LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 129, 22 May 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. Jacob Marx stated at Eltluni o" Wednesday night that he desired the ratepayers to direct him in regard to tile new Harbor Dill, The meeting, by a large majority, thereupon directed him to vote for the liill. A report of the meeting appears oil page four. Owing to Monday being a holiday, the next meeting of the liorough Council will lie held 011 Tuesday, 2titii inst., at T.oU o'clock. The Defence Department have sanctioned the kslie uf free passes to local volunteers attending the Church parade at Stratford on Sunday. Word lias been received at Wanganui that the Government has decided to authorise addition Lo the wharfslieil accommodation, instead of lUOft as originally dei-ided upon. The news was received with much graUicatiOn in Wanganui. Mr. Toin Mann was advertised to lecture at Hastings 011 Wednesday on Socialism, but he drew such a small house that iie refused to speak, saying the experience was unique ill his twenty veals' lecturing. Jle had travelled for thirtysix hours to keep the engagement. The Northern Steamship Company's annual meeting was held yesterday. The report showed a net profit for the year of £:Bi7tS I lis 3d. Tilt: director* recommended a dividend of 7 per cent., representing £S(jyi 3s -lil, a ii.( to cari'v forward CliBS Jis lid. Tin' report was adopted.

In the Pulice Court yesterday morning, before .Mv. C. it. Leppw, J.P., Harry Keimensclmeider, alias DnivLon, wa.s remanded to appear at JClthaut on the 27tli iust. to answer a charge of having made a false declaration under the Hamate Act. at KHham oil December 2.ilh. 1!)07. It is alleged that accused swore before the llegistrav of Marriage* at Kltliam Dint ]„■ W as a bachelor, whereas lie had previously been married in Sydney,

i he. new dairy inspectors arc now out anil about in IJi.- country districts. They have already received their liisl training and have lieen alluded stations. I'hey are primarily fur the assistance ami direction of dairy 'fanners, ami their jinniediale i-, to makr tln'iiisolM's familiar with the requiie--I,lf''dri of the former, and to help him in e\ery ji.i-sible way. 'J'liev are ail "'en thoroughly familiar with the handling of milk, and the manufacture of butter and cheese. The course that will be adopti'd q will be one of direciion rather Ilian coercion, but should the latter lie necessary it will only be exercised for the benefit of (he community. Aow that the winter is. here in earnest dou t liv any means neglect your winter clothing. Just aa oil is cheaper than machinery, so is clothing cheaper than medicine and doctors' bills. Now, the best place we know of in 'J'aranaki for men's clothing is "The Ka?!i," just bo low Nolan's auction mart. Thev'v.. l always a splendid assortment at moderate prices—honest, dejiendable goods, *,oo. They've a lot of colonial hcavy wool underpants at lis lid, singlets to match :Ss !)d, men's heavy woollen sox Is, men's good honest colonial wool saddle tweed trousers a'. !ls Gd, and the best assortment of men's overcoats ill J'aranaki. These range from 22s Od to 119s lid in the ordinary make, from t-w to iiPs fid in "The Prestwell" make. These overcoats they make themselves on thi: premises. Give them a trial. — Atlvt. .'J

Among tlii'. cases set down for hearing at- the .Supreme Court in Welling as ton is one in which Ch.irUv W. JCarlo, D editor of tin. Dominion, claims .USUI |ii damages from the Now Zealand Times T Company, Ltd., l'o r alleged libel. tl A Hamlin resident is at : present work- 1,1 ing on a patent, for the purification ot' [■' milk, lie claims for his invention that " it will destroy the animal heat and re- J' more animal offal at the one and samo ''

time, thus being efficient for both hand and machine milk. There was one thing we noticed during our tour," said one of the dominion who recently returned from Australia, " and that was, we never saw a word of New Zealand news in the Australian papers. We used to hunt every morning to see what was doing in New Zealand, but never a word could we mill."

Even an editor will turn. A feature of the Southland Times for many years lias been endless letters from "T. Buxton," generally of enormous length, lu a long letter to the paper on Thursday of last week Mr. Buxton devotes a paragraph to an attack upon the Times for stilling ''free discussion." The editor evidently felt that this was too much to lie borne from "the most privileged correspondent in Mew Zealand." "lu INOi," lie said, "we allowed .Mr. Buxton to fill riixty columns of this paper, despite tin- protests of very many sub.scribers, who protested again-i 'such waste of space." 1t is not a little exasperating to bear a man wlio has had

sixty columns of space within^Kelve months complain that he hTtyiggcd.' In ntn-d newspapers correspondents like Mr. Buxton receive very short shrift.'" Speaking at the Eltham meeting on Wednesday night,.Mr. Maxwell stated that there had been an Opunake Harbor Bill before the House, the. object of which was to exempt a large district Ironi furtlier rating by New Plymouth, 'there was now an opposition Bilf be-

ing promoted, with considerable rating

powers over a £2,01)0,000 valuation area. The promoters of the latter Bill waited upon the Harbor Roard at its last meeting to get this large district cut out of the Bill. The Board declined

to alter the Bill, but passed a resolution agreeing to support any Opunake llarbor Bill the object- of which was to exempt a district south of the northern boundary of the Egmont County from any further rate than that provided in the New Plymouth Harbour Bill. This, he pointed out, was not intended as support to a Bill for rating powers for Opunake harbor, but simply Jp,exempt the district from any further liability In the New Plymouth harbor.

The police of Vienna, are now busily investigating what is probably one of the most extraordinary caaiw of fraud on record. According to the Central News Agency they have arrested a woman named Margaret Erb, who has for years past been victimising residents in tlw humbler section of the capital by giving herself out to he a prince, forced to adopt female attire to escape intriguing relatives. The accused woman possesses a striking personality, and her masculine leaturcn and rather deep voice no doubt helped her in gaining credence for her amazing storv. . A llucnt speaker, and of l'elincd habits, she tinuly convinced scores that she was indeeit the Prince Egon' that rhe pretended to be, and from one tradesman and his relatives she obtained in all

,C 730 for the ostensible purpose of bringing legal proceedings against princely relative* scheming to obtain unlawful possession of an imaginary estate worth some 'millions of mark*. Erb had engaged herself to marry a girl who appear* to have been completely duped, and who even now declines to believe that her "lover" is a woman of fortysix, and a former occupant of a lunatic asylum.

A young man from Cluistclmrdi, who ' has been travelling about the globe for a. year or two. dropped into Washington the other day nnd had an interview with President Roosevelt. Before leaving New Zealand he armed himself with letters of introduction from the late Mr. Seddou, and these proved the open sesame to many doors. " Mr. lioosewlt," said the traveller to a Press reporter, ''greeted me very cordially, and expressed his pleasure at meeting a New Zealnuder. lie spoke in a very eulogistic manner of the late Premier, describing liiin as the greatest Imperialist of his iigc. and the greatest man the southern hemisphere ha* Known, lie .lis,) referred to tlie progressive legislation which hud distinguished New Zealand, and stated that he had long desired to pay a visit to the country." The President also spoke as to the probable eileet of the I'anamn Canal, which lie st;iW'il UMllld lie 0|,,'1!e,l in about four >,.u- - 1 iiiif from hist .Man-h. lie did mil -think that the people ol the Southera hinds ,|iiite realised what a change ill.' canal would make in their flipping trade to and from America and Great ISritain. New Zealand would become the first point of call, and would therefore be particularly lienetited. In a report issued by the Canterbury Shiirebrokei's' Association some remarks are made on the state of trade and linauie which may be read with interest: The trade conditions throughout tlie world still show signs of depression, and it is diliicult at tliis juiictuiv to forecast the ultimate results. The Hank of England l'ato still remains Dt .') per cent., and with money cheap and plentiful in London the Australian bank ri are drawing on their reserves, the demand for money in Australasia is much stronger, and the quarterly return for the lirst period of this year is somewhat interesting, as tending to show that the local market is not quite as buoyant by comparison with late years. The prosperous period has, of coure: l , enabled the banks to strengthen their position, -and all requirements may possibly be liiL'fc with ease. Signs of a slight stringency in the local market are, however, not wanting,'due, perhaps, not to the real shortage of money, but to ail apparent shrinkage caused by the diversion of capital into loan debentures, the result of the "local market borrowing policy." _ There are, of course, the. usual pessimistic utteralices as to the possibilities of a serious decline in New Zealand's prosperity. The full in prices of our staple product, and the tendency of a slight reaction in land values, are possibly not to be viewed 100 lightly, but probably the present position calls for no alarming statements. A well-advised policy seemingly at the present time is for the Government, and local bodie ri to cease borrowing on the local market, and go to the London market, though, in the face of this advice, we have to acknowledge that cheap as money is in England, there is not much demand for this class of invest incut, as witness the New South Wales loan.

lSuiut! iseiiijiiliuiial testimony was furnished at the trial of Pennsylvania Slate ojlicials, avlijtli lias ended in the conviction of Jive of them for partieipatioii jin a colossal swindle—a "graft" scandal ! in coimwtioii with the building and fur. | nislring uf 'the new capilul at ■ Hainribiirg, capital of the iState. Last i September liitevu prominent men were arrested in connection with the scandal, and -the contractor, Sanderson, exi auditor Snyder, ex-treasurer Mathues. e.\-superiutemU?nt Shumaker. of tlic "rounds and buildings. and the archi* itoet, Ilu-toii. were tried for conspiracy to defraud the Stak\ Snyder, Sanderson, anil Huston, as cabled recently, liivw Keen convicted. The contractor, .lohn Sanderson, who belongs to Pennsylvania, is said to have collected nearly £1,000,000 for furniture, safes, and bronze and steel work which "were put into the eapitol, and it i* estimated that he made about fillO per cent, profit, which hfl divided ivith the other accused, who passed his bills or were cognisant of the transactions. It has he»n shown that roost of the articles furnished. including sieel safe,s for which an enormous sum was charged, were of the iliuniest character, and that this gang has been plundering Ihe State for years. A sensational feature of the trial is that J'acN Juive come out from various witnesses which sliow that, the rotten-ne.-s was more widespread than anyone believed, and many names are mentioned in connection with this scandal involving several legislators ami State officials. It i* believod lhat \\w State had been defrauded of millions of dollars and that

a condition nearlv equal to that which existed in Now \ ork during '"Boss" Tweed's time lni* reigned in the "Quaker State'' for venn past. THK "HAKD TIMES" PIJSA. •liiit as much sense 111 a dairyman refilling lo purchase a separator on account uf money shortness as there is in a patient refusing medicine or nourishment on the same *core. In both cases there is an ailment. In both cases theve is a crriiiinly of loss—i)t eatsh on the one hand aad health on the other. In both eases there's a cure for Uw

trouble—the installation of an "All'aLaval" Separator as a preventive of furl her lon's to the dairyman and the aeeeplance of the medicine and food for the <me who *eek s recovery of health. Write to-day for our illustrated catftItigue ''TV' which will tell you liow to gd your share of the extra profits which "Alfa-Laval' 1 users are obtaining. Sole New Zealand agents, Mnxon. Struthers and Co., Ltd., Main-street, Palinerston Nortn. E. ()riflith fl and Co., New Plymouth, local ageiits. Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for Coughs and Colds never fails, Is 0d and 2s Gd. i . /.i.'J.ilSll

''What about the Blackball bungle?" asked a questioner at a meeting lickl by Dr. Chappie. who is contesting the Tua,j)eka seat, at Alexandra a lew days ago. '} In. l candidate replied that lie deplored the delay and indecision of the Government in the best interests of our Arbitration Act. "Then why do you support litem?" the questioner persisted. "If you had a horse with a splint," the doctor rejoined, "would you shoot "him or blister him and keep him going?" The Wind Administration 1 had made mistakes, he admitted but be preferred to put 'a few blisters on and keep them going. Ijoud laughter and-applause followed.

Palmistry is an absolute absurdity. The whole tiling is beneath contempt, declared Professor Stirling, Dean of the. Alcdical Facility and Professor of Physiology at Victoria. University, Manchester, in the course of a lecture at the lioyal Institution. Ijook at your palms, and you will lind certain classical lines. These lines—the so-called lines of life, heart, and head, the girdle of Venus, the bracelets of life round your wrists, what do you suppose they really are' They are nothing more nor less than creates or folds produced by the action of the muscles l . The line of heart, for instance, is the flexure of the four lingers, and the line of life is the result of the action of the thumb. All these lines that have been given astron oniical names by the palmists l are characteristic Ih'xures. You will find the siiinc lines 011 the palm of an ouraiigoutang.

The arre.il of a man named. Eugene Laurent, who long terrorised the country between llisors and Beauvais in France, lias brought a feeling of intense relief to innumerable farms and cottages. No one dared to denounce him to 'the police, for he wa 6 believed to be capable of escaping from any prison, and his vengeance would be terrible. In August., IWIli, Laurent finished a term of live years' imprisonment, and he is accused of having a month later mur dered ami robbed an old lady named I'elleticr, who lived near him, and in whose house 'his wife had t>ecn in service. Shortly afterwards Laurent set up as a grocer and greengrocer. It was remarked that 110 wholesale firms supplied him with goods, and finally it was discovered that he was his own purveyor, and stocked his shop with produce robbed at night. His arrest followed an attempt to murder another old lady, and in searching his premises the police came across a dirty note-book which revealed Laurent's methods of operating. Farms and estates were noted down in this book, and such observations as these: "To be. gone into. Draw up plan. Find out whether dogs sleep 011 premises or in barn," etc. Laurent is supposed to have been in league with Abel Polet, the terrible " bandit of the north," who is now in prison for his misdeeds.