LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 5 January 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Trout are reported to be very p'tntiful in the Opunake rivers Ma *e»son. Nine persons over 80 years of age and one over 90 died in the New Plymouth district last year. A charge of cattle-stealing will be preferred against a resident of Rahotii at the Opunake Court on the 20th inst. The new tennis courts at the High School are now ready for those pupils who care to practise during the holidays. The general cleanliness and tidiness of the streets in New Plymouth was the subject of favorable comment by visitors during the holidays. A start was made yesterday nith excavating the site for the Good Templars' Hall on the corner of Vic'xu and Courtenay streets. The spoil ia tying deposited on the low-lying land opposite, A Feilding telegram reports that buildings, including dwellings and business premises, to the value of £15,000 were erected in the borough of Feilding last year, and the outlook for the building trade for the new year is promising.

A Melbourne journalist took » (jramaphone to the Zoological Gardens and caused it to be played to taa nnwnalk and reptiles. The result was that thore played to displayed fear, ang;r, icon, pleasure, admiration, or complete indifference. 'H"*WU»(Bl)rtHlM| ! 4J«Wi'"'-5'

The vital statistics of the New Plymouth district for the past year are forwarded by the Registrar (Mr. J. S. S. Medley). The births for the year were 349, deaths 124, marriages 100. For the previous year the figures were> births 375, deaths 112, marriages 94.

The scare created in the town recently owing to the reported mcanderiags of a man in the nude has now almost subsided, but the party concerned, who was dressed in cricketing flannels, has been relating with great gtrto how he was ''chased all over the plaflt"

A heavy snowfall occurred otHM Main Trunk railway between TaiftHj and Ohakune on Thurday night, ana continued next morning. The southbound express had a heavy coating ot snow when it arrived at Taihape,mnd several inches of snow were seen on portions of the railway line. Trains were running to time.

The following notice of motion fill be submitted by His Worship the Jfayor (Mr. G. Tisch) at the next meeting ot the Borough Council.—"That the'eouncil appoint a working overseer,! at a salary of £3 per week, and that applications be called for a person having a thorough knowledge of the formation and metalling of streets and the asphalting and tarring of footpaths." "Missed the boat; won't be home till day after to-morrow." This W»s the purport of a telegram received by a business firm from one of their hands who had got off for a short KlibVy. The manager looked up the time- table and found that the boat vas aft due to leave Onehunga on the day <W wVeh the telegram was sent; it was sailing the following day! Moral, be teTtain of your facts when making cxtiises. In the opinion of a successful dairyman in South Taranaki, the carrying capacity of the land between Hawera and Pihama on the one side and the Skeet road on the other—tie richest land in. Taranaki—is a cow to an acre and a half. With the land cut up into smaller holdings and "intense?' methods of farming pursued, this land, he opines, could carry almost an animal of the Jersey or Ayrshire breed to'the acre.

A very young member of the kaka feathered tribe had a peculiar experience recently. A giant rimu was sent crashing to earth in the bush in the far soutli of Southland, and was hauled to the mill. As the flitehei flew apart after the passage of the saw, the sawyers were astonished to see a young kaka emerge quietly from a cavity in the log, having narrowly escaped the cruel teeth of the big saw and being quite unharmed. "Cocky" is now a domestic pet in a sawmiller's house in Waihoalca.

His Worship the Mayor (Mr. t>. Tiecli) is in receipt of the following let';er from Mr. R. Kerr Clarke, private sectary to his Excellency the Governor.—'']n reply to your letter, I have the honor to inform you, by direction of liis Excellency the Governor, that he. will be pleased to visit New Plymouth on Thursday, January 20. I shall be gird if you will be good enough to ?ea.i me a programme of the arrangements tor the Governor's visit at your earliest convenience." A meeting will shortly be hi!d to make arrangements for liis Fxeellency's visit.

On the four New Year holidays in 1010-11 the Christchurcli tramways, says a Press telegram, carried 189,170 passengers, who paid cash fares totalling £2107, compared with 182,170 passengers and £2127 for the same holidays in 1909-10, an increase of 7030 passengers and a decrease of about £2O in revenue. On the eight dajs of Christmas and New Year holidays in 1009-10, the cash passengers carried numbered 342,138, as compared with 403.398 in 1910-11. The revenue in 1909-10 was £3904, as compared with £4404 i| 1910-11, an increase of 01,260 passenglrs, and of £550 in revenue. T "There has never boL quite such a lot of splendid fruit ojlill va.-ietiss hj, ! hand for the ChristnMM trade/' sa'.l u : New Plymouth auc'tioA yestvday. It transpired that from fßpoints of view this was very satisfactß, but esoecially so from the public Bndpoint'. All fruit is readily snappetHp at the marts, however, but prices arßflow much n oro reasonable. not so very long niHfesterdav a case (about OOlbs, of the best of the shipment bought in five case lots at a casejust a penny a were good buying, too, a box of

With Australia's remarkable season,, the export of butter continues to show a great expansion over that of last season. Already the increase representsover £500,000. In the period from July Ist to the second week in December the shipments were as follow: 1907-8, 9,748% tons; 1908-9, 7,397y 4 tons; 1909-10, 12,413% tons; 1010-11, 17,094 tons.

It is estimated that the cocksfoot crop on Banks Peninsula will be barely a third of that of last season, says the Lyttelton Times. Some farmers report good crops, but the average crop is decidedly patchy. The crops are clean, fog and goose grass being little in evidence. The showers during the past week have benefited the grazing paddocks, and cutting will commence this month. The mechanical toys, wonderful though, they often are, do not always give toe joy that is expected of them. The story is told of a small boy Who one day bad a round dozen of these new mechanical toys given him for Christmas. All were too clever for his infantile fingers to put jn, motion. For a while he watched his mother setting them going. Then .5 he came nearer and whispered, a little 1 sadly, "And what do I do, mummy?" ', She Melbourne Argus reports that an' -J; ingenious way of preventing the misuse' * o\f "pass out" checks has been brought 3 Before the secretary of the Royal Agri- & cultural Society. A Welsh Agricultural, -f society, recognising the convenience of ,i pass-out checks, decided to provide them,. ■% but in order to protect the revenue any- ;i one wishing to leave the show ground J presented his hand, which was t!hen< 1 printed below the knuckles with a rub- J ber stamp, or in the case of ladies- ,j wearing gloves the wrist was printed. ■% With a view to hastening the collection- ,' of the £IOO,OOO needed to defray the expenses of the German South Pole expedition, the Bavarian Government has authorised the establishment of a £30,000 lottery. Two series of £15,000 are to be ',» issued in the spring, with prises of ' three, two and one thousand pounds, and. a number of lesser ones in each. Lieut, Fischer, the leader of the expedition, ha* already collected £IB,OOO, and if the necessary funds are forthcoming in time will leave for the Antarctic next summer* It was an error to say that no member of the Pukekura Park Board attended the tennis club's function on Tuesday, for both His Worship the Mayor and Mr. F. C. Bcllringer, who were present, have seats on the board, in return for the annual contribution by the municipality.to the park funds. What should have been said was that none '[-. of the gazetted trustees were present,' ', for, after all, the Borough Council's representatives are not fully fledged trustees. Both Messrs Tlsch and Bellringer have assisted the club a good deal with their friendly interest. Thus the Inglewood paper on the New Plymouth seaside picnic.—"We cannot help thinking that the 'penny wise and pound foolish* policy in the matter of ; advertising militated against the best possible results in the matter of numbers, and numbers must always be the main and best feature of all such gatherings. New Plymouth should try to waken itself up and keep pace with, other centres, as to stand still is impossible—if it is not. going forward, it must be going backward. Let New Kymouthites see to it that they prevent the , ' latter, and they mußt then secure the former."

I'he practice of burning rubbish in the

trough is altogether too prevalent, and it would appear that a great many/ people do not know that this is in contravention of the by-laws. Last evening; about ten o'clock, there was an acute smell of smoke in Devon street, and it was discovered that a heap of rubbish. was burning at the rear of one of tbe> premises. Fortunately, the smouldering fire was afterwards made safe, but there is no saying what would have happened had this not been done at the time. Toe incident is not the first of its kind, it. might be mentioned, that has come under notice about several business. premises in the town. .. ■••' i

Writing on the many stories regarding' the ambition of Queen Alexandra to take precedence over Queen Mary, Sir Henry Lucy says in his weekly letter from London to the Sydney Morning Herald: It is said that the influence of ner sister, the-Empress-Mother of Russia, is responsible' for all this unpleasantness. The latest demonstration is a demand that the j Queen-Mother should be placed on a footing of equality with the Queen Consort. 1 To yield the palm on State occasions to i one who for many years was, by comparison with 'her estate, a person of no consequence, is a bitter trial. In Russia tha ' code of etiquette that rules at Court places the Empress-Mother on the level j of the Czarina. The two sisters. aw»- | agreed that the same system should: prevail in the Court at St. James', but have not yet succeeded in inducing King George to see eye to eye with them fa this stupendous matter. An exciting incident occurred in the j morning train to Wanganui from south. just after it had left Greatford. A lady and her husband had been sitting together in a second-class carriage, and &»• husband went on to the platform as the' train reached Greatford, his wife placing.' a bag in his place to save the seat. A. number of Maoris entered the carriage at Greatford, one young dame carrying a baby. She motioned to the lady referred to, asking .her to remove the bag for her I to sit down. The lady replied that it ■ was her husband's seat. Without further parley, the Maori handed her baby to ft" friend and struck the lady a resounding', » slap on the face, alarming the whole of "' the occupants of the carriage. For reply,. the Maori was told in trembling accents •'; that she was a "black pig," and the hue- ■' \ band was called in to interfere. At Ma»- ', j ton, a constable was informed of the oc* . ' currence, and ho was asked to arrest the Maori and take proceedings in the* matter, a gentleman in the carriage hand* ing the constable his card and offering to go as a witness. The constable spoke to the offending woman in Maori, exhorting her to keep her hands to herself of i she would get into trouble; but there the incident seemed to end, for, although the lady assaulted got out at Marton, the Maoris proceeded on the journey unmolested . There was considerable indignation amongst the passengers in the train over the unpleasant incident.—Exchange.

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