LOCAL AND GENERAL

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 528, 23 March 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Members of the Feilding Choral Society are reminded of the first practice to-nigh fc in Mr H. Temple White's rooms. "Everybody who deals in potatoGs runs the risk of losing money," says Mr S. Brown, tho employers' representative on the Arbitration Court. The country in aJI parts of Taranaki is looking particularly green. Grass is growing luxuriantly. Loads to farmere will not be as heavy as were anticipated. Mr Arthur H. Vile, editor of -the Farmers' Union Advocate, is mentioned as & likely candidate for the Mana-wat-u seat at the coining election. He represents the Wadrarapa on the Wellington Education Board. Two additional members to tHWfetatf of the Chief Veterinarian are on their way to the dominion. They are Messrs Broom ami} Blair, both members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. They will be appointed to meat inspection work on their arrival. At Christchurtih Madame St. Leon, for reading the palm of Constable Ingrara, was fined 20e and costs. Mrs (iibbs, .Madame Kieler, Mrs Wood and Madame Lesperance were also fined 20s and costs. Mr Day, S.M., said that if some of the people who werot to fortune-tellers could be brought up, there would be less inducement on tfhe part of the public to bo gulled. The Druids' meeting to be held this evening promises to be largely attended, as advices have -been received that several prominent visitors will be in Feilding for the installation of District President. Bro. Fullbrook will act as Installing Master. The banquet, to be held in the Oddfellows' Hall after the meeting, has received hearty support, ana holders of tickets are looking forward to an enjoyable time.

The sheep maggot fly is said to have made its appearanco at Te Ntii, in the Masterton district. Tho Featherston Co.-operativo Dairy Company is forwarding to London by the steamer Thorpe Grange 160 cases of cheese. Several blocks of land on the Main Trunk railway line, and situated within the Wellington Land District, have been temporarily reserved for scenery preservation purposes. The Chairman of the Kiwitea County Council (Mr Carman) stated at the meeting on Saturday, that he ascertained at the conference at Marton that Kiwitoa was the only Council which provided its roadmen with tools. Wirth's Circus visited Feilding on Saturday, and was patronised by a very large crowd. it was the same old circus, delighting young and old m the same old way with the same old "wheezes" by the same old clowns in the same old familiar, here-we-are-again way. The Kiwitea County Council sat from 10 a.ro till 4 p.m. on Saturday, and disposed of a mass of business. Next month a special meeting will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday April 10, to consider the estimates, and next morning the ordinary business will be taken, instead of on the 18th (Easter Saturday). The very unusual spectacle of a detend amt ; (a pakeha) acting as intorpiv tor tor plaintiff (a Maori) was witnessed vi tiro Magistrate's Court, at Masterton ilasb week, .reports tho Age. Counsel for plain-titf (Dr. Trimble) expressed perfect confidence that his client's evidence would be correctly interpreted, and tho case proceeded in a satisfaetorj' manner. At the request of a number of residents of Kimbolton and Kiwitea, Mrs W. H. Redwood, L.R.A.M., of l'ejlding, paid a visit to the district on Saturday to make arrangements for commencing musical tuition. Twenty pupils are already asured, and it is almost certain an orchestral and glee club will also be started in connection with Mrs Redwood's visits. There must be a mystery behind this advertisement, which we clip from a nortiliorn exchange: £500 reward. Tho above reward will be paid .to any person giving information that will lead to tho conviction of any person or persons tampering with my food with tlu> object of injuring my health; and also poisoning tho water on my property, at I'olionui, in order to kill my stock." '•'Testimonials as often as not are not worth tho paper they are printed on," said Dr. McAitJiur at Wellington, in delivering judgment in a caso i whero it was shown tlmt an employer had given an employeo a good testimonial after ddsoharging him for in- i competency. As often as not, conti- ! nuod his Worship, testimonials were I given as a kind of palliative to a ! workman who had to be dismissed. The Mayor of Salisbury (Mr R. M. HalJ), received the following postcard addressed to '-'Bob Hall, West Haun- j ham, Salisbury": "When next you go distributing prizes or speech-making ■to school children, I recommend iim three following things to avoid should bo brought to tlio -notice of the children by a broad-minded man of the world, viz:— Avoid a mad bull frontways; a kicking ass sideways; a solicitor, all-ways." Badly constructed grain stacks will suffer from tho southerly weather which prevailed last week, according to a Masterton farmer. "But do farmers build stacks badly?" was the query of an Ago reporter. The repiy wa till at a lot of careless stack-building was done in this district, and quito a number of valuablo stacks were often far from water-tight. This year's high price of feed will show that it will be a pay a bio policy to expend a little more timo in thatching than.: is apparently dono by farmers. Mr W. C. Buchanan somewhat surprised tho members present at a meeting of tho general committee of the Cartcrton Pastoral and Agricultural Society. He informed them that some timo ago he had offered tho Government £GOOO to establish an experimental farm in tho Wairarapa, but . c .o far the Government had not -thought tit to tako advantage of his offer. Some explanation is certainly wanted from the Minister of Agriculturo or whoever is responsible for tho neglected opportunity for establishing an esperimeiiibal farm in this agricultural centre, says tho Post. It has been suggested that the Railway Department should be urged to promptly remove the whare in which Ferdinand Hasse destroyed himself last week. The whare is a small building, and even before the explosion occurred it Avas not a" fit place for human habitation. To-day it is a derelict, and a place of attraction for the morbidly curious. As the ruins are upon the department's land, its authority Avill be needed to remove the gruesome monument, and we hope the order for removal will be issued immediately, for tho sake of the district and credit of the department. Saya tho Masterton Times: "Hopo. springs eternal in the human breast," we are told. So, too, does discontent. We are apparently never satisfied. This morning we heard a man complaining about tho weatih-e-rj tho rain was wretched and kept him awake ail night with pattorng on tho roof. Ho was not a farmer, needless to say. "You have had a long- spell of fine weather and should be satisfied," ayo said. "Givo the farmers a chance." Bivt he would not be appeased. Ho walked away exclaiming, "One man's meat is another man's poison," evidently thanking that ho should have all the meat. Notwithstanding the fact that there have been four or live days' vain in this district, the streams and watercourses have shown hardly any appreciable rise in flow. The Oroua river has risen a little, but that is on account of its running through a mountainous country before reaching Feilding; but the Mnkino stream, for instance, has not yet shown a discoloration of the usual summer trickle. The dryness of the ground aftor the long spell, and the steadiness with winch tho rain fell, account for the way in which the water has been soaked up. With fairly warm weather continuing, grass should grow luxuriantly. Writing to the Farmers' Union Advocate, a New Zealander at present in India states that when h"e Avas on the borders of Beluchistan he saAV many cows wandering about. There being no grass, the animals made their meals from paper (including newspaper) Avhich they picked up in the gutters. The writer does not give the milk supply, or the butter test, but he vouches for tho accuracy of his statement. The newspapers must be Avell edited in India. We are afraid, says the Advocate, that some of the Socialist articles which appear from time to timo in the Noav Zealand press Avould be more than even an Indian cow could swallow. That fools and their money soon part lias been further proved to the satisfaction of the Hunitervillo Express, Avhich paper has been reliably informed fihat two men, after working four months in the back blocks had a ehequo of £63 between them. The day after pay day they set forth for a town not a thousand miJes from Taihape, and before the week'was out they had drunk every penny of the £63. The sequel came out in the train when tho men Avero sounding the praise of Mr , hotelkeeper, who they said had generously paid their fare to Palmerston, or otherwise /they would have had their "bJueys" up. According to their idea they had a glorious timej or rather drunk. A Masterton district farmer, avlio lias had exactly a thousand acres of bush log and grass country SAvept by fire thia season, remarked to an Age •reporter: "If I had my choice over again between the fire and the country as it Avas — fencing and all — I should say 'give me the fire.' There are others in a similar position to myseJf, [ and my own conviction is that a much ■larger poreeiiitage of the fire-sAvep? country ithan is generally supposed is more benefited than otherwise by the fiery visitations." Settlers from Hukanui and other Forty Mile Busn districts also concur in the belief that "tihe dry season of 1908 has removed unsightly logs and stumps which simply retarded agriculture, and Avould not have paid to remove as fire-wood-

Staff-Quartermaster-Sergeant Sporle, «ttaeh<?d to tli© Feilding Mounted 1 Rifles, left hero for Napier this raornLig. Thero are now three teams from £ tho local Rifles in Napier, whither they have gone to take part in the military tournament. We shall he . surprised if they do not render a good j account of themselves. ■ ' - A rtwo-up school was conducted in ! a public place in Foilding yesterday, on a section near the gasworks. Most \ of th-6 players and onlookers were members ot a passing troupe, but < several local residents wore taking a hand. Unfortunately, it is a difficult .] matter ito provo breaches of this kind ' before a Court of Law, otherwise there < may ihavo been a Police Court termi- ; nation to tho illegal pastime. The Sandon district is now looking ■ beautifully green and fresh after the '. welcome rain lately experienced, < writes our correspondent. In many instances rape seed sown in the dry weather has made an appearance above ground. The air now feels quite wintry, and people are talking of winter amusements. The Sandon Orchestral and Glee Club open their season on tho 7th of next month. Feilding folks will be interested to learn that a" social gathering was held in the Donald M'Lean street Primitive Methodist Church schoolroom in Wellington last week for the purpose of bidding farewell to the Rev. J. and Mrs Cocker, who are leaving on a nine months' visit to England. Many references were mado to the good work carried on by Mr Cocker in Newtown. As a mark of esteem Mr and IVlrs Cocker were presented with a purse of sovereigns. A northern firm which advertised for shop assistants wrote: "We have got two young .English fellow^ who are a great improvement upon the colonial youths. The Shop 'Act of INew Zealand is ruining our boys for working. The Act is only driving the youtlh into billiard saloons and pubs, of an evening, instead of taking an interest in his work. Not that business people wajit a youth_ to work every night, but thero are busy .times when an hour's work of an evening gives a lad an insight into office work and business that he could snot gain in a wjiolo week. Tho English Jads wo have now are worth double tho colonial ones." A representative of the Star, in course of conversation with Cr. Mctntyro on Saturday, found that gentleman holding an optimistic view of the results of the hush fires in tho back blocks near the Rnahine ranges. Referring to his own case, he pointed out that on a farm of some 600 acres, about a sixth had been swept clear of grass, leaving a loss of about five shillings an acre in feed. But against that was the fact that the land would be worth about £1 an acre more after the winter, while the farm as a whole was greatly improved by tho fact that while it was impossible to ride over it on horseback before the (ires on account of the undergrowth, it was easy now to get about anywhere, everything had been so well cleaned up. Pedestrians who reside along upper Manchester street and further on in that direction from the centre of the town have entered into full appreciation of the fine stretch of tarred and sanded footpath recently completed by tho borough workmen. Presented as a sample of the splendid path which this dressing makes, it should be the means of increasing the vote in favor of tho loan for improving the town. In addition to its natural use, the school children find the new path very convenient for the popular juvenile game of marbles. But the cyclist ! That fine track is so magnetic to the wheel of the bicycle that at any hour of the day may he seen the school-boy, the workman, the Government official, and the lady of high degree coasting down on the'for. bidden path which eventually will lead some of them to that ancient and venerable pile euphemistically termed. a "Courthouse." A meeting was held at Levin on Saturday to. discuss the 'recent action of the Government in placing the Dairy School at Palmerston North, and to look into the matter of the State Farm. The Mayor, of Levin, in addressing the meeting, said the town had been abused, and had been looked upon as having grown hysteri. cal because they did not .get the Dt'iry School. This was not -so. A motion was passed regretting that the Cabinet did not submit for publication the information and materials upon which it rejected its expert officers' reports in fixing the Dairy School at Palmerston North. In reference to the State Farm, a further motion was passed asking the Minister of Agriculture the intentions of the Government as to the future destiny of the Farm, as some more definite and extensive experiments should be carried out and the Farm rendered of more, honefit to the dominion generally; failing this, it would be of more advantage to subdivide it into small farms. The story of tilie wandering of a youthful Australian, by name Jimmy Hinton, published in New Zealand papers sonio time ago, has attracted the attention of the lad's mother, .o-side-nt at Warataih, near Newcastle. Tho mother has' written to inspector Ellison, of Wellington, making enquiries as to the whereabouts of the lad, who at the time of writing, January 27, had been away from his (homo for ten weeks, and had left with the avowed intention of earning his own iiving. The youthful wanderer •arrived from Sydney by himself, and on arrival of the steamer was handed over to the -police. He was taken care of for a few days, and then disappeared, and after a week or so returned to Wellington from tihe south, where he had been working, and was again cared for by tho police. Subsequently, as the lad was quito friendless, he was sent to tho Weraroa Training Farm. He escaped from the farm after (the first, day there, and has not been heard of since. The police would be glad to hear tidings of the youngster, in order to relieve the anxiety of his parents. ''A Sufferer" writes us yet again concerning the insanitary condition of Rongotea. If our correspondent; feels the position as strongly as lie writes, then he must l>e putting in a pretty bad time. Anyway, most of his slanguage is too strong for the Stab to repeat. Hero is a portion of his letter: "Since my Jast letter to you, facilities have been provided for the removal of nightsoil, but a great number of the residents doclino to aval themselves of them, and continue to bur - it in their hack yards. A few days ago it became necessary to destroy a horse wliich had met with an accident, and this has been buried (?) J.n the backyard of tho owner, only a few foot away from a factory and in tho cent ro of the township ! Let me explain the note of interrogation. The holo into which the horse was thrown is a boarded, excavation, about six feet or less deep. It was cleared, or partially so. of its rubbish, consisting of shavings, old tins, and such like, which were returned to the hole after the ihorse 'had been deposited there. That appears to be all that was do lid in the way of burial." He adds that the local authorities are vigorously doing nothing towards remedying a distressful state of things. A remarkable apparatus has been invented by an Indian official, which seems likely io revolutionise machine gun fire. The object of the invention is to silence the tell-tale noise of the machine gun, thus increasing its value in the field. The inventor is Mr Alfred Thompson, jwho is serving on tSie Indian establishment as chief examiner of machino guns. The insistent crack of maxim is reduced by the invention to a slight detonation, which is indistinguishable beyond a range of 500 yards. At present machine gun fire can be heard thousands of ya>rds off, and, no matter how good or how rapid it may be, the field batteries discover the guns and rout them before they can become a danger. The rolo of the machine is, therefore, one •of secret opportunity to strike a body of troops by surprise with 600 shots per minute, as with the maxim, and then lie low. But- if the gun can operate in silence its possibilities are sensibly widened, not only by reason "of its demoralising effect but because a steady, non-overheating discharge pi. 100 a minute can be maintained from timo to time throughout »n action. Mr Thompson's apparatus can be attached to a Maxim in a couple of minutes. It weighs 161bs, is less than a foot in .tengtn. Tho Maxim authorities have submitted it to the Home Government. J

During Friday night there was a :ioavy fall of snow oh Mount Egmoxit. Before Mr E. Goodbehere, J.P., at i Court this morning, a first-offending Irunk was fined ss. The fino was paid. The heavy rain has tested the work in ill© new technical school thoroughly, and it has stood the dbwnpoour »e---markably well. "I am not up in those things," said a witness referring (to oil Shares. "That is why you go into them, eh?" commented Dr. McArthur, S.M. Several £1 notes and sovereigns have been found at the scene of the faonui tragedy, being evidently part of tho money alluded to in one of Hasse'a letters. Miss Roberts, 'the temperance lecturer, will deliver an. address in the Drill Hall, Feilding, at 8 o'clock this evening, as she reached Feilding by the mail train this afternoon. T-he Argyle road race, promoted by Messrs G. Barry and Co., of Feilddng, will take plaoo on the 15th April. Several good prizes havo been offered for the successful competitors. It is stated on good authority that the stopping-places for the North Island Alain Trunk Railway will be Wellington, Paekakariki, PalmerstonMarton, Taihape, Horopiito,, Tauma-ra™ nui, Frankton, Mercer and Auckland. Ma- A. G. Simms, of tho Agricultu 7 ral Department, reports that he condemned 40 cases of apples infected with codlin moth in a small town up the west coast of this island. Almostdaily he has occasion to condemn small quantities. An intimation lias been .received from the Railway Department that it cannot see its way to grant the request of the Chamber of Commerce till at a ti-ain should be run from Feilding in the morning to connect with the down train to Wellington from Palmerston, and for another train in the evening to bring passengers on from Palmerston to Feilding.