LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1480, 18 November 1881, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. Locke received a very attentive hearing last night to his address. The candidate is not a fluent speaktr, but he showed that he was well up in the questions of the day, and knew all the possible I and probable bearings of the policy he proposed to advocate should he be returned to the Assembly. The questions submitted | to him were promptly and satisfactorily answered, and as through a lou^ and important official career Mr. Locke has been known u<>t to be a man to say ou« thiup and mean another, what he said carried all due weight with it. In common with the other candidates, Mr. Locke will address his constituents at other centres of the electorate ; but the tenor of these addresses | we may .presume will nut ho different to ! those delivered in Mr. McFarlane's Hall. Three of the candidates— Captain I'orter, Mr. Gannon and Mr. Locke — have declared themselves supporters of the present Ministry, while Mr. McDonald is opposed to tho powers that be, and ag.iin advocates for thu Grey party. So far us the ge ieral feeling is concerned in this district, at least, Sir George and his followers are not likely to meet with much support, and this appears to be the case in all other parts of the Colony, if wo except one or two of the Auckland constituencies. For a period of several months the tire bell had not pealed forth its dread alarm until it suddculy fell upon the hear yesterday afternoon. Thoie was tho usual rush from shop* and dwellings into the main thoroughfares. There was the invariable question, "Where is it?" Then the bell stopped suddenly. Ptople who bad beeu running until the wind had been taken out of them were seeu returning with minds relieved There was no fire so to speak anywhere. It appears that one of Mr. S. Steveuson's children accidentally set (ire to the curtains of one of the windows. A man passiug by saw the flame, when instead of rushing into the house to extinguish it, he rushed to tho tire-bell and gave the alarm. In the meantime the inmates tore down the curtains, and stamped out the fire ; and so euded at once the alarm and the damage sustained. Of couise as people sentitiously remarked it mi^ht have been worse ; l>ut at the sime time it children were not allowed to play with matches, there would be fewer occasions for the use of a tire-bell. The Borough Council at Grey mouth have stands placed in different parts of the municipality. These stauds contain each of them twelve buckets filled with water, and are only allowed to be used in case of tire. By this simple precaution many firos have been extinuuinhed in their earliest st <g* without being; allowed to ex tend their ravages. Is it possible our Borough Council will accept the hint. We have reliable information from a private source that the South Paoitic Petroleum Company is not registered under the " No-liability Mining Companies Act" ot New South Wales f>r tho reason that teu per cent, of tho Company is not paid up. It is said that some important action on tho part of the New Zealand Shareholders will be taken without more delay. The sum of £1254 8s 6d w."s this day received by the Cook County Council as subsidy on rates collected during the year ended 31st March, 1880. This is granted under the provisions of the Appropriation Act, 1881. Of the abovo amounts, £930 16 i 8d is paid as rates collected within road districts, at the rate of 10s in the pound, and £323 lls lOd on property not in road districts on which the County receives £1 for £1 on rates collected. The first meeting of the new Council will heheld on Wednesday ii'-xt at noon. They arc to bo congratulated on receiving as their portion at the very outset such a lame sum, which will go a loni? way in the direction of paying off existing liabilities. There is an impression abroad that a penny postage stamp may be substituted for the usual receipt stamp. The postoffice authorities inform us that they have received no instructions to this <;ffect, and that the proper stamf) must be used Until tho contrary is officially announced. T\e business in the R.M. Court this morning was comprised in iwo stnall debts claims, the nature of which presented no feature of interest. There are, however, several cases which have had to stand over, Justices of the Peace not having power to deal with them. Both Islands have now been gazetted as free from pleuropneinnonia, consequently cattle may be shipped or driven from any one part of the Colony to any other. Notices of various kinds, throughout tie l*st three weeks, have appeared at divers times rplative to the fact that the Lydia Howa'de Comic Opera and Burlesque Company were coming t'> Ginborne for a short season, and we are pleased that wo can now announce their arrival, and, as will he iften by advertisemant in another column, will open to-night at McF'irlane's Hall, in the new version of the grand burlesque II Trovatore ; to bo followed by Dibden.s operetta The Waterman.