LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 117, 25 August 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

To-day is the anniversary of tne ending of the first military settlers in JNew Plymouth in 1863. An anonymous donor has given £SOO towards the fund for the liquidation of the indebtedness on the Knox Church (Dunedin) property. A farmer in the Hinds district has a curious little feathered pet living around his homestead. It is a sparrow, tout unlike the ordinary sparrow, it has red plumage. At the general meeting of shareholders of the Taranaki Petroleum Co. on the Bth inst. the resolution to increase the capital was carried by 102 votes to one. Yesterday's confirmatory resolution was carried by 41 votes to nil. Never before has there been ouch unanimity at a shareholders' meeting. The progress of the farmer and of the petroleum industry is evidently going hand in hand. A Taranaki farmer writesl to the Taranaki Petroleum Company as follows: "Could you be good enough to forward mt a drum of crude petroleum? I wans to try whether it would cure uaiiv disorder in milch cows. I tried .<; i a small way last year for curing sore teats, and found it efficacious." At the Old People's Home this evening, the piano purchased for the institute as the result of the recent citizens' effort will be formally handed over. Mr. J. H., Parker, who acted as secretary to the committee, has arranged for several leading vocalists and for the Orchestral Society to give a concert on the occasion. The piano is one of Johu Brinsmead and Son's. upright grands, and a facsimile is to be placed on view in Messrs. Collier and Co.'s window. Preaching at the Rotorua Anglican Church, last Sunday week, the Eev. F. Bennett, Maori clergyman, took the Government very severely to task in regard to the prophet Rua. He said that fifty years at the place where Rua now went openly with his eight. wives, with the apparent consent of the Government, church bells rang each Sunday, and every, impulse of the people was towards good. The change was a sad commentary on our boasted civilisation, and it was a disgrace to the authorities that such a condition could exist. The weekly session of the Egmont

Lodge No. 112, 1.0. G.T., was held in St. Mary's Hall last night. The C.T., Bro. C. Pepperill, presided over a good attendance of members and friends. Sisters White arranged a good programme, the feature being the Minstrel troupe, consisting of both sisters and brothers of the Lodge. A very enjoyable evening was spent, the success of the evening' being due to Bros. G. Hayden and A. White. Sis. A. Loescn sang excellently. The musical part of the programme was attended to iby Bro. S. Lewis. The Lodge will meet next Tuesday instead of Wednesday, as the hall will be occupied on Wednesday. in March last a bottle was picked up in 'Mason's Bay (Stewart Island), and on being opened it was found to contain a message from the E.'M;S, Athenic. It now appears that the bottle was thrown : overboard in the Indian Ocean in February, 1909, and had travelled some 7000 miles in thirteen months before being i washed' up at' Mason's Bay, which is becoming quite famous on account of the . flotsam and jetsam of the southern seas • which appear to utilise the beach there : as a haven. The latest arrivals are five . golf balls, and the residents are quite • unable to account for these vagaries of l the will of the ocean. How and whence . they came is a mystery waiting solution, i There are no seaside golf links in the 1 South Island, and so there can be no i explanation from that source, nor is it '. likely that they were thrown overboard i iby a passing vessel. It' is thought, how- ' ever, that as a large number of bottles s usually washed ashore are from Tas- . manian breweries, the little spheroids •[also may have floated across the Tas- ; man Sea before reaching Mason's Bay. ' I Speaking at the Forest street Method:i ist Church, Bendigo, the Rev. T. S. B. ! Woodfull said that in fighting evil they ' would, like Wesley, be called names. • One name he could never understand the ' meaning of was "wowser.' He had been J called a "wowser" many times. As far [ as he could make out, "wowser" meant ! "joy-killer." He was a happy man him- [ self, and he had a great deal to make 1 him joyful. If there were any ferocious [ joy in lust, in gambling, in drinking, in ,' the harsh cry of the bookmaker, in the ! soul blackened with evil, then he was a I "joyikiller," hut if there were joy in saving child life, and in breaking the chains of sin, then he was not. The real "wowsers," continued Mr. Woodfull, J were the gambler and the man who sup- ■ ported gambling, the drunkard, and the man who supported drink; and those i! who had vested interests in evil and I malicious purposes. There were in Mel- ■ bourne gangs of crime-breeders, blood relations of the devil, standing for : spoliation, vampires seeking the blood of maidenhood and youthhood, persons who stopped 1 at nothing to gain evil. It did' not do for the leaders of the land | to have lax views on moral laws. He admired the Premier's work in regard jto drinking and cigarette-smoking, but Mr. Murray must know that there was as much harm done by gambling as by the other evils. He was sorry that the Trades Hall, which was supposed to stand for the working man and the I 1 right use of money, wanted to take money obtained in a most vicious form. NEVER NEGldfer A COLD. !A cold should never 'be treated lightly, as it is always more or less serious. Many people make the mistake of neglecting a cold until some serious lung I trouble results. If every cold received the attention it should have the dange of this would be avoided. Every cold can I be cured by tdie use of Chamberlain's i Cough Kemedy. A bottle or two of this I remedy taken when the cold is first contracted will promptly cure it and not only save doctors' bills, but much suffer- | ing and annoyance later on. Sold by al I chemists and storekeepers. I For chronic chest complaints, WoodsGreat Peppermint Cure, Is 6d, 2s 6d.