LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 38, 10 March 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

I Mails for United Kingdom and Continent of Europe despatched from here on January 20th arrived at London 011 March sth. " People have a much hiippicr time in business now than we had in tin early days," said Mr. Cock Inst Night.. "(Juery," came a doleful voice from the other side of the Council chamber.

I An openiug ceremony in connection with the New Plymouth teciinical classes will be held on Wednesday. March 17tll. The rooms will be open for inspection at 7.;i0 p.m., ami the opening ceremo:iy will commence at 8 p.m., when the certificates gained by students for the 1008 session will be presented.

I A shipwreck is, after all, :t mere incident in the lives of the men who go to sea for their livelihood. No less than four survivors of the Penguin disaster are now back in their old calling on the Te. Auau, which has succeeded the Pen-1 guin. The men are Messrs C. Jones, Hull, and W. Heeves, steward*, and the cook, Mr Dan. Lynn.

8 An amusing incident is recorded by the Standard as having occurred during the I progress of the lire iu the Paekakariki Hotel, showing how strong human nature is even in such a calamity, A young housemaid was seen walking about iu all the glory of her night clothing careB fully guarding a hat uo\\ mid it transB pired that the only thing she had saved B from the flames was a brand new sumE mer hat!

The Basham Concrete Company, form* ed at Eltharn, Ims now been duly registered and is about to commence operations, The manufacture of tire concrete blocks will be proceeded with at the Waingongoro and Kapuni Rivera, under the supervision of Mr. 11. C. Fake. About 30 chains on the Eltham road will be laid with the blocks as a test, and if the ; experiment proves the success which the promoters of the Company anticipate, the present method of road construction will be revolutionised.

Another of the parcel of cancelled Bank oi New Zealand aiotes, which was stolen from the Wellington Post Ollice in January last, has been recovered by the Hawera branch. Part of the cancel-

lation consisted of punching a hole from the middle, and the notes regained so far show that the holes have been cleverly patched up, and the patching cannot be detected unless the notes are held to the light. The latest one that the local branch has .secured is a .CI note; the other was for -C5.

In the matter of the delivery of the English mails New Plymouth is not being so well treated as in the past. On Sunday, at about live o'clcok, an English mail arrived at Auckland. Tire letters will reach the general public in New Plymouth by about noon to-day. Persons wishing to reply to their English wrres» pondence by the return mail will have to be fairly smart, for the next outward mail closes in New Plymouth at 0.15 a.m. to-morrow. Under the former system the mails very frequently landed here on Monday morning, and was nearfly always ready for delivery on Tuesday at the latest. An unusual phase, of human nature was disclosed in a Wellington case iu which John Millanla, a young man, was charged with the theft of a tub valued at 4s (id. the property of Raymond P. Collins. Accused pleaded guilty, lie had a wife and live young children to keep and he was iu very poor circumstances. The Magistrate, after advising accused as to his future conduct, imposed a line of IDs or forty-eight hours imprisonment. as sufficient to meet "the ease. u Can 1 pay the line your Worship ? 1 do not want to sec the prisoner go to 'vhockce.'" said Mr. Collin* from the body of the Court. On being informed that he could do so he promptly deposited the necessary IDs.

| At the spot where the Inst spike was | driven on the Main Trunk lino, (here r has been erected an obelisk bearing the following inscription : —" This obelisk is erected on the. spat, where the l'ight Hon. Sir .Joseph Ward, V.C., K.CMd, Premier of the Dominion, drove the last spike of the North Island Main Tvunk railway on the l»th November, 1!)0S. Hon. W. Hall-Jones, Minister for Public Works and Railways.'' The pillar is Oft hi"»li and measures 4ft at the I>aso : Die is black on a white marhel slab. The situation of the niomnnent is about 20ft oil' the line on the western .side, between Makatote and Mnnganni-o-te-ao, £W/, miles from Auckland and a similar distance front Wellington. A remarkable electric molh-trap for the extermination of moths, which are enemies of trees, is reported from Zittau. Saxony. This apparatus, in portable form, should be aide to free a large area

trom pests of moths and caterpillars at comparatively small cost. The trap includes twn powerful searchlights, and these are arranged over strong exhaust fans, which suck the air into a deep receptacle. In the iirst trial the trap was placed at the top of (he municipal electie station. The rellectors at night threw two great streams of light upon the wooded mountain sides, a half-mile away, ami the effect was amazing. Lured along the great white trap*, the moths came in fluttering armies. At a certain distance from tile relied ors the 1 draught from the fans caught the dazed victims, which wore whirled ink' the pit 1 beneath. The first night's catch of three j tons should mark an era. I

AY'u express our own birth-rate m its proportion per year lo one thoiwtnd living : but (*ays a medical writer) there is »ul enough type in the world to express the bacterial birth-rate per 1000 per annum. Twenty thousand bacteria injected into a rabbit have been found t<> multiply int<i twelve thousand million in one (lay. One bacteria has been actually observed to rear a email family of richly thousand withia a period of twenty-four hours." The cholera bacillus can duplicate every twenty minutes, and uiitfht thus iu one dav become .VN)ll,(HI().IK)o ) olKl,ol)o.niM>,(HH>, with tlm weight, according to Hie calculation of Colin, of about 73CG tons. Au a few days, at this rate, there would be a mass of bacteria as big as the moon, huge enough to Jill the whole ocean. No reasonable bishop could desire more in the way of a birthrate, 1 am sure. The "infant mortality,*' however, or in move genera! terms, the death-rate, is proportionately large, iu accordance with the general rule, which is true not only of mankind but of all species, that a 'high birth-rate a:ul ] a high death-rate go together. Nothing but evil eau come of any deliberate locking' up of the Xative Lands: and nothing but ill-will can come of uuy attempt to make the British settlor a mere tenant of Native landlord* (snys the Auckland Herald). Workmen who have 110 work have only to exercise their intelligence to see that were these I locked-up lands brought into use there ! would be work for all for many to come, apart from all other industrial i ijuestions. Kverv taxpayer in the .Do- i mininn ought to realise that the rail-j ways built from loan* and (*alli,ig fur annual interest, and the roads built by heavy local rates and Government. subsidies, are largely wasted owing to the Native Lands they pass through, which pay 110 rates, are held for State-made values, and lie as au incubus upon the prosperity of tile [Dominion. Th;* mistakes of the past we cannot easily rectify, but the mistakes of the preseat we I can end at owe, particularly that fumla--1 mental mistake which allows Native! Land to block settlement in dUlricU|: made accessible by great public expendi- J tlire, and which makes the I'.ritish J I settler, even in railway townships. p?ae tic;i!ly the bondsman of the Maori,