LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 231, 27 August 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We notice with regret the death of Mrs Patterson, of Wanganui, sister of Mrs J. 0. Batchelar of Palmeraton. The deceased lady was widely esteemed and -was only 26 years of age. Wellington is going m for a local Tattersall's Club. New York wholesale liquor dealers are said to be, as a rule, total abstinence men. They dare not drink the stuff they sell. Colonel Ballinger Booth, son of General Booth, of the Salvation Army, arrived m Melbourne by the s.s. Indus. We have to acknowledge receipt of the August number of the Industrisl Gazette. . A mail direct for England, per Tongariro will close hero 10-night at 7.45 p.m. Letters should be marked " per Tongariro." It is understood that a proposal to establish gas works m Masterton by a private company, subject to certain concessions being granted, will come before the local Borough Council at their nest meeiiug. : Tho Wellington corespondent of tho Hauraki Tribune says:-- -" If is rumoured here that a Government official, high up m the service has used his position to purchase a block of land m Hawke's Bay, which he has sold at a profit of fourteen thousand pounds !" It is understood that Mr Thomas Bracken is about to enter into business m Wellington by establishing an advertising and news agency. The Patea Mail says that the anticipated Franco-Chinese war has affected the price of fungus. Dealers who last week paid 2£d now offer l£d, and do I not care much about the business at that. The Ross Mercury calls tho Press Association agent there "a drivelling idiot" for sending misleading telegrams away on the subject of the gold find at Cedar Creek. It says there is not a partical of .truth m the reports. Diphtheria is beginning to assume a very fatal form m Masterton, says the Wairarapa Star of Saturday. Two children have been buried within the last few days, and yesterday two more deaths were recorded, one being that of a child of four years, and the other seven years. A correspondent writing to the Star suggests that tho public school should be immediately closed. Foxton is happy. It has got a cooperative bakery company m full swing. Advance Foxton. Judgment for the plaintiffs was given at the Wellingtou Magistrate's Court on Monday m a case brought against Dr. Sinclair, a peripatetic dentist, by Kirkcaldie and Stains, for the recovery -of £3 8s 6d, value of a dress supplied by them to his wife. Messrs Stevens and Gorton's Feilding stock sale yesterday afternoon was well attended. The Star says the bidding i was not spirited, but fair prices were realised, and all the lots which were not sold under the hammer were afterwards quitted at the vendor's reserves. An immense area of land has been ploughed up at the Oroua Downs Estate on tho western side of the County road this Beason, and teams engaged m breaking up the land, "subduing virgin soil," are to be seen af work m all directions. Some splendid padlocks will be the resuit of the winter's work, ' 1 In connection with the small-pox question Dr. Beaney, the well-known Burgeon of Melbourne, empathetically condemns the use of human lymph m vaccination. He intends to more the Legislature to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the state of public health. He advocates the appointment of a; Minister of Public Health. The New Zealand torpedo boats, now at WeJJipgton, are covered steam launches, built' of steel, gjSft long, 7ft 9in beam, and 6ft Bin deep, excepting under the steam-box, where the depth is Bft, They were built by the renowned maker, Thorneycroft, and cost £5000 a-piece, weighing eleven tons each. On the trial trip on the Thames they averaged 17*9 knots. The torpedo is put out over the bow at the end of a long spar, somewhat like a bowsprit. There are 17 caseß of fittings belonging to the torpedo boats on board, but no torpedoes, nor are there, we believe, any m the colony.

A diver engaged m diviug operationa off the coast opposite Gibralter, under Apes Hill, with the object of ascertain^ ing of the whereabouts of a recent wreck liaa discovered at tbc bottom from 80 to 100 large guns, mostly 24 aud 32 pundera and also two large anchors. They aro supposed to have belonged to some large line-of-battle ship which sank m the old war, possibly after the battle of Trafalgar. W. Q. George, the amateur champion runner of England, has lately beaten the best mile record. On June 21st, at the annual amateur apletic championship meeting, held at Birmingham, George ran the mile m 4 niiu. 18 2* sth sec, beating the best previous time, which was 4 mm 19 35th Bee, dono by himself at Lillie Bridge m 1882. ' A cairn to the memory of the Duke of Albany is jibout to bo erected on the j mountains of Balinotal. There are already cairns to the PrinceOonsort (1450 ft | highj and to Princess Alice (1220 ft). When the Princess Royal was married, her departure from her native couatry was commemorated by a cairn, which is about 50ft higher than Prince Albert's, aud there is another to Princess Helena, which is 150 lower. A return has been presented giving interesting particulars regarding the late elections,' -'from which -the following results are taken : — Number of votes recorded for members elected, 42,408; number of votes recorded for defeated candidates, 32,264; total number recorr. ded at the ejection, '74,672 ; number of names on roll m districts uucontested, 14,484 ; number of names on rolls m districls where \ elections were contested, 123,202 ; total number of names on rolls, 137,646 ; total population as per census of 1881 482,019. A time table has been issued m connection with the Carnarvon Tramway line, now open for passenger traffic. From .it wo gather that the train will leave Hickford's for Carnarvon station at 6.35 a.m. and will leave on the return journey immediately on the arrival of the morning train at the latter station ; it, willj leave Hickford's again at 12.30 p.m., m .time, to catch the train at Carnarvon arriving at Foxton at 2 p.m. : it will tljen wait at Carnarvon for the arrival of .the evening train, and proceed again jto the terminus.