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Wairarapa Standard, Volume 11, Issue 1302, 30 April 1881, Page 2

It appears from a preliminary return of the census iu Wellington lUat the population of the city is 20,535 against 18,953 in 1878— the number on which the redistribution of seats was estimated. There are 425 uninhabited houses in the city.

Mr Bradlaugh having been again elected member for Nottingham this time offered to take the oath of allegiance—but his offer was refused on a division by a majority of 33. The Premier and Mr Bright were included in the minority. On the member for Northampton refusing to leave the House he was again as a matter of course evicted. The House of Commons seems falling into unhappy times—a misfortune for all reprsentative institutions. The thinnest sheet of iron that human ingenuity ever succeded in manufacturing was made in Wales, and was indeed nothing but a gossamer, of which 4800 sheets were required to make one inch in thickness. Someone has brought to light an old Portuguese law that might be copied into modern statute books to the benefit of some families and the harm of none; it forbids widows of more than fifty years of age to marry, becuse, as stated in the preamble to the law, “ experience has shown that women of that age commonly many young men of no property, who dissipate the fortunes such marriages put them in uossession of.

Our Cemetery and Park Trustees still keep iu oblivion, and the reserves still in a ne gleotful state save the few plots the few persons interested can find time and inclination to devote a little attention to, A few months since Mr Skeet arranged a Bee and did some good work on the Park reserve, but something more decided should betaken in hand, and permanent work done.

Very little- interest seems to have been taken in the election of Trustees for the Town Lands on Thursday, there could not have been more than sixty householders .who recorded their Jvotes during th’e dky and at six o’clock wheii. . the poll Was declared it was yvofthy of ‘notice, that there .was only one householder- present and a small hoy. Tire numbers-polled are as follows J.- : Baillie 44, W. .Hammeriqh 33;, L- Mafeeliu 25. R- J.;Thompspg-,15.- The two first named were dMktcl duly elected.

The Education Board have accented the tender of J. Smith for additions to the Grey town school. The additions will consist of a class room 21ft x 25ft 6in and a porch 10ft x Bft. All the new buildings will be painted, both inside and out, with three coats of paint and the old building will get two coats outside and three inside. The specifications also include a teacher’s desk, 25 dual desks, blinds for all windows, and a set of closets-. 'When this work is carried out it will make the Greytown sshool as convenient as any in the district. The ordinary meeting of the Greytown Borough Council will be held on Monday evening next.

The revised Hew Testament will he published by the English University presses in May, in different sizes and styles of binding, at corresponding prices. A zealous minister in Cincinnati preached a missionary sermon a year ago, and placed at the doors of the church sealed contribution boxes for foreign and domestic work. During the first week of the new year the boxes were opened. The offerings amounted to a single penny. August Meuzenhelmer committed suicide in Louisville by freezing himself to death. Going under an open shed, on a very col.-' night, he removed all his clothes, laid himself down on a board, and was dead when discovered.

A juggler who had attained popularity in Berlin by his feat of sword-swallowing recently broke a blade while it was sheathed in his throat. The throat was opened at the side to permit of the extraction of the part of the sword that was broken off, and the operation was performed successfully ; but inflammation ensued, and the man died.

Pastor Marsden said to his Methodist congregation, at Yarker, Ontario, that if certain members persisted in attending dancing carries they must withdraw from the church, six perstns instantly stood up for dismissal. On his marriage the Grown Prince of Austria will receive from the aristocracy of Vienna a present of a maguificant album, each leaf of which will contain drawings and water colour copies of the most celebrated and best known paintings. Up to the present 150,000 florins have been subscribed towards the purchase of this present. Mdlle. Eosa Bonheur has just presented the Jardin des Plantes with a lion, about three years old, and a lioness, a couple of years older, which she has lately made use of as models at her country residence, in the department of the Seine-et-Marne. Miss Emmelina Pereira, the mistress of the Indian Female Government School at Coalvalle, has successfully passed the matriculation examination in the National Lyceum at Goa. Miss Pereira is the first Lady among her countrywomen who has attained this distinction. The rage for relies is on the decline in England. Belies of great men do not now nay the cost of manufacture. The tooth of Newton, which in 1816 brought £730, can now hardly be given away. Ten years ago the number of persons arrestecPjfor drunkenness in Liverpool in ane year was 23,000 while last year the number had sunk to 14,000. We are told that the Government are about to take away the collection of fees under the Sheep Act from the Inspector and make all nersons pay them into the nearest Post Office. We are further told that it is in contemplation to make rates also payable at Post Offices. There was a large attendance at the funeral of the Earl of Beaoonsfleld on Tuesday. Many members of the Eoyal family and several of his political colleagues were present.

Eeuter in his messages states that Mr Dillon, ALP., has publicly stated that all future evictions in Ireland will meet with a wholesale armed resistance on the part of tenants and their sympathisers. The telegram cannot be regarded as trustworthy, because whether Mr Dillon may have said so or not the resistance would have to he sanctioned by the League—a sanction it would be very hard to obtain. The sale of horses, cattle, sheep, and machinery at Tauherinakau on Thursday last as advertized,'was held by F H \Vood &Co and was not so successful as might be expected although the attendance of buyers from all parts of the district was large notwithstanding the dull day. In many cases the prices did not reach the reserve and the lot was passed in when the price reached within a very small margin of what was required, for instance, a waggonette was put up and a bona fide bid of £sl made and it was passed in the reserve being £53, There was no sale for farm machinery, neither was there for Cattle the only lot sold being 19 calves at £1 2s 6d. per head to Mr Payne Lower Valley. A few horses were sold at prices ranging f-om £3los. to £ls 10s. Mr W. C. Buchanan becoming the fortunate purchaser of a thoroughbred “ Shaughrauu” by Southern Chief, dam, Madalme, by Don Juan, for £ls 10s. Mr Gear bought a lot of 150 fat wethers at 7s 6d. per head. Mr Anderson bought 152 store ewes at 4s 3d. per head, and 150 store wethers were bought by Mr Bunny at 5s lOd. per head. The opinion was expressed by several persons that the reserve was too high in many instances, to make the sale a success.

The London Examiner expresses the opinion that the United States is enriched by the receipt each year of at least £7,000,000 in actual coin. That is, its estimates are that 1 emigrants to that country bring that amount of money with them. As an offset to this, it is stated that Great Britain draws from the United States £10,000,000 for ocean freight, "One of the latest projects for adding to the pleasures of New Yorkers next summer is a grand floating palace,” to he permanently moored of the Battery. It is to be five hundred feet long, eighty feet wide, with three decks, and bathing conveniences below. The charges of adnmion will be graded to suit the finances of all classes, and there will he music afternoons and evenings, with eatables and drinkables. The whole will be gorgeously illuminated at night by hundreds of gas jets and a number of electric lights. The most expensive building in America, when completed, will bathe Mormon temple at Salt Lake City, the cost of which is estimated at £27,000,000. A jury recently decided that John Dick, of Warsaw, New York, had a right to sit in his pew m the German Lnthraa church with his feet elevated upon the back of the seat iu front of him.

Mrs Cunningham, a woman 102 years old living at Mallet Scheuch, eight miles south of Glasgow, is said to be the only person living who has seen the poet Burns- To this day , olcl woman “ canuan understan’ what folk mak sic a wark aboot Burns, for—a vr thriftless fellow and fain o’ the dram.” Mrs Cunningham is still hale in mind and voice.

A diver Las found, in the wreck of a small vessel between Forts Sumter and Moultrie, two bells bearing the date of 1374. The natural inference is that this is the date the bells were cast, making them a century older than the discovery of America. These ought to prove valuable historical relies.

The Greytown footballers meet in Mr Kempton’s paddock to-day at 3 o’clock for practice a large number should be present as it is the first time the ball has been brought out and it is getting on in the season.

The quarter’s returns for telegrams are less an for the corresponding quarter of last year, me cost of Government messages for the quarter was £6788. Tha Postal revenue for tne quarter was in excess of the corresponding period of last year.

Mrs Suuner iu our “ holiday in the East lately published says;— Christianising influence are sorely heeded at Cairo, as will be seen from the following account of one of the : Mahomedan customs which I heard .from an [ eye-witness. The .rite described to me is called “ Tizreh.” ; ’-SpT§n dferVfShes drugged with bald entered, into a courtyard where the ceremony was to be enacted, yelling, raving, piercing, themselves with needles and pointed instruments, till they bled profusely. They then placed themselves on the ground in order, lying close together, foaming at the mouth. A hundred and fifty yards of human beings were thus arranged, so as to make a roadway of bodies, along which a Sheikh mounted on horseback was to ride-. He had great difficulty in making tile horse tread on fins living pavenriii, .add amnWi stumbled and plunged-, and tried its ulhi'dat to escape, but lie was urged on by his rider, and the shouts of the , bystanders and the claug of instruments 6E music drowned tne groans of the wretched fanaties. After the oermony, the poor sufferers were removed by their friends, wailing piteously. Not unfrequeutly death ensues. The present Khedive is said to ne most anxious to put a stop to this barbarous and disgusting rite. The religious theory of it seems to be that evil spirits are exorcised and sin driven out by the horse’s tread.

A number of capitalists in Sydney and Melbourne are making arrangements for stooaiug an extensive tract .of Unocchpied country iu the Northern Territory. It is stated that 50,000 head of cattle will be placed upon the land as soon as the negotiations are completed. Mr Dick is gazetted Minister of Justice in the place of Mr Eolleston.

la last Thursday’s Gazette a notice appears vesting a reserve tor the Carterton Public Library in Messrs. Wm, Booth, Adam Armstrong, and Bichard Fairbrother as trustees. The Peatherston Eeereatioa Ground is also gazetted as being brought under the Public Domains Act, 1860 and a Domain Board, consisting of Messrs. J. G. Cox, W. Gundy, J. Donald, G. Eeynolds, and H. J. Williams, is appointed.

The shooting season for the Wellington District, during which cock pheasants and Ualifornian quail may be shot, is fixed from Ist June to 81st July, both inclusive. The licenses are fixed at 30s. each, and licenses to sell such game at £5 each. Mr Labnuches brings in a bill into the House of Commons to enable his colleague Mr Bradlaugh to take the oath, which Bill it is stated the Government intend to support.

Hostilities have broken out between the French and the Tunis people. An English Author in a work lately published entitled Agricultural Depression and distress writes At the beginning of 187!) there were upwards of 18,000,000 of sheep in England, but this year they aie reduced to 16,800,000, and are not likely to be increased, with numbers of vacant farms in every county, high rents, and other hampering coditions to farmers, who, to use their own homely phrase, are ‘ living from hand to mouth from day to day,’ with a certainty that they will find themselves face to face with as keen a competition in cattle as they are with corn. Under these adverse conditions the British farmer will just have about as good a chance in the race of competition as if a millstone were tied round his neck, and he were requested to run a race with his transatlantic competitor, who is comparatively free and unfettered.”

A correspondent writes The good folk of Masterton have sometimes had the credit of being ago ahead people but the spirit does rot seem to have been instilled into the Committee of the Horticultural Society. The Greytown Committee, invited the co-operation of the Masterton Committee to hold a show on the Pastoral Society Grounds on the annual show day and report has it that the Pastoral Society would place either a building or Marque at the disposal of the Horticulturalists but it is understood Mastertonites think a Spring and Autumn Show in their own township is as much as they can manage. Verily if this be so I cannot offer much for for the spirit of enterprise, Surely the Masterton folk could have first have asked wnat proposals the Greytown folk had to make. Onr Carterton correspondent reporting the Highway Board meeting stated tha Mr Nix was not one of newly gazetted trustees. To save a wrong impression we may state that it was the old members of the Board who presided at the meeting, the newly elected members not being at the time gazetted.

A meeting of the Soiree committee of the Football Club was held jast evening, when after paying all expenses in connection with the late soiree, a balance of £5 5s was handed over to the Club toward paying off some of their back debts. At thejlast meeting the secretary was instructed net to pay the Hall fees, as they were considered exorbitant, but the secretary reported that as he had been threaten with legal proceedings by the Hall custodian, he had paid the amount. Great tudignation was expressed at the price charged for the Hall, and as the Custodian refused to reduce his charges, it was resolved that in future those present should use their influence in obtaining a Hall for their soirees where eonvenienee, moderate charges, and attention can be ensured.