LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 47, 20 March 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The business at the Xew Plymouth Harbor Board meeting yesterday was] concluded by one o'clock. During the afternoon most of the members paid a viait to the breakwater. . Th,, Muff correspondent of the Olago Daily Times states that the fishery returns for February—the opening month of the season—are reported to be good. •Tih'c take realised ,£BOO, and but for ■the .fact that lianas were scarce, the sum would have been at least ,£IOOO. •The'fish: feed was'plentiful all round the ■islands, and although that brought the tihoals'wcll together, it had the effect of 'preventing them from biting as freely •as .they would otherwise have douc. The nor'-west wind likewise interfered ■with them in that way. Still, the season, as far as it has Igone, is considered good, and mow that the hot northerly •weather lias cooled down, .prospects are •looked upon as being excellent.

A writer in the Dunedin Star states that recently, in the interior of Otago, lie met two people who had spent nearly the whole of their lives without ever having seen a city and-its wonders. One of these was a woman. Twenty-eight years ago she left the heather liills of Scotland and landed at l'ort Chalmers. She found her way to a station by the banks of the Upper Waitaki, and she has never been in Dunedin since. All this long interval she lias spent in the same place, as cook on a station and as mother in a shepherd's home. And now, after these long, laborious years of humble toil and rearing a family to enrich the State, she is passing the evening of her days in a little collage far away among' the inland hills, which her thrift has secured for her. She has never seen a tram car or ridden in a tram, and has no ambition in Unit direction. The other case is that of a woman also. She came from Scotland to Dunedin twenty-five years ago ; she went to reside near Oam'aru, and" iliiriii" all these years she has never been in Dunedin again.

Miss Uarjoric Roberts, of the district school, liozello, Sydney, is the most expert of nt least 2U0,U00 Australians at solving picture-puzzles, for the March "timber of The New Idea announces her as the winner «i a contest that has heeii running in lllat milg . lzino fo] . t||( , past twelve months. Ka,-]i of the pictures represented an author, and Miss Roberts succeeded in unravelling all'but two of the 108 problems. Dei reward lor this performance is a trip to .lapan and hack by first-class saloon. In the same number there is the deliglitiul i|. ustraled interview with Marches!, done '•', a ." «iterprising young Australian huly-journalist. A first of a series of Hhistrated articles on tlll! U o m „ nouses of Australasia contains a line collection of photographs taken by Lady ' Dudleys permission in Federal Govern"icnl House, Melbourne, l'eihaps the most interesting of these are two pictures taken of the schoolroom, and .showing the Dudley youngsters at work and nt play. Miction is (strlong, and to balance it there are a number of practical articles which contain directions for making all sorts of useful aila „,,,.,. mental things for the home, ran.riii.. ironi a stencilled set of window curlnins to 'Jl'ildy Hears for the children The (lepartineiits are replete with good tiling as usual , °

Th.M.oMMtn-i, ,1,,,r1, ",,!,,. rroni ta,li to worse (iaminjt ,wt that was .placed on the statute 1.0r.k a coulde '■','■ y ? '*/'"" <*'.« <"« Wellington IiMK'M. The. direct result of the ,neaMile us was elemrly foreseen ;it the time * n' " mvtmel,t > was to increase the volume of ■\va»e-riiiff on horse races, wip in itself .should lie sudieicut to ma.kc J arliaiuciit reconsider "its handi- »■<«*, hut oilier and greater evils liave. '.inst-n wlifdi render it imperii live toi li.ive an alteration of (|„. ] ilAv . Th ,,i ieilii* and racecourses of New Zealand ;'■''*■ " mv li.v a mob <if Hiiseriiiiiil"U>s Tiilliiins whose, antisocial instinctsare miller no sort of rcslraint what-

wit. I'nilcr (In; .gu,i«c nf lx-in.r Jmolc- !" lillcols y ••■>■'• able lo demand t|„. iis.su.- i.t license. t„ )„.(, f rillll tlll , nivil) „, | clubs, and -whereas t-lit'.v were until recently iii.livi.luals who at am- mnmo-.tl) '"'"hi !l Tested by the police, fur vagrancy. I hey a.ro now iniimi.no from attentions .if that sort, their ppjuiifs to "lny tlii' lii'lil" disclosing (lint they have j a laVful nicaiis of support. There arc, nut fewer than thirty raca in Welling. ;I.mi to-day who though in real truth! incorrigible vagrants and worse. lam allowed .to live a flawless life without restraint. Kol/bcri.'fi froml (lie 'person were never so numerous <i;i. Ihe rnccconirsos ;is now. At every Vaco meeting case after cslsc is reported.