GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 14 June 1907, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Auckland province will iindi>\ibtotlly rival Turanaki as a dairying Mi strict. Thin is the opinion expressed j(o a Wairarapa pressman by Mr. li. 11. Sykea, secretary of tlu: Masterton A. and P. Association, who visited the Auckland Winter Show, and travelled through the Waikatj to ilotoruu. The laud iu the Waikato, he says, is admfrably filled in many quarters for dairy ianninr 5> the soil producing cleaner and more iug pub lures than ale to he . e< n in the 'l.u.iUiiM where the iju-,il«.t■»* of tla. f.»rass [■» aU'ecied by to'.) nivdi vain. '.Mr S\l-es tliii,ks> 'hat land which runs one cow to three acres is preferable as a. dairy did.net- to pre;is which are much rich.-r in pastures. And il is in Din particular that lie expresses the opinion that Auckland province may ultimately become the butter province of A'ew Zealand.

Tin* tfiicstioii of .1 good fodder jji.i-s In cover barren, sandy country ;>irs to be solved, according to the following st-tci: '!i (lie Wairoa tiiianlian. '"Mr Vaughan, of Talmcmii, lias an area of v.'liat wo* formerly bare s;ni<l country now covered will) a fine growth of paspalum dilitatum, the new fodder grass, it h;>s hound tlu* snnd. and seems to he the fjrass settlers aloi)£ the coast have heen looking for."

T!ii- I'i'i'-- iiidi'Mcdnoss of Auckland ]!oroii<(li ('"imHl is £7111),!MK).

A ir-v..i story is fjoitif; round of the inventive of Lord Kitchener. The distinguished Coinmander-in-C'hief desired. on the occasion 'of the recent visit ol the Ameor of Afghanistan to India to lay out an artistic garden fir his gratification. Hare exotics and flowers }f great variety of colours, tropical, and sub-tropical plants, were brought to make the garden beautiful. One thing was lacking—there was no grass to give a finishing touch of verdure, and the few days avail able (lid not permit of procuring it. Then Lord Kitchener's resourcefulness came info play. The garden was sown with mustard and cress seed, with the result that there was iu due time a delightful greensward effect which astonished all the visitors, and not least the Ameer himself.

A railway porter was sent to prison for a month at Nottingham for stealing a lady's dress. lie took the parcel from the station, re-addressed it, and sent it to his sweet heart as a birthday present.

Oil entering his fowlhouse ill tlie early morning, John Kriiler. a farmer, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, was surprised to find that eight turkeys had heen stolen. He was still more surprised when he picked up u wallet containing over ;Csl>, which the theives evidently had dropped. Tlie Biornale d'ltalia says that a Milanese convict named I'asquale, wlio some veal's ago was condemned to a lengthy term of penal servitude, has suddenly become a millionaire through the death of an aunt. The unfortunate mail is at present working at tlie convict settlement oil the island of f.ampadusa, and it is unlikely that his wealth will afford him much satisfaction,

The American millionaire "lottery king." Mr. L. A. C.ourdain, lias finally succeeded in having himself convicted of using the post office for defrauding the public, and ha* iopn sentenced to four and a half years' penal servitude, at .Toilet, Illinois* Mr. Gaurdian declared for years that he was willing to be imprisoned if the Federal Courts decided that he was guilty of fraud. He tried repeatedlv to have himself indicted bv the United States Grand Jury, and when he was finally arrested, alter his earnest solicitation, he pave the Federal Prosecutor every facility for examining hi.-; business methods.

It will he one hundred years ago this year since Golden Lane. Ixmuoii. was first lighted by gas lamps, and though a few vears ago it seemed likely that ihe illuminant would soon be ousted by eletrie light, gas has managed io hold its own, and even to strengthen its position. It is almost impossible to imagine nowadays what London looked like when it was lighted only hy a few lamps, and when the theatres were lighted hv a row of candles instead of hy electric foot lights. Curiously enough, the theatre was lighted by gas before the streets were, for the Lyceum was so illuminated in IS'W. Tt was not without a greatstruggle that the new light was accepted, for all sorts of dangers were prophesied from its use, and Sir Walter Seoit even went so far as to call the inventor of tho gas lamp a madman. But perhaps the most amusing remark on the question is Sheridan's reference to an inventor who wishes to "mil out stage coaches by steam and light them with gas." The fact that both of these things were successfully accomplished within a very few years of the time when it v:as looked upon as lunncy to Mippnr<e that they would <'\er he achieved shows the danger ni' prophesying about, matters -onneeted with science. Probably in a few years' time our jokes about aerial machines will seem as foolish as the references of a hundred and twenty years ago to gas and steam do to us nowadavs.