LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 219, 24 December 1910, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There are 134 members of the Free Churches in the new British Parliament. The Rev. D. C. Bates' forecast of the weather for the Xrnas season does not make pleasant reading. At the Police Court yesterday morning, before Mr. H. Weston, J.P., a first: offending inebriate was convicted and discharged. A London cable announces a new Atlantic record. The Mauretania has accomplished the feat of steaming to New York and back within twelve days.

Supplying the Christmas bread is no joke. The bakers have been hard at it since midnight, to enable folks to lay in sufficient supplies to last them over the holidays.

"Aotea," that lovely fern-clad picturesque and romantic nook on Messrs. Sole Bros.' grounds on the Avenue road, will be open to visitors during the holidays, thanks to the generous spirit' of the proprietors. Sydney storekeepers report that money is plentiful and that unusually large supplies of Christmas luxuries have been sold. It is estimated that fifty thousand hams have been purchased, says a Press cablegram. The Garrison Band will parade in Devon street to-night, commencing at the Red House Hotel at 7.30. It is understood that the band also intends to follow the custom of rendering Christmas carols early on Christmas morning.

Though the census of New Zealand will not take place until the beginning of April preparations are already in active progress under the supervision of Mr. W. M. Wright, Government Statistician. Forms for filling in by householders and others are being prepared, and enumerators to the number of sixty will shortly be appointed to take charge of the census districts. The Dominion will be divided into areas, generally the counties or groups of counties, and each enumerator will control a small army of sub-enumerators, of whom over a thousand will be employed. Enumerators will be responsible to the chief statistician for the accuracy of returns, but there are (states an exchange) some items of information quite beyond their power to reliably provide, notably the ages of women. It is always a feature of the census calculation that women's ages are not in accordance with the known ratio of population, particular ages increasing in number up to a certain point and then gradually declining. TWO MONTHS' TRAVELLING. NOT ONCE BOTHERED WITH BAGGAGE. Such was a business man's experience recently. How did he it? This way: He utilised our checking system. We collected his baggage, checked and delivered it'at his hotel by the time he arrived. If you check you can travel similarly pleasantly. And all you pay is a trifle for express.—The N.Z. Express Cc. Ltd.—Advt. '

A London cable advises that the New South Wales Government is having 25 stud bulls and cows, mostly of milking strains, shipped to Sydney. The New Plymouth Seaside Improvement Committee has chartered the Northern S.S. Company's fine steamer Rarawa for two afternoon excursions from the breakwater on Monday, New Year's Day, in connection with the seaside carnival.

Talk about dear meat. According to the Prussian Minister of Agriculture the prices of meat in the better sections of Berlin nil as follows:—Roast of beef Is 2d to Is 5;4d per lb; fillet cutlets of beef Is 7.7 d to 2s 2d; and pork cutlets Is Id to Is 3d.

Louis Robertson, middle and lighb weight champion catch-as-catch-ean wrestler, met. Stoker Penny, lightweight champion of the Navy,'at Stratford on Thursday night in a match which proved a splendid exposition. Robertson gained the first fall with a cradle hold in four minutes, and a second fall with the scissors after forty minuteswrestling, thus winning the match. An attempt will shortly bo made to introduce the Atlantic salmon to New Zealand waters. The Marine Department is obtaining a million eggs in Great Britain, and these will arrive some time in February. They will be placed in the Government salmon hatchery at Lake Te Anau, and all the young fish hatched from the eggs will be placed in tributaries of the Waiau river, which drains Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri.

Mr. A. A. Grace, well-kown as a writer on Maori matters, has just published a volume entitled "Hone Tiki Dialogues," in which he shows, with much skill, the mind of the Maori on European habits and customs. Mr. Grace dedicates his book "to the Pressmen of New Zealand, with the hope that they may soon come into their kingdom, and be endowed with something of the wealth, fame, and honor which they unselfishly create for others."

The number of persons who arrived in New Zealand during November ia '4524, and of departures during the same month 1777. In November, 1909, the arrival* numbered 3335, and the departures 1799. For the eleven months ot the current year the figures are: Arrivals 31,134, departures 29,739, gaving a balance of immigration of 1395. Last year and this year there has been a smaller number of immigrants than in any year since 1900.

The town bore a somewhat festive air last evening, the number of visitors and sightseers filling the thoroughfares interestedly. With the exception of the butchers' shops and the premises of the confectioners and purveyors of Christmas store, there was an absence of anything approaching the display at one time associated with the .season. The pleasing feature of the exchange of compliments, however, showed that there is still amongst us the spirit of goodwill and charitable wishes so dear to the human heart. i '

Mr. E. G. Davis, R.N.R., a well-known diver, has- arrived in Wellington from Auckland en route to Western Australia, to go down again to the steamer Pericles, which was wrecked off Cape Leeuwin on her maiden trip in the early part, of the year. It will be remembered (says the Auckland Star) that Mr. Davis was the first diver to visit the wrecked steamer, which was then lying in over twenty fathoms of water, but the drift of the current has now taken her into shallower water, the hull being estimated to be lying in a little over sixteen fathoms. The Rev. F. T. C. Reynolds, the Anglican clergyman at Inglewood (Victoria) last week received a letter bearing the Prahran post mark, in which' was enclosed postal notes to the value of £3. It was explained by- the writer, whose sex was not stated, that thirty-five years ago (in 1875), while attending a church bazaar at Inglewood, he or she took asum of money, believed to be £3, from a stall during the temporary absence of those in charge. The writer's conscience was pricked while attending church recently, hence the return after so long a period of the appropriated money. With trifling exceptions, the whole of the Auckland trade in dessert strawberries goes through the hands of one auctioneering firm—the Waitemata Fruit Company. During last week and the previous wee<k the amount of strawberries handled', by the company totalled, 80,000 boxes, each holding lib, for each week. That quantity is the largest so fat taken into the city in such a period. The total quantity imported into Auckland during the season from the surrounding district, is not .known exactly, but it can be arrived at roughly, and probably amounts, so far, to close upon 200 tons, nearly all of which was consumed locally. Our coastal correspondent writes:— I regret to record a serious accident to Mr. SorrensOn, of Cape Egmont, which occurred last Monday morning as lie was returning from the Pungarehu dairy factory, with a cart heavily laden with cans of whey. It appears that owing to the jolty nature of the road the strain on the back band was over severe, so that it snapped, allowing the shafts to come to the ground. One of the cans fell out, pouring its contents amongst the feet of the shaft horse, which, taking fright, bolted. Mr. Sorrenson was thrown from the cart with great force, and was so badly injured that the doctor ordered his immediate removal to the hospital for medical treatment. The element of romance is not generally associated with advertisements relating to cattle drenches, states the Auckland Herald, but an innocent-looking paragraph, advising cow-owners to dose the patient animals for all complaints with So-and-So's drench, has jiust discovered an- uncle in New Zealand for a young lady in Scotland,, after he had been a "lost relative" for forty-.eight years. About a fortnight ago,a letter was received in the Weekly News office from a lady in Glasgow, asking if any information could be given her of a gentleman whose name was mentioned in a copy of the paper in December last year. A search of the /files resulted in the name behi£ found in a testimonial to a cattle medicine, and an endeavor was made to communicate with him through the post. He proved to be a well-known Taranaki resident, and lie wrote to say that he little dreamed, when he gave" the testimonial, that it was going to have this happy result. He had lost all trace of his relatives for forty-eight years, and had not known till the letter-carrier found him whether any of them were still living.

YOU SHOULD BEAR IN MIND That by using the Commercial Eucalyptus Oil, which is now bought up at 6d per lb. weight and bottle, and, on account of the large profits, pushed, you are exposing yourself to all the dangers to which the use of turpentine will expose you—irritation of kidneys, intestinal tract and mucous membranes. By insisting on the GENUINE SANDER EUCALYPTI EXTRACT you not only avoid these pitfalls, but you have a stimulating, safe and effective medicament, the result of a special and careful manufacture. Remember: SANDER'S EXTRACT embodies the result of 50 years' experience and of special study, and .it does what is promised; it cures and heals without injuring the constitution, as the oils on. the market frequently do. Therefore, protect yourself by rejecting- fether' brands. a ; • . '-'. ..;,. .

Owing to the representation of a large number of members! who have ar*. ranged to be out of town for Boxing Day, the committee of the Park Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club has agreed to open the new courts on Tuesday, January 3rd, instead of Boxing Day. Our Urenui correspondent reported last night that an accident took place on the Main road yesterday morning about a mile from Urenui. A motor-car was going from Urenui towards Waitara, and met Mr. Howe's meat cart, driven by Walter Fuller. The car went clean into the trap, and Fuller was 'thrown right through the glass in front of the motor, luckily only sustaining a cut or two not very serious. Plenty of help soon arrived on the scene, but the car had to he left, as it was badly damaged. The trap was not much damaged.

"I liave lived there for 35 years, and this is ( the driest and worst season we have ever liad," said Mr. Thomas Jackson, an Oamaru farmer, to a Dominion representative. The visitor, who owns a property eight miles from town, stateß that they have had practically no rain in his quarter for about four months, and every blade of grass has been burnt up long ago, but fortunately his 40 acres of potatoes were in virgin country, and he expects to get a fair crop—a good one if rain falls soon. .Others have not fared so well, and people may confidently look forward to a serious shortage of potatoes, as the whole country from Oamaru to Christchureh lias suffered severely from drought. There will be no wheat from the whole of the district for export, as in most cases the crops have been fed off to keep the cattle alive, and many hundred head have had to be sold at a disadvantage- The district wa* now almost baTe of sheep. Some farmera who paid as much as 22s were forced to sell for ,10s to those who could accommodate the sheep in green country.