GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 193, 17 June 1903, Page 3

GENERAL ITEMS.

S:me enterprising capitalists on the Wtst.Coast are prepa'ing to take stupa to establish a slinte qmrry. Iha slate is Slid to be plentiful and of superior quility. We hopa the enterprise will prove a successful one. Slate roofs are an immense improvement upon gal van ■ ised iron, and p op)e will be only too g'ad to us a New Zealand slates if price and qua'ity ard satisfactory, The holiday traffic on the (J ivernmetit railways throughout th-> colmy during the Eist9r f p»rind of 1903 showed an increase of 23,519 passeds>ers, as cumpired with the corre-pond-ing season of 1902, whilst tte traffic receipts were better .by £4200. The increase ia ordinary tickets numbsred 14,508, and the increase in excursion tickets 11,011.

Wild ho-ses, some of them of good quality, are plentiful round about Waimarino Plains, just os they are on the Raingtroa in the bush, a corral or converging lints of fencing, into which the horses ava forced by means of drives organised by the Maoris. Useful animds thus cap'.ured are broken in; and, in any case, tie horsehair and hoof have a —so much so that the n.tives on the Kiingaroa side make a fiir profit on shooting them. There might be about 12s a horsi over and abuve .the price of ammunition. The Kaingaroa na'ives cccasionally drive wild horses down the fenced road at the prieon camp at Waiotapn, block the entrances, and The horses rush, madly at the wire fencp, which yields to a certain point, »nd in the rebound throws them bauk head over heels. Then they stand tumbling and cowed, One fpleudid stallion was caught at Waiotapu, but proved very intractable. Tney tethered him, and he charged off with such force that at the end of the tether the jerk broke his neck. Not only horses, but deps r.nd cats have relapsed in these into a wild state. The cats are of some use in checking the rabbits, hu' thp wi!d dogs are notorious sheepworriers At Kaiioi fhe'p station, over 2000 feet aea-lcvel, tie g ibl' mil if a bui'diup is ador' ed with skii-s of erect:d Ih.re as a warning to others, While the "Victorhn railway strike was in progre-s a l umbfer cf teison tick';tho'd :rs asked that a rtfund shoull be made to compensate them for lo3j of seivicu wl ile tha trains were not running. Mr Bant, the Victorian Minister for Railways, hog replied to tt'e applicants stating tl-at the liw pjev nts ary 6uth concession bting made.