LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 578, 5 March 1891, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mr Booth has gone up the Coast on his usual magisterial duties.

Messrs Pitt and Davies make a business announcement through our advertising oolumns.

Messrs Williams and Kettle announce that they have now on band a large stock ot station requisites. The Hussars are having a good eemp this year on the Kelli. The Garrison Band will play selections at the camp this evening.

The annual pionio in connection with the Waerongo-a-blaa School is to be held to-day, ou the racecourse. Parents and friends are invited, A great field day was expected at the R. M. Court to-day, with sumniones|by local bodies seeking to get in the rates, but them was a rush yesterday to get the various amounts settled before the names of defaulters got into print. In the annual report of the Department of Agriculture of Quebec it is atated that no lower than 1000 fathers have applied fob the hundred aores of Crown land offered for every family of twelve living children, aud 12,447 children altogether are represented by these applicants, 'rhe hew landowners are to be fiolleoted in groups, which may form parishes latorfon,

The Supreme Court jury list is now open for inspection. The Opotiki libel aetiem are expected to be he>td in Auckland next week.

Mr Finneran invites tenders for additions and alterations to the Patuiuhi Hotel, A stock sale is to be held at Makaraka at noon to-day, by Messrs Pitt and Davies. The fellmongsry at Whatanpoko was bought in by the mortgagee yesterday, at £450.

The Bishop of Waiapu is likely to tour along the Coast, and on to Opotiki aud Tauranga.

The Native Land Laws Commission begins its sittings this morning, and sits each day until Saturday.

Wanganui has three times been represented bv the Premier (f the eolony—firat by Sir William Fox, then by Sir Julius Vogel and now by Mr Ballance.

At the Borough Council meeting on Tuesday night it was stated that the reductions in the valuation this year totalled £1146. Or Joyce said he expected that in two years the valuation would rise from £26,501 to £31,000. The Mayor said he hoped so. Messrs Dunlop and Bourke, who open thtir new establishment on Saturday next, have secured the services of Mr McKee, who was formerly employed at Messrs Graham, Pitt and Bennett’s establishment, and who is widely known and highly respected,

Some of our spoiling readers are exercised in mind as to the entries for the Tologa Bay races on the 17,h. In one race Puti appears to be entered twice, hut they are different horses with the same name. The horse Pam is one owned by a Maori. The number of entries should be very satisfactory to the promoters of the meeting. An elderly man named Howarth was seriously injured at the Whataupolto on Tuesday, by the capsizing of a dray. He got pinned to the ground by the guard irons, and lay for nearly two hours before his terrible predicament was discovered. He was oon veyed to the Hospital, and Dr Innes feels satisfied that the injured man will recover.

The offence of driving vehicles through the town at night, without lights, haa become far too common of late. L.st night a son of Mr John Somervell got thrown on his head through the horse suddenly swerving on the unanticipated approach of a vehicle without lights. It ie believed that the boy has sustained no injury beyond being stunned for the time.

The members of the Garrison Band propose to follow the plan adopted in many other towns, of playing saotad muslo within the vicinity cf the Hospital, on Sunday alternoons, so as to cheer up those who have the misfortune to be laid up in the institution. The members ot the Band have always shown a public spirit and unselfish disposition that are indeed praiseworthy. B.H. sends us the following items, which be thinks may be specially interesting to old maids Elizabeth Hotter, a colored woman, living in Chatham County, Tennessee, is said to be 136 years old, and to have 4439 descendants, She was married three times, and had 27 children. —Madame Pommery, who owned one of the famous brands o! champagne, has just died in Rheins. Her private fortune is estimated at £4,000,000.

A meeting ot the Cemetery Trustees was held on Tuesday afternoon. There were present: Archdeacon Williams (in the ohair), Messrs A Gray. R. Reynolds, and O. C. Luoae, The balance-sheet showed an overdraft of £1 6e 6d at the end ot last year. There were 48 burials last year, the average for ten yea is being 52. Mr Johnson tendered his resigoaas a trustee,

Want of space prevented us giving a full report'd the evidence in the case Bees and Day v, Barker, but our atteution has been directed to what purported to be a full report, in which, however, omissions were made. Mr Barker said he thought his proof of debt in Ward's estate had been made out by Mr Braseey, but the evidence given later on showed that Mr Barker must have been mistaken.

The interest continues to increase in regard ‘to the sports to be held on St Patrick’s day, and it is believed there will be large entries for all events. Monday night is the night for general entry. The management of the gathering ie in first-olass hands end a jolly day is expected, One advantage of the day itself is that it oomes at a time when a holiday can be thoroughly enjoyed because of the interval that will have elapsed since any prior advantage of a general outing. The youth Capper being without rich friends in the district to find lhe large bail demanded seems fated to lie in gaol uniil the next sitting of the Supreme Court six months hence. Assuming the finding of the jury to be a correct one in the first case, aud that Capper is innocent, he would have got off more lightly by perjuring himself and saying be was guilty of stealing the horse. Then lie would have probably got out on probation. The case is an illustration of how a man may be severely punished before he has been found guilty. The account of the fatal aofident to Mr Mellish, barrister, of Palmerston North, is sad reading. He rose early on the Thursday morning, and went to his office, brought home his letters tohis wife, dug in his garden, then had a cup of tea, and a bath, shaved himself, and went out to his garden, and had a ohat with Mr Watson, a friend of his. Seeing a cat in the garden doing damage to his trees, and in bis haste to make sure of his aim, to kill the cat, be slipped over some wire fencing, and having the gun at full cook, it went off and its contents were discharged into his hip, the shot taking a downward direction, His wife was immediately upon the spot, and did all she could to comfort the dying man, but lite wee soon extinct. He lived but a very short time, and died in the hands ot his wife, He was about 30 years of age.

Tfie editor of the Wairarapa Star thus Unfolds his littlo story :—Few queetione we venture to submit have agitated municipal government in New Zealand more than Mr Benall’s scheme of water supply has for years agitated the civic fathers ci Masterton, It has produced two parties in the borougU Council who have fought their battles wuh all the sanguinary pertinacity aud cunning of red Indians. Doubtless they would have scalped one another loog ago and all that would have nqw been left of them would be a monument of totara in the cemetery but for tbs fact (bat the Municipal Act tolerates no kind of weapoo, more savage or scarifying than the tongue. On more than one occasion a resort to fisticuffs has been threatened, but wiser counsels have eventually prevented the municipal bear garden being turned into a boxing saloon,

Writing of outdoor relief at the Wellington Hospital, a Wellington paper states : —Orders for advice, and practically free medicine, are given Iby the score to people well able to pay fcr both advice ana medicine in the ordinary manner. One has only to watch the approaches to the Hospital at the proper time to feel satisfied that the fashionably and well dressed people who walk or drive up there are not people whose circumstances render it necessary >hat their ailments or those nf members of their families should be cured or usalod st the expense cf the ratepayer? of the City of Wellington, Most of them would ho highly indignant if they were called paupers, yet free Hospital treatment Is undoubtedly charitable aid as much as the receipt of pat|oqa,

A sable message in a Melbourne evening paper says It is reported that H.B.H, the Frinoe of Wales has been prevailed upon by Her Majesty the Queen, who is greatly dis—tressed by tbe card-sharping scandal which is now a prominent topic of conversation, in which the Prince of Wales played the part of a victim, to abjure gaming practices, Under strong pressure, it is alleged that the Prince of Wales has signed a document undertaking to abstain from card-playing for the rest ot his lite. The gambling mania has been much increased of late, and it is asserted that the noe has been very hot In most of the West Sod Clqbs. The fact that it has been under lhe patronage of the Prince of Wales and other influential gentlemen has induced many t o play for sums beyond their means, and -hero have been cases of great hardship pCpoftoo,