LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 397, 31 December 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

To-morrow (New Year'e.-Dayj ths Post Office will observe a close holiday, the mails usually closing on that day being closed the previous evening at 7 o’clock. The Telegraph Office will open from ft a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

• The Union Company has made exceedingly liberal terms for persons desirous of taking a trip to Auckland during the great Jubilee season. A return saloon passage ig available at £3, and ewond class i t £2. It is expected that many Gisborne people, unable to make a trip to the Exhibition, will got, Auckland instead. The Public Works Committee of the Harbor Board met yesterday, when the following tenders were received for horse hire and driver :—W. Howarth. Is 31 per hour, extra horse 61; F. Hick (accepted) Is, and 6d; Mclntosh and Doleman, In 31, and 3d; H. Partington, Is 3d, and 31. The following accounts were passed Cablegram £3 13s 6d, Weighbridge keeper £3. Secretary £8 6s 81, Wharfinger £l6 13s 4d. Harbor Mester £l6 13s 41, Nelgon Bros, £4 13<, Wharf account £3 Ils, 3. Mullane £4 8s 7d, P. McLoughlin £3B 13s 41, D. McLeod £4 Bs, Wages account £266 18s. Tbere was only one tender received for ironmongery, viz., Messrs Wingate Burns and Co's, which was accepted,

To-morrow will of course be observed as a close holiday, the greatest feature of enjoyment set down being the picnic in connection with the Presbyterian Church. The management is in good hands, and provided the picnic is favored with fine weather there is certain to be a very Urge gathering. The -picnic will be held in Mr Barnard’s paddock, near the Hapara—a spot which is not only admirably suited for the purpose, but has also the great' advantage of being convenient to town. A good programme of sports has been drawn np, and there will be much friendly rivalry to interest the spectators. The price of tickets is only 2s shillings each, lunoh and tea being given in.

The state of the road between Gisborne and Opotiki is said tq he very dangerous for travellers. Mr Whitehead (son of an old journalist who w„s formerly editor of the New Zealand Herald) entertained the project of a trip right through New Zealand, but his experience wqs far from pleasant, and he has come to the contusion that he can enjoy himself much better in other 1 way*. He was riding through from Qpotiki to Gisborne and on coming to one of the curves on the road through the Motuhie horse stumbled and went over the embankment. Mr Whitehead managed to get olear of the saddle, and saved himself from a fall which would have probably killed both himself and the horse. What became of the horse he was enable to discover, and he had to walk right through to Ormond, from the Motu bu«n. Ho then oame on to Ghhorne end took passage for Auckland by Sunday s steamer, htvlng had enough of a trip through Now Zea’ani. He la a midshipman on one of the Shaw Saville Company’s beats, and wae Offen a holiday. F 1

I Mr H. M. Porter is a cash purchaser of graes seed. Mr J. Fisher, of the Whalaupoko Pound, will sell a mob of horses on Thursday next unless they are redeemed. The AshleUh Brook is expected to be at Gisborne early in J muary, to load frozen meat for the Home market.

The Fire Brigade (under Superintendent Townley) hid a good wet practice last night, with the steam fire engine. The old years appear always to be prolific of blood and thunder phantoms This old year we have Portugal and England snarling at each other, and sundry little revolutions taking place in Brazil and elsewhere.

Watchnight services will be held to night in various local churches, and also at the Solvation Army. We take this opportunity of again wishing our readers a happy and prosperous New Year. The Gisborne Band (under Mr Brown) continues to give plessure of a Saturday evening by its performances near the City Rink. The former plan of handing the programme in for publication might again be adopted with advantage.

Our cablegrams give evidence of an alarming increase in the influenza epidemic. We can afford to Sympathise with the distress of our brethren across the sea, especially as New Zealanders do not know how soon their own turn of the " sneezes ” may come upon them.

The first event st the picnic to-morrow will be a handicap race nt 150 yards, commencing at 11 a.m. At noon the 220 yards will be run off, end at 2 the 300 yards. At 3 the fancy costume cricket match takes place, and at 5 tea will bs partaken nf. Entries tor- the handicap should be sent in to Mr W. Miller before 9 this owning. The handicappers are Messrs Nisbett and Fraser, Traps enter the around off Lytton road, and pedestrian* will find an entrance from Gladstone road.

The Jubilee day, January 39th, will be a great day in Auckland. It is expected that over a thousand pounds will be guaranteed for the purpose of holding a big regatta and other celebrations in commemoration of the event. The day will probably be observed in Gi-bome ns'sdose holiday, and it has been decided to commemorate it by holding the Church of England annual garden fete on that date. As the affair will be held in the Gisborne Park, and the arrangements will be in the hands of those well sble to make the thin ; a success, the occasion Will probably be celebrated in a worthy manner in this portion of the province.

A London correspondent writes 1— There is nothing so exceptionally high, or deep, or rapid which does not In the end tempt the morbid imagination of the sdolde. The tnwer, the whirlpool, the railway train, have all sooner'or later their voluntary victims. And at last the steam roller has been added to these elneter agencies. To those who study such matters- it is strange that such a catastrophe should have been so long delayed. The object in contemplation is certain; the end io speedy; the enormous wheel, oareleaa of all destruction and accompanied by its thunderous roar, seems itself the embodiment nf a malignant Fate. This Juggernaut custom once begun will now doubtless quietly take its place in the " averages,'* but jn-t at first it strikes one as ghastly and malefic to the last degree.

TheMrNewton referred toln the cablegrams as a West End solicitor, and against whom a charge has been brought of inducing witnesses against the accused in the recent West End Club scandal to leave the Old Country, is probably not a solicitor at all. but Mr Robert Milnes Newton, one of the Stipendiary Magistrates at the Great Marlborough street Metropolitan Police Court. It -was before this gentleman that some noble lords charged with certain unnatural immorality are said to have been brought. The cases were, it is alleged, heard secretly, and nothing oame of them. If it can be proved that Mr Newton has made himself a party to conspiring to defeat the ends of justice, he ought to be ruthlessly dismissed from the position he has apparently, abused.—Napier News.

Here are a few stiff lies taken from a contemporary:— A man was so swift that in runing round a tree he caught sight of his own back. Another was so vigorous that he never sneezed but he threw a somersault. The hearing of another was so good that he could hear gnats jumping on the rocks four miles off. A man was so acute and far seeing that he could guess ths price of butter by the size of the cow. A man painted a piece of wood so much like marble that when he put it in water it sank. The trains in places go so fast that the telegraph poles appear like the teeth of a comb. A patent hair renovator was so strong that a little of it rubbed on the door-step brought out a strong crop of bristles, and saved the expense of a door-mat.

The territory of New Mexico has just been visited by a terrible blizzard or snow storm, with intense cold. Snow fell to a depth of 2 feet, and in some places the drifts are 10 or 12 feet deep. Thousands of oattle and sheep have perished, and other thousands are so scattered that they may never be brought back again to their rightful owners. Many cowboys or herders have been frozen to death or died from the effects of their exposure to the terrible storm. It was the worst storm ever known in the history of that.part of the country; in severity it rivals the blizzard of Dakotah, two seasons ago. The foil effects of thia New Mexican blizzard were not known, as the trains are stopped on nearly all the railways, ths telegraph is down and communication of all kinds is in a state of suspension. On the Atlantic coast there have been several long continued rain storms, but none of them have developed into gales, and consequently the dan) age is not ssrions.

A writer in a Sydney paper remarks: - Major Dane says that the Australian boy has not learned to think. Let the boys answer for themselves. Meanwhile wo take note of a case showing that the girls have learned to think, and aot too, to some purpose. A little boy in the country, named R >wen, is knocked down and held down by a falling sapling, which breaks his log. His sister, twelve years of age, outs him free, oarries him home, catches a horse, informs the nearest neighbour, rides into town, a distance of fifteen miles, tells her parents, who areaway from home, and goes for a doctor. What mors oould have been done at 22 instead of 12 ? Another point in the case is that the horse had only been ridden a few times before. An English proverb informs us that old heads oannot be put on young shoulders. In this land of reversed ideas, it is sometimes found that they grow there naturally. If that little boy—now, probably, in splints and reflection—does not learn to think, and to think great things of his sister, he will need, as the Major says, “to be shaken up.” But it Is not to bo thought of.

The year eight hundred and eighty-nine trill soon be of the dead past, and as the expiration of an old year and the birth of a qew one has always bean regarded as an epoch from whiolj the highest lactone mat be oonveyed, the present Oceanian should not, nor is it likely to ba, made an exception to the rub. Many people will consider the birth of the new year as a time for devotional exercises; many others will consider the occasion as one for merriment. -Well, we hope that everyone may have a happy time of it; but we sincerely trust that there will he no repetition of the Insane pranks hy which a few individuals sometimes not only exhibit an uddeelrahje trait in their own character, but tend to bring the’oomhiunity into discredit. If any -such ebullition of spirits occurs to-night offenders need not expect that the season will be made an excuse for leniency. While genuine fun can be appreciated by everyone, injury to property or unseemly behavior of any’ kind should not be tolerated. As it may he as well to convey a note of warning, those lively young sparks who brought themselves into unenviable prominence on Christmas eve are Informed that another exhibition of the kind may lead to their names shining in print.

Salvation Army.—Watch Night Service at 16,80 to-nigbt. -Fionio New Yur’e Day, al Mr Tetehen's paddock. Bverybedy woleeias.