NEWS OF THE DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 205, 2 September 1904, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Brisbane health authorities, as a precautionary measure, have burned the rag factory where. t,he recent plague patient was employed.

The nett Customs duties collected at Auckland during. August amounted to £70,989, which is considered a record for one month for the colony.

Enthusiastic preparations are being made for the ollicial opening of the railway line to Taihape. There will be a dinner and a public meeting in the evening, and a liaka will be arranged if possible. Salvadori Vareaggi was yesterday fined £5 lor biting off a portion of David Petei-sen's ear on boand the steamer Pukakl at Westport. Tho bench was lenient oil account of Peterson being thq aggressor. Owing to tho inclemency, of the weather yesterday afternoon, it has been decided to open the bulb .shovi this afternoon' a t St. Mary's Schoolroom, although it had been intended originally only to open this evening.

Ore taken from the reef in the Waihi Extended mine gives an assay value of £;i 9s lOd, £3 3s (hi, and £2 2s. This is considered Iby local men as highly satisfactory, and as having a most important bearing on future development.

A grand musical entertainment in aid of the Town Band will be given on Friday next at the Theatre Royal, as advertised in this issue. To provide amusement for those to whom a purely musical evening is likely to prove tedious, the managers will introduce some most interesting and mirth-producing novelties. A meeting of the representatives of the Nonconformist churches ol' Wellington and suburbs has resulted in tho formation of a Council of Churches on the lines of the Dunedin Council. Tho Rev. Dr. Gibb was organiser of tho movement,, which emanated from the Ministers' AssociaAssociation. A public meeting for I the election of officers is to be held at the end of the present month. The plans for the new works for

Messrs T. Borthwick and Sons, in Waitara (the Mail reports) slhow that the building is to be much larger than the one destroyed by the fire. The engine room and slaughtering house will be built of brick, while the freezing chambers are to be in

wood. The latter will occupy a considerable portion of the frontage to West Quay, giving storage for 50, 000 careaaes, which is 150 per cent, greater tlhan the space previously available. Tho entry of stock into the works will be by way of Queen Street. New machinery has been

ordered including boilers, also parts for the Hercules engine, and the installation will f-e amply sufficient to copo with increasing quantity of stock which the district, as il gels opened up, is oapable of producing. Glasgow is a city which has bw»

held up to admiration for what lui.s been termed " municipal socialism." Hut it appears -to have gone wrong in its efforts to establish a municipal telephone system in opposition to the system already carried on by a private company. As recently as July the deficit which has accrned on the

city undertaking amounted to £2O, 000, though t-ke 'fact was concealed in the accounts by making no allowance for depreciation. Says "Engineering " :—' f As to the morality of municipal competition with private enterprise, there may be deferences of opinion, but it cannot be considered practical business- fur a corporation to make use of public money for the conduct of a competitive enterprise under such cloarly uncommercial conditions as those which surround the Glasgow Corporation's telephone undertaking." "The time is approaching," l suys Sir Joseph Ward in the Tourist Department report, " when bureaus for the colony should be established in Sydney and Melbourne. I feel convinced that with anergietic and wellinformed officers at these centres much uould be done to promote settlement, and increase the number of visitors to the colony. The value of siuch increased traffic should, even in its initial stages, greatly exceed the cost of the upkeep of these inquiry agencies. Later on, the question of further etending the influence of the Department by establishing bureaus in some of the greater cities on popular routes of travel, together with

a more central and accessible office in London, should receive earnest consideration. The establishment of such agencies would bring New Zealand into touch with the bulk of the travelling English-speaking people, and al'so open up fields from which many desirable settlers might be drawn." The story is current that in order to defray the travelling expenses of a deputation which proceeded to Wellington reoently to lay before the Government the necessity of more vigorously prosecuting certain pubHe work in North Canterbury, the settlers in the district subscribed, according to their means, to a fund for the purpose indicated. The deputation, though unaware of the total amount collected, started and completed their yask in a lighthearted manner, with minds at ease regarding expenses. They returned anid sent in their claims to the tren-

suier of the fund, and the allegation is that in no case was the bill for ex penses under £lO in respect to anj member of the deputation. In om case, a deputationist who had th ( misfortune to lose two she»p bdieath during his absence, chcerfullj included their value in his claim And -the total amount subscribod was something -between three am fivo pounds.—Christchurch Press. What more common topic of conversation amongst business men ' at all times, whether at the club, travelling by rail or sea, or in the streets of tho city,, thai* the question of good! or bad times. Wo frequently hear tho query, " H ow j 3 trade ? And these vital questions are treated in the most flippant manner, and considered only from the one selfish standpoint of the particular little (business of tho conversationalists, for bear in mind that the country and the town are inseparably united by a bond of -omnion interest, and that farmers cannot prosper without their friends n the city participating. On tho contrary, also, with po 0 r returns from the land tho towns correspondingly suffer. Therefore, what is wanted for gtmeral prosperity is settlement of tho waste lands of the colony, payablo prices for our productions, and „ maximum return for the land. The first is a political quest lion, and should have the earnest attention of our legislators. The second is 'to a great extent settled for us by the outside markets if the world. The third is achieved by a thorough system 0 f cultivation, goad seed, and the use of suitable manures. Regarding. tho latter, farmers will do well to scan ithrough Kempthornc, Prosser and Co.'s advei tiseinent in this issue re their well-known brand of Westfield manures. We understand that these manures have given in the past excellent results throughout the coast,

Hid the manufacturers of the same now oiler to correspond with farmers with a view 1o advising them us to the liest manure to be used on tho various crops.*

Im|,or»«nt to sufferers from Htieumausin.—The proprietors of ISock's RHEUMATIC POWDER wish it known that every tin of their powder is sold with a guarantee. All Chemists or Storekeepers are authorised to refund the price paid to thos» not having benefited by the use ol it. Close on 500 Cured Cases are known to the proprietors, and the following are a few of Mioso who have kindly consented to have their names mentioned to induce other suf'erers to also benefit by thm use ol Bock's Rheumatic Powder—L. R. Webb, Makotuku ; Thos. A. Pruden, Eltham ; James Harvey, Mrs Hart, and Mary Ann Hodder, Ashhurst ; W. H. Lakies, Pohangina; Joseph Cuminerfield, Foxton ; Maurace McCullum and Albert Bulges, Waihl ; H. E. Dean, Patea : John Douglas, Hampden, Otago. All chemists and stores.*

Mr E.; M. Smith, M.H.R., yesterday telegraphed his good wishes to tho Primitive Methodist congregation oil the opening of their new church, promising a subscription.

Messrs Baker and Co., of New Plymouth, have bcon appointed cabinetmakers in ordinary to the Gover-nor-General of the Commonwealth. The. diploma is now on view in the linn's window. Thus is a much-covet-ed privilege, and very lew firms in New Plymouth have been similarly appointed. Am enormous floating cos* iMpct, saiid to be the largest in the world, recently arrived at Portsmouth from tho Tyne. The depot will hold 12, 000 tons and is to be moored at Portsmouth harbour. It will be fitted with machinery that will enable the biggest warships to fill their bunkers alongside it. Being over 400 ft long, the depot will accommodate the largest cruisers afloat. At the present time great delay is expeflenced in coaling these ships from colliers. It is understood that the Admiralty intends to build floating depots that will hold as much as -20,000 tons of coal.

In tho House of Commons last month (says the Daily Graphic) Jlr. H. Roberts asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention had been drawn to tho importation into England by German and other Continental manufacturers of quantities of sweets, particularly chocolates, containing a large percentage of proof spirit, and whether, having regard to the danger of the sale of such articles to children, the Board of Ireland Revenue proposed to take stepsi to check such sale and' whether lie would state under what conditions if any, such articles were allowed to be. sold without a license. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said the only thing the Board of Ireland Revenue could do was to insist that goods containing an appreciable percentage of spirit should not be sold by any person not having a spirit license, and the board was issuing warnings to that effect in such casts as it thought required them.

The Japan Mail (English) says By the usual process ol growth from mouth to mouth, the Tokio public were recently led to beliove that after the sinking of the Hitachi Maru, the residence of Admiral Mamamura in T«kio became an object of stonetihrowing and Mrs Kamiraura and children were variously insulted. This legend met us constantly in society, and we observed wise people shake solemn heads over it, predicting that if such an ilM>akuicwl morale were exhibited oil an occasion so little justifling it, sad things might bean, ticupatod in graver crises. Inquiries have laid bare a curious fact. Even the proverbial- grain of truth can scarcely be said to exist in the case. J hero has not been any atone-throw- , £ ; there have not been ainy insultsdemonstrations of every kind have' been wanting ; Mrs Kamimura -has lved her wonted placid, undisturbed Hie ; her children have attended the school as usuail without .hearing so inueh as an a ii us ion to the ill.fated transports ; the even tenor of the Kamimura household's existense has been wholly unaltered. What, then, is the grain of truth? It is that one of Mrs Kamimura's maids, when making purchases of domestic necessaries, was reminded that her master had been unfortunate in -bringing the enemy to conclusions. Whether even. *®J thae the tradesman intended to make any injurious seflection appears very doubtful. At all events! ttat is the whole sum and substance 01 the matter.