LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 236, 18 December 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Messrs Graham, Pitt and Bennett sell the privileges of the Boxing Day Meeting by auction on Saturday. The Harbor Board meets this evening at usual hour.

A special meeting of the Poverty Bay Rowing Club will be held in the Albion Club Hotel at eight o’clock this evening. AU members are requested to attend.

On another page we publish the programme of the open air concert to be given at the Garden Fete, to-morrow evening. The programme is an excellent one, and forms only one of the many attractions to be provided by the Committee for the afternoon and evening. The members of the Rowing Club are in active training for the races to be rowed on that afternoon, and the finish of which can be seen to advantage from the grounds of Mr Graham. A sale of work, and Christmas Tree, games of all sorts, Mr Crawford and his camera, tea, etc., all make up a bill of fare cheap at the money, 2s and Is.

Not much has been beard of the Maori haka troupe which went over to Australia n short time back. A correspondent now writes that they have been doing Sydney for some time, and appeared first at the Bondi Aquarium, and then at the Crystal Palace Skating Rink, where they built a whare. They are driven about the city in a large, brake, and the « natives ” are greatly astonished at the mats and somewhat grotesque get-up of the Maoris, as they flourish their paddles and gesticulate in anything but a proper m inner to the taste of civilised people. It is to be feared that this district cannot rely on an immunity from the rabbit pest. On his last visit to the Opotiki district, Mr Campbell Thomson, Sheep Inspector, caught no less than 30 rabbits, for the capture of which he employed the assistance of a ferret, which drove the rabbits out of their burrows into a trap which had been placed at one of the openings. A bolt occurred on Saturday afternoon, fortunately without any serious re-ult. A horse and trap belonging to Te Kani Pere had been left in charge of a young man, who took it into his head to eo for a drive, the result being that the horse bolted, and when opposite Messrs Hatton and Score’s shop the occupant was thrown out. The horse then galloped down towards the' wharf, but was brought to a standstill by running against a wire fence. No damage was done to the trap or horse.

Mr R. Honlden elsewhere notifies that he has taken over the temperance drink manufactory lately owned by Mr L. Steele, and he is now prepared to supply the best summer drinks to be obtained in the market, and also cordials of the best quality. Mr Houlden has had his premises specially fitted up, including provision for a 3000 gallon tank of filtered rain water, so that the drinks may be thoroughly relied on in this respect.

An epidemic of the disease known as “ cancer ” has been playing sad havoc among the poultry in and around Invercargill, and in some oases further afield. Its symptoms are loss of appetite, listlessness, and development of ulcers on the comb, and wattles internally. The throat and tongue are similarity affected, and where proper remedies are not promptly applied, the birds either become blind or die. The cause of the malady, so far as is known, are ill kept foul houses and over-crowding. The losses to date have been heavy, some yards have been entirely depopulated, while others have been reduced by one half their number. Among the survivors many have lost an eye, and all bear unmistakeable evidence of the ordeal they have passed through. A local bank manager had a far from pleasant experience last week. He went out on Friday evening in the Union Company’s launch, when the Snark was tendering the Tarawera. Being conscious of a defect in the inner man he went down the cabin and regaled himself with a sumptuous repast, as a tea meeting reporter would call it—in other words with a good square meal. The shrill whistle of the Snark shrieked forth, but the bank manager was too earnestly engaged in satisfying an empty stomach to heed such secondary matters as the launch’s whistle. So the little vessel petulantly took its own course homewards, quite unmindful of favors that might be thereafter needed, and the beautifully proportioned Tarawera had swung round and was majestically moving on her way to Napier, when the man of money suddenly awoke to his position, and for once it was the manager’s turn to ask a favor. After much trouble he was transhipped to the Loohnagar, but still his troubles were not ended, for that night and on Saturday there was a heavy sea in the bay, and the vessel was merrily pitched and tossed about, no communication being held with the shore. The unfortunate landlubber had previously keenly thought of his stomach—it would ba false to say he did not do so even more keenly during the subsequent period of life on the ocean wave, On Sunday the sea kindly moderated, and the B.M. safely reached terra firms on that day, invoking such blessings as he had never previously been known to ask for. Favor-craving individuals are warned off the monetary institution particularly interested, at least for a day or two, until the calm which invariably follows the storm has set in. Then, mein got, what a time of clover and honey they may expect 1

A report has been current in town during the past two days that a Maori man had murdered his wife up the coast. The report proves to be ivithout foundation other than that the woman was brutally kicked. Strange to say the report of a murder at Karaka the other day was based upon exactly the same foundation.

Members of J Battery are reminded that they must give in their arms by Thursday, or they will ba amenable to the Strut wgiiUtioai,