PALMERSTON NORTH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 978, 28 November 1890, Page 32

PALMERSTON NORTH.

(from our own correspondent.) . November 21.

The past ten days have been a time of great bustle and excitement in our busy town. What with the agricultural show (which you fully reported, and at which some 6500 people were present), the Fire Brigade Band’s concert, the Horticultural Society’s first show (which proved a spleudid success), the Rev Chas. Clarke’s lectures, Mr J. L. Toole’s performances (given to a house crammed from floor to ceiling), the concert in aid of the Roman Catholic Church fund, and, perhaps as important as any, Mr J. G. Wilson’s address to the electors, we have been kept continually on the qui vive, and are only now settling down to something like our normal state. Stirring times are, however, still before us, as the mayoral and Parliamentary elections, more especially the latter, will for the next fortnight largely engross public attention, and I believe everyone will be glad when we can quietly resume the usual routine of .daily life. Besides the events above named, I must not omit to mention the completion, during the last few days, of the very handsome spire of the Roman Catholic Church in Broad street, which is quite an ornament to the town. The spir9, I may remark, is 65ft high, and rests upon a massive square tower of the same height, within which it was built, and to the sum* . rait of which it has been raised telescope fashion by the aid of powerful lifts. I purpose sending you later of description of the church itself when finished.

A flax mill at Terrace End, owned by Mr R. P. Edwards, was ou Saturday entirely destroyed by fire. On Monday the Dew school in Campbell street, which has been built instead of the old Central School, was opened without any formality. In this connection, I may repeat what I have often said before, that it is high tnno Palmerston should have the management of its own affairs in school matters as well as having its own hospital, and it is the hopis of all that Mr Wilson, if returned, will, as promised, do his best to carry out the wishes of the people in regard to these questions. Had the erection of the new school been under the direction of a Palmerston board, we should not have seen a building put up, which is even now inadequate to the requirements of the place.