LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 188, 13 September 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Butter buyers met several factory companies' directors in New Plymouth on Saturday, but no business has transpired. It is understood that the highest price o offer was lO'/jd. A diner ra a local restaurant on Saturday insisted on having very weak tea, on the ground that tea was bad for the stomach. Then lie breamed a bar and swallowed three "neat" whiskies.

The Chief Postmaster yesterday received a notification from Auckland that the Mokoia, from Sy.lt,. v. w .is expected to reach harbor about -i p.m., and that the New Plymouth mails would go forward by the Main Trunk line the same night.

Some people lose their balance when in the vicinity of a binning build'ng. One enthusiastic individual who was salvaging saddlery from Saturday night's lire, hauled valuable light harness out of the show window and threw it into about four inches of water on the floor!

Sir Joseph Ward assures me (wriios the London correspondent of the f'liristcliureli Evening News) there is not the slightest foundation for the statement that he will try to lloat a loan on behaif of the. Dominion while he is in London. Tin- Dominion lias already, he states, secured all the money it'requires, and there is no necessity for raising moiiev here.

The public who crowded Devon street on Saturday evening during the progress of the fire refused to keep back, "so a rope was requisitioned to form a barrier. This was effective in its way, but it was the escape, of a nozzle that eventually drove the pcoplu back. As the hose wriggled and spouted water wild'y litre and there, there was a general backing and trampling on toes that could not have been brought about by. any other means. There was no further trouble. The, Dannevirke Advocate says that a local resident, Mr. Turpin, has invented an attachment to the chaffcutting machine which is expected to revolutionise the business of eliaffcutting. One of the difficulties hitherto has been the need for repeated stoppages to sharpen rite knives. In some cases it lias been necessary to provide a duplicate set of knives at an extra cost of between £3O an! .C4O. Mr. Turpin's invention is an automatic sharpener which puts an cd"c on the knives as they revolve, and consists of a block of emery adjusted to the knives by a set of springs by which its pressure against the blades can be regulated.

While loading cattle on the Waiinea at the breakwater on Saturday afternoon, a heifer managed to get loose en the wharf and created a great deal of excitement and compelling several ladies who were about to flee to safety. By the aid of u rope the animal was la"sooed, 'but the beast was excited and still tore, about with the rope attached to it, and the lassooer, mana"cd to get entangled in tile rope, with "the result that he was brought down and one of his legs injured to such an extent that he. had to be conveyed to his Imine and medically attended to. The heifer was eventually got back to the shir,' s side and hoisted aboard.

Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (First and Second Groups) are notified that subscriptions will be due and payable today (Monday) at Secretary's office, Ciirrie-street, from 9 a.m. to 12.30, from 1 p.m. to 5 pjn., and 7 p.m. to 0 b m Advt. German national jphools now give J fref dentistry to poAchildrcn, ° I

Mr. J. J. Virgo, National Y.M.C.A. secretary for Australasia, and general secretary of the Sydney Y.M.C.A., is at present on a visit to New Zealand.

Presiding over a mass meeting of Jews in Wliitcciiiipel, Mr. Israel Zangwill advocated the claims of Mesopotamia as a centre for the concentration of the nice. lie pointed out that there were five million Jews in Russia who would be glad to form a new nation there. kind is valuable, or at all events dca.', in the heart of Auckland. Last week a fifty ycais' lease of a lot with 33ft frontage and lOSft deep was passed in ai £725 a rear. On the reclamation near the railway wharf the Harbor Board asks the City Council £17,750 for a site for a powerhouse.

An Aucklnnd lady who clings to tae superstition that opals bring bad luckgave away an opal brooch to an acquaintance in exchange for a greenstone tiki. Last week she saw the husband, of that acquaintance in mourning, and it distressed her exceedingly. "I knew," she moaned, "that I was giving those people misfortune." "Yes," a friend answered drily, "his wife's aunt died aid left them £SOO a year."

With reference to the anniversary of the death .of Alajor Von Tempsky (September 7th), it is not generally known (writes a correspondent to The Dominion) that his sword, which was not included in the funeral pyre, which (he victorious Natives made of the wmle leader and his unfortunate comrades, i* now in iwssessiion of an old Alawi woman in the Taraiinki district. The manuscript of the incantation pnuiniinced bv the tohunun when the bodies of Von Tempskv and his men were being burnt is also in the possession of >< Native, but has -never yet been in print, In conversation with a Stratford Post reporter ilr. T. Hiirle Giles. Conciliation Commissioner, said, apropos of the Tarajiaki dairying dispute, that he had never come across a dispute fought so touglily and yet with such good feeling and

absence of personalities'. The representatives of both sides had battled strenuously on behalf of their respective interests, but had approached the question with an earnest desire to consider the matters at issue with due regard to the responsibility of the position and the far-reaching effect it would have on Taranaki's leading industry. [ With reference to the cable message from Paris reporting Dr. Doyen's successful transplantation, of a live sheep's vein into the leg of a patient suffering from arterial aneurism, a contemporary states that a n operation of a similar nature was performed five years ago »y Dr. Scott, of Ouclmnga, A man came from Melbourne suffering from extensive disease of the upper bone of the arm. Dr. Scott had a sheep killed immediately outside the operating theatre. A bone'of the sheep's leg was swiftly transferred into the upper arm of the man. The wound healed by first intention, and an X-ray photograph subsequently taken showed complete union, the patient obtaining perfect use of his arm.

Mr. Gil Hoskins, the genial manager of West's Pictures, now showing weekly in New Pliynioutli, is accompanied in his a travels by a whippet dog presented to him by the members of the Knlgoorlic Whippet Club. Mr. Hoskins' dog. (Ilory, is the pride, of its owner and the mascottc of the company. In Australia whippet racing is in great vogue and the dogs are raced between tapes over varying .short distances. These animals have the appearance of very small greyhounds. Those entered for tho race in Australia weigh under 20'b and stand about 20 inches high. They are vcrv agile in their movements and exceptionally fleet of foot, being recognised as the fastest quadrupeds in the world, ("Ilory is an extraordinarily good specimen of its breed and is credited with covering 100 yards in six seconds. Glory is believed to be the only dog of its kind in New Zealand and was a subject of great curiosity during Mr. Hopkins' visit to New Plymouth. A local shipping authority believes that Nelson will prove a. considerable rival to Wellington now that Nelson is accessible to the large liners. "It needs no more than a. casual glance at the map I" r-how how Nelson is going to beat Wellington for the West Loast transhipments," ho remarked. "Vessels, instead of transhipping their cargo for the West Coast at Wellington, will in the near future tranship at Nelson for two reasons—firstly, because they are nearer koine, and secondly that goods can be transhipped imuen cheaper at Nelson than at Wellington, with its heavier charges. Wellington lias got to pay for some costly works, as well as for the dock ''now lieing constructed. Nelson has not much of a load to carry, ami therefore can do the work cheaper and as efficiently. It would not lie much of a surprise if Nelson eventually captures Wiinganui and New Plymouth transhipments as well." ''lt does not often happen that mortality takes place amongst sheep on account of too much feed, but such has been the case at Mangatu," remarked a settler from that district to the Napier Herald. The winter has been so mild that there has been n n abundance of feed all over the district. Not knowing how the season would end, the farmers were unable to put more stock on their land at the beginning of the winter, but cis it turned out the sheep hive, literally speaking, been in clover. The outcome of this has had a none 100 pleasing effect amongst the ewes in the Mangatu district. Having had such an extraordinary quantity of feed for the time of the year, the ewes got over-fat, with fatal results when Jambing commenced. '■There has been," said the settler referred to, "as many as 1 to 2 per cent, of ileatlis of ewes during lambing at Mangatu this season owing to their being too fat." On the other hand, ho states, there has been practically no loss at all amongst hoggets. State Insurance, and a scheme which the inventor, Mr. 11. Hill, Hawke's Bay, puts forward as quite feasible, was the subject of ii paper read at the ]as* monthly meeting of the Hawke's Bav Philosophical Society. The scheme is as follows:—Every worker between sixteen and fifty years of age should contribute one sliillinjr per week for forty weeks ; n the year, and the employer and fiovcrnnwTit should subsidise that sum at Hie rate of sixpence each. There were 234,01G workers in the 'Dominion, and the annual return would be ;Cf)33,4fi4. The following expenditure would' be probable:—Sick payments at 21s Od p'T head, .t2."52,212 4s, and out-of-work pavine.nl s to 0038 nersons for sixteen weeks at 25s per week", £120.7110. The pension sclieipe allowed for payments of His : er week to 11."00 workers, and would allsorb ,f-IS7.nos. The total pavments amounted to CSIM.n-IO or .£"7 V'.l 'ess than (he total i:,co,„c. It is' claimed that the system ,s self-supporting and would not affect the present forms of thrift in any wav.