LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 January 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Early Gage plums, the best for jam, are offered by B. H. Just, Palmerston North, at 10s per bushel case, railage free.

The mails which left New Zealand for the United Kingdom on November 10 arrived in London on the 2<Sth ulto.

The N.Z. Dairy Association recently distributed the sum of £130,419 16s lOd among its suppliers. This amount represented payment for 1,904,94 jib of butter-fat supplied during the month of November.

Harvesting throughout the district (says the Palmerston Times) is now in full swing, the season being an exceptionally late one. Many women can be/ seen working zealously in the fields between Palmerston and Pohangina.

The rapid adaptation of munition ■works for the restoration of industries in Britain has begun. This is interestingly illustrated in the Vickers and Crawford factories, where half the machine-gun works have already been converted, and are turning out sewing machines, which are on sale for cash at about half the pre-war prices of imported machines.

Early iu . November a London Pressman met an inspector of muni , tion factories, who told him that a fortnight ago he went through one of the Coventry factories, where he was shown a machine being secretly worked by two men on piece rates. These two men, he said, were earning £9 Iss a day between them, and , thought they ought to have more. Afterwards, he said, he went to one of the best restaurants in Coventry, where a boy and a girl, munition workers, entered, neither of them more than eighteen, and ordered the best lunch possible, and two bottles of champagne, which they consumed in less than half an hour.

The many admirers of Olga Petrova, the famous Russian actress, will learn with regret that she died recently in America from consumption. An Englishman, recently returned from Russia, says that the only paper money which seems to be of any value in Petrograd is the five-pound note. The “Bank of England’’ still conveys to the Russian mind an idea of absolute security. Whereas the rouble was all but worthless and shopkeepers merely laughed when he off£re'd it, he found he could get full value for his “fivers.”

Another transport, with returning draft No. 205, containing 37 officers, 10 nurses, and 649 men, will arrive in Wellington shortly. Among the returning men are: D. C. Arb, Ohakune; H. Hansen, Raotihi; C. G. Burgess, Raetihi; D. P. McCann, Owhango; J. McKenzie, Ohutu: W. O’Donnell, Owhango; CorpJ. H. M. White Owhango.

The Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, Minister for Agriculture, expresses the opinion that the farmers of the Dominion will probably accept the Government’s offer of 6s 6d per bushel, f.0.b., for this season’s wheat crop. As yet, however, no definite information as to the fanners’ attitude has reached the Minister. The farmers are still conferring upon the matter at Christchurch, where the Wheat Controller is acting for the Government.

A horse and delivery wagon, containing 11 boxes of butter, 4 cases of eggs, and 12 rounds of cinvse w«s stolen from King .Street Melbourne, recently. A man suspected of the theft .approached tl.e driver uni told him that he was wanted at the Cheese depot' close by. The driver got down from the wagon, and went into the depot, where he found , that he had been r;o\xfd. ! <o retrming to the street he snw tin t the horse aud wagon had disappeared.

Acting under instructions from Mr. H. B. Tewsley, a sale of the bore, buildings, and plant in connection with the Taranaki oil industry vrs conducted this afternoon by Messrs. Smith and Halcombe. There was a fair attendance, and the property and plant was • eventually sold for £2,800 The bore is near the Huiroa station, on the Stratford-Ohura line, and is down nearly 5,000 ft. the prospects when the bore was stopped by reason of a breakage being considerable favourable—Auckland Star.

Apart altogether from the trouble which the Union Steam Ship Company is experiencing with crews, involving the laying up of four large passenger vessels (says an Auckland paper) there is tangible evidence that, a serious upheaval is imminent in shipping circles. The men say, it is stated, that their discontent is based on the nonpayment of war bonuses to seamen, the withboldig of compensation to men who have lost their effects in torpedoed vessels and. finally, on the recent award of the Federal Arbitration Court by which they received only slight increases in wages.

A firm in the north-west of England is solving the problem of the need of houses for workers by the erection of a garden village. The scheme embraces 4000 to 5000 houses for the accommodation of 15,000 people. At present 300 arc in course of construction. There are enclosed grass spaces for recreation purposes along the front of each block. A church, school, playground, and refreshment house are included in the plans. The village has already its own farm for supplying milk.

The London County Council has discovered a great artistic genius, the son of a London milkman. He was unearthed accidentally by two of England’s leading artists who happened to see some of his drawings at an art school. He has now been engaged by the L.C.C. to make the statues for the front of their new offices at the corner of Westminster Bridge. The name qf the young sculptor, who is only 27, is Ernest Cole. For some time past he served in the Army. On of his first works was a wonderful statue of John the Baptist, hacked out of a solid piece of marble, the artist using as a studio his father’s stable

“There is nothing i,i apricots and peaches at the present time,” said a prominent fruit-seller to a Wellington reporter on Saturday. “ Vou see those cases there. The apricots, from Nelson, cost me 16s 9d a case, and the peaches, which came from Hawke’s Bay, cost me 16s 6d. The fruit has not been in the shop for 48 hours, and it is bad —- green on one side and rotten on the other. I have had to throw out case after case for the same reason. I believe the disease is dry rot, but, whatever its name, the fruit is unsellable.” An inspection of the stock bore out the statement of the shopkeeper, who added the opinion that the season for stone friuts of the kind ■was practically over.

On the best appointed tables you invariably find the best Malt Vinegar —SHAELAND’S. Pure, piquant, palatable. In bulk, and bottle at all grocers. 1

The Union Company’s steamers Maori and Mararoa will probably be within, wii-eless range tonight. ' On Thursday the 16th January the employers of 11. D. Bennett. Ltd., will hold their annual picnic, and the public is notified by advertisement that the firm’s business promises will be closed all day on Thursday instead of the usual half-day. In a British munition factory that was visited by the King and Quean recently there was one girl worker who had been in three different shops that had.been wrecked by explosions. She told the King she was getting used to being blown up. The District Electors' List for the Borough of Taihape is now being Compiled and those desirous of having their names on the list should make application for enrolment on the prescribed form which may be obtained on application at the Council office. Town. These applications for enrolment must be in the hands of the Town Clerk not later than February 15, 1919.