LOCAL AND GENERAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 893, 18 September 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The baruue Lochnagar, now on her way to Wellington, is expected to arrive here about the beginning of November, to load wool for London clirept, and will meat with quick despatch. Those who are m the habit of attending our amateur concerts, whether the object has been one for supplmeuting a charitable fund, or raising money for some club, or for whatever other desirable purpose it may have been got up, those concerned m it have always be pleased a m obtaining the gratuitous services of aucti excellent amateur vocalists as Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Cooper. Indeed, a local concert has never been considered complete without these ladies assisted, aud to their very great credit they have never on any occasion, where the oliject h;is been a laudable one, refused to give their beat assistance. For the-r many good services, always so kindly and readily rendered, it is proposed these two ladies should have a benefit given to them on Saturday evening as the Masonic Hall. The programme, as might be expected, is of the very best. It would be impossible for others to refuse to Mrs." Jones and Mrs. Cooper the aid which they themselves have always been so ready to render. Under these circumstances we look for a bumper hall on Saturday evening. A parade of entires, under the auspice's of the Pastoral and Agricultural Society, is advertised to be held to-morrow, m Gisborno, from 12 o'clock till 2 p.m.

The annual general meeting of the Pastoral and Agricultural Society will be held m the Masonic Hotel at 2 p.m. tomorrow, when important matters affecting the welfare of the society will be brought, forward. . ' ' . j Two additional pupil teachers to the present staff at the Gisborne School being required, the committee met last evening to receive applications for which an advertisement had been inserted m both papers. There were five altogether, and from these Miss Forbes and Aliss Lysnar were recommended to the Board for' appointment. To an application which -had ben made, the committee expressed its willingness to allow representatives of the press to be present at its meetings. We remind readers of a very interesting entertainment, which is announced for j this evening, m MacFarlane's Hall. This consists of a performance and variety entertainment of the Maori Haka Troupe, previous to their departure for the Sydney Exhibition. It is an entertainment unique of its kind, and well worth witnessing. We are very nearly full of the Telegraph Department (remarks the Southland News). On Thursday we received a message to the effect that Mr. H. Eledwiek might weil have " the feeling attributed to the spout of the old woman." It is commonly believed that there 1 was considerable desolation on tue receipt of this news, but it is not true that tue messenger suffered any personal violence. We only asked him to get the message repeated. It came back unaltered, with the expection that " spout "' was made "spirit." Even then we suffered him to depart m p^ace. Knowing that the message was merely a clippiug from the Timaru Telegraph (and so, we may observe, probably sent m for transmission m fair priut), we struck out this libel on our old friend, and awaited the arrival of the journal m question. The passage then stood thus: — "The feeling attributed to the spirit of the old Roman." In the shop window of Mr. Thompson, Ohristchurch, was the other day exhibited a well drawn cartoon representing Sir George Grey as Adam and Ghristchurch as Orlando m "As You Like It." Beneath the picture was the tollowing quotation from Act 11, soene3: — "Adam: Let me be your servaut, though I look old yet I am strong and lusty. . . . My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly. Let. me go with you ; I'll do the service of a young man m all your business and necessities." Orlaudo : " 0 good old man, how well m this appears the constant service of the antique world, wheu service sweat for duty not for mead." The like- " ness of Sir George Grey is by no means a v bad one, and he is represented as leaning On a staff labelled "Experience." In tlie back ground a fox is seen running away from a trap, labelled Templary, m whicii he has left his tail, labelled "Beer." The testimonial humbug has been well illustrated m Melbourne very recently. On the occasion of his farewell benefit " handsome " George Rignold was presented with a locket by a number of his admirers m recognition of his efforts to raise the standard of the drama m Victoria. In making the presentation, Mr Coppiu referred m glowing terms to Mr Kignold's attainments, and intimated that on mis return to Europe he would not, like many other professional visitors, run down the colony. .Now comes tue sqeuel. Mr Kiguold left by steamer on the following Tuesday, but as he was on the point of sailing, lie was interviewed on behalf of a well-known theatrical manager, and requested to pay £14, his share of tue cost of the locket presented to him. Mr Rignold tore the ornament off his chain, dashed it from him, and, m. true melodramatic action, declined to contribute towards its ' cost. So much tor the spontaneous offering of friends aud weiiwisuers. The Nelson Colonist reports a novel incident which occurred at cue ineetiug of the creditors of one Edward Tuoiiias, a bankrupt. There were but three iv attendance, Mis. Towusend, Mr. Hack, tt, and Mr. Leech, and it was a somewhat delicate matter to propose a chairman. However, it was ultimately settled that the largest creditor snould takt the seat of honor, aud so it turned out that Mrs. Townsend took the chair. Tue remaining proceedings wei c m regular form, and Mr. Haokett was appointed trustee. It was rumoured for some time (says the Wellington correspondent of the Telegraph) that the Government had been assisting, if not wholly paying, the election expenses of Ministerial candidates, but there is no longer any doubt about it now. It is quite true that any candidate who would contest the Country Districts m the Government interest would have Jiis expenses. In one case, at any rate, the offer was refused, and it was reported about town yesterday that Sir George Grey gave his private cheque of £100 towards the election expenses of Mr. Hutchison. The Bay of Plenty Times reports : — " Judge Symonds and Mr. Davis, who left here on Friday for Matata, had a narrow escape from being drowned, whilst laudiug there. The boat containing Judge Symonds, bis clerk, Mr. Davis, and several of the men of the s.s. Staffo, capsized m the. breakers, which were running very high on the bar, and all the occupants were precipitated into the water. The catastrophe was seen by several uatives, who together with Mr. M'Pherson, rushed into the water, and at great personal danger rescued the party. Had not this timely aid arrived there is little doubt all the gentlemen would have met with a watery grave." There are 84 Masonic Lodges m New Zealand, and 229 m Australia. Freemasons do not as Freemasons meedle with politics. If they did they would have the Government of all great countries m their own hands. The Hinemoa's electionering trips have been too much for her. She now lies at the Wellington wharf, with two of her boiler plates cracked. She had been so pushed that there was not time properly to attend to her, and now her boiler has to be overhauled and repaired. She was m such a bad state that Sir George dare not risk going South m her, and much against his yrain had to condescend to be a passenger on board the Penguin, but all this is kept very quiet, the local papers saying nothing is the matter with the Hinemoa. When the immortal Sam Weller was examined m Court as to the orthography of his name he obligingly offered the examining barristor his choice, saying, "Sometimes I spell it with a Ye and sometimes with a We " An equally complaisant voter presented himself at Clive yesterday. The letter "a" occurred m liis name as he pronounced it, but it was spelt with an "o" m the list. The Returnrng Officer wanted to disallow the vote, but the free and independent elector stnrdily stood up for his " rights," and at last brought several witnesses to swear to his identity. That letter "a" still stood m the path, but one of the witnesses immediately solved the difficulty by exclaiming, " Oh, he sometimes spellß it with an 'a' and sometimes with an 'o!' " and the voter exercised his "inestimable privilege" — vide Sir George Grey's address anywhere.