LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 91, 13 May 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It is understood that Parliament will be opened on Wednesday, June 23. The Wellington-Naples mail despatch of April 2nd, arrived in London on the morning of the 10th inst. It is stated that the Egniont County Council is likely to erect toll-gates between Pimiho and Opunake.

A Wairarapa newspaper has discovered that the yield of the \\ aihi mine is seven million per annum ! No wo-.ider the shares are advancing in price. Mr. Justice Edwards, on tile sth inst., upon the application of Messrs. Roy and Nicholson, granted probate of the will of the late William dames Evans, of lnglewuoil, schoolmaster, deceased, to the executrix named in the will. Mr H. C. Field, in a letter to the Wanganui Herald, states that his eats recently killed two specimens of the pectoral rail, the Maoris mohopereu, a bird which is plentiful ill Australia and the islands of the Malay Archipelago and Polynesia, but is now very rare in New Zealand.

The ladies' tennis team returned from Sydney liv the Moana yesterday, bringing home' live trophies. Miss Powdroll brought two. and Miss Travers, Mrs. ('(oldie, and -Miss Cray one each, An •oiricial reception was accorded them at the Wellington Town Hall, the Mayor heartily congratulating them on their success.

Mr \y \ Mct'ute.iian wrote to the Stratford' ilospital Hoard on Tuesday tendering his resignation as a men.bei of the hoard, and in a personal lettu t„ the chairman explained his reasons. He was very sorry to sever his sho connection ,vvith the Board, but the road to Stratford was now impassable foi private conveyances and he was not able to make long journeys on horseback To go out to Stratford by coach meant four consecutive days' absence too-real a loss of time. It was dec-id d lo%t Mr. McCutetanV. resignation with regret—Post. The utility of the motor-ear has been largely extended by an Oarnani invcnlor who (savs the North Otago Times) has constructed a ear for his own use as a builder. The car he has bu.lt ravels at a good speed, and takes Lima short tune to his objective in the country, wlicievcritmaybe. On arrival there he d* connects the travelling gear, and w the aid of pulleys and a bench starts tU engine off in the cutting of the tnnbe, to the necessary lengths required in tbc building. This it will do with a c.rcuar saw with a rapidity that would discount the work of half a dozen men.

\ party of United States rifle cadets about forty in number, will lie due ni ■Australia about the end of July, for til purpose of touring the Commonwealth Mates. Thcv will also visit New Zealand. Preparations iov the visit have heen made by the Commonwealth Department of Defence, and the State com maiidants have been notified by the Minister, who has written to the secretary of the West Australian Young Australia League, the chief mover m the arrangements, offering to give every assistance to make the trip successful and pleasant. The American team will be allowed to use their own pattern ol rifles in matches. The lads are between eleven and nineteen years of age. A man is going about Wellington just now selling what lie alleges to be an insect-killer. The other day lie went to a house and asked the housewife to buy a packet. He very nearly persuaded her to do so, but when lie said she was not to opes it for five years or she would be liable to a fine her Scotch caution asserted itself and the vendor of dcath-to-lleas was promptly told to "gang awa'." At another place lie was more successful, for the housewife bought four .packets at threepence per packet. When her husband came home, she told him of her " bargain," saying that after five years he would be able to spread it all over the house and kill those horrid things that crawled all over the place. But the husband was too eager for reform to wait five long years, so he forthwith opened one of the packets and found it to contain—4>ran I ■' Your new funnel' doesn't crunch on, bowed ami broken, even if a bad year does leave him with nothing but a crop of liens and mortgages, lie prays and acts the way the Irish farmers used to when the potato blight came, lie bucks up like a ride joyous in the limit even if there is an occasional cropper, lie knows that bad years don't average up oftcner than one in seven. He knows that science is gradually reducing an utter failure in the farmer's year to an utter impossibility. The dry farming system will beat the drought, varied or mixed funning defeat the misfortune of the hail, and disinfectants destroy the insect and fungus enemies of crops. He knows that scientific farming is founded on laws as immutable and certain a» Providence. If he looks on those laws lie cannot fail in the end. That is the essence of the New Spirit of the Farm." -The Outlook. ' As had been expected, there was some little excitement at the meeting of ratepayers at Oakiirn on Tuesday night, to discuss the financial niatlii'iis of the Omata Hiding of the Taranaki County. .Mr. 0. A. Adlam. a former member of Ihe County Council, who was in the chair, took exception to the way ill which Hie county engineer and the Hiding foreman carried out their duties. Councillor Andrews reminded Mr. Adlam that lie (Mr. Adlam) Had been a member of the Council, and tiiat if he

was not satisfied with certain matters he should have agitated at (lie .Council table for reforms, instead of at the meeting of ratepayers. The discussion then became spirited. Eventually ,the meeting; bv 22 votes lo 8. decided in favor of toll-gates being re-established, instead of a special rate being levied for the purpose of reducing the Riding overdraft, and added a recommendation to the County Council that a deputation should ho sent lo Wellington to endeavor to induce the. (lovernineul to place a sum on the Estimates for the!

[ maintenance'of the Main-South Road. . The movement formulated for the purpose of making a dignified protest to [ Sir Joseph Ward against Mr T. I-). Taylor's fonvarding, as M.l', for Christchurch North, his now notorious Dreadnought cablegram to the British I'rime Minister, is taking di me shape. Koine fortv prumincnt and representative electors' of Cbristcliurch North have publicly announced their connection with the protest. On behalf of the executive committee it is explained bv Captain. Farthing that they are backed by many who do not care to appear publicly iu tno movement, but still desire to emphatically deny that Mr Taylor had any warrant froin his constituents to connect them with hi» cablegram, and regret that he should have thus rellected upon their loyalty as citizens of the Empire. "We have iio quarrel wit'n Mr Taylor," Captain Farthing said, "nor do we desire to have any repetition of such a disgraceful scene as occurred at the King Edward Barracks when the Navy League meeting was held. Therefore no public I meeting was culled. We have simply consulted a -.lumber of prominent electors with a view of getting an expression of tlieir opinion. 1 would add that all those we consulted, without, exception, condemned the action of Mr Taylor." 'flip executive is soliciting further signatures to the protest, and intends publishing these from time to time. Prices -that ntnke you smile:—Gouts' chrome Bals, standard screwed, usir.l price Us Od, now 10s fid; gents' heavy chrome hoot, usuall price His (id, now 12s Od; gulls' box-calf, best hoot, usual price IDs (Id. now Its lid: gents' heavy kip 15s Od; All 81-ick .football boots, solid toes, Spikes to order. 12s Od; clwive football boots, hard toes, youths' 9a fid. penis' 10s Oil. We've got to clear these lines righ'laway.—A.B.C. Hoot and Shoe Co.. Devon Street, New PlymnnUi.-AiM. Read the Melbourne's [.lice list of good boots: Men's 'strong shoot its, 7s fid: youths' (Is lid; bluchers. 4s lid,.'" lid: women's gum boots, 10s' fid; women's dairy boots, special line, 10s fid; children's strong school boots, .'is lid to 7s (lit; men's chrome link !)s (Id. 10s fid. 12s (Id; men',* box-calf, willow calf, and gla»e kid welted boots, Ids fld pair; men's extra strong kip watertights 14s fid; ladies' dancing shoes', 4s lid to 10s fill; men's dancing pumps, ,7s 6d, 10s Od.-Atfvi , '.

At a meeting held lit Opunako on Saturday a motion was carried in favor of an amending Opunuke Harbor Bill being introduced at the forthcoming session of Parliament, ami a deputation was appointed to wait on the Premier. ■The amended Bill would provide for reserves mid the foreshore being vested in the Board.

A meeting of the llawera branch of the Tariinaki Law Society Was held in the Courthouse on .Monday afternoon for the purpose of discussing' the proposed dissolution of the District Court, it was tile unanimous opinion of the meeting that immediate steps should lie taken to prevent the abolition of the District Court, and after discussing a circular from the Westland Law Society, and upon considering me method by which it was proposed to abolish the Court, a resolution was unanimously passed bv the meeting strongly protestin" a»ai'nst the abo.ition oi the District Court, " such abolition," expressed the resolution, "being undesirable upon the ground that the District Court is a useful, speedy, and inexpensive Court of "real public convenience, and that in the absence of the District Court litigants will incur heavy expense and long delay; and upon the further ground that any* attempt to abolish the District Court bv a proclamation abolishing District Court Districts is an unconstitutional method of abolishing a Com t established by Act of Parliament, and is an invasion of the rights of the people.

Commenting on Sir Robert Stout s remark ancnt the prevalence of a greatei proportion of crime among the denominational educated New Zealanders than anion" the undenominational educated, the Rev. Father Power, writing to the Hawera Star, says:-" The prison re cords of New Zealand and the hooks ot the Supreme Courts teach that the past pupils of Catholic schools are out o the running when crime an. vice and sin are in >,»<•*«<>»• Even in \™"*\ of petty olVcnces against the law, uui not necessarily against conscience oi Clod, our pigmy crinui.als do not war rant the charge of the ■ New /'■ '' representative of the Grand Omit, When Sir Kobcrt Stout crosses to Holland he will find the country tli.it i» ? t! holiest, still the most crimelessj on earth, whose five million F°P> «'/' ;' uiltv of less crime in a year nan <* found in a week in a second-rate it. u'l s he Channel, lint he will lm.l, too,'that in that sweet and crimeless tountrv (education is fnt re > »' tno hands of clergymen and religions, Cathoik A.HieanT a"d Prwliytemn.. Ims itrikiii" fact mav urge him to give up his'nonsensical, and, to the intelligence, farcical contention that Chris tian education produces crime.