LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 136, 15 February 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Lieut. Dixon late of Mangaweka, has been appointed to succeed Captain Grover as area officer and adjutant of the 7th Regiment. Tit© Bank of New Zealand has decided to continue the grant of halfpay to all their officers who are serving with the expeditionary force, for a further six months. With her accustomed liberality, Miss O’Brien, of the Mangaweka Railway Rerfreshment Rooms, sent a pet lamb to the Taihape sale last week, which

Members of the Plunket Nurse Society will please note that,owing to the late arrival of copy, the publication of the Hygeia coumu will in future be in Tuesday’s s!sue instead of that of Monday.

“A third of my wages goes in rent,” was the excuse given by a judgment debtor at the Magistrate's Court, Auckland. He said he earned £4 a week, and. f 1 -wen for house rent. The debttor’s total indebted f, .e,ss was £25.

Mr-. C. E. Mackay, in Bottmau’s case, in his eloquent address to the Jury, added point to an old and true proverb when, speaking of the lamentable consequences of alcoholic excess, he said: ‘'lt stingeth like an adder, and its sting is often- deathU ’ , .

Restaurant keepers a week or sc ago in Wellington announced that the prices of lunches would be raised 25 per cent This, was done, but trade fell away .and very . scon various shops came back to the old charge, with the result that the increase has now been general!*- abandoned.

A meeting of the executive of the Wanganui Agricultural Association was held during the week, when after considerable discussion it was decided that “in view of the circumstances, namely, lack of interest on the part of members, the drought, and the difficulty of preparing an adequate prize list, no autumn show be held.”

An (dil proposal to drain Lake Rotoaria, which is situated on the Wainiarino Plains, into the upper waters of the Wanganui River, is being renewed. The Tanmanmni correspondent of the New Zealand Herald states that the object in view is to increase the volume of water in the Wanganui River, but it is considered doubtful if this will make any considerable effect, as the catchment of the lake is not great.

We understand that the entries received for the fat stock and farmers’ classes for the forthcoming Show do not compare too favourably with the entiles received for those classes in previous years. The former classes are ones that should call forth keen competition, especialy this year of the inin gnibt’on of the freezing works, which will depend on the capabilities of the

district to raise fat stoak, and the exhibits in this line should be a reflex of those capabilities.

The Post and Telegraph Department advises: “Telegrams for transmission. to Tahiti by wireless may now be accepted from the public at the rate of sixpence per word (New Zealand coast station charge only, further charges if any collected at Tahiti.) Owing to Tahiti having a receiving set only and being unable to transmit or acknowledge receipt of messages, no guarantee cf messages reaching Tahiti can be given, and no refund will be allowed except when New Zealand station is at fault. All messages must be telegraphed Radio Awanui for disposal.”

In connection with the late rise of £2 10s per ton on the price of oatmeal which is now quoted at £2O per ton, oatmeal millers have telegraphed to th e Prime Minister suggesting the immediate prohibition of the further export of oats or the imposition of an expert duty owing to the difficulty of obtaining supplies, and to the extraordinary advance in the price of oats caused by the export demand for Australia. Millers say they have been obliged to make the rise. Milling oats were selling at 2s per bushel on July 30, and to-day cannot be bought under 4s per bushel. Oatmeal on July 30 was quoted at £ll 10s per ton.

A night or two ago an active exchange of shots was going on between two rival trenchonly some* 10p yards apart, when a well-known tenor in the French ranks struck up the grand air from “La Tosca.” Immediately the shooting stopped as if by enchantment, and both sides listened with moistened eyes and bated breath to the sweetly plaintive song. When the last note had rung out, a French soldier jumped up on to the parapet of the trench, and, as if ashamed of the emotion all had shown, shouted: “Now you can begin again, yon swine.” A hail of bullets was the reply, and the rest of th© night was spent in blazing away furiously at one another.