MASTERTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1315, 13 May 1897, Page 18

MASTERTON.

A special meeting of the Masterton School Committee, to consider the selection made by the Education Board of a first assistant for the local school, was held last week. After some discussion, it was decided to support the action of the old committee, and oppose the appointment made by the Board. A lad named Joseph Nicholls was mounting a horse last week when the animal suddenly made off and dragged him, with his head downwards, for a considerable distance. The lad escaped with a sprained ankle and a number of abrasions. The new .Masterton School Committee has been described as the “ Masterton Blacksmith and Wheelwright Association,” six of its members being connected with the blacksmith and wheelwright business. The annual meeting of the Masterton Licensing Bench is t > be held early next month. Application '.s to be m .do lor a license for a hotel at MaurLooville Last. A hotel in i-Uis locality has long been required, as it is just half-way between Masterton and Eketahuna, aud travellers are crying out for better accommodation. People in Masterton are not yet quite reconciled to the new railway time-table, and a number of ludicrous mistakes have been made. There will be two vacancies on the Masterton Trust Lands Trust this month, and there are likely to be quite a number of aspirants for the position. Mr D. J. Cameron has been re-elected chairman of the Masterton Road Board. Tlie Government is establishing fish hatcheries in the TJrewera country, and 150,000 trout ova are to be sent from the Masterton hatcheries. The ordinary meeting of the Muster Lon Borough Council was held last week, the Mayor (Mr C. A. Pownall) presiding. The overdraft was reported to ba l'lfl. _ A quantity of correspondence was dealt with. ft was decided that in future all cesspits constructed in the town be in concrete and air-tight. The Borough Council must have a queer idea of the laws of health if it permits too construction of another cesspit in the town. These pits which are already numerous are receptacles for all kinds of filth, and cannot fail

| v to injuriously affect the public health. It seems extraordinary that in a township of the size and importance of Masterton there should be no system of drainage. An outbreak of some dangerous malady will probably convince ratepayers of the seriousness of their neglect. When the article was penned for the Times suggesting the application of tar to the word “ Brownston,” which appears on the Hukanui Bailway Station, it was perhaps hardly realised that the work of tarring was then proceeding. Last week the station appeared as if in mourning, the objectionable “Brownston” being not only tarred, but feathered. The settlers insist that the name of Hukanui be inserted, and will probably wipe out “ Brownston ” every time it is painted .on the station. The work of erecting the station buildings on the Eketahuna-Pahiatua line of railway was carried through with undue haste. Most of the timber used was only cut a few days before it was placed in the buildings. What the result will be can easily be foretold. As soon as the summer arrives the timber will warp, and it will cost a lot of money to repair the station buildings. Maurice Lyon, formerly of Palmerston North, has purchased Mr J. Fabian’s interest in the Club Hotel at Greytown, and. will take possession at the end of the present month. Another caso of typhoid fever was reported to the Board of Health last week, the medical man expressing the opinion that the disease was contracted through a stream in the locality being polluted. This question is ono of importance to the town. There are several streams running through the heart of the town, which are more or less polluted with drainage and other filth. The Board of Health intends securing a report. - The sum of .£IOO 4s 3d has been subscribed here to date in aid of the Bay Belief Fund. A man named Henry Eagle, jun., fell from a horse at Mauriceville and sustained a fracture of one of his arms, besides a severe laceration of his head. A porter at Eketahuna named Griffin had three of his toes cut off by a truck passing over his foot. The report that the house of Mr Hunter in Short street was destroyed by fire mi Wednesday evening turns out to be incorrect. The house was near that of Mr Hunter, but was the property of Mr 3 Treader, who was away in Pabiatua at the time. Her son had lit a fire in the afternoon to warm some water. He afterwards went out to tea, and it is evident that a spark from the fireplace caught the house. The building, which' contained seven rooms, was insured for .£l5O in the National office, the furniture for ,£BO, aud outbuildings for £lO. Very little was saved. A number of the main thoroughfares of Mastorton have been newly metalled. This is good in its way, but to cyclists it proves a perfect curse. Many patrons of the wheel have preferred to risk being dragged before the “ beak ” for riding along the footpaths than to sacrifice their tyres and their comfort by riding over the stones.

The Fire Brigades of Masterton are scurvily treated by the tradespeople of the town, the local authority and the insurance companies. The whole of the men —a fine set of fellows they are —give their services to the town free of charge, and yet are not provided with sufficient funds to keep themselves decently clad. The football season is now in, and everybody must needs stand at the street corner, expectorate upon the dress of the lady passer-by, ask one another why in the name of everything that is adjectively bad they did not kick the “ bally " goal, and make themselves generally at home and pleasant with a smile. Yes, football is in—and young men are out. The demand for sheep in this district shows a slight falling off, and those who bought a few months ago at high figures are beginning to munch their digits. There is some talk of one or two large Wellington firms starting business here. Considerable surprise was expressed here when it became known that John Engel had been arrested in Wellington on a charge of theft. Engel was for a considerable time right-hand man in one of our local hotels* and was afterwards manager of the BJairlogie Junction Hotel. A good many people think it strange that applications should be made for a license for a hotel at Mauriceville, seeing that under the Act the number of licenses in a district cannot be increased unit ss under exceptional cii eumslunoes. I t appears, however, that the 1 icon so of the hotel at Grassetulalo was cancelled, aud as the electors voted for continuance there is a license to spare. It seems strange that some enterprising city man does not purchase one of the vacant sections in Masterton, where there are only six hotels, and apply for a license. The other day the Conservative organ of this town published an item relative to tho co-operative railway work, in which it sought to show that under the co-operative system these works had been much more expensive than they would have been under the contract system. The figures quoted by the Hon W. Hall-Jones at Pahiatua clearly prove to the contrary. It is true, as stated by the local organ, that there is a tunnel on the line between Masterton and Ekeiahuna, and none between Eketahuna and Pahiatua. This would not, however, account for the great difference of price in favour of the cooperative system. " Moreover, there is one large bridge on the Eketahuna-Pahia-tua section which must have cost more than the small tunnel this side of Eketahuna, and the cuttings on the two sections of lino are about the same in number and size. It is doubtless painful for opponents of the co-operative system to have to admit its success. But facts and figures are stubborn things.