LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 764, 29 December 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Stab will not be published next Friday (New Year's Day). The Palmerston Salvation Army Band paid a visit to Government House on Christmas Eve and played a number of carols. Mr and Mrs J. C. Lane, who had been spending. their honeymoon tour in the South Island; arrived in Palmerston yesterday. Eleven Corriedale rams are to be shipped to Monte Video by Mr John Stringiellow, of Chertsey, by the Rimutaka, leaving about the 7th of next month. One championship game was played on the Feilding green yesterday, in which Mr W. Irvine defeated Mr W. A. Sandilands by 24 points to 15. Twenty-five, domestic servants arrived by the Tainui on Saturday from London under engagement to the syndicate of Napier ladies who have already brought out siniilar contingents from England. The yield of the oat crops in this, district (says the Waikato Independent) is expected to be much above the average. Settlers', however, state there is some difficulty in getting good harvesters, although fair wages, are being offered. . Three crews in fiat-bottomed boats made a . trip down the Manawatu river to Foxton oh Christmas Day (says the Standard). The slight fresh in the river enabled thehi to ( n yf airly fast - v time,

I As will be seen by a notice in another column, a meeting of the Waiata (late Nikau) Sports Club is to be held in Mr Balmer's barn next Saturday night. Eleven thousand acres of land in the Alton district, West Waiau, will be opened for settlement in February of next year (says the Western Star). ] When the railway reaches the Waiau River, which it should do about the middle of 1909, this land will be within easy distance of the terminus. There will be strong demand for sections. A consignment of a quarter of a million shrimps has arrived at Rotorua from Mercer, on the Waikato River. It is hoped that the shrimp will supply the place of koura as food for trout 'in Lake Rotorua. The shrimps have been placed in the shallows favourable for spawning, and it is expected that, they will become thoroughly at home in their new habitat. The passenger trains which were put on for the holiday between Wellington and Napier and Wellington and Wanganui were not so well patronised as was expected. The traffic on through trains between Wellington and Auckland has not come up to expectations during the last two or three days. Amongst the visitors to the Manawatu Racing Club's meeting was Mr Donald Grant, who was formerly a large land owner in the Kairanga. Mr Grant has just returned from Australia, where he has made several profitable investments. A few weeks ago Mr Grant was compelled to undergo an operation in Sydney. His many friends will be glad to hear that the operation was successful, and that he is in good health again. — Standard. Heart disease caused twenty-two deaths in the four chief cities last month, bronchial complaints twenty, old age and cancer fourteen each, phthisis thirteen, and apoplexy seven. Four deaths were due to violence, and three others, being of illdefined diseases, were attributed to syncope. Two cases each of measles and influenza, and one each of typhoid fever, scarlet fever and diphtheria, ended fatally. A large number of tenders were received by Mr L. G. West for the erection of the .Eltham butter factory. The following are some of those received: A. and W. McLean, Wellington, £3400 (accepted); Buckland and Tong, Eltham, £3448; A D. Burrows, Hawera, £3456; McAlister and Mouldey, Palmerston, £3477 ; G. Sangster, Stratford, £4292; Ryan and Son, Manaia, £5182; Sollitt Bros., Palmerston. £5200; McMillan, Wellington, £5447. The Cromwell Argus says that owing to the very dry season the oat crops throughout the Upper Clutha will be almost a total failure as in many cases the crop will hardly be worth cutting. Mr John Kane, of Grandview, was busy cutting his oats on Monday week, the crop being very poor. There will be some very fine crops of wheat on several of the farms at Hawea Flat, Forks, and Mount Barker. Timo means nothing to the Maori. An old Maori got on to the {Stanley Bay boat the other day instead of on the St. Heliers Uay boat, and only knew it when half-way across. Did 'he mind? Not at all. " Taihoa " Jie said, cheerfully. "1 get there tomorrow — next day — any day. Its aii the same to me." And that's about tihe size of Mr James Carroll in native land matters, says the New Zealand Herald. "The Chinese give me very little trouble,' said Ma- Seed, inspector for the Welington branch of the Society for the IVevention of Cruelty to Animals, in reporting to that body recently the case of a Chinese who admitted that his ihorse was overloaded. ' They are generally kind enougih to pnianals.' Different was his story about the horse of another- foreigner, who, when remonstrated with for cruelty, desired to know what sort of a country -tikis was where a man could not do what he liked with his own animal. An arrangement lias ben made by the Australian Minister of internal Affairs with the firm of Pathe Freres, of lu-ance, manufacturers of cinematograph films, to include a number of characteristic views of Australia .'n their collection, and to exhibit tlhem throughout the United Kingdom and Europe and America. TJio Commonweal t<h is to supply the subjects for the films, and to bear half the cost uf production, and to pay £2,200. The firm makes contracts with cinematograph operators to sihow the pictures. The contracts provide that certain programmes must be prepared, and that each exhibit shall include a selection of Australian subjects. It is i^e Australian subjects that the Commonwealth is to pay for. There will be about fifteen moving pictures of life and scenes in Australia. They will probably lie taken from dairying, agricultural, pastoral, mining, shipping, and manufacturing industries. Views of commercial, and city life may also bo included. The drainage of the Hauraki Plain (says the Auckland Herald) is proceeding apace, and 20 miles of drains a,ie now in operation and working well, thus practically relieving the surface from flood yater. A considerable airea betwen the Piako and Wai-takar-uTu Rivers, and extending back ■some distance firom tihe sea, is now quite fit to be let for grazing purposes, the grass and clover coming up with .a strong growth. Mr Kensington, Undersecretary for Lands, who recently visited the locality, states that he is quite satisfied that the Hauraki Plains will, within a very short time, be able to carry a large population. The Priestinan dredgers, imported from England^ have been completely fited up, and are turning out a great success. One of them is at present stationed at the junction of the Awaiti -and Piako rivers, for the purpose of cutting and deepening the channels, and the second one, which is now at Shorttand, wiU shortly be m position at the mouth of the Waitakaruru River for the purpose of cutting the channel 15 miles lone from the mouth of the Waitakaruru to the Piako.— N.Z. Herald. The amended hemp grading regulations have been gazetted. The principal -alterations, apart from tne provision for the grading of tow, is that hemp bales may be bound with either hemp or tow bands, a consession which will be greatly appreciated by millers. It is provided that if tow ropes are used then- total weight per bale shall not exceed 31b for five bands, or m proportion. It is stipulated that all bales of hemp, tow or stripper, slips must be of the following dimensions and weights : Hemp, 4ft long, 2ft wide and 4cwtin weight; tow, 4ft long, 2ft wide, 3ft deep, and 2|cwt i<n weight; stripp_er-slips. the same as tow. No bale of hemp shall contain a hank exceeding 51b in weight. It is now declared that in the case of short fibre the grader shall insert the words "short" or "very short" on the grade certificate. The charge for grading hemp tow or stripper-slips is to be Id per cwt or part of a cwt, but ho charge is to be made for grading when the price • of hemp: free on board is £25 per ton or over. The Hawke's Bay Herald records the death of Mr Wm. Smith, an old resident of Napier. The deceased,; who was 81 years of age, was born at Montrose, of Scotland, and came to Napier at the end of 1855. Taking up land near Puketapu, he underwent all the privations and difficulties of the early poineers. When Hawke's Bay was_ separated from the province of Wellington, he was appointed deputy provincial auditor, which office; he held until the abolition of provincial government. For j many years after retiring from active Business, he resided at Korokip_o, but a few years ago he came into town. He was to the last a keen, member of the Napier Bowling Clubj . and until recently was [ frequently to be seen bicycling into town from his home in the country. He was a volunteer in the old days, and was present at the Omaranui fight, for which he received the New Zealand medal. ■•■ Mr^ Smith married a. niece

Tho story of the divorce of Madame Melba's son, and other reading matter wil be found on page 1. The Wanganui Education^Boaxd has accepted Messrs Walpole and Dorrington's tender (£1496 7s 6d) for the erection of a Technical School at Hawera. , Mr W. J. Morton, who has been in the hospital for some time suffering from appendicitis, and is waiting to undergo a second operation, had a bad night last night, but is reported to be a little better again this morning. In the press of Christmas Eve traffic in the shops the pilferer was looking for cheap Christinas boxes. One shopkeeper states that sneak thieves were more plentiful this year than he ever noticed. Many articles — including some .of the best in the shop — were stolen on Thursday night. — Wellington Post. It is the practice of the Commonwealth Government to reward any unusual vigilance on the part of Customs officers g The discovery of twenty Chinese stowaways on the s.s. Eastern on 4th December was considered a fitting matter for reward. At a meeting of the Federal Executive on the loth inst., payments were authorised to four Customs officers, one getting £40, and the other three getting £15 each. Dr T. Anderson, M.D., F.R.G.S., is in Wellington. His mission is to study the volcanoes and hot springs of New Zealand and Hawaii Dr Anderson, who is a vice-president of British Association, and president of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, has been Tindall Lecturer on Volcanoes at the Royal Institution. He publlished " Volcanic Studies" in. 1902, and is joint author of the Report to the Royal Society on the West Indian Eruption (1902). It is understood that a requisition, signed 1 by a number of Rangitikei electors, will be presented to Mr A. E. Remington, M.P., calling upon him to resign Ihis seat in aocardaiico with the challenge thrown out by him, and taken up by Mr George Hutchison. A petition to Parliament asking for an inquiry into allegations made by Mr Hutchison concerning the member for Rangitikei has also been prepared for circulation among tho electors of the district. — Dominion. A very good result was obtained by the Feilding collectors for the Palmorston North Hospital on Christmas Eve, the total sum being £24 10s 6d. It was thought that if £20 was collected it would be satisfactory, so that those in charge of the work have reason to be proud of their efforts in the good cause. The following ladies and gentlemen had collecting boxes : Miss M. Johnston, Union Tea Rooms, Mrs Gould's Tea Rooms, Miss Nellie Walpole, Miss Nellie Ray, Miss Jackson, Misses M. Jackson and Spain, Miss Plock, Mr D. Fabling, and Mr Clausen (Palmerston). What looks like a shipping disaster has been reported by the Bluff correspondent of the Otago Daily Times. Along the south-west coast of Southland, extending from Woodhen Cove, Resolution Island, to Coal River, west from Blacksea, the coastline, where at all accessible, has been piled up with Oregon pine logs, of all sines and dimensions, soin& measuring 40ft and 50ft. They were first noticed early in October, but it was not until recently that the extent of the deposit was ascertained, and it was upon that information that the alarming nature of the discovery arose. It is believed that the timber has been exposed on the beaches for not more than six or eight months. A brother of the Earl of Longford, whose family seat is at Castle Pollard, County Westmoath, Ireland, the Hon. E. M .Pockenham, is now touring Ne\v Zealand. He was formerly v daptain in the Coldstream Guards, and was mentioned in despatches during the South African war. He is accompanied by a brother officer, Captain Lambton, a cousin of the Hon. Wm. Lambtoiij Colonel coinanding the •• Coldstreainers." - Captain Paelienham, whose family seat is in Buckinghamsire, met with an accident in the hunting field some months ago, and is paying a short visit to New Zoallaaid in search of health. He is -a wellknown figure in the hunting field and the polo world at home, being a member of the Jftanelagh, Hurlingliam. and Wimbledon Clubs, besides being a follower of many well-known limiting packs, including that of Baron RothschiUd. ''Does a fishing license entitle the holder to fish on a Sunday?" This was the opening sentence of a Jettei forwarded by a clerical gentleman tc the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. The writer characterised the practice as a most iniquitous and reprehensible one^ and stated that Ik asked the question because there was a case in point in the district in which he resided. The secretary oi the society replied that the holder oJ a license was not restricted as to the days when he could use his license. As he (the jmquirer) was no doubt aware, not only in his own district but in all parts of the dominion it was the practice for anglers to take their recreation and enjoy themselves at the pastime of angling on the sabbath. "It is, after all, a matter of opinion," added the secretary, "as to the rights and wrongs "of this practice, but I can assure you that the 'case in point in your district is by no means an isolated one." A pathetic scene occurred in Melbourne City Court last week. John Bertram, 94 years o-f age, who was charged with (having insufficient means of support, refused to go to a home unless his dog, <a small rough-coated bllack-and-white spaniel, was allowed to go with him. When told that he would have to give up the dog, in order that lie could be sent to*a home, the old man excitedly exclaimed, " No; I won't give up my faithful old dbg ,- I would sooner part with my life. Dear old fellow, I'd sooner die th»n give him iup." He then began to cry bitterly-, and his dog evidently symiapthised with his master's distress. It barked louddy iaaid angrily, and then rubbed its head against the old man's withered cheeks, as if trying to console him. The old man called out: " You oan't take my dog. It's against the l&w." The magistrate asked the police to make inquiries whether a home could be found where the old man 'and Ms dog could be taken -in. togetJher. As the old man ihobbled out of court he was heard to say to the dog: " Come on, old felflow, I won't part .with you; never fear." ..in ■'. i— .i^— — — - — »