LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 194, 25 November 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

llie market price of radium is now £ 420,000 per ounce. It is only four years ago since SantosDumont made the first officially recorded European flight for a distance of 12 yards!

"Everything is co-operation in Taranaki, because the people have seen the benefit of it/' remarked Mr. ]?rayshaw, (i Stratford poulterer, at the Poultry Conference at Wellington. The Marlborough Express asserts that on Sunday week a trout that scaled lfi%lb was caught in the Pelorus, and on the previous Tuesday three were caught that aggregated 241b. Hawera. we think (says the local Star), is destined, and at no distant date, to be one of the larger of the inland towns in New Zealand. Already it is expanding by leaps and bounds, and building is going on continually. The many friends of Archdeacon Towgood (late of Marton) will heto with regret of the great misfortune that has befallen him in the destruction of his house (near Wanganui) by fire. Two ladies only were in the house at the time of the outbreak, and thev had barely time to escape. The Archdeacon will have the sympathy of all his friends in the loss, not only of family pictures and many works of art, but in tho. entire loss of his large and valuable library, which had been one of the pleasures of his life to collect. For such a man of letters, and a student, this is an h-re-

The Premier announced yesterday that Parliament would probably conclude on Wednesday, and lie saw no occasion to sit on Saturday.

It is stated that the West Coast has not experienced such a wet spring as the prespuc one for 17 years. A llokitika resident, who arrived in C'lnistihur-h on Saturday, said it was a pleasure to see a little dust. "Since September 10 we have hardly had one day without a torrential downpour,'' observed the West Coast resident.

A plant that grows wild in Brazil, and is known botanically as Bromelia laeenaria, has been found to produce a fibre well adapted to the manufacture of paper, and experiments are being made by various governmental agencies with a view to testing its commercial possibilities. The supply of this plant is said to be plentiful in all parts of Brazil.

The committee of the Auckland Hairdressers' and Tobacconists' Industrial Union of Employers has recommended that the price of a hair-cut in the city saloons should be raised from sixpence to ninepence, and of a shave in the suburban shops from threepence to fourpence. The change is suggested largely owing to the increased wages which employers now have to pay assistants. Press wire.

At the weekly session of the Egmont Lodge of Good Templars, the building committee reported that the tenders for building the new hall in concrete had exceeded the estimated expenditure; therefore it was decided to proceed to erect in wood. The new Licensing Act was fully discussed, and it was agreeo that it was a step in advance, and on the whole favorable to the Order's ultimate aim of Dominion prohibition.

Carnivorous horses are rare. A Palmerston butcher owns an animal thai will pick a mutton or beef bone almost as clean as a dog would do. No scraps from the table come amiss to this equine, who seems to prefer the remains of a fruit pie or a salad or a rice pudding to the ordinary fodder which an animal of his species mostly relishes. But it is the residue of a leg of mutton or roast of beef that he seems specially to enjoy.

Messrs. J. E. Wilson and E. Whittle, on behalf of the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society, yesterday morning liberated from 12,000 to 15,000 healthy young trout, from the society's hatcheries, in the Recreation Grounds. Most of them are rainbow trout. Several thousands are also' to be liberated in the Warea district shortly. The society's hatcheries are proving very successful, the society obtaining better fish than heretofore, at a lower cost. At the present rate of progress the district will, before many years are past, be one of the finest trout-fishing districts in Australasia. An indication of the increased outpuv of strawberries in Auckland this year is the unusually large orders for boxes which have been received at the Jubilee Institute for the Blind at Parnell. The Waitemata Fruitgrowers' Association has placed an order for 500,000 boxes, as against 300,000 last year, and of the number more than one-half have > already been made. Orders from Christchurch and Dunedin are being carried out. The boxes are made of kahikatea., which is cut to the proper size and thickness in the King Country, so that it is ready for the stapling machines, which are operated by some ten of the inmates, who are very deft and rapid in their work. J

It is not infrequent that the effects of a sermon are so soothing that some of the congregation are lulled to slumber, but it is not often that such effects extend beyond the confines of the walls of the building. On Sunday morning however (says the Dannevirke News), some of the congregation at the Methodist Church were somewhat alarmed to find that a horse attached to one of the traps outside was lying down in a helpless condition. Investigation, however, proved that during the progress of the service the horse had grown tired ana had fallen down in its sleep. Luckily nothing was hurt and the trap was lifted from the horse, which, after being reinstated, took its load homeward without a sign of apology. The price of the leading morning newspapers in Bombay, delivered by mail, says the Fourth Estate, is 2s 9d a month, but if a subscriber will take at from a carrier who delivers it at .7 o'clock and will read and return it when the carrier calls again at 11 o'clock, the price is only 2s Id a month. If a subscriber is willing to wait for his morning paper until 4 o'clock in the afternoon he may have it at that hour and return it to the carrier, the next morning for Is 4y 2 d a month. Or, if he likes to keep his old papers, he may wait until the next morning after publication, have his paper for Is 4y 2 d a month and be under no obligation to return it at all. Thus the same paper may be circulated through three different households, and the total revenue therefrom will amount to 4s 4 1 / 2 d per month. Often in fiction (says the Otago Witness) we read of the heir to a fortune learning through some extraordinary chance of the wealth that should be his, and we smile scornfully and say that such things don't happen in real life. They do, though. Nearly a quarter of a century ago an article appeared in the Otago Witness in which mention was made of an old English family possessing considerable estates in the north. A lady in Australia had her attention called to this article some little time /go, and, recalling the fact that she was connected with the family, who in times past owned the hall to which reference was made, decided to make inquiries in England. She wrote to the office of the Otago Witness asking for a copy of the issue in which the article appeared, but as this could not be supplied a copy of the article was forwarded. The lady has now written acknowledging the assistance given her, and adds that as a result of her inquiries she finds that she is entitled to something like £20,000, and that she will have practically no trouble in obtaining it. But for the chance reference in the article referred to, it would appear that it might never have occurred to her to make enquiry into the family history, and the money "would have eventually found its way -somewhere else.

MANUFACTURERS' OUTLET SALE at the MELBOURNE. As if by concerted action manufacturers with overstocks have sought this store, knowing its leadership in wide distiibution and its continually active business. As is by common consent this store has been elected the "Market Place." e have been tairly assailed with offerings by manufacturers' ready and willing to make concessions for tlia sake of prompt cash pavm«nts. The problem has been what not to buy. It was a task of gigantic proportions to select the wheat from the chaff—to skim the cream from the milk—l» throw out the commonplace and accept only the exceptional. Xone but the best of manufacturers were allowed to become tributary to this event. We have picked and chosen carefully and gathered under this roof the Big Prizes. Those who have been waiting must act now and quickly, for; wait if they will for a decade, no such opportunity could possibly be presented again. Come early. The'crowds will be enormous, of course, but we are

A correspondent of the Thames Advocate says there were sounds of revelry by night at the Thames Gaol a short time hack, and lie listened to a joyful chorus, of ''There'll he a hot time tonight," ".Mary of Argyile,'' "I dreamt that 1 dwelt in marble'halls," and—sadly appropriate—"Dearest, if you saw me now."

After reference to the plentifulness of money available, the Trade Review observes that "something more than this is, however, needed. Factors are at work which throw a cloud of uncertainty and discouragement on the pathway of capitalistic enterprise, manufacturing industry, or permanent investment. These factors we take to be the cause of the tone of apathy and inertia that is noticeable in New Zealand."

The doath statistics for the month of October of the four chief centres show that Wellington easily maintains it* position as the healthiest city in the Dominion. The deaths per 1000 of population in Wellington was 0..j8, as against 0.88 in Auckland. 0.70 in Christchurch. and 0.88 in Dunedin. Wellington has always maintained the position as the healthiest city in the world, also ot being the windiest city in the world. When in Johannesburg Jack Arnst won the cycling championship of South. Africa. When there he was challenged bv l'\ Venton, the champion cvclist of South Africa, who had heard of Arnst's prowess on the wheel. Arnst had little time to train, but got into fair form, and they raced two distances—half mile and e miles -both of which Arnst won after'good Taces. The purse was £SO and half the gate money, which amounted to about £2OO. Tl\e wagering before the race was three to, one on Venton. and both lie (Arnst) and two or three other New Zealanders managed to pick up a little that was lying loose around. Jack Arnst is still desirous of becoming a first-rate oarsman (says the Dominion), and intends to leave for Sydney in about a fortnight's time t<r continue training. Both he and his brother Dickwill compete in the big sculling handicap which is to be held in Sydney towards the end of February.