LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 112, 19 April 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ministers of the Society of Friends addressed an audience at the Foresters 1 Hall last night, and were well received, their exhortations being characterized by great eurnestnesa and a most apparent de* site to impress their hearers with the solemu truths of Christianity. Mr C. Whitehead is a cash purchaser of new laid eggs. To- morrow is the date of Dr Curl's weekly visit to Paltneraton, and he can be consulted at Remington's Medical Hall as usual. Mr G. A. Jackson, Bunnythorpe, is advertising for 500 sheep to graze. To-morrow Messrs Stevens & Gorton will hold their uaual monthly stock sale at Awahuri, the catalogue of which is elsewhere advertised. We notice that the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company are calling for tenders for the construction of the Porirua section of the Una. According to the Dublin correspondent of a London paper a statement is current in Galway, and is gaining credence among the superstitions, that the ghost of Myles Joyce, a man who declared his innocence of participation in the Maamtrasna massacre on the scaffold, is seen nightly round and within the prison of Galway. Two soldiery it is said, were visited" while on their guard outside the gaol, a night or two previous, by a tall mysterious figure that laid hold of their rifles. The matrons and wardens have, it is further Baid applied for a transfar. At the Burm Centenary banquet in New Yoik the toast included the following j— " Woman—Sweet as a child, sweeter as a sweetheart, sweetest as a wife j worshipped as a mother, venerated as a grandmother, and treated with awful respect as a mother-in-law." The natives around Opunake complain bitterly as to their treatment by the " sol* diers" at Parihaka. They say that when they went up to welcome Te Whiti and Tohu they were driven away in the rain like dogs. Wauganui natives are about to large presents to Te Whiti. The rumour is that they asked if £500 worth of flonr, sugar, &c, would be sufficient. is said to have teleeraphed back to this effect ;— • ' Send £5,000 worth. la f uturo ttie Maori and the Pakeha shall eat out of the same dish. 1 ' The sentence of death upon Brady, the murderer of Lord F. -Cavendish aud Mr Burke, i« to be carried out on the 14th May, exactly af year aud ten days after the committal of the deed itself. It is highly satisfactory that the police have been able, in face of the complete obscu.. rity in which the affair was at first veiled, to bring the offender to justice in such a comparatively short time. Some people adopt very disreputable tactics to gee behind the anonymity of the Press. . After trying the ineffectual dodge of a "lawyer's letter" to discover the authorship of a letter signed " Obser« ver" which recently appeared ia our columns^ in reference to certain highly improper proceedings which took place lastfYiday evening at the railway engineshed, the uext step has been to intervibW a member of our staff, and try to worm out of him the desired information. Of course this move, Soo, was an unsuccessful as those which preceded it, and the in* quirer left as wise as before, but still eager for information. It is satisfactory to learu that publication of the letter in question has been productive of good, in that the assembling of boys in the engine shed after dark, and the other goings»on to which " Observer" alluded, do not take place. We trust there will be no further attempts made to worm out office secrets, even .under the reiteratedj assurance that no use will be made* of the information thus sought to be surreptitiously obtained. A writer in the Ecletic Magazine af* firms that mushrooms are highly poison* ous unless they are well boiled. Experiments tried on a dog proved this. .Now that people can get such an abundance they should bear this in mind. Waikato settlers are beginning to feel the present depression, which we (Auckland Herald) hope is only temporary. Tae tightness of money has prevented both borrowing and selling, and some of the settlers are forced to release at a sacrifice We do not wonder at farming in the Waikato being unremunerative, seeing that labourers there demand 9s per day. One of the good signs of the times ;s (says the Auckland Herald) that working men are generally, acquiring little freehold properties of their own. Some of them tell us that the present demands consider* ably exceed the supply ; and if we add to this the fact that immense sums are being accumulated; in the Savings Bank, we I cannot help commending the good sense of the working classes; Evidently many of them are making hay while the sun shines. ' It is whispered that the movement for establishing a cheese factory in Wanganui has been taken up by some of the leading settlers, and that negotiations are proceedig for suitable premises at Okoia. A meeting of those interested will be called in a few days. When will we have the pleasure of announcing that a similar movement has been inaugurated in Palmerston 1

The whole of the forenoon at the R.M. Court to«day was taken up with the affiliation case Paltridge v. Taylor. Ultimately the case was dismissed, the A.M. com sidering the allegation of paternity insufficiently proved against the defendant, Mr Bentley convenes a meeting of all persona interested in the formation of a fire brigade for Palmerston, for 8 o'clock on Monday evening, at the Commercial Hotel. The front exterior of the Publio Hall already weara a much more attractive appearance, the repairs in hand adding materially to its outward respectability. The tender of Messrs Marsh and Smith has been accepted for the additions to the Commercial Hotel,, the contract price i being L375. The work is to be convr menced immediately, and the additions will comprise a suite of rooms, with private entrance, special apartments for ladies, and roomy sample rooms underneath. Every appointment will be of the best, and the additions when completed will greatly enhance the capabilities of the present very popular hostelry. They are having a rumpus in Master* ton orer their Town Band much the same as was lately experienced in Palmerston, and more recently in Marton and Patea. A. Mr Buddie is now in Manawatu travelling in the" interests of the Auckland Weekly News, which is perhaps the best and most deservedly popular weekly journal published in the colony. Monday next, the 23rd inst. will be a bank holiday, being that known as St. George's Day. The banks will not advertise the fact, and to save the publio inconvenience we afford it gratoitons publicity in onr local columns.