LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81846, 13 September 1906, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

80 fur the sum nf £52,000 has been ..•xpeuded by the Government in purchasing sites in various parts of the •olony whereon to erect dwellinghouses for workers. The Taranuki Kiflc Volunteers hold another of their fortnightly assemblies 1 last evening. There Wits a lartc attendance, and the affair was successful m eyery way. The " long night" is to lake place shortly. A North Otago paper states that the area going into potatoes ill.! season .vill be exccpuonilly large, and should lhere.be no destruction by blijilil there ■vill be no necessity for an outcry igaiut the ruty on Australian potatoes, for with the ordinary yie'd there should be a considerable surplus for export. Mr R. Cock seems to think the girls of to-day do not evince as much pride in uniforms and soldiers as they did in days g.me by. For instance, the annual ball did not scorn to go with the same vim as it did when he was young-,"ihe girls used to want to get our stripes. I was a corporal, you know/' he said. "They steal your epaulettes now,'' remarked one of the present-day Rifles.

The Chinese opium smuggler is wily. A Chinaman from Hong-Kong recently lauded at Bangkok in Siam with a huge painted sign-board as his luggage. Its size and weight aroused the suspicions of the Castoms ollicials, however and they applied a small augur to the "sign-board," with the result that theyjfound it composed not of solid wood, but of thin boards joined in a frame, containing between them a number of snugly packed tins of opium. The owner though "child-like and bland" was arrested and tho signboard and contents confiscated.

The " Press' " Dunedin corresponlent telegrgaphed on Friday :—" Some;hing that will jpye the farmers a fright has just come to hand from Vancouver. A Duncilm merchant to-day showed a sample of Canadian oats to a " Star" representative. Side by side with this ho placed samples of New Zealand )ats. In brightness the imported irticle unquestionably beat all grades of Southland oats, and easily held its own with best Canterbury The moral is that with equal prices the Sydney merchant will soon turn his back on Zealand, but that is not all. New Zealand oats are landed in Sydney at 3s Id per bushel; the Canadian article can be landed at 3s 2d."

The Southland Times says:—"Our old aequamtanre, theSpotswood settlement, Taranaki, about which we had a friendly difference with the Hon. Sir Joseph Ward at tlie time ot the general 'lections last year, continues to be n brilliant example of successful laud settlement. Last year the Government paid away £617 as interest on thep.irdiase money, against which it received in rents £lB9, showing a deficiency on he year of £5lB. Since the estate vas purchased in 1903, £2090 has been paid in interest, while rents received lave agaregated £B7l, leaving a total leficiency of £1219, and increasing the •ost of 310 acres from £10,741 to E18,017, or just on £OO per acre. To jet an annual income of £18!) from a 617,000 investment is truly a remarkable achievement,"

The natires who are camped on the iianks of the Waingongoro near the ..■lci'trie power station are making great Pitches of lamprey eels, says the Hawera "Star." They caught 1,51)0 in one day, and it is estimate! that they have taken at least 1,000 during Jie past few days. There were 200 natives camped, but 11 number have ',' one away, presumably satislied, and mly 50 or 00 remain. They have very iittle shelter and very little clothing, md sleep in the barest of shelter, mostly under a few boards arranged <o as to Hi. i\v off rain. There arc lires, and as c.iuglil the eels are thrown m to broil, and taken off and eaten voraciously, usually with a bit of bread. Kmvieans who visit the camp MVulVce and almost all lisli for ■ionic tune to come.

A machine invented by a New Zeahmder (Mr ;]. ,]. Dickie) did a neat performance .or members of tke House >i Commons last montli. They put pennies in a slot, turned a handle, and found themselves supplied with stamps with promptness and despatch. Foreign : coins and mead discs were thrown into the contrivance to test its ability, and it promptly rejected them, showing I hat it wanted a penny and nothing but a penny to induce it to work. A penny attached lo a thread of silk fails 10 " work I lie oracle." This machine ins been exhibited iu New Zealand ■ind Australia and has behaved admirably. It is assumed that the device mis the approval of the Postmaster. General in London, otherwise the machine would not have made its -appearance at St. Stephen's. The "Scotsman" describes Mr Dickie's automatic stamp-supply inaichine as " an ingenious and simplo little contrivance, compact in form, incapable of being tampered with, and easily worked by any one." An angi-angi tree, the gift of Mr A. K. Capper, Ashurst, planted in the ivestern reserve in the Square, Palmerston North, recently, is one from n clump with i traditional Maori history attaching to them. Mr Capper obtained the treo while ou a visit to the ' Bay of Islands, Tradition has it that when the natives first landed on those shores they eame in the waka called Te Arawa, and, on beaching their canoe, I they ran up the sandy shore and broke off same branches of the trees growing I close by to use ai skids pn which to roll their canoe up above high-water mark. Completing this task and leaving the waka resting on the skids they t lien I set off to explore the interior. No' doubt they were absent a long I me, for when they returned they found that the skids had commenced to take root m i the sandy earth, and were throwing out little green shoots. Taking this lo be a good omen from their gods the natives performed certain of their religious rites and ceremonies around the spot, and proclaimed it lapu Sacred they still hold tke place to this distant dry.