GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 11 September 1907, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

In the pioneering days of Canterbury, before the frozen meat export trade was inaugurated, sheep were aold at comparatively low rates. Mr David Thomas, who has just retired from business after an extensive experience in the Ashburtou district, states that in those days, lambs that now bring I7s a head were only worth from 4s to 9s, while breeding ewes that now average from 2fls to 28s were 8s to 10s. The rise in the price of stock, coupled with the low rate of interest, fully accounts, in his opinion, for the prosperity of the colony. In the pioneer days farmers experienced some difficulty in procuring money at 10 per cent, while they only received half of to-day's value for their stockMiss Phoebe Couzins, the first woman Lmted States marshall that country ever had, for many years one of the most ardent advocates of equal rights for women, has startled America bv the announcement that suffrage for hj'r sex has been a failure. She expresses the belief that the country is not ready for women's votes, and will not be for some time to come. "If we work on the present lines," she says, "we shall «oon become as silly a bunch of female nuisances as our friends in England have shown themselves to be during the last twelve months. In any case, I have come to the conclusion that politics cannot be improved by women's vote." Miss Couzins was the first woman ever admitted to Washington University, and received her diploma in 1871. She was appointed United States marshal in 1877 to succeed her father. An occurrence which might be correctly described as a modem miracle occurred at Wyndham. This was a case of temporary restoration of sight reported (says the Wyndham Herald) on the best of authority. Miss Mcßae (sister of Mr. D. K. Mcßae, and the eldest of the family), whose age is 81 years, has been blind for nearly nine years. Her sight came back on? day about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and she could see till 10 o'clock at night. She first saw her finger-nails, then the fire, being able to distinguish the coal from the wood fire, and to tell the different colours of dresses, etc. Next morning she lapsed into her former condition of total blindness. This glimpse of light after so many years must have been a joyous experience, and the sadness is that it should have been of such brief duration. "The position of unionists is worse now than it has ever been before in the history pf unionism in New Zealand. It is a position that has got to lie faeed. There are 39,000 unionists in New Zealand, and they are not going to have the ground cut from under their feet. If they cannot get a fair measure of protection from the law of the colony, they will have to consider their position." Such was the declaration made by Mr A. H. Hooper, president of the Trades' and Labor Councils' ConA representative of one of the largest woollen manufactories in .he colony told a representative of the Oamaru Mail that the indistry has been so prosperous during the current year that hb co-n P ;.in has been compelled hhand to other mills orders aggregating about £50,000 in value, which it could not execute because of the large demand on its resources. Mr G. H. Blackwell, chairman of directors of the Kaiapoi Woollen Company, confirms the statement that the woollen industry has been very busy in New Zealand for some time. He says that the only difficulty his company has met with in dealing with the work is the scarcity of workers. It has done its best to remedy the condition, but it has had to discard a great deal of business on account of its inability to obtain sufficient numbers of workers. Over two years ago a North Canterbury resident discovered a process of rendering bicycle and motor-car tyres puncture proof by means of a simple composition. He sent some of the composition to England, where it was tosted over a lengthened period, with results considered to be extraordinarily successful. A pair of bicycle tyres were used for some months under the severest conditions that could be devised short of'severing them with a knife, and they remained perfectly inflated. The final test was riding the machine along a 12ft board thickly studded with wire nails with the points projecting, and yet the tyres remained firm. Each of the tubes was found to contain about nine hundred punctures. The same tubes were again placed in the tyres, and on being inflated were found to hold the air perfectly. The composition not only renders the tyre absolutely punctureproof, but also preserves the rubber, the discoverer claiming that a set of tubes will last as long as the machine. The manufacture of the composition will shortly be commenced in North Canterbury.

-mere are houses in this city that are a disgrace to the authorities, and the city Council or the Health Department should see that they are rooted out." This opinion was expressed by Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H.R., at Tuesday's "meeting of the Wellington Benevolent Trustees. The subject under discussion was that perennial topic, high rents and wretched quarters for the poor. 'We want a number of cottages of our own, that we can let to, those people at 10s a week." remarked the chairman. Mr London thought the greatest evil in Wellington was the state of overcrowding that prevailed. "There are still one or two sections in the city not built upon yet," said a witness in the Wellington Supreme Court recently. "One was subdivided only c few months ago and a road put through it." . The same witness recalled the days when sections in Newtown were bought by the late Sir Walter Buller for £2OO to £3OO an acre. At the time when horse trams were first sta'ted in the city the ground on which the Newtown Hotel now stands was bought for £3OO. In 1882 Miramar was offered to the city for a cemetery for £7 an acre. Times have enrages since then. bays the Wangauui Herald.—"When i'e.ii Tanner untkrtuok to fast, for 40 clays in \\ anganui, and successlully carried out his self-imposed task, luuuy people discredited his ability to do so and suggested that, unknown to, or in collusion with those who were supposed to beep guard over him lie was occasionally given food. There are still to be found those who think it impossible for human beings to abstain from loud for so long a period, and these especially will be interested to know that a well known lady resident of this town is at present undertaking a 40 days fast in the confident hope and belief that her health, which has been impaired for some time, will be restored. It is 21 days since she first abstained from food, and during the whole of that period she has eaten nothing, her sole support being lemon drink. She carries out her household duties, and was yesterday digging in the garden when a friend called to see her. Her health, she says, is better than it has been for many months, and she is confident she will complete the 40 days fast. She has already beaten by one day the fast undertaken by another well known local resident of the male persuasion, who in the early part of the year went for 2'i days without food, with wonderfully beneficial results to his health. The age of miracles is not yet past."