LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hastings Standard, Issue 208, 30 December 1896, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An interesting article on Nansen" expedition will be found on the fourth page. There will be no publication of the St.vM'ahi" on Friday. New Year's Day. The thermometer registered !>'2degs. in the shade to-day in Hastings. Don't forget the Eire Brigade social to-morrow night in the Princess. Thft volunteer parade order on New Year's Eve is cancelled. A valuable chair, the property of .Mr 11. O. Caultoii. is missing, and lie would feel obliged if the person who took it would return it to him. A shark about 9 feet long, and measuring -t feet 6 inches in girth, wss caught at Napier 011 Mondav night bv the trawler Ithaca. The (Queensland cricketers will arrive b\ the express this evening en route to Napier, where they play to-morrow and two following days. We regret to announce the death of the infant daughter of Mr Sam Charlton. The child, who was suffering for some time died last night at 7.150. o'clock. The sufferings of the present hot weather may he alleviated to a considerable degree by calling at Pitt's shop. Elsewhere will lie found a list of Summer refreshments. A lad named Stanley Adamson, aged about l-'J years was swinging on the branch of a tree in Heretaunga l!oad yesterday afternoon, when the limb broke and the boy falling broke his thigh. New Year's ]>nv will be observed as a close holiday by the Postal branch, and mails will close at 8 p.m. on the Hist. The telegraph office will be open from 9 to 10 a.m. and from 7 to 8 p.m. We regret to learn that the Evening News and Hawke's I.say Advertiser —the only paper representing the Liberal interest in Napier—after an existence of about 10 years, ceases publication on Saturday next. We call our readers' attention to a new advertisement from the "Gladiator" cicyling works. The announcement will be found on the third page. G. H. Yickers has been appointed agent for H. 15. The niachiuesjnay be inspected at the agent's auction room. A meeting of those desirous of forming a lodge of the Ancient Order of Druids in Hastings and district will be held at Gorman's Hotel this evening at 8 o'clock-. A deputation of members from the Napier lodge will attend to explain matters generally in connection with the order. Forms of application for pension certificates under the Hegistration of People's Claims Act, 1896, will shortly be issued. A fireman of the Star of Victoria named Piobert Buick was fined 21s or seven days for smuggling tobacco at Auckland yesterday. Two men named Harris and Dawson were capsized in a boat at the mouth of the Tauranga river yesterday, but were rescued before reaching the tide rip. Hie boat was swept to sea. The New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association has decided that no club can make a provision for three starters or no race, and that a single entry for a race is entitled to the prize. At Palmei'ston North yesterday four lads, named Andrew Jack, George Pye, Louis Keeling, and Victor Fitzlierbert, while playing with a toy engine exploded a large drum of methylated spirits. All were terribly burned about the arms and face. The Wellington Telegraph Department on Thursday last forwarded 1997 messages, received 1883, and transmitted 2607 ; total. 6487, This is the record for this office, and it is reported that there was no block all day. The Postal Department on the previous day (departure of the San Francisco mail) was equally busy, and handled 75.000 articles. The Pahiatua Herald says : —'• On Xmas Eve Pahiatua could have provided more prambulators to the square yard of footpath than any town its size in the colony. This fact may have something to do with the district being declared an electorate, and returning a member to Parliament. Advance Pahiatua ! You might return two members at the next election. Wellington warehouse prices are in every instance charged by the D. I. C. when executing orders received by post. Those of our residents who want really nice fashionable goods need not hesitate about communicating with the D. I. C., Wellington. Complete furnishing is now a special feature of the D. I. C.. and those who anticipate requirements in this direction will be supplied with catalogues and estimates post free.—Jivvt.

The thermometer registered 92 in the shade at Oamaru yesterday. Sutherland, the champion middle-weight wrestler, has gone to Auckland to wrestle Matthews. Four cases of housebreaking in one street within a few days' are reported from Invercargill. The most effective Krupp gun has a range of 17 miles, and can fire at the rate of two shots a minute. The Yellow River is styled the " Sorrow of China.'' It is estimated that its floods in the present century have cost China 11,000,000 lives. A lad named George Clearwater, son of an old settler, died in the Dunedin hospital yesterday from injuries received from being thrown from a horse. Mr J. D. Sievwright, the defeated candidate for Waitaki, was banquetted and presented with a purse of sovereigns by his supporters at Oamaru last night. A line of "boilers" was recently received at toe Longburn works from Mr Rawlin's faim. Among the lot was one Komney ewe that turned the scale at 1431b5.' The petition of 50 Kaiapoi electors to have an inquiry relative to the local option poll has been withdrawn, the petitioners agreeing to pay the cost of the court. Emperor Menelek specially honors Hebrews at his court. He asserts that he is the possessor of the genuine ark of the covenant, and that it was transported by miracles from Palestine to Abyssinia. As did the Levites, the priests of his church dance before it on the most joyful occasions of worship. At the adjourned inquest at Dunedin yesterday touching the death of Ethel Jessie Morgan, 22 months, theverdict was: that the child died through want of proper food and negligence on the part of the mother. A rider was added to the effect that sufficient food, but of the wrong description, had been given. The jurethought the fact of the child's arm being broken without being noticed showed great negligence. A new machine is being built by an enterprising Yankee firm which will accommodate a whole club of 25 riders. It is called the duodeciplet, and has four wheels. The steersman, who occupies an elevated seat in front, does not pedal at all, and so is enabled to concentrate all his energies on the steering. The length of the machine will be 25ft, and the cost will be ±l2O. The front portion of the machine will be geared to 100 and the rear to 68, this being made possible by an ingenious contrivance of wheels. Within the past few months four solicitors enjoying the best reputations within and outside the profession have levanted, writes a Glasgow paper. The first was the Glasgow and Paisley accountant, Mr Abercroilibit', with over .£50,000; next the Aberde-'ii solicitor. Mr Sim, £12.000; then the Glasgow lawyer, Mr Samuel Carrirk, whose defalcations are put at £"20.000 to 1*30,000; and in the same week came the news of the sudden disappearance of Mr Arthur Sturroek, son of ex-Provost Sturroek, Kilmarnock, with whom he acted as joint agent of the branch of the British Linen Bank in that town, whose defalcations reach £IOO,OOO.

The English Illustrated Magazine publishes a most graphic and interesting article on the migration of the godwit, or kauka, from Xtw Zealand to Siberia. We do not suppose that many of our readers were aware that this bird, which is common on all the coasts of the North Island during the sflmmer, (lies away in the winter months anil breeds in the extreme north of Siberia. It is not many years ago since the fact was discovered, but it is now ascertained without doubt, and is fully dealt with by Sir W. Buller in his great work on the birds of New Zealand. It is singular that the kuaka. if it wants a told country to breed in, should not go to the Antarctic regions, but wings its long flight to near the North Pole, crossing the Equator and traversing the tropical regions of Asia.

There is quite a Paul Jones and Captain Kidd flavour about the French captain's pirate story told in the Engish papers for November week. Becalmed oft the north coast of Africa, his vessel was speedily surrounded by the robbers of the deep : There' were nine or ten boats, containing, I should think, fifty men. Of these about thirty boarded us. I was forced to steer the ship shoreward, and as they pointed their guns at me and flourished their knives in my face, I understood they would kill me if I refused. Their object was to run her ashore, so that the work of pillaging would be easier." This, however, they did not manage, but they stripped the ship of all it contained, quite in tlie orthodox pirate fashion, and carried off the captain to their wild mountain retreat. In the good old days they probably would have made him " walk the plank."

Mr E. Sheen, of Petone, asks us (Post) to state that the paragraph anent his flying machine, sent to us last week, did not emanate from him and is slightly ill error. It is quite true that he has invented and worked the machine, but the trial course flown was from l'orirua to the WellingtonManawatu Railway Station in Wellington and from there to the Upper Hutt, and Mr Sheen states that while on this trip he saw over the Wainui Hill. The trial trip took place in October last about 8 o'clock one moonlight morning, the trip occupying about 20 minutes. Mr Sheen also states that on Saturday last he received an offer from a Wellington syndicate, but this not meeting his views he has submitted a proposal, which is nowbeing considered. He adds that on a fixed sum being placed in the hands of his solicitor lie is prepared to produce the machine and give a trial, and if what he claims is not performed at the trial then no sale is expected.

The numerous organised attempts to rob railway stations lately is the theme of general comment, (says the N.Z. Times), and is causing the police considerable trouble. That they are the work of the same party is undoubted : similar tactics are employed in every case, and the general handiwork visible in each instance stamps the work as being that of a professional who knows his business. There has been more than one employed in manipulating' the ponderous safes, but there is only one ringleader, and if his address could be ascertained with any degree of certainty the law would be glad to provide him with another. However, even though the authorities had a clue, mere suspicion without anything in the shape of proof would be Insufficient. The Carterton, Petone and Jolmsonville railway burglaries following so closely upon each other point to the existence of a select gang of thieves who make station robbing a speciality. However, it is satisfactory to know that in each of the three cases no money was obtained, and that the hard, risky labor of the burglars proved fruitless. The police are actively prosecuting enquiries in connecting with these burglaries, and hope to be able ty run down the perpetrators.