LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 1 April 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The following are the' vital statistics for Foxton for March : Births, 13 : deaths, 2 ; marriages,

To-day is All Fools’ Day, and the youngsters have made the most of the fact. Jokes innumerable have been perpetrated on young and old. At the Magistrate's Couit yesterday, in the case W. E. Barnard v. A. Wynd, a claim for legal expenses, Mr Longhnan, counsel for defendant, said that it appeared to him that every time defendant spoke to plaintiff, he was charged for it. —Legal luminaries must he waxing fat in this fair country !

A resident of Nelson who recently visited America has received a letter from one of the large New York papers asking him to furnish them with photographs and accounts of the great tunnel connecting the two islands of New Zealand ! The Otira tunnel evidently grew a great deal by the time it reached the United States.

The largest of the IS7 estates of deceased persons finally certified for stamp duty, this month were those of Geo. G. Stead (Canterbury) ,£188,602, Peter Duncan (Canterbury) ,£41,064, David Thomas (Canterbury) ,644, James Stothart Bay) ,£21,181, John T. Bell (Canterbury) £U7)775* The largest estates in the Wellington district were : —Mary Aiin Whyte ,£5109, Stephenson W. Lockwood ,£3165, Barbara McLeod ,£2826, Colin McLachlan ,£2461, Martha Wright £2625, Robert Steele ,£2237, Wm, Geo. Rians ,£2172, Eliza Taft ,£1969, Duncan McKenzie ,£1341, John Craig Lascelles ,£1225, Agnes Boyd ,£1214, Harry Kruse ,£1162, George S. Heard ,£lll9, John Ritchie ,£lOl4, Andrew Thomson ,£942, Edward W. Clemens ,£826, Henry J. Lepper £695, Sarah C, Craig £632, Maria C, Forsyth ,£632, Fredk. G. Krebs ,£586, Wm. J. Watson £ 509•

The Bovril Australian Estates Co., acquires the Victoria Downs, Carlton Hill and Northcote stations, together with xco,ooo cattle at a price of ,£200,000. Notwithstanding the early hour of the Maheno’s arrival at Sydney on Tuesday, there was a large gathering ol friends and undergraduates, who gave Professor David a rousing welcome on his return from the Nimrod expedition-

For putting his arm around the neck of Florence Jackson, a young woman in a tramcar and kissing her twice, despite her resistance, the Magistrates at Mansfield, Notts, sentenced a young collier named Henry Briggs to a mouth’s hard labour. The girl’s face was blackened by the coal grime. The Rev. P. J. Mairs has made arrangements with the firm of Messrs PI. Anderson and Co., of Wellington, to supply the local Methodist Church with an individual communion service (the gift of Mrs M. H. Walker) and a pulpit cushion beautifully fringed and tasselled (presented by Mrs G. H. Stiles).

In giving judgment in an old age pension claim at Waikouaiti, Mr Hutchinson, S-M-, denounced, in scathing terms, the charges of a Dunedin firm of solicitors for services rendered to the applicant in connection with money left under his mother’s will. The Dunedin Star calls on the Daw Society to lake immediate action. When the Nimrod was down at Cape Royds, numerous schools ol “killer’’ whales were seen. One of these creatures (black, with white patches on it) came alongside the Nimrod and began to spout. One of the crew states that the opening in the whale’s head was about eight inches across. However, they dropped a lump of coal into the spouting apparatus, and in the words of the opera, “ that whale was seen no more.”

A meeting called by the Maori chief, Te Heuheu Tukino, will be held at Waihi, Taupo, on April 10th, for the purpose of settling the native laud question and more especially to endeavour to get the natives to fall in with the proposal to bring about a settlement on terras suitable to both natives and Europeans. Invitations have been issued to the Governor, Ministers of the Crown, and between 400 and 500 leading chiefs of both islands.

Owing to the alteration of the Manawatu train time - table, Mr Johnston will run his mail coach to suit the new order of thingsThe mail train from Wellington to Eevin will arrive a quarter-of-an-hour later, so that the coach will arrive daily at Foxton at 12.30 p.m., instead of 12.15 p.m. Passengers by tbe n a.m. coach to Shannon can connect with the Auckland express at Otaki, arriving in Wellington at 4.25 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.

Never kill an animal that is losing flesh, is a maxim followed by butchers, and observation points to a logical reason for the saying. With’ an animal failing in flesh the muscle fibres are shrinking in volume and contain correspondingly less water. As a consequence the meat is tougher and drier. When the animal is gaining flesh the opposite conditions obtain, and a better quality of meat will .be the result. Also a better product will be obtained from an animal in only medium flesh, but gaining rapidly, than from a very fat animal that is at a standstill or losing in flesh.

A special meeting of the local School Committee was held last night, for the purpose of receiving applications and making an appointment for school cleaning, and general. Present: Messrs Hornblow (chairman), Rev. G. K. Aitken (secretary). G. Coley, T. Betty, Bullard, Henderson, Perreau, Reade and the headmaster. Six applications for the position were received, and after a second ballot, Mr James McKnight was appointed at a remuneration of 13s per week. —On the motion of Mr Coley, the Secretary was instructed to prepare a statement of expenditure incurred by the Committee in reference to the technical school, with the object of obtaining a refund of same. It was reported that good progress was being made with the school concert programme, —-The action of the Chairman in having the schoo cleaned until a cleaner was ap pointed, was endorsed. —Other matters of a minor nature were discussed, and the meeting rose.

The cost of Lieutenant Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition is estimated at between ,£30,000 and ,£35,000. The New Zealand Government gave ,£I,OOO and the Australian Commonwealth ,£5,000, The Discovery expedition was a public one ; the Nimrod expedition a private one. The cost of the former was met mainly by the Imperial Government and the Royal Geographical Society ; the cost of the latter has not been met by any societies or bodies whatever. The principal supporter of the expedition was Mr W. Beardmore, of the firm of W. Beardmore and Co., which builds battleships and makes armour plate on the Clyde. Mr W. A. Bell, of Pendall Court, Surrey, a relative of Lieutenant Shackleton, gave £4,000, and the other contributors were the Duke of Westminister, Lord Iveagb, and S}r Rupert Clarke, of Australia. It is hardly fair to leave the Admiralty and the Royal Geographical Society altogether out of the complimentary notices. The former lent several hundred pounds worth of charts and instruments, including a compass, chronometers and sounding gear, and the latter gave several scientific instruments.

On Monday Mr T. E. Taylor, M.P., sent the following cable message to the Prime Minister of Great Britain :—'“Cabinet’s offer of a Dreadnought was made without the consultation of Parliament or people. There is an increasing feeling that the offer was unconstitutional and an unfortunate interference in British party politics. I believe Parliament would gladly increase the naval subsidy.—T. E. Tayi.ok, M.P., for Christchurch North.’’

As an illustration of the method resorted to by smugglers of opium to get the drug through the Customs, it is interesting to mention, says the Sydney Daily Telegraph, that the Minister has in his possession a dried lemon, the inside of which has been replaced by a quantity of the drug. At Dubbo last week two tins of opium, valued at £5, were seized by Senior Constable Meagher on the premises ot a local Chinese storekeeper. The officer followed a carter from the station, boaided his trolly, and was present at the delivery of Ids paicels, which he demanded tu be opened. After a search he discovered the opium in a bag of peanuts. During the visit of the Rev. Mr Mairs to Wellington Ja>t wceka ai rangements were made with Mr R. E. Wertheim, an Ameiican lady evangelist, to conduct a fortnight’s mis.ion in Foxlon, commencing next Sunday. Mrs Wertheim is described by a Paramatta paper as a lady of remarkable personality, over 60 years of age, yet as vivacious as any ordidary person at half that age. Her addresses are not of the usual evangelistic type. Her methods are simple, yet convincing. Wherever she has ’conducted missions much good has been accomplished.

A paper on ‘‘Scientific Temperance,” by Mr T. K. Taylor, M.P., was read at a meeting of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Wellington on Thursday, Mr Taylor said much was said to-day about inculcating patriotism, and the fetish of Imperialism was kept well betore the children. But unless the lessons learned to-day in this matter were applied, it was not at all improbable that within the next fifteen or twenty years all that was being done to-day might be undone. Instruction with regard to alcoholism ought to be made a compulsory class subject. It might almost, if not actually, take front place in the list of subjects taught. The Government was strong enough to-day to do it. Their duty, as a reform party in New Zealand, was perfectly clear. They must fight for the simple majority as a democratic principle. It was exceedingly disappointing to find that the Government had done so little to help in this matter up to date. Its general profession of sympathy was of little practical value to the NoIficense workers as a reform party. They ought to organise and make a demand upon the Government so emphatic as to force from it a recognition of the rights of the great majority of the public, who had in a constitutional manuer so increasingly expressed their hostility to the liquor traffic.