LOCAL AND CENTRAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 830, 17 March 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND CENTRAL.

During the recent dry weather, water was selling at Cheltenham at three shillings a load of 50 gallons. Turnip blight is reported to be making serious ravage® witih the crops in the Kimbolton district. Mr Evans, of the Cheltenham Hotel, has had men at work clearing his paddocks of pennyroyal. At Marton last night, Sir Joseph "Ward denied the accuracy of rumours current that he had any intention of taking his departure from New Zealand. He said that he had never anticipated retiring or leaving the dominion. Two boy fugitives from the Woraroa training farm were discovered by a constable to be working on a farm at Koputaroa. The fanners were warned that they were liable to a, fine of £10 for harbouring the fugitives. Mrs Malcolm Potts, teacher of dressmaking and millinery for tho Technical School, visited Kimbolton yesterday in connection with the organising of classes. Excellent support was promised, and classes aro to be started without delay. In the working of ridding the town of undesirable characters, the police this morning arrested a male and female living in an old building in Grey-street. They will be charged tomorrow with having no lawful visible means of support. A particularly mean theft Avas perpetrated at the Cheltenham Church tha other day. During the absence of the caretaker, a bottle of wme for communion purposes, which was kept in an unlocked cupboard, was stolen, There is no clue as to who committed the theft. On Friday a young woman who was travelling on the train from Hunterville, had a narrow escape from death. Just as the train was nearing Marton she slipped, and in a moment more, but for the prompt action of Guard Kavanagh, she would have been under the wheells. There are 240 passengers who come under the heading "assisted immigrants'" on the Coi'inthic, which is due in Wellington on the 23rd inst.. This includes 95 women and 6"o children. Of the males 61 arc farmers and farm labourers, and there are 1 also 34 domestic servants. Heard in the train from Welling- , ton to Palmerston Gast night. Loud ( query by lady: "Will you invito the Palmerston folk to play a return \ match in Wellington P" Gentleman j Friend: "Oh, well, we'll have to see what they are like first!" Laughter from the company. The employers' representative on the Arbitration Court, Mr A. Brown, evidently has not got a very high opinion of the cohesion manifested by those who employ labour. "The employers," Mr JJrown said, in the Arbitration Court yesterday, "will do nothing till they are kicked, and then they squeal." We have received from Mr J. G. Weightman some excellent samples lof quinces grown on his property, 1 Awahuri road. The fruit is certainly 1 much superior to the exhibits of quin- { ces in the Feilding Horticultural ! Show last week, of which Mr Weight--1 man wae judge, and which he classed las not being th© best the district ' could produce. At Marton last night, the Premier announced that' Mr Palliser, auditor in London for New Zealand, would succeed Mr Kenuaway as secretary to ! the High Commissioner's office, that | Mr T. E. Donne, head of the Tourist j Department, would go Home as trade I and immigration representative, and i that Mr T. H. Haraer would succeed j Mr Palliser as auditor in London. ■ He added that it was proposed to ■ make the Tourist Department a branch of another important departj ment in the dominion. The only complaint lodged in response to the request or' the Collegestreet School Committee, who promised full inquiry into any, was contained in a letter signed by Mr J. T. Lang and another gentleman. The letter covered evidence by a number of pupils bearing on the circumstances leading up to Mr Watts, a relieving^ master, being sued by j Mrs Renme'for assault on her son, . and evidence on the manner in which Mr Watts conducted his class generally. I At the Arbitration Court, at Weli lington on Monday, the Dominion ! Company and Blundell Bros., of the I Wellington Post, were charged with a j breach of the typographical award in I employing other than compositors or \ apprentices at the work of pulling galley-proofs. Mr Newton, Government Inspector, prosecuted, and Mr Fred. Pirani appeared for the defendants. Four witnesses gave evidence against tlie employersj but the crossexamination of Mr Pirani so altered the complexion of the case, that the charges were dismissed without calling on the defence for any address or evidence. The matfer was one of considerable importance to newspaper proprietors all over the dominion, and it was clearly evident that the charges evolved from the Government Printing Office, which has tfecpme a regular menace to the trade in Wellington. Through the death of b«-r father the Countess of Bathur.,t has become the sole owner of the Morning Post of London. She was the only daughter of Lord Gleiicsk. and since the death of her mother shs did Iho honours of her father's hous: , both in London and Scotland. During the war in South Africa she was with her husband white he was in command of the garrison on the isl-iui oi St. Helena. It was during this timo that she tried to buy Long v. cod. famous as the home and death-place of the captive Napoleon. On the application of the Countess of Bnthurst to purchase the place it was discovered that it no longer belonged to England. Through the tality of Queen Victoria it was presented to the French nation by TCugland during the reign of Napoleon 111. It is said that the Countess of JJathurst has expressed her determination not to change the policy of the Morning Post as directed for so many years by her father. A bankrupt, who eought to retrieve his position by plunging on a racecourse, where he found • himself for the first time in his life, and succeeded in losing his cash was an interesting witness before the Registrar in Bankruptcy at Sydney last week. A cabinetmaker, who traded under the name of Jack Lem, but told, the official assignee that his proper name was Sydney Jack, that he was born in Victoria, and that his father was a Chinese and! mother a European, said he didn't know lie could not pay Jiis debts until l he got a writ. When he told his financiers of this they issued a writ against him too. He went to tho races, having with him about £90 in gold and notes, which sum he had collected the week before from his debtors. He had 1 never before been to the races, though he had seen them at a distance over the •fence. He had backed horses before in Melbourne at tobacconists' shops. His object in going to the races was to win some money to pay his creditors. He heard of a few horses that were likely, to win, and backed them. The most he put on one horse was £20 in the second last race. He bet on every race hut one, and lost every time. After putting £15 on Welcome Trist in the last race he had only £5 left. He couldn't remember the name of a single bookmaker he had 1 bet with. He was not married th«n, but h« got married a few days afterwards. »

Mr J. Bruce, of Cheltenham, has almost quite recovered from his recent illness. Steve Barrow, a. pupil at the Cheltenham School, had his arm broken yesterday while playing with his companions. Attention is drawn to alteration of | date to Wednesday, 24th inst., for the sale of honso and land, Makino, in the , estate of J. A. Hubnor. Logging and burning operations are being carried on on several places in the Cheltenham, Kiwitea, and Kimbolton districts, and the country is t being gradually improved in appear- < anco and usefulness. ; Painters, carpenters, and other ; tradesmen in the building lino are * finding work scarce, and to-day a \ small group of painters in the street were heard discussing the question of '■ asking for an unemployed column in : tho Stak. Tliy) timber trade, which ' has been practically at a standstill for several months, still shows no mi- ; provement. Anxious creditors in Wellington are inquiring as to the whereabouts of a local business man, who, it is stated, disappeared suddenly shortly after Christmas. it appears that he used great care in making his preparations, for he left ostensibly on a holiday, appointed a substitute, and igofa a start, of at 'least six weeks. The; man was seen at Auckland shortly after his departure, but nothing since then has boon heard of him. It is understood that when the creditors come to reckon up, a very large- <|elicienev will be shown. The police hay* the matter m hand. Dominion.