LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 571, 17 February 1891, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Rev. Mr Ryburn, on Sunday night, preached a forcible sermon, specially addressed to young men. The Harbor Board meets at noon today for the purpose of electing a Chair’ man for the ensuing year. The Gisborne bowlers, though defeated, had a very pleasant time in Napier. A description of the trip is held over. His Honor Judge Conolly arrives from Auckland by Friday's steamer, and the bankruptcy business will be dealt with on Saturday. Judging by the capital manner in which the work at the Gymnasium is being conducted, the Rowing Club’s forthcoming carnival will be a great success. At Holy Trinity Church on Saturday afternoon Mr W. J. Bremner, of Waipiro, was wedded to Miss M. A. Booth, daughter of our respected Resident Magistrate. The ceremony was conducted as privately as possible, but still a good many were present at the church to witness it. The Ven. Archdeacon conducted the marriage service. There was a good attendance at Mr George Aldridge’s opening lecture in Gisborne, at the Theatre Royal on Sunday evening. The lecturer dealt with his points in an interesting manner, and kept the attention of the congregation engaged throughout. His subject was • A Herald’s Proclamation for the Last Day,* and he argued on ths basis of the second coming of Christ, The lectures arc to be continued during the week. At a meeting of the Auckland Charitable Aid Board, the chairman (Mr Atkin) gave a pathetic description of the experiences which he had endured since he had been a member of the Board. Women had come to his factory to abuse him, calling him all manner of names, and spreading bad reports as to his character. Men had pointed him out in the streets as the man who stopped their rations, and had thrown out dark hints about meeting him at night; altogether the stopping at people’s rations was not a nice job.—N.Z. Herald.

A travelling correspondent writes to the N. Z. Herald, condemning the Gisborne breakwater as the greatest abortion of New Zealand breakwaters, Our Auckland Contemporary need not be surprised to receive a writ for £200,000 damages, from the ex-Harbor Engineer, who still holds that the structure is a gigantic success, which the expenditure of a few thousands more will demonstrate to the world. Ttse correspondent, when off the breakwater subject, writes in high terms concerning the district, considers it a safe place for investors to take up land, and says that at a not far distant date the inhabitants will be holding a public meeting to change the name of their bay from Poverty to Prosperous. The visit of Uap’ain Jackson Barry has freshened the memories of many townsmen on the days of auld lang sine, When the Captain was here before there was a jolly cricket match held, in which he showed his prowess as a knight of the willow. Prompted by some of that vigor which was such a characteristic in the good old days some townsmen are arranging for another match, at which there is sure to be great fun and possibly a display of science. The match will likely be fixed for Thursday next. Since the Captain was here before the little journalistic world has undergone some changes, three wellknown figures having long since disappeared from the scene—the late J. Snyder Browne, G. Adams, and J. Baldwin,

It is well that colonials feel thlir selfimportance ; other people seem to know very little about us. Under the heading of Australia, dated San Francisco, December 22, the Times of December 26 gives the following curious item :—“ Sir George Gregil), who advocated the George Land Tax for taxing British landowners, was announced to retire from politics. There have bean slight disturbances in connection with the destruction of the Trig station by a na'ive. The delinquent resisted arrest, but was finally secured without bloodshed by a detachment of 20 constables sent for that purpose.” After some thought we have concluded that the item refers to New Zealand, and refers to two totally different things—one to the resignation of Sir George Grey, and the other to the silly sensation that was worked up over a playful native up north. The late Hugh Carleton, whose contemporary Sir William Fitzherbert was, used to tell a story in this connection which gives a better idea of young Fitzherben’s character and prowess than a volume of description. It happened in one of the famous “Town and Gown ” battles. Mr Carleton himself on that occasion had fallen into the hands of the enemy, Terribly mauled about he was. Some of his teeth were knocked down his throat, and as he lay on the ground with the enemy stamping on him and kicking him he gave himself up for lost. Young Fitzherbert at the critical moment saw the plight of his friend, rushed to the rescue, knocked down three roughs with three “ shoulder ” hits. He strode ever the prostrate man, and kept the foe engaged single handed until a rescue party was got together and came to bis relief. Mr Carleton always said that he owed his life to his friend Fitgherbert’s behaviour on tha occasion.

This is the history of the paper United Ireland: Originally the shareholders stood as follows —Egan, 237 ; Parnell, 237 ; Dr Kenny, 10 J Biggar, 10; W. O Brian, 2; Justin McCarthy, 2; B. Lalor, 2. Subsequently a further issue was made to Egan, which gave him a majority of ths total shares. Whan Egan was appointed Mishler to Chili he transferred his shares to Davitt, Although registered a company, no legal formalities were complied with. No directors were elected, and so the seven shareholders originally forming the Company considered themselves its directors, On Biggar’s death the number of shareholders was reduced below the statutory seven and nothing was done to remedy this. Under these circumstances, William O’Brien became editor, and practically proprietor, bringing out the paper at his risk and peril, Parnell expressly repudiating all personal risk and peril. The much-travelled Captain Jackson Barry is now on a visit to Gisborne. His name has already become associated with Gisborne history, but it would be difficult to travel to any part of Australasia where the Captain’s name has not become known. He claims to be one of ths founders of three colonies, Port Phillip in 1835, New Zealand in 1837, and Port Essington in 1889— to be the m»n who took by the hand the wild white taan Buckley, after the latter had been living with the natives 82 years and had forgotten the use of his mother tongue. Indeed the Captain is an extraordinary man with an extraordinary history, and after all his experiences he does not look much more than half his age~in fact he says he is willing to give any man an allowance of ten years in age and run him for a hundred pounds, In recounting hie varied expericßCge ho tails how he wm compelled, tied hand and foot, to live among the natives when they wpre in a state of cannibalism, and this is only cns of the many experiences that he can relate to th® large and enthusiastic audiences ho .sometimes lectures to. He is the author of three volumes, history of New South Wales, an autobiography. £nd informs us that he has sent home 1870 sheets of foolscap to the publishers in England, together with 150 photographs of men of the time®, for the worls he is writing up on the Austin. lian colonies. He lectures in Gisborne soma time during tlia ought to attract a very large audiefloe.

The Borough Council meets at the usual hour this evening. An ordinary monthly meeting of the Hospital Trustees will be held on Wednesday evening, at lhe Hospital.

Adjutant and Mrs Bishop (Salvation Army) left for Auckland yesterday. Their farewell meetings were largely attended,

The N.Z Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. has received the following cable from their London office, dated 13lh inst “ Tallow.— There is iittle demand, and prices have delined 6d per cwt since last report. Frozen Mutton.—The market is firm, and the price has advanced Jd per lb since last report. Frozen Beef.—Market firmer. New Zealand Hemp —Market brisk, and the price has risen 20s per ton since last report.” The Bulletin merrily writes : —There are a good many ways to make money. One of thorn is to be a fasting man in a cheap show ; and another is to run a cannibal expedition in Africa, and then come back and lecture about the performance ; and a third is to be a landboomer and sell an inaccessible mountain top to a building society. Bat a lady in Maoriland has improved on these old methods considerably. She published an advertisement setting forth that a dark-haired and truly affectionate maiden of 18, with bright eyes and a private income, desired to make the acquaintance of a good-looking gentleman for the usual purpose, and 22 individuals at once concluded that she was some wealthy squatter’s daughter who wanted to elope, and wrote stating that they were the sort of person enquired after. Then she sent them all a photo, of an angel with a rosebud mouth, and asked for enough money to pay her passage to town, as her property was still in the hands of her trustees. Ton of the crowd backed out of this crisis, but the other twelve sent the coin and made twelve separate appointments at the railway-station, where, unhappily, the dark-haired creature with the large private income altogether failed to turn up. In fact, she never turned up, but enquiries being made at the Post-office to which the money had been sent, it transpired that the orders had all been cashed by an elderly person with a countenance like a hidden crime, and that she had promptly left the district with the loot. The story closes just here.

At the meeting of the members of the Phonographic Society on Saturday evening there was a very interesting debate as to whether the phonograph is aver likely to supersede the shorthand reporter. The President (Mr H. T, Jones) occupied the chair; the affirmative in the debuts was taken by Mr A. DeCosta, and the negative by Mr E. Wilkinson, the other principal speakers for and against being, Msssrs Faram and H. Watson in the affirmative, and the President in the negative. The arguments in favor were on the same lines as those recently given by Professor Archibald, one main point also being the probability, judging from what had been accomplished la the past, of improvements being continually made to the phonograph. Oa the other side it was argued that the liability of the machine to go out of order at the most critical momenta wan’d always be against .it fu reporting work. The very faithfulness of of the machine In recording sound would be against it in reporting; beside the multitude of unfinished sentences of poor speakers, all the interruptions would be recorded, and an entertaining picture was drawn of the bewilderment that would be caused by the reproduction of the mingled sounds of people entering and leaving, of the shuffling in the seats, of the coughing, the hum of conversation that often goes on, and so forth, even tho rustling of the robes of the lawyers in the Courts being recorded. If the machine could be regulated to take in only the one voice, it was pointed out that one of its advantages would be lost in not recording interruptions requiring to be noticed, and in a record the machine could not give the names of those speaking. Even if it were allowed that the machine could be so perfected as to do away with the innumerable objections it could never do descriptive work or condense, and until Mr Edison could supply the machine with a mind the shorthand reporter could smile at it as a rival—indeed Mr Edison himself looked on it as a friend to the reporter. The numerous points raised on either side were fully argued, there appearing to be an agreement that the shorthand clerk would be superseded by the phonograph, but on the main question the negative had a majority of two votes.

Mr Aldridge will lecture this (Tuesday) evening on the subject of “ Will Evil be Eternal ?” Commence at 8 o’clock. Sankey’s hymns.—(Advt.)