LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 303, 24 November 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

I^otwithstsndih^ 'the lar^e'numbar of female immi^rranui who have recently arrived there is still a great demand for domestic servants m and around Welling" ton. Already 30 i»pplicßtion»ha»e been received . for servanlfbjr the next vessel. Tha clothing and other factories absorb! many of the? new arrival*/ j A meeting of oreditorsin the estate ofJ Thomas Gordon, blacksmith, Feilding, was held at the Wellinj?totf Supreme Court Buildingt on Wednesday afternoon. Tha chair was occupied By Mr James Kirton, trustee. The debtor was examined at considerable lengtb respectitig the various liabilities'ne had incurred, and the mode of carrying on business which lie adopted! The meeting made ho recommendation as to 'hi* discharge. ; i: Great attention has, been bestowed ib Germany within the last, two years upon the cultivation of the common nettle] From it ah immenib number of articles ! are made, 'and there is scarcely a branch of textile industry m which it cannot be used; The grbwina: of nettle's has be 4 come part of tha business of every small farmer. The crb|> never fails ho w*ather affects it, and as it requires planting only once m averyj ten or fifteen years the labour of cultivation is small.: and as it needs but three' or four inches of eartbj many a piece of unprofitable land, even old qaarrietandpfraviel pits are thus turned to account." A manufloturer m Dresden baa succeeded m obtaining from it the finest thread known ia the trade, so fine that 10,000 metres of it (or rather more than Mxty miles of length) weigh only 2^ pounds. ( A New Zoalander' writes to the Auckf land .Herald that thera seems to be a tendency to foster secret societies m the colon yj'euch as Orangemen, Ribbon menL and' St. Patrick's Day Boy/, and advice* ■lit, next: election that pledges should be ; obtirined from to support a Bill to suppre»#hiß sort of society. j A Cfhristchurch manufacturer bas re» cently received a letter from one of the Salvation Army convert*, enclosing .fefttage sttmpi the v^lue of certain goods whicb he confesses to having appro, printed while ia the manufacturer's aer* ViceJ ' .- ■ •' '.".V The Post has the following :— Mr 0. W. Eobert, of Palmeratou North, has m hand the manufacture of the badges to b,e - won ; by the iM Jngh,*ft aggregate scorers m tha first five matches for tfie rifle or carbine belts at the approaching meeting of the New:: Zealand Bifle Association. The badge, a sample of which has been I Bhnvrn to us, is of appropriate design. It cottsiats of a scarlet background, the ornameotation baing worked m silver thread^ j to represent crossed rifles surrounded by I a croWn and enclosed m a laurel wreath, with the letters 'N.Z.R.A.,' and the figures ' 1854.' Some of the badges have 1 a background of blue instead of scarlet. The workmanship is oV* siiperidr charac« ter, and is described as being batter than that displayed m similar badges imported I from Home last year. j A conference of owners and repiesen--1 tatives of provincial newspapers was held I a few days ago io .Melbourne, at which it I ■»« resolved to for a a Provincial .News* ! paper Union, to protect and ftdvancei-thleir interests by fixing the scale of advertising, and discouraging competitive conrassiqg ; also, ; arranging for a, co-operative cable add'tele^ipaph'Be>?Uso;jand endeavouring to secare the removal of the postage tat ,on newspapers; Twenty-.-even papjers were represented at the conference. : ., ■ Under the Victorian Public SeVrvice Bill heads of departments all enjoy £1000 a-year, and officers m the first*class will revel m £750 per annum. ; According to a London society paper, a brother of the Queen's deceased body servant, John Browr, is a farmer m the Middle- Island of Newj Zealand... The Journal referred to says thai" all Brown's brothers found their way into the Royal service except the one who emigrated to New Zealand and settled on a little farm be had made for himself on the WeSt Coast of tbe Middle Island. Some years *go, at her Msjesty's instance, the cmi« grant returned Home, and was installed as a gillie of Balmoral Home Farm. This was a great promotion iudeed, but Brown, whom colonial experience had emancipated from the gillie traditions of his race, soon came cordiaJly to the abominat atmosphere, of : pneajfing and flubkeyism that-tainted the Ddeside air, shook the du«t of the Home Farm from off his honest feet, and hied him back to New Zealand and freedom. , .-. Mr Patterson, of Waipawa, who had a ticket -^in one of the " oonsulations" -, got up m New Zealand on the Melbourne Clip, |was i fcrtiinate enough to draw Fitat Water. This horse ran second; "and lands Mr Patterson a winner of £900.