LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7805, 25 April 1905, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Messrs Orbell and Mackay, of Stratford, weii! JthC successful tenderers for thq ground'plan survey of the Mount Egmont brunch ra-Bway. The animal mooting on honorarymembers and subscribers to Ihe Fitzroy Fire lirigaslc will be held in the hall at 7.30 to-morrow night. Householders are reminded of the annua! eieeli'ons of school committees, which take place to-night in the respective schoolhouses. It is notified that the Fitzroy meeting will bo held in the hall, as the school is iu the builders' hands. During the thunderstorm on Thursday night some of the trees in tho Tei lienui cemetery were struck by lightning. The appeuruiic. of one i especially bears eloquent testimony to the severity of the storm, having been stripped of its bark. A survey is now being made of, the Selwjn Estate, of 100,000 acres, recently acpiired by the Government lrom the New Zealand Thames Valley Land Company. As much of the estate that is* lit for selection will I e thrown open for settlement, and the remainder, (about 45,000 acres I of bush land, containing a good deal .of milling timber) will bo reserved.

At a meeting of the railway employees some time back it was decided to hold a sociul in the Theatre Royal, in order to littingly mark the occasion of the visit of the Minister for Kailways, Sir J. G. Ward, who will then present the Koyal Humane Society's modal to two railway men for bravery in life-saving. Word has been received that Sir Joseph will return to New Zealand from Australia on May 3.

There is to be no municipal .election in Eltham, only tho required number of candidates having been nominated. Mr G. W. Taylor has been elected Mayor for the t'hird consecutive term. Crs. W. Similiter, JBoddic;, F. F. Handy, C. Mackie and B. Dive did not seek, re-election, and their scats in the new Council will be occupied by Messrs 11. G. Carman, T. B. Crump, L. Hill, E. I'arrott and W, C. Page, junr. A schoolmaster was giving his class a grammar lesson, when he asked the/ boys to tell Win the longest sentence they had ever read. There was silencje l'pr a minute or two, but at last 4 small boy st o od up and said ho could remember the longest sentence he had ever heard. " Well, Tjomuiy," said the teacher. " what is it?" ■'■' Imprisonment for life," replied the boy. As the result of the work of Dr. Pomare, native health oilicer, who hud -bean inspecting the sanitary conditions of the native settlements on the East Coast and in the l.'rcweru country, one hundred and twenty-live new houses have been erected by the natives of the East Coast, and as many as eighty in the L'rewera country. A similar movement has been in progress in fhe Taupo, Waikato, and all the others districts which are under Dr. Poinarc's supervision.

Following upon the service at the military encampment on Sunday morning. Lieutenanli-Colonel Watt, on behalf of the officers and men, presented the chaplain, the Rev. F. G. Evans, with a collection of £5 Gs 4d (taken up as an Easter gilt). Mr Evans, speaking in acknowledgment, intimated that he would hand the amount over to St. .Mary's Church organ fund. This fund has also benelitted to the extent of £l, sent anonymously as a contribution during Easter.

Kiimara is a rapidly dying town, observed a Methodist minister at the Conference in Wellington the other day. There 'is a fine church and parsonage there he continued, but the population is drifting. The President of the conferense (Mi' Buttle) remarked that the population won drifting when he was there in 1878, audit wa.\ drifting still. A delegate, presumably of tho right colour, suggested that he would like to get tho Premier to go back to Kumara to live—'then the town would go ahead again.

I The secretary- of the Melbourno Hospital has received a donation of a guinea under the following circumstances :—ln December last a passenger gavo a sovereign instead of a shilling in payment of his tram fare. The conductor did not notice the mistak'c at the time, and. following the usual practice, sent the 19s change to the head office, where it was Kept for a reasonable time to allow the passenger to claim it. The money was returned to the condi«v tor a few days ago, but he sent it back to thg office with a request that it and 2s of his own money bo forwarded as a donation to the Melbourne Hospital.

On the night of the recent by-elec-tion, Mr F. M. U. Fisher, after delivering an address in the Town Hall, was carried by his enthusiastic supporters to the niunioii>ul band rotunda opposite the Fire Brigade Station, and there was induced to deliver another apostrophe on things political. A few days later Ko was billed for £2 rent, fori the use t)f iWt bond rotunda by, the Tojvol Clerla Mr Fisher, thinking the mutter wus a joke, did not reply. To his great surprise, he received another account in Christchurch, again reminding him of his alleged indebtedness. MrFisher has replied to the Town Clerk that he has no intention of paying the £2. The Chronicle tells this story of Maxim Gorki ;—He went to the theatre at Moscow one evening to see a play by a popular writer. Instead of paying attention to the stage, the entire audience rose and greeted Gorki with prodigious acclamation. Th e ii he delivered his address : "What or. earth arc you staring at me for ? 1 am not a dancing-girl, nor the Venus ot slilo, nor a drunkard just picked out oC the river. I write stories ;, they have the luck to please you, and I am glad of it. But that is no reason why you should keep on'staring. We have come here to see a charming play. Be good enough to attend to that and leaive me alone." More delighted than ever, the audience shouted with joy, whereupon Gorki jumped out of his seat and left the theatre in disgust. There is one curious point, remarks the Sketch,, about the new naval arrangements made by Sir John Fisher, and it is the tendency re rocogl- - South Africa the geographical tcntre of the British Empire. If you take any map of the world you can. not fail to see how the South African colonies form the (rue half-way house between Great' Britain and India. In timo of war it would bo far ■easier to take transports from the Cape to India through the Indian Ocean and to send them across! th« Bay, through the Mediterranean, and down the Suez Canal. Moreover, it is common knowledge that the Suez Canal might be rendered useless in a

few'hours, and 1 then the power that dominated Straits of Gibraltar would turn tho Mediterranean into a, lake.

Intimation was received from H'ai--5 tara on Friday night that one of : the Wnitara Freezing Works' lighters was asfcore on Hie beach with a full ■ load of meat. Thp vessel, which had ■ been loft, at anchorage, broke adrift some time between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, and went ashore in Riddcll's Hay, two miles north of the heads, where she now lies high and dry on a sandy beach. Alter going out to the Whakatanc, the lighter had been anchored with 35 fathoms of cable, and the chain was found to be "broken 15 fathoms down. A considerable amount of water had been shipped into ,the lighter during her passage ashore, and tin's lias now boon (jumped out, and salvage operations have been commenced, the meat being parted back to | he works. The cargo is a valuable one. consisting of Kid cases of mutton, 5(1 quarters of beef, and over KM) cases of tongues, etc. It is thought that the vessel can be floated during a favourable spring tide. It is understood that Messrs llorlh-wi(-'l? 3Pf! Sons are fully covered under their opwi }«jj;p/ with Lloyds. A DREAD DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. Rheumatic pains arc paused by the pro ence in th o blood of uric acid, lactic acid, and other foreign substances. This accumulation of acid poison must bo neutralised and driven out before a cure can be effected. It is useless taking something that will merely deaden tho pain—the poison needs to be expelled. RHEUMO is the one sovereign remedy which will speedily nnd effectually cure Rheumatism, Gout, Sciatica, Lumbago, and other kindred ail- ! meats. It is the triumphant result of ytam of scientific experiment. It has cured fhousQnd?, and it Will cure-you. Put it to the test—give fair trial.. . chemists and ■

Mr A. C. Stilton, of Los Angelos, after experiments for six years, has produced carnutions, whose petals are white upon a background nearly covered by wide stripes of vivid green, which *idiate from the centre to the edge of each flower. The following articles are alleged (o have been found inside an alligator which has just died in Cincinatti Zoo :—A meteor, weighing l two and a hull' ounces, three leelh of a garden rake, three pairs of spectacles, three dollars and eighteen cents, a door knob, nine combs, a pair of scissors, an iron boot-jack, and seventeen tooth-brushes. The Toiler recalls that when Mr .Marconi visited the I'zur a couple of jear.'ago Ills Majesty compelled the visitor to precede him when passing from room to room. The inventor attributed this reversal to the Royal eti(|Uet'te to pine politeness. A !>.ss favourable critic says it was due to ieur. The Autocrat of All the j Russians dared not trust a foreigner who dabbled in electrical inventions. A novel method ol advertising has ■.■ eon adopted by a firm of bootmakers at UtUarat. A boot is attached by a string to the end of a rod, I which projects from the linn's prein'ises across the footpath. At irregular intervals the string is cut, and tho spectator who secures the boot can obtain its fellow free of charge inside the shop, 1 A Cardiff gentleman, who is noted for prompt business habits and ■ straight speaking, keeps this notice ■ on his office mantellshelf : " When i you have done your business here, ■ please trot. I know all about the • weather, and always road the news- - papers."

Tho career of Constantino Pobiedonosteff, now seventy-eight years of ago, and for nearly' a quarter of a century Procurator of the Holy Synod of Hussia, a position he has just resigned, is ono o/ the romances of modern history. His father was a poor peasant of Kharkoff, but the son was ambitious, and worked his own way. A man of remarkabla tenacity af purpose, and of a singularly hard and pitiless nature he has directed the policy of three successive Czars ; and ho has devoted all his unquestionable ability to the task of subduing tho peojjle and reducing them to absolute servitude under the depotism of Church and Crown. AH his life Pobiedonostefl has been inspired by two ideals—tho dream of a world-wide Russian Em-, pire and of an Orthodox hierureffy, which Should enable the Greek Church to attain the authority onco weilded by tho Popes of Home. In pursuit of these objects, the Procurator of tho Holy Synod has suffered no material obstacle to check him, and no considerations oi humanity to divert him from lti.s purpose- Since the days oT .Torcjueuiuda the world has never witnessed any persecution for religious convictions so merciless as that organised by PobiedonostctT against all the hertordox faiths to be found in Jtussia. The watchword of PobiidonostclT is not progress, but reaction, and it is with a perfectly sincere belief in tho necessity for crushing tho love and light and liberty in Hussia that he set about'his monstrous task of cruelty and oppression. It is easy to understand how, face to face with such a nature as this, the irresolute Czar has quailed before the Procurator of the Holy Synod, and has len't himself to be the instrument of a tyranny that has already brought Hussia within the very shadow of dissolution and destruction.

If you do your own washing, then here is good news for you. Try a tin of Washine. It will help you and please you. See list of storekeepers who stock It.* Bear this iu mind, where'er you go. The funny part of life is. That though your pockets embty be, Your heart is light as light can be, Provided that from colds you're free. From soughing- and bronchitis To make that blissful state endure Use Woods' Great) Peppermint Cure. Do you dread washing day ? Then buy a tin ef Washine and cheer up. Sec a list of storekeepers who stock it. A 6d tin Sufficient for a week's washing,*