LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 29 November 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A feature that should add to the already attractive Ngaire gardens is a water chute;, at present being creeled. The chute should be ready for use in a short time. The Victorian Government intends to invite Mr. W. Ferguson, former! v secretary and engim.vr to (he We'iiiugtt.i Harbor Board, to \i.,it Melbourne ami consult on the best means of providing additional harbor accommodation.

I The Recreation Sports Grounds are to be officially opened on New Year's Day with a monster garden party. An elaborate programme, including'all classes of sport and Fire Brigade demonstration, is now being drawn up. Trout-fishers in the southern end of lh« province complain of the number of dead calves to be seen in some of the rivers. This means of disposal of the i surplus young stock of dairy-farmers is worthy the attention of the" authorities.

-U lliu Police Come yesterday mornniLT Peter Jones,, iif Unworn, "against whom „ prohibition order is in "for,,, was cormetcd and fined IDs M „d 7„' costs, on a ehargo „f i|! up ,l| v ,„.,„.,„.. nig lnjiior: on n l -hiiif ! i. of druiikeiines.. In-' was convicted niij'dix.liiiro,.,!. 'Hide was n disappoint ing| v -iinnl] attendance at t]i« Theatre i;, )V; ,| |.,, ( uvl . Um '»;.', when .Madam Alida' Loniau and company gave their second concert. JL would seem that the highest talent is not appreciated ill .New Plymouth. A variety „],„u or exhibition would doubtless have drawn ti crowded liouse, hut when it conies to palronisiiiL* an entertainment that appeals to the highest senses the public ai-e n„t V erv keen. It is not the nio*t desirable ; tendency. The concert passed oil' must ' successfully. .Madam Lonian. Erie A n . I dersiui, (icorge I'oore, mid the accom- ' jiiinist, Hen- lieiino iSchcrok, contributed •' to the programme, and were much ap- ' predated. .Madam Loman's singing was t a revelation to those who had nut had ' the good fortune to hear her before. c

I Children's black or tan cashmere sock?, rll sizes, Cd; children's white lace cotton socks, all sizes, Cd; three-quarter socks, W to Is pair, at the Melbourne.— "flw. . . ■ .-, .a^

On the 23rd inst. at Auckland Mr Justice Denniston, on tlie application of Mr Hughes, granted probate of the will of the late Mary Ann Nixon, wife of' the Rev. John Nixon, to her son, Mr Henry Nixon, one of the executors, reserving power to the other executor to apply for probate.

A letter received on Tuesday by the t Education Board stated that a teacher ■ with a family of seven bad only a 300- i gallon tank at the residence. This 1 was insufficient, even in our moist climate, and the scarcity of the watery ] element at the house often necessitated taking (he family washing to the near- '. est creek. The Board, being merely men and thus not personallv concerned in the success or otherwise of the laundry operations nor able perhaps to fully appreciate the dillieiillirs of the washing day, decided that it could not give any further water supply. The practice of holding throe Protestant services and one Koman Catholic service per month in our prisons and similar institutions has the effect of creating a large number of Catholics. At least this has been the experience of one Koman Catholic chaplain. He was for some time greatly puzzled as to the strange ignorance of somo selfstyled Catholics, until it occurred to him that they held the faith only as a matter of convenience. By doing so they had to attend service only every fourth Sunday. His examination of Catholics' is now a very strict one.

Ihe vocal scores of the teat selections to be played at the coming band contest at New Plymouth have been reccivod by the secretary of the North Island Brass Band Association, and will be distributed immediately. The names of the two test selections are "Gems I of Schumann" and "Rossini's Guglielmo 1011, and the fact of competing bands having the vocal scores of each must make a considerable difference, as it will mean that they will l, e able to give a better and truer rendition of the music. The quickstep competition is one entitled "The N.1.8.8.A.," composed by Mr. . Trnssell, late of Waihi now bandmaster of the Ipswich Cih Vice-Regal Band, Queensland.

Mr C. M. Gray, M.H.R., of Christcliurcli. has received a telegram from the Premier stating that the question of the release of the bookmakers at (iresent serving two months' imprisonment at Lyttelton for totting on the Riccarton Racecourse during the C'.J.C. Metropolitan Meeting, will be considered at the first meeting of the Cabinet. The bookmakers' shops in Christehurch have been closed in consequence of the passing of the new Gaming Act, and it is understood that a movement is now on foot for the formation of a New Zealand Bookmakers' Association, with the object of advising racing clubs on the issue of licenses and of exercising a general, supervision over the bookmakers. Thirteen years ago the Education Board installed a cooking range ju the teacher's residence at Ukato. The wife of the outgoing teacher bad probably m the long years of gradual decay, become used and hardened to the eccentricities of the stove, and it gradually burn-

Ed away and felt into decay. But a new teacher moved in the other day, and the good wife looked aghast at the battered wreck in the fireplace. Cooking in such a thing seemed an utter impossibility. A member of the Board was passing and he was induced to inspect the wreck. He reported to the Education Board the other night that unless a new range were quickly supplied the Christmas goose was in danger of being -spoiled, likewise the digestive organs of the family. Another member of the Board bore out the complaint. Mr Faiill suggested that a camp-oven might help the teacher over the style. Mr Adlam said that nowadays the yuun« ladies didn't understand how to use that old fashioned cooking apparatus. "So," said Mr. Faull, ''nor the modern ways either, some of them." The Board regretted that, as no formal application had been made, the stove could not be supplied.

A great sensation was caused in Wavericy on Saturday night last (ways the "Patea Press) when the news of the death of Mr. John Bradley was circulated through the town. Mr. Bradley was (mite a young man, 30 years ot age, and had been for some time Messrs. Nixon and Co.'s agent in the district. The cause of his death is wrapped in mystery. Mr. Bradley came home from the flawera Show on Thursday evening, but did not go to his home, staying the night at the Caledonian Hotel. He and another young man stayed in bed all day on Fridnv, getting up about 5.30 p.m. About'an hour after .tea he took ill, suffering intense agony, and screaming with pain. Dr. Todd was immediately sent for, emctim were given, and the stomach-pump was used, but both were of no avail. Constable O'Brien mid Mr. Jluir, J.P., were called in to take Mr. Bradley's depositions. Nothing could be ascertained from him as to the cause of the attack, but he_ made rambling statements. Morphia was injected about midnight on Friday to relieve the pain, and deceased was under its influence until the time of his death at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Deceased leaves a young widow to mourn her loss. Some capiul stories of the late Lord Brampton arc going Uie rounds. One concerns a sally between the Judge and a Bishop. The churchman claimed lhat the episcopal oilice was higher than the judicial one, on Ui e ground that, while a Judge could only say, "lou be hanged!" a bishop could say, "ion be damned!" The Judge promptly retorted, "But when 1 say 'you be hanged!' the man is hanged." A more remarkable story, for which he was at the time considered rather callous, concerns his treatment of a man who was condemned to deatli for a particularly brutal murder. The prisoner was asked whether he had anything lo say why sentence of deatli should not be passed upon him. in, hoarse tones, full of terror, he declared himself innocent of the crime, and ended a brief but passionate harangue with the words, "May God strike me dead if 1 done it!" Mr. Justice Hawkins, who was about to assume the black cap, laid it aside for a moment, and assumed au air of expectancy which made every heart in the Court stop beating. After an interval, which, seemed endless, though it was doubtless only a few seconds, he spoke, slowly and softlv, and said, with dreadful irony, "As (lie Almighty Ims uo t seen lit to answer your prayer, i will now proceed to pass sentence!"

One of the applications received by the Patea Borough Council for the position of assistant to the electrician possessed the charm of originality. The applicant, who addressed his letter from Porirua, wrote as follows:—"Noticing your advertisement for an assistant electrical engineer, I hasten to apply lor the post, i am (he holder of a hrst-clasb engineer's certificate, have 11 years' sea experience, and have now been two years assistant engineer and electrician at the Mental Hospital here. Presuming that the salarv, x7o per

annum, is stated correctly," and not a printers error, 1 would suggest that, a, electrical engineering is a. skilled profession, your council increase the salary by .cIUU in six months' time, the said increase lo date from this application. This would raise the salary to a slightly higher amount than that earned by a wharf lumper, uneducated and witiiout responsibility. I would not dare to think that the council of l'atea borough consider that the technical knowledge and skill required of all electrical engineer, gained at some slight expense of money and years, is worthy of lower wages than one uf their street sweepers; but possibly the matter of adequate salarv was over- | looked, or not quite fully considered." \Uy is the valuable old sliorthoru disappearing from our dairies? asked a writer in Uu. '■Dominion." There used to lie—in fact Here still are-some surviving members of the old milking •stums in existence, but they are few and lar apart. -The reason is," said

-Hi', t'anucit, « milking shorthorn fan- ''"''' " l (-'auterbiiry and a judge at Llie ■'••cent Hawke's J!ay Show, "that they .in; so extremely irregular. The bee; men, lain sorry to say, have allowed i ic milking qualities to be entirely neg "-led, so that Lo-day some of (lie beef short horns cannot rear their own calves. a milking shorthorn, on the contrary, is sli an enormous milker. lam breeding milking shorthorns, and have endeavoured, us tar as in-breeding would permit, I, /O<U ? t,lc '"'iking habit. Occasions' ly it is necessary to introduce fresh Wood, and at those times it is very 'l'Hicult to avoid loss of ground. It is hard to buy a bull and know that it has been bred from a milking strain. That w, 1 believe, the reason why the shorthorn has been abandoned in the dairies. It is so utterly uncertain." Mr. J. \\all. a man who has achieved consider ' aide success as a breeder of animals, and who won the chief dairy prizes in (he lawkes Hay Show with Holstein shorthorns, admitted the irregularity of shorthorns. l.r c gets over it, however, by never pulting the shorthorn blood on the bulls side. He uses a shorthorn low with a Holstein bull, and he declares that makes the best dairy cow.

Gas stoves on hire 2s Cd per month Bath heaters 2s per month. With the return of summer instal one in your homes. Write- to Gas Company, New Plymoutbr-Aivt, .. ' ',

The following figures of the number of homesteads taken up in Western Canada during July will give an idea, of how settlement is progressing in that Dominion. It is ctrrrous to note that residents of the United States head the list of immigrants. The numbers were: Americans, 11132: English. 583; Scottish, ilil; Irish, 28; Austro-Hungarians, I 380; Russians, 121; French, 3!); Ccr I mans, (i(i; and 58 Canadian; who returned from the United States. A resident of Kdondalc. Southland, has netted about .€12,000 in a deal in

land. About eight years ago he secured a tract of 3000 acres of agricultural and pastoral land at £1 an acre, and later on bought an adjoining farm of less than 700 acres at .CO 10s an acre. The other day he got £5 10 s an acre for the bloclc, and ns the buyer does not take possession till February, the settler expects to make £IOOO out of his wool clip.

All grades of butter are now being exported from Sydney to London, principally unsaltcd superfine and salted second'class ( says a Sydney paper), but only a very small quantity of salted superfine, as there is barely of this to satisfy the requirements of Syd- ■ ney and suburban grocers for local sale 1 across counter. This spring the exports ' of butter from Sydney to London have > been on an insignificant scale as com- ' pared with previous years. The dry f weather on the North and especially on the South-east baa minimised the - output. Many of the south dairying 1 areas are absolutely bare of grass, and !. those that have a little natural feed left h complain that it is dry and devoid of

nourishment. There is no encouragement to dairymen to make up for the | want of fodder by hand-feeding to a lavish extent. In fact, there are few owners of milking cows who can afford to buy Hunter River lucerne at £7 a ton (Sydney), in place of the £2 15s usual at this time of the year; and bran at Is 9d to Is lOd per bushel, in place o! the 8d usual in a good season. In moving that Councillor J. Brown be re-elected chairman of the Taranaki County Council for the ensuing year, Councillor Stevens, at the meeting on I AVednesday, spoke highly of the way he had conducted the meetings, despatched the business, and carried out the work of the county during his recent term of office. Councillor Hill fully endorsed the remarks of Councillor Stevens, and said the county chairman ; had thoroughly done his work. Coun- . cillor Hopson concurred, and said tho : chairman had done his utmost to push . on the works and business of the coun-

oil. Other councillors wore in full accord, and Councillor Brown was unanimously elected. Councillor Brown took the chair, and thanked the council for tile honour they had conferred on him in returning him as their chairman. He was pleased at their kind remarks. He knew when he assumed the chair that the year would be a heavy one, and that there would lie a large amount of time to be devoted to county matters. He had done his utmost. He and councillors had differed on several occasions at the table on certain matters, but he was pleased to say that his rulings were always accepted, and settled at the meeting, not taken away from the council table. He was glad to notice the riding feeling gradually dying out on the council, and members beginning to realise that they were there to conduct the business of the county and ratepayers, and not any riding ill particular. He again assured the council that his best endeavours would be at their disposal.