■ firmity, and the doctors treated him s for some time without success. Doc- • tors Madey and Stewart, two proi minent surgeons on the Bellevue Hospital staff, then decided to perform an operation on daring and ncvel lines. They bored into tbe , front part of his brain, and there, [ as they expected, found a clot. This [ was removed by the aid of a nelectric battery. As soon as the clot was taken away Deirlein found that he ] could talk. He has now recovered ' almost completely from the effects of i , his operation. A woman named Marguerite Bois, known as "Lucia, the Queen of the ttrigands," according to the Matin has been the instigator of a number of crimes perpetrated by a band of robbers in the south and west oi France, who are now under arrest. Hi is woman has had a remarkable career. Early in life she gained a loputation for recklessness and cruelty. When only ten she rode a horse that no one else could approach, ;!iid went to sleep in the stable with her head on its hoofs. At the age of seventeen she met a man named Branchory, who had already been implicated in several crimes, and mar- , tied him. Lucia enticed him on to other crimes to satisfy her taste for I'.xuriee. Under her guidance a Lind of brigands was formed, of which she was the acknowledged ijueen. The following particulars of the .Nairobi affair, cabled recently, is viven in the Home papers as folj bws: — A sensxtion has been caused In re by the sentences passed on three prom i ?\ent English colonists for participating in the public flogging of three negroes who were alleged to have insulted white women. Captain Ewart S. Grogan, president of the Colon icta' Association, and famous for his walk from Capetown to Cairo, was sentenced to a month's imprisonment and a fine of £34; Mr Bowkar and Mr Gray, both large landowners, l;i fourteen days 'imprisonment, and a fire of £17 ; Mr Fichat, a land fluent, to fourteen days' imprison- !'• nt; and Mr Ernest Low, proprietor o ? tho Nairobi Star, to seven days' imprisonment. The sentences wore imposed under section 143 of the Indian Penal Code. In an article in the Strand Magazine on some romances of the Stock Exchange, it is related that a typist employed by a groat financier obtained possession of information, which sh© eanveyed to her lover, a small broker, who used the knowledge thus obtained to make profits to the extent of £60,000. Discovering the dishonesty, the financier discharged her, and proceeded to ruin her lover. She resolved to save him. Being denied an interview with her former employer, she obtained a situation in his household as a servant by means of forged references. In this capa city she earned her mistresses goodwill, and obtained possession of some of her master's private correspondence. It co happened that amongst the letters intercepted was one from the magnate's brother in the Transvaal, giving such information that the lover was able to effect a deal netting him £30,000. A second discovery followed, but the pair left England, and the man is now a flourishing bucket shop proprietor in America. Concerning the federation of New Zealand and Fiji (says the Dunedin Star), a story is current in the Islands which has, so far, never been published in this colony. Some years ago, when federation was talked of, it was necessary to defer to the native sentiment to a greater extent than might be commonly supposed. The natives have the. nab*, of judging other nations by tfeg size of their chiefs, and before they would say "Yes" or "Nay" on the federation question they wished to know what sort of chiefs reigned in New Zealand. In the fulueas <f time a steamer came to Suva, expectant crowds of grinning savtigcis gathered on the quay, *ht< gangway was put over the side, and down, it strode the portentious personality of Richard John Seddon. The effect was magnetic. Here was a ohief, a pioper sort of chief, beside whom even their own rokos and bulis looked diminutive. They roared "Vinaka! vinaka!" (good, good) for some time, and the Premier, who always knew the catchword with natives, called back "Sambulo vinaka!" in their own resonant style. That little incident had such effect that if the result had been left to the natives to decide there and then New Zealand and Fiji would have been one country to-day. The Premier left, however, and later on there came the Mapourika to discharge a shipment of everyday politicians. This killed everything. "These your chiefs?" they asked again, hardly believing thrir eyes. Some of the whiles endeavoured to explain that they were only some of the talking men, but it was no use. The obviousness of New Zealand no longer existed, and with it the dream of federation passed away.

A telephone exchange is being installed at Ashhurst. The Rev. G. B. Stevenson, who has had charge of the Anglican work in the Komako district, was presented with a purse of sovereigns by the residents on Friday. The child of Mr F. Grobelar, of Waterval Boven, Transvaal, was bitten by a puff adder, and was in danger of losing its life, when the father applied a poultice of common tar to the wound. The swelling soon subsided and the child recovered. More than £20,000 has changed hands in the greatest game of poker ever played in Chicago. Six professional gamblers played four consecutive days and nights, and stopped only when rumours of the contest got abroad, and threatened to bring an interruption from the police. It is as well to remind the public that the Feilding football matches are now played on the racecourse here, a few moments' walk from the centre of the town. Every facility is given to spectators, and the charge for admission is only 6d for gentlemen, ladies being admitted free. If the present fine weather continues, there should be a large attendance to witness the senior match, Feilding v. Palmerston, next Saturday. Rear-Admiral H. N. Manney, of the United States Navy, one of the American representatives at the Wire less Telegraphy Conference last year, states that notable progress has been made there in wireless telegraphy since the conference. It is now possible to telephone without wires for a distance of thirty miles, as against a quarter of a mile — the record distance before the conference. Mr Clark Allen, who has been in the local railway station for some years, has been transferred to the Hutt. He left yesterday for that place, and as it is his home, the trantierence is a fortunate one for him. Mr N. Cannel, cadet, also left Feilding station yesterday, to take up a position on the railway at Wellington. These young gentlemen went away amid a great deal of noise, their fellow employees having placed a couple of detonators on the line as the train was starting. Missing bicycles are a constant source of worry to the police. Owners report their machines have been stolen, and in most cases it turns out that some friend has borrowed it without asking permission. The bicycles are returned, and the police are kept in ignorance of the fact. In other cases youngsters take bicycles, and leave them in the garden, or in a shed, or in some other place where they are not easily found. There has been recovered by thd police a lady's bicycle which had been left in a garden during the last week, and is now practically spoilt owing to the rough weather An extraordinary outrage is re poited from Swinford, a small town in a wild part of Co. Mayo. A wedding was to have been celebrate 1 recently at a farmhouse in the district, and all the preparations were made. The wedding feast was spread on the table. Late on the previous night a large crowd of men wearing masks surrounded the building and demanded admittance, declaring that they had come to enjoy the wedding feast. The bride pleaded with them to go away, but they broke down the door, smashed the windows, and en tered the house. They ate everything in sight, and then wrecked all the furniture in the house, and destroyed the farm implements. The wedding had to be postponed. A shocking accident occurred at Malvern, Melbourne, on the night of Friday, the 3rd inst. A Miss Florence Palmer, twenty-six years old, was cycling along a road, when she came to a part of the roadway in which the metalling is narrow, both sides of the street being muddy and ill suited for a bicycle. Miss Palmer kept to the metalled portion of the roadway, and her machine collided with a grocer's cart approaching from the opposite direction. Miss Palmer was knocked down, and a wheel of the cart passed over her body, inflicting injuries from which she died about seven hours later. The unfortunate lady was to have been married on the following day to a Mr M. L. Cameron, of Armidale, a nephew of Mr M. P. Cameron, Customs hardware expert, of Wellington. At the annual meeting of the Hostel of St Luke, held at the Church House, Westminster, the Bishop of Selkirk moved that the work of the hostel on behalf of the clergy merited continued and increased support. His experience in the Arctic regions, hundreds of miles away from doctors and nurses, made him appreciate such an institution for the clergy as the hostel. People had come to him to have fingers taken off and teeth pulled out. One lady came 1500 miles to have a tooth taken out I— (Laughter.) He practised on his wife, and she practised on him. — (Laughter.) Once he lived in a snowhouse among the Esquimaux, and he became suddenly il with pleurisy, so he mixed mustard and snow with splendid effect — (laughter)—and made himself well again. His predecessor as Bishop amputatet a man's leg with a common saw and butcher's knife. At one big Melbourne bakery the manager tried an unfortunate experiment last Easter eve. The bakery turns out an enormous quanitiy of "hot cross buns," and employs a number of small boys counting and bagging the popular confection. The manager had found by experience that much time was wasted because of the efforts of the boys to work and eat simultaneously, and so, on this occasion, he told them they could eat their fill before getting down to business. The result was disastrous. The boys got at the hot, soggy buns with such avidity that before midnight the firm had its hands full of disabled kids in various stages of mortal indigestion, crying for mother and the benefit of clergy. A doctor had to be called in to allay the pangs of tbe gorged boys. The work was sadly delayed; but the manager reckons he will employ those boys permanently. They are cured of the bun habit: Henry Richards, of Maesteg, near Cardiff, who is known locally as "Henry the Snake Charmer," had a terrible experience with an adder from the effects of which he is only now recovering. He was showing an adder which he had just caught to some friends when it bit his finger. He merely laughed, and in bravado placed the reptile's head in his mouth. The adder bit the roof of his mouth, and with a shriek of terror Richards ran to the nearest surgery, where he collapsed. He was treated and carried home unconscious, and, although he is getting better now, his arm "and face are terribly swollen. His fattier was killed by the bite of a snake. Richards has a habit of carrying, at least one snake with him, and* sometimes he has as many as nine in his pockets. His method of capturing snakes is interesting. He takes a white handkerchief ? to which the attention of the reptile is attracted. Then he grasps its tail and places it across his arm, when it is said to become quite still under the man's influence.' Richards declares that he had been for three years in quest of the reptile which bit him. The notorious female known as the "Swami," who was sentenced to penal servitude in England several years ago, has re-appeared in America as a prominent member of the sect known as the "Flying Rollers." She assumed the name of Mother Elinor, and so captivated the Rollers of Detroit that they made her their high priestess. An enterprising member of the sect, however, found that Mother Elinor had a pasjb. He was condemned as a heretic by his oosectarians, but he persisted, and Mother Elinor was forced to promise an explanation on April 1. She disappeared on Sunday evening and the Flying Rollers met yesterday and solemnly repudiated her. as their spiritual leader. The Swami is the most atrocious female swindler of modern times. She claims to be the daughter of Lola Montez, the famous dancer, and the late King Ludwig of Bavaria, wlwvwaa mad. She posed as a spiritualist in America: and, with her husband, "General" Disc Debar, managed to wheedle hundreds of thousands of pounds out of wealthy enthusiasts. For this she served a number of years in prison. She was arrested in London in 1901 as "the Swarai," and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for a • most atrocious swindling operation, i