LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 343, 19 March 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It is estimated that the new arrange- [ ments made in connection with the ' banana industry will bring to Queens- . land an annual income of £30,000. Tactfulness has made the King of \ Great Britain and Ireland a Sovereign , of the world of fashion, society, and , finance. Great as is the thing he does. \ the way he does it is always greater , still.—Revue de Paris. ' The sum which Britain pays to other i countries for fruit and vegetables which i J we could grow ourselves is astonishing. The total value is over twenty millions ] a year, which capitalised at 3 per cent, i would very nearly pay off the national 1 debt.—Garden Life. ] The great curse of to-day in the commercial sense is incapacity. That evil s is attributable, in the first place, to the F educational system we lollow, and the 1 fact that our boys are turned out to ' 'earn their own living before they are { sufficiently trained.—City Press. < DR. SHELDON'S DIGESTIVE ] TABULES c I Are a positive cure for Indigestion, e i Flatulence, Heartburn, Acidity of Stomach, and all Stomach Troubles. Price 2s 6d per tin of 8" Tabules. Ob- 9 tainable everywhere a

It is stated that a taxi-cab will sin. tly make its appearance in New Plymouth. The annual picnic of the Kaimata. school is to .be held at the New Plymouth breakwater on Thursday next. The unsurveyed land in Taranaki available for future settlement is 92,000 acres, and the Maori laud awaiting settlement 480,000 acres'. The Rev. Dean McKenna has ottered to place the Rolland Hall at the d:aposal of the Boy Scout patrol which it is proposed to form in connection with the Convent School. Mr. Fred. Calgher, of Inglewood, has taken over the Terminus Hotel, and enters into 'possession next month. Those who have known Mr. Calg.-r during his occupancy of the Eltham Hotel and Railway Hotel at Inglewood will welcome him to New Plymouth. A Melbourne cable relates that a prospector named Bernard unearthed a 128ounce nugget at Pennyweight Flat, Bali larat. His brother was with Mm nil a few days ago, when he left, as lie was unable to make a living. Hard luck for the brother! Devon-street central is now receiv.'ig a coat of tar, gravel, and sand. Judgrag by the success of the tarring oi Brougham-street, which was in poor condition when the dressing was applied, the adoption oC this scheme of ro idpreservation on a newly-metalled and well-crowned street should be satisfactory. It is rumored in town that the Northern Steamship Company intends dropping out of the running of the New Plymouth - Onehunga steamer trade, which is now being conducted jointly by the Northern and Union Companies. In that cas'e the Union Steam Ship Company will be left to run its own steamers in the trade. The Harbor Board is advised by Messrs. H. Chesterman and Co., of Hobart, that the barque Marjorie Crarg is loading wharf piles and other timber at Esperance for the New Plymouth wharf extension. The vessel will return from New Plymouth to Esperance direct for a second cargo, and probably about ten weeks will elapse between the first and second deliveries. The balance will be shipped about the end of this month by the steamer Lauderdale. A meeting was 1 held last night at the West End gymnasium for the purpose of forming patrols of the Dominion Scouts. Scout-Inspector Sandford addressed the meeting, and subsequently swore in three ipatrols, fully officered, the scoutmasters' being Messrs. Bar ', • Evetts, and Sole. A further large numI ber of lads who attended and were desirous of being sworn in were informed that they could not be admitted until their /parents' consent had been forwarded to the officers. A meeting of the Citizens' Committee for entertaining the Veterans on the anniversary day of Taranaki, viz., 3lst March, was held last evening, the May»>r presiding. It was decided to commence sports (which are to be held at the East End esplanade reserve) at 1.30 o'clock, and to provide a special event ' for the pioneers, viz., stepping the ! chain, and races for ladies, children, ! and others. The Garrison Band are to I be engaged, and collection-boxes will be . placed at the grounds. The ladies' com- { mittee will provide afternoon tea. ' Athletes, cash and amateur, are e- [ minded that entries for the New Ply- ■ moutl; Caledonian sports' to be held on Easter Monday close with the secreta.y to-night at 9 o'clock. As it is not anticipated that any foreign talent will be at the meeting, there should be mucn larger nominations than usual from Taranaki "'peds." and cyclists. The face that most of the crack local sprinte s have now joined the amateur ranks j offers a further inducement for young runners to compete in the cash handicaps, from which they were previously "frightened oft' by the back-marker». The New Zealand Times of yesterday ! had the following:—"Complaints ar • | being made that the cheese shipped by coastal steamer from New Plymouth to Wellington is being handled so roughly that many of the crates' are practica y smashed to pieces when they reach Wellington. These can, of course, be mended before Home shipment, but the case* remain disfigured and present anything but an attractive appearance when tlicy, reach the Home market—a fact wh'ch certainly does not enhance the sell ; ng | value of the produce they contain. >i o i fault is found with the Way the che n e reaching Wellington from the north \y J the usuaj fortnightly coastal steamer is \ handled. This reaches Wellington in' very good order, as does that coming from Patea. It is the intermittent cargoes by steamers wnich do not custom- j arily carry cheese which are so roughly I i dealt with. The matter is one of vital i interest ,to one of the Dominion's most j important industries, and it is to K ' hoped those responsible will in futuie j view the question in this light." The Government has again "gone back on" the Borough Council in regard to I the acquisition of the necessary land I for the purpose of opening a street' across the Huatoki stream to relieve , Devon-street of much of the heavy wag- 1 gon traffic. It will be remembered that / the Acting-Minister of Railways a i couple of years' ago promised to give I the Council the necessary land to con-' tinue Molesworth-street through from Kawau-street to St. Aubyn-street. This j promise was afterwards repudiated, and' the Government refused to deal except by sale of the lands for a big amount, j Then the Council decided to put Gillstreet through, and the Public Works)' Department wrote agreeing that the street need not be widened to the full j chain width. Then the Department' wrote refusing to gazette the street un-1 less it were made 66ft wide, and the; Mayor and the chairman of the Harbor: Board saw the Minister about it. He j called up Mr. Short and Mr. Blow, two of the high officials in the Department, j and they repudiated responsibility for | the letter which had been sent, saying j that the official who wrote to the Coun-' cil had no authority to write at all and I no right to commit the Government to j a promise Avhieh could not be fulfilled without the passing of a special Act of' Parliament. Comment on these facts is needless. The result of this unsatisfactory business is that the Council has had to acquire from the Harbor Board a atrip of land lift wide on the seaward s'de of Gill-street from Currie-. street to fiie Huatoki. The matter was ' hrousrht before the Board at vesterday's ' meeting by the Mayor and town clerk : and Or. Bell-ringer. There was a long discussion as to the price which the. Board should ask for the land. The ; 1 chairman's' proposition to offer the lift I' of Ourrie-street frontage required at ( £25 a foot was carried, Mr. Wilkin- 1 son's amendment to name a lump sum of i £3OO beinjr defeated. Mr. Dockrill con-; 1 sidered £2O a foot was a fair price to ask from a kindred local body.

Captain Newton waited on the Haroor Board yesterday with reference to the proposed survey of the approaches to the harbor. He advised that the Board approach the Marine Department on the matter. The whole of the Inglewood Borough j Council's working stall' is to receive no-, tice that their services will be dispensed -with on April 30, but that each is eligible ror reappointment. It is in- ' tended to adopt the principle of engng- j ing men for one year only. Thus incompetents, instead of being dismissed, ! will not be re-engaged. I "J. and W. Walker, £1727 for Muntz , I metal," read out the treasurer of the Harbor Board yesterday from the schedule of Accounts to be passed. Mr... Wilkinson jumped up. "That brings „«-ou upstanding, doesn't it, Mr. Wilkinson, eh? There's one thing about you: you do take an interest in the Board's business where money's concerned." This was doubtless .meant as a mild robiik?* to those members' who discuss the' weather, or politics, or tne sharemarket, or something of that kind, whilst the chairman, treasurer, and secretary are scanning the list of dis-''' bursements, often running into thousands of pounds'. A party of seven, amongst whom was Mr R. D. Lewers, lett Stratford at 6.30 on Tuesday morning for the pur- ! •pose of ascending Mount Egmont, hut | owing to delay caused by the wretched | state of the Pembroke road track were | unable to start on their climb from the. j East Mountain House until noon. The | party reached the summit at 5 p.m.>J but while descending missed their way ] in the darkness and were compelled tot ; 'l remain all night on the mountain at an" altitude slightly lower than that of Fantham's Peak, says the Post. At daybreak the party managed to regain the New Plymouth track, and from thence reached the Stratford house at about 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Though suffering considerably from cold anil hunger during the night, none of the party, iortunately, contracted any damage as the result of exposure. Apropps of the discussion that has been proceeding as to the class of emigrants who are being brought out by < the Government scheme of assisted.passages, it is of some interest to note that fifty years ago the press of the Dominion was adovcating that more suitable people should be induced to come to New Zealand. A passage from j the Lyttelton Times of March, ISGO, is worth reproducing for its applicability ; in part to gome of the prevailing condi- ' tions at the present time. Our contem-' porary said:—"There are several counties in England, Scotland and Ireland j where the pay of good farm laborers does not exceed or even reach nine shillings per week. To the thousands of .practical agricultural hands who live in these poor districts, emigration would be realty a benefit. They are the men who want to come here and whom we . want to join us; and when they come the comparison with home will not make them discontented. Now we wish toiknow, if we want population and , mean to pay for it, why we s/iould pay j anything for the bad article; and why, ' if a good article is to be found, we should not pay such a price as will ob- ; tain it. The men we want have no money to pay for themselves, and are | j not likely to have; if they had they| I would not suit us nor do themselves j j good by emigrating. So long, then, as I I the province, continues to pay for im- i I porting labor, the wisest policy will be j j to go for it where it :'- to be had of i the best quality; to give, as will be , j necessary, more assistance to each in- , dividual, and to be content with fewer , j arrivals. So will discontent ct'Jse and ; | the province prosper." |