LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 464, 22 July 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The ordinary monthly meeting of the Foxton Harbour Board will be held in the Council Chamber bn Monday evening.

The monthly meeting of the Moutoa Drainage Board \vill be held in the Board's office tomorrowevening. The Foxton Racecourse Committee invite tenders for carting about 700yds of sand at the racecourse. Specifications may .be seen at this office, where tenders are to be deposited. At the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court a policeman was ,seyerg|y cross-examined concerning his methods of judging the speed of motor cars. The defendant motor car driver explained to the constable that the sound of the car engine was not an infallible guide, “I have known small cars to make a great deal of noise when only moving slowly,” he said, with the air of one, long experienced, clinching an argument, but the constable, with effective irrelevance, retorted; “And I’ve known chaff-cutters making a lot of noise and not moving at all.” - The Court relapsed into smiles, and the motorist quickly passed over that point.

A man grrfyed gd a Wairarapa farm the other day carrying a miserable swag, his feet were half out of his boots, and he looked a picture of misery. “Can you give me some tucker, boss, and a job ?” said the tramp. “Well,’’said the farmer, “you certainly look as if you wanted both, but I’m not in want of a hand. Still, you can chop a bit of wood and make yourself useful about tfie place fqr a few days.'’ The man seemed grateful, did full justice to the good farmhouse food, and pottered about doing a bit of firewood cutting for the house, a little digging, and so on. After a few days, filled with good meat and drink, and fresh pluck, he said “ What about wages, boss ?” “Well,” said the farmer, “I’ll give you a pound a week till you get enough to set you on your way again,” “No you don’t ” said thg swagger, M I don’t work for nq blanky pound a week ; you’ll give me eight bob a day for casual work. ” The farmer paid him and cleared him off the place without delay.

For Children’s Hacking Cough at night, Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure, is 6d and 2s 6d.

Our Manchester department has been reorganised, and prices are now cut down to oeat all-comers. Buy yOur calicoes and sheetings at G. H. Stiles.* .

An example of splendid management in sheep farming is reported by the Gisborne Herald. A Wharekopae sheep farmer, who last season docked 1460 lambs, was able to send 1425 as fat lambs to the freezing works, to be frozen and shipped Home for the London market.

Having suspicions that sly-grog selling was being carried on, Constables Fitzpatrick and leister raided the premises occupied by J. A. Kelly, marine dealer, Wellington Road, Marton, on Sunday evening. The police seized a quantity of liquor. Prosecutions are likely to follow.

There are, according to a statement made by the Rev. W. Powell at Christchurch, 700,000 lepers in India. As to the cure of the disease—rthe most cruel disease that humanity has ever suffered from—the only hope of medical science was in radium ; but radium was at present so expensive that 'the Government of India' could not hope to purchase it, even for the unfortunate lepers.

The average weight of wool per head ot the sheep in Austialasia last year was 61b 140 Z, as compared with 61b goz In 1907-8. The average monetary return was 4s gd per head of sheep and lambs, as against 5s id for the previous season. For New Zealand alone, where the sheep are mostly crossbreds, the returns would not be so favourable. More Amybockiana. There, is a story current which at least gives an excellent idea of Amy’s methods. It is said that on one occasion she went to an adjacent town, ordered from every undertaker there a coffin for her “dead mother,” and paid the tradesmen by cheque, getting a certain amount of change from each one. The point of the story lies in the alleged horror of a stationmaster, who shortly afterwards received by train a.number of coffins addressed to a respectable and comparatively healthy family. A Boston lawyer named Ames was retained as counsel for a man who stepped in a hole in the street and broke his leg. Suit was brought against the city in the sum of 1000 dollars, and Ames won the case. The city appealed to the Supreme Court, but here, also, the verdict was in favour of Ames’ client. After settling up the case, Ames handed his client a silver dollar. “What is this for?” asked the man. • “That is what is left after taking out my fee, the cost of appeal, and other expenses.” The man regarded the dollar a moment, then looked at Ames. “What is the matter with this?” he asked, M ls it bad ?”

Referring to the death of the lad Long, through ah acetylene gas generator explosion, at Tomoana, Hawke’s Bay, a correspondent of the Napier Telegraph writes : “I would like to draw public attention to the careless manner in which acetylene installations are handled generally. I have had 25 years’ experience with acetylene gas, biR I would not think of going near the-■ best generator made, with a naked light. I think it is essential for the public to know this for the safety of all concerned. To talk of any generator being safe 99 out of 100 times is as bad as putting one’s head into the lion’s mouth 99 times, knowing you will Rave it there the next time'.”

“Unemployed ?” queried a wellknown farmer at New Plymouth, on Saturday, and there was a volume of disgust in his tone. And then he went on lo relate an incident on whiph he based his unfavourable opinion of the so-called “unemployed.” “They’ll be unemployed for a very long time (his wording was even more emphatic) before I offer one of, them a job again.” He had picked up a down-in-the-mouth give-us-a-|ob-mister chap in town a week earlier. He was used to farm work, and eagerly accepted an offer of light furze-grubbing at 8s a day. The farmer took the man home in his gig, gave him his tea and supper and a bed. • Next day was Sunday, and the out-of-work individual lived on the fat of tl\e land—five meajs that day. Morning tea on Monday, and breakfast, and the man went out, not too keenly, to hislgorse-grubbiqg. By noon he had had enough of it. He had his dinner, demanded his pay, and complaining that gorse-grubbing was too hard on his back, cleared off. No wonder the farmer doesn’t believe in the “unemployed.”

The ‘Lincoln Leader’ (England) of May 29th. in an account of the local Empire Day celebration has the following:— The event of the day was the unfurling of the flag sent from the children of Lincoln, New Zealand, which was received with great enthusiasm by the boys of the Municipal Technical School.” After due attention to the ceremonies proper to the Day “the whole company, with the Mayor at their head, adjjourned to the Sessions House grounds, and formed square for the second — the historic —event of the programme. High up, furled upon the great flag-pole, was the flag sent as a gift of brotherhood from the Lincoln across the seas. The Mayor, still in his robes, spoke a- few words, committed the emblem to thecqsfody of the school, and, pulling the tope, unfurled the flag to tlie gentle breeze. The boys received it with a general salute, and, dropping their caps, sang with great vigour the National Anthem. It was a notable ahd picturesque scene.” The annual stock-taking sale at the Bon Marche, Palmerston, is now under way, under" the description which buyers admit is appropriate of “a sovereign stretching” sale. To visit is to buy—to buy is to understand the full meaning of the term, — Advt. . J. ■■ '

An advertiser wants two furnished rooms, with use of kitchen. Mr and Mrs G. W. Morgan, arrived back from their honeymoon trip on Tuesday evening. The ordinary meeting of the school committee will be held this evening, at 7.30 o’clock.

The Manawatu County Council notify elsewhere in this issEe that the tram will not run on Thursdays until further notice.

The Rev. F. H. Spencer, of the British and Foreign Bible Society, lectured on the “ Bible in South America,” illustrated by lantern slides, in the Methodist schoolroom, last evening. There was a, good attendance, principally children.

Foxton was represented at the official opening of the Levin gas works yesterday, by his Worship the Mayor (G. H. Stiles, Esq.,)— who, by the way, made a capital speech at the subsequent function in the Century Hall—Crs Gibbs and Rimmer, Town Clerk Fraser, and Mr Hornblow. A well-known New Zealander now resident in England, writes to a friend in Wellington about the King’s Derby, apropos of which (says a Wellington correspond'ent) he tells an excellent story that so far as lam aware has not yet appeared in print. The King, of course, is very popular in England, aud the public were, almost frantic with joy when hishorsewon. When His Majesty led his horse to the paddock the crowd knewno bounds. They surrounded him, and even patted him on the back. Reserve and dignity alike were thrown to the winds, and one man actually, after patting the King on the back, said to him, “Well done, Teddy, you’ve won the Derby, now turn out your d— Government!” This, adds the writer, is an absolute fact, and the king related the story at the Jockey Club dinner in the evening.

The late Joseph Gibson, J.P., of Raetihi, who was killed by an explosion of gelignite on Tuesday, was the second son of the late T. F. Gibson at one time Town Clerk at Foxton and brother to Mr J. W. Gibson of Levin. As a schoolboy in Moutoa, during the eighties, he was extremely popular and by his hearty manner he made friends wherever he went. After leaving school he entered Mr George Denton’s employ in Willis Street, Wellington, where he remained for 13 years ; subsequently moving to Raetihi where he married Miss Dukes, the only daughter of the Rev; J. Dukes, Wesleyan minister. Deceased was a staunch worker for Nolicense, and took a keen interest in church matters. When in Wellington he was teacher of the largest class in the largest Sunday school in New Zealand; the Taranaki Street Methodist. The average attendance at his class was considerably over ioq. In Raetihi he had a fclass of Maori youths in whom he took a strong social, musical and educational interest. His sudden death will be mourned by a large number of friends in all parts of the North Island. Mr Clement L. Wragge, speaking to a Press representative regarding the meteorological service in New Zealand said the Dominion occupied one of the best positions in the world for such a service. He went op, to say that the United States spent ,£300,000 per annum on its service, but in New Zealand the work could be very efficiently done for ,£2OO. “And it should be done,” he said. “If I were your meteorologist I should have forecasts sent to all the business centres, the light-houses, and above all to the ports and the agricultural areas. This would be easy and accurate with the great mass of information available at your weather office, which, however, I have not. I would supply three forecasts, one each for the north, the middle and the south portion of New Zealand, the latter including Stewart Island. Then I. would have forecasts in the interests of shipping, agricultural and pastoral interests especially. Flags of different colours would indicate what the weather was to be from, say, your post office, and signals or signs would be attached to the vans of the mail trains for the benefit of those in the country. That is what they do in the United States.

Writing in the Hawkes Bay Herald a worker, signing himself “Not out of Work,” gives utterance to these sentiments :—“i never when out of work, accept assistance (or charity) from the union or any .person, and that notwithstanding the fact my family is larger than that of another correspondent. Our membership card printed on its face the motto, ‘Justice, industry, friendship associated to protect our rights, not to infringe upon those of others.’ By acting up to. the mottq of our association, being economical with the. assistance ot my wife, and not allowing the ‘ cutter to be run ’ in our home, and not encouraging the use of, intoxicants in any shape or form. I have never found it necessary to impose on the baker, the grocer or the butcher, all necessaries being paid for on delivery. In every instance I have received utmost kindness from my employers, and if employees would do as I have done, they would not require to rely on any union. We live in one of the finest countries on: God’s earth, the working man’s paradise, and, if we would only be more considerate for the man who has to find the cash, more economical, and less selfish, we would be happier, better off financially, and juster.”

For Chronic Chest Complaints, Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure, is 6d »ndas6d'

Mr G. P. Walker advertises a sale of coats and overcoats.

We direct attention to Messrs Millar and Giorgi’s replace advt. A cottage piano is advertised for sale.