LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hastings Standard, Volume VI, Issue 1651, 15 October 1901, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A meeting of ladies and gentlemen interested in the formation of a tennis club will be held in the District Schoo at 4 p.rn. to-morrow.

Mr L. C. Whitehead, the well-known Hastings photographer, has enlarged his premises in Station street, and his show cases in the vestibule are well worth a visit.

All accounts due to Mr H. O. Caulton a>-e requested to be paid as soon as possible, and all accounts owing by him will be settled immediately, on receipt o£ accounts.. The Hastings Liedertaiel will hold the first concert of their third season on the 31st inst, at which Miss Tansley, of Napier, and Mr Mac Duff Boyd have been engaged to contribute numbers. After this concert the Society goes into recess.,

A very satisfactory practice of the Messiah, which is shortly to be produced by the Hastings Anglican Church choir, was held m fc>t. Matthew's schoolroom last evening, under the conductorship of Mr J. Chadwick, The soloists have not yet been definitely decided upon, but the chorus work is being practised very earnestly and it is anticipated the oratorio will he the best amateur effort of its kind given in Hastings for years, The Boston Herald of August 10th says : The plan of alloting the lands in the recent opening of the great Inservation in Oklahama is said to have been suggested to the Department of the interior by the description of the New Zealand system in Mr Henry D. Lloyd's book " Newest England. The suggestion, wherever it came from has certainly brought a great gam, and this gai will still be further enhanced if, at the opening of the next reservation, the New Zealand model is followed still more closely through the careful sifting of the list of applicants in advance, so as to exclude the mere adventurers and speculators, and give a preference to men with families who own no homes elsewhere, but who ••>:•? able and anxious to do the work oi pioneers for thepioneer's reward.

A sample of the red-tapeism which seems to characterise everything military (says the Lyttelton Times) is afforded in the experience of a Canterburv volunteer recently. He had qualified for and been presented, with the long service medal, and not, wishing to wear his decoration and risk the chance of losing it, he sent up to the Wellington Defence Office, enclosing one shillings worth of stamps, requesting that a ribbon should be forwarded to him. The Department replied that it could not accept stamps in payment, and advised the applicant to apply again and enclose a postal order for the shilling.

The latest thing for fire insurance agents to do in New York is to be on the spot looking for new business while old business is burning up. One of the canvassers of a New England company made a speciality of following the fire engines, and if the lire happened to he in a tenement house or flat, he waited until the flames were subdued, and reaped a harvest by insuring the other tenants and owners. It did not take the other agents long to catch on, and it is said that the other day after a fire, 21 agents wrote 70 policies in the immediate neighborhood.

A Chicago telegram in the Daily Mail says :Mr Harvey Scott of Faribault, Minnesota, who publicly burned bank notes amounting to £4OO last winter, has just died at the age of 82 In order to prevent his three heirs," whom he disliked,- from getting any more of his property than he could help, his will directs that £SOOO in bank notes shall be burned, and leaves a like sum in stocks to his heirs. The executor thinks that if he burns the money he will be guilty of arson, just as if he destroyed a house or other property, and he refuses to take the risk of going to prison. The heirs will contest the will, alleging insanity.; At the Hastings Magistrate s Court this morning, before Messrs Dennett and D. McLeod, J.P.'s, Alex, McLeod was brought up on remand charged with the theft of £3 10s frm the person of Andrew Flyger, of Palmers-ton North. Accused pleaded guilty, and elected to be dealt with summarily by the Bench. Andrew Flyger's evidence was to the effect that he and accused occupied the same room in a boarding house on the 12th inst. Accused came into the room about 7 o'clock in the evening, when witness was lying on his own bed. Accused took witness' coat and put it on a chair and proceeded to undress, after which he extinguished the light. Subsequently he rose, stating he would go out for a walk. Witness became suspicious, and searching his clothes missed his money. Accused had in the meantime disappeared and witness informed the police, who arrested McLeod with £3 6s in his possession. Sergeant Smart stated that prisoner was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in 1889 for forging and uttering, and to four months' imprisonment recently for theft at Wanganui. Their Worships sentenced accused to one month's imprisonment in Napier gaoL Stamp collectors may be interested to hear that during the last ten years a total of 6635 types of postage stamps has been issued. Europe claimed 780, Asia 1128, Africa 2057, America 2192, and Australia 478 types. The year 1898 holds the record with 896 types as the largest output; and 1899 issued the smallest number, 578 types The world knows little outside the arena of politics of Lord Salisbury, except that he has led a simple life. His hobby is chemistry. A good story is in the latest volume of the Bijou Biographies, to the effect that on one occasion, when summoned to the Premiership, Lord Salisbury was found in his laboratory at Hatfield. He gave to his factotum a bit of wire with which he had been experimenting. Years after, on the day he resigned office, he asked the man for that bit of wire.

The Wanganui ChroDicle supplies the following particulars of Mr W. P. Stuart's death :—On the 6th instant the late Mr Stuart and his brother James were driving in a gig to their father's residence at Waituna. They were decending a cutting in the vicinity of York Farm at a walking pace, when the horse suddenly jumped forward, throwing Mr Ja;i> n Stuart, who was sitting on the back seat, on the road. The horse bolted, and the trap capsized, Mr William Stuart being dragged for some distance and sustaining seyere cuts about the head and body. The brothers, both of whom were rendered unconscious, were taken to Marton, where William's wounds were attended to. On Monday he was brought to Wanganui by the mail train, and taken to his home. On Friday last the many friends of the deceased were horrified to hear that blood-poisoning had set in, and that his condition was causing anxiety. He gradually grew worse, and, as stated praviously, he passed peacefully away at 9 o'clock on Saturday evening. The late Mr Stuart was a son of Mr Alexander Stuart (now of Waituna), and grand-son of General Sir Alexander Leith, and was born in Aberdeenshire. He was educated at Gordon College and at Aberdeen TJniverfity. He came out to the colony in 188&

The approaching season will be a paricularly dry one in Hawke's Bay, aooording to the predictions of the natives, and much concern ia felt for the crops. Considering the great influx of people to the town Hastings has been particularly free from crime, and the police courts bear evidence to the orderly manner in which the great crowds behaved themselves. As a result of the recent nocturnal frost nips the Frimley orchard suffered damage to the extent of £3,000 and Goddard's nurseries to the extent of £3OO. Altogether it is estimated that the orohardists in the immediate vicinity of Hastings sustained a loss of £4,000." Mr E. V. Hudson was yesterday presented with a handsome biscuit barrel by the pupils of Standard V. at the Napier Main School. The presentation was an appreciation by the scholars on the readjustment of the teaching staff.

Before Messrs Dennett and McLeod at the Hastings Police Court this a Maori named Wi Hakawai, for hewi" drunk, was fined 5s and costs 2s or ■ irP default 24 hours imprisonment. ( ,

Perhaps it is just as well that the British War Office, for the sake of its own credit, should try to conceal the fact that it is spending the money of the nation in fortifying the hills around London. Even a Government department does not care to be publicly laughed at. The matter, however, is too serious for laughter, for we are squandering millions upon earthworks that an enemy can have no chance of seeing till the Empire is already in ruins,— Daily Graphic. The Hastings Bowling Club opens tomorrow with the match, President v. Vice-President. Great improvements have been mads on the premises sine • last year, the grounds having been con} siderably extended and some twenty le< t of trellis-work added to the pavilion which will give a very picturesque appearance to the green when the creepers are trained over it. A large number of visitors and members will be present at the opening, and afternoon tea will be provided by Mesdames Land and O'Reilly. A Lyttelton Times reporter went into a field at Halswell, where a farmer was following tha plough. He spoke briefly but intelligently in regard to the effect of the Commonwealth tariff on potatoes and onions, and as he rested for a few minutes on the handle of the plough, he said : "I am surprised and sorry that the duty on potatoes is so high. Speaking as a farmer, I say that the new state of affairs is to be deplored; But speaking as a New Zealander, £ say that I would not sell my birthright for a mess of pottage. What I mean is that I would rather see New Zealand lose the Australian marke% even though it pressed hard on us farmers, than see it in the Commonwealth, shorn of the rights, pnyileges and social blessings it has secured. If the Australian market must cost us our birthright, I say let the darned thing go."