LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 310, 29 December 1908, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The annual meeting of the New Plymouth Caledonian Society takes place this evening' in the Town Hall. .Montgomery's Pictures combination concluded their season at the Theatre Royal last night., when an interesting programme was shown. There was a good audience, who expressed their appreciation of the programme in ao uncertain manner. In response to u telegram from t'apt. iStumliah asking that free railway passes hum New Plymouth to lihe breakwater he issued to members of the Taranaki Veterans' Association on January 1, on tiie occasion of the visit of 1f.i1.55. Cambrian, the Premier has wired that he has much pelasuru in granting the privilege, asked for to lifty members of the Veterans' Association.

A consignment of a quarter of a million shrimps has arrived at Jiotorua from Jlercer, oil the Waikato river, it is hoped that the shrimp will supply the place of koura as food for trout in Lake Kotorua. The shrimps have been placed ill the shallows favorable for spawning, and it is expected that they will become thoroughly at home in their new habitat.

Co-operative theft. is i)no of nui's strange industries. At the suburb of Castleclill', according to tin: Hcra'al. a complete removal of a cottage I>V thieves has taken place. The owner is all absentee, anil the cottage being empty, first the iron oil' the roof disappeared, then the doors arid windows, then the timber and framing, and so on till even the chimneys had been taken piecemeal. It is stated that it has been decided to blow up the s.s. Charles Edward, which met witdi a mishap on the WangaLiui bar last week. This course is evidently being resorted to as she is partially blocking the fairway. A photograph of the vessel's position shows her to be almost wholly submerged. The Charles Edward has had a remarkable career, awl has done faithful service for her owners, the Anchor Company, aiucc 18li4, the date if her launching. She was first a paddle steamer, Imt now nothing of the original boat remains, unless it be one or two old plates sheathed on either side of the hull. The Anchor Company justly points to its forty odd years' record, in which it is said it has never lost a. life or had any one killed in handling cargo.

Somebody lias said that the Australian is the nioH casual man on earth, and three cases out of about half a dozen in the Divorce Court certainly seemed to support that generalisation (says tile Sydney -Morning Herald), in the" first tile petitioner said that one day a year after marriage her husband bade her the usual cheery " Good morning,'' anil said he was going out to look for work. That was the last she had seen or heard of him. Another petitioner declared that her husband one morning borrowed a tram fare from her and went oil', as he said, to work at Neutral Bay. She waited up till three o'clock- the following morning, bi.it lie did not return, and, like the sorrowing wife in the previous case, she had heard nothing from liiui from that day to this, in the third case the husband, after twelve weeks of matrimony, told his wife that " lie would .have done much better to have married Martha," and a. little later announced that he was going to ''clear out." He ordered her to " get her clothes together," kissed her a more or less all'eetionate farewell, told her to " do the best she could''— and left.

A daring bank robbery was committed lately in the most, approved " Wild West" style at Neupest, a suburb of Budapest. Four well dressed young men drove to the branch establishment of the Hungarian Commercial Bank in a motor ear, and entered the building. Two of them immediately barred the doors while the other two covered the clerks with revolvers and ordered them to hold up their hands. The clerks obeyed promptly, but the cashier shouted "Robbers!" mid tried to reach the door of the inner oflice. One ol tire bandits shot at him, and then felled him with the butt of his revolver. The bank manager, who appeared in response to the cashier's reply was ordered to hand over all the cash, amounting to more than £2,000. While the manager was transferring the notes and specie across the counter, one of the robbers cut the telephone "wires with a knife. The raiders then disappeared, after threatening to shoot the clerks if they followed. Tliey locked the doors Irom the outside and then disappeared in their motor car. The police have been unable to secure any trace of them, although from the accent with tliey "spoke Hungarian they are believed to be Italians.

Tile following story is sent by ''An Owner of Shooting" to the Times A gentleman was invited to a shoot in Scotland at two places close together, lie arrived at the Jirst place, and immediately after his arrival at the first house received a telegram calling liiin hack to town, lie, however, deteriui:i'"d to have one day's shooting, and to proceed to town by the mail train. At the

end of the day he gave the head keepe: 1 tM, and asked him to send his gun and cartridge bag over to the other

place for which he had an invitation, and where he proposed proceeding in three or four days' time. 011 his arrival there after his visit to town he found his gun, etc., had not arrived, whereupon lie wrote to the keeper asking him to forward it at once ; but he received a reply stating that when lie (the keeper) had received tile other t:4 to which he was ''entitled" the gun would he 1 01 warded; meantime, it was detained till payment was made. The gentleman wrote to the keeper's master, and received a reply that "he (the master) never interfered between his guests and his servants in the matter of tips." The gentleman ascertained that the master in question paid the keeper 110 wages, but left him to get what he could out of the guests.

11l a letter fr« m *luuighai to fclio Tung Mali limes, a Chinese paper published 111 Sydney, Mr. Toiig thai Chill ouot"s )rom llie Chinese Students' Juunnil -ni article pointing' out the necessity for ehaiiKintr the j,resent policy of the Julpoual .MaiJtmie (.'iHtonis. iu view of the increasing mnnlier of Western-edu-cated Chinese who are seeking admission into tile various Government departments. of which the Customs is one "I Hie most important. "Although we -hall remember with dee]) gratitude,'' slates the article, "the great services which Sir Robert Hal t and his colleagues have rendered to our nation in briii°in» about the present ellicienev in the police oi the Customs it has all along been our conviction t ] ];l t the mission of Sir l'lOliert Hart is to teach t-he Government how. under enlightened and strictly honest policy, she will enjoy much profit m her undertakings, and then i.v . « xall, l ,l ° tll(; Customs Department will lead the way for all the other Government departments The foreign management of the Customs cannot, therefore, be regarded as permanent; but it should lie ready to revert to the I hniese a s soon as they are (|tialilicd t" manage the national all'airs themselves. <>ur expectations have been practically realised by the establishment of a college at i'ekin fur the training of Chinese seeking admisison into (lie Imperial Customs and the postal service. Continuing, Mr. 'J'ong explains in detail the working of this college, and states that J(i students a year are sclcctel. and undergo a course of four veaiv training, after which plicy are drafted into 1 lie indoor stall' of *I he Custom.-. "In this way.'' concludes the article "the 'foreign assistant will be gradually replaced by competent Chinese. Included ill the lot of fine tailor-made suits now showing at The Melbourne Clothing Company arc some very choice worsteds and coatings in some' of Hi" newest tone shades of greens and browns. The mail who wants a jwod suit will appreciate these nobby fabrics. These choice suits have been specially | made to llie firm's order by skilled tailors, and are designed to equal (he higll-priccd tailor-made suit for fit, style, material, anil finish, tile only difference! being the price, which 's about 50 per Co7it. lower. Yon can satisfy yourself by ceeing these suits at The Melbourne. 4vt.

The sale of an extensive property in le Waingaro district, Auckland, has ist been coacluded. The properly was

that of Mr. Harold E. Bull's "Dunniore Estate," of 2700 aeres, the price of land and stock approximating J3UKII), the transaction being a cash one. The purchaser is the Hon. 11. St. John, a retired Indian officer, whose wife is a niece of Sir William liussell, of Hawkc's Bay. I About 2000 acres of the land is in

grass. The price for Hie whole is (reported to be .Cti per acre. The sale probably constitutes the biggest ■private cash transaction that has yet taken place in the Eaglan county.

A curious freak of nature was dis- I covered on Saturday by Mr. J. XI. Noonan, of Fourth Avenue, kingsland, Auckland. He bad noticed that of a setting oi' duck eggs one very large one remained after tlie others had released their Huffy little occupants, and lie broke this egg, finding the shell enclosed a duckling with four wings, four legs, and i two tails, while the neck seemed to be

di>uble-,joiiited. The whig.-: and legs of thi-t curious duckling were well developed, and Mr. Xnomm believes tlnit liad llie bird been able to yet out of the shell normally it would have lived. The freak is to lie preserved ill spirits and presented to the museum. Tile eminent New Zcalander, Professor liieharil Maclauviii, principal of the physios department at Columbia I'niversity, has been appointed president of tile Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the executive committee. Professor Maclaurin is a native of Edinburgh, but was educated h New Zealand. Afterwards lie went to Cambridge, where lie earned <hi((li Imatlijarf matical honors, was elected a fellow of St. John's College, and subsequently had the degree of L.b.D. conferred upon liirn bv that university, lie went to Columbia from Wellington, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Victoria College. Relaxing muscles is the latest fad. it is n new notion in rest cures—the most up-to-date panacea for nerves. By the time that une has mastered ilie art of relaxing his muscles (writes "Ambrosia,'' in the \\ odd) he lias practically conquered Ilia nerves ; at least it may be so inferred from tllie divections given. It lakes you all your suae to let vour muscles go. So much attention has to be focus.scd o.i your eyelids, your arms, your legs, nlld so on, that by the lime thai you have achieved what is described as llie delicious feeling of inertness which this muscular relaxation produces, you have neither the ■power nor tile consciousness to give nerves" a chance.

Black and White recently offered a number of prizei to readers who coukl name tire first ten pictures in this year's Royal Academy in their correct order of popularity. The Hon. John Collier's ' Sentence of Denth' is easily first with 2,352 votes. 'Androclcs and the Lion,' by Mr Briton Riviere, R.A., comes next, witli 1,792 votes; and the third is ' A Summer's Morn in North Wales,' by Mr B. W. Leader, R.A., receiving 1,547 votes. Fourth stands the portrait of Princess Patricia of Connaught, by Mr J. J. Shannon, A.R.A., with 1/512 votes. Bracketed iiftli are 'II.M. the King,' by Mr P. Tennyson-Cole, suul 'Through the Calm and Frosty Air,' by Mr Joseph Farquliarson, A.R.A., #P.ch being accorded 1,305 votes.

Some striking results wee put'iafi'.d recently of the system wh'.c'i ha; been in operation in Sydney for four years for the preservation of infant life. Tii" system is based on the "principle that ii" all children were suckled the infant mortality would be greatly lessened. Upon the .suggestion of'the Government Medical Oflicer, the Sydney City Council appointed a woman inspector to induce mothers to give their infants natural sustenance. The inspector's duty was to infuse general knowledge among the more ignorant mothers, and induce them to feed their children exclusively from tiie breast. The result has been that the death rate of infants, which in 1001 was l.;w per 1,000, was reduced to ..O.'J in 1004, .04 in 1005, .73 in 1000, and .81 in 1007. The Chief Secretary of Victoria (Mr Maekay) has written to the New South Wales Government for full particulars of the system, and on receipt of the information will consider whether it can. be adopted hi the Victorian State.

Ten I.OOOE bank notes, representing the savings of a woman who lived at Nauterre, near Paris, were hidden by her in au old envelope, which was placed in a drawer. In a moment of forget fulness, the envelope (the Chronicle says) found ils way into a dustbin. In the morning the ragpickers turned out the bin, but tossed aside the tattered envelope without inspection. Some carters happened to pass that way. They picked up the now mud-splashed piece of paper, one remarking to the other: "Perhaps there is a fortune inside!" Tliev drew out the notes. "This is some fool's pleasantry," tli.cy said; so, by way of revenging themselves on the unknown joker, and not believing the notes were genuine, they tore them to pieces and threw them aside. Two market, women came along shortly afterwards. With the shrewdness of their class, they recognised the scattered pieces of paper and gathered them up and took them to the Commissary of Police. There they were pieced together, and it was found that none was missing. Two hours later the notes so curiously discovered were restored to their owner.

In view of the inquiries which are bciug made by Bishop Julius 011 the question of mental healing, it is mtcr- ! esting to know what has been done in England ill regard to this matter. The report issued by the (Society of Emmanuel shows tliat the Church of England is already alive to the seriousness of tlie subject, which formed an important part of the deliberations at tile Lambeth Conference. The Society of Emmanuel—not to be confused with the American Emmanuel movement of later foundation—has bwn doing steady and practical work since 1110.1. For instance, it may bo remarked, that during the last tweive months 1086 treatments have been given at the house of its president, Mr J. .M. [licksoil, to poor persons, for the relief of physical, mental, and spiritual troubles, ami that with the most, encouraging results. .Meetings have been held at various places throughout the year, addressed In amongst others—Bishop Wylne, lately of Bombay, who is now vice-president of the society ; and it is announced that a further step is about to be taken in the establishment of a hotel, principally for the relief of poor gentlefolk. The aim of the Society of Emmanuel, it is stated, is "the healing of the sick by the laying on of hands with prayer, with a 'view of drawing the souls of men 'nearer to God." Its organ is a monthly paper called TIIO Healer.