LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 7 March 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Kmfdoyers in Timaru have experienced great dillieulty in securing a supply nf boy labour. Some employers consider 1 hat this is ;i result of the '"i'ree plan l '' >ys(em a! the high schools.

Complaint cmues from Sydney »f M-arriLy of dtrp-sua sailors, owiny to wlirnl sjiijis having drawn largely, within a. brief purLud, oil the supply, 'ilk-re were -J7 sailing vessels m port, lounge 011,1)22, on February 20.

A phenomenal sample of wool has been obtained from a crossbred sheep on I lie fin-in of .Mr J)unean MeDiniakl. of iliudon, Otago. :it is over 2ft in I' ll'-'' I', which is regarded as something extraordinary.

Farmers are beginning to learn the vaiifc vf keepinp the kiinf ,of niilcli cow-. One dairyman near Bell I'iock, who is well known for the quality of >t.ock he keeps and breeds, has a herd of pure Jer-i-ys which nj. Io now have averaged him lifteen guinea., apiece for the season. This is a rereniarkably good result even when prices for butter-tut are so good as they have been during the season, an.l doiumislrales what can be dune with breeds of the right kind.

A im-al resident appi-ni'ed, at /lie S.M. Cour! on Wednesday inuriiing lu oppose ill'- i--ue of a prohibit iou order against hanself. 1 Jt; was evident ly m ;in excited and bellicose co.-i diliuu. c!alined lo lie a man. a whitman, and a Jiritisher, and asked for a weeks adjournment in order to con--ult his .solicitor. lie v/as protesting Ins unlitness and unpreparcdness for addres-dng the court., when the Magistrate -stopped him with ''Will you cease talking.'' lie did, and, an adjournment was granted to Saturday.

5n drawing the attention of our renders to the Mortum insect Powder advertisement, we beg to inform the public that the Mortum is far superior lo any ether powder on the nn;

and is not an old powder under an other rcuns, as some shopkeepers have been trying to make out. Give Mot 1 turn Insect Destroyer one trial and yon will not wisli for any more effective to kill Hies, fleas, and every other vermin. All chemists or stores sell it.-—Adrt.

' A number of letters from correspondents are. unavoidably cowded out of this issue. A motion lias boon filed in (lie Supreme Court at Wellington on liehalf of the Liuv Society to strike the name ] of 11. S. Jzard oil' the roll of solicitors. Izard is serving Ave years in gaol for misappropriation of trust funds. —Press wire. I On Tuesday night the pol ee received a telephone message that a man was lying drunk in Courtenay street east. Constable Wliiteliouse went out, and found a man named Godwin lying across the footpath in a dark place so that any unwary pedestrian might have tripped over his body. The rain was teeming, so thn policeman g&ve the outdoor sleeper a drier rest at the police station. On Wednesday morning (iodwin -was brought before the Magistrate, and, it being his second oll'enee, he was lined 10/ and costs, ill default ■lB hours' imprisonment.

According to the (lore Standard, the majority of oaf crops in that district have been cut during the past week, and -fanners report having been agreeably surprised at the way the grain has "headed."' The oats generally are much shorter in the straw, but the yield promises 1o he very satisfactory, while the sample, should the present weather continue for another fortnight, and thus allow the oats 4o ba gathered, will be irreproachable. There are some excellent crops to be seen on various small areas but there is one exception m the case of Air P. Ilanley's oat crop on the Washpool paddocks at Croydon, a stretch of a hundred acres and more, on which crop has been cut.

The Nautical Gazette of New York is lamenting the fact that the great Panama Canal when finished will not benefit American shipping to any extent. According to present day statistics it is estimated that Great Britain and Germany will, at the lowest calculation, I carry 80 per cent of the trade. The remaning 2U per cent will be divided ' between America and other maritime countries. It is further stated that the trade done by American ships wi'l probably be confined entirely to the coasting business between our Atlantic and Pacific ports. On the other hand, •German and British ships will use the canal not only as an international highway, but as a short cut to the west undoubtedly increase their fleets, and incidentally their trade, with tlie South American countries especially. And not one penny do they contribute toward building and maintaining the canul.

The second battleship of the Dreadnought type for the British Navy was la.d down on December at Portsmouth. It U reported that she will be a little larger tlian the lirst Dreadnought, and t-lnu she will carry f)0-calibre 12in guns, though no ollieial information on Ihe subject has been published. The third Dreadnought has been laid down at Devonport, and will be known as the TVmeraire. A fourth vessel will be built by Messrs Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. In the meantime, it seems to bo the fact Ihat the lirrn of Schichau has not yet received the order for one ot tlie Orman Dreadnoughts. Two of these vessels are to be laid down shortly under the 1000 programme for the Kaiser's navy, and two under the 1!)D7 programme later in the year. The new German estimates show that the size of the German armored cruisers has again been considerably . increased, since -the cost of each ship has been raised from £1,375,000 to £1,800,000.

In its report of the baby show at Cliristcliurch, the Press >tates that Mr (J. 8. iUunru, the hardy and versatile general malinger, had qualified himself in some sort for the invidious task of judge by olUciating in a like capacity at the recent Exhibition Dog Show. 'The Tunes condemns the whole affair, and *avs that "if all baby shows were like Thursday's shocking performance there wouid be less than no excuse for them. The general manager seems to think that so long as the Exhibition is thronged with people nothing else matters. As a. matter of fact tlie arrangements for the baby show would have disgraced a fourth-rate country with .heir infants were set down in bazaar. Four or live hundred mothers in |he middle of the crowded corridor were kept waiting from about 2 o'clock nniil n. Kven in the afternoon the atiiio.-phere of the corridor was shockingly bad, and at night the surging crowd hustled the worried mothers

:»lid crying infants, bumped them into chairs and wooden seats, and crushed them generally in an atmosphere that wu-s positively sickening. There was neither order nor amusement ill the proceeding, and the conditions of the judging were an insult to the patient mol hers who had really taken the business in the most serious spirit. It was bad enough (hat the Exhibition authorities should have conceived such an

"attraction"; bul, having instituted the show, they should surely have made seme arrangements for conducting it witii dignity and humanity."