LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 618, 9 June 1891, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The usual meeting of the Borough Council takes place this evening. Mr Kelly, the representative of the East Coast, has been engaged a good deal of hia time since his arrival in Gisborne in consulting public men on the various matters of importance to the district.

Sir George Grey will have a big receptio n on bis return to Auckland to-day. The sea was very rough in the bay on Sunday, and no communication could be made with the steamer Rotomahana.

Mr Kelly is to be present at a special meeting of the Liberal Association to be held this evening. A magic lantern entertainment is to be held at the Church of England Sunday School room on Wednesday evening. The charge of admission is low, the entertainment will be good, and the object of it is one that should specially commend itself. Mr Richardson, sen., of Waimata, was badly hurt last week through getting ripped by a boar in his paddock. Only for the dog that was with him Mr Richardson might have been fatally injured; as it was, the injuries were not considered very serious at the time.

At Napier last week the master of the schooner Flying Scud prosecuted a seamsn on the vessel for assault, but the plaintiff became so excitable that he had to be ejected from the Court. Next day the positions of plaintiff and defendant were reversed, and the master was ordered to find £4 18s, or risk 14 days’ imprisonment. At the local option poll at Alexandra only one man voted against an increase of licensee; at Rangiaohia the same thing occurred, but at Mangapikothe prohibitionists actually mustered double the number — 2—while the other side was still in default. Why don't the temperance people look after these obscure places, where it is so easy to pass off poisonous fire water for alcohol. Poverty Bay’s land business is conducted in a queer way at Napier. At the time for the Board meeting the other day, two members were in attendance; half an hour later another turned up, and so the business was transacted. This may suit the Napier people, but it is not the way in which we like to see the Poverty Bay business slummed. When these things can bo it is clearly time wo hod a Board in this district to attend to its affairs, and we hope that Mr Kelly will take note of the subject. Mr D. Page announces m ano'her column that he takes possession of the Bridge Hotel on the Ist prox. Of the incoming tenant it is needless to speak, as his name is almost a household word with residents of the Bay. We join with the very many who wish him success in the venture.

There seems to have been a birthday commemoration festival round Napier way lately. That dreadfully respectable journal the Telegraph elegantly describes the Hons. Seddon and MeKenzie as “ two loud-voiced, ignorant bullies," and then characteristically winds up with something to the effect that thiswas not the first time in the world’s history the gospel of mercy and truth, righteousness and liberty, had been preached and put into practice. There w>ll be no Telegraphs, over there I—over there!

It may touch up Gisborne householders a little, to inform them that at Greytown good eating potatoes are being sold at £2 a ton.

At the Presbyterian Conference at Auckland, a speaker lamented that money was more easily forthcoming for Patey’a concerts than for Church purposes. The Wellington Education Board protest against an hotel license on account of the building’s proximity to a sohoo'. The blue ribbon of the English football turf has again gone to the Blackburn Rovers, who beat Notts for the cup by three goals to one. There were 28,000 spectators, who seemed frantic with excitement during the game.

The Auckland Star’s correspondent at Dargavills telegraphs that great concern is felt over the Beart embezzlements, and if it was only a matter of restoring the money taken from the ratepayers it would be subscribed in an hour or two. Dr Canaris, the wonderful illusionist and astonishing mesmerist, greatly mystifies and entertains his audience each evening, and his cleverness is much admired by those who witness his feats. There will be another performance to-morrow evening. Napier, which dearly loves the totalisator, is passing 406 bylaws, while sleepy Auckland is content with 50. Napier evidently means to encourage local industry for the lawyers, There was no business of special interest to the Poverty Biy District at the last meeting of the Hawke's Bay Waste Linds Board.

At Melbourne City Court the other day, a barrister named Panton got sentenced to 12 months for vagrancy.

A Waipawa scamp got treated with tar and feathers a few nights back for disfiguring public edifices with indecent words. Richard Esk, a religious maniac, was taken from Hamilton to the Auckland Asylum last week. He was very violent, and had to be handcuffed and tied with ropes. Twenty pounds odd, and not £5O, is the amount of the County rates which Mr Barker contends he should not pay.

Now the plough is at work on every sheep station, and eo far from agriculture hiving be«n replaced by mere grazing the exact reverse is the case.—H.B. Herald. The dessicating of potatoes for preservation purposes is a new industry likely to be successful in Victoria.

No previous concert company had ever given seven consecu'ive concerts in Auckland with the success that attended Madame Patey. It is said that those who heard the farewell of the season—“ Home, Sweet Home ” —will never forget the delicious treat. Journalistic ‘‘fun ’’as worked off in Wellington. One journal boasted that there had not been a single conviction of drunkenness in its district for twelve months. No. 2 journal retorts that there must have been neglect somewhere, and hints that the writer first mentioned had had a luckey escape. The other day Mr Justice Denniston held on appeal that one charitable aid district could recover from another the cost of maintenance of a man who had come on the claiming Board before he had been six months in the district, provided that he had just previously resided six consecutive months in the district on which the claim was made. This is thought a very important decision In Christchurch, but Gisborne had long since discovered the fact to its cost. The Marion Mercury gives some particulars concerning the Taranaki oil works, the editor oiueliy adding a note, “ The good old Gisborne game again." The writer states The works at Moturoa have now been carried on for some months, and the boring is down 937 feet. At 920 feet they struck payable oil, and have now some iOQ feet of petroleum in the well, and could pump some six barrels of 40 gallons each of petroleum per day ; but like all New Zealand concerns, just as they are able to demonstrate that the venture is a payable one, some hitch occurs that puts a dimper on the whole business. In the present ease the company, for some unexplained reason, have not paid their men for some weeks past, and the consequence is that all hands have struck work, or at all events are not now at work. I shou’d not like to say on my own responsibility that they have struck, but that they don’t do anything and that the works are closed is a fact. Another thing is also a fact, that is, that part of the boring machinery is broken, and is at the present time at the bottom of the well, and the first thing to bo done on resuming work will be to fish it up again.

A co-operative butchery promises to he very successful at Greymouth. The Auckland Star’s daily circulation is guaranteed by auditors to be 10,618 copies. A couple of boys, aged nine and ten respectively, were brought up at Auckland for stealing laces. The charge was dismissed. There is said to be another bungle in connection with the Taruheru Footbridge Commission, It will be a dear business before it is done with.

There is an upstanding, unabashed liar at Pahiatua. He writes to a weekly paper that the " unemployed ” at Makuri are working in mud almost up to their necks. The triple amalgamation proposals regarding the local public offices being rejected by the County Council, the Borough Council will take the preliminary steps this evening towards filling the vacancy. The following little paragraph is going the rounds of the Press:— ‘‘ A Gisborne paper terms a number of leading men in the district an aggregation of asses. ’ Will the P.B.H. rise and explain ’ A fine specimen of the Rcgal cus Pacifaut, sometimes termed the ribbon fish, was stranded near Christchnrch. It measured 20 feet; a specimen that is in the Museum is only 12 feet long. Captain Thompson, harbormaster, yesterday received the following weather telegram : —West to south and south-east, exceptionally severe gale soon, with heavy sea ; glass rise, and weather very coll.

It is weary work trying to nail the lying reports circulated by the guerilla skirmishers in the Opposition camp. The other day some perjuror said the Government were going to make a lot of calls to the Council; the latest perjury is that Stout is to have a trip Home at the public expense. Next whiff of brimstone and sulphur, please. The other day the members of his flock made a presentation to the Rev Father Kehoe, on the Jubilee anniversary of his birthday, and since then a further presentation (accompanied by a purse of sovereigns) has been made on behalf of the general public. The address was beautifully illuminated, the work having been done by Mr R. Ballantyne, of Napier. The presentation was made by Mr Crawford, who spoke in high terms of the appreciation in which the rev. Father was held, and of the ready way in which he always responded when his services were sought to ensure the success of entertainments got up for worthy objects, and heartily wishing that he would be long spared to continue hia good work. The rev. Father briefly rep'ied, tenderiug his thanks and acknowledging the kind disposition the people of Gisborne had always shown, and hoping that he might ever be able to justify the good opinion of so many friends. Among those present were Messrs Dickson, Dougherty, Harding, Joyce, Matthewson, and L. Rees.