GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 23 July 1907, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

A man wlki purchased n small tin of totacco at ;i Krildinj! store found inside a coupon entitling him to the sum of 115. The Tobacco ('oni]«in.v these eou]ions „t rnre intervals, itml this is the first which ever came to Feilding.

There were lour applicants for a pupil leadership in tin? Tiiuaru South school, three females and one male. ;il| eligiMe (sindidates, and the male was li (veil by the Board for appointment, eliielly on the ground of the ndrisibility of Mturiiig for the service all suit ah I 1 hoys. ,

'llie foundry proprietors of Brisbane state thrt the trail,' during the ]>af,t three montlia ha- increased at a marvellous rate, but skilled mechanics are scarce, many of the best tradesmen having left the State in times of depression.

New Zealuuilcrs' love of legislation in bulk, whatever may be the quality, is relieded ill the huge volumes of by-laws issued by even inndcrately-sized bnroiighs Invcreargill. with a population of lioillt. boasts a book ol two hundred pages, embodying about 7'HI rules lor the guidance of the iniuuiiiuily- about half-a-by-law, on an average, for every adull, or, sav. (me for every man and his wife. The new by-laws for Wellington total about lll.jll, sullicient to cover 4011 pages of a book in ocfavu size. About I ."SI I of the revised edition have been passeil at two meetings. Sydney, with a population of nearly half a million, is much behind Wellington in its output of bylaws. The capital of New South Wales gets along fairly comfortably with less than half the quantity of civic legislation that is framed for the city of liO.llllO pensons.

It is always with ua now—the riso in the cost ui' living. The price of oil lias been attracting the attention of the American Oil Trust to "bump up" the cost iu New Zealand is becoming more and more evident. Jn Christ - church the price of kerosene was lid on June 14th, 11 Vail on July 4th, and Is on duly 10th, the, latter iigure including railage from Lyttclton. According to one of our leading grocers, the Dunedin prices of late have been as follows: Oil transhipped at Melbourne bv the Warrimoo recently was UVjd ex wharf: to-day it is ll%d ex store. When the Largo Law arrives from New York it will be lO'/sd ex ship. So far the price has nut reached Is a gallon hero, but it is worth noticing that this time last year it was only 10% d. or y 2 d per gallon less than the present cheapest way of deliverv.—Dunedin Star.

In the simultaneous discharge of eight of the ten 12-inch guns of the Dreadnought a shock was given that vessel of -100,00(1 tons, more than double that of any broadside ever before fired. The vessel of 18,500 tons skidded sideways several yards, listing many degrees. The gun are 53ft long, and each j-hell of SoOlbs is discharged by 2(i.)lb of cordite. with a muzzle velocity of two thousand miles an hour.

The New Zealand Times says:—A fortnight ago Detective Casselis. of Wellington. was sent' to Sydney to bring back an alleged debtor. In thai matter he had no difficulty. The Sydney police had already held the man under surveillance. That was all right. But one day a police inspector sent for the detective and asked him if he knew a cerlain person, then in cu*lody, who was suspected of liming "broken gaol'' at Lvttelton. Mr CasselN replied all that lie knew of the man was that he was present in court when he was convicted and sentcm-cd to a long term of imprisonment. ''Can von identify that man?" asked the inspector.

"Well." said Mr Cassells. "you'd better place him amongst a crowd of other fellows in the yard, and if he is the man I am thinking of. I'll pick him out without any posibility of mistake." On the following morning some twenty jkmsoiis wwv ranged up in the yard adjoining 1 lie Sydney Water Police Court. Mr Cis-el'-. in the presence of several police odieers. walked down th" line, and when lie eame to one man. sloped him on the shoulder, and said. "Hullo, old man. you're here again." The man so accosted denied the impeachment, but fulHcqiicntly admitted that he was the oeison reouiied by the law to return to N'cw Zealand. He was before the Stipendiary Magistrate's Court at Wellington and remanded lo ChrMchurch.

Wriiing from Juhanno>burg on the subject 01' llu' strike of the Kand minors. a Lytteiton Time.-' correspondent s:iy»:--"llou' llu» strike will get on is very dillicult to tell. I»ut so fur as I can set* the miners wfll have to give way. There aiv hundreds of men out of employment on the Kami who would he very glad to take up the work that has heel! vacated by tin- strikers. ;md while the labor market is in such a congested state most jK'ople. even amongst the workers themselves, think that the strikers haw very little to complain about. The evidence of tliN feeling is. f think, abundantly proved by the fact that the surface men and engine-drivers are still working. Were tho engine-drivers to >trike he mines would have to close down, but they do not seem disposed to take up this attitude, though they re-en-nise they hold the key to the po>ition. As yet there has been very little violence attempted. v 'ome recruits who were brought in to replace the miners had a very rough time at the (iermiston railway station a few days ago, and most of them were induced to go back again to the West Rand. Another batch sent to supply a mine (the Crown Deep) in the central area were escorted by forty mounted police. The miners endeavored to stop them, and stones were flying about, but Jio injury was sustained by either the police or the new men, although both had to run the gauntlet of epithets and mis.vles. The strikers had some, satifaetion in waylaying the wagons (hat were bringing their personal elTeeU. They were seized and burned, and the whole of their belongings excepting some few which the Kaflirs seized and confiscated.