LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 26 August 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Capt. Edwin wiied on Saturday:—, Westerly strong winds to gale; glass ' rise; tides high; sea heavy and weather eold; rain probable.

the New Zealand Times reports that a dairy factory which lias been offered Ki'viil f.o.b. for its output of butter hao declined the offer.

Two detectives, who were concealed on premises at King Williamstown, Cape Colony, switched the electric light on t,vo intruders, and found that their prisoners were members of the; local police fo.-ee! J l

J he strongest comment on tiie persecution of Signor Caruso in the United Spates is furnislied by King Edward Vlir., who Ims appointed the singer to be an honorary member of the Fourth o,'ws of the Royal Victorian Order.

A company has been formed in Greytown to cultivate from one to five hundred acres as an orchard. The proposed capital is £IO,OOO, and over one thousand shares have been taken up. Apples aud pears nre tlie principal fruits it is ,pioposed to grow.

His Worship the Mayor (Mr E. Dockrill) received a wire from the Hon, T. Kelly on Friday stating the Borough of New riyinouth Validation Bill will be committed on Wednesday next. A local farmer tells how he managed to beat Father Time. He had a sunil paddock, and he wanted it planted wiu potatoes. He had no time to dig it,hid no plough, and could get no one to-' plough tRe ground. But in Mb oad moments he managed to dig trenches about two feet apart. Here he placed his seed potatoes. And then, little oy little, he turned over the ground .between the rows, The result was joe of the heaviest crops he has ever secured.

"She dirtied every cup and saucer in the house and nover washed one up," was the heinous offence alleged agamst a' wife by her husband, in defence of an application for a separation order, in the Masterton Magistrate's Court. Evidence was given of the husband having abused aad assaulted his wife on several occasions, but the Court passed over the wife's alleged lapse of this trifling household duty. "It I had given her a good hiding it would have done her a blooming lot of good," the defendant interjected at one stage of the proceedings.

New Zealand mutton has provided tiie text of a good story of a clergyman who was untiring in his efforts to develop the Scriptural knowledge of his flock. Hence his habit was to give out the beginning of the text, and throw the end of it open to competition. "The eyos "of all wait upon. Thee —" said the clergyman. Up went'a little hand, and - snuil voice wns heard in ~■>>-, "And Thou givest them their meat from New Zealand I"

iuu evening i-ost, in referring to tne many begging leuers sew to Air Uarnegie uy colonials, says:—"Palmeratou *\orih is the latest applicant for some oi the Steel King's precious metal. The Borough Council tias humbly held out its hat lor £IU,OUO, and the Trust potentate who has turned philanthropic in his old age, mostiy put hard words into the receptacle. H.e gave an opinion tnat it would be waste to spend so much money in so small a town. Probably this lack oi appreciation of Palwcrstou's progrossiveness wU put tne requisite starcn into the Borough Council's back, and so conserve the people's self-respect." Parliament opened on June 27, the Address-in-Keply debate lasting until July 10, and occupying 177 pages of Hansard. On July It; the Financial Statement was brought down, and discussed up to the 24th, covering 110 pages of Hansard. Supply'has occupied tlie attention of the House from August 2 till date, and is responsible for nearly 100 psges of Hansard. Numerous private members' Bills have been introduced and more or less discussed, but only two or throe Government measures have so far been proceeded with. Altogether to date Hansard consists of about 1200 pages of dieary record. There has been as enormous rise in the value of property in the best parts of Cairo in recent years. Sir R. Hainiltun Lang mentions that a small villa, erected some 12 years ago at a cost oA about 0000, found a purchaser recently at £32,000. in fact, it is no exaggeration to say that property in what was the residential part of Cairo, has incieased in value during the past five or six years eightfold to tenfold. In Alex•andria a nearly similar appreciation in the value of town lands has taken place, the cite of the Victoria College,-bought about ten years ago for £I3OO, was sold at the beginning of this year for £IOO,OOO.

™ Mirk Twain was entertained at a '• civic banquet at Liverpool on the eve oi ■" his departure for New i'ork. He was moved to tears by Mr T. P. O'Connors ' reference to the solace and support his . luio had rendered him in his struggles to pay the debts involved in the failure of his publishing business. Mark Twain ''' said, in reply: "Perhaps 1 would not ■ have cared what happened about paying ' my creditors, but it waa my wife who >' insisted upon my going Into the world again to earn 100 per cent, for eyery " dollar 1 owed." He concluded: "I am ™ new going from you across tho ocean -° to my long rest aid home." ld On Saturday evening Mr E. T. Evans, ■. of Lower Hutt, author of "The Labor )0 Question: What it is and How to SefJe ~ It," who is on a lecturing tour of tho e . North Island, delivered an address at „ the Imperial Hotel corner, before a d numerous audience, on the Land quesi- tion and the Customs tariff. In tho E course of his remarks he «aid the Liberal party in every country professed the principles of freedom and it but left the masses of the people lamfl ' less, and consequently deprived of free- :- dom, while their earnings were always y confiscated by land rents down to the ■ bare living point. These were great : wrongs which ought, to be redressed :\s . far as possible, and without further r delay. Land hunger existed in all the i towns of New Zealand, and the Land c Bill now before the country would rot i- satisfy that hunger, nor would it stop 1 the daily robbery of the landless. It i- was, he said, a most inadequate mea- , sure, for it did not even abolish tho lj scandalous exemptions from payment of s land tax! Of the 128,000 freeholders .- nearly 100,000 were exempt from landtax. But, perhaps it was as good a'Bill i- as the Government could pass, for they 2 had in their party in both Houses a lot f of Tories in Liberal clothes. The Lib-1 ~ oral party should be rid of all such .. men, and a bona-fide Radical policy was thp besom with which to sweep them r out. Discussing the Customs duties, Mr : ( Evans denounced them as taxes on : j Labor, which not even the Trade Union i , Protectionists would consent to pay if i i they were levied directly. Protection, ; . he asserted, was a huge fraud perpe- 1 . trated on ignorant people, and as silly I , and ruinous as it was dishonest. Tho i , farmers wanted free trade, and should { , form a great free trade party in town l . and country. The formation of such a 1 • Party would be the salvation of the I ; country. The freetraders In the towns t . were now numerous and increasing dty o by day. They were readv to fight for t the agriculturists. The 'speaker then f

proceeded to explain the single-tax, i'nd argued that it would bo of enormous benefit to every industry and every profession. In conclusion he moved: '"'That this meeting demands abolition of Customs duties, and is cf opinion that the deficiency thus created in the revenue should he met by an increase in the taxation of the community—created value of land, without any graduation and exemptions." The lecturer replied to a, number of questions, and the resolution was carried without a dissentient voice.