LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 13, 13 December 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Carterton paper tlma refers to its local post office official : — " Over the the table Mr Pickett presides at, situated at the opposite end of the room, a mirror is placed, by which the Postmaster can perceive who is at the counter. It is said that if the party happens not to be moving m the same select circle as tho eccentric Postmaster, they ■ are obliged to wait his convenience, but if he eees reflected the countenance of a member . of Parliament, or a County Councillor, there is no delay, and he is welcomed with a gracious smirk.?' The Wellington morning paper, speaking of the Stoiit-Vogel administration, «ayß :--''A strong reaction will assuredly, take place before long, and unless we are greatly mistaken there, are already symptoms of its approach." There are now two ..hundred subs-, cribers to the Telephone exchange m Woodville. On Thursday last the manager of the Hawke's Bay Railways ' inspected the line to Talioraite, m company with Mr J. T. Carr, and has decided to open on Monday next. :

A Chinese merchant thus expressed his iilca of thu French- Chinese war : "it likee this: I come to ycur door and likec you, and I wantee you to pay money to me for I lickee you. You that light? What kind a 'ligion that ?" The clerk of the Rangitikei County Council has received information from the Government stating that a special grant of £700 has been allocated for improving Murray's track from Martrtn to Murimotu. The grant is now available. In his lecture at Waikato, Mr Vaile said it was a bad sign when they saw the population crowding into Auckland instead of settling on the lands and pro ducing goods for export, and furnishing a carrying trade for the railway. The Geraldine Cheese Factory has turned out two tons as yet this season, and the Waireka Factory eleven tous. Wanganui has turned out over fourteeu tons. - An inquirer from the Spit, who has I evidently been fined for allowing , his chimney to catch fire, wishes to ■■ know from the Napier Telegraph why a prominent member of the town police force,, did not share a similar fate when bis chimney caught fire a week ago. Perhaps he was not so conscientious m this I respect as our local guardian of the peace who prosecuted himself on a similar occasion. The advertisement concerning rural land fur salt) m the Forty-mile Bush district, will be found on our fourth page. On Monday next the Hon. Mr Buckley. Colonial Secretary, accompanied by Mr G. S. Cooper, under-secketary, will pro-' ceed South with the view of beginning a personal inspection of th« public hospitals and other charitable inatitutious of the colony. The tour of inspection is; undertaken, we understand, preparatory to the adoption by the Government of a uniform system of administration with' regard to these institutions. The London Times says that since the beginning of the present reign 'eight high-class St. Petersburg journals have been either summarily repressed. by. ad- | ministrative order or harassed to death by incessant persecution. During this time they received 48 admonitions, were as often provisionally suspended (for from four weeks to eight months), and suffered incalculable money loss by interdicts to publish advertisements and sell by retail. \ They were reading the old -farmer's will, and his nephew, the principal inheritor, was paying the closest attention to its provisions. Presently the notary came to the clause, " 1 bequeath to the servant that shall close my . eyes. 100 francs." "He! hello, there I" says the heir. " Just read it again, will you ?" The notary complies. " That's a hundred francs saved, aDyhow," says the heir. " Uncle only had one eye I Got ■the faithful domestic that time, didn't I ?" Ocean steaming is apparently just 4 a question of coal arid will it pay. The Uinbria to which frequent alluVions , have been made m the colonial press,bas seventy-two furnaces, and consumes a ton of coal'every five minutes, the; consumption being 320 tons per diem. \ She is expected to cross the Atlantic m five"-' and a half days. ; •', ■ ' A rumour is ciiirent (says the Napier Telegraph) to the effect that Mr Wakefield, M.H.R., has resigned the editorship of the Timaru Herald m order to fill a similar office m connection with the Evening Post. Mr Gillon, the present editor of the Post, is m very bad health, hence the probability of the rumour being correct. The Wellington morning paper thus concludes an article m reply to. an attack m its city contemporary :— " To : the remainder of the article' m tha Evening Post wo do not care to reply. We havb m reraemberance the old sayling that you cannot struggle with a^ sweep without gotting^your clothes' blacked. Besides which/ if the proprietors of the Evening Post are pleased to , see their paper, a valuable property, degraded and dragged through the mire, we have no objection to offer." f There are still sometimes good speculations m land to be picked up m . Wellington. A feyr- aays back, for instance, Messrs Blundeil Brothers, proprietors of the Evening"^Postf, bought by private contiact-a&rgntage of 51 feet- to Willsstreet for £4500, .the site of the old New Zealand Times office. Within, a fortnight they were off ored au advance of £2000 on their bargain, and they expect to make £10,000 when they resell. They propose, I (correspondent of; Patea Mail) understand, to convert the place' into a market for the , sale of cheap goods, and build inexpensive stalls all round the area.' 1 " ' "This is the ,w«y these Banks,are en- :- abled to pay bonuses and big dividends," said an individual the other day as he came out of the Napier looal banking institution and perused the writing on a slip of blue paper. In reply to a : question from a friend he explained that the dividends were gained by the Bank .using large deposits such as his. He then handed over the slip for inspection, • when the inscription proved to be "Credit balance, Is lOd." The diy was also the glorious fourth. ■ 1 It seems curious, says an exchange, how few people know the. benefit of f rait at breakfast tirao. A saucer of berries, an orange or banana, pear, or apple, at six m the morning, will: make the sky look brighter, and fill the world with sunshine even on cloudy days ; and yet many people never think of eating fruit m the mornip<j. Debtors sued bytheir creditors inight r save legsl expenses by asking the R.M. at'ouce to make the judgments payable by instalments, instead of being: brought * up at a future date and a judgment order obtained agaiust them. Of coarse, many do not know this, which is quite., excuseable, when even a solicitor, m Court, says the Napier Telegrpah, questioned His Worship's . power to do so, . but was promply .informed he biadthe power. A Fiji exchange to hand states, that a , local tradesman has adopted a : norel method of putting the screw on a! long*, winded . debtor. He gives notice by ] card m his. window that if X — Y — Z — does not call and pay his acconnt, then he, A—B—C— , will fill m the blanks. Later he notifies on a card m deep mourning the death of his debtor's credit, with the significant addenda " let him RIP." The debtor has threatened legal proceedings. . A fright'f iil accident, says a Home paper, oceured at the Curlton Ironworks, Stilirigton, near Stockton, the other day, j to a steeple jack named Booth aged j 22. He was iron hooping a chimney 240 feet high. When at the top ho lost his hold and fell. Half way down was an iron rail, by which his right leg was caught and torn from the body, remain-' ing fixed there, while the dismembered corpse fell to the ground literally smashed. His father, who was contractor for the work, and his brother witnessed the accident. l Thirty .hours clasped after the IdisastPT to tho Wasp, says a Home . papier, and the Admiralty was not only ignorant as to who was drowned, but they did not even know the names of the, erew t One would imagine that the ! lis'fc^ of names of every vessel m her Majesty's service ought to beat the finger, end of the Admiralty.. If they are so helpless m a disaster off the coast of Ir el find at a time of peace, what kind of muddle would they be m duping way ?

PreMidirjg at tlio annual meeting bf the Metropolitan Young Men's Bible Class on Octocer 1, Mr Spurgeon mentioned as a remarkable circumstance, that on the previous Thursday he had is--sued his 1800 th sermon m regular sue- ' cession ; and the fact might slip very: easily from the tongue, yet no other, person who ever lived could say the same. He questioned, indeed, if any one would ever live to do it, for he had seen a great many pulpit enterprises commenced and continued for six ' months or so, and then came to a stoppage. His sermons, howeyer, were being published as widely to-day as at any other period of his life. A Southern paper says :— We are evidently about to experience one of thoso strange visitations which have often occured m this colony, but which no one' has ever explained satisfactorily. The sparrow and liunet nuisance is to be supplemented this year by the parroquot nuisance. From all quarters we bear of j the parroquets making their appearance m rapidly increasing numbers; and ! there can no longer be any doubt, we fear, that they are comraing m their thousands aud their tens of thousands,' as they did m the memorable summer of 1877. • .! : The DnTce of Westminster has sent to the Chester Infirmary a' cheque for £500, being the proceeds of the shillings paid by visitors to Eaton Hall during the past year. ■""A meeting of the nominal county council for the' county of Oroua was held, at the Manchester Road Board offiice, Feildiug, on Tuesday, morning, at 10 o kcloc. Present-r-Messrs. Macarthtir Snelsoh, and Tompkins. Mr. Macar r thur was appointed chairman, and exv plained that it would be necessary to appoint two other members to bring the numder of councillors up to the proper complement. One member from each local body was nominated, and on a ballot benig taken, Messrs. Lethbridge and Williamnson »vere declared duly elected. 'This being all the business, the council then adjourned. ! ! The result of a New South Wales appeal ca,se is to the effect the Assembly has no power eihter to adapt f rota the Imperial Parliament or to pass ) on its own account any Standing Order giving itself authority to punish any obstruct-, ing member or remove him for any period longer than that of the sittiiig duripg which the obstruction' occurs! The question as to which is the oldest railway iv the United States is settled -by the Railway Age as follows :— •" The first railway built m the United States was three miles m length, extending from the granite quarries at Quiocy,: Mass., to. the Neponset River. It was commenced m 1826, and completed m 1827. The gauge was sft. The rails were pine, a foot deep, covered with an oak plate, and these with flat bars of iron." ' '