LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 334, 9 March 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Midhirst School hold their an nual picnic at the Breakwater to-mor-row.

Mr. T. Waite has purchased the Inglewood Tarata coach service from Mr. W F. Hawke.

The Well>ngton-Brindisi despatch of the 28th January arrived in London on the night of the 4th instant. A ninth of an of land, upon which a building is erected, changed hands in Hawera last week at £750. Allowing that the building is worth £2OO the land value pans out at over £4OOO an acre. The land is in a side street.—Star.

Messrs. Newton King and E. F. Blundell were excused yesterday morning from service on the Grand Jury. Mr. King successfully advanced the plea that he was interested in the case brought against W. R. Mackay, and Mr. Blundell forwarded a medical certificate.

A Maori who was among the spectators in the Supreme Court yesterday so far forgot himself as to hail by name a prisoner who was being brought in to take his trial. He was promptly shown the door, ft was fortunate ior him that the .Judge was busy at the time, and the incident passed unnoticed. From Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs, Christchureh. we have received a copy of a well-bound volume on the Land Transfer Acts of the Dominion by Mr. David Hutchen, of New Plymouth. It is a valuable and complete work, and ■should b"e indispensable to the legal office. ' " '-

An engine cleaner recently went to sleep during his working hours. Some of his) comrades conceived the idea of throwing some oil over him and setting a match to it. The result was that the victim of the insane joke was severely burned and had to be conveyed to tae nearest hospital.

Some, visitors to the Dawson's Falls Mountain House the other day witnessed the rare sight of a small nvalanche, which fell in a gully near the mountain track below Fantham's Peak. With a noise like the report of artillery firing, a quantity of rock broke away and rushed down the hillside. It was an interesting sight to watch. Hawera Star.

The system of selling tickets for tours to various parts of the Dominion, which was recently inaugurated by the Tourist Department, is already being taken ad. vantage of by a large number of people, and when the system has been longer in vogue, and is better known among the general public, therp is every indication that it will be availed of to a still greater extent. The idea promises in every way to be a completp success. A meeting of the committee of tlie Taranaki Agricultural Society was held last evening to consider matters in connection with the Winter Show. An approximate statement of receipts' and expenditure was presented, and showed that there is every prospect of the show being a financial success. It was decided to go into the scheme fully on Monday, the 21st inst. The annual general meeting of members of the Society was; fixed for Monday, 18th April, in the Town Hall.

Between 4.30 and 5 o'clock yesterday morning Mrs Evans, proprietress of tlie Hawera railway refreshment rooms, was awakened by wliat she thought to be men walking about the premises (savs the Star). Upon investigation she discovered that a pane ill one of the windows facing the platform had been smashed. A bicvcle was found near the rooms, and Mrs' Evans took charge of the machine. A Inrge piece of glass, belonging to the window which "was smashed/ was picked up outside of the station premises. The matter has been reported to the police. THAT INCESSANT TICKLTNO Tn the throat, and nil tlirnnf and "Wst troubles, tiromnt.lv relieved by Br. Sheldon's New Discovery. Price Is fid and 3s per bottle. Obtainable everywhere.

At an extraordinary general meeting of the Huwera Dairy Company' Ltd., it was resolved to increase the share capital from £IO,OOO to £15,000. It was explained that the company was growing, and the necessary power should be given if the shareholders did not wish the company to remain at a'standstill. A considerable amount of interest has been aroused in Masterton over the discovery of a bed of clay at Mauriceville, out of which the material for roofing houses with tiles can be made, as well as other articles, such as pipes, ckimney tops, gully traps, open drain bottoms, and even jam and pickle jars. A Hawke's Bay bankrupt was prosecuted under the Bankruptcy Act for failing to keep proper books 01 accounts. The defendant pleaded guilty in June last, and the Judge, in passing sentence last week, said that any term oi imprisonment must date from the time the man pleaded guilty. It wouid, his Honor said, be an extraordinary proceeding to go to the extreme of sentencing the accused to nine months' imprisonment in order that he might spend only a few days in gaol, and usually in such cases the sentences were only for two or three months—he did not say that he would have done so even at the time he pleaded guilty—it would be rather absurd, because the sentence would have expired months ago, whereas the accused had been on bail and never in gaol at all. The position was certainly farcical, and had arisen in another case in Wellington, where a point had been reserved for the Court of Appeal and the accused admitted to bail. The accused would therefore be fined £2O and ordered to pay £lO towards the costs of his prosecution, the accused to remain in custody until the money was paid. The work of concreting the Pohokura tunnel on the Stratford-Ongarue railway is now being proceeded with, and it is anticipated that the whole tunnel will be lined and completed in about two months' time. The length of the tunnel .through the Whangamomona saddle will be between 28 and 30 chains, or more than twice that of Pohokura tunnel, which is 13 chains in length. The Kiore tunnel measures 11 chains. Survey operations have been completed to the Stratford side of where the Whanga-i momona saddle will be pierced by the tunnel, and the Public Works Department is now carting material over the Whangamomoana Kiddle for use in theO cuttings on the Whangamomona side ol where the tunnel will emerge. From the last-mentioned point to the spot where the railway will again touch the"! Manga re road the grade falls rapidly, and there are a number of heavy cuttings, and the Department at the present time is constructing a tram to convey material from the depot on the Mangare road to the cuttings referred to above. It is anticipated that plans of the tunnel will be available at no very distant date, when a start will at once be made on the work.—Post. Most people seem to know how to escape service on juries. Yesterday morning at the Supreme Court, when Mr. Terry called on Mr. E. H. Kenyon to step forward for the purpose of being sworn »s a common juryman, Mr. Kenyon asked to be excused, on the ground that he was a postmaster. 'That's a very important position, no doubt," re- j marked his Honor. After a whispered ] conference with the sheriff, he asked. | "Where are you postmaster?" '"At Hillsborough, your Honor," answered J the applicant, but his Honor didn't seem to be impressed by the name. Possibly he had never heard of the place be'iore, which was not so much his fault as his misfortune. Seeing that the little place with the long name hadn't visibly impressed the Judge. Mr. Kenyon eon■tinued: "I'm the mail contractor, too. - I'm also the factory manager, and I'm , single-handed just now." Then a know- ; inji smile o'erspread the Judicial features. "Ah, and I suppose that's more "important, eh? Very"'well, you're excused, but it mustn't be thought that every country storekeeper who is also a postmaster is exempted from service." ■ After the jurymen had been sworn, Mr. i Edward Hariild was stated by the con- i stable' to be deaf, and fie was called for- j ward. "I'm given to understand that ; you're deaf," said his Honor, in his or- , dinary tone of voice. "Yes, your Honor," i replied Mr. Harrild, with great alacrity. | "Well, you seemed to hear well enough | then," drily remarked his nonor. and an j imperious "Silence!" from a couple oi'j throats' drowned the tiffer in the body j of the court. Mr. Harrild said he had | heard his Honor quite well then, but he ; couldn't catch everything. He was ex- I cused. I