LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 87, 21 July 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Dominion Dairy Show gate takings amounted to £644. Yesterday was Arbor Day. Most of the Government offices were closed. The ironwork class at the Stratford Technical School, the first of its kind in the Dominion, will commence operations this afternoon. '"We can't keep roads if we don't keep the water off them. That is the rudiment of roadmaking. I have had thirtysix years' experience and should know." —Member of deputation to Stratford County Council. A special meeting of the Stratford County Council was held yesterday, when special orders were made constituting the new Ivopua road drainage district, and making and levying a separate rate of Id in the pound on the Stanley, Cross, and Croydon roads separate rating district. ■ The Oakura Co-operative Dairy Company's bonus payments to suppliers, made last month, amounted to £38!) 12s 4d, being y g d per lb on 157,0161b of butter-fat supplied between Ist September, 1909, and 30th April, 1910, as against £177 2s, or %d per lb, on butter-fat received during the same period last year. Excerpt from Foreman's report to the Stratford County Council: —"Upper Pembroke Road: I attended to this road, but did not find much to complain of, except that it is blinded' to death; therefore it is hard to say where the metal is in places, but I am pleased to say the amount of rain we have had has washed a lot of it off', so we may find the road in time to have it blinded again next season." The weekly session of the Egmont Lodge, No. 112, LO.G.T., was held in St. Mary's Hall last night. The C.T., Bro. J. C. Legg, presided over a fair attendance. The programme for the evening consisted of impromptu speeches. A large number of subjects were discussed, including "Smoking," "Gambling," "Street Improvement," "The Harbor," and "How to improve the order of the Temple." The election of officers is postponed till Wednesday week. Yesterday the Mangorei Co-operative Dairy Company paid out to suppliers £2611 7s 4d, representing a bonus of Id per lb on 626,7281b butter-fat supplied •between Ist September, 1909, and 30th April, 1910. Besides this, the company makes an advance of lO'Ad for last month's milk, and pays a dividend of 5 per cent. (£236 8s) on share capital. Ample provision has also been made for depreciation. Liast year the bonus payment made by the company amounted to £536 12s 2d, being Vid per lb on butter-fat received during the same period, and the 5 per cent, dividend amounted to £260 15s.

(Replying to Mr. Okey in the House of Representatives, the Minister for Agriculture stated that a request was rorwarded in May last to the High Commissioner asking him to arrange to keep the (lovernment informed as far as is within his power of all conditions concerning Argentine produce, and it is hoped that reliable information will be received periodically for publication in the Dominion. The Trade Commissioner is in Buenos Ayres at the present tirpe, and he has also been instructed to gather any information that will be of value to producers and traders in New Zealand, and transmit by cable fortnightly. The first of these cables has now come to hand and been published. He will also endeavor to make satisfactory arrangements for information to be cabled to New Zealand fortnightly after his departure. No one reading the two following extracts from speeches on the gambling evil would take them to be the utterances of men who have always opposed the betting tendency of the age. "1 have not had much to do with the bookmaker in a direct way, but I have a good deal to do with them in an indirect way," remarked Mr. Hal Goodacre, the retiring president of the Employers' Association, on Tuesday night, and lie went on to show that he had noticed the effect of gambling upon people with whom he was acquainted. "I'm poorer to-day by a certain amount of hard-earned cash, by reason of the act of some bookie or other, and I'm out after his blood. i want to see the bookie go under." These were the remarks of Mr. C. I']. Baker, the president-elect. What he meant was that a man who had owed him money had been betting heavily, and lost, then fled the country to avoid paying up his liabilities. TO GROW lIAIR ON A BALD HEAD. (By a Specialist.) Thousands of people suffer from baldness and falling hair who, having tried nearly every advertised hair tonic and hair grower without results, lmve resigned themselves to baldness and its attendant discomforts. Yet their case is not hopeless; the following simple home prescription lias made hair grow after years of baldness, and is also unequalled for restoring grey hair to its original color, stopping hair from falling out, and for destroying the dandruff germ. It will not make the hair greasy, and can be put up by any chemist: —Bay Rum 3oz, Lavona de Composee loz, Menthol Crystal % dram. If you wish it perfumed add half to one teaspoonful of French Fon Fleur Perfume, which unites perfectly with the other ingredients. This preparation is highly recommended by physicians and specialists, and is absolutely harmless, as it contains none of the poisonous wood alcohol so frequently found in hair tonics. Do not apply to face or where hair is not desired.

The Moa Dairy Company puid out yesterday £599 lis 8d for butter fat. i'lie amount for July of last 1 far v.as £412 14s Id.

Waihi heads the list in the aggregate amount of fines imposed for sly-grog selling in the Dominion during the year 190!) with £(>2o. Auckland comes next. It has been decided to name the Dominion Dreadnought "New Zealand" instead of Zealandia. The cruiser row carrying the name New Zealand will be re-named the Maori.

A llrtweni dairy farmer obtained a return of £IBOO from his 200-acre farm last year. His cows are not exceptional milkers, but lie manages all his stock exceptional advantage. A humorous postcard from Mr. J. Clarke and Meynell informs us that they will play '"Mr. Preedy and the Countess" in New Plymouth on Boxing Night and the following night. The comedy is described by the London Daily Mail as "a perfect maelstrom of mirth." A Wairarapa farmer believes that much disappointment could often be avoided in regard to unsatisfactory crops it' more attention were paid to cleaning and grading the seed to a uniform size. Continual grading, lie states, does a lot towards a general improvement in quality and heavier yield. From Paris comes the news of a banquet held there last month, at which the menu included an omelet of ostrich e SS s > pythons, African gazelles, and porcupines. Several women, after tasting the gazelles, declared they had lost their appetite, but they were'induced to try python ragout, which tliev pronounced delicious.

The railheads at Whangarei northward and Ivawakawa southward extensions were linked up last week. The Public Works Department hope to hand over the twenty miles now in their possession by December. This will make the total length qf railway from Whangarei to Opua (Bay of Islands) available for traffic, a distance of fifty-four miles. At the Land Board meeting on Tuesday, the Education Board applied for section 47, Whangamomona, to enlarge the present school site, section 26, block 1, Malioe. Mr. Kenuedy moved that the application be granted, and the motion was seconded by the Commissioner. The Board divided on the motion as follows: —Ayes: Messrs Simpson and Kennedy: 'Noes: 'Messrs Heslop, Rattenbury and MeCluggage. The motion was lost.

" The results will demonstrate the necessity of an organisation such as this in watching labor and mercantile legia lation. ... to safeguard the interests of all employers of labor."—Extract from the annual report of the Taranaki Employers' Association. There were ten members present at the annual meeting, and the ten included the secretary. The importance of the Assocition is not reflected by the attendance at meetings.

At the Stratford County Council meeting yesterday, when discussing a proposed prosecution for breach of the heavy-traffic by-laws, the chairman drew attention to the heavy traffic that was now taking place on the Opunake-Strat-ford road. Whether on account of the tolls on the Eltham road or the state of the road, or both, traffic that formerly went to the railway at Eltham was now coming to Stratford. There were now two heavy six-horse waggons on the road carting stuff from outside the county, which was not doing the county one iota of good. They would soon be* forced to consider the question of a cure, either by putting on a carrier's license or by the erection of tollgates. Personally he 'thought the latter were an abomination. One of the councillors stated that a good deal of the traffic was of benefit to the district, being the cartage of hides, etc., to the Stratford sales. It was further stated that the Eltham County Council were full up of tollgates, and would probably abolish them, as they were going in for a big loan. The. chairman stated that he had brought the matter before members so that they could think it over.