LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 364, 15 April 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The New Plymouth Tennis Club will I , a l ' :UK ' L ' this year us usual, probably on May (i. A committee was appointed last evening to have the neeessary arrangements made. .Owing to the .wet weather yesterday the military operations which should have taken.place near Inglewood had to be abandoned, and the troops spent the afternoon in indoor instruction. The Inglewood cricketers made the journey to New Plymouth to continue their match yesterday, sind arrived in the pouring rain. Cricket was out of the question, lint what excellent sports! One of the biggest ilocks of yheep that have been driven along the Mountain road for years passed through Inglcwood yesterday, The sheep, which numbered over 2000, belonged to Mr. Matthews, and were en route to his property at Mahoenui Palmerston North is not the only place where indiscriminate shooting goes on. At Inglewood yesterday a member of one of the New Plymouth volunteer companies discharged his-rifle, loaded with blank cartridge, in a hotel. The chances are that he will be given an opportunity to explain.

At the S.M. Court yesterday" F. T. Olliver pleaded guilty to a charge ot neglecting to clear ragwort on sections 212 and 123, block 2, Egmont, and was fined 10s> and costs 7s. P. Jones was lined a similar amount, with costs, upon the information of the borough inspector, for having driven horses on the footpath in St. Aubyn street. The quarterly meeting of the Whiteley Methodist Church was held on Wednesday night, the Rev. J. G. Chapman presiding over a fair attendance. The financial statement was very satisfactory, the co'i'lectious at the church, for the past quarter amounting to £125. A debit balance of £2G had been wiped off, and a credit of £lB lis is shown. An accident occurred yesterday afternoon at Te Henui. A motor-car dashed out of a side-street- at a great pace just as a lady was driving past in Devonstreet. Te horse reared up and alighted awkwardly, falling and throwing the lady out of the vehicle. She was badly cut about the head and face. The motorist proceeded on his way .without slackening speed. It is stated that Mr. W. Prestnev, a young man resident on the Frankley road, who has an experimental and inventive turn of mind, claims to have invented a machine by which he can obtain perpetual motion and power. He lias at present only a rough working model, but hopes soon to complete a full working model, which will be submitted to a proper test. At the Wiaitara pilot station on Monday evening the Morse system of signalling was used for the first time. Mr. J. W. Laing was in communication with Captain. Hounsell, of the s.s. Cornwall, which was anchored in the roadstead. The signalling was successfully craned out, and great credit is due to Mr. Laing, who only began learning the code a few months ago, writes our Waitara correspondent. There were extenuating circumstances in the case brought in the S.M. Court yesterday by the Noxious Weeds Inspector against a farmer for not clearing his land of noxious weeds. It was shown that before he had time to carry out the instructions of the inspector the unfortunate occupier suffered an injury to his eye and had to be taken to tiie New Plymouth Hospital, in which institution the summons was served upon him. For some time past it has been noticeable that farmers appearing before the S.M. Court at New Plymouth for neglecting to clear tlieir farms of noxious weeds were getting off lightly as compared with delinquents' in neighboring districts. At Inglewood the fines are frequently of £2 and costs, whilst at New Plymouth half a sovereign and costs is more general. Mr. Fitzherbert announced yesterday morning that he intends in future to make the penalty stiffer. Expressed in British currency, the daily wages of certain Japanese employees are as follow:—Spectacle and precious stone workers, 4s; masons, 2s lOd: fireworks-makers, 2s sd; ship-builders, 3s O'/od; carpenters, 2s sd; and their assistants, Is 10y 2 d. Female workers received from 20 to 30 per cent, less than men, the highest daily wage for women .being paid to hat and soap-makers, Is 3d, and artificial flower-makers, Is 5y 2 d. Among male operators, low-paid kinds are "foreign" umbrella-makers, B%d; soap-makers and bamboo pipe-makers. 3%d; and printers 4Vjd. The lowest wages for women are 3%d for weavers and tortoise-shell workers, and 2'/ 2 d for umbrella-sewers. Among workers who are paid by the month, sakj brewers receive 14s and food, watch-menders 30s and food, and saddle and harness-mak ers 42s and food. Domestic service is very badly paid: ordinarv men-servants get lis per month on the average. female domestics from 7s to 10s per month, exclusive of food. It was just after dawn —''under the opening eyelid of the morn" —a farmer's employee, in a field a few miles from Wellington, saw a figure glide swiftly and stealthily across country. The Wellington Post says the fugitive reached a tree, and clambered rapidly up into the branches. This crafty procedure puzzled the observer. He pondered deeply, and a, Sherlock Holmes Instinct told him that lie had seen Joseph Powelka, the escaped prisoner. The observer hurried to the nearest police station, and breathlessly announced his find. The district constable's eye brightened, and visions of promotion dazzled him. His first impulse. no doubt, was to rash .wiy and lay hold of the escapee at all hazards, but lie deemed it prudent to get assistance. He commissioned two large navvies, men of length and girth and depth —to accompany him on the desperate mission, and the.paTty sallied with sufficient weapons to terrify three Powelkas. The tree was found, it was 'surrounded; the man was still there in his leafv retreat. The constable itched to use the handcuffs. The men on the ground expected armed resistance, nnd the man in the tree held nothing more formidable than a stop-iwatch. He was merely splitting seconds, and had not the least desire to split skulls. He was a respectable settler timing secret performances on a. private track by a trotter in which he was interested. Ariri «ffv tier cent, to your comfort when travelling hv checking your baggage through us We collect, check hv rail or sea. deliver at other end promptly after arrival. And here's another point: Our svstem artuaTlv costs no more thai the antifiintod wav of travelling with uncheckp'i haffjVfwe. with it* multitudinous worries. The N.Z, Express Company, Ltd.—A&rfc. ., t ,

Maoris must have quaint ideas of Mliard • evidently thinking they arc walking banks (says the YV'airapa Age). One dark-haired native, going by the sobriquet of "Midnight," strolled into a saloon in Greytown a few day? back and played a game, which he lost. He calmly presented the marker with a cheque for £2OO with instructions to "take Is 6d out of that."

A resident of Milton who is in England says: "The frozen meat trade is not what it ought to be. When I goto a shop the appearance of the mutton is almost as bad as to debar people from purchasing. In the season local lamb sells at- Is 2d per lb, but we can buy New Zealand lamb at CVL>d per lb. The latter will never be a success until they remedy the evil of its slimy appearance."

The North Island Main Trunk railway (inclu;liii«r the New Plymouth section) is more profitable already than the South Island Main Trunk railways. During ■the period ending March 5, 1910 (339 days) the receipts on 10G4 miles of the North Tsland line were £1,430.002 8s lid, and the expenditure £073,490 17s sd, giving a profit of £45<i,511 lis fid for ; the 1004 mile*. "While the South Island line receipts for 1323 miles were only .■C1.217.037 10> sd. and the expenditure i£850,400 0s Od, giving a profit of £367,038 0s lid.

A circumstance that is being talked about here (says the Waverley correspondent of the Patea Press) will make many think pleasantly of their growing years. The other day there worked on Mr. lon's farm three old men whose years between them numbered 216. They were harvesting and did it well. The oldest, John lon, who built the stack, has seen a summer or two more than eighty, and his brother and Victor Zoland. the two other veterans, are now fast approaching 70. Performances like these make one stop and think of many things.

A well-known local Justice of the Peace assorted his rights at the Recreation Grounds' ou Monday afternoon, and declined to pay the extra sixpence to enable him to reach the terraces close by the platform from which the "Besses" were giving their programme. He claimed that the grounds were public, and that he was free to go where ha would. The incident was brought under the notice of Mr. Corkill, a member of the Recreation Grounds Board, in whom the grounds axe vested and whom leased to the Sports Ground Committee. He has given notice to move at the next meeting of the Board: '"That this Board strongly disapproves' of the action of the management of the "Besses o' tli' Bam Band'' in advertising an admittance fee of one shilling on the occasion of the recent concert and then exacting a further sum of sixpence for entrance upon the terraces; that the attention of the Sports Ground Committee be called to clause 1G of the lease under which the ground is held, viz., "No assignment or transfer ... of the rights and privileges ftereby intended to be conferred shall be made by the Sports Committee except with the previous consent in writing of the 'board, and the deci-inn of tlie board in this respect shall be final." and its strict observance requested; that the signatures of not less than five members of the board (including borough representatives) shall be necessary to make any sueli cousent valid; and that the board ali'inns the principle that for ordinary sports meetings' and entertainments the charge for admittance should be limited to one shilling for adults and sixpence for children, and that in nocase should there be an additional sum for the ordinary seating accommodation provided on the terraces." Whilst on this topic, doesn't tJie Domain and Reserves Act provide for formal public notice of intention to make a charge for admission to such grounds, or any portion of them?