LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 874, 10 May 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

. ~*». Page 1 : Poh'angina County Council, Sporting. Page 4: ~ ootball, Shooting, Cricket, Railway. Accidents, llakaia's Narrow- Escape, A Devoted Officer. Mr W. P. Morton, stat-ioninas;ter,at ; Halcombe, is again acting as relieving 1 ' . stationmaster at Feilding. / \ \\ A Lyttelton Times reporter \vA \\\~* vestigated a report that owih«£:t<9W>oYf' erty forty m©n were sleepiiig^.mwiitly. in the city parks. He "§earotieu; ; t.W parks .'during the two liiglrky, kand found- not -,the least evidence in 'Suppoj't of 'th^; statement; ■. '','.' KimJbdlton people ai-e begdniug to wonder when Sir Joseph W»r3 is cx>ming along to'decla^ the. new Post : Office officially open. / x\ b%nquet;and , Other tilings Jiav© been arranged; for the .Premier, and (all that is needed now, is his presence to complete \ttie pl-ograuwiie'. .': , y. ' N6r^hern,ers jen the past seem he^r to ,l«trK>jtired'' of decrying the vaftie of ■ : :their'vown estate. They llfve ;re,t. awakened to the fact that theW are tho possessors of*, a •*fiiflgniii<M?Bs> ■ I horitag« . tvljich , boh'^re long, u3lll~pi#vG.. itself the most wp'.du^tiyef ftpea'^ the dominion. —Mftil, WfiaDgafei. ;•■'-( j /■'":■. :.^- (

I The Orotiii County Council has appointed Mr i<oy Harding, the County ICngiuwr, to bo County Clerk in ad-v dition to his present position. Crs Smith and the Chairman, of the Pohangina County Council will meet the designer of the proposed London's Ford Bridge at Feildmg to receive tenders for its erection. The election of the new Committee for the Hawera District High School, in place of the one quashed by the Education Board, is to take place on Monday, May 31. Mr John Bollard, M.P., has been 48 years a member of the Avondale (late Whan) School Committee, and for the last 40 years has been r unanimously elected chairman. This probably Is a record for the dominion. A "Wilbur Wright aeroplane, which is being introduced into Australia by Messrs J. and N. Tait, is due to arrive at Fremantle early in June, the firm has not yet decided whether the car will fly eastward or bo brought on by boat. Bankers who are convicts in the Pittsburg -Penitentiary have discovered a discrepancy of 26,000 dollars in the accounts of the institution. This, .remarks the Toronto Globe, will revive the old 1 debate! as to the relative moral qualifies of the ins and flic outs. Peculiarities with our present and immediately previous governors were summed up yesterday (says the Taranaki News), with terseness. " When Lord Ranfurly was here he centred his mind on the old chaps that were soon to leave this world. Lord Plun. ket's wife displays a big interest in the babies that are just coming in/ The robbery, in connection with which a man named Moloney was arrested ait SytTney. ..took ulace at Hamilton during the : performance of Wirth's Circus, when a dressingroom was entered and Mrs Martin's bag stolen. From investigations made by the police at the* time, it was thought that the robbery had been made, 'by one of the circus employees, and,Moloney was one of the number,. ' ' A peculiar accident happened to a" motor-cyclist going* from*'Jsaiapoi to Christt-hurch on Wednesday evening.. A cat, dazzled apparently by the bicycle light, ran right in his tracli, getting tangled" up in the front wheel, throwing the rider heavily to the ground and bruising him rather severely. On being extricated from tho wheel the cat ran off apparently unhurt. ? Tho labour question cdme before the PohangiiiH. County Council on Saturday. Messrs G. Harvey, A. Dmmmond, and J. Montgomery, roadmen for the county, wrote asking for an increase of wages from 8s to Us per day. Several Councillors said there was likely to be a reduction rather than a rise, and it was resolved that the Council's rate of wages for roadmen and casual hands be 8s per day. Mr J. A. McKenzie, late of Apiti, who lias recency taken over the Presbyterian Home Mission station at Shannon and Tokonlaru, was ■entertained at a social to welcome him last Thursday evening. Tho Rev. Joseph White, of Levin, presided. Addresses were also given by the Rev. H. Braddock, Mr Aitken, of Foxton, and Mr McKenzie. A special musical programme was gone through and n thoroughly enjoyable evening was spent. v A rabbit trapping competition took place near Narrabri, New South Wales, a week or so ago. Two experts were pitted against each other tor £5 a side, and the winner was to have all tine- rabbits caught in the contest in addition. Each competitor used 70 traps. They worked country close to each other, and in nine days the winner caught 440J pairs, of rabbits, the loser being two pairs behind him. When 'returning thanks after the Kuniara Borough Council election, on Wednesday Jast, Mr Eggleton, the last successful candidate on the list, stated his willingness to resign and contest the seat with the defeated candidate (Mr john' Jorgensen). The latter has accepted tho challenge, .and will deposit with the Town Clerk the cost of the election, so that the Borough would not be put to any expense Dy holding. the election. It transpires that a number of forged totalisator tickets were palmed off on to the authorities after the Railway . Handicap on the first day at Trentham, and tho club was victimised to the extent of £"60. Detectives watched on the second day of the . meeting, - and also on both days at the Manawatu meeting, but failed to catch the offenders, who evidently contented themselves with small profits. A Feat'herson gardener recently had an unexpected windfall of £100. He decided to celebrate his good fortune by going to the Wellington races, and in the case of fire in his absence, he put what was left of the money in a tin box and buried 1 it in the garden, placing a roll of barbed wire over it for safety. When he reteurned from the races and wenfc to dig up his little "plant", (he found that someone had been there before him and had 1 secured the money. A few shillings in change avas Jeff, but the discoverer of the hiding-place had taken the main sum, about £65, chiefly in' five-pound notes. The friends of Mr W. E. Mann will regret to learn of the death of his wife, which occurred this morning (says-Saturday's Standard). The deceased lady was the third daughter of the late Mr Chas. Gray, Feilding, and Mrs W. .Osborne, late of Kairanga, and had only been> ailing a short time. S/ht> underwent an operation last Sunday and appeared to be going on well until to-day , when she suddenly collapsed and passed peacefully .away. She was highly esteemed by all who knew her, and a large circle of friends will be grieved to Hear of her death. The funeral takes place at i'almersfon North on Tuesday next. The training ship Pioneer arrived at Auckland from Sydney on Thursday. The Pioneer has come across to New Zealand to drill naval reservists, and for this purpose, will make a stay of about five weeks in Auckland, afterwards proceeding south to carry on the work in the other largo oeiitresl The vessel berthed at the Queen-streeb wharf ,' where, it is stated, she will remain ror the convenience of" reservists. The Pioneer left Sydney at noon on Monday last, the journey to Auckland oqcupying rearly tour days. For the first two' days at. sea. heavy gales and seas were experienced, the vessel rolling heavily. After that the weather improved steadily. — Star. Men who adVocate the keeping of Wages at a high' standard, and who favour change only when it is upward, are very thoughful over the present '■condition of the bricklaying trade in Dnnedin (says» tho Star). Work k scarce. •'•■jiind workers plentiful, and as a consequence contract prices aro being|ciit to an astonishing degree. Competition is so keen, especially for contracts • in which labour *>nly is a stipulation, tliat some bricklayers, we are told, who on day labour must he paid 12s a day, are working under the contract system for 10s- a day, and working hard. The cutting of prices is deplored in certain quarters, bufc no remedy is offered. Bricklayers who cannot find employment 6n daylabour rabes levidently consider it better to work for keen competitors' returns than work not at all. ■ And chore's .an end on't. " I gathered quite a nice little oaso of butterflies and beetles wliile in Japan on one occasion," remarked Lieutenant Shackle-ton, in ah after-dinner speech in Sydney. n When landing in America," he continued, "a Cus-tom-house officer came up to me 'and said, 'Say, friend, how much will you take for that bug outfit of yours?' J Now, I was rather taken back to have my fine entomological collection referred to as a '■bug outfit,' b'ut — well, that, doesn't matter. That collection mil be tihe nucleus of a. still larger collection^ as the result of our recent trip down under. We discovered only two" fleas down there,] he continued, f'md theso were resident on penguins. We caught lots of penc;uins,-aiKf isearched them very 3arofiilly, turning the feathers back bhis way and that, but wo found only two fleas, which will be duly described ater on by, those people who are paricularly interested in such specimens.

The second game- of the Friendly Societies' card tournament takes place in the Oddfellows' Hall on Wednesday evening next between Druids and Oddfellows. The latter J Will be represented by Thomson, Watts, Churcher, Parfitt (crib), W. J. Jones, Jacobsen, Blunden, Bell, Terry, Simpson, Salmon, Matthews (euchre). Emergencies, Fidler and Mingins. Our readers will regret to learn that an operation had to be performed on Saturday on Mr Guy Heed, of the Bank of New Zealand staff, Palmerston North, who is such an Old Boys football enthusiast. Though a young "man, he has taken a considerable share of the burdens of some of his friends who have been going through a bad time physically during the last, twelve months, and this has no doubt accentuated his trouble. i On Thursday night burglars entered the house of the Yen. Archdeacon Harper, at Timaru, with a view, presumably, to securing the large collection of 'well over £300 which had been taken that day at the opening of the j new iwrtion of St. Mary's Church. In this, however, they were disappointed. The Archdeacon (saye the Christchurch Press) has never been guilfcy of leaving the church money about where "thieves .break though •and steal," and all the burglars got after ransacking several of the rooms of his. house was a solitary shilling. On last Thursday night the house of the Rev. Tremayne Curaiow, Archdeacon Harper's curate, was 'broken into, when jewellery to the value of £20 was stolen, besides £15 in cash. The curate had only returned a. few days prior to the robbery from his honeymoon tour. Among the persons, admitted to the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum during the past few weeks "-was an elderly man whose brother, a retired solicitor, in Webster-street, bequeathed, about two years ago, the su«n of £27,000 to local charitable institutions.. The Benevolent Asylum was. amongst the recipients. Testator, in his'/ivill, ordered that £1000 should :be placed at interest for the unfortunate brother in question, and the income from this amount represents about 15s per week. „ As tho old man, ■ who until .recently resided at Beniligo, of which district he is a }>ioneer, was in ill-health, requiring medical comforts, the legacy of 15s per week left by his affluent brother was .insufficient' to meet his expenses, and he has, therefore, sought the shelter of the Benevolent Asylum. The irony of fate presented by this case has caused much comment/ The wife <|f testator died in 'Ireland resently, leaving about; £12,000. A young married man who has i lived! in New Zealand tor about eight months, having emigrated fromj Glasgow, told a representative of- ■ the Lyttelton Times that ho was j perfectly satisfied with" life in the dominion. The most noticeable difference between the old home and the new was the change in climate. There was plenty of sunshine and clear blue sky in New Zealand. He t was asked for his opinion regarding men who returned' to. the Old Country soon after emigrating to the dominion, and he said that most of the men who went back lacked grit. If a man with grit wanted employ- ( ment, he could hunt around and find i it. He had not been out of work since liis arrival in New Zealand. I He had been impressed by the feeling between employer and employee. In Glasgow an employer would' not ■recognise liis men in the street, but in iSew Zealand it was quit© different. The New Zealand employer did not care by what means a man, got to Ins work, but he had been told fn Wasgow, thafc it would be better to go by tram to work than to expend energy m riding a bicycle. In Glasgow the employers did not favour the idea of their men playing football during tthe dinner hour, but preferred that they should reserve their energies for their work.