LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 11 January 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A municipal band concert will be given at the East End Bathing Reserve on Thursday evening. Master Harold Lamcrton, of the staff of the local telegraph office, met with an accident on Sunday last. He was riding along the South road, when the horse threw him, and he sustained a broken arm.

A camp of instruction for cadet ollicers in Canterbury and Otago is to be held shortly at Timaru. A similar one is being held at Auckland at present, and one is to be held in Wellington this month.

The total production of kauri gum in the Auckland district in Mil) was 5079 tons, slightly less than in the previous year; 70S!) tons were exported, 3829 to America and 4150 to Europe. The gum was below the average in quality, averaging £45 per ton. A "wet" practice was held by the fire brigade last evening in the neighborhood of Powderham street on the occasion of the visit of the Dominion luad of the Department, Inspector Hugo. At a meeting oi the brigade, held subsequently, it was decided to hold competitions on Woolcombe Terrace on February 23 next. Robert Stanley, alias Watson, 23 years old, who was arrested by Detective Boddam and Constable liston ore Monday night, on a charge of theft of t'4, the property of R. N. McMillin, at Eltham, on December 5 last, was brought before Mr. U.S. Fitzherbort, S.M., yesterday morning, and remanded to appear at Eltham to-day.

The first case brought in Wellington under the legislation passed last year, fixing the maximum penalty of ttO for supplying intoxicating liquor to native women, was heard at the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when Benjamin Phillips was lined 20s and £1 Is (id costs fur providing a female native with a long shandy. The defence was that the liquor had not been purchased for the woman, but for a malo native.

In his remarks regarding the appointment of an engineer at the County Council meeting on Monday, Cr. MeAUum emphasised the fact that 37 smaller counties than Taranaki employed their engineers full time at salaries ranging from £2OO to £475, and four counties, allowing their engineers private practice, paid salaries from illßo to £31)0. Taranaki paid for the last four years £307 per year for casual engineering work.

Inglewood is keeping up its record as the wet spot of Taranaki. The rainfall last year totalled 05.55 inches, the December fall being 7.22. The figures for Now Plymouth were 55.(i2 inches for the year, and 1i.7!) inches for December. Those for Eltham were 51.37 inches for the year, and 4.2!) for December. Rain fell at Inglewood on 107 days in l!)l(), and at Kltham on 170 days. Eighty-two inches fell in Stratford "during the year, and (i.33 inches during December. ''Things in the South look very prosperous," remarked Sir Joseph Ward to a representative of the Dominion on Sunday night. Oamaru, he added, is suffering from lack of rain, but otherwise the couuitions on every hand are very prosperous, Southland being remarkably so. The Southland farmers have had a "good season, and the crops are excellent, a position of affairs existing in the back country which is retlecting itself in the towns. Sir .Joseph Ward said he went through the Otautau, Centre Hush and Winton districts, and found the farming country in good condition. A mentally deranged man, who was lodged in the padded cell at the local police station preparatory to being sent on to the Porirua Mental Hospital, did a good dt'al of damage during his short stay (says the Stratford Post). lie seems to have wrenched off a piece of the wood which was bordering the padding, and with this played havoc with the cell. All the padding of the door was ripped oil', also a piece near the right side of the door, and all round there are slits in the canvas showing where attempts had ...en made to tear off the rest of the padding. On Wednesday Constable Mackintosh escorted the man by train to Porirua, having had a somewhat lively time of it, and he returned the following night with a number of ugly scratches on his face as the result of the man's struggles. In the following cases heard before Mr. Fitzherhert, S.M., at the local court yesterday morning, judgment was given for the plaintiff by default: (irayson and Cock (Mr. Hutchen) v. Lionel Cnthbert Wood, claim £1 7s Od (costs ss); McEwen Bros. (Mr. F. E. Wilson) v. Edmund Husc, £1 2s fld (ss); Xewton King (Mr. Hutchen) v. Piripi te Alio, 13s (Id ( 01 Is (M); Xewton King (Mr. Hutchen) v. Thomas John Wills, £0 13s (£1 lis (id); H. Weston (Mr. T. S. Weston) v. John Wilkie, £3 is Cd (18s); A. It. Standish v. Charles Kruger, £1 10s (!)s). Judgment summons cases were dealt with as follows: Dingle (Mr. Hutchen) v. Arthur "\orman CJiff, a debt of £5 3s lOd; defendant failed to appear, and an order was made for the payment of the amount within seven days, in default seven days' imprisonment. ' In the case of E. Dock-rill (Mr. T. S. Weston) v. Fran!; Drury, the amount involved being £3 Gs 2d, the debtor was ordered to pay same within seven days, in default seven days' imprisonment. Albert Lethaby was ordered to pay L. D. Xathan anil Co. (Mr. T. S. Weston) the debt of £0 12s within fourteen days, in default fourteen days' imprisonment; the order, however, to be .suspended on the. payment of £1 per month.

On Thursday a girl was arrested at Palmerston on a charge of theft of a bicycle. "

For the first time on record a Spanish wool firm had a representative at Friday's wool sale at Napier. " * 'She Stratford Uorough Council voted £ 10 at its last meeting towards the improvement of the approach to the Strattord Mountain house.

Earth-filling on the Powderham street culvert has been recommenced, the authorities evidently considering the structure will stand the extra weight. Unless compelled by law, the Stratford Borough Council will not jpin iu the scheme to have an inspector~under the Public Health Act for Taranaki.

Asked as to whether an official invitation had been received for members of. the New Zealand Parliament to visit the Coronation, Sir Joseph Waru stated that no invitation had yet been received. Our Urenui correspondent informed us last night that a Native named Piripi was taken from the Pa to the New Plymouth Hospital yesterday morning sufferig from a paralytic stroke of the left side.

Capt. Young, acting for the New Zealand Defence Department, Has just purchased nine horses in Waitara, the average price given being £IC. The animaU will be used at the instructional camp now being held in the Wairarapa,

Tt is stated that Pelorus Jack, who hag been on holiday bent, has resumed his customary frolicking alongside steamers passing through Pelorus Sound. The Order-in-Council which protects Pelorus Jack expires next May. It will, however, be renewed.

Recently a woman who applied at Christehurch for an old-age pension could not tell the Christian name of her husband. In another case, where the parties concerned were a man and a wife who had been separated for fifteen years, the woman could not identify the man with absolute certainty.

The amendment to the Municipal Corporations Act is effecting many changes in municipal representation. At a meeting of the Masterton Borough Council last night, says a Press telegram, Mr. J. H. Pauling, manager of the Masterton Farmers' Implement Company, tendered his resignation owing to the provisions of the Act

The Stratford Borough Council has decided to refer the matter of the weekly half-holiday to the local Chamber of Commerce and the Employers' Association. This decision was arrived at aftei a letter was read froim the New Plymouth Chamber of Commerce asking the council to support the idea of a universal ' Saturday half-holiday throughout the province. Tne Patea Press understands that the average milk tests at some of the factories in that district have been considerably higher than last season, but latterly the warns nights have seriously affected the quality of uncooled nii*K left standing overnight. It is said that the large amount of uncooled milk now being sent has had an appreciable effect on the quality of the output. The Patea Press reports that a man who had been in the employ of Mr. C. Honeyftold at Whenuakura for som« time alleges that he had been robbed on Saturday afternoon of £35 which he had secreted in the pocket of a volunteer uniform. The victim of the robbery states that the money was safe in the pocket at 7.30 a.m. on Saturday. On gotng to the pocket later he found that his savings had vanished. The police are making enquiries into the matter.

The sound of firearms and explosives in a Chinaman's house in Mosley street last evening seared the neighbors, ana there was such excitement that a posse of police arrived shortly on the seene. When an entrance was effected through the top storey by Constable Rowland* the building was shoruded ia smoke and mystery. "It was not the smell of opium, 1 know that," said the policeman speaking of the occurrence to a reporter late last night, "but what caused it no one seems to know." Child-like and bland, the Celestial inhabitant had made himself scarce, acting as usual up to his wily countrymen's reputation. As a result of enquiry the Patca Press lenms from the Railway Department that the Waterside Union strike has had no appreciable effect on the handling of goods at the Patea raihva'y shed. Four or five men have taken the places of those who went out on strike, and it is expected that during the course of a few days there will be more forthcoming. Meanwhile the steamers discharge and load as usual, and there has been no accumulation of cargo. Three steamers arrived on Sainrday, and after discharging and loanding cargo sailed again in the evening. Four outside laborers have now come forward, and no difficulty ia being found in handling cargo. Rotorna has been the lending attraction for holiday trippers during Christmas and Xew Vear. Though boardinghouses have multiplied rapidly, they failed to keep pace with the growth of the district's popularity, for many trippers who thoughtlessly left their board arrangements until their arrival had tetramp wearily from one boarding-house to another without finding accommodation. A striking fllustratin of this difficulty arose when the visiting Labor Ministers from New South Wales, Messrs. Holman and Bccby, got to Rotorua. They had endeavoured to book accommodation ahead, but the best that could be done for them the first night was a shake-down in the leading hotel.

Some excitement was attendant on the movements of a visitor to New Plymouth yesterday afternoon. Having purchased a revolver at a local ironmonger's store, the party let off the firearm on the premises, "just to see if it would work!" to the utter amazemen and fright of employer and employed. Subsequently his actions aroused suspicion that he was mentally deranged, and the police being informed the party was interviewed. He quietly gave up the revolver on being asked for it, and it was then plain that he was suffering from the effects of a drinking bout, though in conversation he was quite rational. A friendly "turn" was considered best under the circumstances, and he was driven home in his gig from one of the livery stables.

Rome of the country cousins have a remarkable capacity for getting rid of money when they visit the city, saya the Auckland Herald. The demand for accommodation at the Salvation Army shelter in Wellesley-street, where bed* are cheap, shows this. Just before the holidays only about throe-fourths of the total number of beds were occupied nightly. At present all are occupied, and many men have had to be turned away. ■An interesting feature is that many of the men who arc only prepared to pay 4d for their bed, or want it free altogether, confess to having come into the city a few days previously with what to them was untold wealth. One man who went to the shelter practically penniless told the authorities that he came into town only the day before with .€3O in his pocket. All he remembered was the joy of getting drunk and the pain of getting sol>er. Where his money went he had no idea.

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