LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 354, 21 September 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

People who have been long resident in this district say that the present spring season is the best they have known. Everywhere the country looks magnificent, and the lambing will yield a splendid percentage. Mr Hare advertises the usual lecture at the Theatre on Sunday night. “The. world’s great need ” is to form the theme of discourse. Can it ba met by religious or political legislation ? Can the Gospel, Atheism, or the Temperance and Social reforms ever reach the world’s deep need ? A Palea settler writing to a gentleman in Christchurch sayslt is just as well you are not having any bush land done this season. Bushmen are scarce. They took contracts early in the season as low as 22s per acre ; they are now asking 355. The flax industry has absorbed a large amount of labor here, I do not know what we are to do when ' harvest comes round. The average in Gisborne district is £l. A private cable message has been received in Christchurch, from London, stating that arrangements are being made for great extensions of tonnage for frozen meat, equal to all the demands for next year. The gentlemen who control the shipping interests in New Zealand have represented that six new cargo boats will 4 be needed to meet the requirements of the trade of New Zealand next season.

At the last meeting of the H.B. Land Board, a letter from the Cook County Council was read, in regard to the payment of deferred thirds. The chairman said there was one thing he did not agree with, and that was utilising the revenue accruing from small paying runs for maintenance. It should be devoted to the formation and construction of roads. In the future if a road was required there would be no rates to form it. The practice should be deprecated. A letter had been wrttten to this effect some time ago, and he would move that another letter be forwarded them on the matter. Maintenance, without doubt, should be charged to rates.—Cr Hall seconded, and the motion was carried. The following applications were made (and approved) for transfer of perpetual leases: - Brown to Blake, section 14, Patutahi; Brown to Ingrame, section 113, Patutahi; Kirk to W. F, Hale, sections 1,2, and 3, suburbs of Uawa ; Fox to Doyle, sections 8 and 9, block 14, Pohui. The selections of the following parsons who have land in ths Mota (Poverty Bay) district were forfeited on the grounds that they were in arrears with their improvements J. Richardson, G. Richardson, T, Week?, W. J, Petohell, and R. Bourke. At the last meeting of the H.B. Education Board, a grant was asked to improve the Gisborne Kohool accommodation, and the Board decided to make an urgent communication to Government, complaining of the lack of funds. A letter was received from Patutahi, recommending Mrs Woodward as assistant mistress. —Mr Sutton thought when single ladies could be procured, the wives of masters should not ba appointed.—The Chairman said the whole question was whether married ladies should be employed.—An unmarried lady to be appointed, Miss Batey was suitable, and if the Committee recommended the latter,, the Board would confirm the appointment. From Gisborne, recommending Mesdames Tansloy and Beere as examiners of sewing in that district.—Approved. From Makauri, asking for various improvements and repairs to buildings.—Deferred.

Mr Booth disposed of the following debt cases on Thursday last :—J. Bourke v. J. P. Bannister, claim £1 17s 64 for rates ; judgment by default, costs 7s. Thos. Moody v. J. Mclntosh, claim £2 19s for wages ; Mr Watson for plaintiff; judgment by default, costs 6s. Graham, Pitt and Bennett v. A. McMillan, claim £53 15s 4d on dishonored P.N’?. ; Messrs Finn and Chrisp for plaintiffs; judgment by default, costs £5 3s. Hatton and Score v. J. B. Scott, claim £l4 16s 2d, for meat supplied to the Masonic Hotel ; judgment by default, costs £l. Hatton and Score v. J. R. Scott and Co., claim £1714s 6d for a dishonored P.N.; judgment by default for amount, costs £l. W. Morgan v. H. Binnie, claim £4 7s 6d, for goods supplied ; judgment by default, costs 6s. T. J. Dickson v. J. Jones, claim £33 14s lOd on a dishonored P.N.; this was an application for a rehearing; Mr Finn for the applicant Jones, and Mr DeLautour for Mr Dickson ; after hearing arguments the application was refused. Judgment Summonses : Gisborne Harbor Board v. J. 8. Lincoln, claim £2 12s 8d; Mr DeLautour for plaintiff; the defendant was ordered to pay the amount forthwith, in default three days’ imprisonment; execution to be stayed for one month. G. R. Moore v. J. Brown, claim £l4 Ils 9d ; Mr Nolan for plaintiff ; an order was made for the amount to be paid forthwith, in default 14 days’ imprisonment ; execution to be stayed for 14 days. D. M. Orrv. Ra Mackey, claim £l2 4s 7d; no appearance of either party ; case struck out.

The olden time spirit that used to characterised the sales of Southdown sheep in England seems to have been revived on the occasion of the dispersion of the Streetly Hall flock, belonging to Mr Henry Webb. “No more important sheep sale than this,” says the Livestock Journal, “has occurred for the last half century.” Mr. Henry Webb has been breeding from his father’s old Babraham flock, without a cross, since 1862. During all those years careful selection and registration have been practised, with the result that it is doubted if 500 finer specimens of the breed were ever seen toget her on any farm, fair or show. All the leading breeders of the variety, headed by the Duke of Richmond, attended the sale, and the proceedings will not soon be forgotten. The top price of the day was made by a twoshear ram, which went to Goodwood, at 210 guineas. Several other rams brought respectively £l9O, £l5O, £l4O and £lOO. The ewes sold equally well, the higest figures quoted for lots of five being £lO2 10s. and £77 10s. Eighty-three shearling rams made an average of £32 93 9d., and 23 over year rams averaged £4l a piece. The 415 ewes, which included everything, averaged £7 Ils 54, making a total of £5789 IBs for 491 head. At Babraham sale in 1862, at which the highest prices on record for this class of sheep were given, 927 head sold for an average of £ll 15s 91; at Street'y, in 1889. the lineal descendants sold for £ll 10a 64 a piece. The little Southdown is evident!}’ still the “fashionable ” breed at home, for no other sheep sales in England can compare with the above.

“ Givis, ” in the Otago Witness, declaims as follows about the loss of the s.s. Centennial in Sydney harbor “ Competition is said to be the life of trade. It is also sometimes the death of competitors. There is a struggle for existence ; the stronger survives, the weaker goes under. The Centennial has gone under in a very literal sense, though the event was not, strictly speaking, a consequence of the Centennial’s audacious competition with the Union Company. But if the struggle had continued the same result would have been reached by another way. By a merciful interposition of* Fate—in the form of a Newcastle collier—the agony has been shortened, and the Centennial enjoys peace with honor at the bottom of Sydney Harbor, That is better than sinking in the deep waters of a hopeless competition—better for her owners, who, Ist us hope, were decently insured, though not so well for the travelling public. Thanks to the Centennial and her sister ship the Dupleix, the Union Company have been carrying passengers to Sydney at fares which exactly cover the cost of grease for the engines, and before long they would have been paying people to go. It is a lucky thing that the instrument of Providence which gave the Centennial her quietus was not a boat of the U.S.S. fleet. It might have been, and, if it had, an illogical public would have drawn only one inference. . On presumption less strong juries have convicted for murder, and Chemis, after narrowly escaping the gallows, is held in prison at this moment.”

General Booth recently quoted the following figures with regard to .prosecutions and convictions of members of the Salvation Army : Number of prosecutions in the United Kingdom,762 ; number of prosecutions abroad, 243 ; total, 1005. Number of convictions in the United Kingdom, 519 ; number cf convictions abroad, 112 ; total, 661. Length of terms of imprisonment suffered in the United Kingdom only, 5 years 4 months 7 days; amount of fines and ooaU saved by imprisonment £393*

A few weeks ago a man named O’Brien was admitted as a pauper patient to, and shortly afterwards died in the Melbourne Hospital. He seemed so poor that the nurse had to beg a pair of slippers for him. After his death there was found under his pillow a saving 6 ’ bank deposit receipt for cash totalling £909. Our Wesleyan friends are going to have a bazaar in December next. A largely attended meeting of the leading members of the congregation was held on Thursday night to make arrangements for it. It was decided to hold the bazaar on the 11th and 12th of the month, lid from outside the Church is to be sought. Among the novelties there is to be a cake stall, a woodware stall, a general and curiosity stall, From the hearty way in which the effort is being taken up, success is almost certain to be ecored. The enthusiasm of some of those persons who ascend Eiffe?s Tower knows no bounds. According to the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, they get their hats, cuffs or shirts, and pocket-handkerchiefs stamped with the magic words “third platform.” A lady went so far as to have the phrase printed on her petticoat; and it is a lucky thing for the Exhibition authorities that their “ champion monument ” is made of iron ; for had it been a mere wooden edifice peop'e would have hacked and hewn at it for relics until it dropped to pieces. As to M. Eiffel, he has become the veritable hero of the hour. The other day an enthusiast was discovered whittling away at some wooden palings outside the constructor's house, and when asked what he was about, replied that he wanted some “ Eiffel souvenirs ” to take home to his friends in the provinces. When M. Eiffel appears in the flesh on the pla’form of his tower he is surrounded by the autograph demons, who hold out albums to him, and with the most consummate aplomb ask for, not one, but two or three signatures. It is probable that among these plagues who carry away splinters, certificates of having ascended the tower, and autographs, there are some enterprising, and not at all enthusiastic, persons who will se'l their souvenirs at a magnificent profit. One industriel in Paris has already set up a manufactory for the preparation of sham medals and certificate d'ascension.