LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hastings Standard, Issue 83, 1 August 1896, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A quantity of sporting aud other items appear in our fourth page." A heavy fall of snow is reported from the ranges. Mr and Mrs J. A. Smith went South to-day to spend a well-earned holiday. The Columbia skating rink will be open at the Princess Theatre this evening. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Oddfellows Lodge takes place this evening. Mr Thomas Dwan, of the Wellington Herald, has left for a tour of America and England. Owing to the tempestuous weather the rehearsal of the opera lolantlie last night was postponed. The rainfall must have been general throughout Hawke's Bay yesterday, as all the rivers are reported to be in flood to-day. At the Salvation Army to-morrow special meetings are announced. In the evening the subject will be " Our Report" by Mrs Adjutant Drew. Complaints were rife all over the town last evening at the absence of lights, the Corporation officer evidently having neglected his duty. The snap of cold weather yesterday came at an inopportune time for the sheep farmers, the lambing season having just commenced. Owing to the weather the delay in operations at the Trocadero has prevented the premises becoming completed, and consequently the restaurant will not be opened untill early next week. The jockey Mitchell, who received a nasty spill from Canard at the Wellington meeting is about town to-day with his arm in a sling. He received rather a severe shaking, but is on a fair way towards recovery. Mr Thomas Collins, bricklayer, advertises that he is prepared to give estimates for brick-work, asphalting, and draining. As his workmanship is well known in this district, Mr Collins can be relied upon to turn out nothing but first-class work. The plain and fancy dress ball in aid of the funds of the Hastings Athenseum, promises to be a big success. An influential committee has been appointed, and everything points to the finances of the institution being considerably increased by the affair. The nursery of Mr J. Goddard at Havelock is looking well, and an early spring will soon bring many of the trees into bloom. One day this week Mr Goddard got away no fewer than 1250 trees, which will give some idea of what the orchard is capable of producing. Orders such as these can be accommodated daily. "The local school examinations were completed yesterday. The work was gone through in less time than usual, the time occupied being only four days. Inspector Hill expressed himself as highly satisfied with the singing of the pupils and with the precision of the military drill. The singing in all divisions the Inspector considered especially good, and from what we can learn the school passed exceptionally well. It may interest our readers to learn the facts of the great Poukuwa case now occupying the Native Land Court. In the early sixties' the Native chieftain Te Hapuku, in order to preserve a portion of the lands belonging to his tribe from the rapacity of the Pakeha, handed over the Poukuwa estate of about 7000 acres to the Government to be held in trust for him and his tribe. These reserves have, by later legislation, fallen into the hands of the Public Trustee, who has recently applied to the Native Court for a list of the names of the beneficiary owners. The Court advertised for claimants, with the result that every Native or Native family in the district who had, or fancied they had, a right to a share have entered a claim, and the Court is now occupied in weeding them down. Over £SOOO was spent iu wreaths for Col. North's coffin. One eigth feet long was sent by the King of the Belgians. A young man named George Munro was killed by a fall of stone in a quarry at Ballarat recently. His head was smashed into an unrecognisable mass. During the past seven months there have been 50 bankruptcies in Wellington, as against 29 for the corresponding period of last year. Two thousand one hundred coolies and artisans from India, are now employed in Africa on the Uganda railway construction. They expect to finish an additional one hundred miles of that railway tjiis year. At Aramaho on Thursday a little girl named Christie, aged 6, pulled over a kerosene tin full of boiling water. The child was badly scalded and lies in a precarious condition. A man named William Leigh met with a terrible death at Guildford, West Australia. He was employed as foreman at Turton's brickyard, and got entangled in a belt, his leg being cut off at the knee, and Ms thigh broken. He died three hours after the occurrence. In Africa there is a dreadful thing called " The Sleeping Sickness." One of the most terrible symptoms is that the victim sleeps. He sleeps and wakes, and sleeps again, longer and longer, past all rousing, till he sleeps into death. Mr Houston, in the American Agriculturist, estimates that 50 acres of sorghum will keep 1000 sheep throughout the winter. It can be treated as ensilage, though stock will eat it after it has been exposed to heavy frosts. Cattle, sheep and horses are remarkably fond of sorghum, and pigs will devour it voraciously and thrive well, even upon the thick base of the canes. Almost any land—even the poorest soils—will grow the plant, though perhaps a good clay loam is the most suitable. The seed should be sown as soon as all danger of frost is over, at the rate of about 21b per »cre.

Acceptances for the New Zealand Cup close this evening. It is said that rich gold has been found in the Poverty Bay district. Norswood is erecting a dairy factory capable of dealing with 1000 gallons of milk dally. At Wairoa last Saturday two footballers were injured, one having his collarbone broken and the other the small bone of his leg. The nest London show sensation is to be the entombment of a man for six days under six feet of earth. They expect to dig him up alive. A Foxton publican who recently became insolvent showed book debts amounting to £1156 14s Bd, which are valued at only .£278 7s 4d. The Dunedin E " b S.ar urges upon the Ministry the i U fir Dillon Bell to the vacancy ca le Legislative Council by the de t Hon. Robert Pharazyn. It is reported that President Cleveland seems to fear that somel»>cl \ ill try to do him harm, and that he no v li - twentyseven policemen and detectives watching over him. War and glory have y thirds to France. Between 179- i. .d I{Jls sue sacrificed one half of the 5.500.000 soldiers whom she sent to fight htr oattles. War has cost her in this century not far from 6,000,000 lives. The sin of " sweating" was denounced the other day in Sydney by no less a person than the Postmaster-General of New South Wales. He denounced the practice of paying factory girls, who were compelled to make trousers at 4Jd a piece. In re the Brunnerton fund, the Charters Towers Eagle refers to Riccarton Kussell as leader of the New Zealand Opposition, and denounces the Premier of Queensland as " the ignoble political caitiff and boss bungler of this wretched, tick-infested, leper, scab and Kanaka-ridden province." The expense of the visit of the son of Ameer of Afghanistan to England was paid for out of the public taxes of England and India. The Ameer made return of the hospitality by sending presents to Her Majesty, the value of which is estimated at over £120,000. A contemporary states the late Mr C. S. Carter left a will bequeathing £2500 and a station property towards the erection and maintenance of an Old Men's Home at Carterton. His private library will be added to the fine one already established at that place, and endowed to a considerable extent by the deceased. A settler at Pemberton saved his two children from the consequences of serious accident the other day. The circumstances were quite out of the common. The children were riding in a trap at the time, the father leading the horse, when the road (a narrow siding) collapsed. The horse hung on to the load for a moment, and the father had just time to snatch the children out of the vehicle before horse and trap rolled over the embankment. When Pollards were playing at Blenheim, the river unexpectedly burst its banks, and about half-way through the performance Mr Pollard announced to his audience that there was two feat of water outside the theatre. The scene at the conclusion of the play, says a local journal was interesting in the extreme, and next day great rivalry existed among the young male population as to the number of ladies each one carried in his arms through the water. One gay young cavalier lays claim to 17 such burdens. The Tuapeka Times writes :—The Rev. W. Hewitson made a decided " hit," that fairly brought down the house, in the introductory remarks to his lecture in the Presbyterian schoolhouse on Tuesdayevening. He said he had great doubts on the previous day as to whether he would be able to come to Lawrence or not. He had had a very momentous, not to say painful, interview with a man who was a great deal " in the mouths of the people," at the present time, and—the result had quite upset him. The audience waited breathlessly for the next sentence, and the lecturer suavely said: "Now you are all wrong; it was not the Hon. J. G. Ward or Mr Somebody else : it was the dentist I" Neil's Compound Sarsaparilla, A household medicine for purifying the blood and toning up the system. In large bottles at 2s 6d at Neil's Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. Stop that Cough by taking Neil's Balm of Gilead, a positive cure for coughs, colds, chronic bronchitis, influenza, <fcc. In large bottles at 2s 6d, at Neil's Botanic Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. Neil's Celebrated Liver Tonic, a pure botanic remedy for all affections of the liver, biliousness, jaundice, yellowness of the skin, indigestion, &c. In bottles, 2s and 2s 6d, at Neil's Botanic Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. Neil's Corn Cure removes either hard or soft Corns. A few applications only necessary. Is per bottle at Neil's Dispensary, Emerson street, Napier, and all leading storekeepers.—Advt. " Drunkenness is not a sin—simply an excess of conviviality," says a thirsty philosopher. " Nothing like a good skinful of whisky for a bad cold." Don't you belive it, my friends, take that unfailing remedy, Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for one shilling and sixpence.—Advt.