LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 303, 1 February 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. Newton King has received the following cable from his Sydney agent re hides: —"Heavier and mediums '/id higher." The Devon street extension, between Belt road and the Slain South road, has been fenced across, presumably he.cause it is not fit for traffic. The fen -e is at the western end, and it is a bit, awkward" when a man happens to drive along from fhis end. The Tariki cheese factory is now turning out 33 cheeses per day, as against 40 in the (lush of the season. Suppliers at this factory should have 110 reason to complain of the . tests, which range from 3.G to 5.2, the majority of them being well over 4 points. The five passenger ears which comprised the mail train from here yesterday morning were packed with pas.sengers, and at Hawera it was found necessary to attach an additional carriage. The one luggage van at the roar of the train was so crammed with luggage as to make any attempt at proper sorting of luggage almost impossible. Yesterday morning the Reserves Committee of the Borough Council and the South African War Memorial Committee met on Marsland Hill to choose a site for the drinking fountain which is to be erected as a monument to the inemory of our men who fell in the Boer war. The fountain will be placed on the eastern side of the lull, a little to the rear of the Maori war memorial. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Loyal Egmont Lodgte, 1.0.0.8., M.U., was held last evening. Bro. A. B. Carr. N.G., presiding. There was a good attendance of members, and a letter of -c----conimenda.tion was granted to a member who has loft the district; also a clearance to another member now residing in Otago. It was decided to forward a letter of condolence to the relatives of a deceased brother.

The other day a young lady went into a local drapery establishment to buy a 'bathing costume, with the intention of taking part in the mixed bathing on Thursday evening ■next at the Henui. Said the assistant, after two or three fetyles had ibeen rejected, "There, maflam, that's quite new." The customer turned on him angrily. "Young man," she said, "do I look as if I wanted a feecond-hand one?"

The Minister for Railways has informed the Chamber of Commerce that 'its representations concerning the railway time-table will receive consideration when the time-table is being rearranged. In answer to the Chamber's Resolution urging the prompt carrying •out of authorised road works in the 'back districts, the Minister replies that much of the work will be entrusted to the local bodies, with whom he is now in communication.

The General Manager of Railways informs us that the by-law at present in force restricting the weight of wheat, oats, and barley to be carried by railway in any one sack will be cancelled after to-day, when a new by-law will come into operation. The new by-law restricts to 2001b the weight of all classes of cereals and agricultural produce to be conveyed bv railway in any one sack, and any sacks containing more than that weight (exclusive of the weight of the sack, will be charged at four times the ordinary rates. The early north-bound train from Wanganui yesterday morning was delayed near Westmere by a wash-out, caused by the recent heavy rains. The ■train was at once run back to Aramolio and gangs of men were immediately despatched to the scene and the line was cleared so expeditiously that the train was enabled to proceed about two hours later. It was, however, able to pick up some of this time before reaching New Plymouth, where it arrived only about forty minutes late. The wash-out was cleared in plenty of time to allow the mail train to get through •without any delay. The following names have been submitted by the East End bathers to the "Borough Council's Reserves Committee, with a suggestion that they form a management committee for the batliingshed and its environs: Mes'srs. W. H. 1 Fletcher (secretary), S. Crisp, W. Davidson, F. Scrivener, P. Flanagan, S. Stroud, H. Bullot, R. Crawshaw, Kivell, Honeyfield, A. Clow, Holford, Smart, Malam, Baker, Callaghan, Webster, Moon, and E, Hardgrave. The Reserves Committee (suggests that the committee elect an who will confer with the ladies' committee and the reserves committee on matters' pertaining to thij bathing there.

At the ratepayers' meeting at the (West End last night, the Mayor touched on tlie projected tramway system. After detailing the provision which had been made by the Borough Council for the installation of an electric tramW'iv system, by securing the extra street over the old railway route to Fitzroy, the new Gill street extension, and the .purchase of land in Liardet street for .the distributing station, ho referred to -the report of Mr. H. Cliiule, w ho had shown that the necessary pow<3r could, •lie cheaply obtained from the present waterworks, But, he said., if thg *eonl_o of the suburbs wfife not going to join wasn't going to ask the burgesses to subject themselves to a loan of £25,000 for installing trams for the benefit of the suburbs. He would take steps to have a tramwaysi area declared, including the borough, -part of the county, and other adjoining districts. These would have to elect a tramways board, and rate themsolv,, s <for the tramway scheme. The ' c jffie wis ripe for the move, and tf cw Plymouth were goinsr to KWp abreast of othsr place? in the Dominion, it was time to put the shoulder to the wheel. BEWARE 1

"To MESSRS SANDER and SONS.Dear Sirs,—l just think it right to let yon know of the deception worked on me after ordering two ounce bottle of SANDER'S EUOALYTI, Bendigo. We 'eceived to-day two bottle of EUCAL"WTUS, and the enclosed wrapper around the battle. Back they will go like a shot. I have been using your Extract myself and family, and giving it to my friends, for over forty year&i and none other will suit me. I well remember my good old mother saying that she would end her days cheerfully by going around praising and advertising your Extract, for she herself had derived so much benefit by using it. I have lived to ne-jcho he r words, and I will not stand by, knowing the real value and good of your extract, and sub. Mit to this. lam determined to obtain the genuine article.—Yours faithfully, THOS. HOLDERNESS, Dappil, Q.' 26th In a drou?ht-stri«ken town far out West. March, 1909." SANDER'S EUCALYPTI EXTRACT possesses curative properties not possessed by any other Eucalyptus.' It cure* when other* irritaU,

'flip Slonv river, below the bridge on the sout.li road at Okato, is encroaching on (private land again. One mail has seen about six acres swallowed up and overrun by the stream. -Mr. 11. M. Header, a member of the Marlborough Land Board, declares that barberry is going to be the biggest curse that New Zealand has yet seen in the form of noxious weeds. It could be grubbed m>, cut down, and burned, but it would come up again in increasing numbers. The battle of Bothasberg was fought on 24th February eight years ago, and Lord Kitchener will arrive in Wellington on tin* aniiivers iry. The Seventh Now Zealand Regimen! hold their dinner on the date as usual, and the Field Marshal, who has a great regard for Now Zealand soldiers, Irs been invited. He couldn't have been a Taranaki youth, or lie would have known better. He was ignorant, o£ racecourse phraseology, and had not the slightest knowledge of betting. His companion explained. Pointing to a bookie, lie said, I "If you <put a bob on a horse with that 'chap at twentv t.o one, and it wins, you'll get a sovereign, and your own shillimr bach." "TTow much would 1 set •if I put a bob on at half-past twelve?" "Well. I'll be," said the other, and gave it up. The enormous number of small birds in the Temuka district is shown by the quantities of eggs and heads taken to tlie Temuka Road Board office every Saturday by boys. The price is threepence per dozen, and on a recent Saturday £25 was paid out (says the Lyttclton Times). The largest number taken at one time was 102 dozen collected by a boy from Rangitata Island, and on that'day another boy from the same di--•trict took in 100 dozen. Lots of from 50 to 90 dozen are fairly common.

The Bishop of Wangaratta told a good story at the missionary summer school at Queenscliff recently concerning polygamy. The Bishop of Grahamstown, he said, had asked an aged kaffir catechist the reason why his people-were so averse to having only one wife, and the kaflir had replied: "We see that the Christian, 'with his one wife, is' not a free man. He is at her mercy. She knows he has no other wife to turn to, and therefore she asserts herself, becomes independent, is less anxious to please, and is less' submissive."

A man with his wife and two children passed through this district on foot last week (says the Otaki Mail). He was seeking work, and knew not where to find it" and they were dependent uj)on strangers to give them a little food to carry them on. The man was asked how he provided for his wife and children. His reply was that when he got half a day's work he saw that they got good lodgings and food. For himself he did not care; but he hoped to get a job as' he travelled along, and he and his wife could manage very well, as she was a good cook and needlewoman. On a recent Sunday at Timaru, between the Moody wharf and the north tmoie, tlie little son of a well-known citizen was playing in the sea when suddenly there arose a strange and hideous creature (says the Timaru Post). The octopus, for such it was, s'wept towards the hajppy little fellow, who probably 'would not. have understood his danger had lie seen it. Another moment, and 'one of the largest octopuses that has •been seen in Timaru for some years would have had its tentacles about the boy. The father of the boy, however, happened to see the source of danger, and threw a large s'tone at the octopus, which quickly disappeared, emitting a cloud of inkv fiuid as it did so.

It is reported in the Japan Times that Dr. Tsuboi, lecturing before the Imperial Educational Society on "Curi; ous Customs in the Pacific Islands," •made the following interesting statement:—"fln New Zealand the law of the State forbids a married couple to bring up more than three children, so that, if a girl be born to them the poor baby is killed in almost all cas'es. But if they wish to keep the girl baby it is baptised in a stream and is confined for teveral days in a hut, or nest as it is called, with her mother. The 'nest' is regarded as a very sacred place and consecrated as' such, and the infant who is taken out of this sacred nest is brought up and looked after with great care as one given by the Almighty." The death of a celebrity has lately been announced from America. Ims ■was Pat Sheedy (says the Argus). Born in Ireland, he was apprenticed to a harnessmaker in America, but developed a natural genius for gambling. Winning and losing fortunes' became a habit with him. He lost £BOOO in one sitting at i •Monte Carlo, established faro at Cairo '(where he was known as ''Sheedy Pasha"), and ran a network of faro banks throughout the United States. [ It was Sheedy who recovered for Messrs. 'Agnew Gainsborough's "Duchess) of Devonshire" nearly a quarter of a century after it had been cut from its frame in Bond-street one foggy night. The tliief, Tvho had found it a white elephant, finally confessed to his frfond Sheedy whq cQßimunicatejl with Pinksrton, l.lifi Meetly, and got it back for the Agtlews, receiving, it is said, £SOOO for his services.

Judging by the somewhat startling fecovery m a d e by Messrs. W. Willis and ! ominio .7ij parents of children visiting m lv holiday resorts would be well advised to exercise some surveillance over their little ones when the latter may be taken with the notion of handling tins left about by picnic parties. On Sunday last Messrs. Willis and Wilson, accompanied by Mr. J. Embury, J.P., 0 n turning over some tins' in a field' at Muritai, noticed that each was a colony of small dark spiders, and these -were readily identified by Mr. Embury, who 'knows them well, as the katipo. Further investigation showed that manv father tins, besides those first turned over, were similarly tenanted, so that the numbers' of the formidable little creatures in that locality are evidently considerable. They were not discovered anywhere except in tins, however As (an earnest of their discovery the two f-?w? en brought baok to Wellington Ninth them a bottle containing six of the creatures, and these were handed in at the Dominion office for inspection Thev were evidently katipos. ' y

Three doctors from over the sea M £, *ZV .pill, „po„ me ! ' Laxo-lonic prevails, vS e l e i? Ur BkiU often f a»s, TA^ ettertr . v thfe « and see" LAXO-TOmc PILLS, 10V 2 d a„ d u fu -obtainable at Bullock and ToW > •genu. Devon SI, NeV^S.™"'

The Central School reopened, yesterday morning with a considerable increas upon the opening attendance last year. There were about 25 new scholars in the standards, and the usual aftcrC'hristmas increase in the infant department. The Registrar of Births', Deaths, and .Marriages, Mr. J, S. S. Medley, supplies the following figures for January, those of the first month of 1000 being given in* parentheses:— Births 30 (27), deaths--7 (10), and marriages 0 (7), of which one marriage ceremony was conducted by the registrar. A small boy at the C'hristchurch Magistrate's Court made a new and original defence in answer to a chargo 'of having exploded crackers. He said that he had fired the crackers', and then ■added: "But ho (pointing to the arresting constable) did n't see us let them oil', lie couldn't see through a corner, could lie? - ' The Magistrate admitted the force of the boy's argument, but explained that even if a police constable did not see an offence being committed, it was no less an offence. The boy accepted the position philosophically with: l 'T suppose so." Tt is not often that domestic dramas in real life attain their climax in the _ publicity of a crowded railway platform, but on Saturday many of the people who were waiting at the Christchurch station for the departure of the through steamer train for Lvttelton witness?H a remarkable scene. A young woman was standing on the platform with a little child in her arms, when a man rushed frantically up to her and gained possession of the infant before she had time to recognise him or his purpose. Then, by frequent repetitions', he impressed the bystanders with the facts that his wife had left him in Auckland, that he had followed her to Christchurch, and that he was utterly eaTCless of her future so long as he had his child. A constable and a police sergeant went to the assistance of the distressed mother, who eventually agreed to join her husband provided lie would undertake to support her. Apparently the required guarantee was given, for th« parents and the cliihl left ChristchurcH together for Lyttelton. The father of twenty children whose interesting evidence before the Sydney, Unskilled Laborers' Wages Board has been published, favored the Board with his experience of the ruling increased cost of living. Two years' ago, he said, he had paid Gs a week in rent for a better cottage than the one he now occupied at 10s (>d a week. During the past two years bread had risen from 2d to 2%d a loaf, and sugar from 2%d to 2%d a lb. Potatoes eighteen months ago were 9d to Is a quarter for the best Circular Heads; now they were l%d a lb. Jam, which twelve months ago was 5d to 5 l / 3 d a tin, was now 7y s d, and the brand of candles which' a year iback he had bought for 4d a lb now cost fid. Mutton and beef had ris'en in price by B0 per cent., and the vegetables now procurable were almost beyond eating, j Golden syrup had gone up from 5d to ■ C 1 a tin, cheese from Gd to Od a lb, I oatmeal from lOd to Is Id a bag, and | coal from Is a cwt to Is Gd per 1001b—' I that was before the strike. Witness | now had his wife and four children dej pendent upon him. He gave the detailed cost of a week's expenditure, which amounted to £2 2s sd, £1 7s 4d being required for food. This worked i out at 2V s il a meal. Witnes's was willing to eat his hat if any gentleman in the room thought 2'/ 2 d a menl was too much' for a man who had to brgjik stones for a living. • The settlers on the Oxford road, neat Okato, reckon they have a legitimate grievance against the Government. Some fifteen years ago they took up their- , land from the Crown, and were led expect roading. They went on to ther land, and got some bush down. They had to "lump the tucker in on their backs," and fencing wire was carried ißi the same way. The surveyed road toot bluffs, hills, and rivers in its' stride, and' gave the idea that the man who laid it off on the map never stirred away from the office. But, though the road looks Well on paper, it is quite impracticable. An empty waggon would be as much a 8 four stout bullocks could draw up some 'of the hillsides. So the "thirds" accruing from the land, instead of being expended in actual road formation and metalling, have been spent in the pur* 'chase of land for absolutely necessary deviations, in places where a good road I Could easily have been surveyed a littleto the right or left of the straight linehiarked on the plan as the accepted road! line. A settler who knows the locality well assured a News-reporter that thia buymg Of land for deviations will ab. 1° th . e ' tlurds " for the next ten year?. To make and metal some of the road the settlers decided to raise a loan, and' applied to the Government for the lnoney as well as for a subsidy. Neither Lr rT?' The road branching off j * ( 1 road is the Saunders road, and it connects higher up with' the Carnngton road, which is going to rl li, ma m, road behveen Okato and The Government is erecting Midges on tlie Carrington road, with a View, no doubt, of opening up the Mg tract of Crown land in the locality. The toad when put through will als'o open ■up big areas of Maori land. The settlera wonder why they should raise a loan IPmake the Saunders road for the Govern ment and Maori land, when neither the Government nor the natives will help them Meanwhile the road is like a riverbed, .

J 1 YOU HAVE .flit J A Cough, Cold, Nose, Throat, or Lnag' irouble, Stomach, Bowel or Liver Cem--B?2JL heum atism, Neuralgia, USB' SANDER'S EUCALTPTT EXTRACT; If drops in a tablespoon of water. Remember. you cannot expect the goof o^vT?Tit r .S, m any BOrt of Eucaljptufc SANDER'S EXTRACT CURES becaw# •t contain 9thereal and antiseptic itV stances no contained in other Euc**iyptus products. These latter hare eam~ : Ü B«? U9 harm ' and a has resulted from their use. r» not apply as to* sore! It keeps back tl» secretion. To wounds, bruigu, sprahi, purns, ulcers, eczema, and other Ala troubles APPLY SANDER'S EXTRACT tm. » op 9 * n a tablespoon of olive oiL will surprise jou. SANDER'S EXTRACT HEALS, because it is freed fo»"Trr-the irirtatrag constituents eonr? 1J l e ln Eucalyptus preparations, tt neale ivhen others irritate. Insis# GENUINE SANDER EUCALYPTI EXTRACT, and you will derM haneit

interest awakened. Interest awakened everywhere in th# marvellous cures of Cute, Burna and Wounds with Dr. Sheldon's Man»«a Liniment. Price la fld and 3fc Obtal* able ftmywbere, • '.a

A feature of the present position m regard to oil is that many oi our loremost oil pessimists are busily assuring their friends that they had never lost faith in the future success of the petroleum prospecting operations' Not everyone at the east end of the itown is a swimming enthusiast. A Merline placed on the beach at Te llenui by the Borough Council a few days ago has already been mutilated. Here's some Vork for the new committee —find the perpetrator and publicly souse him. There arc as' vet only four boarders in the New Plymouth High School's ■boarding establishment. This is due in some measure, no doubt, to the fact 'that the announcement of the opening •was not made until most of the parents 'had made the : r arrangements for the School year. The chairman of the High School Board of Governors has given notice to ■move that the use of the strap at the Isehool be discontinued. Mr. Eraser has frequently mentioned his abhorrence of the strap as a means of instilling knowledge and decorum into the pupils of a School where boys and girls should be little ladies and gentlemen. The warm rains which fell during January had the effect not only of arresting the rapid drop in milk supplies, but also made a very satisfactory increase. Feed, of course, improved very much, with the resMlt that those farmers who had grown maize as a stand-by in the event of a dry summer had to make ensilage of it.