GENERAL NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 224, 27 January 1911, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS

According to the Italian press, thieves have been enjoying a long period of undisturbed good luck at Messina, where a large number of them have settled since the great earthquake. The last reported achievement apparently beats the record, for they forced an entry into the Church of, Santa Chiara and carried off not only the doors and windows and the sanctuary furniture, but the whole peal of bells. The congregation of a suburban church in Melbourne has collected for its clergyman £l5O so that he may take a holiday to recuperate his health. The clergyman, who is a bachelor, just over forty, will not accept the money, and urges that it shall be given to the poorest member of the congregation. The subscribers do not approve of this. Sir Joseph Ward, on a recent visit to Stewart Island, gave the inhabitants some advice. He besought them not to hanker to be brought into too close touch with the mainland, as by so doing the island would lose one of the distinctive characteristics which formed one of the greatest attractions of the place, and one which caused some thousands of people to visit it each year. There might come a day, perhaps, he said, when Stewart Island would be in a position to demand a daily steamer service. He was pleased to hear that pioneer farmers were going to other remote bays in order to commence farming.

"I have had a most interesting and enjoyable time, and I return feeling several years younger than when I went away," said the Hon. George Fowlds at the civic reception at Auckland, "and I feel fit for any amount of hard work in the interests of New Zealand. I had put in over four years' strenuous work as a Minister, including six sessions of Parliament, without a holiday of more than five days beyond the reach of the telegraph. A Minister can never get a holiday if he is within reach of the telegraph, and 1 was beginning to feel somewhat stale and heavy. I come back with a firm resolve that never again will I go through the drudgery for so long without a holiday beyond the confines of New Zealand."

There was an exciting little incident in connection with the departure of the Wimmera for Sydney from the outer tee of the Auckland wharf on Monday evening (says the Herald). As the Htiddarti Parker liner was swinging out from her berth an intending passenger raced down the wharf. The vessel was about 3ft clear of the wharf, and the intending passenger jumped, but missed his footing and fell between the steamer and the wharf. On finding himself in the water he struck out and took refuge on one of the cross beams of the wharf, and had a good view of the steamer on which he had booked for Sydney sweeping out into the harbor and heading down stream. Ropes being passed down to him, he was ultimately landed on the wharf, none the worse, but wiser for his adventure. Balclutha is the home of the man who opposes New Zealand's offer of a Dreadnought to the Old Country (says the Otago Daily Times). He was in evidence at Mr' Malcolm's meeting. The speaker was eloquently disclaiming that at the time the offer of the Dreadnought was made to Britain, although that offer entailed an expenditure ol £2,000,000 sterling, who was there in New Zealand who objected? Then there came a voice from the centre of the hall, "I did." "At last," said Mr Malcolm, amid considerable merriment, "one has come to light—(laughter)—but the very fact that there is only one, and I do not think there is another, shows how unanimous was the desire of the people of New Zealand to assist the Mother Country. There was considerable objection, no doubt, to the way in which the gift was made —(hoar, hear) —but I am talking of the determination to give assistance to Old Land, and of the willingness to promptly render that assistance, and I think there was no objection to that." (Applause)" Red is the color which can be distinguished at the greatest distance.