LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 264, 14 December 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. D. Wilkic, of W'aitotara, haa leased his farm of 31/ acres at 30s per acre. Complaints iffioilt the dryness of tUo weather in southern Taranaki are ji ready being made. _A borough councillor remarked last night that people were .being "continuously killed in motor-car accidents in England, A match between the Opunake and Manaia. Tennis Clubs took place at M'l naia on Saturday, resulting in a win .he local team by 78 to tlo. The Taranaki County Council has decided to ask the Minister of Internal .air* to take the necessary steps to merge the remnant of the old Henui road district in the county. The value of the cargo which the Corimia took yesterday for transhipment to the Turakina is estimated a. the respectable sum of £1)3,398 os, This is 'based on a value of 110s per cwt. According to the County Council foreman, the motor waggons are very easy on the roads. Though one had bse'i running for a month on the Main South road and drawing big loads no damage whatever was done to the road. The Hope of Kgmont Juvenile Tcmp'e, Xo. 25, i.0.G.T., was held in St. Mary's Hall last night, the Temple being opened 'by C.T. Sis. I, Connett. There wis i a good attendance. His. 'f. Connett \Von Mrs. Legg's prize. The brothers again ■won the banner. I In our report of the local horticultural show credit was given to Mr. S. Longstaff for showing two new variolic of potatoes for exhibition only. They were exhibited by Mr. G. V. Tate, who has tested them and strongly recommends them to growers. A fire which occurred at Messrs .1. Masters and Son's bakehouse, StraUoM, caused an alarm to be rung on Saturda > afternoon. The conflagration was impressed before much harm was done, i'liJ. £25 will probably repair the damairo. A few bags of ilour were spoiled by water.—Post. A few years ago the town of Napier was bounded on the inland side by an impassable swamp, wlncli in times oi flood became a wide sheet of water. 'Much of this has been reclaimed, and last week, an exchange reports, the Harbor Board, in whom the former ffivainp was vested, let on 21 year leases a number of quarter-acre sections on the reclamation at from £5 10s to year. The usual weekly session of the lament Jjodge, No. 112, 1.0. G.T., was held in St. Mary's Hall last evening, the C. I'.. Bro. G. W. Hartnell. presiding over a large attendance. Two new niemla.s were initiated. Congratulations «iv;.

sent to Hro. E. Holding on his Ulinl bil l,today. Bro. A. White was elected librarian. Ill# ti.T. was asked to convev greetings to any lodge he may visit when in Auckland. Reporting upon his inspection of the Basham patent concrete block roadwey at Eltham recently, Mr. J. Brown', chairman of the Tanmaki County Council, informed his colleagues yesterday that the scheme was too expensive for this district. The laying down of a road on these lines would cost JLCI2OO a mile, which was fai and away ahead of , the cost here. But on the Hl'thnm road it was costing UOO or X-100 a mile for maintenance. So there the new prucess wag likely to be of some value.- Jl appeared to him that tile cost of maintaining the track and the metalled road outside the blocked road would prove a fairlr expensive matter. Whi'st on the spot he had discussed with the .engineers several matters in connccti.vi with the work, and inspected it critically. He would prefer not to pass judgment upon the scheme until it lnj 'heen in actual use fpr a few years. NO HOUSEHOLD ' Should lie without a bottle, of Dr. Sheldon's Magnetic Liniment; a reliable remedy for cuts, bruises, aches, pains, rheumatism, Imnbago, etc. Absolutely guaranteed. Price, Is Dd and 3s. Ob-1 tainable everywhere, i

The wholesale thinning-out of the ,I'ont ill Lakes llotorua and liotoiti la idvocated by the HoUiriia Times. "Rotoua was ami is," says our eontempoary, "the angler's paradise; hut it has she fault of allowing the angler to till lis basket with too great ease. If the sporting angler had to troll, or whip .In: water all day, and then deem himself well rewarded by a basket of lozen Ash, lie would appreciate tlwlin II ik-Ii more highly- As it is', lie ean go ml and land up to 25 ill two or three mors, and the sport, wanting the elenentof chance, palls 011 him. lie suiters 111 short, from a plethora of riches." "Modern inventions and manufactures have been responsible for the introduction of some execrable words into the English language," said -Mr. J. C. Adams in a lecture on "The Vulgar Tongue" lie fore the Chrisleluireh Cathedral Unior. recently, lie said that When lie was a boy a vigorous controversy waged as tc whether ••telegraphinie" or "telegram' should be used for the useful article now known by the latter term, but nowadays the most horrible hybrids' were accepted without question. lie instanced auto mobile and bicvele as terms ob| ' Lion able on account of their hybridise, and said that "bike" was to be preferred, a; it was at least "pure." Mr. Daniel Grove, whose father wa> a battery-owner at the Thames in the early days, and a member of the Auckland Provincial Council, has been electee first president of the South African I'nion Club, which lias been formed tc promote the union of the white race throughout South Africa. In a lettei to Mr. W. -J. Napier, of Auckland, Mr. drove, who was born in Auckland and educated at the Thames, says:—"iliis country is on the eve of vast developments,' both with regard to mining, agriculture, and stock farming, and 1 think that in ten years' time the last trace ol racial animosity will have disappeared through the intelligent awakening of all clas'ses to a sense of the importance ol a united .nationality." Amongst the present visitors to New Zealand is Mr. W. A. Fillers, foil" :t,ha Keynsham Stud, Bristol, England. Speakin" to a Waikato Times representative lust, week, lie said that he was s'o much impressed with t'he management of the Kuakura Slate Farm that he intended to induce his son to come out froim! Home and study Jsew Zealand agricultural methods' there. Asked as to the difference lietween fanning ill England and New Zealand, Mr. fillers said that there was un idea ill the colonial mind that Englishmen were unable to farm. He wanted to put that right. There were fanners in England as good as any in the world, who knew exa'ctly how to go about their business. The crux of the position between this and the Old Country was tlie increasing value of rent' estate. A 1111111 might buy a farm lor £SOOO in England and farm it half his life. At the end of that time it would still be worth £SOOO, but with the .same amount of money and the same work for the same time the farmer in New Zealand would he much better olf; his land would be worth five or ten times the sum originally paid. "That is the difference," he said in concluding, "a difference ill the' increasing value of real estate." An audacious attempt to rob the Glenelg (South Australia) branch of the Commercial Bank took iplaee on Wed nesday afternoon, Ist December. At [ about one o'clock the teller, Mi\ An-

drew Crown, was preparing liis books and cash prior to setting out for the. city, wlien lie \va-' surprised by _ tic entrance ol two men disguised with long false whiskers and masks. One ot tlie men closed the door from tile inside, and the other, approaching the counter, presented a revolver at Crowe, and demanded, "Money or your life." . \\ itli the greatest (presence of tniud, ill'. Crowe immediately fell on IDs knees behind the counter, and, grasping his revolver, called loudly for help. His sudden and apparently unexpected action frightened the would-be thieves, who bolted into Chapel-street, a side street dose to the bank, where they entered a covered trap ami galloped away. They were seen to pull the beards and masks from tlieir faces, and lioth looked to lie about forty years of age. One had a shoit dark moustache and the other was clean shaved. Tlie local police were promptly notified of the occurrence, and, with several residents, pursued the men on bicycles'. As the desperadoes were leaving the bank Mr. Crowe hurled an ink bottlc, which struck one of them.