LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 229, 21 September 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Owing to the illness of the instructress, no classes in dressmaking will be held at the Technical School this week. The traffic returns on the Wellingto.'l-Napier-Ncw Plymouth section of railway for the four-weekly period ending loth August amounted to £53,(i22, against £50,934 for the corresponding period last year. Passengers accounted for £22,227, and goods £25,853. "You don't ask for the lot, but what you lose won't be very much good to anybody else."—A remark in reference to 'Mr. Chimney's demands upon the Moa Road Board's bridge fund, set up by the Board to assist ratepayers on roads where bridge maintenance is a heavy item,

The latest thing in telephone systems is shortly to be installed in Invercargill. The subscriber has no battery at his house or ollice to be looked after. Neither has ho to ring up or ring oil', By simply unhooking his receiver ne calls up the e xcliange, for his action in so doing lights a. lamp on the switchboard there, and by hanging it up again when he has done talking the excliange is simply notilied that he has finished. Mr. Louis Becke, the novelist of the South Seas, is revisiting Auckland, after an absence of twenty-eight years. "1 scarcely recognised the city," he told a Press representative. ''The water-front has changed entirely, and the town itself has thrown off its lethargic appearance, and is as brisk and bright a place as one could wish for. I have been living in France and Ireland for some years past, but I am contemplating bringing my family over to settle in Auckland.'' It is fairly well known that the late Premier of the Dominion had a "double" in a Northern member of the House, but it has only recently transpired that a South Island gentleman, on-a recent vis't to Melbourne was mistaken for Sir

Thomas Bent, the Premier ol victoria. The Now Zealander, oiiu of the identities ol Cieymouth, is a well-preserved gentleman of over seventy. One day whilst in the Victorian capital ho decided to visit tho noted aquarium at the Exhibition Buildings, and, like any oilier member of the public, was preparing to pay for admission, when the doorkeeper astonished him by saying, ''No. no, Sir Thomas, yon pass in free." A recent elopement from Turin had a dramatic sequel. Uiucoino Kuscauli, ngul iwoiity-live, became engaged I'. .Maria l'iovauo, aged seventeen. Jiut the gill's parents would not, consent lo the match, and the lovers decided to elope. Thev took the train to Modena, ami had accomplished part of the journey safeiy when suddenly a passenger who hud been eyeing them suspiciously informed them that he was a detective sent by the girl's fathor, and that she would have to return home. Without a moment's hesitation the lovers opened the carriage door and leaped out. The/train was at once slopped, and the two were found Ivingoii the line unconscious. Th' girl was so badly injured that she is W expected to recover. Talking of motors and motor drivers Dr. Timelier, ol Chrislchurch, who ha: just returned Horn a trip lloine, related mat one ot the mosl interesting thing; he camencross was the system of "scouting" which the Automobile Association hail set up to watch the police "traps." The scouis have a way ot getting mews of tire traps set for the unwary motorists, and they have devised a system 01 signals which in some cases includes the Morse code, to indicate to the chauffeur thd whereabouts of a "trap." The motorists accept the hint, and by regulating their pace are able to defeat the best-laid plots. Round about London there are innumerable "traps," but the motorists, bound together in a common band, arc very keen to help one another. It requires no stretch of the imagination to predict that the Department of Agriculture before many years have passed will become the most important Mate soiTleo of the Dominion, says tile Wellington Times. In its bearing on the national prosperity it is so now, for Uie relative importance of its work compared with oilier Government departments mu-it not be guaged by the salaries paid to its experts and ollicials. l't is not experts we are now dealing with, however, it is uie future home of the great department under review and the agricultural museum. The new building scheme of the Government in connection with Die re-erection of Parliament Houscj and the Governors' residence suggests the possibility that instead of a Sep urate building being provided for Wit Department and its museum it may be

located oil the present Parliament! House site. It is to be hoped this is: not to be the case. The head offices of j tlie Department of Agriculture should. I be in as central a position as possibllc, and too prominent a location cannot be provided for tire agricultural nur-, scum. This is not to be a storehouse of curiosities, like the institution provided, or to be provided, with costjijlitomes iii the different cities, but a great utility museum which is capaMr of developing into the most important institution in the Dominion. The earnest wish of all interested in primary production will lie that Mv McNab wiil have the support of the Ministry in his expressed desire to have a permanent

home for liis Department worthy of it and on a scale which will provide for the great expansion which must inevitably take place. .Some extraordinary admissions were made by tile respondent in an application before the Divorce Court, in Sydney, to vary an ante-nuptial settlement made between the parlies in tiie divorco suit, brought bv Hannah Alexander against LoiiSs Aloxundei? last year, when a divorce was granted. Under the settlement, the respondent, was secured .C2OO a year, and it was now asked by the ]ietitioucr, Hannah Alexander, that his interest under ihe

agreement should |„. treated as if he were dead. The respondent's contention was that the settlement was for I'fe, subject to certain contingencies, of which divorce was not one. Mr Justice Simpson intimated his present view was that it would be scandal to tlie administration of justice if a man receiving «(>(> a year under a marriage setlileineal, immedialvly afterwards commit,ed adultcrv. and continued to benefit. Louis Alexander, the respondent, then gave evidence, and referring to the circumstances surrounding the sottlcmviti. said that he had told petitioner's solicitor, in her presence, that if divorce were going to interfere with the sefilenient. Inertwould be mi marriage. Petitioner's solicitor then advised her to go no further. She. however, said the settlement would be arranged her wav. and not his (iJre solicitor's way').; There was some dispute about £IOO, anil respondent left the office while the discus.ion was taking place. He was brought back by a messenger, and petitioner and her sister agreed to pay the CIOO. Petitioner's Counsel: When you entered into this agreement, did you contemplate being faithful or unfaithful? Despondent (after some hesitation): 1 told l,er she couldn't expect a man like me to be faithful to an old woman like she was. Petitioner's

| Counsel: Yen did contemplate! then, 'that, you inijrhf not be true to her? Respondent,: Yes. dudguicnt. was reserved. According | 0 scientists, documents written with the ordinary ink of today will be illegible in some twen'ivseven years. 1>» yt.u keep cows? If so, write m.

•mil w c . will tell von how to make then ki'i'P you. Nutter fat, cream, and go!;] mean (he same (o a man or woman who owns cows. If y „„ ~,.,, ] itv . v )„„ tllm , or more cows it will pay von to own an Alfa-Laval" Cream Separator. The three big advantages of an "Alfa-Litval" are: More cream, less work, and frcsli skimmed milk f or feeding stork; an] Hiese are sufficient to pay the cost of an "Alfa-Laval" in a very short time. Hoirt trust to your setting-pans, those "dairy thieves" (hat seal your profits, or be misled ino buying'a "jiist-nji-good," for "chea]i" and inferior machines arc dearest, in the long run. when durability, clean, s kimming, quality of the cream, and cost of upkeep are taken into account. An ".Ufa-Laval" means more money in the bank. Write us for

our illustrated catalogue "T." Cash or easy terms. Sole New Zealand agent t. Mason. Strainers and Co.. Ltd.. Mainstreet, Palmcrston North. E. Oriffitiis and Co., New Plymouth, local agents. Ilv went (o (he bnlehc-r; also the baker; He went, to the grocer and cabinetmaker; lie even enquired of the new undertaker. And asked the distiller and brewer! And all of thorn said l That for colds in the head, And the best for the chest as oroven by test AVas Woods' Great Peppermint Cur*.'