LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 18 March 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

St. Patrick’s Day passed off very quietly in Foxton yesterday. The business people did not observe a holiday. A number of local sports attended the races at Shannon,

The seaside presented a very animated appearance yesterday, by reason ot the State School picnic. Pilot Hall had the flag-staff gaily decorated with bunting in honour of the occasion.

It is expected to get some one or two hundred pounds worth of flax and tow out of the ill-fated shed that was destroyed by fire at Wellington the other morning, the property of the Wellington Harbour Board.

The Government has decided that Mt. Cook barracks, Wellington, shall be converted into a Dominion museum.' Tenders for necessary alterations, involving about ,£IO,OOO are to be invited immediately. Rules of a “Burglars’Teague,'’ of which he was president, were found on Jean Relauci, who was arrested at Lyons (France) on February 5. One provided lor the exclusion of “ any member who shows incapacity for the profession and is arrested thrice in succession ” ; another provided for an admission test; and a third insisted on the equal division of the spoils. “ A compositor becomes Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, a miner now occupies the same exalted position, a stone mason becomes premier of a State, and associated with him as Ministers are a collar maker and a bricklayer.” says the British Australasian (Loudon); “ and yet all powerful organised labour, hearing that a few thousand Englishmen are being attracted to Australia, warns them off by proclaiming that only destitution awaits them,”

The ordinary meeting of the local school committee will be„ held at 7.30 p.m. this evening.

Owing to unavoidable circumstances, the tennis match, Palmerston v. Foxton, to have been played on the local court on Saturday, will not be played.

Keeping down Californian thistles, etc., is now a pretty expensive business on some lands. A suburban land owner informs the Tapanui Courier (Otago) that it costs him 13s to cut the thistles on a 20-acre section of bush land.

The Rev- J. McKenzie, who has been the Presbyterian minister at Kimbolton .for the past eight years, is leaving that district for Shannon at the end of the month. He is to be succeeded by another minister of the same name.

As from Saturday next, and thenceforth weekly, the Flaxmills Employees’ Union will edit a column in this journal, on matters of interest concerning labour in connection with the hemp industry. Contributions for insertion to the column must be forwaided to the Secretary of the Union and not to this office. We understand that the column will be very instructive and interesting to all members of the Union.

In comparison with the corresponding month last year, there was an increase in the exports from the Dominion during February as follows :—Butter i3,905cwl ; cheese, 432ycwt; frozen beef, 68o4cwt; mutton, 9 i5 >547 carcases ; lamb, 67,789 carcases ; oats, 72,765 bushels ; hides, 4773; tallow, 208 tons; timber, 148,834 feet ; and a decrease in hemp, 1331 tons ; skins, 77,608 ; wool, 2,464,088153. Fishing in the Rakaia river about a mile from the month some days ago, Mr W. D. Lawrence caught a genuine Californian salmon, weighing lb. This is stated to be the first fish of its species caught here with a rod and line that has been scientifically identified, although many people have claimed to have caught this variety. The fish was identified by Dr. B. M. Moorhouse, as a Californian salmon, and his opinion was comfirmed by Mr E. Waite, Curator of the Museum. Several of the fish have, of course, been caught in the net, but it is suggested that perhaps the fish will alter their habits in a new country and afford sport to anglers.

Giving evidence in a labour dispute in Sydney, several women, > the wives of coal carters, showed how they lived and kept house upon their husbands’ wages of 37s 6d per week. One woman produced bills which showed that her accounts for the week were :—For groceries, 14s butcher, 6s ; milk, is 6d ; wood, is ; vegetables, 2s, rent, 8s ; and 2s for clothes purchased on timepayment orders. If anything else was wanted she said, she had to pawn something to buy it, and she would never be able to redeem what she had pawned unless the Wages Board gave her husband an increase in wages. She did not get her groceries from the cheapest shop she knew, but she had to deal where she did to get credit- She had four children, whose ages were from eight years to one year.

A youug man nearly lost his | life at Wanganui on Saturday ' night in attempting to drown a ’ cat. It appears that he went on ( to the town wharf with the object ot throwing pussy into the. river, when in the dark he Stepped over the edge and fell in with the cat in . his arms. As luck happened-be ’ managed to grab hold of the propeller of the steamer Himatangi, - which was lying alongside the wharf. He shouted for help, but his cries were unheard tor about an hour, when some men on the Taylorville side of the river heard the shouts, and though they could at first see no one in the river, came to the conclusion that some- ; one was in danger. .Hurrying : across the river, they raised an alarm, and a search, aided by the cries of the man, led to the dtscovery of the latter hanging on to the stern of the Himatangi. He was promptly hauled on board, and was found to be little the .. worse for his strange experience. An unsuccesslul business man * detailed in the Bankruptcy Court at Sydney last week a hazardous attempt he had made to retrieve his position by speculation on the racecourse. Sydney Jack, a halfcaste Chinese, trading as Jack Lem, cabinetmaker, employing seven to eighteen hands, mostly Chinese, said he did not know that he was in deep water until a writ arrived from a firm which demanded prompt payment. He told his financiers about it, and they thereupon got out a writ, with which he was served on Boxing Day. He thought the races would offer a chance of getting some money with which to pay his creditors, and he went to Raudwick. He had never bceu to . races before, he said, though he . had seen them over the fence from outside the course. He took £go with him which he had collected from his debtors a week previously. Having paid xos to go in, he started operations. He heard of a few horses that were likely to win, and accordingly backed them. He bet on every race but one, but did not win on a single venture. The most he put on one horse was £2O. After putting on Welcome Tryst for the last race he had £5 left out of the £9O with which he com- i meuced the day. A few days later he got married, and had not been on the racecourse since.

WOLFE’S SCHNAPPS stands preeminent among stimulants and cordials.

Before Mr F. W. Frank! and, J.F. this morning, William Ryan, charged with disorderly conduct, while drunk, was convicted and fined xos,"in default 48 hours’ imprisonment.

There is every possibility of th e celebrated Besses o’ th’ Barn Band returning to Australia on tour next year. This great combination recently created a furore in Glasgow where 45,000 people attended to hear them play- The baud will enter upon a tour of Africa and India shortly. Australia will then be visited.

The Minister of Public Works hasno “ sweet nothings” for the settlers. Away out at Maugaroa he had been hearing of the heavy cost, from £s to ,£lO per ton, of carting supplies in wet weather. At the banquet he reckoned he could, do the work for ,£3 a ton. ‘‘ You're engaged,” cried a couple of weather - beaten carriers from the body of the hall.

An interesting experiment is w about to be tried by the Sandon branch of the Farmers’ Union initiated by Mr J. G. Wilson at the Sandon school. Three draught horses are to be brought to the school and, after Mr Wilson has explained the reasons for the experiment, MrEHis, of whose experience of horse-flesh is considerable, is going to explain to the boys the points of the horses, and the best method of judging the most useful animals. Subsequent developments will depend upon themanner in which the matter is taken up, but no one can doubt that the promoters of the movement have embarked upon a step likely to be most useful to the farming community.

Recently the Queensland Government purchased two automatic water finders at a cost of ,£IOO. Two trials with one of the instruments have been made, but so far little success has been met with. One difficulty is that no one seems to know the exact significance of the readings secured for practical working, and another is that the instrument is not quite consistent in its operations, the needle not pointing in the same direction twice in the one spot. The other finder has been taken to the West by the engineer under the Public Estate Improvement Fund. It has been suggested that the makers should be cabled asking for information regarding the working of the instruments.

It is understood that aU the flourmillers originally associated with the Association have signed the new agreement save one. The mill holding out is doing so not with any intention of bursting up the Association, but as a protest against what the proprietors consider unfair treatment at the hands of the directors, in that they v.the millers) are given credit for much less flour per mouth than they consider they are entitled to. From what can be gathered, millers generally recognise the Association in the light of a necessary evil, if evil it can be called at all. Certain it is that it relieves the individual miller of much business worry, in that all payments for flour sold are made through the Association, by whom the losses 'are borne. The effect of this arrangement is that whereas under former conditions bad debts up to ,£3OOO per annum were made by some of the mills they now approximate only j£isoo. For the miller this is a good thing, especially as each is allowed to run his mill as he thinks fit, and receives a payment tor his flour in accordance with its quality. For the farmer, too, the Association is claimed to have advantages, for the assurance that their money is safe and enables the millers to give the best price for wheat.