LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 382, 6 May 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There were a number of young Collegians on the mail train last night, returning from Wanganui to spend the term vacation at Itheir homes in New Plymouth. A coursing- elu-1) ,has been formed a! Hawera. to be willed the Tarannki Plumpton Coursing Club, to be run nailer the rules of tlie New (Zealand Cour.sing Association. The work of laying down the turf for the West End Bowling 'Club is proceeding apace, ana given fine weather a g-uod show will soon be made. The ehib also wish to thank Mr. U. Broadbent for a donation. The mysterious disappearance of the "Leader" picture from the Wellington I Art Gallery 'is still occupying the attention of the police, but the matter comes under the ''kept-steadilv-in-view" category, says the Dominion. Messrs J. D. and Alex Mitchell, of Manaia, leave for |Sydney this reek with a batch of draught horses for the Sydney market. Immediately on their return from Sydney, they are due with a second contingent of Burnbank stock for the winter sales in Melboudae. Dr. Valintine has consented to address the delegates of the Hospital Association at Stratford about the second Thursday in July on hospital matters in connection with friendly Societies. He will also be pleased to answer any questions put to him on these matters. A notification appears in the Greymouth Magistrate's Courthouse which states that' Messrs. David Zyman and Felix Campbell have been granted a mineral prospecting license over 25,000 acres at and adjacent to Kotuku, as they purpose boring for oil. The other two (licenses "ranted for this purpose are held by Mr. Joseph Taylor (2000 acres) and the Hon. J. D, Ormond and Mr. R. D. D. McLean, of lHawke's B'.v (2000 acres). It is understood that Mr. David Ziman has had placed at his command a capital of two millions for the development of the oil areas in Westland. A meeting of representatives of five Oddfellows' 'lodges of ti total membership of nearly one thousand who were opposed to the North Canterbury district joining the New Zealand branch of the Manchester 'l'nitv was held on Tuesday last. A committee was set up to collect information in connection with the matter, to be forwarded to the authorities. The action of the last district meeting in sending delegates to Napier was severely criticised, it being stated that it was illegal according to both English and New Zealand branch general laws. The meeting expressed the opinion that no lodge ought to pay the expenses incurred. A humorous light hvas let in upon the discussions of the Wellington Presbytery by the Rev. J. K. Elliott in introducing its moderator (the Rev. W. J. Comrie) at the farewell meeting to Dr. Henry. "'We just go to that Presbytery," he declared, "and we fight like devils for the glory of God. (Laughter.) The moderator |has had a very hard anil

thorny seat of it indeed." (Laughter.) j Mr. Comrie explained that the meetings , were not quite so bad as had been a - '.;- ! presented. ''We feel strongly on some j ■points, we are perhaps a little fond of i debate, and the chairman has points of I order, etc., to consider, hut we don't— i please 'don't suppose that in our private j meetings we fight like devils. We do < love as brethren." j At the Inglewood Borough Council ! meeting on Wednesday night (a letter; was received from Mr. F. Eockstrow, | hon. secretary of the 'Sew Zealand Sol- | diers' Gnaves Guild, stating that they intended erecting headstones and placing coping round the graves of soldiers who 'have died since their return to , , Xew Zealand a-s the direct result of j active service in South Africa. He ask-1 ; ed that the Council should forego the I ! condition ire purchase of the title of the | I graves, as funds were the result of | ' public subscription and were rather lim-1 1 ited. There were About twenty graves iin the Dominion /to attend to. The } Council was quite in sympathy with the 1 motion and granted the application. The clerk also volunteered to look up cemetery 'records and send any informa-

, tion on to 'the secretary. In the Police Court yesterday morn- ' insr, before Messrs. H. F. Russell and ' j/\V. Boon, J.P.'s, Arthur Hall pleaded 1 guilty to a charge of having allowed a ' I horse attached to a vehicle to stand un- ■ I attended in Devon-street, and was fined 1 ! 5s .and costs 7s fid. Elsie Carthew, who i did not appear,'was fined '2s (id and costs I for Cycling in Devon-street after dark ] without a light. Richard White, charged i with eyeliner upon o footpath in Cour-tenay-street, pleaded guilty, hut explained that as the road opposite his house wns unformed he was in the habit of riding diagonally across the path to the. good portion of the street. The borough inspector's evidence was to the effect that he had received complaints thai; the defendant wns in the habit of cycling £>n the footway, ami he wont out one morning specially to catch him. He had never warned him, but, added the witness, "he's seen me two or three times in the locality, and must haw guessed T was after something." A fine of '2s (id and 7s costs was inflicted. A number of cases, including three informations laid by the Inspector of Factories, were adjourned for hearing by the Magistrate. The partial failure of the American cotton crop is likely to have considerable effect in New Zealand, according 10 the manager of pne of the large drapery emporiums, who was seen by a Dominion representative. The. price of cotton goods, he stated, has been increasing durinsr the past fifteen months, owing first of all to a rise in the price of the raw cotton, and secondly to an increase in Jthe cost of English manufacture, due, it is said, to the demands of labor. The bulk (of the cotton which finds its way into Briti>h and New Zea-land-sold goods comes from America, and it is the American supply which influences the market. The disaster to I the crop in the United States will make it very improbable that the price <of cotton goods will be lowered within the next three years, that the price of cotton goods will be lowered within the next three years, and it is very possible that the price will be very much uncreased. "The bulk of our business is done in cotton goods." stated this informant. "Cotton is used in the manufacture of flannelette, tweeds, calico, shirtings, quilts, and countless other materials and articles in general use. Tt is possible, however, that America's ill wind may blow good to iXew Zealand in another wav, for if there is a fallins-ofl' in the supply of cotton there is almost sure to be an increased demand for wool, bv which the Xew Zealand grower ought to benefit. Send Tour order for printing to the "Daily Xcws' - Printcry. Prices right and satisfaction guaranteed. For Om.dren's Hsekin<* Conan nt- nifhf. Woods' Great Peprcrmmt Ci re, I,'U, 2/0'

A boom in the marriage market. Fifteen weddings in Auckland on Wednesday. It is stated that (i2,!)i) per cent, of the males and 71!.75 per cent, of the females in the Dominion are wuge-earners or workers. It is understood that a gratuity equal to two years' salary will be provided onthe Police Estimates for the widow of, Sergeant Maguirc. It is a coincidence that the late MarkTwain was born in 183.'>, the year of the comet's previous appearance, and died on its reappearance this year. A farrier assured Judge Bacon at Whitechapel that throvrh the introduction of motor-cars into London nearly every farrier is "broke to the world." The electric light account of the Patea Borough Council shows a credit balance 1 of £1!)" on the past years working. The councillors regard this as eminently; satisfactory. Examples of mixed metaphor from the Supreme Court bench: "To (use a popular phrase, you ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds, in the hope that you |would turn up trumps." At Hawera two men have achieved a record in milking. By the use of patent milking - machines they put through 120 fows in 120 minutes.* They were timed by Mr. Greville, of The Dairyman. A ChristeUurch telegram states that Miss Mary Hull, who has resigned her position as head mistress of the •Sydenham School after thirty years' service was presented with a purse of aovo> cigns yesterday by ex-pupils and staff. Litigation in the American courts concerning moving picture patents, which has resulted in a victory for Mr. Thomas A. Edison, has revealed ithe fact that Mr. Edison receives £1450 a week in royalties from the moving picture business in the United States. » A householder in Stratford, who hfcS recently had reason to believe that his stock of firewood diminished iwith undue rapidity, decided one night to await events beneath the shelter of a hedge, and in due course ell'ecied a capture—a woman—to whom an appropriate caution was administered.—Post. The latest from America. Professor Percival Lowell, director of the Flagstaff Observatory in Arizona, has just announced ithe completion toy the people of Mars of a new canal 1000 miles long. He has succeeded in photographing it. Water, he says, has been turned into it, and between the months of May and September vcgetat>ri has Reared in a part of the iplanet's great desert where there was none before. A (correspondent to the Hawera Star, who does not desire that the locality may be further particularised, write&s "I had the pleasure of inspecting a local invention of ten aeroplane in model form the other \iy, and was so agreeably surprised with the design and performances that I can safely say that should the full-sized machine prove as effective as the model, New Zealand will not be left ibchind in the field of aviation. The machine is in design a monoplane, with. thin curved win;is tapering to the tins somewhat similar to those in Levavasseur's Antoinette tnaehine so consistently and successfully used by Mr. Hubert Latham in all his flights. ' The altitude control is by means of a dip-plane in front and a tail at the rear, while stability is maintained through warping the main iplanes by a device which is unique in its originality. The model, which weighs nine pounds, is six and a-half feet over all, while the wings are nine feet /from tip to tip, willow, aluminium, piano wire, and oiled silk being used in its construction. When drawn along the -ground by hand at a slow speed it almost immediately rose in the air, where it remained stationary for some time. When 'lrawn through the air at a fast walk it produced a considerable life and showed very little inclination to tilt or overbalance. The greatest height it Attained was fifteen feet, as tint was all that could be done in safety owing to the gusty wind."