LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 642, 4 August 1891, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Borough Council meets this evening. A sufficient number of hands has now been obtained for bushfalling work on Tauwhareparae Nook. During the next few weeks special bargains will be offered at Mrs Ledger's drapery establishment, so as to make room for spring purchases. The Marton Mercury, in a reference to the Gisborne Building Society frauds, refers to the various oases, and says that Gisborne investors will soon become suspicious of everyone. It is said that the rivers in South Canterbury were never so low as they are at present. Opihi especially has very little water in it; the Temuka is a trickling stream, and as to the Pareora it " runs itself to earth ” a few chains below Elworthy’s bridge.—Titnaru Times. At the Auckland Salvation Army Industrial Home the other day the inmates struck for tobacco, but Captain Turton reckoned that if he made such a concession £l2 a year would ba thus puffed away. He put his foot down on any such nonsense.

The position of the Prohibitionists will be immensely strengthened by the passing of the Shop Hours Bill, as the Act is an embodiment of the principle that any business may be closed at the demand of a majority without any compensation being paid to the owner of the business so closed.— H.B. Herald.

To the Editor: Sir,—ls it not true, as once stated in the Standard, that the Marine Engineer compared hia task of devising a harbor at Gisborne to that of the persecuted people who had to make bricks without straw 1 [That is so, of course in regard to the funds available. —Ed ]

A strictly veracious Wellington correspondent has been writing day after day tha the Government are in a minority, and now he has taken to moaning Ehat the Government has such a servile majority as to be dangerous to the country. It must be a queer feeling to get toasted on one’s own

Mr Puflett and the Napier News are having a bout. The News reported that at a meeting of parishioners Mr Puflett made a violent attack on the incumbent, the Rev. O. Dean. The gentleman writes denying that, and demanding an apology. This the paper refuses to give, and goes in for a much stronger strain than in the first instance.

Yesterday morning Kauria Takaia, an old offender, appeared before Mr Booth, charged with being disorderly while drunk, and with resisting the police. On the first charge Kauria got fined £l, or 7 days, and on the other information he was ordered to pay £2O, or in default three months' imprisonment, the sentences to run concurrently,

At a meeting of the Woodville Farmers’ Club the other night, it was decided to spend £lO on the introduction of quail. The resolution was warmly opposed by two or thr’e speakers, who contended that ths birds would destroy the grass-seed. One farmer stated that at Makaretu the farmers had had to sow the land four times, owing to the seed being destroyed by quail. Another speaker said it was no use introducing quail, for the stoats would eat them.

Mr Parker, bookkeeper at the Masonic Hotel, sustained a curious and painful injury on Sunday, He was patting a favorite dog of the retriever breed, when the animal made a snap at him, catching him above the right eye, tearing the eyelid, which hung down to the cheek. Fortunately the sight of the eye is not likely to ba lost, Dr Innes having been immediately called in. At the time the • thing occurred Mr Parker was blowing the fire with the bellows, at the same time fondling the dog, which was formerly of vicious habits, but was believed to have become thoroughly docile.

The Western Spit at Napier had a brilliant illumination from natural gns on Thursday night. When Mr Gilberd had got his water bore down to 180 feet—the last 80 feet being driven in two hours, a strange power began to effect the tools, They were then withdrawn, when there immediately burst out to a height of 20 feet a stream of mud, salt water, fragments of rotten wood, and shell, with gas, and the eruption continued for some time, Mr Gilbert applied a match to the gas, when there was an explosion of it, followed by a great mess of flame, The bore wag afterwards p'ugged, a pipe was laid on to conduct ths g-is, and in the evening the gas was lighted, and a fiauie five feet high illuminated the place,

Much amusomant and not a little indignation haa been occasioned at Boston, America, by the arrest recently of a prominent citizen and his wife for violating the ordinance against kissing in the street. The couple, have not long been married, and happening to meet in the street after a few days.’ separation, they could not help saluting each other with a kiss. By this act thoy brought themselves amenable under one of the old Puritan Blue Laws which has never been repealed, for the promotion of chaste and becoming behavior. There is a similar law in the Statute Book of Massachusots against smoking in the etroets, but the law is of course never put iU force.

Tenders are called for ploughing 35 acres at Lavenham.

Mr C. F. Lewis has removed to tbe offices adjoining Mrs Browne’s shop, A number of new shares in the Building Society were taken up yesterday.

Waimata last week had the first Bnow (about 6 inches thick) for three years. Captain Russell is bringing in a Bill vesting the foreshore jof the Wairoa river in the local body. The Wanganui Herald reports that there is a serious danger of the navigation of the port being destroyed through the sea taking away part of the sandbank at the mouth. The London Financial Times alleges that the defence made by the “ Otago Daily Times " of the Otago Harbor Board’s position is a definite indication of the possibility of default.

The following telegram was received from the head office at Wellington by Sergeant Carlyon yesterday Re Piesse—Please inform Directors that a guarantee for at least £2OO will be required, and that he cannot be Intercepted at Honolulu.

A meeting of the Chess Club was held on Saturday night, when the following officers were elected President : Rev. Canon Fox ; Secretary and Treasurer: Mr Lunn; Committee : Messrs Faram, Barnard, and St. John. It was decided that the Club should meet every Saturdayjnight.

The Trust Commissioner yesterday granted certificates to the following deeds:—Judgment of the Supreme Conrt, Finn and Chrisp v. Petera Honotapu ; transfers from Hamuera Hinika and another to S. R. Cooper, of Kaiti 280; and from E. F. Harris to A. F. Kennedy, of Kaiti 19.

For wanton mischief and malicious depravity commend ns to the larrikin of Masterton. His latest act of villainy is to endeavour to efface the inscriptions on certain tombstones in the local cemetery by a liberal application of tar. It is to be hoped that the perpetrators of this dastardly ontrage will not escape the reward they so justly deserve. —Wairarapa Daily. The investigation into the Piesse defalcations ia not yet concluded, but a proper statement will probably be available this week and a meeting of shareholders will then be held. Mr Shelton is going into the affairs of the Society so as to prepare a list of assets and liabilities, giving a clear Idea of the actual position of the Society. In the course of the investigations It is being found that the frauds extended over a long period, but the loss in this way each year has gone in the diminution of profits, and would tbns as a matter of course be written off each year. The system of tbe fraud is almost exactly the same as that which led to the Harbor and Borough defalcations. Among private persons who have suffered one man is a victim for about £lOO, and there are several smaller amounts.