LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81844, 11 September 1906, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The filith anniversary services in ■onnection with St. Mary's Church are '.O be eelcbratvd this month. The Mellioumc-Brindisi despatch of he Bth Aiigu t, arrived in London on he night ot' the Bth inst. There are now 00 private consumers if the municipal electric light, and ipplieatirns for the light still come in freely. The revenue during August was £9l 3s.

During the course of a spiritualistic neetiug last week a man ascended the datform and began to read what he brazenly declared to be the second of a series of speeches delivered by Mr Seddon since he " passed over," and reported by a Sydney spiritualist. At the close copies of the ■' thir,l speech" were sold at 3d each.

The Egmont Ljdge No. 12,1.0. G.T., were fayoureil with a fraternal visit by he Unity Tent, I 0.8., on Monday iveniiig. Alter beingoilicially received md welcomed by the Chief Templar, liro. J, C. Legg, the Tent members jntertained the Lodge with a very interesting programme of songs, recitations, and musical items, .Refreshments wore handed round and a very pleasant evening was spent.

Cadet volunteers are not to be required to swear allegiance in the same form as full-blown yolunteers. They will instead make tho following affirmation " I ... do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Edward the Seventh, and that I will faithfully serve iu the Cadet Volunteer Force of the colony until I shall be lawfully I discharged."

Over 100 tons jf waste are thrown away everyday from the big glassworks at St. Helena, in Lancashire. Up to-date nearly two million tons of coarse dust, made up of sea.sand, glass, and iron from the grinding rollers have been dumped down as useless 011 vacant Lancashire land. Dr. Ormondy took possession of a quantity of this material some time ago, and converted into blocks for paving streets. To-day several of the finest streets of Continental cities are, paved with glass. New potatoes are somewhat of a

rarity, but a sample has reached this office from Mi \V. 11. Laughlin, of Vogeltown. They are not of an early e'ass, but me Northern Scars, which are usually looked upon as a main crop variety. The fact that these are now ready for digging shows that our soil and climate are sunao'i frr p;,r!v IMatP crops, and this should grow into a profitaij.c industry, new potatoes being worth from threepence to fourpen.ee per pound at the conimencemont of the season.

At a meetiug of the Hawcra County Council on Saturday, the special committee's report recommending that steps be taken to submit to the ratepayers a scheme for raising £75,000 to re-make the roads throughout the county, was considered. The proposal to borrow £894-1 for works in the lilthani ruling was dropped, 011 the recommcndltion of the riding representative, The other proposals, 033,105 for Hawera riding, £10,930 for (Jkaiawa riding, £15,395 f(.r ■Vlokoia riding, and £7BOO for Mangatoki riding were approved, and .will be <ubmitted to the ratepayers accordingly. The proposed loan is for 25 years, and it is calculated that interest and sinking fund would require about 7 or fi per cent.

"Worse than Chicago tinned meat," said Mr Gaston, London manager of Messrs Funk and WagnaJis, publishes, New York, to tile Juvenile Smoking' Committee 011 July 3rd, "is the American cigarette—the worst thing our country sends to you. Yi u ought to prohibit the sale of cigaiettes imported from America." sa'd Mr Gaston, whose sister originated the anti-cigarette movement in America. Mr Gas'on said that f,;rty seven out oi the tiUy-thr'V Ameiican States now bad legislation agains cigarette snvking. Indiana even desired to prohibit a man having papers that might be filled with tobacco. The law, however was winked at in regard to the responsibility of cliil droll. The cigarette, he said, was the acute question in tho United States on account of the exceedingly cheap quality of the tobacco ordinarily employed, the filthy surroundings from which it was gathered, and the drugs used. The American cigarette makei devised most ingenious concoctions to please the palate, such as cocaine and laudanum. These should be, lie thought, penalties upon parents who permitted juvenile smoking and upon the sellers of tobacco to children. A Glasgow witness thought such a shopkeeper a greater offender than the child smoker.

"In the good old days" of thirty years ago, the Taranaki Jockey Ciub lu>ld only ODe meeting in the year, the races extending over two days. The prize money for a programme of eleven races, exclusive of a few hack events, amounting to £355. Present day stakes arc £ll2O at the Chri-tmas. and £1670 at the Autumn. The big money was the Taranaki Jockey Club Handicap, of lOOsovs., and a sweepstake, the distance being two miles and live furlongs. The hurdle event took the horses over nine flights of 'lft jumps in two miles, the princely winnings being £lO. The Taranaki Cup offered £oO in stakes, and here again Ihe distance was two miles; nowadays the Cup winner gallops one mile and •i half, and the stakes are £3OO, whilst in (he Autumn Handicap, (he event I hat has taken the place of the Jockey Club Handicap, the stake has been raised to £2OO. A few more interesting figures from the old programme : Maiden Plate, 35sovs., H miles; Harbor Stakes, 30sovs., one mile and six furlongs: Ladies' Purse, and the Rail- ! way Handioay, each 1J miles, for 25 sovs. j Consolation Handicap, losovs, 14 miles, and so on. It will be noticed that " m the good old days " all racehorses were expected to be stayers, for the distances were all a inileand a half or upwards. Ahorse that could lift out a couple of races m a day, over the tracks of tHose days, would be a useful animal.

\ iscount Jlayashi, m a statement made to the .liji Sliinipo, says flint Southern Manchura will probably Lo opened at the beginning of September. Japan is making eycry possible effort tc hasten preparations to that end. But the conclusion of peace saw mil-' lion and a quarter Japanese troops anl non-combatants in Manchuria, whom it was necessary to supply from home; and this lias absorbed the machinery of communications, and impeded steps for opening the province iu spite of Japan's earnest and unchanging desire to give practical effect to the policy of equal opportunities. Possibly some Japanese tradesmen hayo taken advantage oE the situation lo sell to Chinese merchants goods uominally destined For the troops, but such abuses are inevitable, and constitute no index to ike oflieial policy of Japan. It is perfectly competent for Japan to defer the opening till the end of the treaty period for evacuation, but her constant wish to realise the open door policy impels her (0 hasten preparations. If Manchuria is opened 111 September, the legal period will have been anticipated by seven months. For these reasons Viscount llayaslii thinks Japan deserves I lie world's gratitude instead of suspicions.

At Hawcra yesterday, a man named John Comrie was committed for trial to the Supreme Court, at New Plymonth., on a charge of stealing a horse, saddle and bridle from Alfred Lister, of Manaia.

At the inquest at Waitara yesterday on the body of Robert Muschamp, who suicided by shooting himself at his residence 011 Wednesday last, a verdict of " death from a guu shot wound, self inflicted," was returned.

The Minister for Public Works says at the present time there are about 2,000 men at work on the North Island Maiu Truuk Railway line, and he still holds to his statement that the two rail ends will he connected before the end of 1908.

Mr Darling, of Patea, proposes securing premises in the neighbourhood of New Plymouth for the purposo of erecting boiling down works. Ho proposes manufacturing meat extract, and so on. Here is another outlet for the eows that can't fill a profitable bucket. • -There were 517,720 dairy cows in the colony last year, according to return" just published by; the Government, fhey were the means of supporting and keeping going 298 cheese and butter factories, 418 skimming stations, 473 private dairies and 195 packing houses.

One of the borough workmen, who applied for leave of absence in order to escort his wife to Wellington for medical treatment, has not had a holiday since entering the Council's service five years and eight months ago. It is hardly ncoessary to say the leave was granted, and on pay. 111 reply to a communication regarding the Seddon national memorial proposal,the Opunake Town Board resolved that any monoy raised to perpetuate the memory of the late Premier be expended on constructing tho OpuI nake branch railway, and it be called the Seddon railway,

The demand for New Zealand coal is so great at the present time that the Railway Department has been obliged to place an order for several thousand tons from Newcastle. It is expected, however, that in a few weeks' time there will be no necessity for the Department to go outside tho colony for its coal.

According to Mr P. T. Bellringer, who represented the New Plymouth borough at the Municipal Conference, there is a very general feeling that unless the Government takes more notico in future than it has done in the past of the recommendations of the Conference, it will be difficult- to persuade town clerks to attend in future.

People Laving business during the last few days in the neighbourhood of the warehouse formerly oce,noted by Messrs Burgess, Eraser & ss, complained of a stench, arising from a consignment of ov'er-ripp bijaes lying in the railway yard close by/ Unless tho nuisance is abated tli9 municipal sanitary engineer will prosecute. Tlia amount of stock slaughtered at the New Plymouth ijiunicipal abiitoirg during August comprised 232 cMc, 7 calves, 088 sheep, 127 pigs ; 158 -ripes were cleaned. i ? ees amounted to £\2o 17s 9d, and rents £3 5s lid. There were killed for export 55 cows and i bulls. Ten cattle and two pigs were condemned, Computed with August, Laos, increases were noted : 75 cattle! ; 2 calves, 7 pigs, 5 tripes, and fees £ls os 6d,

The "Carnegie Committee " hus recommended the Borough Council to acquire part section (i'J.'l, aud sections li9't and Olio, near the corner or Powdcrhant and liobe streets, as a site for the Carnegie library and Town Hall. These arc (lie sections that were some time ago offered to the Council by Mr W. F. Brooking, As alternatives tlicy suggest a strip of land in front oE Mr D. Berry's residence, fronting Young, tiU'.'en, and S. Aubyn streets, or the section on tel. Michael's Square, reserved for a public library and museum, llie first proposal will probably cosl from £2OllO to £2,301); the second is impracticable, as the laud scheduled is a street; aud the third docs not suggest itself to the ratepayers as a whole, on account of its distance from the town centre. The eemnitllee vetoes the proposal to erect the library alongside the Town Hall, holding that the sections there are too valuable, and should bo used for revenue-producing.