LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 159, 14 October 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Treasury has approved the Taranaki County Council's application for a loan of £SOO for formation and metalling of the upper Carrington road.

.. This has been a week of storms. Some of the rain?' showers experienced have been, very severe. On Wednesday evening there was thunder and lightning, with a very solid sort of hailstorm. Yesterday we had a dust ano> gravel storm, and last night we had half a gale. The Rev. Mr. Evans, speaking of the extraordinary success of the Anglican mission in New Zealand, yesterday mentioned that it had "taken hold" wonderfully in Wellington. It was a common thing to see passengers in the street cars reading the literature written in connection with the mission.

The Park Tennis Club's fine courts are clothed in green. The grass-seed has germinated splendidly, and it is hard to recognise in this nice.-level grassed area the blackberry-infested and rubbish covered patch of a couple of months ago. There is still much to be done, however, before the place looks all that the club's committee intends it to do.

Complaint is made by Mr. Jennings, M.P., of the delay in the Justice Department in regard to the appointment of suitable persons in outlying districts- to the Commission of the Peace. Unnecessary inconvenience, and expense is caused to solicitors and others in new townships and outlying districts owing to the difficulty of getting justice* of the peace to witness signatures. A solicitor recently told him he had to go twelve miles to get a document attested.

The maori youth, Te Rao Tokaiwa, ai present on committal to the Supreme Court for sentence N on charges of breaking and entering Maori whare's, an<i who has been remanded from time to time on a further similar charge, was before the Magistrate again. yesterday morning. Detective Boddam,* who appeared for the prosecution, said he was : unable Jp find a witness, without whose evidence it was impossible to establish a prima facie case, and he asked, leave to withdraw the charge. The application was granted. :■.,-.

At a meeting of the Opunake Railway League held at Opunake on Saturday it was resolved to communicate with Mr. Dive, MP., asking him to arrange with the Minister to receive a deputation from the League and local„bodies with reference to the construction of the line. A discussion took place with reference to the action of the Kaponga Town Board in urging the Stratford route. The opinion was expressed that the question of route should not be brought up, that it should be left entirely to "the Government to decide. The chairman remarked that if the question of route was going to be raised by any member the deputation would be better without that delegate.—Eltham Argus.

It was announced recently that Pakatoa Island, on which the Salvation Army has so long had its inebriates' home, was to be sold by auction. Had Pa-katoa been sold to some outside purchaser, the Army would have had to find some othei place for an inebriates' home for women, as the new inebriates' home on Ruthe's Island is for men. Brigadier Bray, however, states that the Army has come to terms with the executors 01 the estate concerned, under which terms the Army secures Pakatoa, and will retain the home there for women patients. The home for men, on Ruthe's Tsland, is practically completed, and is being furnished now. On January 17, Commissioner Hay will be in Auckland, and efforts will be made to push on the arrangements at Pa-katoa and Ruthe's Islands, so that both the institutions may be formally opened, under the mew system, by the Commissioner on that date.—Herald.

A remarkable case of suicide is reported from New York. A woman, who hail attained the patriarchal age of 91, felt that she had become an incubus to her children who were shouldering the burden of supporting her, and, as her days showed little sign of coming to a natural end, she took her own life in order to relieve her children of their burden. An altercation that had a tragic finale opcunvd in the olliees of the Rainev Medical Compav a 1 C'.r'iago. Dr. Rainev, the inventor 01 tae remedies manufactured by the company, and Mr. Atkins, the president of the corporation, both well-known and wialthy men, had a violent quarrel over money matters, during which the former shot and fatally wounded the hitter. Dr. Rainey, upon being arrested, admitted that he shot Atkins? but declare.l that he did so irt'self-defence. l'hose who do not quite understand the dogged character of the British-will And a splendid object, lesson in what has happened about the Brussels Exhibition (writes a London correspondent). The other day a fire ran through the buildings. and completely swept away the British treasures. Our representation was simply swept out of existence. The Exhibition is only to be open two months longer, and the general public thought they had seen the last of the British section. But here the wonderful capacity of the Briton for taking punishment came in. Instead of weeping, thev resolved to get to work at once and restore the prestige of the nation by re-erecting the buildings and renewing the exhibits". Workmen were engaged at once, plans prepared, and space allotted, and already hammer and saw are hard at it restoring the British palace. The work cannot be completed in less than a month. The new exhibit will have scarcely a month's usefulness, but the moral value of the British recovery can scarcely be overestimated. There are plenty of oversea Britons who are delighted with the Old Country's pluck and grit.