LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIII, Issue 15000, 1 June 1899, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In Messrs. Freeman R. Jackson and Co.’s Johnsonville Stock Report yesterday, beef was quoted at 10s to 17s ; this should have been 16s to 17s per 100lbs. Owing to the trial “Rep.” match, which is to take place on Saturday next, at Cook’s Gardens, the Third-class Cup match, Pirates A. v. Kaierau, fixed for that date, will be played on the Recreation Ground, at 1.30 p.m., instead of at Cook’s Gardens at 3 p.m. Players interested are requested to note these alterations. The following have been appointed to the positions of superintendents of mercantile marine and examiners, masters, and mates, at the principal ports :— Captain Smith, of the Omapere, Wellington ; Captain Fleming, of the Flora, Dunedin ; Captain Marciel, of Lyttelton ; W. D. Reid, chief officer of the Hauroto, Auckland. The salary is £250 per annum. Mr. John Bates, Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, has kindly supplied us with the following vital statistics for the month of May :— Births — Town and suburbs, 22 ; country, 4 ; total 26. Deaths — Town and suburbs, 7 ; country, 3 ; Hospital, 2 ; total, 12. Marriages — Registrar, 2 ; Church of England, 2 ; Roman Catholic, 1 ; Baptist, 1 ; Primitive Methodist, 1 ; total, 7. A telegram from Wellington says :— At a public meeting it was decided to form a branch of the Liberal and Labour Federation here. Mr. Edwards, organiser, said there were branches in every electorate but three, and communication had been opened on behalf of the Federation with some one in the neighbourhood of every polling place in the colony. He suggested they should adopt the plan arranged in Dunedin, where professional and commercial Liberals were to select one candidate and Labour another and decide the third at the conference between both sections. Mr. T. Carmichael was elected President. Arrangements have been made with one of the steamers to take the Wanganui “Rep.” football team to Nelson on June 9th at a very reasonable price. A large number of non-players have signified their intention of going over with the team, and all those who have not yet given in their names are requested to hand them in at once to the Secretary of the Rugby Union (Mr. C. Wray). The steamer will leave Wanganui on the Friday, returning from Nelson on the Sunday evening, so as to be back early on Monday morning. Given fine weather the trip should prove a very enjoyable one.

A dance is to held at the Castlecliff Public Hall this evening. A dry-blower obtained a specimen containing over 100 oz of gold half a mile from Coolgardie. Mr. Carson, M.H.R., will address the electors at Fordell this evening, at 7.30 o’clock. The Hon. James Carroll, Colonial Secretary, is to be entertained by the members of the St. John’s Club at 8 o’clock this evening. A brake leaves Hawke’s stables for the Brunswick Public Hall — in connection with the social and dance to be held there tonight — at 6.15 this evening. The representative of Mr. Barraclough, eminent eye-sight testing expert, of Sydney, visits Wanganui on June 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th. The Hon. J. Carroll, who is to address the electors of Wanganui on Friday evening next, will arrive by the 3.35 train today. At the Liedertafel concert to-night the piano used will be an upright Grand Steinway model by Maass, supplied by H. Collier and Co. A petition for presentation to the Government, and which we understand is being, largely signed, is in circulation, asking that a railway station and siding be established at Eastown. Three bankruptcies were recorded in this district for the month of May, as against none for the same month last year. The total number of bankruptcies for the present year is eight, as against seven for the same period last year. We give a final reminder of the concert to be given by the Wanganui Liedertafel, at St. Paul’s Hall this evening. Those who desire to secure seats would do well to put in an early appearance. At the Aramoho Tea Gardens this evening a “long night” dance is to be held, commencing at 8 o’clock. The dance will be held in the large and comfortable marquee, and the music will be provided by a capable orchestra. Owing to the builders requiring to commence pulling down the premises occupied by Mr. Colvilie, the sale of that gentleman’s stock, to be conducted by Mr. J. H. Keesing, will be held in the Oddfellows’ Hall on Monday next. Mr J. Hutcheson, M.H.R., has received invitations, one from an organisation of independent Liberals in the South Island, and others from private individuals, asking him to pay visits to Timaru and Temuka, to lay his political views before audiences at those places. It is not improbable that Mr Hutcheson will accede to theee requests. The football industry is a far bigger one than most people imagine, and gives steady employment to quite a small army of skilled workers. Something like 1,000,000 footballs are manufactured in England every year of the total value of something like £3000,000. A fair proportion of these are sent to other countries. The British made football is acknowledged to be the best. The record of William Lister, who has just retired from the service of the London and North-Western Railway Company is a remarkable one, He was the guard on the first train which ran between Bolton and Manchester and remembeied Leeds and Liverpool without railways stations. When he first went on duty third-class carriages had no roof, and the guard was perched in a little dickey, where he was not infrequently frozen to death in bad weather. For more than half a century Mr Lister has served the company at Bolton. Speaking at Pahiatua, Mr George Hutchison said the Government had done some good things — unintentionally. They had had six or seven years to do them in, and had been well paid for it. They had had £54,000 in salaries besides travelling allowances and expenses. There was an Act limiting travelling allowances to a £1000 a year, but the Government drew up to this amount and then charged anything ever to “unauthorised expenditure.” Altogether they had drawn over £80,000 while they had been in office. He did not think they had done £80,000 of good work, but he was sure they had done £80,000 of harm. Particulars of a sensational tale of starvation and probable loss of life have just come to hand from the Upper Murray, in New South Wales. A woman states that two months ago she left Melbourne, accompanied by her husband, and made for Tom Groggin, near the Murray River, where they intended engaging in opossum hunting. After being in camp a few days, the woman’s husband left to fix up snares, and never returned. The woman remained in camp two days, and then went in search of her husband, but failed to find him. She then wandered for eight days, subsisting on nettles, fern roots, and raw opossum flesh, when she proceeded to follow down a stream of water, hoping to meet with settlement. While travelling, she encountered a mob of wild dogs, and she had to take refuge in a tree. The animals, the woman stated, crowded round the tree for several hours, snarling, snapping, and showing their teeth. Some wallabies coming along the dingoes made after them, and the woman pushed on, reaching the hut of a man named O’Connor, in a terrible plight.