LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taihape Daily Times, 9 January 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Minister of Railways says the work on open lines will go ahead as soon as it could. Three good modern houses in excellent and convenient locality are offered for' IsaleL The address ox owner may bo had at this office. An American soldier in London summoned up neatly the rejoicings on armistice day thus: “Say, this is some rejoice! It's a non-stop, downhill trip, with all the brakes off. Didn ’t think you guys had it in you. You have been deceiving the whole •world.’ ’ The amount to be paid over by the Imperial Government under the butter equalisation scheme on profits on New Zealand butter in London -will be 17s per ewt, or 174 s per cwt. in all The present season's butter has been sold at 181 s per ewe.

It is understood that unless the coal supply improves very shortly, the Kailway Department will he compelled to make some cuts in the train service. The Kailway Department has never before been so short of coal. The holdup of vessels at Newcastle has cut off many thousands of tons which the department hoped to receive during the past two months. At the same time the New Zealand output has been far below normal, by reason of the stoppage of operations for about three weeks during the epidemic and about two weeks for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Mr G. A. Wheeler offers good wages to a competent ploughman, and teamster. Both parties interested in the liquor referendum question have canvassers actively at, work in this district. A programme of superlative merit will be screened at the King’s to-mor-row night, headed by the brilliant drama, “The Gates of Gladnegs,’,’ featuring Madge Evans. Mr J. Williams, tailor, invites gentlemen's inspection of beautiful, new and fashionable suitings just come to hand. The shades arc chiefly of a lovely, soft grey, which is the last word in fashion so far as colour goes, but the texture of the new materials is remarkably good and suits made from them should gi ve very hard wear. A story by the Marquis Albert Theodoli, speaking for Italy at the Americtn Luncheon Club in London: “The “King of Prussia” —the Kaiser standing on a height and seeing the immense force of American soldiers, exclaimed: “What a great fleet it must have taken to bring all these men over the Atlantic!” “No; only one ship—the Lusitania,” was the answer.

The Stratford bowlers, who put in a couple of days in Taihape on their way to the championship tournament in Auckland, speak in very appreciative terms of their welcome at the hands of the local bowlersT" They played three matches here —two against members of the Taihape Club, ojne of which they won and the other they lost; the third match was against a commercial travellers’ team, which resulted in a. draw. They passed very complimentary remarks on the 'cofTSition of the local green.

A Mastorton paper states that a local resident was leisurely wending Jus way along Queen Street at about G..‘10 o’clock on Sunday evening when he was accosted by a man of mean appearance who asked him if he could change a half-a-crown. “I have walked in four miles in order to attend church,” said the man, “but I have only half-crown in ray possession and cannot afford to put that in the collection, plate.” The change was duly handed over. Later in the evening the resident discovered the coin to be a counterfeit.

In the course of an interview at Masterton, Mr J. C. Cooper, managing director of the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company,, strongly urged that the Imperial purchase of frozen meat should be extended till 1920. He pointed out that the freezing works of the Dominion would this year be full of Imperial Government moat, and it would be impossible to get away companies’ moat through the shortage of shipping,, and further, it was desirable that the Imperial Government should bear the portion of responsibility in the period of transition, when m ark ets are uncertain and finance difficult.

A Xcw Zealand journalist iu the Expeditionary Force writes from London: '“Mr Lloyd George is the man of the hour —much as a strikebreaker is looking upon during the industrial trouble. He is very useful and his energy is worthy of all praise. But there is a sort of certainty that he will be a nuisance as soon as things have settled down. The ‘old guard’ hate him, the Tories tolerate him’ much as am impressario who has been losing money producing grand opera might tolerate the fat lady and the three-legged calf which are bringing in the profits.”