LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 451, 8 May 1890, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The School Committee met last nisht and pasted accounts amounting to about £l2. The tender oi Mr R. Robb, builder, has been accepted for the erection or a schoolmaster's house at Tikitiki, Waiapu. The election yesterday to fill two vacancies in the Kniti Road. Board resulted—T. J. Dickson 53, S. Liddle 29, and W. Scotter 15. The following letters from places beyond the colony are lying at the Post Office, unclaimed —W. I. Weaver, Mrs Gibbie, and 8. Boyd. A good deal of interest has been created in the forthcoming election to fill the vacancy on the Harbor Board, and the interest is not restricted to the town, though it is a Borough representative that has to be selected.

At the annual meeting of the Whataupoko Road Board, held at noon on Tuesday, Mr E. P. Joyce was re-elected chairman. The annual meeting of ratepayers was adjourned owing to the sparse attendance of ratepayers.

The notorious “Tom Collins’’ is said to be in Gisborne, but though several people have been diligently searching for him they have failed to discover him. It is even said that Sergeant Bullen made one attempt to track him.

At a meeting of the Fire Brigade last night only one tender—from the N.Z. Clothing Factory—was received for uniforms, and it was decided not to open the tender, and to extend the time for a fortnight. It was decided to postpone the annual competition from the 24sh of May to some future date. At the Harbor Board meeting on Tuesday evening Mr A. C. Arthur mentioned that he would shortly be going down to Wellington for two or three months, during the session of Parliament, and he would like the opinion of the Board whether he should resign his membership or merely ask for leave. The Chairman said he would regret to see Mr Arthur resign his position on the Board and making a vacancy would be worse than for a member to be absent for a few meetings. Mr Townley said a previous M.H.R. had also been a member of the Board, and in any case, now that the meetings had been made monthly, Mr Arthur wr tld only be absent for two or three meetings.

Mr G. H. Staite, Secretary of ths. Gisborne Football Club, has convened a meeting for Wednesday next of all football clubs in the district. It is proposed to arrange a series of Cup matches. In every other district which is as well advanced as Poverty Bay, a series of Cup matches ean always be arranged, and the wonder is that someone has not already been found liberal enough to organise such a thing in Gisborne, From a variety of causes football is the most popular athletic game in which young men can engage in Gisborne, but the popularity would be greatly increased if there wars some memento to mark the victories achieved by each club. Wbat is now required is for some admirers of the game to make a presentation in the way of trophies.

At the recent eleolion for tha Parlick division'of Glasgow, Mr T. P. O’Connor, M.P., who addressed several meetings on behalf of the Gladstonian candidate, stated that he did not agree with some deprecatory remarks on Scotch missionaries which had appeared in the columns of his newspaper, the Star. Mr T. P. O’Connor is supposed to be tha editor of this journal, but in reality, he receives a salary of £l2OO a year for merely acting as a figure head. The real work of the Star has been done by a brilliant young journalist named Massinghame. This gentleman had. a serious quarrel with Mr O’Connor concerning his observations at Partick, and the dispute rose to such heights that the board of directors had to intervene. The remit was that Mr Massinghame demanded MrO’Connor’swithdrawalfromthe staff. The directors would not listen to this, it being necessary for them to have a good man at the head of lhe concern although he dees little. Mr Massinghams has, therefore, left the Star, and he threatens to start a rival paper. “Puff” writes:—l say, what a nice place Sunday Island must be I Yes ! I'd change the name ! The island’s a disgrace to Sunday, make it Friday Island 1 Caterpillars iu sweet variety all trying to see which could do their darned worst to the green stuff; and then there were rats galore 1 Wonder what the rats lived on before the settlers came 1 Can’t say ! Seems if the Hinemoa hadn’t come the settlers would have lived on the rats 1 Can’t think why chaps want to leave New Zealand to go to such a place ! No taxes, dear .boy, no bobbies, no newspapers, no doctors, no lawyers, no parsons, and every man his own tailor and provision merchant 1 The realisation of the Social republic 1 Yes 1 Only, you see, they didn't calculate on rats and caterpillars 1 Of course when the great Social Republic comes there will be no rats and no caterpillars 1 Certainly not ? All nature will manifest such profound sympathy with the realisation of human brotherhood that it’ll cease to produce bugs and fleas and rats and caterpillars and they'll all be turned into roses and honey bees I A gentleman who was at the public reading rooms the other evening amused himself by trying to detect how many paragraphs had been cribbed by the Herald of Tuesday evening. He only took that paper and the Napier Telegraph, and he discovered no less than forty paragraphs clipped from the Telegraph and published by the Herald without a word of acknowledgment. It only took him a few minutes to detect that number, and he got too disgusted to prosecute the search further. In a short memorandum he writes: —“ Though your contemporary has been so energetic in pulling the strings to get you involved in the meshes of the law through a little legal quibbling, here is evidence not only of stealing the product of other people’s brains, but also of imposing upon readers,” A newspaper writer never objects to the product of his brains being used if the source is acknowledged, and any journal that has regard for journalistic > tiquette never violates that rule. Unfortunat y there is one noted exception to the rule, and our correspondent need not plume himself on the fact that he has discovered anything extraordinary. They seemed to have had a “real sham” fight at Island Bay during E ’ster. Here is one of the jokes related Capt. , who imbibed a love for military display at a very early age through licking the red paint off wooden sojers, took command of tin Westport warriors on their arrival at the Empire City, and to his military genius alone, is due tha only redeeming feature of the show. Being ordered to take his men up the side of a valley and get behind a dray that was stationed at the top, to reconnoitre they proceeded to.obey the command by a flank movement, -which was a very risky undertaking considering the nature of the country and the number of the enemy supposed to be foraging round the dairies in the immediate neighborhood, Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, as it eventually turned out, tbe contingent miscalculated the number of evolutions they had to make to get to the position assigned them by the Commander-in-Chief, for when they got to the top they found they were on the wrong hill, and about ten miles from the battlefield, in a hostile country, no tucker left, and not even a fowlhouse within five miles of them.

The Polios yesterday brought a test case against R. Finlay, on a charge of allowing gambling on his premise!. Mr Brassey, for defendant, contended that the room was a private one, and that the landlord was perfectly within his rights in having a game with friends in his private room; the Act was to prevent any offence that would concern the public. Mr Nolan urged that the room was a public one to which tha general public were admitted. He called R. M. Harper, who deposed that ho had been playing poker in the room, for money, late on Saturday night or early on Sunday morning—he did not know the time. He had always understood lhe room to be a private one. Tuta Nihoniho corroborated tbe evidence, but said be had always regarded tire room as one to which he had the liberty oi asking his friends without consulting the landlord. Sergeant Bullen then gave evidence to the effect that the room had for ten years been known as a public one. Mr Brassey said there was no proof whatever that Mr Finlay bad played for money, but the Bench considered there had been sufficient proof, and a fine of £1 would be impo si. Sergeant Bullen suggested that the fine be mitigated; the case had been brought as a test one, and every facility in the matter had been given by Mr Finlay, who had first reported the matter in order to trace a theft. The fine was then reduced to ons sbiilittgi with bests Ils,

Daniel Courtney, of Ormond, is bankrupt. Messrs R. H. Stewart and J. E. Hills have been elected members of the Patutahi Road Board. Mr R, Finlay a nnmees hie intention of applying for a license for an accommodation house at Tatapouri. Messrs Currie and Hogan’s Darnley is nominated for the Wanganui Steeplechase, to be run on Queen’s Birthday. Union Literary Society. — This evening, 7.45. Election of officers. Debate. Leaders— Rev. Canon Fox and Mr E. Chrisp.—Advt. Bravery or bravado ’ At Sydney a member of the Permanent Force persisted in keeping on his hat when he was in Court as a. witness, saying it was against the regularions to take it off. He consented to be taught a little manners just in time to save himself from being giveu an altered portion iu the Government service.

Chang, the famous giant, is in poor health, and has been staying for several weeks at Ryde, Isle of Wight. He says that of late years, owing to his having to stoop so much in order to enter houses, etc., his height has deteriorated several inches. He stands now only 7J feet. He is rarely seen in the day lime owing to the curiosity he excites, but in the evening he frequently takes walks abroad. His permanent residence is Bourne mouth.

The trouble between John Morris and Edward Thompson was again ventilated at the Court yesterday, the affair appearing to have arisen out of a dispute over property. As the value of a dog that had bean shot £25 was claimed, Mr Chrisp was for informant and Mr Nolan for defendant. A fine of £1 was inflicted, £2 10s allowed as the value of the dog, and £3 16s costs. Two counter charges of using threatening language were withdrawn.

A Birmingham paper has the following :— Races have be m run on English courses in snowstorms and swamps, but the annals of the tuif could hardly supply a parallel to a story which comes fiom New Zealanu. “Recent races at the Head of the Bay, Akroa,” we are told, “ terminated in a somewhat surprising manner. The course lay across the sands of the bay, and through some delay, the last race was not run until the tide was well in, with the result that the horses had to swim some distance in the sea before the winning post was reached, Mr J, Duncan’s Spot, although not tbe best pacer, managed to win by superior natatorial powers."

At the Police Court yesterday an adjourned case against Maurice Hogan (Roseland Hotel), charging him with supplying liquor to a drunken man, was dismissed, there not being sufficient evidence. Sergeant Bullen referred attention to the extraordinary nature of the evidence, two witnesses swearing the man was not drunk, while from his own evidence, and that of his wife, there was no doubt he was drunk. There was another case against Mr Hogan, of supplying liquor, during Sunday, to a person who was not a traveller within the meaning of the. Act. Mr Nolan, for the defence, admitted that the liquor had been supplied, and that the police were correct in saying that tbe distance to the man's house was only 2J miles, but he submitted that the drink had been served in the belief that the distance was three miles. His Worship refusing to allow that to have any weight, a plea of guilty was then made, with a request that tbe penalty should be made as light as possible. A fine of £2 was imposed, with costs £1 9a.

The ‘ Spectator,’ in a lengthy article commenting on Lord Knutsford's yielding in the matter of tbe Victorian Divorce Bill, waxes somewhat wroth on the “ magnitude of the concession ” which has been made, and points out that “it reduces British sovereignty in Australia to something less than a form, and considerably worse, The colonists take up the position, not of subjects of the Crown, with a right of veto resting in the Imperial Parliament, but of allies who, unlike most allies, leave ultimate responsibility on the shoulders of their ally. In return for protection which is at least complete and inexpensive they leave the Mother Country nothing whatever—no power of guidance, no right of veto, no claim even to remonstrance in the interest of the whole Empire, which, if it ever suffers, suffers when its general marriage law, and, indeed, the only general basis, of its whole law is violently torn to tatters. If that general law exists, it is the body of ideas and rules of life known as Christianity, to which on every occasion of dispute, not only the Christian colonies of both kinds, but even the dependencies which are not Christian, have always hitherto appealed. They have always maintained that Great Britain was bound to be Christian in her treatment of them—that, iu fact, as the American Supreme Court once laid down the doctrine, Christianity, though not recorded in statute law, must be considered part of the unwritten law of the entire Republic. Yet, on the very first occasion on which an unquestionable and unquestioned precept of Christianity has come into conflict with their own wills, the Australians have insisted that their own wills, although Great Britain is still responsible for the supreme legislative ' fiat,’ should be regarded as the only law.”

The schooner Gisborne sails for Auckland this morning. The steamer Fanny is expected to arrive from Napier to-day. Mr Hall sells about fifty head of cattle a; Makaraka on Wednesday next. At the Police Court yesterday Mrs Matilda Edwards was sentenced to 14 days'hard labor for drunkenness, this being the third offence within three months.

On Saturday afternoon a football team from Waerenga-a-hika will play a team selected to represent the tuwn,

At ths Christchurch stock sales a few days ago fat crossbred wethers brought from 16s to 18s, while one lot of big sheep realised 21s each. For fat lambs 14s 6 i was the top price realised.

A Wellington clergyman is said to have stated that a woman doesn’t have to dance very long before her knees become too stiff to bend in prayer. The movement to have a frozen meat company at Wanganui has so far been very successful. It the Wanganui people only know their own interest, they will see the effort comes to maturity, and we heartily wish the promoters full success.

A Wellington paper (tho Herald) says that Lady, Onslow's objection to Wellington is her disgust at being followed up so much by ihe shoddy toffs.

Judge (who is bald headed)—lf half what the witnesses testify against you is true, your conscience must be as black as your hair, Prisoner—lf a man’s conscience is regulated by his hair, then your Honor hasn’t got any conscience at all,

At Chester Police Court a nine year old girl named Elizabeth Roberts was found guilty of putting poison in the food of a young woman living with her mother. The girl had been playing at Mrs Maybrick, and at times had made the whole family sick without their being able to account for it. She was sent to a reformatory for seven years. Christie Murray at the City Rink to morrow night. A. big bolt on Tuesday afternoon—sheep dip all over Gladstone road, Madame Bigarty, a lady evangelist who was formerly a Jewess, but has renounced Judaism, is to be In Auckland shortly. The Napier News says Mr Varley believes first in a Creator, secondly in himself, and his second belief is probably superior in importance to his first. In the course of the discussions on a motion to suppress the Salvation Army at Hastings, one Councillor said the Army did not annoy him in the least, for he wouldn't let them—when driving he went right through them, and had scattered them many a time. An owl erase has com® oyer Washington, and Imitation (ornamental) owls are so bewildering. by their oonspicuousness that one would think owls had saved the American capital as the geese did Rome. The attendance at Napier schools is said to be affected by la grippe, but those who know think that it is only an exouse for la wag.

HB. Herald :—Mr Christie Murray has proved his power, and that he can enthrall, thoroughly interest, and amuse his audience buj’bhd a doubh