LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taihape Daily Times, 13 June 1919, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The railway staff at Masterton has passed a resolution urging that a full holiday be observed.{by the railway employees for the Peace celebrations.

At a poll taken in Auckland on Wednesday the proposals to acquire the electric tramways and erect a crematorium were carried by substantial majorities.

According to a report from Siberia, the result of the fur season in the Tonise Forest, has been: 10-, 000 squirrel skins, 10,000 blue fox 1000 sable skins, 30,000 ermine, and 50,000 hare skins~_ ~

The will of Mrs. Phoebe M. Grifliths who died recently in Jersey City, U.S.A,. leaves £3OO to provide comforts such a.s- new ‘beds, new cages, sweets, bread, and a fitting funeral for her parrot Ethel.“

It is stated that in some Russrzn Villages a hundredweight of flour, which costs 2000 roubles (pre-war, £312 10/) in towns, is willingly exchanged for five stones of salt, 6oz. of tobacco, or a dozen reels of cotton thread!

One of Wellington’s leading Commercial Houses has just received the following cable from its London office:—“Dutch skimmed milk offering old powder 60/, new powder 90/, new full cream powder 135/, Australia offered skimmed milk powder 95/ all cit‘. London.”

An object of much interest in Pict.o_n last Week was a Large sunfish, measuring 10ft. 9in_ by 65ft., which was on View on the W-n.terfrollt. The menster had been in the vicinity -of :Le Grove for some weeks past, and %t was caught by Mr_ H. M. France and his son, rifles and i1an:p0:)11se being used effectively after an exciting chase. The fish weighed approximately two ions.

Great complaints are being made of extensive thieving along the 1-a'ilway" line betwen Waimarino and Welling“fon, Timber trucks arrive along 'thé Mallawatu line which have left ceftaifi places full yet an-ivé at thcir’deStination ‘considerably less in quantity. Suspicion points in more than ofie quarter to two or thrée men who rqb the trucks when they stay overnight at a station. I _

The Minister- in-Charge of the Lands for Settlement Department. (the Holl_ D. H. Guthrie) annmlnced recently fhat he had practically mmpleteod the purchase of 10.390 anes, mainly pastoua-,1 land, at Waima, 200 acres at ‘Apiti, 96 acres at Levin, 267 acres at Wangateu and 320 acres in two lots near Wanganui, He was also submitting for the consideration of Cabinet two properties comprising 660 acres of good dairying land near Pal--Irol'stoll I\'ol'tll, and 3000 acres Cf pastoral and agricultural land in four blocks in South Canterbury.

A daring theft was pefpetrated shortly after dark on Saturday, at Palnl<_3l'ston North (states the ManaWatu “Times”). A Chinese gardener was doing his usunT round supplying the shops of his Celestial brothers, with vegetables. and had left his horse and cart in front of a Chinese shop for a few minutes. Later he returned to discover that the horse, cart, and -the large load of vegetables ‘Had vanished. At 8 ofclock that night a storekeeper in Fitzllerbert Street dis(:ovel'ed a horse and empty cart ~tied to one of his ve-randah posts.

Mr Paget, of the Chautauqua movernent, states that prep.a.rations are already being made for the arrival of a new party of Chatauqua speakers and entertainers, who will probably time their arrival in New Zealand (from America) for the end of November or the beginning of December. The orgmrisetion will consist of five or six first-class speakers and some clever (-n—----tertainers——enough to appear in three "towns in one evening——instead of five or six, as was the case :1 few months <l.go. Already Mr Paget has arranged for Chautauqua gatherings in .fort.y towns north of Palmerston North, and he is now engaged in the Wellington district.

“Clll-istcliur-ch is overrun with rats, the whole place is alive with them, and the sooner we get rid of them the better,"’ dechu-ed F3l‘. \Villiam:~‘. at a meeting of the City Council, when a letter was received from the District Health Officer (Dr. Jlicasoiu. stating that in order to guard against. any poss.ib‘.lc infirodnction rOf plague into this collntry the Minister‘ of ifubiic Health had directed tear the systematic destruction of raLs- should be at once undertaken. Dr. Chesson went on to say that the regulations ‘;azet.te.'l in 1911 had recently not bees carried out,’and he would thercfgre, be glad if the Councils’ <}l’.ic-7:9 would again put them into ~op.=.ration. The letter was referred to the »"oumil’s Sanitary Committee, witin 'instrucur.ns to act. Flags, :11! sizes, procarable at Somerville,’s——(AdVt.) For Bronchial Coughu, take Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.

~_ The dance which was to ha{ve ‘been held at Utiku on Friday, June 20th, has been postponed until the following Friday,‘ June 27th.

A Womnzm went into a. shop in -Sydney a few weeks ago, and ordered a meat pie, and was horrified to find the remains of a. rodent among the meat. She was taken ill, lillld on recovery brought an action agwavinst the firm, who were mulcted in-£25 damages.

The waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands outside of the conal reefs, which make beach bathing safe, are infested with enormous sharks to such an extent that a Japanese expert in fishery has organised a comprehensive plan of shark hunting for the oil and skins.

The general attitude of the politician is to agree with salmost everything, and .then to do almost nothing, and whether he is individually to blame for this state of things, or whether the blame rests upon the party system as practised, the net result is the same—abundant talk and barren re§ults.—— Pest.

“If the Government desires to settle soldiers on Taranaki land,” -states a correspondent of the Stnatford Post, they will have to substantially alter present conditions. As things are,, not one soldier will be settled in twenty years. Unless the time of negotiation can be shortened, and the Government advance increased to £4OOO 301' more, Tananaki soldiers will be prevented from ever being able to take up improved Taranaki land.”

In order to prove that pressed‘ meat, which it was alleged caused ptomlaine poisoning, did not cause the death of a widow who ate a portion, Professor A. Bickerton, of Christchurch, ate a portion himself. ‘His evidence was given at an‘inquest I~a.t'er, when he said that pressed beef was at all times an indigestible form of food, and many people suffered from Eiliousness after eating it. He had given some of the meat fo «animals, and they had not been affected. '" * ‘ '

—. Tot_a.l_ p_rollib'lt~i-on of ihe liquor trafiic is not ‘ye? absolutely uassured in Canada (writes the Toronto correspondent of Melbournfe Ailgns). It is probable that after the soldiers return a plebiscite will be ‘taken of who-1e :Dominion to ascertain tlie.fima.l will of the people regargling intoxicating liquors. The Proviricenof Quebec is meantime taking a referendum,on the question of rpt'ernl}it}‘ting :the ‘sale ‘of 273- per cent beer and "Wine. It is likely that a siniilar referendum will be taken in the Province of Ontario after the solfiiers are repatriated.

Asked if he could give any further particulars of the proposals for combatting the Meat Trust, of which he had made mention in the South Island, the Hon. W. D. S.| MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture, ‘said that there were committees at work in Britain and America dealing with the question. It appeared that most would have to be done at the other end, but New Zoaland had -been asked to nl’ake certain‘inquiries, wand he and the Minister in charge of Imperial Supplies‘ (the Hon. D. H. Guthrie) would do so. He would probably call'a, conferencte of farming interests shortly to consider the matter.

Says the Auckland Sta.r.—When the public is told -on good authority that there is not more than half-a-crown’s Worth of wood in a yard of cloth, and that a e=ostunle which was sold for ten guineas the wage cost of the girl workers was only seven and tenpence, it W:lllt.s to know how the balance is made up, and where it goes to. Profits made at Home are the business of the British Government; though we have oi right to‘ claim freedom of trade so that wool dealers and nianufaeturers there shall not grow rich at our expense. B'ut profits in New Zealand are our business, and when the Board of Trade has finished with coal and timber, or

' ‘aatever is engaging its very unobstrusive attention just now, it might well look into the price of clothing as it is affected by local factors. There. has been -an inquiry——the report has not yet been released——.into the various items in the price. of coal; why should not :1 similar light be thrown on the cost of clothing?