LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 161, 2 August 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Madame Melkt has been having splendid receptions during her Queensland tour. At Rockhampton, some people, disappointed at not gaining entrance, got a ladder and mounted the roof oi' the theatre. Someone, seeing the ladder, put it for safety under the stage. The musical enthusiasts on the roof, ashamed to be caught there, made no sign, and remained on their perch all night, hoping to find a way down by daylight. But at 8 o'clock in the morning, a policeman spied them, and got them safely to .Mother Earth! In the course of his evidence at the Christchurch sittings of the Police Commission, Mr. Laurenson, ,M.l\, replying to Mr. Bishop, who asked if members of Parliament were not badgered with all manner of complaints and requests, said that last year lie forwarded over 3000 letters, and he supposed that he averaged from eight to sixteen per day. "Do you dud the stamps?" asked Mr. Bishop. '"Except when Parliament is sitting," replied Mr. Laurenson. ''That's a pretty big tax," commented Mr. Bishop. ''Yes/ remarked Mr. Laurenson. '"lts not a paying game to be a member of Parliament."

A paragraph has been ill circulation stating that a witness in the Arbitration Court had learned the act of how to keep a wife and two children on 30s pur week. A hotel porter writes to the Christchurch Press: "I am the witness referred - to. I will tell you the secret. My wages arc 30s per week, but 1 make on an average 10s per week in tips, which brings my weekly earnings up to ;C2 per week, and also my keep. I live in my own house, which is paid for, thereby having no rent to pay. 1 also have a hanking account, the interest of which keeps myself, wife and family in clothing. I also have a quar-ter-acre section, which will keep us in vegetables, and I pay cash for all I purchase. I am therefore able to buy at the cheapest markets."' '

11l an interview at Chiistchurch, Professor Manes, of Berlin, paid a tribute of admiration to the scenic beauties of New Zealand. ''There is no country in the world," he said, "which has so much beauty in such a small space, for you have in your country all the attractions of Italy, Norway, and Switzerland, and ether places besides. The Only pity is v.hat you have only one million people. There is one tiling 1 admire very niucli ill New Zealand, and that is the Press of the country. To look at the papers one would think there was a population of at least twenty millions of people here. Their journalistic standard is high, and some of them are most excellently illustrated." Referring to the death of the Rev. Mr. Long through an acetylene gas generator explosion at Tomoana, Hawke's Bay, a correspondent of the' Napier Telegraph writes: "I would like io draw public attention to the careless manner in which acetylene installations arc handled generally.' I have had twenty-live years' experience with acetylene gas, but 1 would not think of going near the best generator made with a naked light. I think it is essential for the public to know thig for the safety of all concerned. To talk of any generator being safe ninety-nine out of one hundred times is as bad as puttiii" one's head into the lions' mouth nineti" nine times, knowing you will leave it (hei'e the next time."

Discussing the reasons for the present attitude of Australian opinion towards •Yew Zealand affairs, the Wellington Dominion says:—'-It may to some exteat be due to the publicity given to the prevailing state of unemployment, but we are inclined to think that the reason, lies deeper. We have been for a very long time a very boastful neighbor to Australia. We have for years past held ourselves lip to tlic admiration of our countrymen in Australia and elsewhere. Our prosperitv has ben blazoned forth, and we have proclaimed ourselves as 'leading the world' in a \aueu uf ways. \lt have attracted population from Australia in this way, and we have diverted attention from Hr also. In fact, at times our selfsatislacliyii must have jarred tile susceptibilities of our neighbors vcrv severely. Is it to be wondered at, theretore that our friends in Australia should take advantage of our temportiry cheek and make the most of it? Ot con use, we arc very good friends, hut «e arc m a sense rivals also, and for the moment Australia has the advantage. Kilt mailers are straightening out 111 .New Zealand, and with the con" .'iig summer Australian opinion mavsufler a change. Couhl the Government be forced to press on a policy of opening up the vast areas of idle native land lor settlement by Europeans we should venture to prophesy on this point Willi greater eoniidCileD. !,

Perhaps the most striking feature of : the Imperial Press Delegates' tour was the speech made on Kith June by Mr l'Khardt, one of the South African delegates, at the banquet given by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield. Mr. Fichardt is the , 1 of "1 he Friend," of Bloemfoiitein lie fought with the Boers in the °.u 1 African war, and was mai(e a jiiisonor. Replying t„ t ) (0 toSt6t o{ „ T]lc t-uosts, he Slid; "England brought to my country war and devastation. She conquered the Hug 0 f the country but she did not con,]iie r the heart and spirit of the race. After the war there was an aftermath of bitterness—the bitterness of a sullen and discontented people who waited the opportunity to strike another blow for that freedom for which ,"Z T f'T", 80 But that w as a wonderful day. A wonderful tliiii" liappc7ic,l; 1,1 spit,, of all the cost, in spite of all the millions of money that ,'inll f?', r 1 !"!"' 0 ' 1 nml tl,e Pi-ceious that had been shed, von came to us open-handed, gracious, "and kindly an; presented us will, the freedom' which we asked for. (Cheers). And you then, for the first time, and I hope for ever conquered the hearts of the South African people, (Loud ~|l r, n . s , What ot the future? We, in my conntry, have watched with a certain amount f}t .envy wliat the greater sister dominions across the was Have been able to do. We are a Uttlo country and -we are poor Mo cannot present Dreadnought*. but tins I can promise, that ; ( ovor f "r e .'? n attacks the Empire in South Africa, jt will be the uncrnV 1 rifle of the lloer which will give Great ' Britain s answer on the wild and lonelv I tout. (Loud ehcei's.) * i

a | Writing of the recent Press Confer--0 ence. IjTr. w. A. Parkinson, proprietor lI of tiie Hawera Star, who is at present f in England. says:—"Tlie conference has * f *T. ur t a very curious and in- * l tf es * ni £.illustration of how unexpected l» effects arise from apparently inadequate - It U (tup that an object—in 2 fact the main ol>joct—of the gathering ? 7 as ., desire of the Empire's Press to 1 do its duty better in the service of the » Empire, but one ventures (o say with-: • out much fear of contradiction that in- i • creased practical efficiency was in view. J 1 and 'that it was generally anticipated that in conference the best means of securing this would he the principal' sub* ject. of interchange of experience and 'nought and ideals. But in fact, so far -"-whatever attention may subsequently he paid to such matters—the conference has developed (j nni writing on the Oth of June) into a very remarkable gathering at which the loading statesmen of the Empire have delivered speeches of world-wide importance. It has become, in tact, a conference between the men hiw give efltvt to public opinion and the men who presumably express public opinion, and the main subject js the problem of arising out of the entirely new conditions which the statesmen of the day have to face. Tfc >s a conference nHsohitelv nninue in its I character, a conference for which there i* nor constitutional -authority; and really it has been made tfienxieasioii o, mi entirely new develop.mi'iiT—an appeal bv statesmen of the H. hmpire through an unrepresentative or at anv rate an unofficial bodv. to the peoples i n all -parts of '{Tie TJmpive to > unite for the defence and preservation of the Empire against the new forces which the twentieth eonturv has brought ? <nto being." * I The population of Russia is incroasri" ai the rate of y,soo.WX) V or annum. For Children's HueWng Cough at mght, Peppermint Cure, Is 0d and 2s 63, r

Willows in sheltered spots are breaking into leaf before the trees have shed their last year's coat.. Teachers who spent their last penny on .Saturday in reaching town iwould have to 'borrow. The usual monthly remittance to pay the salaries was, with the usual Dc; i.-.rtmental promptitude, not forthcoming.

The u : monthly meeting of the County l_*...ncil will' lie held to-day. Amongst other business appearing on the order paper are the matters of the proposed further subdivision of the Omnia riding and the reduction of Government subsidies on rates.

A suggestion is made that in framing the sc]iedu<e lor tile forthcoming rosu sliu\v there should be special awards lor roses grown from locally-obtained trees. It is pointed out that some of our nurserymen are adepts in the art ot "budding," and that they are able to supply rose-trees lit to compete with any imported ones. The committee will no doubt take the mutter into consideration. The nurseryman can ensure their produce being so treated by offering special prize, i themselves, cither individually ut collectively. The death occurred at Bluff last week of -Mrs. .Marjory Leith, at the age of 'Jo years. .Mrs. Leith, with her husband and one eon, came to New Zealand in the barque Mary in 184'J, after a long passage of six months. The ne settlers were given a section off Princes street, i-'uncdin, and 50 acres of land, and they eventually settled on the iaicn. i*'or three years Mrs. Leith did not sec ailother white woman. A move was made to Glndlivld, North Taieri, to a 2UO-acrc farm. 11l 18(il Mr. and Mrs. Leith went to Southland, 'where they were the lirst ■settlers at Mokotua, and in 18(13 Mrs. Leith lost her husband. For the last twenty years she had lived with her daughter at lllull', and she retained her fatuities in their entirety until a fewdays before her death. Mrs. Leith (says the Otago Daily Times) is survived by two sons and two daughters. Her grandchildren number 34, and her greatgrandchildren 30.

Memories of a painful display of unhappy marital relations were revived on Saturday morning' in the Magistrate's Court, when Henry Hoskin, an elderly man, applied for a maintenance order against his wife, Caroline Hoskin. Not so very long ago these parties were before the Court, the positions then being reversed, the wife being the complainant, alleging and, to the satisfaction of the Court, proving her husband's violence and cruelty and persecuting annoyance, to which she owed her then precarious state of health. In this case the complainant conducted his own case, tile defendant being represented by Mr. 0. H. Weston. The Magistrate said he could not feel satisfied that Hoskin was destitute and entitled to receive money from his wife's estate, lie had no business to be short of cash, for he could get work if he kept away from the drink. 'Me reminded the plaintiff that he had been before the Court on twentythree occasions, principally as the result of drink—drunkenness or breaches of prohibition orders. . The application would be refused.