LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 45, 18 March 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The St. Patrick's concert held last evening at -\cw'„ Plymouth was a big success. Our report is unavoidably held over. It is estimated that as no licensing elections took place in the Wellington, Wellington South, or Wellington Suburbs electorates, nearly XtOUO was saved by the City Council. If a sufficient number of sffideuts liand in their names at the Education office a class in Maori, under Mr. T. K. A. Thompson, licensed interpreter, will be started at the New Plymouth Technical School,

Sharks are abounding on the Auckland , coasts. A party of young men at Uta- , liuhu the other day, after bathing, commenced to lisli with a net. They are reported to have made a haul of 20 sharks about i% feet long close to then- outliing place. Another eye-uitness saw live sharks at one time iu the harbour. The director of technical education announced last night that it was-tlie intention of the authorities to present diplomas to successful students at tlie technical school next year. Whilst not wishing to cast any reflection upon the value of the certificates now awarded, it may not be out of place to suggest that in future they might be printed on less llimsy material, so as to give them a greater value at sight. in reporting the J'ourpenny beer incident at Waitara we mentioned that the two hotels which contributed to the regatta funds bore tlie committee's ollicial announcement of the fact. We learn that this was not correct, for ills. Ousack, of tlio Masonic Hotel, declined to display the placard. The notice which our informant took to be the formal intimation of' the " loyalty " of tlu house was an unoffending announcement of dinner.

There was a stare of blank amazement upon the faces of some of the counsel enga'ged, and of the Supreme Court officials, last night when, in an-' swer to the suggestion of the presiding judge', that the adjournment should be taken at 5.40 p.m., the jury expressed ' a desire to go on for another hour. His .Honor remarked that already a long dav iiad been spent, and the work was exceedingly fatiguing for counsel, so lie would talie the adjournment.

Had an enterprising photographer taken a snapshot at the corner of Kobe and Puwdcrhain streets last night iic would have had a splendid liioiiey-inak-in" negative, for lie would have been chased with the money ni vin,»e men, young and otherwise, who would not iike their features reproduced amongst the curious crowd who, after sweltering for tile greater part of the allernoon iu the Supreme Court, clustered there to get a glimpse of the unfortunate man who is at present standing his trial upon a charge of having muled the life of a fellow-creature.

From Denver, Colorado, comes tlu? story of a somewhat unusual feat of courage, nerve, and strength. A lineman was working lifty feet above tlie ground when lie touched a live w ire and was shocked into unconsciousness, lie was lieicl in the position iu which he fell by a tangle of wires, and was literally [being electrocuted. Another lineman was working on a poll about eight feet distant. He did not wait to go down his poll and climb the oilier ; by that time his comrade would have been dead. He made a flying leap through space and jabbed his climbing irons into the poll at which he sprang. They held. Then he leaned from liis perilous position and began to lift hvs friend from the wires. The only thing that supported him was the elimbing irons, and if they had broken under the strain, nothing eould have saved either man. But they held, and the pluck, agility, and presence of mind of the gallant lineman had their reward in the rescue of his workmate. The crowded state uf the eourl-pmm yesterday made the atmosphere there heavy, close, and poisonous. It was a sweltering heat, 'particularly in the corner where the unfortunate reporters were conlincd. I'or some reason or other the reporters in the New Plymouth court are placed in a most awkward position, the raised woodwork of the desk of the registrar and the clerk of the court not only interfering with the view of the witness-box, but 1 also preventing the words of witnesses and of counsel—for iu a building ox such wretched acoustic properties the lawyers have contracted the habit of nestling under the witness-box—reaching the Tress table. Apart from this inconvenience the reporters are. in the most dark corner of a wretchedly ventilated hall of ; justice, whose only fair current of air is enjoyed by the witness in the box, a section of counsel, and the privileged persona, generally witnesses, who are provided with chairs inside the enclosure. It is stated that an oll'icer of the Public Health Department recently inspected the building, with a view to improving the ventilation, but as yet nothing Ims been done.