LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 156, 27 July 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ngaurohoc is again reported to be ihuwing great activity. Mr. Newton King has received the following cable from his Sydney agent re l;ides:--\Veakcr."

Veterans urn requested to attend tlie fujicral of their lute comrade, .Mr. W. l'\i Criiwfortl. which takes place.this niornin<;- at 11.1.) o'clock. 'J'lic Criterion Hotel is changing hands. .Mr. I'. Mcllvride having sold his interest to .Mr. .t'. ilcKean, late of the Kising Sun I Intel. Auckland.

According to one of the "unemployed" agitators there are over 40,000 men out of work in Sydney at present, and it was decided to carry out a demonstration in force against Parliament.

■ When an attractive-looking young woman, apparently contrite and lull 01 penitence, appears in the dock on a charge of misappropriating the belongings of someone, else, a plea of kleptomania often goes a long way even with the most hard hearted magistrate.—Lyttclton Times.

[ <t'he election of a member to succeed | .Mr. .1. J. Carpenter on the Taramiki ji.'illiuty Council takes place to-morrow. [This candidates are the He v. E. AllanJon and 31 r. Alfred Ccorge. Considerable interest is being taken in the matter by the ratepayers at the New Plymouth end of the Oniata riding. Two 3laoris were amongst those who fwraarded objections to the valuations of their property by the district valuer on hU recent visit to the Eginont county. An showing that the natives are not entirely ignorant of the pakcha laws, it may be mentioned that one of them had tigured out that his property was overvalued by £l7 10s. He. got a. reduction.

Overheard in a local drapery estabI iishment. Lady, newly wed, buying a (lie. "It's for my husband, you know. I Do you think this one would suit him?" I she asked the assistant, as she picked I out a vivid strip of purple and green. "Oh, yes," smiled the lady whose duty it was to "palm oil'" this stock, "he's I (all. you know, and he could wear that." I'lirchase completed. It is reported that a syndicate not a hundred miles from Napier have been experimenting in aviation. A trial flight has been made but it is not claimed that it was nn unqualified success. The syndicate hope, however, to overcome the little defects which were apparent at the trial, and the second attempt at llight 'will ';«s looked forward to ■ with tonsideraMe interest.—Telegraph,

The Government has decidod to issue licenses for seal-fishing m cfiuun islands belonging to New Zealand, acid regulations are gazetted this week. Deer arc getting fairly plentiful on the

west coast of this island, and have been seen botk north and south of Otaki, the ranges frequented being the Tararuas. Tho Raetihi paper, in condemning u

icture show entertainment, says " this

form of exploitation should be earmarked and stamped out with a heavy foot." According to a private letter received from Hastings a party of .Maoris has left for Sydney under engagement to shear

for a'farmer in the Monaro district, New

South Wales.

The "Besses o' the Barn Band" are likely to pay the colonies smother visit. News to that effect has oeen icccivcd by Mr. Wade, conductor of the Wanganui Garrison Band.

There is an improving demand for lections and house property both in

the town and the suburbs. Several sec-

lions have recently nmnged hands in

lower Vogeltown.

People who growl at the Tarauaki County rates should glance at the Stratford County's levy—and pay. At its last meeting the stratrord County Council decided to strike rates as follow: —North Riding 2'/ 2 d, South Riding 2d, East Riding 3d, Mangachu Riding 3d, West Riding i'/J.

There was a fall in apples iu Devon street yesterday afternoon, when a case came crash on the road from a car-

Tier's express. Apples rolled everywhere. A street light could hardly have drawn the small fry more quickly tp the spot. Be it snid to the credit ol the small fry, however, that as far ai couldjbe judged they picked up apples and placed every one in the box. The aduli bystanders cannot all share in this praise. Another side-light on the infant mortality amongst the natives. The other day a Hawera Star reporter was m a local place of business, and a wcll-cun-ditioned Maori appeared. "Want a tin of paby's food," he said, "cheapest you <jot." "Right," said the counter-man, ' .itting the tin of infant's artificial .uurishment on the counter. "That the cheapest!" persisted the Maori. "Yes, sixpence; the other is eightpencc," was the reply. "AH ri," said tne native, "gib me two-shUlin' worth (of tobac and dozen matches." Mr. John Jackson, the well-known timber merchant and llourmiller of Timaru, who died the other day, left i>y his will a sum of £2500.t0 be distributed as follows : £I2OO to endow a children's cot at the Timaru Hospital, £SOO for further improvements at Caroline ■ Bay, and £BOO to the trustees of the Wesleyan Church in Timaru. Mr Jackson slwwed his consideration for his employees (between fifty and sixty in all) by leaving each one that had been with him three years or over a sum of money equivalent to half a year's wages or salary.

The poor are often good friends to , the poor. It wa6 shown at the last , meeting of the Wellington Benevolent I. Trustees that an old couple of 07 andl OS respectively had somehow struggled along up to a week or two ago, when the wife, who had earned 13s a week, | fell and dislocated her shoulder. The 13= paid the rent exactly. A friend had come to the rescue, and had done the work for the aged woman, giving her the money. Both man and woman arc obviously 'entitled to the old age pension, but the man had never applied because he is "no scholar." A witness who. had learnt the art ol how to be happy though married (on 30s a week) gave evidence before the Arbitration Court at Cliristchurch when the private hotels' dispute was being "heard. He said he was a porter at a private hotel, and was getting 30s a week (5s more than the award rate), and was quite satisfied. During his cross-examination by the employees' representative, he further stated that be had a wife and two children, and worked from 10 p.m. till 2 a.m., and from ( ! a.m. to 11 a.m., and had been employed in his present'position for three years.

The Solicitor General has given the opinion that in no case can New Zealand beer be legally sold in bulk except in the original casks—this includes mo gallon jars—which have teen sent out stamped from the brewery; thence the practice of filling small kegs, or jars, by bottlers or hotelkeepers from stamped casks is illegal. Hi view of the fact that the practice has obtained in some parts for many year.', Collectors of Customs have, been requested to give publicity to this instruction, and if, thereafter, unstamped two gallon jars, or kegs, of beer are found, they are to be detained, and the facts reported to the Wellington office of the Department. The men looking [or work reach this part of the country, says the Opunake Times, but some of them acem to be looking for it and praying they won't liud it. A man on the tramp called at a. settler's home n few miles jTCin Opunake, on the Kltham road, a fewnights ago,, and told ,t lale "1 Having walked from »«picr, The far ner gave him supper, and also accommodation for the night. The liext morning ne gave him breakfast, and then told him he could give him some work. "On!" said the man, ''l don't think I want any work to-day. I think I'll go to Opunake." The saiae man readied a neighbor's house that day in time for lunch, having walked about two mile*. There is a block of laud some 70,000 acres ill extent, lyiiij; between the \\'llitotara. and Wanganm rivers, which is, without doubt (says a contemporary) the most valuable stretch of unoccupied laud of its size in Sew Zealand. TJe soil is composed of vegetable mould and volcanic deposit, and is of inexhaustible fertility, and timber—rimu, matai, of at least one million pounds is to be found here. The forest would make a perfect (Sportsman's paradise—lpigiwms, kaka, tui, blue mountain duck, and pigs during the day, and kiwi, uiorcnark, rats, cats, wild dogs, and taipo by night. Let us consider that the 70,000 acres would make 1400 farms of 50 acres ejieh. A family of six on each farm would make a population of 8400, producing wealth to the extent of, say, £210,000 annually.

A! story illustrating the hardships of pioneering days is recalled by an exchange, apropos of the death, at the age of eighty years, of Mr Baptiste Charier, of Okar'ito Forks, South Wostlajid. At the time of the last rush to Lake Jlapourika and Okarito Forks, about 30 years ago, the deceased, well known then as "French Charley," had the misfortune to have one of his legs broken in his claim, As there was no medical oll'icer nearer than Ross, it was decided by the miners oil the field that Charley *lmii|il be carried to Ross on a stretcher for treatment, A sufficient number of volunteers was sooivready for the road, the number totalling several score, The journey occupied nearly a week, along what was then only a bridle track from Boss to Okarito. The patient stood the journey very well, and mider proper treatment was soon his old self again, and leturticd to the southern district, where lie reside.! up to his admission into tile Totara Hospital some time ago.