LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume VIII, Issue 128, 7 November 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

-. Rfctatoesjire selling m Folding at the ', rate of £10 per ton. The Press Assoei&tion says the raembers 1 ball on Wednesday night was a ; grrfnd affair; Thirty-eight dozen of champagne were consumed. Just so. s iCh expected that the Wanganuj ] Heads -Railway will be open before ■Christmas. Monday next will' be' Went holiday,, to celebrate the birthday pi the Priuce of Wales'. ' ! - The s.Si Tui took a fall cargo ef wool and r*«pe from Rangitikei th.c other day. Mr D. Scott and one or two other settlers m lower Rangitikei have finished shearing. ;• ;, ij . ■■!':' „ The, property Tax .Bill provides Jor the levying of; a tax for the yaar commencing on the Ist of April last of ttrree efgh<£ of a penny m the £ on all property, and I,ls. 3d for every £100 of preLmiums received by the insurance comj>ani6B. We notice that the orops m lower Ri ingitikei give every promise of an ab undant yield. Mr J. Burne's oats and wh eat look particularly forward, being fuL 'y a, foot a.nd a-half high aud pretty thic -ki . . T, he whole of the stores and places of bush loss will be dosed m Feilding on Mom lay nexttocomiTaemoratethe Prince pf W ales' birthday. We presume the day « !ill also be generally' observed as a Public holiday m Palraei'.ston. Spot forth the demon bowlor, has stayed behind m England to get married. 'Twas also rep ortod. that Blackham, the champion wn :k«t keeper, was to become a Benediul m the Old Country. ;_ . The G> belong waterworks, on which £350 000 was spent have proved a complete failt ire owing to incapable engineering. A meetu ig of the shareholders of the .New Zeala nd Leather Manufacturing Company, \ v ellington, is called for Friday, the 14t h instant, to discuss a resolution recom mending the winding up of the Company •

The uext sitting of the Folding B.M • Court on Wednesday the 12th inst, will be a more than usually ' interesting one. An affiliation case, several criminal, and 1 civil eases are to be heard, al), being of, greater or. less interest. .' Fanny Bonnington, tho Blenheim girl who was found not guilty of concealment of birth, and who was ordered to be kept m the luua£ip asylum,duriug the pleasure' of the ' Colonial Secretary, has been found quite sane, and will be discharged m a few days. A large number of sections at Woodville were sold m Napier on' Wednesday, by Messrs Banner and Liddle, at prices 'varying from £26 to £63 the section. In answer to Mr Bruce, the Defence Minister said the Government would re- • lax the restriction on the sale of amnnition so as to allow, itito-be liold tjll ,6 p.m. instead-of 4 p.m. The Auckland Star notes it to bea remarkable fact that although at the Triumph's trial trip excusion£l6o worth of liquor was consumed, not, a single,, silver spoon was missing. Apparently such a result of a social gathering is unusual m Auckland. ■ . The Jane Donglas will leave Foxton for Wellington to-morrow at 10 p.m. Thomas Boyd, a blacksmith,.; was charged at the Wellington 'Besident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday with having, on October 27,. unlawfully, rescued from William Olley two cows besing5 ing driven to |he pu,blio poynd Johnson ville. Evidence was' faken L for the •prosecution,- -and a fine •ot 10a was inflicted on the accused. A second charge was preferred against Boyd, of having assaulted Joseph Palmer on the same occasion. , For this offence he was, fined 20s and costs, or m default seven days' imprisonment. ; That was a good story which came recently from .Staten Island (N.Y.) about how a robust andpldcky girl of nineteen protected herself and her sister frora.thje assault of a powerful negro. The si'sterfe Jived alone m their cottage* ■ The ruffia|r, .wrenched the window open,and entered their room m the dead of night. ; Thfe elder sister did not waste time m screanjing and fainting, but gust doubled he* fist and s^ave him a ' blow m the faoe that actually felled him to the floor,; then, womanlike, she flew at him With hex nails. She says: "I kept hitting and scratching as I could." By thto time the negro had learnt that discretion was the better part of valor. The neighlirnKfl were beg'nning'to be aroused, and the fellow . m: do for the 'wjtidow ; with mora haste than he entered it. The? oilce more the yotirig lady gave him a soanding blow that drove him sprawling uppn the ground. / i Kill a 1 snake m Egypt, a mere tenißich oi a baby of a snake, and leave ij; m the open desert, with a lif ejess horizon of sand all round, and the spotless bowl of blue over-head ; within half an bout far tip m the sky, a tiny speck grows gradually visible. Larger and larger it looms upon the eye, and ;at lait swoops to the base earth with a magnificent ex* panse of twelve-foot wing power, closes his pinions, and lo ! a Bird no bigger than a gooße, with cjruel^ restless eyes, crooked beak, and loathsome,; liaked face and wrinkled neck, advances; with ungainly hops towards the small but dainty msal, a decomposing Teptile. A question of interest to Friendly; was put to the Government a few days ago by Mr Hatch, member for Invercargill. Mr Hatch asked if the 1 Government would make such aeoncession as will allow delegates of the various Friendly Societies to travel on the Government railways at the excur Bton rates to their annual meetings of Relegates.— ln rqply," the Mjnister , of Public Works said' such concession would be'made if a sufficient number of > delegates were likely to travel by railway, and the matter would be looked into, during the recess. •' About six' or seven years ag<j writes a! Wairarapa paper Messrs. Rockef, Bacon, Parsons, Donnelly, aud D. Donald die- ■ covered a promising 'lodkirig Quartz reef; at Mikimiki. A~"aample of the stone, was forwarded to Dr Hector, who reported that it contained gold,, but not m payable quantities. Eecehtly Mr W.-ight, a prospector from Wellington, , has been at work m the neighborhood,! and it is stated he has,/found alluvial j gold m the adjacent creek. A claim: has; been pegged but, samples of the quartz ! have been sent to Wellington, and it is j understood that Mr Wright ; has gone there to form a' company, Mr M. Rockel and party have also pegged out a claim on the reef, and it ia their intention, if possible, to form a company . .m Masterton for the purpose of testing j it. The next English and European mail , will close at the Palmerston post office , this evening at 7.45 p.m. ; The operation of taking up cargo! from the Lastingham is proceeding very satisfactorily: The "vessel is .broken m three pieces. .»■ ? ■' . ' According to the Feilding paper; one man aikWrefused to sign the petition i (since forwarded to J. G. Wilson, the; raembor for Foxton) against the diversion of the Ashurst-Bunnythorpe line of . railway to Terrace End. He did so on . the ground that the engines running on ; the existing Wanganui-Manawatu rail- i way had already killed more cattle thaa ! he could afford to louse, and a second . line running near hiß ; unfenced land would utterly ruin him by extirpating j the whole of his stock. - ■ : •' Robin Hood's" consultation on the Melbourne Cup was drawn with the fol- : lowing result :— The first prize, £956, ; goes to Kaipoi ; the second, £430, to j Christchurcb ; and the third. £230, to Tairua, on the oast coast of- Auckland. : Our local perruquier will again figure , •at the next sittings Of the R.M. Court as j defendant m a case of drunkenness, j (saysthe Feilding paper) On Tuesday j last the powerful medicine he finds it ; necessary to absorb for hygienic pur- ; pwes bo overcame him that it required the assiatancfl of two J.P.s and the post- j master to calm him down. The marriagei ttf MrSftmraers of the firm oi Summers and Mayhew, of Feilding, with. Miss Sarah Jane Dowden, of Halcombe, was celebrated m the Anglican ChHrch yesterday by the Rev Joshua Jones; . After the ceremony the happy couple departed by the noon train to Foxton en route for Wellington, where they will spend the honeymoon. Tho Public Works Statement hints ;at a new classification of railway rates, (says a southern exchange) ljt is to be hoped that this will be the final prbcess. Surely no railway tariff on earth has been more tinkered tban ours, find there is none that gives less satisfaction. Complaints of the same character are, however, rife throughout "the Colonies, and it would be well if when the new Bcale is being prepared, it could be based upon the principles adopted by the great British Companies, about which one seldom or never bears complaints. In reply. to a question the Minister of ; Puplic Works said that m regard to establishing or subsidising creoaoting works m suitable localities, m order to utilise the timber of the colony for railr wav sleepers, it was intended to call for tenders for creosoting sleepers, and| that it was not the intention of the Government to go out of the colony to procure aloepers.

It ia said that the Natives from north I and south, are gathering m large numbers at Parihaka. On, Sunday, sixty Natives arrived there from Waikato, via the Mokau, and ajbout 200 from the South. In view of the present outbreak of erysipelas there, ij; would be advis-j able to keep the visitors as far as posY sible from the infected Maorics. '' At the last meeting of the Foxton. Town Board, the late Ranger forwarded, a list of horses and cattlo (great aud small) found wandering. £n,,.t£e, public.. ,. roads during the month of October. The list gave the "names of all the owners whb where known,and showed a total 218 head. - . Accompanying the report" was the following statement :— " I may state that a conversation tookplace between ■myself and Mr Pureeli (Chairman of the Board), after I had impounded a grey horse belonging to hi my to. -the effect that it was not worth while interfering with anything on the back streets (raeauing cattle) that they could not do much ' harm, but to impound off the streets and to use discretion. S. TajjSLEY." k "fheFrench steamer Havre, -en route lor Noumea with troops, has put inito Melbourne her boilers having burst. „ The thrae, mile walking match'between Lawis and O'Connor, of New Zealand, which took place m. Melbourne was won by three yards by the. latter m 23min i Hanlan, Laycock, R. Edwards, S. Edwards and Matherson have entered for the professional sculling raoe at the> Albert Park Aquatic Carnival. • { At the recent sitting of the Supreme Court m Taranaki, Mr Justice Gillies r.e-> marked that five out of six criminal cases for trial might very well have been disposed of by the Magistrates who co^n-, m\tted. ; Mr D. B. Walier, who accompanied the Age expendition to, New Guinea, Was instructed Mr Theodre Fink^ his solicitor, to bring an action for libel against the Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Melbourne Daily Telegraph claiming m, ; eaph) ease; 1 £2000 '-damages.' Mi* Walker' went to New Guinea as special corre,s-. pondent for the Age. He complains of charges of wholesale murder of nativps by dynamite made against him by the papers mentioned, .. i:. , I The Estimates were rushed through Committee of Supply last night at ia tremendous ' pace, which almost preluded discussion. Hoo, members felt they had done their duty to the country by refusing an extra £100 to the Cle^k of the Legislative Council, and striking a similar sum off the salary of the Examiner of Standing Orders on Private Bills. This done, they swallowed vote's by tens of thousands. Their action was really very paltry, and wei (PqstJ do riot think they will _gain much approval from the public m regard to it. ; The banks will be closed on Monday!, bepause all business places will be open, dn Tuesday the banks will be open, but the business places will be shut. Happy result remarks the Napier Telegraph-r---bank clerks get two holidays. : The face of nature looks beautiful after a shower, but we can't say the^ame about the face of & pearl-powdered,rough young lady, if she happens to be caught m one without her umbrella. „