LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 174, 16 August 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Cabinet has decided to defer the erection of workmen's homes at Napier for the present. Apricots and American plums are blossoming in the Governor's Bay district, Canterbury.

The opium cases against two local Chinaman will be heard in the Magistrate's Court to-day. Some local bodies derive revenue from curious sources. The Waimakariri River Board last year received £173 for osiers grown on one of their reserves. A grand total of 0005 persons were employed on co-operative works during dune. Railways *nd public buildings employed 275 artisans and 3793 laborers, and roads 2537 laborers. The mild winter is not appreciated at Cheviot. Caterpillars have already made their appearance on grass lands, and complaints are made of the ravages of small birds in orchards, especially among the small fruits, the trees being denuded of fruit buds. Tt has been supposed for some time that there is petroleum in the range of hills that lies between McKenzie nd Ihe sea. With a view to investigating prospects Mr. F. Smith, of the Lake llrunner Off Company, is' (says the Christchurch Press) on a visit to Cheviot.

One of the "unemployed" who went to . the Government biisbfelling works on the Eangitntau block found the work not to his liking and left. Whilst he war, trying his unskilled hand in the forest, people had been hunting for him high anil low, to hand him a legacy of £BOOO.

For some reason that is unknown to tlicm, the rents of the local Maoris, beneficiaries under the West Coast Settlement Reserves, have of late shown a substantial decrease. The natives are under tlie impression that their money is being seized by the Government for the payment of the Dreadnought! A whirlwind eddied down Currie street on Saturday afternoon, playing "old Harry" witli umbrellas and ike impediments in its path. The main door of Messrs Webs'ter Bros.' mart uaß temptingly open, so it rushed boisterously in, and made a bid for the window, of which two panes were dropped into the adjoining right-of-way. A wag in Masterlon hits perpetrated a hoax at the expense of seven guileless insuvaucp agents (says the local Times). A well-known employee at one of the tailoring establishments in towns has nnviUUnflv ___ i. i..-

pprsismitly tnniou a deaf car to the eloquence of tlio local agents,'. This morning Hip heart of eacli was gladdened by tile receipt of a post card asking him to call at the establishment at 11.45 a.m. regarding the insurance of tlie one ivho had hitherto resisted their individual plausibility. It spooks well for their punctuality'that they all arrived within a minute of each other, prn>ed with policies and all necessary data. Naturally it did -not take them long to discover 'that, they hud bee# hoaxed, and as each pulled out his' post card' making the aj/poiutiuent the language increased in intensity and Inridnei-s. Xow seven .irate men are looking for the perpetrator of the joke. A little before eight o'clock oil AVcd■lesday evening, hvo voung men were seen wending their way, stealthily,with cut-like tread, along tlie hack streets oi Mnitara Hast. They were evidently on mischief bent, for they talked in whispers, anil steered Clear of (hose who were about. Once they espied a figure, evidently knowing it 'to he that of a man watching their movements, for they inade some acknowledgement of their belief, ami they ran. Xow this' watcher was a well-known citizen, who .had gone

out to *re tlic "airship," and lie. wns keen (in following up any fake. lie w.ts led to conclude the ynmig men mentioned were "inventors," meaning to astonish tile natives. So lie followed, and reaching a quiet corner he waited. I'vescntly tlip t'vvo came along, and they wore seen to lie currying" something Thinking the way was clear they gor. to work, when an unexpected' developoccurred. "Something" came into collision with the electric light wires, nml the watcher rushc(), out to see what it was. As lie did so, there were vanishing figures, and the game Was up when ;1 large kite.was jijtlled down from the wires. Tt'kcl a liglitly-coiistructed lamp at one end, and that presumably wou'd have been set alight hi,ul the scherie turned out better, Ij/usV, making an ''airship" [or tin; inhabitant* of "Wivitnra hast to gaze upon with-awe and admiration.—Mail. Perhaps tlie most important speech 3[ the Tress Conference ('writes a T-ondon correspondent) was that by Mr. Marconi.

Ceitaiuly it \v;i: 5 Hie most modest of nil the speeches. The (leleirates could I I scarcely emlit Hint this,' slight, youthlul Italian, speaking good, lmt halting I nervous English. conlil lie one of the'l greatest inventors of all time. If TO u I sat opposite to Mr. Marconi in a train. I and had had half-an-hour in wliieli to study him, you would probably decide ' that lie was n student at a universih' or a confidential clerk with a line' capacity for keeping his moutli closed lint m his retiring, modest way he savs 1 momentous revolutionary tilings, lie just them. There is no attempt nt elleet, 110 emphasis. He nnnnuimnc

m iii ' mjmaMs. lie aTliioullcos »n«no' V T-' 110 ''"I" 8 t0 IIC I"HM«in R -0,(1011 words a day by wireless across tiio Atlantic just m the gamp voice as he might remark that it was a pleasant nwrmug. He tolls the conference that •'II nonli 11 minutp is the rate at which messages can now I* sent to America by cables. i member of th; conference vises' and dedares that the rate is over " won,s «■ minute. "The gentleman may lie quite right,'' replied Mr. Mareoni, without the slightest show of n* I gresaiveness. "Speeds :v»?v,l can on'i

, ° .v* w|;L-i-uf» -vwy,-.- i can on. • • W; considerable practice, 50 is Ml that I can do l)v one of those cables." Rut his stvlo, although yo quiet, is pecu- . mrly impressive. Xo one doubted that those 20,000 words a day would be sent through the air to America by August. >ou ask tho delegates five years hence which speaker they followed'most cloio-! vJ" '* raa ' Britain, and wliieh personality aroused their curiosity. most strqji". v. (licy w i]| probably tfftrgel nil about l.ord Rosfbery and the whole crowd : of other public men. aud.d&lare for ti>is modest young Italian. After all, the man of action is the hero. • '£>>, v 1 Members .. .of t'ie Equitr.bla Building Society of Now Vlymouth tffKirat anil hecoiid Groups) notified'.thut-sub. Bcnntions' wilt fo due dm) payable to<toy _ (Monday) n t office, uirrie-strcet, from 0 a.m. to 1-2.30, from

) n.m. to 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. to A ij.m.— Advt. . " ,p\ **' Tomljhßon. fiecwtety. i mi hsWiitei-, JtorthnmiitQii, i"' , sa y 3: "T would ,notJie without a bottle of your GRAND'Co'iigh Remedy Jt any time. I use tliij word -"Grand" fearlessly and with confidence that nny one will take Chamberlain's Cough Kemedv according to directions the result will greatly surprise the most sccotical. I myself found it wonderful in its speedy action and curative properlies, and never lose an opportunity jf lecOMimendincr it to any one wiio is iroitnled with ,1 cough or cold." For | Mle iby all chemists and stnrekfteners. They soothe like a ballad harmonic, lour ailments no longer are chronic; They're swift, safe, and sure, They effect certain cure, So let us thank Pills Laxo-Tonic, T.AXO-TONTC PILLS, W/ u <\ and Is 8d- . Bullock and Johnston. Agents, New Plymouth.

"The game is not what it used to be," remarked a cabman in conversation wiMi a Christchurch Press (reporter. "The electric cars have just about settled us, and now the taxi-cabs are putting in a n appearance. The City Council don't want us either, and altogether we are having a pretty bad time of it." - A horse belonging to Mr. W. Twee. | dale wa- :i-covercd about midnight last night juiiiiied in between a stone and sod wall and 11 shed on a section in l'owdcrham street. The policemen on duty, together with the lire brigade station men and others, went to the resell', and by.dint of a couple of hours' hard I work with spades' niiil ropes and a "long, strong pull," extricated thcanimal. The horse was lying on its back in the ditch, and in such a pu.-ition that it would probably have succumbed before daylight luid it not been discovered.

Messrs. Aleock and Co., of Wellington, received cabled information last week from their Melbourne house to the effect that in a billiard match now proceeding in Sydney between Lindru.n, Australian billiard champion, and Master George (irav, who recently toured New Zealand, Gray made a break of 574, '■( which 4!13 wii« scored oil' the red ball, Grav's average for the session being 2.55. This wonderful achievement constitutes the Australasian billiard record and th.' ■world's record off the red ball, Gray in both hwuiiccs having broken his preI vimis records.

The wisdom of afforestation is b. ing (and has been for several years pusl) sti-ikiimly demonstrated at the Christchurch' Domain. When this large arch was first laid out tree-planting occupied a large place ill the policy that was followed. In the process of lime it was found necessary to thin out the trewr with an increasingly heavy hand, until the sale of timber has come to be 11 considerable item of revenue to the Domain Hoard. This year, owing to a drastic cleaning up of all parts' of the park and gardens, an exceptionally large amount of timber is available for sale.

It commands a ready market, and shows a substantial .margin of profit over the cost of labor for felling and splitting. ' It is not only in France thnt postal

employees are discontented with their lot, for the Chinese postal workers are also in a state of ferment. Thy arc strongly protesting against the remuneration which they receive and which they consider little less than an msdlt when compared with the difficulty of obtaining employment in the postal

service of the Celestial Empire. Tho training is arduous and full of peril. The men urge, and apparently with reason, that as it is only the bravest who

adopt , the calling of postman, the emoluments should not be in an invcrsp ratio to the. difficulty of attainment. A Son of Heaven, wishing to enter the! postal service, must, to begin with, give evidence of courage, robustness, power of endurance, ability to traverse great distances over mountains mid valleys, through dangerous forests frequented by wild beasts and robbers. These dan. gerous journeys must be undertaken alone and accomplished in a fixed timi. After this the would-be letter-carrier is sent into uncanny places which are considered to be the abode of evil spirits. When the Chinaman has satisfied the authorities in regard to these matters' he is appointed a letter-carrier. Mr. A. W. Hogg addressed a largelyattended meeting at Shannon on Monday evening. He related certain incidents in his experiences as a Minister that led to his retirement, and denied emphatically that there had been any compulsion. The speech that had given offence was on the lines' of the late Mr. Rallance's policy, which some who called ] themselves Liberals had abandoned.' .Surrounded by place-seekers, Ministe s icscnihled a party of Russian travellers attacked by hungry wolves. Asked to go out to propitiate them, he readily did so, biit the wolves' had fled. The Premier had made a dramatic exit from New Zealand to arrange regarding Dreadnoughts mid future loans. He (Mr. Hoggi had made a dramatic exit from the' Cabinet to awaken the people to a sense of their danger. The Premier's danger signal was the Jingo flag —his was the flag of freedom from landgrabbers and usurers. The bulk of (he address was devoted to land and currency. Mr. Ifogg commended the use of the graduated tax against monopoly and aggregation, and urged that this currency should be liberated from the control of the banks. This sentiment provoked much enthusiasm, and was followed by a resolution of thanks, approval, and confidence, including cheers and musical honors.