LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 348, 26 March 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Both hst night and Thursday the mail train arrived an hour late. Ou both ■occasions the train was a heavy one, being crowded with holiday-seekers. The tender of Messrs. Henry Brown and Co. lias been accepted by the Taranaki Education Board for the supply of school furniture for the riext two years.

The Harbor Board received cable advice on Thursday that the new dredge "Paritutu," which has been built by Messrs. Fleming and Ferguson, Ltd., of Paisley, sailed from the Clyde for New Zealand that day. In all probability, if local enthusiasts offer the Caledonian Society any inducement, wrestling events for amateurs will be contested at the sports on Monday. The New Zealand champion, Mr. R. Scott, who recently was matched against Hackenschmidt, has intimated hi» willingness to bring half-a-dozen pupils from Stratford.

At the annual meeting of the Waitara General Laborers' Industrial Union of Workers, Mr. W. 11. Wilson was elected president, Mr. W. F. Newbery vice-president, and Mr. H. M. Lund secretary and treasurer. The committee consists of Messrs. D. Anderson, E. Sampson, C. Old, A. Churchill, and W. R. Hart.—Own correspondent. The gate takings at the Australian cricket match on Tuesday and Wednesday, inclusive of tickets presented, were £42 on the first day and £22 on the second. Of this about £45 was paid in cash. The returns of sales of tickets are not yet made up, and those holding tickets axe asked to send in their cash and unsold tickets to the secretary without delav.

This country is "conference mad." The latest suggestion for a conference comes from the Dunedin City Council, •which has invited the library committees of the Dominion to meet and discuss matters affecting the management of libraries. The New Plymouth committee has decided not to send a delegate. Why not a conference of library custodians and newspaper runners?

There vras a short, session of the Police Court on Thursday morning, .Mr. D. Berry, J.P., presiding. Fred. Lindsay Backhouse, a young man, who had r oeen arrested in Wellington a few days before on a charge of forging the name, of A. Cameron to a receipt for £2, was remanded until 2nd April. Alfred Walker was fined 5s and costs for cycling at night in the borough without a light. Yesterday morning, ior the first time for some considerable period, the s.s. Earawa failed to connect with .the mail train for Wellington. Leaving Onehunga some time after 5 p.m., the Manukau bar was not crossed' until after 7 p.m. A head wind was then encountered, which delayed the vessel's progress, so that the Breakwater was not reached until about 7.15 a.m. a special train brought the passengers into town. One of the motor-waggons belonging to the Opunake Transport Company met with a mishap on Thursday evening. Whilst coming up the Katikara hill with a two-ton load of cheese, by some means the waggon ran backwards and slipped gracefully over the "Dank, where it remained resting on its back with its nose up in the air. Mr. H. Baily, manager of the company, was promptly on the scene, and the services of another of the company's waggons being requisitioned, after some hours' work it was extricated from its position and brought into New Plymouth. No damage whatever was sustained by the vehicle or the machinery, whilst the load also suffered very little, only one crate of cheese being crushed. A special meeting of the Borough Council will be held at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning to deal with the new tailrace contract. Only one tender was received by the Electric Lighc Committee for the work, and this was much above the estimate. The committee thereupon decided to give Mr. Climie an opportunity of carrying out the work himself by day labor, provided that he first gave the Council a written undertaking that the work would not cost more than his estimate of ,£B3G 9s Gd. Mr. Climie attended a subsequent meeting of the committee, and most emphatically declined to do anything of the kind. The committee thereupon decided to lay the matter before the full Council, and as the matter is one of ■urgency the special meeting has been convened for Tuesday.

Francis Joseph Lyons, a bricklayer's labourer, applied at the Wellington Supreme Court the other day for dissolution of his marriage with Ellen Lyons. There was no appearance on behalf of the respondent. The parties were married at Auckland on December 10, 1888. There are three children of the marriage, all grown up. The petitioner's wife left him seven years ago, and is now living in Auckland. She wrote to the petitioner stating that she had no intention of returning to him. She was glad to be away from the wind and dust of Wellington, and to be living in a clean city. In 1908 She sued her husband for maintenance. He went to Auckland for the hearing of the case, which was dismissed. His Honour the Chief Justice held that the desertion had been proved. He made a decree nisi on the usual conditions.

The Helensville hot Springs, situate* at Paraki, about a mile from Helensville South railway station, were known and used by the Maoris in the olden days, and later by the early settlers. Thirty years ago there was an old pump and primitive sort of bath, wnere anyone was at liberty to lave his limbs) in the grateful waters which welled up in the wilderness, but it was not till Ave years ago that their claims were recognised by the Government, and a grant made for giving better accommodation for the largely increasing numbers who visited them. The building put up was a modest little affair and has long been too small. Last year the Helensville Domain Board, which administers the reserve on which the springs are situated, secured a grant, with which they have put tip a fine swimming bath and added six to the number of private baths. The new baths were opened on Wednesday. i HAVE YOU A WEAK THROAT I \ If so, you cannot be tov. caretul; you i cannot begin treatment too early. Each i cold makes you more liable to another, and the last is always the nardest to cure. Tf you take ChamberJaia's Cough < Remedy at the outset you will be saved much trouble. Sold hv all chemists and storekeepers. WHEN YOU ARE KEPT AWAKE At night with that troublesome Cousrh remember that it can be speedily cured hv Dr. Sheldon's New Discovery. Price j Is (id and 3s per bottle. Obtainable y where.

It is reported that a large number of swaggers, most of them young men, are to be seen on the country roads about Tima.ru. A number of them will, it is said, find their way back to Australia. The financial disorganisation consequent upon the new collection of taxes in England is prejudicially affecting Waihi and other New Zealand mining shares on the London register, and this has affected their prices in New Zealand, as our daily share lists will show. A man named Zimmerman, who has "married" twenty-four women since 1872, has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Brooklyn on a charge of perjury in swearing that he was not married in connection with his application for a license for his twenty-fourth marriage.

A good deal of sympathy with Miss Bodmin helped her to win the New Zealand Times' voting contest last Saturday. She is a typewriter in the Treasury, but some time ago had musical aspirations and managed to save enough money to go to Europe for study. At Sydney she became very ill. Her monev was exhausted by the illness, and she returned to New Zealand with ' her hopes shattered.

Here is a tale of a tin and a tired traveller told in the Timaru Herald: A young New Zealander who was engaged to take a mob of sheep from the Orari Gorge Station, having no horse, and as the sheep were fat and could not be driven fast, took the precaution to possess himself of an empty benzine tin before starting. Ever and anon He upngnteu uns on me roaaside, and sat upon it to rest his weary bones, picking it up and carrying n under his arm when he had to walk on again to catch up to the sheep. A Waverley landholder has inserted a notice in the local paper warning people carrying guns not to trespass on his property. The other day, his boy had informed him that when 'in the paddock a bullet had passed by at a distance of a yard or so. That the lad' 3 tale was true, was supported by subsequent evidence, for shortly afterwards a c&w on the property was discovered to be Mounded. It bled for half an hour or so. In its forehead was embedded, half an inch deep, a bullet from a rifle. Evidently the bullet was a spent one, but was none the less dangerous. This practice, declared the landowner, would have to be stopped. Since leaving England in February, 1908, Mr. Mayers and the Barnardo Boys have held over 600 services and meetings, and have raised more than £16,000 for the Barnardo child-rescue work (says an Australian paper). This sum is to be expended in the Barnardo Girls' Village as an Australian tribute to Dr. Barnardo's memory. The party has been well received in every State, and in the Dominion. Situations have been secured for ten boys who came out with the secretary. The chief cities of Australia and New Zealand have conrti■buted the proportionate cost of a bed each to the new hospital, and large photographs of these places will be hung upon its walls. Tt is to be called the "Australasian" Hospital.

The London correspondent of the Wellington Post writes:—"Tt is orobihle. T understand, that Mr. McNab will not feel justified in recommending the purchase bv the Government of the sunposed figure-head of Captain Cook's Resolution. The relic, which is lving at Stockton-on-Tees, was offered for sa'c for €SO. and the Government requested Mr. MeXa'b to inspect it and make a recommendation on the subject. The first sten was to comnnre t,be figurehead with an authentic medal of +he Resolution, which is preserved at Whitbv, where the vessel was bvi't. TV* comparison onlv served to =tren<rthen suspicions ns to the identity of *he relic which Mr. McNab had formed from discrepancies in the prelim in arv account ns t'> hW the figure-head came to be at Stockton-on-Tees."

Kawhia is on the look-out for prominence fcs one of the sites for a -wirelegs telegraph}' station in New Zealand. The conference of Australasian authorities which met in Melbourne last December to formulate a general scheme for Jinking up New Zealand and Australia with the islands of the Pacific, recommended the establishment of a highpower station at Doubtless Bay capable of communicating with Sydney, However, the Hon. W. W. McCardle, on behalf of the people of Kawhia, has brought under the notice of the Post-master-General (Sir Joseph Ward) the special .'idvantages offered by Kawhia for such a purpose. Tt is the nearest part of the Dominion to Sydney, and the necessary electrical power could, it is stated, be easily developed from two •treami in the neighborhood.

An extraordinary case of collective madness happened at Grosseto, in Tuscany, where a peasant woman, in a fit I of madness, during the night awakened I her husband and told him that she had | been ordered by the madonna to de- | »troy the furniture. The husband obeyI ed willingly, and helped hii wife to I throw their household goods through I the window. Then he submitted to his wife plucking out his eyes with a table fork, and, as this was not very effective, she substituted a knife. The four childj ren watched the ghastly operation hor- ! ror - stricken, and their cries finally ' awakened the neighbors. The police ! burst open the door and overpowered j the woman, who, armed with ;■ hatchot. I threatened to kill them. They conveyed j her to the asylum. The husband at I latest reports was in a hospital in a dying condition. j Mr. A. Shand, who has been a resident | of the Chatham Islands for fifty-five ' years, is visiting Christchurch, where h* I will spend a few weeks before returning I to his island home (says the Lyttelton :' Times). He states that the islanders are I following the' even tenor of their way, ' rearing sheep and cattle and carrying oh other rural occupations. The native land difficulty is as prominent there as it it in the North Island, and the famous "taihoa" policy, which seems to be invincible in that part of the Dominion, is considerably retarding any progress the islands might make. Mr. Shand is president of the Chatham Tsland Rifle Chili, which has « membership of about twenty-five, and he spent a few days at Trentham getting into touch with some of the military authorities, and srainin" knowledge in regard to the methods of conducting clubs. The scattered nature of the population on the Chathams and the lonsr distances between the farms j have prevented the establishment of a I volunteer force there, but main' of the young men arc anxious to receive military training, Mr. Shand is deeply interested in the ethnology of the islands. He has forwarded to Archdeacon Williams, of fii?borne. who is preparing a m»Yr Maori dictionary, a vocabulary of tlif laucuaT-e of the Moriori«. who inlwbitiMi tie islands before the Maori in- i vision.

There will bo ninety-one. individual competitors at the Caledonian Society'*Sports on Easter. Monday.,. irrespective of the competitors) for the Highlandevents.

One of Dr. Mason's duties since his new appointment to London is to inspect emigrants to New Zealand befor« they leave the shores of the Old Country. In conversation with a Post representative, Dr. H. Pollen, port medical officer,, who returned on Wednesday by the Moeraki from a trip Home, mentioned that he had, in company with the late chief health ollicer, inspected the emigrants under the auspices of the British Board of Trade. Dr. Masou discovered a ease of phthisis, and the intending colonist was stopped from starting on his voyage out. In this respect, Dr. Mason was doing excellent work for the Dominion, said Dr. Pollen, and this new departure would save expense and trouble at this end. The Board of Trade officers were taking much" interest in the work, and giving Dr. Mason every assistance.

Regarding the extension of the P. and 0. service to Auckland, the Auckland Herald says:—Although it cannot yet r oe ascertained whether the company will continue the service after the third steamer has called next month, it is believed that the trial is quite satisfactory. The first boat (the Malwa) brought 154 passengers, and took 106 away. The Mongolia brought 70, and carried about 230 on the return trip. Thes» bookings are considered satisfactory to Captain Preston, who explained that the weather had been very rough on the Australian coast before the Mongolia sailed, and some who had hooked did not travel. He had no doubt that had the weather been fine many more would hnve come from Australia. Mr. Sorners, of the Auckland agency, also considers that the patronage extended to the company has been very good. He has no advice as to what other steamers will come on tn Auoklnnd, but thinks it very probable tint, even if the steamers do not run to New Zealand durinsr the winter, the service will be renewed during the busy season.