LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 315, 5 January 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We hour from what we regard as * reliable source (says the Waipawa Mail) tliat -Mr. M.P., is to lie ofl'ered :( " scat in tJit- Legislative Council in order that Mr. It. McXab may cuulosL tlie IJawke's Bay sent. 11 A remarkable invention lias been y patented by Mr. HiuUon Maxim, wlio has for some time past been engaged 011 research 'Work in connection with germ-destruction. ,Mr. Maxim lias discovered a method of passing through the body, by the aid of electricity, a certain chlorine solution which, lie eechives, will have the oll'ect of destroying any germ, with which it come, in (.'tintact. Opunake is now to be the centre of a stock district, and the boundary will be somewhere about Auroa road and I'nngjre.hu. 'Mr. Hignetl, 'Stock Inspector, lm* been in charge of this district, but as his headquarters are at Stratfoi.!, and lie has to attend to the country on the other side, lie had too large a district to work. Mr. K. Crockett, Stock Inspector from Wanganui, will now reside in Opunake and be in charge of the district. A stork inspector is also a.i inspector of dairies and noxious weeds, so tliat local bodies and settlers will now bn ill a much better position ill securing the services of the inspector. Mr. 'McKinley is to be transferred from ' Opunake" to JJltliam. Mr. Hignetl, who ; lias paid numerous vMts to the district, J speaks well of the attention that > settlers have given to any suggestion ' he has offered.—Times. Tli"™ was a young maid of North Shore, 1 H"r life, she eould hardly endure, \ Till she tried Laxo-Tpnlo, ■lts made good. heaUh|chronie, Po tpo should » sanSlkprqcure. J Tomo jyt

The Rotoiti from North this morning , bringing the English mail. A first offending inebriate, Saturday light's sole capture, was yesterday Horning brought before the Justices, louvictcd and discharged: The training-ship Amokura arrived at ?icton-from New Plymouth at half-past iix last night. A private wire received Tom the commander by Captain Hood stated that the passage was very lough. The young Maoris who took part in the Maori haka on Saturday night under the leadership of the chief Tc Atua, were: Taare, Taniaono, Kitai, Maru, Noho, Tc Whctu, Kohu, l'aapc, and Wii. A young man, lately employed in Inglewood, was arrested by Constable Mclvor in town yesterday on a charge of forgery. A few minutes prior to the arrest he had, it is alleged, successfully passed off another forgery on a local publican.

There were no applications for the position of ranger in the northern portion of the Omata riding of the county. The. surfacemen in that district will be asked to use all vigilance. Upon, the moton of Mr. Andrews, it was decided to allow the surfacemen all the Sunday impounding fees, it being maintained that the greatest trespass was on Sundavs. Cr. llopson voted against this breach of the Sabbath.

The continued wet weather is playing havoc with hay crops. Many of the crops were mown before the dry spell broke. It has been impossible to have these stacked and villi the warm showers and occasional sunshine the hay is becoming mildewed. Unless a dry spell is scion experienced the hay in many of the fields will scarcely be worth gathering. The heavy crops, in South Taranaki especially, are in a bad way. ■ The 'police are in possession of information (says the Wairarapa. Age) that during recent times a. systematic scheme of sheep-stealing has been carried on in the .Mnsterton district, but are unable at this juncture to sufficiently connect any person or persons with the thefts in sucli a way that would warrant a prosecution. The farmers, too. who have suffered loss are loth to institute or to substantiate charges, for fear of (lie prosecutions failing and the subsequent action for damages that inevitably follows.

As do oil and water, so do baby-laden perambulators anil driven cattle refuse In mix satisfactorily on the footway; ofa bridge. The.difficulty has eroppj,] up ill connection with the new ferroconcrete bridge recently erected over the Waiwakaiho stream. Footways were, provided for passenger traffic, but whilst the maids have been quite content t( keep their valuable freights from tin portion allotted to the cart and cattt traffic, cows and calves have cvincei a liking for the "strait gate." In th event of a go-curt happening along th' little footway at the same time, an mi dignified scatter, not usually of the cat lie, is apt to take place. This matte >\vas brought "up at the meeting of th County Council yesterday, and the en gineer undertook to sec the forema: about it.

The Post and Telegraph work in the New Plymouth postal district for Christmas showed a marked advance on that of Christmas, 1007. The number of mailbags, etc., received and forwarded was 3527, as against 2831 the 'previous year. This total, it may be remarked, was exceeded only by the four cities, "Wellington accounting for 12,251, (Auckland, for 1)259, CJmistchureh for fii)o4, and Dunedin for 5224. Invercar■gill comes next to New Plymouth with •2505, then Napier with 2137. The value of stamps sold amounted to .U415, as against .-C322 at Christmas, 1007, and this total is exceeded by the four chief centres and Wanganui, Tiniarii, Thames, and Napier. The telegrams received and forwarded numbered 1302, as compared with 4050 the previous year, the total being exceeded by Cisbornc, Cireynioutli, Invcrcargill, Napier, Nelson, and ■Wanganui, as well as the four chief

The announcement is made by the White Star Line that it will build two new ships, named the Titanic ami the Olympic, for the Southampton-New York trade. Each ship is to be ready for the summer season of 11)10, and each is to lie more than OUOft, and possibly 1000 ft, long. They will each be of •12.000 loiis'buitlien. With the threatened thousand-foot ship the ports will be hard put ,to to provide sufficient docking accommodation. Work of this sort has gone ahead furiously for live or six years past, but the fact that the piers must be. lengthened inshore in most cases to avoid further narrowing ol' the rims Ini* made much of this work tedioiwlv slow, as well as vastly expensive. The new White Star vessels ' will be sumptuous in every detail. They 1 will not attempt extreme speed, hnw--1 ever, and in this detail they will not approach the class of the Cuniirdcrs 1 Mauretania and Lusitania. Couiily Councillors veslcrday once more discussed (lie motor car trallic. '' Nearly every member of the Cumuli contributed uile or more instances ol alleged hairbreadth escapes on the part of themselves or their wives, families, ! and relatives. The clerk produced the Motor Registration Act, under which ! the Council was given power to make ' liy-laws governing the trallic, and to forbid motor car trallic on such portions ■ of the road as might reasonably he held - to entail danger to the general public. ' Cr. Carter wanted to know if the Coun- ' cil were going to discuss this matter - aimlessly at every meeting. He thought • that the Council should either make, a • by-law or remit the matter to the t Counties' Conference. Members agreed - that there was urgent need for reform, t and that every ear-owner .should pay a i substantial annual license instead of a .• trilling registration fee, for nil time. It ; was eventually decided to remit the [ matter to the Counties' Conference. Commenting on a paragraph from the • X-ew York Sun with reference to the ' bestowal of the freedom of the city - upon two American oilicors during (herr i short stay iu Hamilton, the Waikato I Argus states: "The real facts of the '. case are that Mr. Franklin Matthews, i representing the New Y'ork Bun, anil i Lieutenant Keyser, of the Louisiana, . were so engrossed in collecting dividends , at the Ellcrslie racecourse that they missed the special train set apart to , take the visiters to ilotorua, and, comi iug along by the ordinary 4.15 p.m. , train from Auckland, became, stratided in Hamilton for the night. Next morning, while putting in time till the departure of the train for liolorua, a local wag conceived the idea of presenting the freedom of the city, and with the assistance of our jobbing foreman, au illuminated card, a couple of keys, and some red, while, and blue streamers, the necessary document was soon prepared and duly presented. The recipients entered heartily into the joke, and were delighted at the fruition of the novel suggestion. Appearing in the. New York Sun, however, it takes quite u different, complexion, and it appears to have been taken seriously in more places than Auckland." The Sydney Daily Telegraph thus rj'ports a trageily: "Shortly after day'break yesterday morning a young woman made a rush from the scrub at Ben Buckler Point, liondi, and leaped to death over the precipice. Mr. Thos. Hose, residing nt Ruseville, Bomli Road, 'witnessed the tragedy through a pair of strong Held - glasses which he WM using to locate a vessel at sea. He saw si woman stand on the dill's and look over. 'She then retired to the scrub, and almost immediately rushed towards the 'brink and hurled iherself over. Mr. Tiose communicated with the Waverly police, and Constable Stokes went to the point to investigate. Peering over 'at the spot indicated by Mr. Rose, which is 150 ft above the sea. the constable saw a woman's bodv jammed between two rocks about 40ft below. After « dangerous si-ramble lie reached lli3 'place, and wiih the assistance of a vouple of fishermen succeeded in taking 'the body around the rocks to Bondi. It was then taken to the morgue, where 'it was identified as that of Olive Wilson, aged 17 years and eig'hl months, a single girl, residing with her stepfather (.Tohn Simpson) at 350. Castlcrcagh-street. City. The body was terribly mutilated, and the skull smashed." '

! Evorv singe of separator development Ims been strictly of "Alfa-Laviil" origin and efl'oil. Would-be competing mii- ; chines to-day manufactured are, without exception, lmt merely followers in the wake of the "Alfa-Laval." They possess no original ideas or features in construction, and simply utilise that which expired "Alfa-Laval" patents leave free to tlieni, so that the very best of them are barely equal to the "Alfa-Laval" machines of ten years ago. Thus the gulf of practical efficiency be-. I twoen the "Alfa-Laval" nml the best I would-be competing separators is still further widened, placing the "Alf.iLiival" machines far above and beyond the possibilities of competition from anything else in the shape of a cream separator. Catalogue "T" mailed free. Sole New Zealand agents. Mason, Struthors and Co,, Ltd., Main-street, Palmerston North. E. Griffiths and Co., New Plymouth, local agents. There v.as an old party from Hay, Who had tried many pills inhis day, But his trouble was chronic, j Till he took Laxo-Tonic, And now he is hjppjj 800-rayl" J

Some people are born lucky. On the j first day of the Stratford races a local ■resident "who wished to hack two different horses in the Cup race was given iby mistake two tickets on the winner. •In another race the aforesaid resident's •brother asted for live tickets on a horse •wliieh ultimately finished out of a place. The live tickets he received, however, •were on the winner, which retimed a ■very handy price. Luck apparently runs ■in some families.—'Post. The January number of the "Lone Hand" magazine is to hand from Messrs. Gordon and Gotch. Jts special feature is an article, "The Science of Singing," by iMelba, the world's greatest singer, whose memoirs have j been secured by the magazine. The ' article is interesting and valuable, the < ■cantatrice wielding a facile and powerful pen. Other contributors of prose and verse include A. A. Bayldon, Hugh 'MoCrae, G. S. Emerson, Henry Lawson, 'and James Dixon. "For the Pub'ic Wood" department exposes another fraud, and the financial section is do- ' voted to Australian brewery inyest- ' incuts. The current issue is the finest : number yet published, and can compare 11 very favorably with the best of the L / 'world's magazines.

The Southland News records a remarkably narrow escape from drowning which occurred in t'lie New River Estuary at the end of the jetty on Christmas afternoon. As a party of young men were walking down the wharf at 4.:tl> some young children came running towards tli'i'in and excitedly stated that a girl companion had. fallen into the. harbor. All haste was made to the spot, but nothing could be seen of the girl, who had twice disappeared before belp arrived. One of the party, Edgar ' Allan, cmploved at Messrs. Smith and Laing's, divested himself of his coat and jumped in at the spot where the child' was last seen, and after a little was able to locate her by seeing her clothing on the surface. When he caught her she seized him round the neck, and, a strong ebb tide running, they were being carried down the river when another of the party, (!. 0. Hamilton, threw a rope to the rescuer. The first time it was missed, but on the second cast he caught it and both were drawn to a place of safety, from which the •unconscious girl was lifted to the wharf. Measures for resuscitating the apparently drowned were adopted, and after she had vomited a large quantity of water she was able to leave for home with her companions.