LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9138, 15 June 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Disbanded. — The No. 2 Company of Tarannki Kifle Volunteers are gazetted as disbanded. Pbotestant Alliance — The ordinarymeeting of the Protestant Alliance Lodge will be held at the usual time ancl place this evening. Paeliamentaby Bills. —In order that those wishing to do so may make tliemselres acquainted with the proposed legislation of the session, the Government have forwarded to Mr Willis, copies of all the public bills introduced. 1 Pacific Mail Steamship Company. —We notice that Messrs Taylor and Watt have been appointed agents for the above Company, and are prepared to book passengers and cargo for San Francisco or any principal port in Great Britian or the Continent. Wangantji Steeplechase Handicap. —The Herald says that "The Agent" appeared among the acceptors for the Wanganui Steeplechase Handicap in our columns in error. We published the list exactly as furnished to us by the Honorary Secretary. The Beee Tax. — It willl be seen by our advertising columns that the local brewers have, in conjunction with the trade elsewhere, come to the determination to charge the duty on to the publicans, who, no doubt, will pass the burden on to the consumera, who, as in the matter of all other excise duties, are the people really taxed. Bankruptcy Covet. — The following cases are set down for hearing at the ensuing bankruptcy sittings of the District Court : — Jolm Reaton, John McKenzie, James O'Beilly, Y/hitworth Russell. Applications for immediate discharge — Frederick Beaven, W. A. Lynds, C. and J. Fleetwood. Hahboue Boaed. — The nominations for the vacant seats at the WangaDui Harbour Board closed yesterday, at noon. Mr Lowes, of Nukumaru, was the only candidate proposed for the Country seat, and he is therefore elected. Mr E. N. Liffiton and Mr J. Ballance were nominated for the Borough seat. The election will take place on Monday, the 28th instant. Irish Distress.— The Otago Daily Times has the following: — "It does seem somewhat inconsistent and incongruous (writes a contributor to an English paper) to read in one portion of an Irish paper of the dire distress of the country necessitating urgent appeals for help from all other nations ot the earth, and in another column of the same paper, almost side by side, to read, of the large suras of money collected from these very poor and starving people by their bishops to send out to the Pope in distant Italy, under the head of Peter's Pence. Surely, if the unprofessing world are expected to give their little, or their much, to help their suffering brethren, the great head of their Church should deny himself the customary offerings dragged from the very poor of his flock, and forbid the collection of such pence till the present famine and distress have passed away." Accident. — Yesterday afternoon, at about two o'clock, a horse attached to a cart, standing in St Hill-street, took fright and bolted round the corner by the London Butchery into Ridgwaystreet, knocking over a portion of the verandah of that establishment. It then rushed along the curbing until the wheel of the cart came in contact with the lamp-post of the Provincial Hotel, the shock smashing the lamp. Next, the wheel tore down two verandahposts opposite Mr O'Brien's billiard saloon. The horse then swerved into the middle of the roadway, and pursued its course across the Avenue and along Ridgway - street, narrowly missing a dray standing opposite Messrs Hamilton's blacksmiths shop. Then down WicUsteed-atreet, calling at Mr Perry's Occidental Hotel, where the dray smashed a number of bottles in the store-room. At the next door, Mr Hall's, the horse was pulled up by the cart getting j,imuied under the verandah, the posts of which were broken. Altogether, there will be a nice little bill to pay. The horse and cart are the property of Messrs Mitchell and Earle. Destbuction of New Zealand Forests. — On this subject the Napier Telegraph of a recent date has the following sensible remarks :— lnstead of being conservators, the Government are, morally speaking, the greatest destroyers of our natural forests, by selling the land en which they are found, and compelling the buyers to clear so many acres eveiy year of occupation. No policy could possibly be more shortsighted or more mischievous. Nor is the soil of the Seventy-mile Bush of such quality as to attract of itself any great demand ; stripped of its trees the land is decidedly poor, and this will become more apparent as cultivation is extended. A like policy formerly proseouted in America has been bitterly repented of. The more valuable descriptions of timber can scarcely now be obtained, and that which was many years rejected as valueless finds now eager markets and high prices. The forests that have been destroyed in one small State, if now in existence, would have paid off the national debt of the great Republic. And so it will bo in New Zealand. The Seventy-mile Bush, if allowed to remain intact, would in the course of a generation or two provide the means for liquidating the colonial debt. But, at the present rate of destruction, in twenty or thirty years, instead of a valuable forest, there will be settled on tlie land a large population of struggling farmers whose united industry could never repay to the country the less of the timber. A more sorrowful sight cannot be observed than that which presents itself between Norsowood and Darjevirk. At the spot to which we allude, not far from the stable where the maikcoach horses are changed, there is a large clearing in which the trees— splendid red pines (rimu)— grew so quickly, that the ground is literally covered two and tiireo feet deej> by tuc trunks of these fallen monarous of the forest. As standing limber each tree, when the market arises for its sale, would be worth at least £2 or £3 sterling ; lying on the ground to dry, in order to be burned, it is nn encumbrance and a nuisance. And in the place of the valuable trees tho traveller sees a chaos of charred logs, a miserable shanty, some sickly grass, and a wretched patch of potat iea, the whole not worth half si dozen pines standing in their prime. But this is the result of the policy that seeks to satisfy the insensate demand for "laud for the people and tue people Cor tlio laud " ut any cost to the future.

Amaigajiation. — There is some agitation on foot for the purpose of effecting an amalgamation between Hawera and Normanby, and declaring the two a Borough. Eaely Closing. — An association has been formed at Hawera, with the object of bringing about the early closing of the various places of business in that flourishing locality. Patent Twine. — James Seed, of Rangiora, Canterbury, has applied for letters patent for a mode of preparing twiile or yarn made from the New Zealand flax, and used in reaper and binder machines. American Export. — The annual exportation of cheese from America to England reached the enormous quantity of 134,000,000 lbs in 1878, and during the same year Canada also supplied the English market with 42,000,000 lbs. This gives a total of about 80,000 tons. - Steeplechase Pbivileges. — The privileges for the Wanganui Steeple-chase-Meeting, to be held on the 19th instant, were offered yesterday at auction by Mr F. R,. Jaclcson, with the following results : — No 1 booth was bought by Mr Littlewood for £22 ; No 2 booth, Mr J. Brennan, £45 ; No 3 booth, Mr Littlewood, £10 ; gate passed at £100 ; Grand Stand passed at £100 ; fruit stall, £1, Mr J. Coburn; totaliaators passed in ; equalisator, Mr Higgins, £5 10s ; cards. £17, Mr Robinson ; bowls, £1, Mr Smith. Examination of Teachers. — Lists containing statements of the principal results of the examination held at the end of March last have just been gazetted. The . following teachers in the Wanganui district are entered as having passed in the subjects required to complete f'ormor examination : — Sarah Frances Roberta Blyth, Robert Temple Brown, Arthur Palmerston Burnham, Emma Cooper, Henry Hardwicke Dyer, Arthur Andrew Pearce England, Win. Henry Harris, Clement William Lee, Charles Henry William Lock, Alex. Mair, Thomas Whaley Postans, Denis Quinlan, Francis Edward Watson. ; English Telegraphs.— The Elec trician says — The efficiency and activity of our English telegraphs is very well shown by a few statistics which are lying at hand. In 1878 America had 211,055 miles of Western Union Telegraph wire, Germany had 136,395 miles, France had 102,682 miles, AustroHiingary' had 86,087 miles, Russia bad 89,154 miles, and Britain had 113,734 miles. But with all that mileage of wireAmerica only sent some 25 million messages, while Germany sent about 11 millions, France lit? millions, Russia about 5 millions, and Britain 23 millions. Reported Capture op the Nihilist Head. — A report has somehow got current in St Petersburg that an apartment is just now being furnished very comfortably in the fortress of Schlusselburg, which has always been appropriated as the residence of Eussian political prisoners of high rank. It is believed that the real chief of the Nihilist conspiracy has at last been discovered, and that this apartment is destined for him. The belief (for the report of which the Cologne Gazette's correspondent is responsible) shows at any rate what people think about the social position of the Nihilist chief, if the conspiracy caa be supposed to have a single head. Throwing Vitriol.— To what fearful extent larrikiniam can go even at Home will be seen from the following, which appeared in the Glasgow Herald : — " In Dundee four boys were brought before the Police Court and remitted to the Sheriff, charged with having burned nine persona at the Greenmarket and High Street, by throwing vitriol on their faces and necks. The injuries are serious, and in some edses the disfigurement will be permanent. The boys had got a bottle of vitriol, and threw it about the crowds in mischievous amusement." It is to be hoped that these miscreants received most substantial punishment for their cruelty^