LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11753, 24 February 1893, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Upper Wangaehu Eoad Boaid advertises for an engineer and clerk.

The art classes will resume at the Technical School this (Friday) evening.

A practice of Gounod's Mass takes place at St. Mary's Schoolroom this (Friday) evening at 7.45 o'clock. A full attendance is requested.

The charge of perjury against Collins fßuahoata) will be heard on Tuesday next.

We understand that Mr Sea?ar, on behalf of tho owners of the Stormbird and Huia, has generously offered to carry all contributions of mineral and other specimens for our local Museum free of charge.

His Lordship Bishop Hadfield and Mrs Hadfield are staying vat tho Rutland Hotel. They arrived from tho South by the afternoon train and leave again for the North to-day.

The Wairere will run special excursions from the to^n wharf to the wreck of the Falcon, at the Heads, to-day at 2.30 p.m., to-morrow at 10 a.m. and 2.30 p.m., and the same hours on Sunday, at special fares. See advertisement.

The following pla.yers will represent the Rangitikei Polo Club in their match against tho VVarrenpute Club at Bulls tc morrow :— First — Bill, Blundell, Riddiford, and Wilson : second — Barker, Gorton, Kullor, and Sanderson.

Our Patea correspondent writes: — Mr and Mrs McDonald gave an entertainment in the Hall on Wednesday evening, consisting ot Scottish song 3, &c. The (Jollet-Dobson Company are notified to appear here ou 2nd and 3rd March. This popular company will no doubt meet with as good a reception as usual.

An inquest was held at.Bendigo on the death of a young man wh'd in the delirium of typhoid fever jumped out of an upper window in the hospital. The jury recommended that the uppor windows should be barred, but the hospital authorities object, on the ground of' danger from fire.

The Hon. Mr MoKenssie, says a Press wire, addressed a crowded meeting at Blenheim last night. The Minister defended the land policy of the Government, (rave an explicit account of the Cheviot estate transaction, and dealt with the Marlborough wasto lauds question. A vote of thanks (o the Minister and confidence in the Government was declared carried.

The following are the returns of buildings in the Borough, which have boen forwaiilefl io the Colonial Secretary's Uepari ment by the Town Clerk : — Number of rateable buildings, 1117; inhabited, 917; empty dwelling houses, 3; stores and warehouses in which no one sleeps, IG7 ; dwellings in course tif erection, 2.

Intending investors in land in the ■Waverley-\Vaitotara_^district may now .see plans at the ¥bat. Office aud the. Borough Council Chambers of a block of 18,530 acres situated in the Opaku and JCapara survey districts. The land ia about 11 miles from Waverley and 20 from Waitotara, and it will be open foi^ selection on and after Maich 16th. It is second class unsurveyed land.

The Museum Trustees have accepted with pleasure Mr Hatrick's kind offer to place the steamer at their, disposal f res of all cost for a moonlight excursion in about a week's time. A Committee, consisting of Messrs Nixon, Turner, Andrews, and Carson, were appointed to arrange all details. It is proposed to have a piano on the quarter-deck and to provide a popular concert, in which doubtless a nuin er of our best singers will give their servicts.

At a special meeting of tho Museum Trustees held in Messrs Freeman R. Jackson and C<\'s offices last nipht, there were present— Messrs J. T. Stewart (in the chair), Atkins, Turner, G. Marshall, Spurdlo, Andrews, and Drew, ■■■'everal tenders were received for the new Museum building, and after very careful consideration, it was agreed to accept that of Messrs Arthur and Abram, the amount being .£535. Tho building will be started at once, aud is to be finished in May.

A Press wire from Tiroaru states that the Atlas Milling Company have declared its usual dividend of 10 per cent., but this absorbs 1500 of the dividend equalisafion fund. The Directors' reporc says that the past year has been disastrous throughout the Australasian colonies. Heavy stocks of wheat were bought in anticipation of the market rising through the Russian famine and other cause?, whereas the market declined continuously. This year it is hoped it will be prosperous for trade as the wheat prices are at bedrock.

In another column the public are notified that until further notice an additional train will run to Castlecliff in the forenoon, and that special trains can be obtained on application to the guard. The Saturday nighb train leaves town at 10 o'clock instead of 9.30 as formorly. The following is tho order of train service as per time-table advertised :— Leave Town— 7.30, 10.30, 11.30, 2 30, and 5 45. Leave flastlecliff— 7.o, 8 35, 11.0, 1.45, and 5.10. Saturday night — Leavo C'astleclilf, 7 j leave town, 10. Sunday only — Leave town, 10 30, 2 30, and 5.45 ; loave Castlecliff, 10, 1 30, and 5 10. Fares are Is and Is Gd return, eMldren 6J.

At the Police. Court yesterday morning, before Messrs Thain and Stewart, J.P.s, Thomas MorgaD, an ordinary seaman employed oa the vessel Anthons, at present in po: t, was charged with having refused to pe-furm his duty when ordered by the captain, rhe accused stated he had shipped at low wages under the impression time he should be allowed to loave tho vessel at Now Zealand. Against his statement, however, the articles signed by himself were produced, whereby ha unclt'i took to work for six months at £3 per m unth, the current rate of wages in Sydney. 'J'r.o accused uas fined two days' pny and sc-ntenced to a week's imprisonment without bar ' labour.

" The Trial of a Notorious CriminaHalcohol) " takes pla.ie at the Oddfellows' Hall to-night, and in conducting the case for the prosecution in this, his famous oii»inal lecture, Mr B. Tennyson Smith's humour, pathos and dramatic force are exhibited neihnps more pojverfully than in any of tho other subjects with which he has delighted his hearers on previous evenings of this week. Tho Wellington Evening Tost says of this, tbe last evening of thoserios : — " At times his audience wero convulsed with laughter, whilst again they were held fpell-bouud by the lecturer's giaphic word pictures representing tho comic or tragic phases of his subject." This is tho popular lecturer's last mooting in Wanganui, and no doubt thore will bo a crowded attendance. As ibid, oub of the series of lectures ho has given, is only the socond to which a charge hna been made he deserves hearty support, apart from tho excellence of tbe program mo provided.

Referring to Colonel Fox's report on the defences of the colony, tho Wellington Press srys: — We aro committing no breach of trust when we Bay that it is most searchingaud tbprough.and contains recommendations which, without being extravagant, or entailing much extra expanse on tho country, will improve the efficiency of tho corps genorally, and put them on a footing with those of the sister Solonies.

The death was reported to tho Slieppy Board of Guardians last month of a woman who was an inmate of the Sheppy Union Workhouse, Minster, Sheorness for ninety-two years. The deceased was born in the establishment, and remained chargeable until her death— » somewhat weak intellect debarring her from earning her own living. She was known as " the Mother of the House." She would frequently ask the visiting guardians whether her long residence had not entitled her to a pension. The Liverpool Courier has the following:—There is ns improvement in the condition of Mr K,uskin. He is docile and quiet, but one delusion seems to grow upon him. He is always imagining that some dangerous person is at hand, and it greatly distresses him. There is no longer the slighest expectation that he will complete the fragments of his autobiography which was being published under the title of "Prjeterita." That will remain his one unfinished work, like the " Denis Duval" of Thackeray, and Dickens's "Mystery of Edwin Drood."

A. curious divorce case was heard in Sydney the other day. Catherine Watt, of Richmond, applied for a divorce from Peter Watt. They were married at Richmond by the Rev. A. Hardie, Presbyterian minister, on the 28th November, 1882. Petitioner was only 36 years of age at the time. The marriage was never consummated. On tbe night of the wedding respondent got drunk, and rejoined H.M.S. Nelson, of which he was an officer. The vessel left for the other colonies, and petitioner had nevor seen respondent since. She had only been acquainted with him for about five weeks before the marriage. A decree nisi with costs was granted.

At the Wilts Quarter Sessions a labourer was tried for sheep-stealing, and after a long hearing the foreman of the jury, on being asked for the verdict, blurted out, ■We find him guilty, but through being undefended, we find him innocent." There wis a momentary look of blank dismay on the features of both Chairman and Clerk of the Peace, while others, unrestrained by official gravity, gave vent to their feelings in hearty laughter. Happily the foreman's brother jurymen grasped the situation, and it was explained to the Court that their real verdict was "guilty," with a recommondation to mercy " on account of his being undefended."

Mr E. Tennyson Smith had a fair audience at the Oddfellows' Hall last night, when he lectured on "The Arguments of our Opponents." The speaker was bright and inspiriting and his arguments were good and strong. The chief foature of the evening, hewever, was the asking and answering of questions. To the question "Would you compensate the publicans," the speaker replied at length. He gave many instances of misfortunes which had come under his own notice and in which compensation was due just as much as to the publican, but none ever thought o : asking ior it. In one of these cases three orphans were supported at a good boarding school out of the rents of five villa residences left to them by their dead father. While they were at school a man got a public-house licence for a house ai the corner of the street in which j the villas were, and very soon the 'whole five of them were empty. The children had to be taken from school and were deprived of almost the whole of their sustenance, but they got no compensation. Taking an example nearer home, Mr Smith asked if the workmen at the Railway workshops would be entitled to compensation if their living were taken out of their hands by the removal of the workshops to Palmereton. In reply to "'- question ' Does Prohibition prohibit," •i -'m :f h quoted statements made in pliijuo niiere- Prohibition was law, in which it was maintained that that law was kept just a3 well a3 laws against the carrying of concealed arms and against other minor offences. The meeting was very interesting, but it might have" teen more stirring if any of the speaker's opponents had stood up and put their questions orally,