LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81849, 20 September 1906, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Gorrison B:iii<i is n-solnlin;; for a lease uf tiie Recreation Gi'onnd Hoard's unused seel ion at the corner of Gore street on which to but d a practice room.

A new seel 1011 ot the breakwater ex-1 tensi 11 wa ■ completed lust week, and Ihe length of tlie new work is now jB-i feet. Mr Henderson's policy now is to extend the work by 12 feet eacli month, besides making 12 new 20 ton concrete blocks for future work. There are quite 100 bloclis oil hand at present. The Taranaki Acclimatisation Society ha-. just landed a consign iicnr, of 20,000 blown trout fry, wl.ielt will be kc.A in the Society's ponds 111 llie liec cation Grounds. Another 10,000 will arrive in the course of a week or two.

The Foresters' Hall, 111 Gill street' will bo a scene of brmlilness and gaity to-day. At 3 p.lll. His Worship the Mayor will open the Vitzroy Primitive Methodist bazaar, arranged 111 order to raise funds towards the cost of erection of a new church at Fitzroy. Fancy goods, plain goods, and all kinds of goods will be offered at the various stalls, and amusements of different kinds provided. In tlie eyening several charming Japanese songs will be rendered by children in costume, and a programme of songs and instrumental items will be contributed. In addition lliere are numerous novel fun-producing competitions for both sexes. Afternoon tea and supper will be served at a small charge.

Fireman B. Ford, who recently commenced business on his own account at Waitara, was the recipient of a presentation on Tuesday night from the members of the New Plymouth Fire Brigade, the present, taking the form of a handsome niarbol clock. Fireman Ford has been an enthusiastic member of the Brigade tor nine years past, and jirior to severing liis connection earned the service bar as a record of his completion of that terra. The following Association awards were made at the saoie meeting : Captain Bellringcr, decoration for 12 years' completed service ; Foreman J. lioberts, bar, 17 years' service ; Secretary H. H. Ford, bar, 15 years' service, The new hall at Manaia, which was opened last week, is a structure of which Hie inhabitants of the town can ■>e justly proud. The capacity of the liall is considerable, accommodating iibout 1000 persons. It is well fitted up inside with, artistic painting. The staginj accommodation is ample to accommodate any company that visits Taranaki. The guilt ry is spacious and comfortably fitted. In the front of the building are the municipal offices and public library, also a strong room. A commodious supper room and kitchen occupy one side of the hall. The whole is lilted up with electric light. Altoaether the appointments aro tjuite modern and 'would be a credit to a town twice the size of Manaia.

A dairyman on the Waimate Plains was recently puzzled by the mysterious li«appearanee nightly of'a quantity of liis evening's im'llr, which was left in (lie cans over night at the milking shed. Every morning when he visited :he cans lie found the cream neatly skimmed off and a gallon or two of milk missing, so lie decided to watch. He was rewarded by seeing a couple of dark figures enter the milk slied 'with large Inlly-caus. " Who goes there ?" he challenged. There was no response, except the scuille of feet as the figures decamped leaving their ''billys" behind tliem. "It you don't stop, I'll dioot! " shouted tile farmer, ami suiting the action to the word he fired Hit :uu in the air. 13oth figures stopped iiiniediately and the dairyman found them to he a couple of road contractors, t'honi lie made pay for the 11:j 1 k exI raeled

In reply to the big Opunake railway d.'puta'ion at AVellinglon on Monday, 'he lion. Mr Hall-Jones said one t-f Ihe causes of delay was the battle of routes, (100 section called for the railway in this direction, another in 1 hat direction and so on. Personally, ire could tell them he thought the route would be towards Elthtim (although it might not go quito so far as that town). I'he Government Lad land reserved for the purpose of a railway in that direction, and taking all tilings together lie was of opinion tiat the line he had indicated would be tlio most likoly for I the railway Still each, route suggested had to be t'horoi|glily examined and this all meant tinnS. Frequent appeals had been made to him to have exhaustive inquiries dade before a decision was arrived at and lie pointed out that no Government would be justified in deciding upon any given route until they had the fullest possible information upon which to come to a decision. But for the delay that had been occasioned by making full inquiries he would have been m a position to have given the deputation some definite particulars concerns the roijte,

Mr Hendricks, wjio !>ucceede(l ftjr Gardner as the New Plymouth manager for the Dresden Piano Co., will arrive by to night's express.

"By the sweat of the brow shall ye eat bread," is a quotation we have heard a good deal of recently. "It'll take nie all my time to make this job last till tfvr o'clock/' is a true que tation from tlie remarks of a'New-Ply-mouth navvy on Tuesday afternoon.

The opinion of a gentleman who has been in business here for the past two years, two of the worst years that I'aranaki. has known for a very long time, is that "there are very many worse places than New Plymouth, and they are not hard to find.' -

There is an impression abroad that N'-w Plymouth Ijus bt-en cut oyt of the fixtures arranged for the English cricket Mini, simply because T»ra naki has not contributed /liou to the funds. As yet, no itinerary has been arranged. Ii is also worthy of note ilia! h;td ihere been a week instead of only a (oupje oj days tf> spare between the North 'far'uiaki executive meeting and tin; last date for receiving- money, the ei-cutive would have essayed a guaranteee of ,£IOO. The Wellington "Post' 1 says.The colony ;'s -realising, almost witli amazement, the niyoluttoft effected : n the lasi few month's. In placy of lire ijiciator.ihip, tliey have once more stewards of u public trust with a sense of their responsibility— instead i f a .p'ustic policy which a'leieel ; ls form at every (ouch of outside pressure until it becomes absolutely amorphous, tiiev have once more some thing sufficiently substantial to b'e grasped—or buffeted —so Ihe case may be. I,'or moje than ten years we have been drifting further ant) ftirlhor from democratic ideals. The ship of Stale is now being sleered back again,

Tile boys at the Okato school are turning- the dinner recess to good ac C unt. Spades, shovels and wheel barrows are kept busy, and soil from 1 he niadside is being- put to better use in the school gardms.

It is often (! I'.iat Taranaki '.e.'l -II"' the land, that thev '-implv buy rows. tuiljv ,>hem, and sej] Hi'' mill;. A Hide winter feed i s grown, nt course, but otherwise the i;i barely touched. There am exceptions. U'aiea furnishes a few samples. There j s a go d deal of swampy land in that district, raupo ai,d it is not profitable. It's uns'glit'y: inconvenient. inasmuch as it blocks access in many cases; ex pensive, for nearly every year a setter lias to bear the loss of some animal or animals that can't get out of the I'Og: and a reflection on the worker <■! 1 lie land, for the swamp is not of 1 hat Older of things which cannot be ii'leied. Me-srs Kilwin, Kevell. and liurgess, of Wai ea. have l < claimed, and are siill rer'aitning swamp lands be draining. Not with open drains, however, another trap for the unwary beast, but with stone drains, which c'orv "IT t'-e water underground, leaving- the surface dry and ploughable. The work is higli'y effective, I'li'l is not expensive, costing at the rate- nf about iifte'-n shi'lings a chain. I.atvl that was drained in this wav fifteen years ago is still well drained, and it is difficult to believe that it was ever swampy and valuejess,

faranaki Petroleum Company's [ paid-up shafts were sulci last I week in Inglewood at 15/ per share.

It is computed lb at from 60,000 to 6 51000 yards of earth will be shifted in the New Plymouth railway deviation works.

1 here was a very fair attendance at the Rev. Davis 1 lecture on Wednesday night at the Baptist Church. Mr N. K. MacDiarmid presided. The lecturer dealt with work in the slums, and related his experiences with the I.a Trab street Helping Hand Mis sion in Melbourne, giving very 'ntciesting and touching recollections of his life there and dwelling on the evils associated with drinking, dancing, and gambling. He stronglyurged New Zea\anders to take steps to train the children against these, and spoke of the necessity of' providing such education and assistance for tne backblocks. fn tins connection lie mentioned that most of the hoodlums in Melbourne came from the country. The subject was very cap ably handled, and the speaker was frequently applauded. Misses Good acre and Carthcw added to the p'easure of the evening bv contributing vocal items.

In conversation with a News representative on Wednesday, Captain Norbury stfi'ted that the landsman could not fu.ly gauge the benefit conferred on shipping by the breakwater extension. Ihe genial captain says he cannot understand those people who decry the harbour and are prepared to obstruct its progrss and extension. "Why," he said, "if it weren't for the harbour, and for the regular shipments of butter and cheese made possible by it, your farmers' land wouldn't be worth as many shillings an acre as it brings pounds now." Captain Norbury is one of those who thoroughly believe in the present system of breakwater extension—concrete b'ocks on a bed of rubble, the said rubble, by the way, consisting of rocks weighing up to ten tons or more. The Capetown breakwater, he says, a stupendous undertaking, was constructed ln a far more difficult position with rubb\e alone. Referring again *o the extending of the sea-wall at New Plymouth, lie remarked, "Every foot of it takes the rough water another foot out from the wharf."