LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 267, 18 December 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At the Taumarunui pound las't week a mare was bought for 12s (id, and a mare jifttl foail fetched the same prie®. Wfe arc in receipt of a copy of the Christmas number of the Canterbury Times. It is quite up to its usual standard, and should command a laige and ready sale. In our report of the prize-list of tie Erankley Road School yesterday Standard 111. was omitted. 'For attendance, Ralph Hooker and Leo Boswell were first; for marks, John Kendall was first. Messrs. Collett and Co. have already received account sales from their head office for early shipments of New Zealand butter, prices realised bein" as high as 1245. ° At the Central School yesterday morning the Sixth Standard pupils made a presentation of a hand-bag to their teacher, Mr. R. L. Mcllroy, M.A. The presentation was made by Master Cedric Gibson, and Seeling acknowledged 'by the recipient. ' Sir Joseph Ward says he has obtained an assurance from the Admiralty that in the event of a good supply of petroleum being obtained here, the Admiralty would take a good deal of its supplies from New Zealand. As to training ships, the Government had negotiated in legard to another vessel coming out. Rabbits and hares are regarded as pests ill New Zealand, but they provide a means of livelihood to many people and bring considerable revenue to the Dominion. In the year 1908 the number exported as food was 2,717,795 to the value of £58,000; and the number of rabbit-skins exported was 0,483 618, valued at £59,808. ' Members of the Agricultural Society's committee 'complained at Thursday night's meeting that the cab and stable proprietors were "making a milch cow" of the society, charging high prices for auy services rendered. The opinion was expressed that the men engaged in these businesses benefited more than any others in the town, having the whole of their accommodation severely taxed on show-days, and their cabs and other vehicles kept busy. "Why," said one of them, "it would pay the stablekeepers to do our work for nothing, seeing the amount of money we -put in their way."

Tiie of an English journalist who lias visited the wonderful diamondi field recently discovered in German South-West Africa is published in the Investors' Guardian, The report in some respects recalls the features of the alluvial gold finds of Australia and i California, except that, in place of Tiugc igold nuggets, the searcher finds a multitude of small diamonds. Natives on hands and knees, or lying prone, search the ground, picking up what diamonds they can see, and placing them in a, matchbox! '"Later on," the correspondent says, *1 also went to the -prone position, and was rewarded by picking up .two diamonds'." On one property thirty-six natives had picked up on an average 300 carats of diamonds per day: "the best day's picking was 439 carats. When a boy' has picked up forty stones ■lie is allowed to knock off work for the day!"

t The Opunake Harbor Amendment Bill 3 has passed its third reading in the ' House. It consists practically of one l clause—that is, that the expenses' the promoters are out of pocket in putting t through the Act of 1908 and this L amending Bill are to be a charge on i any loan or other moneys of which the harbor district may become possessed. 5 -there are two or three other minor alterations made, such as increasing the i borrowing power to £50,000 from £40,000 and giving the townspeople the privilege of rating themselves up to threepence in the pound. Summing up the Bill and its amendment, the district has got nothing by the Bill except the right to tax themselves. The promoters state they are perfectly satisfied with the result, as they got more than they expected. If this be so, we must apologise for attributing "swelled head" to them, as heads which ■an lie J filled with so little are certainly not capable of swelling.—Opunake Times. It is difficult to follo\V thC'Teasoninfj of the New South Wales' judge who recently threw doubt on the fingerprint as evidence and stated that it was not scientifically accepted that two sets of records could not make identical marking (says the llanawatu Times). Of course, lie presumption always is that two might be alike, but there have been many millions of finger-prints taken the world over, and it is an extraordinary fact that no two have yet been found identical. The great home > of the finger-print is India, and the two ; leading authorities, Galton and Henry, both show that though with the teem-' iug millions' of India ; thc finger-prints have taken the place of the seal in attesting signatures to all sorts of documents and for purposes of identification, there has never yet been found a duplicate of, any man's record. New South Wales has supplied some extra- . ordinary examples of detection by finger-prints from cargo-broaching, which had 'been long continued, to sacrilege , and burglary, and it is a new thing lor ; a judge to throw doubt upon it. j

A 20th CENTURY PREPARATION. Dr. Sheldon's New Discovery nr Coughs) and Colds. Small dose. Pleasant to take.. Absolutely guaranteed. Prise, Is Sd and Be. Obtainable everjrwftere. .. "j- ,1-J _j