LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 272, 14 October 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ignorance, superstition, and crime go hand |n hand. On the evening of June 23 about 5,000 of the poorest people collected at the well of St. John, Kilmainhnm, near Dublin, it being tho eve of St. John the Baptist's Day. They passed the whole night there, because superstitious traditions has it that if water is drawn before daylight on the 24th from the well it possesses extraordinary curative properties. The following is a good example of the difference punctuation makes m the meaning of some things. Here is an account of the appearance of Lord Palmerston m the House of Commons, taken from an old English Country paper : — " Lord Palmerston then entered on his head, a white hat upon his feet, large but well polished, boots upon his brow, a dark cloud m his hand, his faithful walking-stick m his eye, a menacing gleam saying nothing. He sat down."

We are glad to learn that Bishop HadtieM has benefited considerably by his visit to Europe. He will not prolong his stay beyond the date originally fixed. He is still residing at the Isle of Wight. One by one (says a Wellington paper) the old pioneers arc passing away. Oa Saturday last Mr George Ramsay, who arrived m Wellington by the ship Olympus on the Hilt Aprill, 1841, succumbed to v long and jkuiil'ul illness. The deceased was one of the earliest printers who worked at the profession m thfc' colony, and came from England with the late Dr. Featherstou. . Captain James B. Eades, the engineer recently received a cheque for £2000 for an hout's.speech before a-coiniuittee of the House of Lords against the proposed canal to connect the harbor of "Liverpool With Manchester, Englaud. It has been the habit of English royalty to die on Sat urd ty, William 111, Anne, all the Georges, the Duchess of Kent, Prince Albert, and Princes Alice all departed on that day. But Prince Leopold duj not survive over night and died on Friday. A correspondent inquires bow .much bush lie may fall on a dividing line where ho is about to fence. Clause 19 of the Fencing ; Act, 1881, runs as follows :— ' Where any fency is required to be erected on 'land covered with standing bush, and the required notices have boea given, . the person erecting such fence shall be entitled to clear the bush for a width not exceeding six feet ou each Btde,aloug the entire length of such fence',- and~niay fell any trees standing m the immediate lino of any such fence; and the cost of such clearing shall be added to the cost of the erection of such fence, and be apportioned accordingly- 1 If the owner cannot be found or is not known, or the laud is unoccupied, notice. must be given by advertisement, appearing at least three consecutive times m a newspaper circulation m the district. Says a Wellington contemporary : — lf all the scandals connected with the Salvation Army were collected they would form a popular and exciting work. The army may do good — it may reclaim a few drunkards here and there— but it certainly sends a number of girls to the bad*, It is a great institution to pror inoto hysterics ; it is great also m pro- ; during agony if it frequents a peaceable ' neighborhood. But if the. good it does were weighed m the balance against the eril— if all the reclaimed drunkards were balanced with all the ruined girls — would tlfere be much of a balance to the credit of the army ? One of the last littlb scandals comes from the South— it is only one more. The Westland County Council have at present thirty-three contracts m progress. About £800 is speut monthly m wages, and thus a large amouut of employment is afforded. In the report of the London markets byicable, it is stated that New Zealand frozen mutton of prime quality is improving, and is now selling at 6£d per pound. What a blessing ! Adds the Hauraki Tribune, We only pay "sixpence 11 a pound m Paeroa ! We extract the following items from the Wairarapa Daily : — Owing to the heavy rain last evening, a portion of a waggon-load of lime, the propery of Mr J. ;Vile) was destroyed by fire — Mr Charles Jordon, carpenter and builder who brings with him special experience from/Fiji, has started business m Vic-toria-street, Masturton. "Robin Hood" writes to Ray that tickets m the Melbourne Cup m his Novelty Company are rapidly being die posed of. The Invercargill News says it is informed that owing to the frequency and extent of the firos which occur there, some of the insuranco companies have decided to abolish their local agencies at once the Union Company resolved some time ago to take no more risks; another is reported to have just come to the same resolution, and others talk about withdrawing. ''."'. -■. On Friday, m the House, Mr Gum'- ' ness read a telegram from Mr Martin Kennedy^stating that the old coal seam m the Brunner coal mine lost m 1877, had again been picked up with a thickness of 17 feet, the former seam having only been 13 feet. About £10,---000 having been speut m the search, 'and a tunnel- of 960 feet had been driven from the main shaft. The advice of Dr. Hector had been all along followed with "the happy result, just stated... , . In Ireland several, of whose counties possess superior coal and iron, there .13 some talk of a revival of the iron trade. The Tasmanian Parliament has : voted Mrs Charles Meredith, a lady- whose writings are well-known m all the colonies, a pension of £100 per annum. London, the metropolis of the British Empire, is the only city m the 'civilised world whose streets have not been trodden by a conquering army. .-.. ; It is perhaps not unworthy of notice, the Academy says, that a negro, the Rev. Hi V; Plumiuer, has just been appointed; chaplain to to a regiment of cavalry. He is .the only coloured officer m the United States Army, and the first coloured chaplain. Three Frenchmen who were studying a volume of Shakespeare m their native language endeavoured to translate into English the well-known opening to Hamlet's soliloquy:-—" To be, or not be." The following was the result :—Fir«t Frenchman : •• To was, or not to am." Second ditto : "To where, or is to not." Third ditto : " To should, or notto will." Queen Victoria has ruled one year longer than Queen Elizabeth did; Mr Gladstone took a short journey by railway, dodged aa. usual by the faithful detective who follows him everywhere he goes, m proof of his universal popularity. Mr Gladstone was put into a compartment by himself, and the detective put himself into the next. Just before the train started, however, a passenger, arriving: on the plarform,opened the compartment m which Mr Gladstone was already seated, entered it, and again closed the door. The. railway superintendent thottght it prudent to tell the detective what had occurred. The detective replied, '! I can't help it. If the old fool chooses to run about nlone like this, he must take the consequences. 1 ' What looks like a deliberate attempt to burn a wife and child was reported to the St. Kilda (Victoria) police on the 9th Sept. At ten o'clock the previous night John Spenee, a painter, locked his wife and infant son up m their house, set fire to it, and thtn ran to a fire station a mile away and gayo the alarm. Mrs Spence, hy her screams, aroußed some neighbors, who succeeded m extinguishing the flames: It was then discovered that an upstair room and the staircase had been fired. On his way to the lock-up Spence attempted to escape. . It is a favorable sign (says an exchange) that Mr Bowron's lectures on dairy farming should have such widespread interest as they have elicited. Thn settlers m the Ormondville and Norßewood districts will have an opportunity of hearing Mr Bowron on Friday evening, when he will deliver his highly-instructive lecture m the Publia Hall. Settlors who attend will pick up many a ' wrinkle ' calculated to be of the greatest service m relation to dairy farminsr, as Mr Bowron is literally full of practical knowledge of liis subject.

. The Marlon paper mentions Mr Fry as a candidate for the vacancy on the Education Bonn!. Mr Fry has on two occasions been nominated and lias been second both times. ■■'•'■ Sir William Fox, ex-Premier of New; ! Zealand, is now m London, having ar-ri rived by tho Queensland Royal Mail eleanior Murkara. -j,^ The Jane Douglas will leave Fox ton ..tor Wellington to-morrow at 5 p.m. Speaking o£ the debate on the second reading of tho Wanganui Harbour Board Rating Bill the Herald says: — ■ Mr Macarthur, who represents Manawatu this session, saw too plainly the benefits his district would reap from, the .object -of the bill being attained,' find" -votetTfd'f its second reading like a sensible man, notwithstanding the pressure the party ho generally votes with brought tq get him to cross the floor with the " Noes." Speaking of. the disturbance at the Salvation Army Barracks on Sunday evening, the Herald says : — We must say we think it was an excessively unwise thing- of tho officer who detailed a mere youth like McAuley to cope with a uoisy mob of larrikins, as such a duty was one requiring great tact, patience, and determination. Had Sergeant Bis sett taken a stroll round that way himself to see that his youthful co-adjutor did not let zeal out- run discretion, matters would have been more quietly arranged, and a disgraceful disturbance avoided." ■ It is a noteworthy fact (says an exchange) that of the numerous accidents from bushf ailing, not one twentieth hap : pen to colonials, whorknow how to go about the work. iTully one-half the men engaged m this kind of work are colonials, who enjoy an immunity which is not shared by the " benighted " new chum. ■.= .••...-.■ •= • ..; ; Arrangements have, we (Post) believe, been completed for a sculling match, for £100 aside and the championship of New Zealand, between Hearn, the present champion, and Harrington, a Riverton oarsman, whose friends seem to fancy him. The match will be rowed at Riverton towards the end of next month, Hearn being allowed £20 for his expenses. : .. Two young women have been tried and found guilty, the one charged with infanticide, the other with concealment of birth.' The former was tried and convicted at Auckland, and was sentenced to six months' hard labor. The other girl was tried and convicted at Wellington and was sentenced to one years 1 imprisonment with hard labor. Are we then to suppose (asks the Napier Telegraph) that concealment of birth is twice as heinous a crime as manslaughter ? Certainly not ; Hie law allows us to think what we please, but it is not always ; expedient to express our thoughts. Another vicious instance (says a Napier paper) of the pultocratic tendency to consider humanity of less'account than property is telegraphed from Wellington, where a male animal who bit a man's hose off was sentenced only to three: months' imprisonment. If the violent scoundrel had stolen . £10 from his victim the punishment accorded would probably have been two years' hard labour. It is a .common saying m England tliat it is cheaper to knock a man's eye out than to steal a shilling, and some of our New Zealand Judges appear to be anxious to lay themselves open to a similar charge. We wonder how tho Judge who inflicted the " sentence ", would like his .nose chawed off, ?