LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 18 January 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The blackness of the kettle occasions deep concern to the sable pot. In its issue of yesterday our esteemed eontemporary takes exception to our use of a paragraph created by itself. With due humility we acknowledge the theft. In the issue containing the objection the Herald printed at least three items carefully clipped from this paper, and without acknowledgment. In its issue ot last Saturday, the Herald was good enough to acknowledge the work of this unobtrusive paper by printing word for word a report -measuring one column and over, entitled "Jersey Breeders' Association." We are glad to have been of some assistance to the Herald, and if the Herald undcrstod the value of reciprocity it would have deferred its criticism of a method it employs so frequently. Mr. A. Tomlinson's tender has been accepted for the erection of shops ai Waitara for Mr. W. Snell.

Cash receipts at the county office may be expected to be large in the next few days, for after Saturday the rates will carry a ten per cent, surcharge.

Messrs. Weston and Weston have purchased the corner site opposite the Inglewood Hotel from Mr. J. Gibbs for offices for their Inglewood branch.

The annual picnic of the St. Mary' 3 Sundav School is to be held'to-morrow (Thursday) at Mr. J. H. Frethey's beautiful grounds at Frankleigh Park, which have been kindly lent for the occasion.

A class of instruction in life-saving for girls is now being conducted at the municipal baths by Miss Buchanan, of the Wanganui Girls' College. Othei classes have also been formed on the same lines.

Fruit is phenomenally plentiful and cheap in Auckland at present. Peaches are sold as cheap as 48 for a shilling, bananas one penny per lb, tomatoes, plums and apples being also exceptionally cheap. The man Main, who attempted suicide on Monday evening, was brought before Mr. Fitzherbert, S.M., yesterday morning on the charge. He pleaded guilty. His Worship severely reprimanded Main, who was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon.

A circular has been issued from the headquarters of the Defence Department to all officers in the district stating that they must pass the examinations for the next higher rank before being eligible for promotion. This is to act as a warning that they may be passed over in the consideration of senior appointments. Work at the harbor is progressing satisfactorily, a portion at the end of the wihiirf having been dredged to the full depth of 33ft. At the shore end the staff is at present engaged in removing boulders from the harbor bottom, a somewhat difficult operation, the diver attaching the stones to a wire hawser and a crane hauling them on to the wharf. As aoon as tlpe are removed the chief difficulty of dredging will be overcome. A religious revival of a far-reaching character is in progress amongst the Maoris of Taharoa, in the Kawhia district, and some very curious occurrences are reported, it is said that the Natives now expect a providential supply of food, and are passively waiting the provisioning of the settlement by scriptural ravens, as in the case of Elijah. They are holding daily services witli an extraordinary mixture of ancient and modern rites.

The Elthani Dairy Co. will pay out this week £10,894 for December supply of butter-fat. The amount of butter manufactured was 304,0281b5, and the average test was 3.58. . For the corresponding month of the previous year the payment was £10,350, and the amount of'butter manufactured was 289,09211)3, the test being the same. The supply is keeping up well, from 105 to 170 boxes of butter being manufactured daily. It is expected that the output for the season will reach 950 tons.—-Star. In reference to the strike of waterside workers at Pa tea a member of the Patea Harbor Board on Monday gave some interesting information bearing on the men's earnings. He gave the wages of the three men employed by his company, whose time averaged about three and a half days a week. For eleven .months' work one man chew £lll las 3d, while the oilier two for twelve months were paid £lOl los 9d and £97 lis 9d respectively. And there was other casual work they could do when not working at the wharf, let tlie men's demands are for 2s Od an hour for ordinary overtime and 3s Gd for special holidays and Sundays. The Board has decided to pay is Od for ordinary working hours and 2s for overtime, and are in favor of the special holiday rates. Formerly the Board paid la 3d for ordinary working hours. —Hawera Star.

At Monday night's meeting of the Pukekura Park Board Messrs. A. L. Humphries and J. McLeod, members of the Sports Groung Committee, waited on the Board with reference to arrangements for the functions to be held in the Park on the occasion of the Governor's visit on the 20th inst. The entertainment in the Park will take the form of ft garden party, at which His Excellency will be present. A charge of Is for adults and half-price for children will he made for admission., A floral fete will also be held. The Board as a whole agreed to act with the Sports Ground Committee in connection with the floral fefe and other arrangements. Mr. Govett and the secretary attended a meeting of .the Horticultural Society last evening with a view to obtaining the assistance of the society in lhaking the fete a sticces. The idea was taken up enthusiastically by the society's committee. Liberal supplies of flowers are promised, and intending competitors who are rot sure of obtaining the flowers they need should communicate with the secretary, Mr. A. L. Humphries.'

The Manawatu A. and P. Association* yesterday decided to invite the Scotch agricultural delegates to visit the district as their guests, and to be motored' round it for two days. It should be tin offence, says Sir John. Coekburn, for a grocer to blow opi-n a bag in which eatables are to be placed, or to moisten his lingers in separating papers for that purpose.

The members of the Taranaki Land Board will make a visit of inspection, to the back country next week. The party will drive through to Tongaporutu; and proceed to the Ohura per saddle,, and thence to the newly surveyed Tangitu block. The trip is expected to occupy from eight to ten days.

Here is another instance of the übiquitous bicyclist: A resident walking: along one of the borough footpaths on Sunday night about half-past eighu o'clock received a shock from collision with a cyclist, who rode up from behind and knocked him into the gutter. Both parties sustained bruises, but it in safe to assume that the innocent pedestrian was hurt the more. The bathers and residents at Worser Bay (Wellington) were considerably excited on Sunday afternoon by the appearance of a sharp disporting itself in shallow water close to the shore. A party of young men (Messrs Skclton and Steele) in a boat followed it to deeper waters,, where thiey baited it with a dainty morsel of conger eel. It was quickly towed to shore and found to measure over eight feet—Times.

Whilst the afternoon train was proceeding to Foxton on Friday a truck of dressed this (about fifty bales) took lire within a short distance of Foxtoiu The truck was uncoupled from the passenger cars, and, together with the flax it contained, was completely destroyed. The truck was near the engine, and,, though completely covered with two thicknesses of tarpaulins, it is thought a spark from the locomotive must have made its way to the fibre by some means. The loss amounts to about £2OO.

Furious motoring is not alone the cause of accidents, as might almost be supposed from the number of cases chronicled in the/ Press of late. The best regulated, even, of the ordinary foot-propelled cycles get their riders tangled up at times. At Ambury's corner yesterday morning a young lady cyclist Was following the 'bus, when suddenly she found herself in. the embrace of a brother wheelman who was travelling in the opposite direction. There was no collusion in the matter, ltl u& explain, and when the young man had disengaged himself from the toils of the cycle and the fair rider, he gallantly assisted her to arise, and both went their respective ways. A meeting of buffiiess men a'nd othess interested will shortly he convened is Hawera to discuss the movement of a universal Saturday half-holiday for Taranaki, a proposal emanating from the 'faranaki Chamber of Commerce. Th» Hawera Borough Council has postponed consideration of the matter until it rereives the opinion of the shopkeepers and the Chamber of Commerce. The public meeting will be under the auspices of the Hawera Tradesmen's Association. The athletic writer in the Hawera Star has the following: "A move has been made in New Plymouth to make Saturday the statutory closing day. There i* no question that this is ttoe best day, making a much better rest for That it will come is Improbable. But there seems no reason why the same day should not be observed right through, and it is to be hoped that, even if the Saturday movement is found impossible, the various towns, through their Chambers of Commerce and' Councils, will endeavour to unify the observance, at least in Taranaki."

The curator of the Pukekura Park " (Mr. W. W. Smith) reported to the Board on Monday night that since the last meeting of the Board he had been cleaning and mowing the grass in the Park. Nearly a week had been devoted to mowing down and removing the great growth of aquatic plants in the' lakes, and tnesc were now well under control for this year. Tdr. Smith informed the Board that one of the white swans died at the beginning of the month from a wasting disease, which it was impossible to arrest in its progress. The one remaining was .ill for a week, but it was now quite well again. Mr. Smith added that he had already reported the killing of the black swan. However it might have been killed it had been mauled and torn afterwards by. dogs. It was fully pinioned, and it seemed incredible that it could have risen on the wing so high as to strike the electric wires in the Sports Ground. The recent strong dry winds had blown down several of the older trees, which would be all duly cut up, and removed in a few days. In the following cases, heard before Mr. Fitzherbert, S.M., at the local Magistrate's Court yesterday morning, judgment was given for plaintiff by default: Dr. Walker (Mr. C. H. Weston) v. William Jenkins, claim 13s, costs 10s; Newton King (Mr. Hutchcn) v. Samuel Dale, claim £l7 12s Od costs £2 10s Cd; Hooker Printing Co. (Mr. Hutchen) v. Walter Wilkes, claim £1 12s Od, cost* ss; Alice Sampson (Mr.. Hutchen) v. Ware Rununga, claim £lo' 10s lOd, costs £2 Is Od; same v. Puke Niu Tireni, claim £65 2s lid, costs £4 13k Od; W. G. Malone (Mr. Johnstone) v. Bernard C. O'Dowda, claim £lO 14s sd, costs £2 4s Od. Judgment summonses were dealt with as follows, defendants not appearing: George Edward Taylor was ordered to pay M. O. Butcher, (Mr. Standish) the sum of £2 8s Od within seven days, or in default seven days' imprisonment: William Joseph Smith to pay Matthew Andrews (Mr. Nicholson) £5 0s 3d within seven days, or in default seven days' imprisonment. Lewi* David Callaghan to pay Elizabeth L. Campbell {Mr. Standish) £5 9s 3d within seven davs, with an alternative of seven days' imprisonment; Isabella Wilson to pay L. D. Nathan and Co.. Ltd. (Mr. C, H. Weston) £0 19s 2d within 14 days, the warrant to he suspended if defendant paid 10s per month.