NEWS OF THE DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 48, 1 March 1904, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Leap year dances are being held in many of the country districts of southern Taranaki. A "greater Wnnganui" scheme is afoot, the enlarged area to include Aranioho in its boundaries. Six hundred and ninety people have visited the Dawson's Fulls Mountain House this season. The Egmont Licensing Committee holds its quarterly meeting in Waitarii on Wednesday, 10th March. There is some talk of an excursion to the Mokau being arranged to start from the breakwater at an early date. At Sydney In.st wvok a Chinaman was lined J>t(K) for smuggling; opium, in default twelve months' imprisonment. 'ilso yield of gold ill Queensland for .January was 88,044 fine ounces, compared with ll,lf>i>oz for thetiame month last year. A boy named Ross, who left his home in New Plymouth last Monday, was found in Jlawera by the police on Saturday night, the lad having just walked into the town. The Supreme Court sessions will I open ut 11 a.m. to-day. The only I criminal case on the culendar is a I charge of manslaughter preferred against Leonard llutton. The train arrangements from the New Plymouth station to the breakwater to-day arc as follows :-('on- j nccting with the Rotoiti. from north ut 0.15 a.m. ; Tukapunu, from south, at 8 a.m. ; Ilotoiti, for south, at 11.20 a.m.; and Tuknpuna, for north, at B.i>o p.m. J Out of the six names forwarded by ! the Hoard of Education, the Mid- i hirst School Committee has seUvtwd Mr .). W. Mail, C2, at present in the I'ukerau school, in the Southland district, as headmaster of the .Midhirst school in succession to Mr II ,J Ueakes. Mr Stanford, S.M., remarked yesterday morning from the Uencli That there mm no established customs aliout anything in New Zealand. There with plenty of customs adopted in various parts of the colony, but the country was too young to have any customs so generally in use us to be accepted as anything like equal to law. The old lish-Khop, a small gulvanbed iron cdi/ire on the corner of King and Prougham-strects, has to be shifted at once in order to make room for large new premises for Messrs Howe and Patterson, produce merchants, who have purchased (be lease and purpose erecting commodious stores to accommodate Ihe increasing requirements of their business. Inquiries are being made in Strutford for it boy named Allan ltrown, aged II years, who has been missing from his home since Saturday \ New Plymouth resident saw (he lad, or at any rale one of the sons of Mr H. ltrown, of Stratford, cycling U | Ilawera on Sunday. He turned thu corner of Wilson-street and (!lover Uond. opposite Syme'.s mill, and proceeded towards \onnanl.y. The lime was about twenty . minutes after twelve o'clock. The OUtgo Daily Times says :-VVe 1 nve good authority for suiting ihai tin-re is every probalhililv of the '•auk rate in New Zealaml I eiii" portly raised. Owing to the denuinid lor money f rom public ] H ,,\i vs added to the Coveniinent'B sale of debentures, u,e market Is ha.uenim. rapidly, anil Ihe war between Japan and Russia is contributing in the same direction. In >]„. Commonwealth the rate for fixed deposits 1 as' recently been raised j per cent and a similar movement may take place in this colony at any moment.

The timber for the Presbytery to lie erected at Kaponga is now arriving on the ground/ Attention is directed in another column to a military buzaur to be held on April 14th. There is some prospect of a Ha-wera-Opunake motor service being instituted in the near future. A "geographical game" is the subject, of an invention for which a Tanwiuki man has applied for letters jHitent. Insurance companies doing business in (lishorne announce a substantial reduction in rates on lire risks. A fine specimen of camellia-the lirst of the season—was left al this office yesterday by Mr George Cock, of Young Street. The quarterly meeting of the Taranaki Licensing Committee win be held in the New Plymouth Courthouse on Tuesday, March 9th, next. It is likelv that some shareholders will si-cede from the Kaupokonui Dairy Company, and form a new compnnv to conduct dairying operations on a site at the corner of the Taikutti and Main South Roads. The Turanaki Harrison Band left for Palmerston yesterday to take part in the band contest there this week, under the auspices of the North Island Brass Bunds Association. A witness in the native case yesterday staled that Mr Bishop spoke in Maori "of his own slyle." Mr Uuillinm remarked that he supposed his client had not the true Parisian accent. At the sale of sheep on Flaxbournc Station. Marlborough, last week, the whole of the ewes (25.000) were bought liv Canterbury buyers—merinos ul up to 17s lOd : Shropshires, four and six-tooth. Its lOd. The Opunake Times says it is understood thai the hcad(|iiarters of the Egmont Mounted Hides will lie transferred from Okato to New Plymouth from the commencement of the new volunteer year. The sections about to be offered by Messrs Callaghan and Co. in the Veale estate, are, it is slated, attracting more than usual attention. Yesterday the property elicited inquiries from numerous people from the const. Settlers in the Eketuhunu district complain that while they are oompelled to eradicate noxious weeds the Crown is apparently exempt from prosecution. A number of (lovernuient reserves are simply overrun with weeds, seeds from which scatter far and wide. It is reported in Belgrade that the Metropolitan of Belgrade, who solemnised the marriage between the late King Ale.xit'li-der mid Oueen Pragn, and who was the only official iwsonage who displayed a mourning flag over his residence on the day of the assassination of their Maj.-s----tim, is to lie relieved of his post" A tall yarn. An old Turanaki veteran averred yesterday, with considerable embellishment, that long years ago he discharged a rifle at. the end of a puriri log übout a chain and a half distant. As showing the hardness of the wood, the bullet rebounded, flattened, and struck him in the chest !

At the request of Mr Isaacs, Mr Spencer, the Education Hoard's chief inspector, has forwarded to him at Wellington several specimens of work done at the Hoard's New Plymouth plumbing classes. Amongst them is a six-way cross pipe beaten out of a single sheet of iilli sheet lead, the work of Air H. Smart, the instructor. Air Isaacs is one of the technical inspectors under Hie Education Department. There was u significant smile in Court on Monday morning A .Maori witness stubbornly refused to answer any questions put to him in English by Mr (Juilliam, who had Bignilied Ins intention of dispensing with the services of the Interpreter through whom Air (iutchen's examination had been conducted. The questions proceeded in Maori, interpreted l.v Mr Walker, until Mr Quilliam made some remark that did not agree with the witness' opinions. He immediately ejaculated "No," and Mr C juilliam said there was evidently no use for the interpreter. But ' the witness, ignoring the trap, lapsed into sullen silence until again questioned in his own tongue. Miss Marie Corelli bad u last wind in regard to the farthing' damages wliich the jury awarded her in the recent libel action. Mr Fred Winter, the defendant, called on Miss Corelli to deliver the coin. He was received bv the butler, to whom he handed a lonn of receipt, for Miss Corelli's signature. Determined that her autog.anh should not gl> so cheaply, she referivd Mr Winter to her solicitors. They rccciwd the coin, and sent it back in these terms : "We are instructed 3jfv our client to inform the defendant tlr.it she is happy to present him with the damages granted by the Jury, us a contribution to one of the many Stratford chnrilies l.i- no doubt suppoits." Notification has been received by the Commandant of the Forces 1 hat the subjects of the Literary examination of colonial ctUKlrdutep for commissions in the British Army will remain unchanged pending the introduction of a now g-enerul literary examination. The subjects of the military examination will, however, from SeptenrlAT, ]»01, be as follows :—Military history and strategy, tactics, military engineering, military topography, military law, military administration and 'organisation. In IUOS a, rurther Qualifying practical test in military work may la' m:klc.d. Future candidates drawn from the colonial military forces will be (|',.ialilivd for u] i| ointment up to the age of twenty-live. Dr. Max Nordau, in a long revmw of lima in the Neue. Freie Presse says of England :-"The immense strain upon the strength of all her peoples in the South African war has left no visible ejrfiuiistwu. On the cou'lrary, England all over the world acts with „ deU-rminalion strong a.s iron, which she has not shown since the days of Palniorslonand as Air Ilalfour is no lirubrnnii the ■inference is clear that it is the British people itself which, like a lion, springs upon its f 0 ,.. 5 , [.;„ hind had long allowed Russia to tread upon her toes in Asia, ami it I'iaide Russia full of conli'dcncc. That seems to be done with. For years Russia tried u> creep up via Persia to India on her unprotected side. But England has suddenly turned her lace, and will no longer ignore Russia's doings nor remain inactive. Russia's system of Gou-ni "lent, Dr. .Nordau holds, is a strain upon Europe. » misfortune (or mankind, a mockery of the professed Christian spirit. "There, is," l„. says, "no crime coinmitUd against, individuals or musses which this system mis not. practised upon its own iiii'lorluniHe subjects or im k IiI ; ,>„is alio 0.i1.v Mi|)w because tJny are weaker. This is plain in Russia's dealings with Finns, Jews. Annciilans and Chinese." Vo.i have heard by cable (says the Lcakloii roriesponirlcnt of the Argus) of the damage that was done to Nelson's tlagslvip, the Victory through having a hole knocked into her side by a drift ingi vessel. When this accident happened the Victory was in such a badly decoyed slate that the Admiralty authorities were roii'.i.Jeiiiig whether she oiig/u not to be bud up pi.-, manenllv in dock lest she might , smk j,, |, 01 . 1} ._ mouth Huiboiir. Her uccidinl, hmveker awoke fre.-di interest in the ves-■i'-'l's fale, and huudmds of thousands of persons who had visited the Vkloiy. and many more who were acclaimed un-ii u,,, usMjriatious, were deeply concerned Hint sucii a historic vessel should l v drugfcvd uway to rot in a coiner of tie dockyai'd. Tin, King took the matter up in earnest, and gn.ic instructions that the Victory should be unttle thoroughly water-tight if that were possible. The vessel 'has now iKi'ii overhauled, and there is every likelihood that she will last another half-century.

At Valladoli'd a fifteen-year-old boy saw his father boating his uiotlic\\ He shot his father dead. A public meeting wus held ut Egmont Village lust evening to urge the connection of that centre with New Plymouth by telephone, and strong representations will be mane to the authorities to secure this convenience to the settlers. A settler Hhe wrote recently to the Wellington band Hoard com-1 plaining thiit he had been misled by I a Government prospectus into buying as lirst-diiNK land some land that was nut even scconaVclnss, signed his letter of complaint " Your bonded slave, W U 11 ." Vor some time the Auckland City Coimci'i has been paying £4 a week to treat the oll'al at the municipal claim tlve oll'al, but the Council slaughterhouse. The butchers now claim the oll'al, bill the Council has ■decided to retain it and convert it into manure. Some excellent results are being obtained by cyauiiling gokl tailings at Hill-grove, New South Wales. The last cleaning up of IM3O turns yielded !2720/. oi goi'd, value £901). The extraction is impro\ing. up 10 "vdwt pei' ton being obtuined, A recent, issue of the Times of India contains a lonfi- article on .New Zealand, under the heading of "The Long White Lund," au<l depicts in glowing terms the attractions this colony holds out to the tourist. Commenting on the recent. incident in Wellington, wheiv a young woman applied for a divorce from her husband, the Truth says:—"Married at liftmen to a dissolute and drunken Jurs'burMl with the consent of her parents, and deserted two ,\ears later with a fourU-en-niontiis-oKl child—that was the fate of a wretched girl-wife who sought the protection of the Divorce Court in Wellington on Saturday. Little wonder the judge was moved to indignation at lliis inhuman sacrifice of their child by these imnwtoirul guardians. Caws like this aie a scandal to our tinsel civilisation. We are mighty fond of making laws in this country. There is hardly a subject, from sleeping spate for shearers to juvt'ii'ile cigarette smoking, that we haven't eoiqwettc-d with at great length. Here is a matter that, much more urgently calls for the interfarencc of our faddy political experimenters. Children should be protected from their parents when their parents are of the type of the progenitors of this Wellington girl-wife. We make it j renal for a man to interfere with a. girl unmarried under the ago of sixteen, arid there is a persistent agitation on the part, of simdry angular females to increase the age to forty. It oujghi to be mode $j tally punishable for a callous father or mother to get their trail-grown children off their' hands in this fashion." TROUBLED WITH SCIATICA. Let Hheumo cure you ! It lias jured others. The positive assurance of James A. Capper, Lyell Bay, ihoukl convince you. Mr Capper, wilting on Feb. 1, says :—" 1 was much troubled with sciatica pains, 'uwl ut times I could get no sleep, following the advice of u friend I tried a bottle of Kheumo, and that bottle drove away the sciatica pains. That has been three months ago and they have not returned since. If they do, Kheumo is the medicine 1 shall go for," Mr Capper's confidence comes from experience. Sold by chemists and stores at 2s 6d and Is Gd per bottle. Wholesale agents, N.Z. Drug Co.' The remoivnl of his furniture from house to house or town to town ajnnoys the a\cra|gv householder more than would a lire. All trouble a'i»d annoyance may be avoided by employing the New Zealand Express Co., Ltd., Hromg)htani-sti'cet, New Plymouth. (i Important to young ladies and gentlemen. .1. 11. Parker's stock of engagement rings, wedding rings, watches, chains and all kinds of jewellery is tire linest on the West Coast of New Zealand, und prices 10 per cent, lower than in tire larger centres. Carefully note the address -J. 11. I'arken, jeweller-, etc., next railway crossing, Devon-street Central, New Plymouth.* You may search the district from one end to the other-, and you will not iitrd a more comprehensive stock of good boots and shoes than is to be found just now at the Melbourne Clothing Co. Their famous low prices do the talking.*