LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 302, 23 May 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

“ Enquirer’s ” letter will be attended to in our next issue.

The Ruapehu has arrived nt Hobart with 57 passengers for Australia and 90 for New Zealand.

The following will represent the Gisborne Football Club to play against the Waimata Football Club on Saturday next, 25th inst., in Captain Tucker’s paddock. Forwards : Lysnar, Langford, Munroe Pera, Johnstone, King, Crawford, Bourn, Hepburn and Priestly. Baeks : Stait (’all), J. Morgan, H. Maude, and DeCosta (g), Bees and Murphy (i)-

At the Police Court yesterday mo rning, P. Malone was fined £1 for being drunk and disorderly, and for resisting the police he was fined a like amount; a further charge of trespassing on H. Morse’s property was str uek out, as there was no appearance of the complainant. James Boynton, on two charges of cruelty to animals, was fined on each charge £l, and costs of Court 7s. Thomae Gibbons ' for the same offence, was fined £2, and cost s 7s. A similar charge laid against Willis Oj Willis was dismissed, the defendant receiving a caution from the Bench.

To the Editor of the Stanbabd Sir,— Excuse me for trespassing on your valuable space by contradicting a statement made by Mr G. K. Turton, solicitor, in Court a few weeks ago, to the effect that he held possession of my property for moneys I owed him. I have given him ample time for publicly altering the statement, which he has failed to do. I here declare that neither he nor anyone else has a penny of a mortgage on it, or ever had. By giving publicity to this falsification you will very much oblige. —I am, &0., Ellen Hanlon.

A correspondent (who wrongly gives hit address as Ormond, when we know that it is an attempt at deception, deserving of exposure) writes an abusive reply to “ Pump, kin," who enquired in our last issue as to who was Mr Lewis, the convener of a meeting of farmers, and whether he himself was a farmer, After expending his wrath on one whom he erroneously supposes to be the writer of the letter in question, our correspondent adds that " Mr Lewis is a respectable, hardworking settler, who can use his brains as well as his hands." Then this same writer, who attempts deception with such an easy conscience, has the presumption to lecture us on the wickedness of publishing “ Pumpkin’s ” letter. If the “ Ormond ” writer had the good sense to reply, if he wished to do so, in the respectful manner in which “ Pumpkin " wrote, it would be more to his credit than asking us to publish his abusive emanation, A civil question was civilly asked, and might have been civilly replied to, but when it can only be replied to by abuse, that conveys very different impressions to what would be given by a plain Straightforward answer, Mr Lewis may well ask to be saved from his friends, if he reckons our " Ormond ’’ correspondent among them. The H,B. Education Board met on Tuesday. The Gisborne School Committee applied for a grant of £213 for the school houses and reparing the teacher's residence.—A grant of £9 was made for closets; the other items were postponed. The Patutahi Committee wrote stating that the school was overcrowded and also that a teacher’s residence was required.—Resolved that a plan be prepared showing what would most economically meet the wants of the district. An application from Te Arai {or £l5 for erecting a porch to the teacher's residence was granted. The Tologa Committee applied for a pupil teacher.—Haiti over, A request for a teacher’s residence at Ormond was refused. A grant of £5 was made towards the oast of a chimney at Makauri. There was a good attendance of both members and visitors at the weekly meeting of the St. Andrew’s Literary Society on Tuesday evening. Three short essays were read, “ A Lump 0! Cqai ” by Mr E. Parnell, and “ The Resources of New Zealand " by Mr Turnbull. The other paper was entitled " The domestic Cat. " The papers were each commented upon by the members. Three naw members were elected,

A late London message states that the wife of Phil Robinson, war correspondent, has instituted proceedings for a divorce on the grounds that he forced her to swallow a a quantity of morphia, which procured insanity, and he immediately afterwards had her placed in a lunatic asylum. To-morrow (Queen’s Birthday) will he observed by the Postal department as a close holiday. The mails usually closing on that day will be closed this evening. The Telegraph branch will be open from 9 a.m, to 10 am., and from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A London telegram states that the Times has paid forty shillings into Court in satisfaction of the claim brought by Parnell,

All the gamblers that were arrested at Park Place, London, have been discharged. The owner of the Club was fined £5OO and the other officials in smaller sums.

A terrible sight was witnessed by some hundreds of people at the Portland road station of tke Metropolitan Railway. A respectably dressed man dived from the platform under an approaching engine, and before the train had passed the poor wretch’s head was seen to roll into the 6 foot trench. Suoh an effect had this ghastly spectacle on those who witnessed it that two gentlemen, in addition to several ladies, fainted away. Dr Beaney, of Melbourne, has intimated to the Mayor of Canterbury (hie native city) his desire to found a Free Library and Working Men's Institute there, and a committee has been formed for the purpose of carrying the proposal into effect.

The condition of the King of Wurtemburg is causing serious concern in high circles in Germany. There is no possibility of predicating anything about the erratio monarch, and his officials and attendants are in a constant agony of terror lest he -should slip away quietly to Paris some fine day on his own account. If he does there will be some lively doings. The King has a strong inclination to exercise the kingly prerogative of granting titles and patents of nobility. This may be an amiable weakness, but it is also an expensive one, since a dentist who was lately created a baron for stopping a troublesome tooth of King Charles has had to be bought off at_a longish price.

The United States correspondent of the London Times telegraphs “ Detachments of cavalry are driving the settlers from the Oklahama Indian territory, where they have been invading the lands reserved for Indian settlement. All the huts, tents, &c., of the squatters have been destroyed, and the people have been driven like cattle over the Kansas and Texas borders. This has caused some outcry ; but the Government is determined to protect Indian rights. Many camps of intending settlers are dotted along the border, the occupants of which are prepared to enter when the troops withdraw. These reserved lands are among the choicest in the Weet.

The Sultan of Turkey has forwarded presents to the value of £70,000 to the Emperor and Empress of Germany, The unfortunate subjects will of course be best able to appreciate the value of the presents.

A novel sort of beauty show ie about to take place at Vienna. The beauties on view are to be gentlemen, and their claims are to be decided upon by lady judges. There are prizes for the handsomest man and for the finest moustache. There is actually to be a special prize for the most imposing bald head.

A case of religious mania in a family of five persons is reported from Lower Austria, The family in question were singing and praying for three nights and days without taking a morsel of food, aud a peasant girl who happened to visit the house was forced to join them. Quite an armed expedition was required to rescue the girl and convoy the five lunatics to an asylum,

An exciting scene was witnessed in the Gaiety Cancert Hall, Birmingham, A dramatic sketch was in progress during which a sailor was drugged and murdered. A sailor in the audience leaped from the gallery on to the stage, declaring, with an oath, that he would not see a comrade come to harm. The officials of the hall were floored one after another by the man in his desperate efforts to reach the stage robbers, and four policemen only removed him after a violent struggle. He was perfectly sober, and had returned from a long vogage the previous day.

The Zanzibar blockade is doing very little to prevent the importation of arms and ammunition, as enormous quantities are now being imported from the West, especially vid Liberia and Upper Guinea, whence the well organised caravans of the Arab dealers convey them to Lake Tanganyika in four or five months. About 25,000 rifles and 25,000 cwt. of powder and cartridges, or more than were brought up during the whole of last year, are said to have been imported .already via the West Coast from Hamburg alone. The importations from England are said to be in proportion. A ship of the German blockading squadron recently captured a Hamburg trader with 30 cannon and 300 boxes of rifles on board destined for a Zanzibar firm. The medical students of the University had a night at the theatre on the last day of April, and enacted some of the drolleries for which they are renowned. Amongst other things they burlesqued the law in the persons of judges, counsel, jury, and even poor bobby. Two of the young men were got up as policemen, the only inaccuracy in the uniform being their numbers. It appears that, having stated their intention, they had received an assurance from the authori-

ties that they would not incur any risk by appearing in uniform on that occasion. All passed off well at the theatre, but they came to grief on their way home. The two " policemen ” took another of their number into “ mock ” custody and went into a hotel to have a " drink.” A real policeman came up, and being move stupid than the average man of his class, construed the proceeding into an offence. He contented himself however, with the names of the young men, aud let them go. A "petty officer” arrived on the scene, aud, being",more thickheaded than his subordinate, ordered the young fellows to be locked up. Mr Miln. whose acting they had been to see, heard of the occurrence, and went to bail them out ; they appeared at the police court next morning, as a matter of course, when In* speotor Pewtress, acting doubtless under superior orders, " withdrew the charge. ”— —Melbourne correspondent.

Some astonishing instances of human wickedness are related in the lately published autobiography of one John G. Paton, a missionary to the New Hebrides. The autobiography is down to the year 1862, and Mr Paton amongst other things tells us that his greatest obstacle to success was the atrocious conduct ot the white traders, whose acts in some instances were like those of fiends rather than of human beings, Men ill with measles were landed on the islands in order, as one Captain said, to sweep the natives away so that white men might occupy the soil. On ore occasion they allured a chief on board with the promise ot a present, confined him in the hold amongst natives ill with measles, and kept him there without food for 24 hours, Then he was put on shore, having caught the disease, which spread rapidly through the country. So terrible was the plague, that the natives feared to give food or water to the sick, and were afraid sometimes even to bury the dead. “It need not bs surprising,” Mr Paton writes, “ though we did everything in our power to relieve and save them, that the natives associated us with the white men who had so dreadfully afflicted them, aud that their blind thirst for revenge did not draw fine distinctions between the traders and the missionaries. Both were whites—that was enough.”