LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 1136, 17 March 1910, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It- X anticipated that the export of Auckland butter this season will exceed £o()0,000. Victoria has spent £2,500,000 on irrigiiition works, and is at the present time losing £2000 a week on them. Turnip blight is very prevalent throughout Taranaki, and f'annors who were relying on this crop for the winter will be very short of feed. The price this season for prime lambs sold in Marlborough for freezing ha.s been up to 10s Gd, but a considerable number have been shipped on owners' account. Information from a reliable source, writes the Winchester correspondent of the Lyttelton Times., shows that i there is a scarcity of oats iv South Canterbury this year, and it is said ! the price, is steadily going up. The butter exported from Patea : during the period from the 10th to I the 28th of Fobruarv amounted to | IGDOcwt (£8231). Cheese exported i during! the same period totalled Doll cwt. (£2b\6.'3l). ! Major McKenzie, editor of the j War Cry in Australia, who went to ' Melbourne from the New Zealand ! AVar Cry last year, has been appointed provincial commander of the Salvation Army work in. Tasmania. ' The other day a farmer in a very ; large way from the South Island told ) a roomful of gentlemen that he would I guarantee if the Government would j throw open the lands in the Tauinaj runui district that 500 farmers would Ibe there in less than six months. At its annual meeting in Christ-, church the Oorriedale S'hecpbrceders' ' Association decided that a Slock muse have- been e-.itajjiished _ for fifteen years before; being eligible for registration and inspection by i'epre;-;-yn-tatives of the Corriedak: Sheep breeders' Association. I The Earl of Aleath, whose name has been closely associated with the ' Empire Day movement, is at present ! the guest of the Earl of Dudley, at ! Melbourne. He is to tour the colo- | nie-s, and will take .advantage of the opportunity of speaking on the movement he instituted. ! in view of the interest being taKen ;iu tlie question oi tno expciu trade ! m pork and pig carcases intended lur ' curing, tin-. Government Ims arranged to have cable advices as to the position of bacon and frozen pork on the : Home, markets sent out to the Dominion. | It is estimated roughly that some lilteen tons of rabbit poison. have been sent out- from the Masterton de- : pot this season. This, ot course, j would not be all used iv the Wairarpa district, but would be distributed over various portions of tho Wellington district where rabbits abound. Owing to tho large number of people at present travelling, nearly every ji.unie Doat is carrying a full passenger list, and several Taranaki residents who wished to book passage by .steamers sailing this month have ! been unable to secure berths, and j have perforce been compelled to postI pone their trip to a later date. Arthur Thomson, employed at the Dominion shoe factory, Wellington, whilst working one of the machines I about II a.m. yesterday had the mislortune to get his right baud caught, and three ot his fingers were cut "off. Ho was .admitted to the- hospital for treatment.

The members of the new Hospital Board for tbe Manawatu district are Messrs J. G. Wilson, J. A. Nash, AY. ■Stubb-s, Essex, G. Kendall, Spiers, C. A r oss, L. It. Bryant, Harford, Fowler, Carman, Vincent Pearce and Howie, and Captain Hewitt. Of these, Messrs Carman and Siricrs and 'Captain Hewitt are absolutely .new to the work. Lord Kitchener arrived in Wellington from his overland trip yesterday, lie had luncheon at Awairua- House .with the Prime Minister and Lady Ward, -and left in the afternoon by the Alokoia for the Raratonga. and other Pacific Islands. At Tahiti he will join tho .Mariposa, for San Francisco, proceeding thence through the. United States to London. A sergeant of police at the Magistrate s Court in Ohristt-burch stated that a man charged with being idle and disorderly was a "lighthousekeeper "What is a lighthousekeeper? inquired Mr Donnelly, and the Court was enlightened by the statement that a "lighthouse-keeper" was a man who stood on a corner with a bottle -and dispensed sly tn-oc to customers. " B b

Believing m the suppression of church bells for the sake of the sick and aged the Rev. James Farrar, pastor of the First Reformed Church I Brooklyn, has decided to call atteni tion to his evening sendees by means • of i ti sea .rclil4g it 200 ft above ground j which .will write on tlie sky, "Come | come to church." The searchlkht 4 j tne gift of a wealthy member of the : church. . ' cr£,£ im ° } ri Y ist<s ?- of "England has auection o y cvr Zealand. Mis-* I A.eriel Talbot, the Victoria League I +i nv ? y i r d a , n audience at Auckland I that before her departure for Australasia Mr Asquith remarked to her tliatof all the places which she was to visit, he envied her most boa- visit to Now Zealand. "And now I have visited all tbe countries In mv tour, I understand s,till_ more the justification for Mr Asqtilth's appreciation of Nou Zealand, for here, even more • than in Australia, T feel at homo. .Your Dominion very much resembles England."

The Rev. Mr Cossum with his family / left Feilding for Wellington to-day to \ take up his duties at the Sydney - Street church there. Out of the 28 members of the- Blenheim Baud at the Wanganui Contest, no fewer than 26, including - tho conductor, were born in Blenheim. At the Supireme Court in Gisbor.no v yesterday, AVilliam John Knight, for sheep stealing, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. At the end of last year the total < roll number of pupils at the primary schools was 13,810 and the average attendance 12,314, an increase in the i roll number of the previous year of 390, and of 475 in the average at- , tendance. Tho percentage of attendance was 86.7. When the Alelbourne police raided a "two-up" school on the A'arra bank near Richmond recently, they guarded all means of escape except on the river side. Some of the gamblers boldly plunged into the river and swam to the other side. Others jumped iv to a boat that had been kept for such -an emergency, but in their haste they upset the craft, and a number of them fell into the hands of the police. The Ota go Daily Times remarks: "If the meeting of leasehold members of Parliament has no other effect, it should at least have the desirable result of producing a revival of public interest in the politics of the country. If so, we should feel not a little grateful to the promoters of the conference for havino- done .something to arouse the community out of a more or less lethargic state." Tlie- Presbyterian Choir has just been reorganised, and the officers elected'are: Chairman, Afr Geo. Bartholomew ; Doputy-Charirman Mr A. 10. Wilson ;. Conductor, Herr Kurt Burger: Secretary. Air K. Bartholomew; Treasurer, Air G. Archibald: Librarian, Aliss Ethel Mills; Committee, All- K. Bartholomew and D. - : AV. Eraser, Aliases Bray and Alills. , j The Choir, which now numbers over i 30 to-night begins practice for tho winter season on Alendelssobn's fine i oratorio-in-brief, "Lauda Sion," uni der Herr Bergor's baton. Those intending to spend their Easi ter holidays on the AVanganui River - are reminded, by the advertisement in our shipping columns, to book their - passage and accommodation at new - Pipiriki House as early as possbilo. ' To popularise the fine new house which * has just been erected at Pipirki, tiie i tariff for those staying: one week or - over has been fixed at 7s pea - day. ; The return passage, Wanganui to - Pipiriki, has also been fixed at £.1 - return. No one should miss seeing i the fine now building which ha« been 1 erected, with its unique tree-planted ) winter garden. Among British linns the proprietors of "Beocham's pill business hold the premiership for expenditure in advertising. For 1009, it is stated, the Beech a m bill on this wore could not have been anvtbing short ot '" £100.000. Pear's'soap comes next, but no figures are given. It is mentioned, however, that since the Pears i p?ople started advertising thc-v have - disbursed "well over £1,000.000" in i pushing their commodities. Afr Engen Snndow is a strong; man at adt vortising. It is said to ho a common ;s thing for him to invest a trifle like 3 £1000 for "one bold announcement." His fancy occasionally runs to a m-onnpolv of four pages of the Lnn--0 don Tinies. Sir Ernest Shaekleton had a re--1 ma.rkably ■enthusiastic reception in Russia. His lecture on January 25 was attended by the largest gather- ? ing of the kind ever seen in St. PcP tersburg, there being an attendance I of over 2000 in the Alexander Room ,of tho City Hall. A groat many of those present did not understand English, but came to do honour to a the intrepid young explorer and to o -.--co tbe pictures taken iv the heart of 0 tbe Antarctic. Sir Ernest was pred sented with the Constantino gold nic--1 dal of the Geographical Society. Amongst tho notables present were c Al. Isvolsky, several naval and mili- .() tary officers, and members of the d. foreign embassies. Sir Ernest Shack- :- let-oil" had tlie honour of being roceivI- od in audience by tlie Czar, Avho conferred upon him the Order of: St. Anne. The Constantine gold medal i given him by the Geographical SoS ciety has not been given to anyone ,i for nearly 70 years.