LOCAL GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 1133, 14 March 1910, Page 2

LOCAL GENERAL.

A Sydney cablegram says that Sir •Jnines Mills, general manager of the Union Steamship Company, is a passenger by "the P. and o*. Mongolia, which left for Auckland yesterday afternoon. A Gisborne telegram states that Mr T>. McKillop, late bamlniaster of tk> Federal Band, and well known in band circles throughout the Dominion, died in the 'Gisborne Public Hospit.-il on Sa'turelay night. Mr C. T. Mitchinson, who was injured at Paremata while diving on sth December last, died on Friday at Wellington, lie was a member of the Poneke football team, and was very popular with his fellows. The Leader of the Opposition. Mr W._P. Massey. has agreed to deliver a political speech at the. Thames shortly after Easter. Mr Massey will also speak at Wellington prior to next session, as well as at Hokitika, and 'iossibly other southern centres. ■ The Rev. Marmaduke Warner, M.A., who is at .present on the Home 'Mission staff in Taranaki, has been nominated to the Bishop of Auckland for appointment as vicar of St. Thomas' Church. Dr. Neligan has accepted the nomination, and will induct Mr Warner in duo course. M.rs Morphy, of Aorangi, was unfortunate yesterday morning in losing by lire her winter supply of hay (about twenty tons) for a dairy herd", contained in a large shed and a stack! A number of neighbouring settlers were quickly on the scene, and were successful in saving a cow-byre adjoining the shed destroyed, obtaining water from a oreek near by. General Sir It. Baden-PoAvell will begin next summer the tour which he has decided to make throughout the Empire for the promotion of the boy scout movement (says the- London correspondent of the Age). He proposes to go first to Canada, and, at a later time which :has not yet been fixed, he will proceed to South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. After four years of vain effort to produce an epidemic among rats, M. De Kruyff, of the 'Agricultural Bureau at Buitenzorg, Java, hit upon a now plan. Pouring half a teaspoonful of carbon disulphido into each occupied rat hole, he lighted the vapour, and the poisonous gases from the explosion almost instantly killed all rats. In forty-three holes subsequently opened, 131 dead rats were found., two holes containing ten rats each. At Mr John Cobbe's premises at the end of last week, Miss Gould, on the eve of her departure to enter the matrimonial state, was the recipient of a handsome and serviceable presentation from the members of the staff. Mr 'A. E. Wilson, in making the presentation, referred to Miss Gould's lengthy connection with the establishment, >and the general good feeling always existing. Mies Gould made a suitable reply. In reply to the statement of the Hon. D. Lloyd George that the House of Lords consisted of 500 men chosen accidentally from the unemployed, a writer in the Scotsman says: 170 of the Lords kael been members of the House of Commons, and were therefore the elect of the people when many present members of the House of Commons were at school, 89 .had served mi offices of State, 104 had seen active service (68 in South Africa), 181 had served in the Regular Army, 19 in the Navy, 156 in the yeomanry, 133 in the militia, 104 in the volunteers, 19 were judges or eminent lawyers, 38 had served as colonial Governors ov Ministers, 41 in the Civil or Diplomatic Services, 14 had been mayors or county councillors, and 24 are bishops.

The Railway Department in another column announces its excursion tv terms for the Easter holidays di Mr Claude L. Jewell, of Welling- =" ton, late of the Freelance and the s ' : N.Z. Times, has been appointed subeditor of the Taranaki Daily News. M A purebred Holstein cow belong- n: ing to Mr R. H. Cameron, of Strait- w ford, recently gave birth, to four, w calves "at on© calving. The calves all ol died. The latest returns of the co-onera- v tive workers employed by the Govern- « ment shows a total of 3555 artisans and labourers, and S2li are employed t oh roads, making a total of 4351. a There lias been a serious epidemic oi : dengue fever, and practically the whole island has been down with it. ; * It is expected that with the .advent ? of cooler weather the fever will disap- l , p?ar.—A Piarotonga nitem. c Mr H. Temple White notifies his v pupils in this issue that as ho has boon called uway to New Plymouth, j his studio will be closed for a. few days. The Feilding Choral Society will, however, hold its weekly prac- j lice as usual this evening at the - School of Music. : Two church robberies on similar - lines to those reported fiomo time j ago have occurred in_ Christclrarch within the past fortnight. The collection boxes in St. Michael's Church j again suffered, and the Church of : Christ was also entered, and the collection boxes prised open. In neither '. case did the tliio fsecure any substantial return. Farmers in the Plains district near Ashburton of late years have found that late-sown crops in most instances have been failures. The most wrolilic crops of oats have been those that were sown in the autumn for foedingoir purposes. 'Already a largo number of farmers have commenced dee]) ploughing for next season's crops. A Broken Hill (N.S.W.) barber, Ted Grimm, last week attempted to "lower the world's record for shaving, and succeeded in shaving IS men in 14min 3sec, an average of 46sec each. This was not equal, however, to the record, which is believed to be 37£ sec per man. Only one slight cut was inllicted, and this was due to the man moving his head. What particular shade of eye lias Nature served out to the successful rifle sliot? From observations at Trontham. the typical "shooting" eye is said to be grey, and it varies from this colour to light blue or even rrrecn. The brown-eyed man is generally not in the first flight of "shots." although of course there are exceptions. "Why did you say that the man who worried you into buying this place deserved five hundred years in purgatory?'' asked Mr Quilliam of a witness iv the Supreme Court at New Plymouth. Witiic:- did not remember having made the statement. "That's only an estimate, Mr Quilliam," interposed Mr Justice Edwards with a smile. An important meeting of Cabinet is to bo held in Wellington to-day. On Saturday the Prime Minister and the Hon. ;, Cnrnm wore motoring from Taupo to Napier, Hon. D. Buddo was up the Main Trunk line, and the llotv.s. S. A. Millar, Dr. Findiay. and 11. M.ckenzie were in town. The lion. (J-. Fowlds i.s accompanying the Governor on his trip to the. West of the South Island.

This morning the members of the Feihiing Band lefb for Wanganui, ! where they are to take part in the| .Second-class Contest. _ The Band will ho engaged for practically the whole we ok in the several pieces, etc., in which they and the individual members are to take part. Yesterday afternoon they rendered a programme on the South street reserve to an appreciative concourse. Mr C. H. Poole, M.P. for Auckland West, who is well known in Foil ding, is to he married to-morrow to Miss Pnccy, a member of a prominent family of No-license workers in the Queen City. Mr I). N. Holmes, Secretary of the V.M.C.A. Wellington, will act as best man at the. wedding, and Mr Hart, 'another WelHnstonian, will assist. "The ladies of Mr Poole's election committee have presented the bridegroom-elect with three handsome pieces of • furniture, as a contribution towards his new home. At the Dannevirke races last week a "guesser" had a rough time, and only that the crowd was good humoured might have fared very badly. He had been hanging about a party of Maoris all day, and finally snatched a. totalisator ticket from the hand of one of them and bolted. A hue and cry was at once raised, and abont 400 men chased the gucsser .all over the course, finally capturing him, and shaking him up a little, took the ticket from him. A Maori tennis tournament is to be held in Palmerston North on the 28th inst. The teams already entered are: Hawke'e Bay (2 teams)", Aorangi (2), Putiki (2). and one each from Parewanui, Oropuki, Motuiti, Ohau, and Manakau combined, and Moutoa and Shannon. The trophy is a gold and silver cup presented by Mr T. XL Marmharu, of Parewanui (Bulls) to any Maori tennis team, consisting of two men and two ladies. The cup was won by Putiki last year. The secretary is Mr W. of Wanganui. Many who carefully "isolate" a si ok friend or child think nothing of allowing a pet animal, a dog or cat, to enter and loave tho sick room. M. Kemlmger, director of the Constantinople Pasteur Institute, points out the grave danger of such toleration. His experiments have proved tiaat on the fur of siich animals the typhoid bacillus remains virulent for 17 days, the diphtheria microbe for 24 days, and the charbon (anthrax) for over two months. When it is remembered how such animals are caressed and even kissed, tho peril will be self-evi-dent. Furry and woolly toys, "teddy hears," and'the like, also present the same dangerous facility for carrying infection There is seldom a lawsuit in which ''expert" witnesses are called without the presiding Magistrate or Judge making comment upon the directly divergent testimony given by tho experts "on either side. At New Plymouth last week, during the progress of the Oaonui farm-leasing case, Judge Edwards remarked that where there are half a dozen experts on one side and half a dozen expert farmers on the other, there was hound to be a conflict of evidence. ''Lawyers are just as bad," he went on, "but fortunately wo don't often have them as experts. Doctors are notorious. You will get one .gentleman swearing a thing is n beautiful white, and another will swear it is an inky black. ■ At the Balclutha, Magistrate's Court James liaiiley was charged that ho did keep whisky for sale in a prohibition district. Mr R. R. Grigor appeared on behalf of the defendant, who pleaded not guilty. Inspector O'Brien stated that it would be shown that between January 3D and February 28 tho accused, who was a farm labourer, received sixty-five bottles of whislcy and one bottle of gin. In the coarse of the defence Mr Grigor said that defendant might have been used by sly-grog_ sellers,"but he did not sell the stuff himself. The man was a derelict, and his story was a most unfortunate one. He was simply a man who had a periodical spree, and cot among hawks locally. The Magistrate said he was satisfied: that defendant had not been disposing of the liquor by selling it. The case was dismissed, and the police were directed to take out a prohibition order against defendant.

The annual competition for the medals offered by the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association took place in the Corporation Baths, "Wanganui, on Saturday. The competitors -were Kitchen nd Cowper i'Collegiate School), Eade (Feilding School), Adamson (Queen's Park), Me irfc/iey and Grrogan (Marist Bros.), and Hardy (Hurworth School). Cowper, who was never really pushed, ecorvl 20 points and the gold medal, winning the four events (25, 50, 75, and 3.00 yards), Adamson (11 points and a si] vor medal) was second in three of the events, and Grogan (5). in the 75yde, and the third places were won by Hardy (4), Hardy, Adamson and Grogan. The .Chronicle says: ' ; Ai!fcn Eade, the visitor from Feilding School, has an easy style that promises great. improvement as his strength increases. Hβ "will be young enough to swim next year, and should then be near the top."

A fire in East Hamilton early yesterday morning totally destroyed Gardiner's general store and post office and J. White's general fancy goods shop.

Dr P. H. Buck (To Rangihiroa, M.P.) has recently arrived from Wellington, and is relieving Dr Dawson., who is Rarotonga's only medical man, who returns to New Zealand on (cave of absence. Mr M. O'Brien, Health Officer, this morning stopped the local milk vendors and took samples of their milk for analysis. The object of this is to see whether the liquid is in accordance with the provisions of the law regarding public health. What the Magistrate characterised as a deliberate attempt to swindle came out in a case at Napier to-day, iv which James Johnston "took down" a Maori in a railway carriage for £15 or £TG on a poker hand. He was lined :ClO and costs. The llev. A. T. Thomson, 8.A., B.D.,the local Presbyterian pastor, was married last week at Eaiox Church, Masterton, to Miss liobiua Isabella Cameron, oldest daughter of Mr D. J. Cameron, of "Sherwood," Master!on. The honeymoon, will be spent at llotorua, and in trii> to England. At a meeting of those interested in the movement to establish a V.M.C.A. in Feilding, it was decided, owing to lack of interest on the part of the leading citizens, to allow the matter to fall through. Mr Holmes, the Wellington Secretary of the V.M.C.A. will not, therefore, give his intended address in Feilding. Cases are sometimes recorded oi' people taking the wrong horse by mistake at night from a paddock in which others are grazing, but such happenings do not ofteu occur in broad daylight. Two Hawera visitors (says the Star) had a rather unique experience in this respect. They hired a horse from a .stableman, and, after spending the day at the seaside, harnessed up a bay-coloured horse, which neither doubted for a moment was the one" they had previously driven. A start was made for home, but the animal caused the occupants of the vehicle no little anxiety by "playing up," and for a time refusing to move. Eventually noddy took matters more kindly and, though at times appearing troublesome on the journey, the visitors were able to reach their destination in safety, where the stableman came in for a bad few minutes for hiring out such an unruly beast. Judge of his surprise, upon examining the occupant of the shafts, to find that the animal brought home was not his at all (not even the same sex), but proved to be one that had never been in harness before. Matters were righted next morning by one of the hirers of the gig returning to the beach and obtaining the right animal.