LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 47, 4 June 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

During the discussion on the engineer's report at the Clifton County Council yesterday one of the councillors drew attention to the fact that though 200 yards) of metal had been authorised for a certain road the report stated that 372 yards had been put down, and he wanted to know where the extra 172 yards had come from.—-The engineer interjected: "From the same place as the 200 yards."—Later on, during the course of the meeting, the chairman stated that if there was anything he objected to it was to unauthorised expenditure, as he believed it was that which had put the Council in its present position, and it was certain that in future it would have to be abandoned.

The annual meeting of the Taumavunui Licencing Bench was held at Waitara yesterday. The business only occupied ten minutes. The district, which is a very large one, extending from Waitara to Tokaanu, only contains five licensed houses—four at this end of the district, and one at Tokaanu, about three days' journey by train and coach. The intervening portion is all "dry." Last year great interest was' taken in this licensing meeting owing to the applications for various wholesale licenses in the King Country, several of which were granted. However, this year, in view of the Government's expressed intention of introducing legislation to prevent the issue of further licenses, license holders' evidently bowed to the inevitable, as there was only one application for renewal, and no one appearing even to support it, it was struck out without comment.

At the Clifton County Council meeting the engineer drew attention to the damage done to metal roads by fivehorse waggons carrying heavy loads on narrow tyres, and also to the damage to unmetalled roads by heavy cartage during wet weather. The matter formed the subject of much discussion. The chairman stated that the Council had been waiting for the model bye-laws which the Government had promised to frame. These had been promised for some years, but there was as yet no indication that anything was being done. Unless the Government took up the matter very soon the Council would have to bring in bye-laws regulating traffic themselves before next winter. One of the Councillors suggested putting a notice in the .papers drawing carters' attention to the matter, but another councillor remarked that people were so enlightened now that they would know it was useless unless backed up by a bye-law. j

A very good joke is being circulated at the expense of a well-known Manawatu farmer, who, previous to taking an extended holiday, purchased a line of young cattle and had them driven to an .outlying part of his farm. On his return a visit of inspection was made to different parts of the estate to ascertain how things had been progressing during his absence. Some strange cattle attracted his attention, and he wondered how they came on his property. A week or so having elapsed after his first visit he saw that the intruders were still enjoying his winter pasture. Enquiries made if the neighbors had lost any stock failed to find the ownership. Instructions were then given to the ranger to drive the ownerless strays to the pound and damages for trespass were fixed on a liberal scale. On their way to solitary confinement the cattle were recognised by the man who 'had driven them from the sale, and he enquired what was' being done with them. "Oh! they have been running on 's property for some time, and no owner can be found for them, and I am taking them to the pound," replied the mnger. "That is strange," said the drover, "for r brought those identical calves home for from the sale, and put them into the paddock that you have just taken them from." However, the animals were impounded, and the farmer was asked to refresh, hw memory regarding them, which resulted in his having to go and release his own cattle from the poundkeepeiv—Rangitikei Advocate. Dr. Bertillon, inventor of the fingerprint system of identification, has invented an electrical apparatus which will enable magistrates to calculate the efforts made by burglars to break open a door. Dr. Bertillon claims that with his new machine he will lie able to s-ay whether the thief or 'burglar is a man, 'woman or child. The services in Queen-street Church to-morrow will be conducted bv the Rev. •T. Nixon—morning at 11, evening at 7. Miss Nixon will .sing a Gospel solo at the evening service. All seats free. Nonchurchgoers invited.

Members of both Houses in the United States receive CISOO a year and their travelling expenses. Next highest come the French deputies and senators, who* draw £OOO a year. Many of the Lower House in Australia, points out an exchange, rpceive 16s 8d for each day's attendance. In Holland, the payment is fixed at £I(J(S a year, and in' Belgium tIOO. 'Swedish members of l>oth Cnomliers receive £BO for a se--iou of four months, or in the casu of an extra session lis a day. In Italy, .Spain and Germany all that members receive for their services is a free pass over the* railways. 'New Zealand M.P.'s get £3OO a rear.

A wireless telegraphy station near Berlin claims to Live established a record in combined overland and sea. transmission of wireless messages. The station recently succeeded in maintaining wireless communication with a Woermaun liner during the entire voyß-e** from Hamburg to the Kamerun. The greatest distance signalled was (WOO kilometres, over 4000 miles. Although the messages had to pass over the Alps, the Algerian tableland, ami the Adamaua range, communication was effected with astonishing ease. The Kamerun is a German possession in Equatorial West Africa, extending in coastline from the Rio del Rey to the Cam->o river. It borders the British sphere on the one hand and the French Congo territory on the other. It is here that the coooa and coffee and tobacco plantations of the Germans have been extremely successful, the soil ibeing of great fertility and the climate less unhealthy to Europeans than the surrounding countries. "Nobody lives so long as the parsons. Gardeners run them close, and brewers' draymen come at the bottom of the list," said Dr. Rheinhardt, in a recent lecture in London on "The Duration of Life." An interesting theory, he continued, had been put forward that their children would not make soldiers, but were marked by superior intellectual ability, and that with ft still older father the children would have marked philanthropic tendencies. This theory harmonised' with the dictum of Confucius. "Longevity is much commoner in Southern Europe than in northern climates. Bulgaria, with a population of three millions has more than 3000 centenarians leading the lives of useful citizens." On the same occasion Professor Bateson, speaking on the heredity of sex, said that from experiments made with insects and birds, scientists approached the popular view that the daughters would ie like the fathers and the sons like their mothers.

Since 1892 South Africa has teemed with black conventicles under exclusive 'black ministration. In that year the Rev. M. Mekone, a native, seceded from the Wesleyans and started a church of his own, for black skins only, and christened it "The Church of Ethiopia." He was soon followed by other native ministers from various denominations, and to-day the majority of the native churches and kindred Ethiopian sects are affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. This concern, which is directed from negro America, is the most powerful Ethiopian organisation in the world. It boasts of a million communicants, and is known to possess church property valued at fifty million dollars. It has its own hierarchy of bishops and ecclesiastics, and realising with considerable astuteness the commercial value of South Africa, has so used its superior .position and monetary resources that it has now firmly established itself in the land. It has sent thither its bishops and has ordained a veritable host of Kaffir ministers and: deacons, and with those sects and denominations which it has failed to rope in it has scoured a common bond of union in « hatred of the white man. There is one watchword upon which all' their dogmas unite in harmony, and this is: "Africa for Africans, and Ethiopian Republic from the Zaml>esi to Capetown."