GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 26, 24 February 1909, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

'The natives of the Nuhaka district appear tu have become infused with an admirable spirit of industry. A wellknown local contractor passing through tire locality recently came across a gang of Maoris carting road metal, and on making enquiries he ascertained that they had been entrusted with contract work amounting to £2OOO by the Wairoa Council. A young man named Martin Klein expired as the result of a joke at Maryborough (Queensland - ). He was watching a mail building a skiff hi a disused wharf shed by the aid of flare lamps. A young fellow named MaePherson rolled a stone along tlie iloor, and Klein exclaimed, "The place is 'haunted," MaePherson, seizing the opportunity to scare Klein, rattled empty tins and blew the Hares out while Klein was looking for the cause of the noise. Klein fainted, and died soon afterwards.

A minister in Wellington, who lias boon prominently concerned in the movement for the prohibition of Sunday concerts, has received the following anonymous communication, which speaks for itself Please take notice you are trying to stop us from having a little music. Now, if we hear any more ofyour interfering with our day's enjoyments we will burn down your old church, bailing that, your house will be the next, and you will yourself be dealt with. So take notice. This is no joke." What Mr Andrew Carnegie is actually worth would be interesting to know, says a New* York paper. The amount lias been estimated at £00,000,000. He is said to have given away to charitable and educational institutions 110 less than £34,000,000 sterling and there U very little doubt that he still has millions more. Ilis latest gift of £2.10,000 to create a fund for the recognition of the heroes of peace is perhaps the most remarkable of all his benefactions in the country. Mr Carnegie's age. would entitle him to an old age pension if he possessed tlie other qualifications, for he has just celebrated his seventy-first birthday. As everybody knows, he is n Scot, but lie was only ten years oldjfl when he went to Pittsburg. Tie hay been a bobbin boy at five shillings a week, and a telegraph operator at €M a year. He began to get rich out of an oil farm, and his ironworks in Pittsburg brought him manv, manv millions'. He sold bis rights for £00,000,000. r At a. recent meeting of the Petone School Committee, the chairman said that as the Education Board had agreed to give the committee a new school bell, they should be asked to grant the old bell to the. local museum. The old bell was originally a blip's boll in the early days. It was on the ship that was to take the settlers from this way to Sydney after the heavy earthquake. The ship was wrecked off Penearrow, and the settlers had' to come back again. The bell then found its way to a Lower TTutt church, and from there to the Petone school. He thought the bell should be preserved as a curiosity. It was sound within itself, and he moved that it be a recommendation to the Education Board that this bell be handed over to the local Museum. This was carried.

Writing a few days ago an Ortnondville correspondent of the Danuevirke Press says : A few days ago an Englishman landed in "God's Own Country," and was hot and thirsty in search of wealth. The day after landing he was invited to have a drink with a friendly looking colonial, who good naturcdly informed him that he had a spare farm of 00 acres with a nice four roomed house on it, situated between the prosperous towns of Onnondville and Norsewood, and all he wanted for this nice lißle farm was £l2O. Before parting the Englishman had agreed to buy, and on the wily colonial's suggestion handed him Ms as a "binder." Yesterday the Englishman was found by an Onnondville gentleman on the Norsewood road, looking for his little farm.

An extraordinary series of frauds which have been perpetrated over a great part of Russia has been brought to light, and is thus deeribed in The Lancet (London, November 28) :—"Ccrtaisi German firms, .manufacturers of proprietory articles, observed a marked decline in the demand for their goods from Russia, although their agents observed an increasing quantity of goods bearing their principals' labels Jn tho pharmacies. A police enquiry was set on foot and certain suspected individuals were traced to Odessa where, a large manufactory with offices and distributing organisation was discovered. The guilty parties were arrested. A long series of 'pseudo-German' preparations made up of the most inexpensive substitutes wore? packed in -irreproachable bottles labelled in perfect imitation of (lie original firms' articles. The business done was enormous, amounting, it is ; said, to .C2(W,000 for the Odessa organisations alone. Some of the firms whose goods have been supplanted by tho imitations are household names in Germany. Tlie German Union for tho Protection of German patents is claiming damages on behalf of the sufferer* to the extent of £50,000. That this is only part of a widespread system is evident from the statement of the Yuzlnit Pliarmatzeft ('The Southern Pharmacist') to the 'effect that an in(juirv has revealed' thai over 58 per cent, of pharmacies and pharmaceutical stores sell falsified products, though 'not in the same gross r'orm as was discovered in

Odessa, where tlie disinfectant xerofonn was 'mado' from bricks, sirolin from water, sugar, and color. By selling sandwiches for forty years a fortune of £oO,OUU was massed by Angelo Basso, a prominent member of the Italian colony in New York, whose death is just reported. Thirteen years ago Alfred England, a Yass resident, was stabbed in the back by a man who attacked him (says a Sydney paper). The wound healed and England felt no trouble until a pain behind the shoulder blade recently caused him to seek the advice of a doctor. The medical man made an examination, and advised England to enter the Yass Hospital for treatment. An operation was performed, and the blade of the knife, corroded and discolored, was extracted from the old wound.

Australia is laughing hugely ut the plight in which the Broken Hill Labour I paper, Truth, found itself the other day. . It lias been vehemently denouncing the ' police for coming to Broken Hill to pro- ( teet the public against any possible disI order 011 the part of the strikers, but its j proprietors were themselves forced to , ring up the police station the other day to appeal for protection against a strike on their own premises. This is a case of being hoist willi one's own petard. The newsboys went out 011 strike at the Truth office, because they could not get higher pay, ami then established pickets about the office in quite the approved style of their elders, it is very seldom 1 hat an editor, endeavouring to mould public opinion, discovers 011 the part of those whom he seeks to instruct such 1 prompt recognition of the value and t wisdom of his principles. When he does, t he should certainly bo the first to ap- . plaud the success of his crusade. Yet the Truth newspaper rang up for the . polic« ; and, ive read, three constables . came down, and helped to restore order. . What chance has good, honest revolution j got in this country ?—Dominion corresL pond'ent. 1 Mrs Maybrick is, it is reported, about . to lie married. The betrothal is, it is - said, the result of a curious courtship. 2 Mrs Maybrick (says the Daily Mail > Xcw York correspondent) was lecturing [* in America 011 prison reform under the i auspices of a well-known institution. The secretary, Mr Charles L. Wagner, s was deeply struck by the lecturer's elo- . quenee and personality, and. it appears, . offered her his hand. After refusing . many times, fearing that marriage with , him would injure her career, she has at I length, it Ts reported, accepted. Mrs , Maybrick is forty-seven years of age. 5 An exciting race between a light pas- . scnger engine and an express train to I avoid a collision, took place at Crewe, , England, some time ago, and a serious t accident was narrowly averted by the " promptitude and presence of mind of an engine driver. A light passenger engine was standing at the station wh'en the 1' 4.30 p.m. express for Liverpool arrived | on the same line. The driver of the I light engine, seeing that a collision was ' inevitable, imurediately started his en- . gine. The express train, however, was . travelling at a higher speed, and, over- } taking the engine crashed into it. Both , engines were much damaged, but beyond a shaking the passengers in the , train were uninjured. His Honor Jlr Justice Cooper exprcs- ! sed a great deal of surprise when a rispectablc fanner and butcher residing at t Masterton swore positively in the Wel--1 lin'gton Supreme Court on Thursday last i\ that fifty out of every one hundred but--1 ehers made it a practice to remove the , ears from sheep-shins. "Why!"' ex- . claimed his Honor, "that is distinctly a , breach of the Slaughtering Act, which applies equally to sheep that have been > found dead, in neither case must the ears or earmarks be interfered with, :• and it is an oil'ence even to be iouml in I possession of 11 sheepskin from which tile I ears have been removed. Evidently many . honest farmers, under a misapprehension I as to the provisions of the law, have I brought themselves within its operation, ' and Hie penalty is hea»'v—llo less than 1 £SO !" When sentencing Musgrove and ■ Thompson for breaches of tlio Bank--3 ruptcy Act at the Palmerston Supreme ' Court, the .fudge said (amongst other t things) : "'The Legislature lias thought ' lit to stamp as criminal the reckless iu- ' curring uf debts by persons who have 1 110 reasonable ground of expecting to 1 pay the same. Also, for obvious reasons, 1 it has thought lit to mark as penal the ! oil'ence of failing to keep books such as will readily disc-lose the state of - affairs of a debtor. If I were to accede 1 to the suggestion that you arc entitled • to probation because you are first of- ' fenders I would be going a long way to f nullify the provisions of the Act, be- ; cause, as far as my observation goes, r the men 1 have had the misfortune to - try have always been men of good char--1 acter, and men who were free from crimI inal taint—men who had committed the - offence with the object of stealing - money or stowing it away, but who coin- ' milled the offence with the means to ! pay their creditors. That kind of iui"1 conduct, according to the Legislature, I must not go on, It is penal to carry ' 011 on a false basis. The. very defence • that was raised in this case—that the > statements that were made were made in ignorance o( the true state of affairs, i and that the debts were incurred in ig--1 iiorance of tlvc true state of affairs, is one that could not possibly have been suggested had there been proper books in existence, showing approximately the position in which yon stood. You never seemed lo have realised that your business was n continually losing one, and I give you credit for not having realised that 'it was so desperate. I must put tile stamp of Ihe Court upon an offence of this kind. I do not intend to ]>ass an extravagant sentence, but at the same time I cannot pass a merely nominal sentence. People must bo impressed with the danger in similar business in not keeping proper books. I altogether disagree with the suggestion that because books are 'expensive they should not be kept. That would inflict a great injustice on those who did keep books." Says the Ljttclton Times : Taranaki would now be eking out a miserable existence if it were not for the dairying industry, and lire dairying industry undoubtedly owes its prosperity to the magnificent enterprise and fostering care of the Liberal Government. And yet Mr Massey is able to go to Hawcra and sneer at the dairy regulations, and is permitted to survive. The Taranaki Conservatives must surely bo a poorspirited and ungrateful generation. Tile Opposition are the " Reform" [party now. There was a Political Reform League, we remember, established (0 sweep tire polls in 100,j, and an elegant journal, entitled 'The Reformer,' made its appearance. It lived long enough to print No. lj of Vol. 1., and then died. And the Reform League followed it into the limbo of dead things. You may break, you may shatter the vase if yon vill. But the scent of the roses will hang round it still, We commend the quotation to Mr Massey's attention. It expresses in more elegant terms the sentiment that though the Conservative H'arty may call themselves the Reform Party, they will still smell fishy.