LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 553, 6 January 1891, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Borough Council meets this evening at the usual hour, The scale of charges for admission to the races to-day is published in our advertising columns. At Messrs Davies, Akroyd and Porter's sale of sheep yesterday morning, 10s 9J was realised for two-tooth ewes, and 9s for two-tooth wethers. It appears there were a variety of impromptu bands serenading the country on New Year’s morning. One band, which had some pretensions to be musical, but was not disorderly, was “ treated ” by Mr Burrowes, and it was partly in revenge for being ignored, that the natives warmed up so vigorously at Mr Burrowes’ residence. The conference between the delegates from the new Waiapu County and representatives of the Cook County ended without anything being settled on Saturday. It was olaimed for Cook County that the Waiapu district was liable to the extent of £l2OO, and the reply was that from the way the money had been allocated in years past Waiapu was now entitled to be free from any portion of the encumbrance. As both sides were resolute, the matter will be referred to the Comp-troller-General for arbitration. An organ recital was conducted by Mr Airey at Ho’y Trinity Church, after the service on Sunday evening. Mr Airey played a programme that delighted all lovers of good music, the imitation of a tempest being a brilliant exeou’ion, made even more effective by the beautiful ‘ Prayer ’ that followed. The recital was marred by the interruptions of persons entering and leaving. No fixed time was given for beginning, and persons who did not have programmes were at a loss to know how many items were to be played. People’s eyes are now being orened at to the effect of the splitting up of the County. It is claimed that the new County is fairly entitled to bear £l2OO of the liabilities of the old County, but the delegates from that dis—tiict say that they are entitled to saddle the whole amount on the Gisborne portion of the district. Ab the matter is to bs submitted to a Government official it is pretty certain that the infant County will still be the darling of parental love. The people of the southern district should have curious feelings on learning that while the northern district is so successful in freeing itself from burdens it is expected that in wool alone 4000 bales will be exported from that district this season, including Tologa Bay. Notwithstanding that the spieler clement is not to be encouraged as the races, a good sprinkling of the clever gentry has “ raised the wind ” to enable them to sail down on Gisborne, where they hope to sun themselves at harvest time. If they cannot gain admission to the course their energetie disposition wi l not allow them to become depressed, and ere the week is out some gulled ones may gain experience as io how the spieler knocks out such a fat living, A little fast may make them desperately hungry, so that a further warning shou d hardly be necessary. The police are fully alive to the characters they will have to shepherd for a few days, but it will be wslj if all people are on their guard. These remarks may be specially addressed to the bushmen and other workmen who are beginning to oome into town and drawing cheques for which they have to work hard, The mousy would be better thrown Into the sea than any portion of it should go to encouragd the BpiSlor rascals.

On her last trip from Auckland the steamer Rotomabana accomplished the distance in 22i- hours. The annual general meehn ; of contributors to the Gisborne Hospital is to be held next Thursday evening. The steamer Aus’ralia is expected to leave Auckland at 6 o’clock this evening, for East Coast ports. A London weekly offers the novel prize of a pretty wife or a good husband and £lOO a year for life. No.v, then, bachelors and maidens. For defending the Chinese in tbe Wellington murder case Sir Robert Stout got 150 guineas, from Sew Hoy, a Chinese merchant of Dunedin. The mail news via San Francisco contains nothing very interesting, though of course there is the usual gory budget, murders, suicides, etc. Mr J. Erskine makes has made his usually excellent arrangements with regard to the outside dining room and refreshment stall, atto day's race meeting. The proprietor of the Woodville Examiner has instituted a profit sharing system, by which the workmen participate in any balance there may be at the annual reckoning up. Oue of “ Touchstone’s ” New Year wishes, in the Napier News, is that the Napier School may do much better next year, and notallow the Gisborne School to sweep the board. A prominent trick of tbe spielers is to try and get greenhorns to take shares iu tickets on the totalisators. People soft enough to join in this class of investment should see that they get the ticket as security. While the firebells were ringing in Wellington on Christmas Evo, a tradesman telephoned asking that the bells be stopped, for goodness sake, as the trifling fire had been put out some time previously. The reply was that the bells were ringing for another fire in a different part of the city.

It is a glorious thing to be a great man. The enemies of Mr Gladstone have circulated a yarn that he dined at an hotel with Mrs O'Shea, when the Gladstone-Parnell alliance was being made. What poisonous reptiles there still are in this world. Wefiesly Street School, Auckland, has a rambling club, which is encouraged by the teachers. The great event is camping out at Christmas time, and a five days’ outing on the West Coast, participated in by a limited number of 40 boys, has been very successful. The Herald's organ recital reporter is recovering from the Christmas holidays. His gush over Mr Airey’s Stirring composition is worthy of reproduction in a comic print. The psriorm&noe was in itself a grand one, but the extravagance of the scribe serves to torn a very impressive production into a subject of mirth. The exports from Gisborne last quarter, to places outside the colony (excluding the cargo by the Star of England), were valued at. 1675,823. Wool heads the list with a va' ne of £65,084; mutton was t alued at £3,565, maize at £2,464, cheese and butter £270, skins £221, barley £lBO, hides £93, beef £62. The tender of W. Jones, £36, has been accepted by the Waimata Road B >a <1 for a dray track to seoii hi 20, block IV, Waimata district. The other tenderers were: Doleman £3l, Corcoran £4O, S evens £39 10s, and Bowler £34 16s, It was resolved to call tenders for the extension of the track leading to Mr Branson’s section. The consideration of correspondence was deferred until next meeting. General Booth's new book had an enormous sale. Thirty-one thousand copies were ordered within a couple of days of the book being issued. One publisher who had not previously dealt in publications connected with the Army gave an order for 15,000 copies of the book. The General did not anticipate a greater demand than 10,000, which he would have thought quite satisfactory. The celebrated theatrical manager, Mr Smythe, is now in Gisborne with Madame Burton’s company. He is an old journalist, and as such deplores the tendency that is now shown in New Zealand, to flitter scratch companies in such a manner that the vocabulary of praise has a dreary obink of sameness when a first-class company comes along As a result the really good companies labor under a Dig disadvantage. The license to the temporary hotel at Tologa Bay, occupied by Mr Steele, has been withdrawn on acciunt of the naw building (in place of tbe one burned down) not having baen erected within the proper time. It is balieved now that a new building will not be pnt up. Tbe Tologa Bay Hotel, of which Mr Kirk is the proprietor, is now being enlarged and will be converted into a fine house for the accommodation of travellers.

At the Trust Commissioner’s Court yester. day morning, certificates were granted to the following deeds: —Transfer from Rawinia te Aungira and others to Sir Geo. Whitmore, of Mangaparahi. Lease from Tapita Iretoro to S. R. Cooper of Kaiti 303 c. Lease from Rutu Iretoro to S. R. Cooper of Kaiti 303 b Confirmation from Puhara Timo to Ewen Cameron, Coleman and Clarke, and others of Matawhero C. Transfer from Hoani te Ngarara and others to J. H. Coleman of Tutu-o- te-Kaha No. 1. Conveyance from Baniera Turoa or Te Heuheu to J. H. Brown of Tutu-o-te-Kaha No. 1.

The drought in the South is beginning to affect the supply of “ freezers ” for the Home market. Naturally, in the absence of grass and roots the stock cannot be expected to fatten. There will, it is feared, be drafts nn the young stock, which will affect the supply next year. It is a lesson to the Canterbury farmers and those of North Otago to irrigate their fields in ths dry weather. The North Island requires no such artificial aid. Grass and water, which are now in marvellous abundance, have never hitherto failed, and the olimatio and topographic conditions are such that they probably never will. Even with irrigation to help the South, the natural conditions of the North must make it the premier stock producer. The fact we observe is appreciated, for the country land sales are well attended, and prices keep up.—N.Z. Times.

UpatKarori 'hey hive—or had—a goose that was the terror of all the small boys of tbe neighborhood. It was a goose possessing an awful hiss and a tremendous bill, which could take pieces out of a boys’ ealves with neatness and despatch. Its owners were proud of that g H.-e, Qa Christmas eve a Chinaman cam-; along and the goose, to the intense delight of hie mistress, charged the Celestial, who was carrying a long bamboo over his shoulder. The Chinaman let the goose approach him within a few yards and then bolted. The goose followed at mag ufiosnt speed with wings siretihed. The owners, with shrieks of laughter, called to John to come back, assuring him the goose would not hurt him. But the heathen continued his wild career, So did the goose. Neither have returned. Evil minded people say there was a fishing line, a hook, and a bait at the end of that baml?no rod. The gooee returns no more, The Ohinaman has not been identified.— Catholic Times,

The ordinary monthly meeting of the Kaiti Road Board was held at noon yesterday. Present: Messrs E. F. Harris (Chairman), Liddell, Ponetord, Mattheweon, and Dickson, A letter was received from P. McLoughlin offering to supply the whole quantity of large metal required usder his contract for 2500 yards, at a sum privately stated in the letter, instead of at 3s per yard, as at present for large and small metal. The Board decided to adhere to the terms of the present contrast, or if he delivered the whole quantity of lbs same description of stone st a certain price he be permitted to do eo. A petition was received from several ratepayers asking that the footpath in Rutene road be gravelled.—Decided to defer matter until the whole of the present works were completed. It was agreed to draw the attention of the Borough Council to tbe gjpwtb-oJ the Bathurst burr on tbe esplanade, Ssveral teridsrs were received tot the formation of Darwin street; ano for the supply of 500 yards of gravel, but the Board decided to adjourn the meeting till 9 d’eTock title morning, when tbe tenders Will be e«Bsideteu.>

The Hastings Fire Brig de hid a very successful day’s sports on New Yaai’s Day. The Wharf Laborers’ Union at Wellington has been disbanded, but is to be reorganised. A Landon correspondent says that General Booth s settlement scheme got its inspiration from Mr Rees’ book. Mr Brown, father of Mr J. Vigor Brown, of Napier, di d last week, aged 76. His widow is at present in Paris. The Nelson Fire Brigade has got so hard up that in future payment cannot be guaranteed to cabmen for taking the reels to a fire. It is believed that tho export of wool from the northern portion of this district, including Tologa Bay, will be nearly 4,000 bales this season. Last week an infuriated bull made things live'v at. Petone. He quickly sent the people helter-skelter, siverely injured a child, rampaged in people's back yards, chased tho.e who were in proximity, ripped open some sacks of wheat, and finally fell dead from a well-aimed bullet directed by Mr Kirk, a crack shot. A touching little story is related by a Southern contemporaryOn June 23,1889, Mrs F. Parker (Buckinghamshire) sought her son George, who had gone to New Zealand in 1872. He, seeing the inquiry (reprinted by a New Zealand paper), wrote to his mother from Ngapara, and they renewed their corves pondence. Now comes the intelligence that George Parker left O.tmaru, to return home, on March 19, in the ship Dunedin, and he and the ship are, it is feared, at the bottom ot the Pacific. At the Napier Court on Friday a charge of lunacy was preferred against Sarah Ann Hobbs, the wife of a shepherd at Patangata. Sue was first thought to have fever and Dr Godfrey sent her to the Waipukurau Hospital, but the doctor there said she was suffering from acute mania, and she was sent to Napier. The Napier gaol doctor, on the other hand, said the case was fever and the woman ought not to have been brought to town. She was sent to ths Napier Hospital, after all this rough handling. A writer over the signature "Puff” some years ago made a mark in N.Z. journalism by his sharp and witty “ Cigarettes,” which were quoted far and wide, and were greatly relished even by those who did not agree with the views that were thus circulated. 'That writer was Mr Wakefl dd, but the mantle has long sines fallen on other shoulders and here is a sample of the sickening drivel that now trickles down ths columns of the Press: "That dreadful murder and suicide at Waverley beat all that we have ever had in that line for a Christmas Day’s programme—the only good thiug about it is that the brute killed himself l"

The Catholic Times begins the New Year bv ent.-ring on its f..ivth volume. After referring to the Initial difficulties our contemporary remarks that during the pact year the progress of the paper has been such that all doubts and misgivings for its future have vanished, and it emerges upon its fourth year under the happiest auspices. But gratifying as the success has been, an even more pronounced success is aimed at. We tender to the editor of the outspoken and brightly writtan journal our congratulations upon the success up to rhe present, and would cordially express a hope that its future may be pregnant with increased prosperity. The statement in bankruptcy of Messrs Garrett Bros, is an illustration of how an unlucky turn may upset the product of years of labor. About twen'y years ago five brothers started business in Auckland as boot and shoe manufacturers, with a capital of between £4'X) and £5OO. They had great success for 15 years, not only m their trade, hut in their property investments, and in 1835 were running «. tctnnory.eeote.ry, and retail shop in Auckland, with retail shops at Gisborne, New Plymouth, and Napier. But the rock on which the bust nuss split was the opening of a shop at Newton. They took a lease of property at a ground rental of £604 per annum, and erected building's at a cost of over £7,000. In October 1886 they had run into an overdraft of between £7,000 and £B,OOO, and consenting to a valuation on behalf of the Bank, there was estimated to be a gross total of £31,500, subject only to the lien mentioned. Then the leasehold began to he a drag, and the freeholds depreciated. The money lost on the Newton property would discharge the whole of the present liabilities. No partnership accounts had been kept, each brother having full confidence in the other, and the amounts drawn being regulated by individual requirements. Though the schedule at present showed a surplus of £16,293 on the properties, Mr R. Garrett said he was by no means sura they would realise more than half the estimate in October, 1831, in which case the surplus would only be £3.750. The five brothers (of whom Robert died in 1887) had always taken share and share alike in all their undertakings, except in the matter of life insurance. The Gisborne assets are estimated at £1,102, Everyone must feel sympathy for the position cf the industrious brothers after so many years of toil and worry.