LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 96, 20 May 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

n The Normanby Dairy Factory Coin jiany has doc-idej. to instal cheese plants Jit its factory aiul creameries, (j Complaint is made by tin; Otago Daily Times of a practice 011 tiio parr, of the y Income Tax Department iu sending out cl "fishing" circulars regarding mortgages !(• when tiie same arc not still current.

Lamb, proprietor of the Tararua vineyard in the Wairarapa, has been advised by a high legal authority that the carrying of no-license in ilasterton will not affect his business ill the manufacture and sale of wine.

111 farewelling District Judge Hazelden yesterday the members of the 11awcra tfar strongly protested against the abolition .of the District Court of 11avera. The Chamber of Commerce, Borough Council and County Council have joined in the protest.

At a meeting of the High School-Board lield yesterday, applications for the position of assistant master at the school wore considered. Messrs. Fraser, Smart, and McDiarmid were appointed to go hilly into three of the applications, and lo report to a meeting of the Board. Accounts amounting to £lO2 13s were passed for payment.

•The following amusing Melba story is being told:—An elderly lady, who wad not purchased her ticket for the " popular" concert in Wellington last week, was determined to hear the diva, and managed it by a clever ruse. The police were clearing the corridors of the overflow from the immense audience packed into the Town Hall, when she set up I j) cry that she had dropped her ticket. Ushers and policemen endeavoured 10 find the non-existent admission card, and as the old lady ?anl bewailed her loss—"I will not have another chance of hearing Madame Melba!"—a sympathetic management procured a front seat for her! In the District Court at llawera on Tuesday, before District Judge Hascldeiu Mr. T. B. Crump, solicitor, of J'.icham, appeared in support of an application for approval of composition lo creditors in the estate of R. X. McMillin, tailor, Jfltham. Mr. Crump said all the formalities had been complied with. The terms of the composition provided that i €IOO should be paid into the assignee's liands and the balance necessary to make up 7s (id in the V. on the »p----1 proval of composition. The ;Cl<)l) had been paid. The D.O.A. (Mr, C. A. Budge) said the creditors seemed to be in sympathy with the bankrupt and wished to assist him in every way possible, llis Honor granted a certificate of approval on the terms of the composition being fulfilled.

The fact of discarded New Zealand rifles being in the hands of the daring hill-tribes of Xorth-West India is not a cheerful thing to contemplate when one is aware of the continual watch which bus to be kept on these 'iiardy tents, who have never been brought into subjection, and who take advantage of the slightest relaxation to raid the fertile frontier lauds. Recently a Wei-1 lliugton Dominion representative held converse with one of a syndicate of three gentlemen who purchased moat of tine arms offered for sale by the Defence Department nearly two years ago. He states that in connection with the transaction nothing was doue that was not in accordance with the conditions oi sale. -Certain papers were turned up, showing that of the arms purchased 2->) cases were shipped by the Rakaia, 1.10 cases by the Mamari, and 1)8 cases i>y the lonic, all of which were purchased by a Birmingham firm, and their shipment was watched bv the Defence Department. Another lot oi papers, pinned together, were filled with nothing but columns of figures, the numbers of all the rilles bought. A copy of those numbers, he understood, had been forwarded to the Army authorities at Home »>\- the Defence Department. "All the arms purchased on that occasion," said tli.* informant, "did not leave the country. The Lee-Remington and some of toe Martini-Henry rilles are still here, and 1 could show you a stack of bayonets in tlii* town that belonged to the Sniders. If something has happened that should not, you may take my word t'.if fault is not* at this end."