LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 149, 3 October 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A man owing onlv about £35 has sought the shelter of the Bankruptcy Court. , A Maori .named Hinaki is a candidate for the Borough Council elections at Taumarunui, and considers he sihould be returned because he has "a good eye for, the see, a good ear for the 'hear, and then he can jmimp in the right place." As a division line 'between Mexico and toe United States, the Mexican Government is preparing to build a fence that -will stretch from El Pasco to the Pacific, a distance of 1000 miles. This will be the longest fence every constructed'. It is reported that the education of a number of children in the Forty-Mile Bush is being seriously interfered with through their having to assist in milking operations. A case was mentioned in the Maigistrate's.Court at Masterton in which a boy 12 years of age had passed only the first standard*. The first of the new W,G. class tank locomotives to be turned out by tihe Government workshops is at present stationed at Palmerston. The engine is much heavier and larger than the W P class, and it is expected will do the work of two of these emsrmes. The New Plymouth mail is one of the trains onwhich they will be used. "TU m ove that the voung fellows put their pipes in their pockets. Just a few of, the old chaps can go on smoking."—Thus the chairman of the Moa Dairy Company, out of consideration for the ladies present at the annual meeting on Saturday. In other years the smoking has gone unrebuked. The attendance of the gentle sex was smaller on Saturday than usual. The moa remains discovered at Pohui, Hawke's Bay, were two specimens of a small moa. One skeleton was almost complete except for some bones of the toes and neck which .had fallen between the large boulders which composed the floor and could not be a'ecovered, as the stones were too firmly embedded to be removed, itJhe cave being of limited extent (30ft Hong by 4ft wide and from 2ft to sft high). The second skeleton was -wvrhai as*. "Jnpcri&fci

It is reported that the Government have acquired the Ohurakura run (H. 8.) from Mr. G. P. Donnelly for closer settlement purposes. It is understood that the various manufacturers of implements have unanimously come to the decision not to exhibit at agricultural and pastoral societies' shows in future, states the Ashburton •Mail. . iMr. J. Vigor Brown, M.P., speaking to an interviewer, said hj» was confidently looking forwai-i! u> seeing provision made next year for starting the Napier- Gisborne section of the East Coast railway. Dr. W. H. Hosking, of Masterton, who has been successfully using radium for some months past' for the cure of external cancer, has cabled Home for another supply of £SOO worth of nulium. This will be the third consignment he has receivfd. A well-known Ashburton professional man is reported to have departed suddenly, without his creditors' knowledge. It is stated also that a somewhat awkward position arising out of a series of lousiness transactions is likely to lead to further proceedings. An unknown disease which advances with frightful rapidity has "broken out in a lunatic asylum at Valladolid, Spain. Death in some casees ensues within a few minutes of the first symptoms appearing. The only external'sign is a red spot, resembling that caused by a sting, on the face or neck. Haywaxd's picture enterprises have been formed into a limited liability company, with' a capital of £30,000. The company propose to erect theatres suitable for picture entertainments, and also to go in for the skating rink business. Australia looks like being an all-the-year-round shipper of meat, "The Commonwealth is going ahead," said an English merchant recently, "and will develop into a great producing country. Irrigation and conservation of feed and alfalfa growing will prevent droughts doing the harm they used to do." The long arm of the law was exemplified in a case in the Kaiapoi Court recently, when a prohibited person who had entered an hotel admitted that he had been prohibited at Maryborough, but did not think the order would reach Kaiapoi. The Magistrate pointed out that it was illegal for a prohibited person to be supplied anywhere in the Dominion. The Prime Minister intends to convene the Special Committee which has been appointed to enqure into Mr. Hine's allegations on Wednesday (says the Times). At this meeting the preliminaries of the investigation will be . arranged, and the list' of witnesses discussed. Until this is done it is impossible to say who will be called, but Mr. Hine will doubtless be first on the list. An effort is beinig mode to give cricket another start in Hawera (says the Star). It is believed that there is material for a very good team, but the question of organisation and pitch is troublesome. Some of the old players are quite willing to take a hand if they see a prospect of anything like general interest being aroused. They will not carry the whole burden on their backs as they had to for several years. It is on record (states the Melbourne Argus) that an inquisitive opossum capsized an incubator in a dwelling at Ballarat, and so caused the building to be set on fire. In the same spirit of curiosity a pig wandered into the front room of a house in Hampstead road, Maidstone, last week, and busied itself with an incubator until the contrivance was upset. The flame from the lighted lamp beneath the incubator continued to burn., and coming in contact with some inflammable material the room was soon blaze. The occupant was absent at the time, but the Footscray and Yarraville .fire brigades were summoned by a neiglhlbor and they quickly subdued the flames. "People run away with the impression that the legal practitioners of the cities make very much larger incomes than the practitioners in the emallei towns," remarked the Hon. Dr. Findlay, speaking on the Law Practitioners Amendment Bill on Friday. The At-torney-General gave his assurance thai the average income made by the practitioners in the smaller towns was much greater than the average income mad* by the practitioner in the cities. There were lawyers in the smaller places mat ing twice as much as our judges are paid Later in the debate Dr. Findlay remarked that the practitioners in the cities had a much harder struggle for existence than those practising in place* like Napier, Nelson, Gisborne and New Plymouth. A discovery of some interest has been mode at Tangowahine, reports the Darga•ville correspondent of the New Zealand Herald./ While Mr. E. Kelly was engaged in cutting a drain in Mr. T. Hawkins' property,, just above Tangowahine booms, he came across something hard at the bottom of the drain, some three feet under the surface. After removing a few further spadefuls of earth he found a pair of well-preserved Maori paddles. They are made out of puriri, and are beautifully finished, one in particular being perfectly shaped and smoothed down, whilst the other was evidently not completed. On the blade of one of the paddles aire the letters "Nakak." How those paddles came there it would be interesting, to know. It is generally supposed that they were planted there in the •early days by some 'Maoris, and have been there for many years, gradually sinking down in the mud. Nahak requires the letter "i" to complete the word, which means "belonging to Jack." The writing must have been done within the last eighty years, as it is onlv within that period that the Maoris learned to write. "Us, the Maoris fro'm Hawera to Waitotara," write from Patea to the New Zealand Times as follows:—"We wish to answer the speech of G. \, Pearce, M.P., made in the discussion ■of the Native Townships Bill in- the House of Representatives, a copy of which appeared in the Hawera Star. We strongly disapprove of this speech. Mr. /Pearce says we Maoris are flazy. That our work 'is simply to wait for the regular half-yearly payments oi rent from the Public' Trustee.' Will such sums as £2O and £lO yearly be a living and provide food and clothes for a person and his children if he does not supplement that by work? There are quite a number of Maoris of Taranaki who do not receive twenty pounds yearly as rents. How can persons havin'g only such an income indulge in drink and horse-racing if they did not earn other money by working? Mr. Pearce has not yet seen Maoris going along the road with a swag, or going to his house begging food. But it is only Europeans that come to Maori homes begging food. We give them food and beds in love to them in their poverty. We are not a lazy people, but our hands are tied by the laws affecting our land. There are many of us who have turned to the occupation of milking cows, and we have sent requests to the Parliament to terminate our leases that we may begin to work the soil." . - ~ '

A witness in a police court case w ■Styria, asked if he toad any brothers,, said that die had one, but that he had. dieil 140 years ago! Asked for an explanation, the witness stated that he was the issue of a second marriage. His father married' first in 176!), at the age of 19, and the following year there was born' a son, who di(\l when only a few monthsold. The hitter's father married again* in IS2O, at the ane of 70, and the witness was horn in tin year following.. Being 8!) years of age when giving evidence, the interval 1 since the death of thefirst child was tfeis-- extended to 140» years. Recently (reports a southern exchange)' a dentist examined the teeth. of the' children attending the Tenauka school., and in ■reportinjj; to the committee on the subject he said that the figures would' show an iiib.olutely deplorable state of affairs. Out of the 314 mouths examined' there were no fewer than 1!)G!) decayed teeth, and of these only ;'4S gave reasonable promise of being save I by filling. Hecame across only two boy* of 14 years of age with perfect teeth, and two girls of 11 years and one hoy of 14 years with', perfect upper sets of natural teeth which* had never had any dental attentionKnowledge regarding oral hygiene was practically unknown in the school. Says Mr. G. H. Scales, of Wellington who has just returned from a trip toAmerica: "A decent house in a good' street m Trisco is worth about £lso' per annum'.and anything like a large house about £3OO to £400,' with no groundLand in such a part is worth£4o to£so a foot frontage, and ia the aristocratic part it goes up to a fabulous; fi'gure. Wages for ordinary pick and! shovel men are 8s a day, carpenters 205,. stevedore hands 20s, plumbers 20s to 25s r 20s a week, housemaids about 20s a week,. but 'generals' 30s. Butter costs Is (3d a lb, really good tea 4s a lb, "beef and mutton about Is per lb. Yet I see in themarket reports (live stock), fat bullocks, prime quality, 20s a cwt., fat wethers 2y 3 d a lb. Then in the quotations for meat, which are wholesale, these prices are doubled', ami the retailer doubles: them again. Coal is unprocurable under 40a a ton -wholesale." A Timaru business man who has just returned from a visit to the North Island, states that he was greatly impressed with the prosperity of Auckland, where ihe spent three week. Prospects seemed very rosy all round, he told 1 an interviewer. Business men were exceptionally optimistic; building in both the main streets and the suburbs was proceeding at an astonishing rate, and money was plentiful. . He had excellent opportunities of noting the progress of the city, and the great improvements going on in the principal thoroughfaresstrongly impressed him. Business men in Auckland, he says, are imbued with the American spirit of hustle, and the diverse means employed to catch trade are characte.ris.tic of the Yankee. 'Settlement in the suburbs is increasing, because of the facilities provided by the tram and' ferry service. He is strongly of opinion that the cheap and convenient tram service has hod a great deal to do with the development of Auckland, while'the cheaper cost of living in comparison witto Wellington, and even Timaru, is strikineIy evident.