LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 227, 27 November 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Borough Council meets at half-past seven this evening. Two tenders were received by the Harbor Board for the supply of coal—H. E. Johnston £2 Is 9d per ton, and Kennedy and Evans £2 ss. Mr Johnston’s tender, being the lowest, was accepted. At the-Congregational Church on Sunday evening Rev A. H. Wallace, in his sermon, made special reference to the untimely death of the late Alexander Watt, and also to the death of Mrs Burnand. The death of Mrs George Burnand, occurring suddenly on Saturday evening, cast quite a shadow over Makaraka, where she was resident, as well as over the district. The fact of her hiving been well known, through living in the Bay for upwards of nineteen years, in addition to her genial manner, together with her outward semblance of robust health, occasioned her death to give considerable regret and surprise. The deceased had been ailing only a week, and on the day preceding her demise she had apparently recovered—only, however, to be stricken down fatally, Mrs Burnand was thirty-line years of age. In its effort to be a little bit sensational, a Gisborne paper does Mr McFarlane an injustice. It says that if the people in the hall had heard the fireball on Saturday night, there might have been a stampede, and goodness knows what else might not have resulted. Now, it is not so many months beck that we vigorously took up the subject of the safety of theatres in case of fire, and owing to that agitation Mr McFarlane had to go to much expense to have alterations made ; but those alterations were approved of by the Borough Inspector, and were also considered satisfactory by a representative of this journal who was invited to make an inspection, ahd finally the Council expressed itself pleased with the arrangements. Therefore it is most unfair that there should be an attempt to deteriorate the value of the property after all this trouble and expense has been entailed by the owner. If the hall is not Bate now, then every church in the town should be shut up for being doubly | dangaroutii

Mr Booth, R.M., left at an early hour yesterday morning for tbe Wairoa, in company with Mr R. Watson. At the Police Court yesterday morning a native named Hori Te Awarau was discharged with a caution, on a charge of being drunk. A set of racing plates on view at the local Exhibition were made by Mr R. Moore, and have been worn by Audacity on five different occasions, being still as good as new. The set weigh 13| ouunes. The Rotorua Sanatorium and hospital were totally destroyed by fire on Friday night. Nothing was saved, and the patients were rescued with difficulty, one man breaking his leg while endeavoring to escape. The Government lose £5OOO by the fire. The twelvth anniversary of the Methodist Free Church, Wellington, was celebrated on Sunday, 18th inst. In the afternoon a floral service was conducted by the Rev W. Shirer, the bouquets being subsequently taken by the scholars to the Hospital and Lunatic Asylum. A young lady, who cannot be described as a blonde, quietly “ sat on ” a visitor at her bar yesterday. He had neglected to pay for two drinks and as he was leaving, the Hebe remarked, “ Should you lose you purse, remember you did not leave it here. ”

A special meeting of the County Council will be held at noon to-morrow, when the following business will be transacted :—Election of Chairman, receive report of Loan Works Committee, appoint Dog Registrar, vote Ranger’s salary, appoint Returning Officer Tologa Riding, receive tenders for maintenance and apportion balance of revenues, receive tenders Makarika road and Wainui flat, and dog collars. A sum of £4300 fis being given away in prizes at the Centennial rifle meeting. The character of the gathering is thoroughly intercolonial, for amongst the 1500 riflemen competing are about 120 from New South Wales, 108 from South Australia, and 15 from Tasmania, West Australia being the only Australian colony unrepresented in the competition. The executive officer for the first day was in several instances required to exercise his authority. Through some mistake many of the markers in the rapid firing match started to disc the shots as they struck the target instead of waiting for the completion of the full minute’s shooting, that being the time a’lotted for the match. Under the circumstances it is fortunate no accident occurred. In another case a competitor, who had foolishly left a cartridge in his rifle, was stepping off the mound to make way for bis successor, when the rifle accidentally discharged, so close to another competitor’s head that the bullet struck tbe brim cf his ha fc » while the powder burned hie face. The careless rifleman was very properly disqualified for the meeting. Last week a man named Joseph Valentine was at the Clutha Court committed for trial on a charge of murdering his illegitimate child by throwing it into the river on the night of October 28. The accused’s version is ihat at nine o'clock on the night referred to he went to the house of the child’s mother at Rosebank, and said he had arranged with his sister at Toiro to keep the child for a short time. He left on horseback, carrying the child, about ten o’clock at night to go to Toiro. When he got up the hill as far as Melrose’s or Hunter's he determined to go to Mr Soper’s to get payment of some money due to him. He then by some means got down to the river, and when walking up the riverbank leading his horse, by the narrow path beyond the upper end of the protection embankment, hia foot tripped, the child falling out of his arms and rolling down the embankment into the river. He went down to the river and got hold of the shawl in which it was wrapped, but the fastening gave way and the child floated off. He never saw it afterwards. Accused says he remembers nothing more until he found himself riding his horse at Ashley Downs some time early in the morning, and he rode on to his father’s place at Otaria. He shortly afterwards told them of the occurrence, but no steps were taken in the matter, nor was it reported to the police till November 2.

In the Appeal Court at Wellington last week argument was commenced in re Ronayne ex parte the District Lands Registrar. It appears that Nils Lun, a roadmaker, was the owner of a section under a Land Revenue Receiver’s receipt, which he kept for safe custody in his house. He was away for some days, and on his return missed the receipt. Subsequently an application was made by him to a Grey town Loan Society for a loan, but on searching the title, the Society found that a mortgage was registered against the section as from Nils Lun to one Thomas Ronavne, Petone District Railway Engineer, for £lOO. Nils Lun entirely repudiates the whole transaction, and sought to have the mortgage set aside on the ground that it was a forgery. It appeared from the affidavits that the certificate of title had been stolen bv some person who passed himself off as Nils Lun, and on the strength of the document obtained a loan of £lOO. The District Lands Registrar sought under section GQ of the Land Transfer Act to set aside the mortgage, and for the delivery of tbe Land Revenue Receiver’s receipt. The proceedings were with the consent of the parties removed to the Court of Appeal. The contention for Ronayne is that the advance made by him was bona fide, without the knowledge that the person obtaining the advance was not the of the land. The Hicks-Sawyer Minstrels gave their last performance in Gisborne on Friday night. The house was crowded baok and front, but beyond the musical items we doubt if any front seat persons reckoned they got the value qf their money. Of course the whole thing was brimful’of laughter, for the darkies had only to show their ivories and the laugh became contagious, and it is wonderful to note how the most silly things were applauded whilst the really excellent portions of the entertainment .were almost coldly received. The capital singing of the tenor and bass, for instance, receivad very weak applause, but a vulgar song about a little black coon ” brought forth thn-ders of applause. Some tumbling antics, too, on a chair and table were likewise much applau ’ed, yet we will undertake to say some of the Gisborne School boys could perform feats twice as clever. Being the last night the Company also took advantage of that point to curtail the programme, which terminated with a farce which seemed to take amazingly, but which, done equally as well, would have been considered quite a disc-edit to an amateur troupe. We did think the company was worth a few lines of favorable mention for its first performance, but if the performance of Saturday evening can be taken as a general criterion we hope we may be spared from further shows nf this class, though, we regret to say, it appears to be of a kind well suited to the public taste.

It is very jieldoni indeed that a man, who has no settled place of abode snd not possessed of a sufficient amount of flash to procure a bed, ventures to break into a ■polios station and make himself comfortable for the night, but such a ease occurred last night, and the bold intruder was waltzed into a police cell for his audacious act. The man who did this goes by the name of Joseph lM‘Cabe, and is well known to the men in blue around this district. He went into the police dwelling house in the small hours this morning, and laid down in the bed.room occupied by Con stables Gantley and Blaze). The former woke up, but he ‘ knew not Joseph ’ until he struck a match and discovered him lying on the floor, making a comfortable and cosy bunk on their Sunday clothes. Constable Gantlev was awakened through the noise made by M f Cabe laying himself oni to ‘ have a good time,’ or at any rate to have a good night’s repose alongside of Constable Blazel’s bed. McCabe was brought before the R.M. thia morning and in reply to the charge he said he must be guilty or he would not be in the dock—a very logical statement to make considering the circumstances. Inspector Kiely informed the bench that the prisoner was an old offender and had been convicted quite a number of times on various charges. The list was read out, the first being that he received three months in Wellington for larceny in 1885, but this McCabe stoutly denied, saying he had never undergone such a sentence in his life. However, he pleaded guilty to having got seven days’ in Wellington for being illegally on private premises, and also to having been convicted three times for drunkenness at Napier. Besides that he admitted having got two months’ imprisonment at Waipawa for larceny in 1687, and in Jipie, 1886, one month- with hard labour for The R.M. said he would sentence accused to one month’s iihprifconificnti—Napier News.

Richard Fielding, a blacksmith of Ramsgate, England, is iu gaol charged with murder, on his own confession that 24 years ago he had a quarrel in a boat with a woman named Hannah White and pushed her overboard.

The particulars disclosed at the inquest on the remains of the boy Archibald Clark, who was drowned at Coromandel, are of a distressing nature. The mother of the deceased actually saw the child’s body floating down the river, but was unable to do anything.

The English football team, which recently visited the colonies, has returned home, and the members hwve made an affidavit that they have received nothing beyond their travelling and hotel expenses. This is the sort of telegrams which all the colonial papers are now getting.

On September 4th a match of a remarkable nature took place at Long Sutton, Mr Thomas Wilson, who is 94 years of age, undertaking, for a purse of money, to walk four miles within the hour. The route was from Sutton bridge railway station by the Wahwav-road to Long Sutton railway station. Mr Wilson accomplished the distance with ease in 59min., which, considering his great age, must be reckoned a remarkable feat.

An exceedingly novel case has been brought to the notice of the Paris Academy of Medicine. A man’s breast-bone was nearly all removed, with parts ef several ribs, in order to stop the progress of bone disease. The experiment resulted, not only in saving the patient’s life, but has given several physiologists an opportunity for direct investigation on the living heart and great artery, parts of which have been readily accessible.

Following close upon the project—now well under way—for the building of a ship canal between Liverpool and Manchester, comes an even more ambitious scheme, ’which contemplates a canal between |the former city and Birmingham. If these improvements shall be accomplished the business of transportation by internal waterways may again assume commercial importance in Great Britain and create a revolution in tbe British carrying trade. Daring the hearing of a case atJNapier last week it was stated that & row arose over three men throwing dice in a hotel for drinks and the loser refusing to pay for them. When the hotelkeeper was asked by the Inspector Kiely as to this, he was about to answer, when tbe R.M. informed him that he was not obliged to reply to a question about a matter which would render himself liable to a penalty, for throwing dice in a public house was of course an offence against the law. There was great excitement at Angers on Sunday, the 16th Sept. Tho holiday folk had turned out en masse on the local Champ de Mars to witness the performance of a tight rope walker named C istanet. Amid the blase of fireworks Castanet made his appearance on a rope upwards of 50ft tom the ground. At first all went well, and the enthusiastic plaudits of the crowd encouraged the acrobatic artist to further displays of skill. Suddenly, however, the po>r man lost his footing, and, amid the cries of the horror-atriokea spectators, fell to the ground. He was picked up dead. We wonder what kind of an answer Mr Lewis Lyons will receive to the following letter which he has dispatched to the Queen, The letter is clipped from fc a Home paper : — “ Madam, —The royal committee on sweating will assemble in November to receive further evidence on the sweating system. May I ask your Majesty whether you will give me permission to send your Majesty’s name to the committee in order that you may be jailed to give evidence, and to tell the committee what is paid for the raiments of the royal house hold, in what sweater’s dens they are made, and how much the poo* workers receive for their long hours of toil,”