LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 239, 15 February 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

About twenty ratepayers met at the Town Hall last night at the invitation of the Mayor to discuss the New l'lymouth Borough Council's proposals to borrow £11,225 for street works and sewer extension. The Mayor gave his assurance that the sewer connection fees received and the revenue derived from the increased values of properties affected by street proposals would easily provide the money for payment of interest, and that the general body of ratepayers would not be called upon to pay" an increased rate. The proposals were adopted, on the motion of the Mayor and Councillor Mannix, and, on the su"geston of Mr. Carter, a committee was set up to secure a majority at the poll in favor of the scheme. Mr. E. Dockrill, ex-mayor and ex-councillor, criticised the administration of borough affairs, particularly referring to the unsatisfactory state of the streets at the present time.

Lately a staff of borough workmen have been engaged in erecting fences and barricades on either side of the new i'owderham street culvert and putting the "finishing touches" to the earth work. ! We wish to draw the attention of the members of the Couneil to the unsightly appearance of the fence already completed. The posts used have been taken from the old bridge and erected without regard to evenness of height or general suitability. Hardly two are alike or of the same height, while some of the timber is quite unsuitable. Wires have been stretched along. Just how long they will answer the purpose can be guaged b\ the condition of the wire fence that up till a day or two ago did service on the other side. We know that the work is not permanent, that it is only intended to do duty for six to nine months to allow of the consolidation of the earthfilling, but surely it would have been just as easy and no more costly to plane the timber, make the posts the one height and erected a railing. As it now stands the work is an eyesore. We hope the Council will see that the fence on the other side now under erection will be erected in a way more in conformity with the fitness ofthings.

It is stated that a chain and a half of the Main South road on Omata Hill, which was treated with petroleum in November, 1909, is in splendid order, and, in marked contrast to the rest of the road at present as the result of the long spell of drought and wind, has not a single loose stone upon it. The county foreman in that riding is of opinion that the oil might be used in this way to a much greater extent, and that this would greatly reduce the cost, of maintenance.

Incendiarism is suspected in eonneeton with a fire at Eltham on Sunday.

The Wellington-Naples despatch of January 6 arrived in London on th« morning of the 12th inst.

A London cablegram states that the ('oldstream Guards Band will play at the Toronto Exhibition at the end of July. It is stated that work for quite two hundred more men could easily be found in the Whangamomona district just now. Mormonism is popular among the Maoris, of whom about 600 are now attending a meeting in the Auckland district.

There is a rumor current in political circles that a prominent member of the Ministry is likely to resign almost immediately. In picked herds of Danish cows, handled under the periect system of the country, the average of butter is 3301b per cow per annum.

There are now forty-four boroughs in the Dominion rated on the unimproved value, while forty-eight adhere to the old system. A good deal of interest is being manifested in the Fitzroy Town Board election which takes place to-morrow. A keen poll is anticipated. To-day is the anniversary of the blowing up of the United States warship Maine, which was destroyed in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The auctioneers holding sales in Kketahuua are to be approached by a deputation from the Farmers' Union with a request that stock offered at the sales be classified. A resident of Johannesburg, writing to a friend in Masterton, states tliat eggs there are at present being sold for 7s (id per dozen, while a Chinaman charges ninepence for washing a pair of socks. On Friday, February 10, on the motion of Mr. A. R. Standish, probate of the will of the late Richard Dobson was granted by Mr. Justice Edwards to Jane Dobson, the executrix therein named. A contemporary states that when it was announced that a Radical and a Socialist had been returned for Norwich, England, a man named Edward Fox, aged fifty-one, who had ucon waiting in the crowd, went home and hanged himself. A contemporary affirms that it is an interesting fact that none of the riliemen who figureu well up in the aggregate for the championship of the Auckland Association meeting cither smoke or drink.

The latest disease is aeroneckitis, which is a serious stretching of the muscles of the neck, caused by straining the head to watch aeroplanes flying. Three hundred thousand people are affected by it in America owing to recent aviation meetings.

The Government is spending £20,000 in extending and improving the I'etone railway workshops. The opening of the Main Trunk railway to Auckland and the acquisition by the Government of the Manawatu line have made the Petone shops exceedingly busy. The residents of Opunakc have decided to ask the Education Board, through the school committee, to do its best to have a district high school established at Opunakc, and also to get technical continuation classes going. The committee will give the request their cordial support. In reference to the application of the Taranaki Acclimatisation Society to the Taranaki County Council to have iishways for trout made over the weir at the Waiwakaiho bridge, Mr. E. A. Clements, who built the boulder weir, strongly re«ommends the Taranaki County Council not to interfere with the structure.

Representatives of the Stratford and Whangamomona County Councils met on Saturday te consider the matter of the upkeep of the Tuhora lioad from Douglas to the county boundary. It is understood that a decision was come to regarding the matter, so that it will be unnecessary for the Commissioner from the Public Works Department to consider the question.—Post. A man named Campbell was thrown f«om his Ihorse near the Smart road on Saturday night and received serious injuries. He was carried by a number of members of the Taranaki Rifles to a house near by, and Dr. Wylie was called.The latter found Campbell was suffering from concussion and other injury to the brain, and ordered his removal to the hospital, where lie still lies unconscious. His condition is serious. Said Mr. Jas. Dunlop, one of the Scottish Agricultural Commissioners, at Auckland on Monday: -'As a result of what 1 !have seen I am satisfied that better cultivation and more attention to details would pay New Zealand farmers many times over. Taranaki is a particularly fine province, and after visiting many of the cheese and butter factories I can only say that I consider the butter produced as as fine as, if not liner than, anything I ever came across while in Denmark."

At the local Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. H. S. Fitzherbert. S.M., judgment was given for plaintiff by default in the case of John Hoskin (Mr. T. S. Weston) v. William Hart, claim 9s 3d (costs ss). In the judgment summons case Dr. Walker (Mr. T. S. Weston) v. Walter Wilkes (Waitara). defendant admitted the debt, but statea he had no means of getting the money. Since the date of the judgment he had received £ll3 trust money and had £s 14s 3d of his own. His Worship would not make an order.

A very large number of visitors have already come to town for the autumn meeting of the Taranaki Jockey Club, and accommodation at the hotels and boarding-houses was at a premium last evening. Big fields are promised in all the events, and with the course in good order after the special attention that has been paid it the racing should provide capital sport. The club has, as usual, made complete arrangements for the ( comfort and convenience of patrons, and line weather prevailing (of which at time of going to press there was every indication) a large gathering seems assured. Messrs. Ilolali Bros, lost a singlecylinder 8-li.p. motor-car by fire on Monday night. They had been on a run to Spotswood, and when returning to town attempted to pass a straying horse on the Mission Hill. The horse was in the middle of the road, and as the car was passing it kicked out viciously and caught the front wheel, jerking the steer-ing-wheel from the grip of the driver, and car and occupants rolled over the embankment. Fortunately neither of the brothers was hurt. Bo'th lamps of the car were burning at the time of the accident, and when the car lay on its side at the bottom of the embankment the lower one was still alight, and before anything could be done to prevent it the benzine from the tank came in contact with it, and in a second or two the car was a mass of flames. The car was worth about £l5O.

NO DOUBT AIiOUT IT. There is no doubt about the curative properties of Chamberlain's Cough Remady, which is the best, safest, and most reliable cough medicine you can take. For harsh, hard, chronic coughs it is a .splendid cure. Easily taken, and it quickly relieves and cures the most ob stinate cases. fl'f

Weasels are becoming an intolerable nuisance in tile South island, and have been causing great havoc among poultry. Recently, a resident in one of the boroughs saw a number of weasels crossing over ins paddocK. He says there were fully thirty altogether. Within a week or two afterwards the owner of an adjacent poultry farm shot nearly twenty weasels, after a number of his birds had been destroyed.

A gentleman who came through to New Plymouth from Wellington the other evening arrived hungry. Me was not familiar with the management of this line of railway, and did not know, for instance, tuat the dining-car is taken oil' the tram at Aramobo, and he was not aware that there was a refreshment room at liawcra. He makes a suggestion—one that will be echoed by many fellow-sufferers, no doubt—that the vagaries of the dining-car might be announced before Aramoho is reached, so that the passengers might have a meal, if so disposed. A contemporary remarks that it is surprising that paper has not long since been adopted for motor car tyres. An ingenious inventor has now undertaken to replace the strips of rubber used in such tyres by compound strips of paper attached to' each other by chemical binders under great pressure. These paper tyres are claimed to be as strong n.s steel, and as clastic as india-rubber, impervious to water and oil, and remarkably silent in action. The additional advantage is-claiined for them of picking up small grains of sand, so that skidding is impossible. Paper, under compression, forms a very hard substance and it has been used for making wheels for railway waggons, though with what success we cannot say. Probably more will be heard later of the proposed paper motor tyres, h they prove a success the cost of tyres should be considerably lessened.

In these droughty days of Taranaki. water is something to be reckoned upon, ao it was not to be wondered at that the suijieet was mentioned at the Borough Council meeting on Monday evening. Borough householders will, therefore, thank those councillors who spoke up in their interests. Cr. West urged the adoption of the meter system in the Council's dealings with outside bodies, and pointed out that not only did they receive the water at a cheap rate, but neighbors when the tanks had run dry used the borough supply, which meant a considerable increase on the demand from the reservoir. His Worship pointed out that the cost of a meter was £l3O, and inferred that this expenditure should be considered in any change that might be contemplated. At a later stage of Me jneeting Cr. Wilson said he was surprised to near, in face of the engineer's report re the difficulty in keeping the reservoir full and the decision to stop the supply fon street gutters, that the •Jockey Cluh had been given permission to have the course watered by the Fire Brigade's ho.se for four hours (wo nights previous to the meeting. The use of the borough water-cart would not be so depleting to the supply, unt even tnat was in his opinion a serious matter. liis reason for mentioning it was to find out by whose authority it had been done. Perhaps the supply could lie stopped for one night, at any rate. His Worship explained that he had given permission to the club to use tile borougn water-cart to water ("lover-street, provided the cost was borne by the club, and that the engineer should be applied to. The engineer said tnat that was the position as far a.s he understood when the club officials approached him. "That just shows you," resumed-Cr. Wilson, "that in this case an incn has been asked for and ail ell taken, and, further, that it is absolutely necessary that nil applications to the Council should be put in writing."