THE Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1886. LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXII, Issue 164, 14 July 1886, Page 2

THE Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1886. LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

♦__ . Hunt Cmjb. —Members of the Wairan Hunt Club are reminded of the adjourned meeting at half-past 7 o'clock to-night, to further consider the pack of dogs question. PoßGiNfl the RoMi.— On the application of Mr J. J. White, Registrar of Electors, the name of James Hollyman was yesterday morning expunged from the Wairau Electoral Roll. Borough Coxmctrj.— The next meeting of the Borough Council will take place on Friday night next, when several notices of motion and other very important business will come up for discussion, Ihstitdtb Entertainment. — A firstolass programme has been prepared for the popular entertainment to be given to-night m the Institute Reading Room. , His Worship the Mayor will take the 1 chair. Songs, readings, concerted musio, and instrumental selections will be given. Admission is only sixpence, and the pro ceedings open at half past 7 o'clock. Dashwood Contract.— Fifty men are wanted at once for the Dashwooad Railway contract. Of the sixty men employed on the works the larger proportion have struck, owing to a dispute about the "tucker" arrangements. Salmon.— Mr W. E. P. Clouston, flon Secretary of the Marlb.rough Acclimatisation Sooiety. has received intimitioa that, on the 20th of June, 3000 young salmon from Nelson were placed m the Pelorus river, and distributed without the loss of a single fish. Ihe cost to the Marlbo-ongh Society ia only £5 13h C). A Deporabt.e Fact.— Out of all the provincial districts of New Zealand, Morlborongh and Westland are the only two m which there has been a falling off m the number of holdings m 1886 as compared with 1885. In every other district there was a considerable insrease. The figures m the two exceptions are :—Marlborough, 1885, 77* ; 1880, 74s ; dacreaae of 30— Westland, 1835, 3iß ; 1886, 330 ; decrease of 18. The Gas Works.— lt will be seen from our report m another column that the Borough Council intend to oppose the Wairau Gas Company's Bill m Parliament, and to take steps to asoercain the value of the works with a view to. purchasing them for the Corporation. Last night's meeting was private, the press being excluded, and we cannot give the details of the dißcusßion. All the resolutions were carried unanimously. Shearino.— The shearers of Marlborough are naturally dissatisfied with the intention of the sheep farmers to reduce the shearing rates from £1 to 153 per 100, and a meeting of shearers is to be held on Saturday night at the Odd Fellows' Hall to take the matter into consideration. It certainly seems unfair that the rates should be greatly reduced at a time when wool has considerably risen. Taking into account the prospects of broken weather 15s is little enough. No Ligitm.-~ Messrs Douslin and Turnbull, J.P.s occupied the Bench to-day. Mrs Sadd was fined iia and 7i costs for not carrying lights to her vehicle. Mr Thomas Davies acid Mr James Curuow, ou the same charge, pjeaded excuses which the Bench accepted, and they were allowed to escape on payment of costs. Petty Theff.— Mrs Palchett, of Para, was victimised by some petty thief on Monday last. She was m a baker's shop m Blenheim, and her perambulator, con taining a baby and a purse with, some money m it, was left outside on the footpath. When plie cinie nut of the shop she found that a pasaprby had taken the purse, though the lnby was undisturbed. Moral for ladies— keep your purses m your pockets. /Spßixc.TiANDs School CoinrtTTEE. —At 'the meeting of householders, heldlagt night at Springlands, 15 were preFenr. Mr A. J. LitchSeld was voted to the chair, and the advertisement calling the meeting having been read, the following were nominated for the School Committee :— Messrs B.' Barnes, A. J. LitehfieW; W. Tindill, J. Batty, T. Davies, G. Maaon. J. Bartlfitt, J. Thompson, W. Connell, Jas. Sinolair, und E. Rowe. On a ballot being taken, -the first seven were duly elected. The meeting then prooaeded to consider the boundaries of the district, whioh were pointed out on a map lent by the Omaka Road Board. Resolved, on the motion of Mr James Sinclair, 3econdci by Mr Ge i. Mason-vThat the boundaries set forth m the petition presented to the Education Board be the boundaries of the Springlands School District. At a Committee meeting held immediately afterwards, Mr Liteh field was eleoted Chairman, and the Committee then adjourned till Tuesday, July 20, at /-30 p.m. Lecture on Volcanoes.— The Spring" Creek Mutual Improvement Society had their first meeting last night, the Rev. F. H. Spencer lecturing on volcanoes. The lecturer spoke of the various theories m connection with volcanic agency and the causes vf earthquakes, accompanied by accounts of various eruptions and shocks, speaking particularly of the eruptions of Vesuvius, Etna, and Hecla and of the earthquakes of Lisbon and South Ameiica, and of tidal waves. The following specimens were exhibited :- Volcanic dust blown from Tarawera to Gisborne, l'2O miles (kindly lent by the Express) pumice and a lava brooch from Pompeii and ITerculaneum, with views .and sketches of the Yellowstone region, Mts. Etna and Vesuvius, and Tarawera Like and Mountain, The next lecture will take place on Tuesday 27th inst., and will be on the crust of the earth, wbtft is above it and below it. /Football.— The Marlborough football team returned to Pioton yesterday and reached Blenheim at 4 o'clock this morning. Their trip to Nelson was certainly not very successful, but the local papers speak highly of the play of F. Dodson, Pauling, and other members of the team. The Colonist says that the Nelson and Star Clubs have good cause to be proud of their victories, for they were. gained "over a team which contains some eminently good players who clearly understand how football should^ be played." On Monday evening the visitors were entertained at a Btnoke concert at Coffee's Nelson Hotel. Our men speak well of the cordiality of the Stars, but very little courtesy or attention appears to have been displayed by the Jfelsons. The Prince Alberts— who were unable to play a match last week — intend to come through to Blenheim next month. Healthy Corpses.— The followers of Te Whiti assert that m two years their chief and prophet will raise to life all dead natives throughout the island for the purpose of sweeping the pakelus from i the oonntry. Man op Few Woudh.— One of the brief. eflt charges which have ever been delivered to a Grand Jury was that made by the Chief Justice, at Wellington on Monday morning. It comprised 81 words, and i its delivery occupied 15 seconds.

How the Cat Jctfra.— The Duke of H Devonshire (says the Warwick Argus) * Iraws au anuual rent of £31,3*26 from his Irish estates. The Marquis of Hartiogton is the Duke's eldest son. This may explain the noble MarquU' recent desertion of his chief. " Human rights for human beings " is nowhere m the race with the " almighty dollar." The 3xowsTony.— A. Maori from Stewart Island visited Dunedin the other day, m order to see life. In company with a friend he spent a good deal of his time m going over the refrigerating works. They were m full swing at the time of his visit, and he was intensely astonished at seeing the way m which snow was turned out. It was the only sample of the article he had .'ever seen. He went home for the night, fnll of his novel experiences, Next morning, on getting up, he discovered that rooks, trees, sand and buildings were enveloped m a ghostly white. He rushed out to his guide of the previous day m a state of dreadful alarm, and said he wanted to go home to Stewart Island. Asked why, the guileless one replied that the freezing works had burst, and ho was afraid of losing his life ! Volcanic Noises.— The following interesting passage occurs m Dr Hector's Report on the Tarawera eruption ; — Muoh bag been said about noises heard at Auckland, Wangonni, and other places. From the times mentioned, these appear to have been due to the reverberating reports accompanying the Taraweia outbreaks. Some of these noiess may have been propagated through the atmosphere, and reflected to the earth from the under surface of the stratiform clnud-3l:e.?ts that were widely spread m various directions over the Colony on that morning. OtherH, again, may have been propagated through the earth. But I have been informed that at the whaling settlement of Tawaite, on the east entrance of Tory Channel, from 0 p.m. up to about 8 p.m. on the evening of the 9th (the night preceding the eruption), loud booming reports were heard as if through the earth. As these reports were previous to any symptom of the loud disturbances at Tarawera, this suggests that they may have resulted from a slight movement along the great fault-lines that traverse the North and South Islands m a north-easterly direction ; and, m (his case, the immediate oause of the Tarawera outburst may be found m a locjl fracture resulting from suoh movement. Discontbsted Shearers. — A telegram from Bourke says that all the shearers have refused to work on the Dunlop station, owing to the reduction made m the rate of pay by the station owners, m consequence of the depression m the pastoral industry. The police were called from Louth to clear off the men as trespassers. The shearers dispersed quietly, hut as they number 100 and seem determined to refuse work at the reduced rate, it is expected they will organise resistance. It is rumoured that a strike and a riot is anticipated at Nocoleohe station, on the Paroo river, and the police have been sent for. From onr Loath correspondent we hear that at a large meeting of shearers, held at Dunlop station on Monday, it was unanimously resolved to strike unless the old rate of 20j per 100 was paid. TELEaium Forms.— Tne Pink Terraces having disappeared by the eruption, the Telegraph Department has resolved to perpetuate their memory m the new telegraph forms. The latter are likely also to disappear by an eruption of the press. Ode innovation introduced with the change of forms will be appreciated by the overworked operators. That is the simple method of stamping the date, instead of writing >t on the receiving forms. A few years ago a great-fus3 was made m Blenheim by the red tape officials when the operators adopted this method of affixing the ilate, but even red tape has to give way aotneiimea before convenience. — Manawatu Times. Moskv Baos M.P. — It may be taken as typical of the altered state of feeling m England, ami the Conservative reaction consequent on Mr Gladstone's Home Rule policy, (says the Napier Telegraph) that Sir Samuel Wilson has at last been able to secure a seat. He has repeatedly tried to secure the honor, but though he spent money m a fctyle which, to our credit be it said, is utterly unknown m these dayß, no constituency woull. have either him or his money bags. IUacALTiY Bills of Costs. —One of the members of our Assembly, writes the Sydney correspondent o! the Melbourne Argus has lately been presented to the publio m a rather unfavourable light. He is a solicitor, and managed the case of one of his clients so badly that it was lost. The client sued him for damages, and recovered £450 . Th i i was bad enough, but worse remained behind, for it came out that the blunder na* due to the pleadings being drawn badly, and the pleadings were drawn by himself. Yet m the bill sent m to the client a charge was made f>r attendance on counsel and taking his opinion. The excuse made by the solicitor for tui3 overcharge was that it was a very common thing m the profession—a statement which the Judge refused to believe. Plus Speaking. —The Evening Post thus refers to " Dear Pollen's " opposition to the bill for abolishing the gol I duty : — It is all very well for fossil politicians like Dr Pollen to sneer at the miners an 1 their work/- but we venture to say that the diggers of the colony have done far more w promote its interests and progress — ''are, iv fact, ftr better colonists than the clans of whom Dr Pollen is such an admirable representative, the official Tite Birnaoles family, who consider it the highest duty of the general public to maintain them m comfortable positions where the pay is grod and the work slight. If we mistake not Dr Pollen is even now a pensioner on the bounty of a colony which for very many years generously supported him as a kind of professional politician, and it ill becomes him to speak iv terms of contempt and disrespect of the hard-working diggers to whose labor the colony is, as the Minister of Mines showed so well last night, so largely indebted fir sach prosperity as it now enjoy-. Ross m the Famicy.— The Wanganni Chronicle has the following yarn:— "l say, \vi, what are yon ?" said a budding politician at one of onr local scholastic institutions a day or two ago, m the course of a chatty conversation with his paternal relative. " Well, I suppose they would call me a Conservative," said the father. "Ah! I'm ghd of that," replied the youngster, " I'm a Conservative myself !" Chavoimq its Nature. — A lion's cub born m a Liverpool menagerie and deseited by its mother, was given to a female dog and reared along with her litter of puppies. The strange fact is that it now refuses its natural food — raw flesh— but partakes freely of any cooked food, especially vegetables of all kinds, and actually takes tea with relish. It has become quite attached to the keeper's wife, and follows her like a dog. She Didn't Object.— "Pnff " m the Wellington Evening Press will have bis little joke : — Lunched with the Queen ! Her Majesty very affable ! Agreeably sunprised to find cobnists so eivilizod ! JJneir good behaviour at table oaused ffTeneral admiration among the royal flunkies ! The only contretemps was when a leading colonist got up as soon as the pudding was done, and asked the Queen if she had any objections to smoking ! What did she say ? She said she thought it a bad habit, but if it would tend towards the federation of the Empire, she begged the gentleman would light up and she would try to blow a cloud herself ! Ah, staunch as usual ! Grand Constitutional Sovereign ! Always ready to I ftanrifico herflolf for the good of her peo-j pie I I