LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 25, 23 February 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

i Thero were 42 applications ior the position of foreman of works to the lhiwcra County Council, to which position Mr. Monlefiore was appointed. Another fly in the New Plymouth bor'ough loan ointment. It transpired last night that the Borough Council and its officials were not willing to risk filling •the reservoir at the waterworks, (doubt ■'being expressed as to the stability of the structure. Carry A. Nation, the well-known 'American temperance advocate and 'saloon smasher, recently toured Britain, jjoimiienting on her methods ami ■plmi-cology, ll Home paper suggests 'that she was mis-named—instead of ICarrv A. Nation she ought really to have' been christened llellan D. Nation.

As was hinted in our paragraph yesterday morning tin- "Sunday shouting" incident mi tlic Ucwa Ucwa rillc range is not likely to be: allowed tu rust at tin' present .stage. Till' etiquette nf the business is questioned in some quarters, whilst a leading volunteer doubts the authority sought to be exorcised in closing the range on Sundays. L'p to the present, the men who were practising there that morning have not been heard torely upon the Fourth Commandment.

After winning the hunters' competition at the Masterton A. and P. Show last week, _\lr. E. 11. ilastie disposed of Ms well-known hunter "Foilding" for two hundred guineas, a Ohristchurch resident 'being the purchaser. Fcilding was well-known along the Coast as a ilrsl-class hunter, and also has a great show-ring record, having during the last season won numerous prizes at Wanganui (including champion hack), Egmont, Tarauaki, Eeilding, Masterton and other shows. During the hunting season he also won a point-to-point steeplechase at New Plymouth, The annual outing, arranged by the Tarauaki branch of the Teachers' Institute was held (in Saturday. The teacher* assembled at Inglewood, and left at about tea o'clock in two large brakes for the North Egmont .Mountain House, accompanied by the chairman of the Education Hoard (Mr. Jas. Wade) and two of its members (Messrs Adlam and Kennedy). A very pleasant day was upent, but the atmosphere was too thick to allow of much sight-seeing from the Mountain House. The party returned to Inglewood the same day in time to catch the north aud south trains.

Yesterday moraing a lire broke out in the kapoc store-room of Messrs. | Baker and Co.'a furniture warehouse in Devon street. Fortunately the outbreak was discovered early, and a bucket brigade had almost extinguished it .when the brigade arrived, although the firemen were very prompt in responding to the alarm. About £2O worth of damage was done, and most of that was caused .by water. The alleyway alongside the building, which, by the wav, is one of a number of wooden ediiices crowded logcther in the locality, was blocked by the' mass of soaked and steaming kapoc, mid a watch was kept lest there should'be a second outbreak. On Sunday afternoon, whilst the gentle breeze was wailing the music of the Garrison Band across the hike and nidst the leafy avenues of the Kecrea-

tion Grounds, a lady was seen in dire distress on the "Poet's Bridge." Poetry

was not interesting her at the moment. She was in charge of a go-cart, and tlie

narrow-tyred rubber wheels bad got down between the planks in the bridge decking, which ii, laid longitudinally. The "chinks,'' she thought, might be plugged for the convenience of those mother-- who take their children for an (lilting in the grounds. lAnothcr remedy is for the driver of the vehicle to beware of the ruts.

Constable biston received his baptism of fire in Xcw Plymouth yesterday

morning. It wasn't a very serious fire, but it might easily have ended seriously lor him. With that energy which upon an outbreak of lire .prompts a man to burl cliinawarc or glassware from the first Hour window into the street, .someone bowled a bale of kapoc! out of a

lirst-lloor window in llessrs Baker and Co.'s furniture warehouse yesterday morning whilst the fire was in progress, The policeman's coat afterwards bore testimony to the fact that the kap-u----had been soaked, and lie declares tb.it it. landed upon, His head and neck with i considcrnlble force. He has the consolaf lion of knowing that he was not the 'only'man who spent a considerable portion of yesterday fa the endeavor to remove the clinging kapoc from his clothes. There, was another "incident" I in connection with the fire. A young man got in the way of the hose. Opin-

ions differ as to whether it was lie or the "line of tire' 1 which varied in its direction for a moment, hut at any 'rate the Hood caught him unawares and bowled him over, amidst the laughter of the spectators. j E. AVoodhouse and Co. have, a parcel * of New t'lyaioutb Gas, and New Zen- , land Loan and Mercantile shares for . e.-Advt. l

A licensee of one of the Jnglowooil hotels, lias inndo a Trade innovation for Taranaki. Jla'll'-pints of beer in the front bar cost threepence. A shilling goes a long way in beer in Inglewood. It is not generally known, says a contemporary, that women arc eligible for election on n licensing committee, The Licensing Act provides that "any duly duly registered elector" may be a candidate for a seat on a licensing committee, whereas the Electoral Act restricts candidates to "male persons." At Stratford District Court a debtor admitted that ou his way to file he had paid £i 4s for a new suit of clothes, which he wore that day. His Honor : You are unique. I never before met a bankrupt who purchased and put on a new suit the day he filed. Debtors usually were supposed to do this sort of thing in sackcloth and ashes.

Tho Mayor last night re-introduced ■to the notice of our civic fathers the 'advisability of having the houses in the borough numbered. No decision was arrived at, but the Mayor said he would keep the matter in view. By a peculiar coincidence the town clerk found on top 'of the pile of letters just brought in from the evening's mail a catalogue Ifrom a firm offering enamelled street signs (not numbers) for sale. A Maori had an exhibit of a sow and litter at the Uorowhenua show recently. He was of a strong sporting turn of rnrniK, for lie thought more of the speed] at. which they could travel than of their condition. They certainly had no super-

liuous flesh on them, which no doubt accounted for the fact that he brought the sow and ten of her litter of thirteen the four miles to the show ra threequarters of an hour. The Native boasted that he could lake the family to Masterton in a day. The proudest man in Ibc district Ibis week (says the Bay of Plenty Times) has been a Maori, who secured a line specimen of rainbow trout by his rod and line in the river Kaituna, a little below the Northern steamship Company's Canaan landing. This wily fish lias been the desire of anglers for a long time, and has been often fished for, and when finally luoked was only brought to land after a. long struggle. His captor exhibited his prize to many, ami his weight was found loibe no less than 271b.

"Traiii faros nil over New Zealand are too low at the present lime," said the Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Hailways, to a Chi'istchui'eh deputation recently, " and tliey arc certainly too low for long-distance travelling. There will he no reduction in cither fares or freights in any direction at all. I do not blend to take any action until I have had a year's 'experience, hut from what I can sec at the present time, fares arc 100 low, and you can't carry people long distances at the penny a mile scale. Experience in America has proved that. At last night's meeting of the Borough Council Cr. F. C. JSeHvinger severely Condemned the site selected for the ■erection of the new cottage, at the dec'trie light generating station. From its position in 'a hollow cut out of a steep, damp hill he ventured tire opinion that in the winter the Council would have 'difficulty in getting anyone to live'in it. IWIIO, he asked, was responsible for placing it in such a. position? He also 'considered that the workmanship was not what it should he. The Mayor: There was a good hit of putty used. The engineer said! the Council was responsible for the quality of the workmanship, for they had declined the tender of ,i, reputable building firm. Cv. Browne, chairman of the Electric Lighting Committee, said that the cotta«c was erected at the only spot that, was o itamahlo, taking into consideration the necessity for keeping the staff bandy to the works, and the iulure renuirements. As to the timber in the cottage, the faulty stuff had been removed H f ol l' S l , Irrf,'rml 1 r r f, ' rml '""' si(< ' t" that of the first cottage on the. flat, and guaranteed he could keep it drv. The engineer said that undoubtedly the site ■«as a damp <nie, and jaek-fraining had had to be constructed to ,-aise the front ?, ""'..''.'"'''■ns from the ground. Jt ■was elicited in further discussion that t us was a ~],„,,, j ob _ Cri . Be]lri 'ics; cheap and nasty. "