LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 259, 26 October 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

During the last financial year the duty paid on .patent medicines in Great Britain amounted to no less than £334,142. This represents a value of something like two ami a half millions sterling, or fifty-three million shilling bottles of medicine. A few hundred people assembled at the Theatre Royal last night to near Mr. UrumiKll, the No-license advocate. At a Utile after half-past.eight o'clock there was no sign of a speaker, and it da,wned on the crowd t/iat tn'erc was a mistake somewhere. So there was for Mr. Bruntnell was at Waitara. 'llic crowd then dispersed. Criticising the Premier's speech at Feilding on Tuesday night, the Post "The Premier still talks bravely about confronting the Yellow Peril, but lie must know that under present conditions we have not tile power to nuke, a single one of these brave words good, lie is content, however, to remain in what the Minister of Defeat- has .properly termed a -fool's paradise,' rather than face an unpleasant but imperative duty." ' When the local S eea merchants and Mr. Munro, stock inspector, made the discovery of Californian thistle in a shipment of chair to New Plymouth, it was frequently stated that 'there was •much ado aibout nothing." and several who claimed to knoiv said the seed would not germinate. Mr. Munro put it to the test. He planted 31 seeds in a tm at the back of his stock offices and 27 grow, it is his intention to wchubit the plants at the forthcomh" agricultural and 'horticultural shows in New Plymouth.

[ The stream of comparatively e/ieap money which is wont to ilow from thi Advances to (Settlers Office will shortly ■be running again, and the spirits of thousands of people wlio want capiUl to build dwellings anil develop their properties will revive. Clients arc now being told by the head oilice that funds will soon be available to pay all thel loans that have already been granted, and that it will not be wry long beloj-e----further advances can l,e arranged for. This is the result of the now fundj which, as announced by the Prime Minister at I'almei'stoii Xorth, were authorised by him for the Advances to Settlers and Advances to Workers Departments. It is likely that Sir Joseph Ward «ill make ;, further sl|a.tjen*:it naming .the amounts concerned when <ie s|H'aks'al W'inton to-night (Monday).

I The story of a game of cards, even though Ihe stakes be high, is liot always as thrilling U s that "which is now ibemg (old in n„. exclusive clubs of Huihi-I'csith ahout a noted sporting man m that city. He is remarkable for his liK-lc quite as much as for his skill at cards. The other day a feverish crowd gathered round the green table at the National Casina, when he u„t £15,. 000 at a sitting to a Hungarian count. \V fli characteristic coolness he left the gaming tabic without a farthing to his credit, 'but next morning paid his indebtedness in full .The loss w.-.s a mere circumstance, as al a sinx'c sitting not long before he had won at lh<' .Tookcv Club rooms in Vienna no less Hum 'nearly 170,000 from a Polish count. These Hungarian and Polish gentry are invariably good losers, The origin of the word ''Australia"

lias been accounted for si satisfactorily ill Australian history In»iks as the suggestion of the oxiplorer Flinders tlni> it comes rather as a surprise to learn that (lie Spaniards claim to have originated it two centuries earlier. The ancient (irecian and Phoenician navigators surmised tile existence of a continent dosing in tlic Indian Ocean in much the same way as (he JFcditorrancan Sea was bounded by Africa, and this dream-country was given the Latin name "Terra Australis," the "Southern Land." From this Latin adjective Minders manufactured a name for the fifth continent at Hie beginning ( ~f last cvntury. According (o 31 r Popolaire, a journalist on hoard the Chilian training ship Oncral liaqiicdnno. now in port at Sydney, the name of ''Australia" was bestowH hy the Spanish navigator Torres in Hil/fi on ilie land he skilled to the south when passing through Ihe straits that iio«- |,var his name, In tliis case, however, the Latin word counted for nothing, the name being given in honor of the House of Austria, then ruling in Spain. A des-

cendant of the famous Spaniard is an ollicer on board the (ieneriil liaipiedano. Members of the Kquitabb Building Society of New Plymouth (First and Second (Iroups) arc notified that subscriptions will bo due am! payable today (Jlonday) at the Secretary's ollicc, Currie-strcct, from 0 a.m. to 12.D0, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to !) p.m.— , Advt.

I Shop on a cash basis ami sec wlut I you save every lime at the A.TS.C. Boot Company's stock!aking sale. The usual price is named first in enrh instance, the lower prices hcinar for cash:—Ladies' glacn and button shoes, in, fid. 13s fid: ladie*' srlp.ee Tlerhv shoes. 10s (id, Lis fid; ladies' glace hire and button 'hoes, 7s fl!.| lis fid; Indies' tan kid Jioe s . 10 to 20 per cent, off; gents' box calf Derby lmK 21c 10a dd; geuls' shooters, 7s Gd, ](b Od. 14s fid: gents' I„i\, (wide fitting, Pis fid. 7s fid: ladies' gum boots. 12s fid. Ills fid. A.Ti.O. mail order department; all parcels carriage paid,—Advt.