The Daily news FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 292, 4 December 1908, Page 2

The Daily news FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4.

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

ON IHE FOURTH PAGE. Sportiug. Commercial. News by Mail. l'ain) ami Luiry. The Metliodist Synod. Methodist Home Missions.

The Government intends to establish a district high school at Taihapc. I ' The ratepayers of Fcilding Borough have carried a poll authorising a loan of £4,000 to bring the water supply arrangements to perfection. Lieutenant Knox, who is at present visiting New Zealand on behalf of the Navy League, will lecture in New Plymouth'about January 12 or 14. The Recreation Grounds Board has decided to expend £lO in making flower beds where tuere is at present a swamp at the back of the tea-rooms. The s.s. Mamma will leave Wellington for Sydney just before midnight on 1 li.usday, December 2-Uh, iu place ol the usual tune on Friday, December 25th. During last mouth the estates of 13-3 deccaseu persons were dually cerntieu lor stamp duty. 'Vile largest were those of Duncan " (Jameron (Canterbury), £2b'J,(i»S; Jane 'J lioisipswi iSoutiiiaiuj, £2!),15i; and Richard Roskell (Auck-

land), £IB,OOI. Australasian literature has certainly made wonderful strides in the past ten years, for " The New Idea," as a sample of magazine-making for women, wiljli compare with the best homo and household magazines in the world. The Christmas "New Idea'' before us is particularly well worth the modest sixpence asked for it. Arising out of an alleged street assault on a recent Saturday night was the charge ol assault preferred yesterday morning in the S.M. Couri against a joung man named William Davidson. | The iniorniatioa alleged an assault on j one John Crockett. Mr. C. 11. Weston appeared for the accused, and upon his application a remand was granted unThursday next, bail being allowed in ae-1 cuscd's own recognisances of £SO inj j two sureties of £25 each.

Members of The Kilties band visited the Recreation Grounds yesterday. They were loud in their praise of the botanical portion as well as the sports ground, and declared they had never seen a natural pleasure-ground of sucn magnificence. One compared the place to a prettv spot in Lisbon, and another to a public resort in Copenhagen, but explained that there it was palpable that the beauty was cultivated, and thcrfore not to be compared with the naturalness of New Plymouth's famous grounds.

There is not the shadow of a aoulit (says a West.Coast exchange) tliat there are rich oil wells in the Bullcr district waiting to lie tapped. At a recent meeting of the JSnllcr County Council a member brought up the cjucstion of boring for petroleum up the liuller Valley, mentioning that there were indications of that valuable commodity at Three Channel Flat and also in the ■Jlackley district at the back of Mackley's accommodation "House, Inangahua Junction. Pure petroleum was also much in evidence on the WeslportStockton Company's property while th? tramway was under construction.

The journal of the Department of Labour for the current month remarks a noticeable improvement in the condition of the trades and labour market in Wellington for the month. Tire building trade, while quiet, it is stated, has improved, and there are Ml nearly so many tradesmen out of work. The clothing factories, including shirt making, it is stated, are still very slack, while order-tailoring, dressmaking and' millinery arc fast approaching the busv stage. Detail trade, the report adds, is apparently very good, and the onlv complaint heard is the shortness of ready cash, hut this, tradesmen said, was a general complaint at preseui throughout the Dominion. Some larrikins with more time than commonsensc at their disposal have been committing sundry acts of snoliation in the Kecreation Liroimds. Tj h . latest piece of vandalism, and 0 „ e that Mil raise the ire of all-and tllev are lejjion-who take a pride in our iovelv grounds, took place between Smdav and Wednesday, when some vandal picked out the black lilling from the lettering ou the tablet recently erected in memory of deceased benefactors, home of the letters in the names of Mr. Peter Madscn and Mrs. ISiough ,m have been interfered with. The i",an, has decided to oiler a reward of £lO--K. Cock donating £* of it-to anvone giving information which will liable the Board to discover the offenders.

Jliat it is not always discreet to miss disparaging remarks about Parliame i<arv candidates was proved at Uastiii.; on Tuesday week. A man and his wife were standing in the street listeiiii.-r to a candidate's speech, when the man remarked that the candidate was some thing or other and those who voted for him were about as bad. A womra of portly injure standing near by overheard the remark, and stepping towarls thi) mini said: "1 voted for V KVvhat have you got to say about him?" Evidently the answer she received was not to her satisfaction, for, quick as lightning, the man received a blow in the face from a hand that closelv resembled in size a prime Christinas'ha.-i • lake that now,' said the woman, a id he did, and but for wisely deciding that discretion was the better part of valour," and leaving that spot in a hurry he would probably have taken nior» away with him.

Nothing would be more likelv to precipitate a political crisis than the choice ol a Minister for the portfolio of Lands whoso sympathies are not with the hind policy that is historically associated with independence of action and security of tenure. And we may add that we think the thing the country least desires just now is a political crisis. The desideratum is a period of quiet, careful administration, with an easing of - lireworks " legislation there must be no stagnation, much less reaction, but (luring the last few yean we have been trying bold experiments incurring liimneinl liabilities of considerable magnitude, and it is verv desirable that Government and Parliament should' as indeed the Premier hinted at Palme/ ston, apply themselves to the dutv of seeing how these matters are actiiallv working and what effects thev are producing. It is to be hoped.'therefore, that the Premier by his choice of a Minister will justify his .Palinerston declaration.—lfawera tSar.

Some half-dozen years ago a tall. , slim, dark-haired girl, who had made | something of a name in her native slate , of Victoria as an elocutionist, accomi panied Nance O'Neill 0 a a New Zealand ; tour, and a little later on reached London. After a time she got her foot on the bottom rung of the ladder of Fame, .and iu a wonderfully brief space though not without a determined fight —won her way to the top. Her mime is Alice Crawford, and in the Christmas number of "The New Idea" appears an interesting interview with her, written and illustrated by Miss Katharine Prichard, another clever young Australian, who is doing literary work in Loudon. This is one of the niiiiiv bright features of the issue. Other'notable, illustrated articles are: "How Royalty Spend Their Christmas," "How Sarii Bernhardt Forgot Jlelba," and ''How Beethoven Became Deaf." There is an appropriate and useful talk, i:i which an expert cook gives advice and recipes for many dainty dishes suitable for the Christmas season, and an equally valuable article, in which readers are shown how to make a large number of uncommon Christmas gifts.

Every stage of separator development lms been strictly of "Alfa-Laval" origin and effort. Would-be competing machines 1.0-clny manufactured uve, without exception, but merely iollowers in the wake of (lie "Alfa-Laval." They possess no original ideas or features in construction, and simply ulili.se that which expired "Alfa-Laval" patents leave free to them, so that the very beat of them are barely equal to the "AI fa-Laval" machines of ten years ago. Tims the gulf of practical efficiency between the "Alfa-Laval" and the best of l would-be compel iug separators is still further widened, "placing the "AlfaLaval" Machines far above and beyond the possibilities of competition from anything else in the shape of a cream separator. Catalogue "T" mailed tree. Sole New Zealand agents, Mason, Struthers and Co., Ltd., Main street, Palmerslon North. E. Griffiths and Co., New Plymouth, local agents.

Just arrived, at Doeb-iU's, Devon street Central, Nrw Plymouth, an in dent of Allan's famous gents' boots, ah'> C. and J. Clarke's superior ladies' boots and shoes. Tn stock, a large assortment of tec best ladies', gents', and children's colonial loots and shoes by reliable makers. All the above, are offered to, the nubile at pri'.ea that caD't be beaten, i

The Government takes over tile Manawatu line on Monday next. The question of local property values is always interesting, and an Age reporter made some inquiries from » ■prominent Masterton resident on the subject. He stated that so far as farm 'properties are concerned, there has been experienced lately an improved de'lnand, and quite a number of sales have been effected at prices considered satisfactory by the vendors. ■ The Otago Daily Times says:—A gentleman who takes a considerable interest in the dairying industry, and who is conversant with the -provisions of the regulations which caused such umbrage in the Mataura district, and are held

to be partly responsible for Mr. McNah's defeat, says that in Denmark and other countries which he has visited the law is much more stringent, and those concerned accept them as a matter of course. He also states that the necessity for measures to ensure untainted milk only being supplied to the factories no doubt exists, and if in one district more than another in New Zealand, that is in Mataura. He had seen cows sinking to their udders in slush i When Ix'iug taken to and from the byres, f ami holds that drastic steps should be i taken to stop such a condition of affairs.

A disturbance which attracted a considerable crowd of spectators occurred in Gloucester Street, Cliristchuicu, «u Saturday night at about II o clock, a member of the theatrical company whicli was producing "Mrs. Higgs of the Cabbage Patch " at the Theatre Royal engaged iu a pugilistic encounter with a man who is said to have some reput ttion in local boxing circles, and the iray was considerably prolonged belore it was stopped by the police. The theatrical combatant afterwards called at the Lyttclton Times ollicc and stated that the other man waited for him after the performance on account of some affront to a friend, and that after the tb'ht started the local man's friends also attacked him from behind. The police, however, stated that this was not the case. He next saw the Inspector of Police the day following, -ad asked for permission to carry a revolver for purposes of seU-dcteuce, but the request was refused.

\n iiiii'siiiil li'iid noise in Hie sky was heard in the Huwera district last Thursday. A correspondent supplies the following particulars to the llawera Star:-" It was aknil- l'i.'iO p.m when it happened, a beautiful clear sky mid bright sunshine; tliere was only a ww Ihi? weather clouds away on the horizon. Tliere was a breeze blowing from the north-west. At tirst 1 thought it was thunder, hut one look at the sk> showed a total absence of any black clouds or usual indications of tnunder. There was no close atmosphere or oppressive heat like there is when thunder is about either. This noise put me in mind of a big mob of horses trotting over tiro wood planking of a fairly long brich'e, and there was a rattling, angry souiKl with it, very similar to a gale of wind rushing through the rigging o a ship. The horses and cattle in lapaddocks were very much seared; horses especially galloped about. Ibis strange uncanny noise seemed to hist, about"a mhmte—ov longer. A good few .people thought it to he one or two teams of horses and drays doing a holt down the road. I thought perhaps it was a second Tnrawera eruption (that was heard distinctly in New riyniouth about 20 years ago, and people thought it was a ship in distress off tSie coast, as it happened in the night.) So several people surmised it to he another volcanic outbreak, and expected lo feel an earth-shake. I am told that a lir.>ball, or meteor, was seen to drop in the sea not far from the Wanganui Heads last Thursday."