LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 21 March 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A juryman who was fineil yesterday ) tor lion-appearance attended later, and made a. sai is factory explanation. The line was remitcd. Tim Treasury lias forwarded lo (lie I'aranaki County Council €l4 :Is, being the subsidy on rates collected by the Taranaki jioad Board. At a public meeting at llawera on Tuesday evening if was decided to establish a leehuical school in the town, and a canvas for lumls realised over .Clutl. Advice has been received that as the authority for the Oakura hills deviation was issued since September 21, if doe.-; not come within the scope of the lloads Department's cancellation of unexpended Ooverninent grants. A harvest thanksgiving service w,vs held at Jlurworth road on Tuesday evening. There was a good attendance, and (lie Rev. Williams presided. A Kile of the goods realised a good sum.—The annual picnie lakes place on Thursday (to-day).—Own Correspondent. II- has now been decided (o forward specially addressed coiTi'spondenco for the I'nitcd Kingdom and Continent ot Kiiropr per Yon. lira, via San Francisco, j leaving Auckland on Saturday, iiord instant, at 1 ii.in. Mail close? at New Plymouth on Friday, 22nd, at 7 p.m.

A special train loft New Plymouth ou Wednesday morning, following up the mail train, with the school cadets' excursion to Wellington en route to the ChristchurcU Exhibition. The hoys wili bo away a full week, Sixty boys are making the trip. Six inches of rain fell iu New Plymouth during Sunday and Monday. The streams rose rapidly, and one of the effects is to be seen in the reduced area of the rifle range by reason of the swelling of the Waiwakailio Iliver. This is one way of getting rid of gorse. Tlia Plunkct challenge shield given by the (loveruor to the New Zealand Cricket Council for competition amongst tlii various cricket associations in New Zenland, affiliated to tlio Council, was presented by His Excellency to tile Council yesterday morning, says -,i Press wire.

Already the Central Fire Brigade station looks all the better for its coat of paint. In -fact the old building, so long an eyesore, is now quite presentable, and even attractive. The baths buildings seem to be thirsting for n little good paint just now, and it is well that these buildings should he painted at least once in three years.

A peculiar position arose on Tuesday at the .Supreme Court Two Italian witnesses were to be called;, and one of them required the services of an interpreter. Mr Crump asked the Court to allow one witness to act as interpreter for the other. Sergeant IJaddrell, however, had foreseen the difficulty, and the services of Mr George Talin, an Austrian, with Italian education, were placed at the disposal of tlie Court. The following tenders have been accepted by a committee of the Tarnuaki County Council for supply of metal:— (!5U yards, from I'ell lilock to Waitara borough boundary, Cart-wright and Tarry, 5s 3d per yard; 1000 yards. Mountain road, Cartwright and tarry, -Is !)d per yard; 300 yards, Richmond road, Cartwright and Tarry, 5s M per yard; 100 yards, Junction road end east, •I. N. JSeilson. Ds 9d per yard. Mr. W. T. Jennings, M.H.tt. for Kgmont, has written to the Taranaki County Council that he will gladly back up the application to the Minister for Public Works for a grant of ,Cf>o for the Tariki road east. Mr. Jennings adds that he knows that part of the road well, and as both the Council and the Moa Koad Board have agreed to heip in making the road passable, the Hoads Department certainly should render similar help.

During last January 6207 men were employed by the State on co-operative works in the colony. Of those, 324 artisans and 3500 laborers wore employed by the Public Works Department, all but 13 artisans an dl2B laborers being engaged on railway works, the North Island Mam Trunk Line absorbing 2417 men. The Department; of Roads -employed 2443 laborers, the Wanganui district having 200 men, Wellington 2(H>, Rotorua 205, Auckland 205, and Taranaki 202. It didn't seem to dawn on usher yesterday that if it were possible tor those in Court to Lear the conversa-

lion carried on by the people outside the door of the, building, liis loud admonition to them to "Keep quiet outside here, you fellows, and make less row

out here" would seriously disturb the somnolent solemnity of tlie proceedings. The atmosphere in the building, and the fact that many of the ollieers bad been in attendance at the Court until after midnight, seemed to have thrown an air of lassitude over the ivhole Court, from which complacent attitude it was roused

by the above-quoted remonstrance of the

usher, who commenced his little curtain lecture belore he bad dosed the donr of the court.

The failure of Oovernment departments to understand departmental business is 110 new (home. We have all heard of the people who received notices Hut tliey were dead, mid Hint therefore (heir names had been removed from (lie electoral roll. Now the Labor Department lias gazetted the Taranaki County Council, as it has done before, as one of those local bodies which lias failed to ii.\ the half-holiday under the provisions of the Shops and Shop , Assistant Act. The County Clerk sent a remonstrating letter, pointing out Dial where road boards existed they, and not the County Council, were the local authorities; and that Hie whole of the Taranaki County was comprised in fl,e various road boards which wore shown to have made the necessary return. 'Hie Chief hispector under the Department has now written, pointing out that "it is verv ditlicutt for them to tell whether any portion of a country is left outside the various road districts, therefore it was thought best to fix the holiday in the way a was done." '-your remarks," he told llr. Kllis, "have been noted fur fulure lvlVreiice."