LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 11 July 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Manuka brings 627 cases of drugs for New Zealand ports.

The cash earnings of the Municipal Electric Light Department for the past month were £443 12s od.

The Lands Department is continuing its policy of subsidising medical clubs iii sparsely-settled districts to. maintain medical men. During the year 11)0!)-10 the sum of £972 10s was so paid. In consequence of road repair works that are in hand on the track to ctie North Egmont Mountain House, braices and motor cars will not be allowed to proceed beyond the gorge, 3y 4 miles from the radius gates, until further notice.

The cable a'gent at Brisbane has furnished us with a list of the New Zealand cargo aboard the Manuka, which arrived at Queensland's capital city yesterday. New Plymouth's share of the cargo is small, comprising seven cases of carriage ware. Masterton is agitating for a through daily connection by rail between Masterton and New Plymouth. At present it is possible to travel from New Plymouth to Masterton in the one day, but the trip the reverse way occupies two days. It is contended that if the trains are speeded up, the one day trip can easily be managed.

It is reported in Melbourne papers that a man named Kling was carting a large empty square water tank, and his son was walking beside the dray. The tank slipped off the dray and fell on to the lad. The spectators rushed to the spot expecting to find the boy badly crushed, but he was inside the tank, practically uninjured. He had passed through the manhole as the tank fell from the dray. The movement against the reigning Chinese dynasty is being quietly but energetically organised, savs » (Vr • t-

message. It is known here uiai. u.-anti-dvnastic agitators have agents abroad who are busily employed collecting arms, many shipments of which have come to hand from San Francisco and Honolulu disguised as merchandise. The China Daily Mail, in discussing the danger that menaces the country, remarks: "We are reluctant to write in an alarming strain, but it would be foolish to ignore the facts of the situation."

Dr. Buck (Te Rangihiro), who recently returned to New Zealand after acting as Health Officer at Raratonga for a few months, says the fruit industry there has improved. The natives were planting on a more extensive scale, and the steamer service had been of great bene-i fit. Compared with their New Zealand cousins, the Island Natives were quite prosperous, the fruit being a steady source of income. They work hard, supplying and loading two steamers monthly. Dr. Buck believes that the fruitgrowing possibilities of the Islands have just been tapped. For centuries past, Duke Max zu Saehsen informs us, women have not been allowed on the peninsula of Mount Athos. Even female animals are prohibited. Condensed milk is imported from Switzerland, so that the eyes of the inhabitants may not be offended by the sight of a cow. The inhabitants of Mount Athos are the members of twenty monasteries which have existed there since the days when Christian Emperors held rule at Constantinople, and gave laws to all Europe. For fourteen or fifteen hundred years, let us say, no woman has trodden the ground of Mount Athos. | How the nine-year-old daughter of a Petersburg, U.S.A., farmer made herself a pair of corsets out of tin is related in the American press. She majle a collection of old tin cans, and melted them so that they would 1 unroll. She then cut them into strips, which she hammered into the desired shape, covered them with muslin, and thus manufactured a pair of corsets. An accident exposed the secret. During a storm she hid herself in the porch. Lightning struck the house, and the girl was found unconscious, suffering from severe burns. Her tin corsets had been bored by lightning and partly melted.

The statement of receipts and expenditure, from February 28 to June 30, submitted to the National Park Board on Friday, showed total receipts £506 3s 3d. The expenditure included £<s4 17s by the North Committee on track work; £156 19s 7d by the South Committee (water and drainage contract £BS 7s 7d, track work £69 Is 3d, and insurance £2 10s); £5 lfis by the East Committee ion track work; £ls 15s 6d by the West Committee on track work. The balance to credit at the bank was £251 las 2d, the balance ! extending:— Cr.: North Committe, £lO2 3s 6d'/ 2 East .Committee, £49 7s 7d. Dr.:, South Committee, £2 10s 9d; West Commitee, 16s Bd.

At a meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce on Friday, the following motion was carried: "That in the opinion of this chamber ilie Government committed a grave error in legalising the position of bookmakers and compelling racing clubs to license them, thereby facilitating and accounting for a very large increase in gambling, which operates so disastrously against extensive Commercial interests throughout the Dominion, and reduces to a low state the commercial morality of a large section of the community. In view of the above, this chamber is totally opposed to the licensing of bookmakers by any authority whatever, and urges upon the Government the pressing necessity of the early repeal of such legislation."

At Thursday night's meeting of the Opunake Town Board (the Times reports) no reply had been received from the promoters of the Opunake Harbor Bill in respect to the Board's letter asking if the promoters intended to make a move in harbor matters. Discussion onsued on the question, put by Mr. Trotter, "What was the best thing to be dolie in the matter?" Members were of opinion that there were practically no promoters now, and the Opunake harbor affairs were in a worse plight now than before the bill became law. Before a move could be made there was the expense of promotion and incidental expenses, which would amount to £IOO or so, with no assets, but a big liability, as soon as a board was formed. Mr. Trotter thought there were other schemes likely to be of value, and perhaps more practical, that a board could promote. It was pointed out that the Waiaua prospects could not be dealt with by the present Bill, but if a modified scheme could be put forward that would not require such a big rate as would be required under the present Bill there was a prospect of something being done. The members then lapsed into discussion on port matters foreign to t he question originally raised. The outcome remained "as we were."

SKIN DISEASES, including eczema, pimples, rashes, b0i13,! chilblains, ringworm, shingles, ulcers and j old sores have their cure in Rexona, the : Rapid Healer. ISold in triangular pots at Is 6d and 3s. Obtainable at Bullock and Johnston's. 1 * ■ V

On Saturday morning a difference of opinion occurred on the sailing vessel Viganella, and the local police had to lend a hand in enforcing the officers' authority.

The remains of the late Taare Waitara were conveyed to Pnrihaka yesterday for burial. A tangi is proceeding, and Maoris are expected to-day from all parts of the island. Fishers of whitebait are warned by a notice in last week's Gazette that thev must not use. for the purpose ot enabling tlieni to take whitebait, hurdle* (either alone or in conjunction with boats moored or held in position in a river or stream), jiggers, or any other device or contrivance which tends to prevent or divert the movement of such lish up or down stream. A jiiitrr-r is an appliance formed of pieces of'metal or other substance attached to a line, and placed in a river or stream for the purpose of turning the fish into nets. Any person committing a breach of the regulation is liable to a fine of not less than £1 and not exceeding £2l).