LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 142, 24 September 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A mail for Auckland will close here this afternoon per Rosamond at 2 p.m. Since gold was discovered in Coolgardie £92,000,000 worth has been produced there. As. a result of a geological survey, Dr. Bell is of opinion that, there are chances of petroleum being found in payable quantities in the Mokau district. The largest town district in New "Zealand is Rotorua, with a population of 2000. The smallest borough is Hampden, whpse population is but 380. * During one morning the Emperor of Austria, who is in his eightieth year, received! some 200 persons, with whom he conversed in German, French, Hungarian and Italian. ■So far this session, Parliamentary spokesmen have filled about 2000 pages of Hansard, and spent about £26,000 of public money, to pass half-a-dozen harmless enactments. In ordeir to secure.'their coal supplies at a cheaper rate, threshing mill owners la South Canterbury propose to band together and buy froiji one merchant, providing him with a guarantee in each case. It is hoped to secure a rebate of 5s a ton, and a committee has been appointed to go into the matter. Merely the winning ways of a little girl induced Mr. John Port, a Lancashire manufacturer, to appoint her his residuary legatee. He knew her very slightly. But one day her quiet little home was startled by the announcement that the manufacturer was dead aud she was his heiress. In a few years this lucky younolady, on attaining her majority, will inherit about three-quarters of a million sterling. Meantime, a yearly allowance of £2OOO is .being made for her education.

.. ® ome idea of tile immense and rapid increase in .the aeroplane industry—and it may We news that it has already developed into a recognised industry in the United States—may be gathered from ■the fact that the bus-mesa directory of New York city alone, for the year 11)10 shows no fewer than fifteen firms catermgi for the flying machine men. A vear ago there were five firms in the business and the year before that only two. Several of the firms, it is true, are merely the agents for French machines, but all express, a willingness to construct machines according to an aviator's specification, or to provide the specifications themselves if thiat should be demanded ot tnem. In London a year there was one firm engaged in thia business; ;,^ ear T th Jl re are « m the British meantime the death list The services in Queen . Street Church to-morrow will be conducted by the Hf J. Lewis (Presfeyterian minister) JjoniHig at lrl', evening at 1. All seats free. 'it n r

The huia, which is now said to be exceedingly scarce in the North Island w, a few years tack, quite common to the Forty-illie Bush. The native pigeon, which was also numerous in the Bush, is now to be found only in isolated parts. The Nile is the most regular river in the world ius to its periods of flood and decline. It rises steadily from 'June to August; then it begins to fall, rapidly at first, and afterwards slowly, till next •June. It is never a moiuli uuiy or late. It is stated that, whereas there were at one time fully five hundred natives 111 the neighborhood of Mastcrton alone, there are now not more than that number of full-blooded Maoris in the whole district. The area of the new prison farm, which is to be established at Takanui, about 12 miles from Te Awamutu, covers some 1200 acres, nn.l it is hoped to have the buildings, etc., ready for prisoners by the end of the coming summer. In many respects the institution will resemble that at Invercaryill, but will be on a larger scale, and the classification vwill -be more complete. There was a sensational finish at a wood-chopping contest'at Warner's Bay, Lake Macquarie (N.S.W.), the other day. The winner fell back after the final log and (jxpired within a quarter of an hour. Deceased's name was Robert William Handcock, 59, a labourer, lately living at Bogohle, near Minmi. It is believed that death was due to heart failure caused by over-exertion. To be as well-known as the town clerk may be pleasing to some, but it is not always desirable. For instance, a bailiff visited a house in toiwn yesterday morning, armed with a distress warrant. The "lady of the house" knew him and guessed his purpose. All the rooms were promptly locked, and the representative of the law was kept at bay. A man who bowled into the Magistrate's Court yesterday and applied for the issue of a prohibition order against himself was in such a state of inebriation as to prove, conclusively the necessity of the court to step in and put a check on his supply of liquor. But his .condition had another the court could not deal with tilie matter on his own application. His wife was at hand, however) and the application was made and granted. Mr. John .Mblntyre, who was the organiser and first president of the Dunedin Manure Worker*' Union, and who is now residing in Chieff, Scotland, has written an interesting letter to a friend in Dunedin, says the Otago Daily Times. In the course of his letter he savs: "There is no such thing as unionismhere. I am trying to get a union started, but it is uphill work. I start at 7' a.m., And finish at 0 p.m. What do New Zealanders think of this? I wish I was back in New Zealand, but it will take some time to get back at the wages I am getting."

A strange application was made at the Wellington Magistrate's Court lately, when a young man asked for the cancellation of a maintenance order in respect of a child. The parents of the child, who were unmarried; had left the Dominion, and applicant, who had re" sid£d with them, consented three years ago to an order being made against him for its maintenance, suffering three terms of imprisonment since for failing to comply with the order. Mr. RMdell, S.M., was not satisfied with the evidence called to prove that applicant was not the father of the child, and dismissed the case:

By the Tongariro, which arrived from London on Thursday, there wa» imported for Mr. C. Goulter, of Hawkesbury, Marlborough, thre,e Jerseys from the. island home of the breed. On appearance the cattle Ibespeak their aristocratic breeding. They are not only high types of Channel Island cattle, but possess undeniable utility points, and should strengthen the already fine herd posessed by 4he Marlborough breeder. Notwithstanding a rough trip the animals arrived in splendid form. The cattle were bred by Mr. P. Le Brocp, of La Chaase, St. Owens, and comprise a yearling bull, a yearling heifer, and a three-year-oldijcow in calf.—Dominion.

According to advices by the English mail, it is. feared that Captain Joshua Slocum, the well-known "lone navigator," is dead. He has not been heard of since he sailed from Vineyard Haven for the West Indies, some eighteen months ago. Captain Slocum acquired fame fifteen years ago, when he made a voyage round the world alone in his little sloop the Spray. Undoubtedly he was the only man who ever circumnavigated the globe in this solitary fashion. The Spray, a craft of 18 tons, proceeded from one of the Eastern American ports through the (Straits of Magellan, across the , South Pacific to Au#ralia, "thence"" trough Torres Straits, across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, and finally back, to the United States, Many adventures befell Captain Slocuip in the course <Kf Ilia trip, and these he'embodied Sri a story published in book form. .

Three female members of the "Aladdin" Company, now appealing in Ohristchtirch, had al very distressing experience. Theyj shared a bedroom at an hotel, and one] of them on Saturday night, after reading in bed for eome time, turned put the light. She must, however, unwittingly have turned the tap back again and left the gas on. One of the girls awakened, but before she could reach the bedroom door she fell unconscious on the floor. The second one fell unconscious before she bad taken many steps. The third managed to open the door, and collapsed on the threshold.' Two of the girls were off duty on Monday evening, and though they all are recovering, it will be some time before they are quite restored; in fact, the doctor who was called in on the discovery of the unconscious girls, said that in another quarter of an hour the gas would probably have proved fatal to all three.

Dr. Chappie, <M.P., who arrived in New Zealand this week on a short visit to the Dominion, crossed the Atlantic from England to the Ignited States in the leviathan liner th* Mauretaaiia. His experience was not a favorable one. "Size and speed," he said, "are the only recommendations of the Mauretania. Dirty, badly-kept decks, disgusting lavatories and nocturnal visitants did not help to stimulate our appreciation of the taste and magnificence of the architectural decorations. My cabin-fellow spent restless, busy nights, but seemed rewarded by matutinal congratulations when he triumphantly held up to my astonished gaze a pin on which were impaled the 'bodies of the slain. And '£26 for an alleged four and a half days' sail is the minimum saloon fare, which ia said to be so completely used up in coal that the shipping company has to get its employees ,to beg their wages lest bankruptcy prevent it carrying on its pliil-, anthropic work of transporting mails and passengers." I

TRAVELLING IS A PLEASURE When you have checked your baggage through us. You have no bother at all. We"£o. ail the work, collecting <the baggage,;,, checking it on, delivering at otjtor end ,by the time yout are there. —New Zealand Express Co'mpaay,