LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9131, 4 June 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

San Francisco Mail. — The Wanganui portion of the English Mail in expected in town to-night from Taranaki. Licensing. — At the Licensing Court held on Monday last at Marton, the chairman remarked on the great distance Mr John Kennedy, of Upokongaro, had to travel to obtain his license. He had hoped there would have been a change in the boundaries of the licensing district before now. He might have added that Mr Reid, of the Red Lion Hotel, is put to the same inconvenience. Patea s.s. Company. — The Directors passed the following resolution at their last meeting :— That the Harbour Board be informed that the steamer Patea is detained an unreasonable time in loading and discharging cargo, owing to the want of proper wharf accommodation, and that they be respectfully requested to provide increased wharf accommodation and better facilities for shipping stock than there are at present. Colonial Insurance Company. — The agent for the Colonial Insurauce Company, acting on instructions from the head office, has presented Edgar Simmons and John Wilson with two guineas each for putting out the fire at the Rutland Hotel a few days ago. The Company will also pay Mr Evans, who is insured in the Colonial for £500, his claim for damage actually done to the hotel. We have not heard what the amount is. The Property Tax. — We believe there is no doubt that whatever changes may be made in the law during the present session of Parliament, the Property Tax will have to be paid this year. It in the duty and interest of everyone to do their utmost without delay to fill up the forms in a proper manner. Delay and neglect will only lead to greater difficulties, and perhaps a heavy penalty. The Assessors are always ready to give every assistance to persons making their returns, and we notice that so far as regards the Wanganui and Waitotara Highway District, and the Waugaehu Highway District, Mr E. N. Liffiton, the Assessor, advertises his readiness to aid the public to the utmost of his power. It would facilitate matters greatly, and make it pleasanter for all parties, if settlers and others in the above districts would make it their business to call on Mr Liffiton as he suggests, and got the work done as soon as possible. The returns must be completed by the end of the present month. Parliamentary. — We have been furnished with copies of the following Parliamentary papers, presented to the Assembly by command of his Excellency :— Despatches and enclosures from the Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies ; Treaties of Commerce and Navigation ; Papers respecting the French Convicts from New Caledonia ; Do relating to Frederick Gleich ; Treaty between Great Britain and Tonga ; Post Office Account ; Correspondence relating to the introduction of Coalminers for the Westport Colliery Company ; Do. relative to the appointment of Mr W. J. Barry as Lecturer on Emigration to New Zealand ; Report of the Colonial Marine Engineer, relative to damage caused by the Timaru Breakwater ; Papers relative to San Francisco Mail service ; Do. Suez Mail service ; Do. Abandonment of Southampton Mail route ; Do. University of New Zealand ; Do. New Zealand Forests ; Do. Duplication of Cable from Port Darwin ; Post Office Savings Banks ; Sydney Exhibition ; Instructions to Agent-General as to reduction of his stiff. We have also received copies of the following Bills, which with be dealt with during the present session of Parliament :— Licensing ; Registrar of Elections ; Corrupt Premier ; Prevention ; Election Petitions ; and Electric Telegraph Act Amendment.

Coursing. — A meeting is to be held at Bulls to-morrow with the object of forming a Coursing Club. A Veteran Gone. — The celebrated racing stallion Yattendon died at Fernhill, near Penrith (N. S. W.), a fortnight ago, aged 20 years. Resignation and Appointment. — Dr Keating has resigned the surgeoncy of the Armed Constabulary, and accepted the appointment of medical officer to the Patea Hospital. Prisoners on Remand. — John Carnell and Gazia Carnell, who were charged at New Plymouth on Tuesday last with stealing a saddle and two girths, the property of Wm. Ellenham, at Kaikora, Hawke’s Bay, and who were remanded to Waipawa, were brought to Wanganui by Wednesday night’s train, in charge of Constable Day, and were yesterday morning taken on to Palmerston, en route for Waipawa. Sydney Exhibition. — The New Zealand Times of the 1st instant says : — Mr C. Callis, the New Zealand secretary to the Sydney Exhibition, returned by the Rotomahana yesterday, bringing with him the bulk of the exhibits. A small quantity arrived by the Wakatipu a short time ago. A quantity has also remained at Sydney, in order to be sent to the Melbourne Exhibition. Fire Brigade. — A meeting of the Fire Brigade was held last night (Thursday) at the Head Station. There was, despite the threatening state of the weather, a capital turn out of members. A short practice was held, after which some routine business was transacted. It was announced that nominations for officers for the current year would be received at next meeting. Landlords. — By a recent Parliamentary return, it is shown that in England and Scotland there are no less than 36,000 owners of land from 100 to 1000 acres in extent, holding over ten millions of acres among them, and 6500 owners of 1000 acres and upwards, holding thirty-four millions of acres among them. Public Meeting. — A public meeting was held at Patea on the evening of the 1st instant, at which the following resolutions were carried :— That this meeting would respectfully urge upon the House the necessity of accelerating the completion of the main line of railway through this district by commencing the work at Carlyle as a centre, and from thence extending the line in both northerly and southerly direction. — That a speedy settlement of the Waimate Plains is essential to the progress of the Patea County, and that this meeting urges upon the attention of Parliament the desirability of a thorough appreciation of the claims of the Native race, and the claims as a whole to have the confiscated lands in this district settled and apportioned on a fair and equitable basis, and without delay. — That the trading interests of the Patea County require increased facilities for the direct importation of dutiable goods, and that importers should be able to hold dutiable goods in bond, either by the establishment at the port of Patea of bonded warehouses in connection with the nearest Custom House, or by declaring the Patea River to be a port of entry for dutiable goods, and appointing a Customs officer at Carlyle. A Committee was formed to give effect to the resolutions. Lord Beaconsfield. — The family legend given by Lord Beaconsfield in the preface to his father’s works is (the Jewish World declares) all wrong. The family name was not Lara, nor did the Premier’s grandfather assume the name of Disraeli, “never borne before,” when flying from the Spanish Inquisition. The name Lara really belonged in a way to the first wife of Benjamin Disraeli, grandfather of Lord Beaconsfield, from whom he is not descended. She was the daughter of Gaspar Mendes Furtado, a Portuguese Jew, whose wife, Abigail, was a Lara, and had had placed on her tombstone in the Mile-End Road, the following inscription, which doubtless suggested the legend :— “The sepulchre of Abigail, widow of Gaspar Mendes Furtado, of Portugal, who, after suffering the tortures of the Inquisition, fled for protection to England with her children, since named Rachael, Rebecca, Judith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom she educated in the Jewish faith, and established well in marriage, where, having survived her beloved daughter Rachael, she was called to rest Friday night, September 17th, 1764 ; aged 65” The Rebecca mentioned married, as is shown by another tombstone, Benjamin D’Israeli, and died leaving only one daughter, “Rachael,” who was not related to the Premier. He is descended from Benjamin’s second wife. The Lost Tribes. — Now that the Anglo-Israel theory is being so keenly agitated, there is an old story which will bear reviving. At a fashionable meeting in the West End of London, where a lecture was to be delivered on the subject of the “Lost Tribes,” a noble lord, just out of his teens, but very old in profligacy, was called upon to preside. He introduced the lecturer somewhat in the following words :— “Ladies and gentlemen, I take a gweat a vewy gweat interwest in the subject of the Ten Twibes and if Mr ——— can tell us where they are now doing business I shall be vewy gwafeful. Fact is I have borrowed all I could from the other two Twibes, and the discovery of Ten more Twibes would be a perfect Godsend.” Sturdy Beggars. — Under this heading, the Christchurch Press thus discourses on the Nelson vote :— “The ‘Nelson vote’ has become a by-word in the House ever since the public works policy was established. Sir Julius Vogel found it a serious difficulty. He wanted it at first rather badly, but he saw plainly enough that it was only to be had at a greater price than it was worth. The Nelson members made no secret of their determination to make their support dependent on Nelson getting its full share of the public works expenditure, without any reference to the question of whether that expenditure would be remunerative or not. Their plea for this line of conduct was that the whole business was a scramble ; that it was a case of each for himself and the devil take the hindermost ; and that if they displayed more virtue than their neighbours, Nelson would simply be snuffed out altogether. There was apparently a certain amount of justice in this argument. The whole business was a selfish scramble. It offered a direct premium to political corruption, and it was hard indeed for any but men of lofty views and firm purpose to preserve a course of rectitude amid the unblushing and triumphant immorality that surrounded them. How far that may be doomed to palliate the conduct of the Nelson members is a matter of opinion. Suffice it to say that the consequences of that conduct were at least as injurious to Nelson as to the rest of the colony. Having courted corruption, Nelson was unhesitatingly deceived. It got its price at the time, partly in cash and partly in promises, which were never meant to be kept, and ever since has been regarded by all Governments and all parties alike as a mere thing of convenience.”