LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 386, 11 May 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An officer in the Territorials appeared on parade yesterday wearing tan hoots. An interesting astronomical event of rare occurrence will take place on Thursday, May 19, when the earth will pass through the tail of Halley's Comet. No fewer than 810 motor cars passed through the Main South road toll gates, between Manaia and Hawera, during the past financial year, returning a revenue of £lO6. At the proclamation ceremony at the local Post Office yesterday—First lady: "He did not reign very long." Second lafly: "No; I think it's going to be a mountain wind!" The work of constructing the concrete culvert in Powderham street is now completed, everything now being in readiness for the accessary filling. The contractors (Messrs. Boon Bros.) are transferring their plant to the Viill street bridge, work upon which is now being proceeded with. Experts believe that England is at last on the eve of completing the most effective lighter-than-air craft in existence. It will be 48 feet in diameter and 500 feet in length. The ship itself will be built by Vickers, Son and Maxim, and the machinery by both Vickers. Son and Maxim and Welseley and Tiddeley, of Birmingham. "I tell you," said one man to another as they emerged from the corridor of a concert hall, "I envy that fellow who was singing." "Envy him," echoed the other. "Well, if I were going to envy a singer I'd select somebody with a better voice. His was about as poor as I ever heard." "It's not the voice I envV man," was the reply, "it's his tremendous courage."

Rumor hath it (says the Orepuki Advocate) that a well-known and enthusiastic prospector of the precious metals has made a find in the Waimeamcu direction lately. The nature of the mineral found has not yet transpired, but in that peculiar' and mysterious manner in which mining secrets ooze—that's the word —it is said that the lucky finder's pile is made, and that the black sand sensation will be a tame affair compared to the further development of the lucky find.

An instance .of the inconvenience that school teachers on the Main Trunk line hare to suffer was brought under the notice of the Wangariui Education Board last week. The Rangitaua schoolmaster, his wife and child, it was stated, are compelled to live in a tent in the rigorous climate of that region because there was not a house available in the township. The Department had been written to three months back on the matter, but had taken no notice of the letter. The members of the Board considered that the state of affairs and the Departmental neglect were disgraceful A gentleman residing in India, who has an idea of retiring from his present employment and settling down in Wellington, has evidently an erroneous idea of the condition of things in this country. After asking what a house and half an acre of land on the seashore near Wellington would cost, he, in the course of a letter of inquiry, says that, having purchased such a property, he assumes that a man (with a wife and one child) could easily Jive oil, say, £65 a year in Wellington. The inquirer, who writes in all seriousness, is likely to get a rude shock on reading the answer to his letter regarding the cost of living in Wellington. At the Inglewood Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, the Noxious Weeds Inspector prosecuted F. Stookbridge and Dwan Bros., of Wellington, for neglecting to clear the ragwort on their properties. Addressing the Bench, the inspector said he had had a good deal of trouble with this class of landowners, who were not farmers but absentee owners. The properties were held apparently for speculative purposes, for they' were not stocked, and the 'weeds were not attended to, so that they spread on to adjoining farms 'and became a positive menace to the farming community. He asked his Worship to make the fines in these cases so substantial as to make it a warning 'to absentee owners that they owed a duty to their neighbors and to themselves. Mr. W. G. Kenrick, the presiding Magistrate, inflicted a fine of £3

and eosts in each case, remarking that if these penalties did not produce the desired effect he would have to increase them.

Smokers will be delighted to learn (say* the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph) that a, military doctor has discovered, and undertakes to prove by convincing statistics, that smoking, instead of being bad, is good for the health. Better still, smokers are almost immune from meningitis. Tobacco, therefore, instead of being tabooed by some medical men, ought to be hailed with delight, and anyone threatened with the terrible brain or spinal attack should be at once told to take the nicotine cure. The discoverer of the new scientific fact is Dr. de Kermabon, of the French Army. He has patiently gathered statistics and watched the ravages of cerebro-spinal diseases among the young recruits of the French Army, and, as their habits, among others that of smoking, are carefully noted in the reports, he was astonished to see that so few of j the habitual smokers were attacked by the disease. The proportion, as established by him, is one to twenty—that is to say, for every one case of meningitis { among a given number of smokers, there are twenty cases of, the disease among an equal number of non-smokers.

BEWARE l "To MESSES SANDER and SONS.— Dear Sirs,—l just think it right to let you know of the reception worked on me after ordering two ounces 'Dottles of SANDER'S EUCALYPTI, Bemligo. We received to-day two bottle of EUCALYPTUS, and the enclosed wrapper around the bottle. Back they will go like a shot. I have been using your Extract myself and family, and giving It to my friends, for over forty years, and none other will suit me. I well remember my good old mother saying that she would end her days cheerfully by going round praising and advertising your Extract, for she herself had derived so much benefit by using it. I have lived to re-echo her words, and I will not stand bv, knowing the real alue of your Extract, and submit to this. lam determined to obtain the genuine article.—Yours faithfully. THOS. HOLDERNESS, Dappil, Q. 26th March, 190!)." SANDERS' EUCALYPTI EXTRACT ■possesses curative properties not possessed by any other Eucalyptus. It cure* when otbers irritate.

BEWARE OF PNEUMONTA. If you have weak lungs vou have reason to fear pneumonia, and should keen «t hand a bottle of Chamberlain's Couarh Remerlv. It counteracts anv tendency of a cold or attack of influen7n to result in pneumonia. It always cures, and cures, quickly. Sold by chemists and I storekeepers.'