LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 172, 21 July 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

“ Petrolea "111 A fancy dress ball was held at Wairoa last night. Major Lovelock on skating—" People are going to hell fast enough without going on wheels.” Tne ship Pleione, which was stranded on the beach at Waikanae some time ago, has been successfully floated. A handicap billiard tournament is to come off shortly at the Masonic Hotel, Mr Charles Butler being handicapper. Mary Ann Callaghan, a married woman, hanged herself with a handkerchief from the branch of a tree at Denniston (Westport) on Wednesday last. The sympathetic Wairoa journal is sorry to learn that Mr T. B. Smith, of Mohaka, has got himself into trouble in Gisborne. So are some of the Gisborne people—for their own sakes. The Napier footballers who visited Gisborne got into a little hot water when they returned, someone writing to the newspapers accusing them of larrikinism, in the way of firing pellets of paper etc. at spectators. Messrs Niooll, Reynolds and Co., acting under instructions from the Registrar of the Supreme Court, will sell on the 4th August 108 acres on Whataupoko Block, the property of William Howarth. Cluck, cluck, cluck—2B 1 Is it I— ha ! ha 1 ha 1 Try another one : If an editor and a half tell a cram and a half in a minute and a half, how many crammers will a crammed editor tell in a minute? Our P.D. replies that it would be a crammed minute ! At next Tuesday’s meeting of the Borough Council the Mayor will present Mr T. Morrison (No 2) with the Corporation gold medal won by Mr Morrison at the recent Fire Brigade competition, for the best all round man in the Gisborne Fire Brigade. A Napier correspondent 'writing this week concludes his letter in this way:—The weather is fine for the time of the year, the rinks are doing good business, the average of drunks and bankruptcies keeps up, and the depression booms as big and ugly as ever. News from the Minerva Petroleum Company’s works proves that no time has been lost in boring. The depth yesterday was 120 feet. A flinty boulder was met with last week and gave considerable trouble before it was successfully negotiated. Boring is now proceeding night and day, and rapid progress may be expected. With regard to the intimation from Government to the Education Boards, having reference to the practice of permitting amusements in the school buildings, this intimation is the result of several fires having been caused in other districts by the upsetting of lamps in connection with entertainments. In some places it is a practice to allow dances and other diversions in the school buildings. The Matthews-Newton fight comes off in the Theatre Royal to-night. The match is for £lO a-eide end the gate money, and will be to a finish. From the appearance of the men Matthews would seem to have many advantages over his opponent, but Newton may be enabled to convey a different impression to-night. The fight will be the most notable one of its kind ever held in the district, all the other matches being of secondrate importance in comparison with this one, the men engaged being in a foremost place in the fistic arena. The prices of admission are 3b and 2s.

An advertisement appears in another column showing the amounts proposed to be spent in forming and metalling the various streets in North Gisborne, and building a bridge over Te Hapara stream. The Whataupoko Road Board proposes to raise a loan of £2300 for the purpose of carrying out these works. In order to provide security for the Loan a special rate of nine-sixteenths of a penny in the pound will have to be levied, but if a general rate of three-farthings in the pound is levied the special rate will not require to be collected. A meeting of ratepayers of the Whataupoko Road District will be held on Saturday, August 25, to consider this propoal. The Wairoa County Councillors must be an entertaining body of public men. They were discussing whether the privilege of collecting certain tolls should be let by auction or tender. Cr Griffin urged that the tender system was the best. How could the auctioneer sell supposing an intemperate or unsuitable man bid several pounds higher than a more suitable man? Would the auctioneer be authorised to refuse such a man’s bid 1 Cr Carroll said public auctions were institutions which people too often attended for an afternoon’s fun ; it would be a far 4>irer way to let an intending lessee sit down calmly and oslculate what the bridge toile were worth, and then put in his tender. Cr Macandrew said it was essential the public should get a sober and civil servant; the auctioneer certainly should not take the bid of an habitually drunken man, even though it were the highest. Cr Griffin : His very intemperance would most likely be the cause of hie bid. Cr Parker said he brought up his motion as there seemed to be a very general feeling that the auction system was the fairest; he knew of three or four good men who would not lose the job for the sake of £1 or 30s a month. The Council, of course could reserve its right to decline any unsuitable offer. Service of Song ll Eva "at Patutahi public hall, on Monday evening, at 7.85; adults 18, children M=-(Advt ( ] |

England’s death rate last year was the lowest on record. The invention of the organ is attributed to Archimedes, about 220 B.C. The capital invested in tramways in Great Britain amounts to £12,573,000. Over £73,000,000 is invested in gasworks in England. The widower Duke of Norfolk, the greatest matrimonial catch in England, is to marry a French count’s daughter. Two families brought out under the emigration system have up to the present cost the colony £3,817. A London dealer in orchids employs sixteen collectors in South America, Africa, Asia, aud the Pacific Islands. "Yearly 1162 practitioners are added to the Medical Register as against the average death of SSS members of the profession. The trosseau of the Viscountess Rouge was so magnificent that it was publicly exhibited in Paris. It is said to be the most beautiful ever made. Among the Jews lately expelled from Russia was a local manufacturer, employing between 800 and 1,000 workpeople of both sexes. These people, of course, were thrown out of employment by closing of the manufactory. An Italian senator, Signor Pissavini, exPrefect of Novara, who was tried for offences against public morality by the senate sitting as a high court of justice, has been degraded from his rank of senator, and condemned to seven months’ imprisonment. Archdeacon Farrar suggests meeting the questions of infidelity with harder questions. To most of the points raised by sceptics Christendom frankly responds, “ I do not know." Now let the tables be turned. Where did matter come from ? Can a dead thing create it itself ? Where did motion come from ? Where did life come from, save tbe finger-tip of Omnipotence ? Whence came the exquisite order and design nf Nature ? If one told you that millions of printers’ types should fortuitously shape themselves into the devine comedv of Dante, or the plays of Shakspere, would you not think him a madman ? Whence came consoionous? Who gave you free will ? At the R.M. Court on Thursday (before Messrs Tucker and Matthewson, J.P.’s) the following cases were heard:—Property Tax Commissioner v. F. Dufaur, claim £3 18s 7d, judgment by default; Same v. E. P. Cowen, claim 19s 6d, judgment by default; Same v. M. Boland, claim £l4 18s Id, judgment by default; Brown and Smaill v. John Muldoon, claim £ll Is 2d, judgment by default; James Wallace v. McLaughlin and Cowen, claim £2O, judgment for plaintiff; A. J. Cooper v. Patoromu, claim £1 19a 6d, judgment for plaintiff; Bovin v. D. Dunlop, claim £4 10s, to be paid in one week or five days’ imprisonment; Hennessy v, E. O’Meara, judgment summons, order made for payment; Henderson v. Rangiuia, order made for payment; Harris v. Parsons, claim 10s, judgment for plaintiff for 7s fid ; Searle v. Bennett, claim £1 10s Id, judgment for plaintiff.

The undermentioned articles of value were found enclosed in letters opened in the Dead Letter Office during the year:—lo3 Post Office orders, £3lO 0s 81; 39 postal notes, £l4 Ils 6d ; 18 bank drafts, £952 7s 9d; 76 cheques, £1043 14s fid ; 3 dividend warrants, £8 13s fid ; 2 promissory notes, £ll5 19s 8d ; stamps, £8 Is 8d ; bank notes, £l2O ; gold £9 ; silver and copper, £3 9s 10}d; representing a total of £2585 10s ln addition, 1 gold pin with pearl, 1 pair of gold and pearl earrings, 2 silver watches, silver watch and steel chain, 1 silver watch and leather guard, 2 gold rings set in jewels, 1 gold weddingring and keeper, 1 plain gold ring, 1 Masonic gold ring, 3 Waterbury watches, 1 set silver studs, 1 silver bracelet, 1 gold bracelet, 1 ladies’ silver chain, 1 greenstone pendant (goldmounted), 1 gold brooch (20-dollar piece), 1 packet gold dust, 1 silver brooch (Lizzie), 2 packets of New Zealand diamonds were received. It does not often fall to the lot of a hen, and particularly a dead one, to create a sensation, but such has actually been the result of the killing of a “ hen’s husband " within the last few days. On Friday last a seedy-look-iug individual put in an appearance at the Central Hotel with the two-fold object of slacking his thirst and disposing of a number of fowls he had with him. A likely-looking bird was selected, and in due course found its way into the kitchen, and, getting into the hands of tbe cook, was killed, plucked, and cleaned. While engaged in the latter work, however, the cook noticed something shining among the usual quantity of stuff contained in the maw, and, prompted by curiosity, he took the stuff out and washed it well, when to his astonishment the shining stuff proved to be two large and four small pieces of gold. Diligent search is now being made for the seedy-looking individual, with the object of buying up all his fowls.—Wellington paper.