LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hastings Standard, Issue 148, 17 October 1896, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

On our fourth page to-day appears correspondence and other items. The Hastings Brass Band will play m the main street to-night. The Government Auditor will arrive in Hastings on Monday on his periodical inspection. A high wind to-day is raising loads of dust in the street, and causing gre.it annoyance to pedestrians. It is understood that, as a result of the late social, about .£lO will be handed over to the Catholic Church by Mrs Cullen. We acknowledge receipt from the Government Printer of the report of the Banking Committee, a voluminous document of over 700 pages. The Auckland Magistrate let off a drunk the other day because the latter said he had two dogs tied np at Biverhead and there was nobody to feed them. A Wellington resident has drawn Cravat (Castor—Necklace), Mr Horden's representative in the Caultield Cup, in Tattersail's consultation on the race. First prize is worth .£7."'00. A man named llenrv Nicholson has been admitted to the Wellington Hospital having fractured both wrists by falling off a house at Taitvillc. A girl named Alice Vincent who was at a picnic near l'etone on Thursday, sullered a simple fracture of the right leg above the ankle, through the breaking of the limb of a dead tree on which she was swinging. The Native I .and Court Bench return from Woodville early next week, and commence their duties in Hastings on the 20th inst. There is a lengthy Gazette, and the sitting is likely to run into three or four months. Religious instruction was given on Thursday afternoon at the Pukaliu State School by Rev. Br Hosking, and the young people who remained after school hours were intensely interested and edified. No trouble is being spared in making as attractive as possible the programme for the concert in aid of the Band funds, to lie held in the Princess Theatre on Thursday next. As tin; object is one worthy of the support of every person in Hastings no doubt there will be a bumper house. The following is from a Home paper: ■■ Lord Glasgow's reign in New Zealand has been bv no means enjoyable. He was nearly shipwrecked at the start, he was subsequently tossed by a prize bull at an agricultural show, and in the hunting field one of his daughters met with an accident that resulted in the amputation of a leg." A very successful meeting was held at the (.'live Town Hall on Thursday evening last, when the Bev. I>r Hosking and Rev. A. S. Morrison, M.A., gave addresses fui Prohibition. Several names were enrolled at the meeting pledged to vote " No license" at the next local option poll. The hall was well filled, and the people seemed delighted at the information given. A Band of Hope was started at I'apakura last evening. The State School was well filled. Interesting musical items were contributed by Misses Tressider, Mabel Smith. Elizabeth llenskie,_ and Kingswell. A dialogue from Alfred Kingswell and C. Holes was specially interesting, dealing with the composition of intoxicating liquor. Fred M'Anney, Arthur Beale, Charles Kessell, and A. Kingswell gave recitations. The Hastings Good Templar Choir gave some of Hoyle's Ilviiins. Bev. A. S. Morrison, M.A., gave a very thoughtful anil interesting address. Rev. I>r Hosking presided. Mr Mossman, on behalf of the l'apakura friends, thanked the visitors very heartily, and a good deal of enthusiasm oil Prohibition was awakened. The Chairman sang a very thrilling Prohibition Hymn, composed by a New Zealand author, on the title '• Strike out the top line," which fairly brought down the house. Mr W. T. Stead has been printing on an average 100.000 copies a week of his Penny Poets. At the end of the first 12 months he has issued more than 4,000,000 copies. A lady was fined in London for allowing an unmuzzled dog to be in a public place. The defendant unsuccessfully protested that the dog was notin a publicplaee, as it was in her arms. Several young women only just out of their teens complained in one day to a London Magistrate of the ill-treatment of their husbands. He said that if children would get married before they knew their own minds, they must take the consequences. The Spectator is shocked at hearing the report that Br Nansen, the Arctic explorer, is to be re-married to his wife, from whom (according to the Paris correspondent of the Daily Mail) before his vovage he had been legally separated, " in order to permit her to marry again, in case of his disappearance or death, without going to the trouble of proving his dec-ease." We do not (says the Spectator) believe this strange statement, and trust that it has been made without any foundation. Recently, at Duncdin, Bishop Neville lectured to some young men. In the course of his address he said that one great failing of voung men was '• conceit," which, after ail, was only inexperience. The conceit was responsible for a good deal of what was called " faddist' legislation. A man unexpectedly got into Parliament, and immediately his great ambition was to pass a bill so that he might be able to sav. "I did it, ' whereas, instead of being applauded for his works lie sometimes deserved to be imprisoned for the rest of his natural life. The case of Mrs Emma Hare, who told a London Magistrate the other day that she had had twenty-seven was striking enough, but that of three sisters who lived in Kingston, Jamaica, is perhaps more remarkable. These sisters had respectively nineteen, twenty, and twentv-one children each; but, unlike Mrs Hare, who lost most of them at an early age. these sisters succeeded in rearing the whole of their families, and on certain occasions all the sixty children with their parents —sixty-six souls in all—have met in the celebration of some family event. It may be interesting to mention the additional fact that these ladies were members of the Jewish persuasion. a race which, it is well-known is renowned for the size of its families as are also the inhabitants of the island in which these noteworthy families were bora.

It is stated that something like 10,000 horses will be exported from Australia to India in the present season. Elephants in Africa are becoming so scarce that it is proposed to establish protected reservations for them on territory under British protection, like Somaliland. "I can't understand it," remarked the old subscriber, as he waltzed into the sanctum. "You can't understand what'?" " Why bloomers, being undoubtedly plurak should make a woman look so singular." Edison believes that the newspapers of the future will be published by phonograph. His reason for this is that the eyesight of the people is becoming poorer, time is more precious, and that many newspapers are so large that it is impossible for people to read them through. Good coffee, by means of its marvellously stimulating influence on the brain, is the antidote of alcohol. At Bio Janeiro, where the population numbers 350,000, drunkenness is almost unknown, and coffee is largely used. Emmigrants, who frequently take with them a love of alcohol, end by preferring the coffee which the Brazilians know so well how to prepare. A rather important statement regarding the position of debtor and creditor was made by Mr T. Hutchison, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court at Masterton yesterday. His "Worship said that if a man owned 100,000 acres of land he would not make an order against him for imprisonment on account of a debt. It was the duty of the creditor to issue execution. If a man had property worth .£IOO,OOO and there was a mortgage of £"> upon it, that property could not be sold without the consent of the mortgagee. Imprisonment for debt had been abolished. Mr Beard said that if this was llis Worship's reading of the Act it was a most serious thing for creditors. A young man named McKay, has gone raving mad under peculiar circumstances at Lybster, Caithness. A few weeks ago he was bitten and scratched by a lunatic whom lie helped to remove to an asylum, but he seemed all right until recently, when he went to a farm where he worked as a cattleman dressed in his best clothes, and carrying an overcoat. About noon he turned towards his home quite mad. Amongst the first to encounter him was a drill instructor, but M'Kay kicked him on the arm, and shattered the bone. Ultimately he was secured with ropes, only to break away later on, when he plunged into a mill dam. After being rescued from drowning he cut and scratched several persons before lie was again secured. He was subsequently sent, bound and guarded, to Montrose Asylum. A French lady has offered a prize of about £32,000 in English money for an effective cure of consumption, and has placed the money in the hands of the French Academy of Medicine. A Home letter states, savs the Ashburton Hail, that MrE. F. Wright, lately of Ashburton, and a son of Mr E. G. Wright, of Windermere, will enter the competition. Mr E. F. Wright made etiology his study for a lengthened period, and having noted the action of phosphorus on both plant and animal life, came to the conclusion that in phosphorus we had an agent that would be effective in battling with the great scourge consumption. Prosecuting his investigations he descovered a mode of using phosphorus in consumption cases, and under proper medical supervision had it tried, with sufficient success to warrant further investigation. His mode of treatment is his secret, but it is now under investigation by an eminent physician, with a view to recommendation by that authority to the French Academy. Under that body,and in the competition for such a prize as that offered by the Paris lady, Mr Wright's cure for consumption is likely to be put to the most exhaustive test possible.