LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 249, 27 February 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The new convent at Wanganui will practically cost something near £20,000 before it is completed. Paris is taking time by the forelock. An international exhibition in the year 1920 is already being considered. Several men are at present employed trapping rabbits in the Masterton district. The occupation is said to be attended with profit. A writer in an exchange thinks that speeches at show luncheons should be tabooed. The public do not care to hear the vaporings of politicians, who frequently hold up the proceedings in order to indulge in lengthy diatribes, in which self-advertising plays a prominent part. A settler who journeyed through Hawke's Bay district recently declares that the plains between Woodville and Hastings were in a lamentable condition owing to the continued drought. The country was parched and bare, and rain was urgently needed. The King has forwarded a donation of £750 to the King Edward VII. Hospital Fund from the State Apartments Fund of Windsor Castle, £2OO to the Mayor's Poor-Boy Fund, £l5O to the Royal Albert Institute, and £SO to Princess Christian's Infant Nursery at Windsor. At a meeting of the Melbourne Hotelkeepers' Association, one of the members strongly condemned the counter lunch. Undesirables, he said, mauled the food; opium-smokers, consumptives, even lepers might handle it. It also made boys thieves. He nightly saw them sneaking into hotels after the counter lunches. Shortage of feed is responsible for large numbers of stock travelling about the country just now in the effort to find buyers for them at the various saleyards. Large numbers of Hawke's Bay sheep have been transferred to this coast (says the Wanganui Herald), and wfe are informed on credible authority that fully 100,000 sheep haye been offered at the various sales in Wanganui, Rangitikei, Manawatu, and Hawke's Bay during the past week. After about twelve hours' fall of warm steady rain up to Saturday at noon a howling gale ensued. That the downpour was general is proven by reports from outside centres, and, as far as Taranaki is concerned, the thorough soaking the land has received has been appreciated to the full. After the prolonged spell of dry weather and the recent bush fires immense benefit must result through the renewed growth of feed to carry stock over the winter. The Grcymouth correspondent of the Christchurch Press telegraphs that some phenomenal gold discoveries are reported in the Central Buller. In one case one man, working twenty-four hours, panning, got gold to the value of £2O, and another found the wash yielded 35s a day. One claim is described as being a veritable jeweller's shop. The country for miles around has been pegged out by the original discoverers of the gold and their friends during the last five weeks.

The Horowhenua Chronicle reports that, after some years of patient study and investigation, Mr. W. H. Taylor, orchard superintendent at the Weraroa Experimental Farm, has discovered a most effective treatment for white blight. Mr. Taylor paints the affected part—in winter time only—with red oil, half a gallon of water, and one pound of soft soap. This is diluted about forty times with water for spraying purposes, but Mr. Taylor uses the emulsion without any adulteration, and applies it to the whorls with a small brush. It is claimed that the emulsion now in use thoroughly exterminates the insect. A Marseilles policeman was seaHy killed by an indignant crowd on December 11. Some children were playing in the street when the policeman came up. He iold them to move on, and they scattered, but formed up behind him and began playing again. The policeman ran to them, and when they ran nw n y from him followed them, shouting that they should pay for it. As he ran he drew his revolver, fired, and wounded in the arm a boy of ten named Marius Antoine. An immense crowd gathered at the sound of the shot, and on learning what had happened the people caught the policeman, beat him, and tore his uniform to shreds. He was rescued by ten of his colleagues, who saved his life.

Four children, disinherited by their mother's will, came before Mr.'.Justice Chapman on Friday, praying that provision be made for them. The parties in the action, in the matter of the estate of Elizabeth Green, deceased, were Louisa Margaret Palmer (married woman), Margaret Louisa Jane Taylor (married woman), Henry Francis Green (barber). all of Wellington, children of Elizabeth Green, deceased, the plaintiffs, and Reginald Herbert Webb (solicitor) and Charles John Mumi (executor of the estate) defendants. Plaintiff claimed to be entitled to an order under the Familv Protection Act making such provision for the plaintiffs, or some of them out of the estate upon the grounds that testator .bed leaving a will dated July 20, 1910, without making adequate provision for their proper maintenance and support. After hearing evidence and argument, His Honor reserved his decision.

'China's Millions," the ollieial organ of the China Inland Mission, of February 1, Htll, contains the following information with regard to the famine:—"Famine conditions are again prevailing in the northern parts of Anlnvci and Kiangsu provinces, and from reports sent by missionaries of other societies we learii that it is one of the worst famines ever experienced. The rainfall this summer was the greatest of which there is any record and the autumn crops were a total failure over a region of approximately 7000 miles tis estimated that two "and a Half millions of people are affected. The district extends from Jlwai river on the south to Hsiichoivfii (m the north; and from Pochow on the west to TsiiH<ian"mi on the east. ,\ central Famine .Relief Committee has heen formed in Shanghai, and the Chinese are contributing largely to the relief fund. Mready some thousands of pounds have been give,, from Anlnvei and Kian»sn ' provisoes." D

. An nicidcnt wherein a la.l is the hero is reported by a Westport paper. A lad named Erie Orey, about 11 years of a-'o. had a narrow escape from'drowning in the Orawaiti river, near the railway j>ndge. He and .several other lads went in tor a bathe, and drey, getting out of ins depth, was in. difficulties, and sank James Kennie, 12 years of age, without n moment's hesitation went after his drowning mate, and, catching him bv the hair of the head, succeeded, after a strenuous struggle, in g ( ,ttj„„ him ashore, hut in an unconscious state In a semi-nude condition Ronnie set off to ■Sergeant Hill, and informed Miss Monipatti, who, with several residents, vent down to the riverside, the police also being infornied, and Constable C'rimr nn his motor cycle, and Constable Brooks' shortly arriving, first aid was rendered and finally the boy came round, fortunately not much the worse for his narrow escape from drowning. Ronnie's' aetion i.s described as quite heroic, and deserving of recognition by the Royal Tlinnane Society. Kennie.' it may be worth noting, is a member of the West port Boy Scouts.

Mme. Lacroix, of Paris, is suing her landlord because he refuses to reduce the rent after having cut down a large tree in front of the house, whose shadow in the summer, she maintains, was worth £BO of the total rent. A sign of the times. In a case before the Court at Timaru, .Mr. V. G. Day, S.M., remarked to the defending counsel: "Since the old age pension arrangements have been in force children seem to throw their parents overboard altogether. I know 1 would be sorry to see any of my children throw me overboard." Petty thieving on the water front at Auckland continues to give much annoyance to owners of pleasure craft and larger boats, though the practice has not been so marked of late, but owners are exposed to an ever-present danger of losing property or having it maliciously damaged, with little hope of redress. Of the retiring president of the Methodist Conference, a Christehurch paper says that during the past year the Rev. I C. H. Laws has won golden opinions among his brethren by his fidelity and urbanity. The Rev. C. H. Laws was for a term the resident Methodist minister in Hawera, and was highly esteemed by all classes.—Star. The rain experienced here is general throughout the country. Messages reporting beneficial showers have been received from Feilding, Wanganui, Masterton, Hamilton, Auckland, Te Kuiti, Wellington, and Nelson. From the two latter places some damage is reported, as will be seen on reference to our telegraphic columns. A rather remarkable occurrence is recorded in the Marton paper. A contractor has sunk a gravel pit in connects way up through the bottom, iwhile tion with a metalling contract which he has in hand. The pit is put down in the bed of a creek, and although only some ten feet deep water is continually forcing its way up through the bottom, while the country all round and the creek bed as well are as dry and hard as a brick. Complaint is made in some of the Hawke's Bay papers of the conditions under which some station hands unci shepherds have to work. It is said that tho accommodation provided for shearers has been greatly improved of late years, but that of the general station hands and shepherds is badly in need of amelioration. The New Plymouth Fire Brigade held a number of competitions at Woolcombe Terraee on Thursday afternoon. Captain Bellringer atted as starter, Lieutenant F. Carrington and Captain W. Griffiths, of the Fitzroy Brigade, as judges, and Foreman J. Johnson as timekeeper, The aggregate for the points prizes were: A. Boon 18, J. Clarke, W. Roch, W. Sadler 10, W. Way, F. Hansen, F. Doughty and E. Clarke 8, H. Ford 7, H. Moon and J. Way C .F. Danks and Hardwick 4. A well-known English engineer, Mr. J. N. Longdon, died some months ago practically from starvation. Ho had spent £2(),UIH) in the investigation of a new method of producing electricity. -llie deceased gentleman was a Fellow of the British Society of Engineers, and was known professionally throughout the Empire. Some boxes found in a New York safety deposit vault are supposed to contain the results of his researches. They also led to the discovery of his death.

A somewhat amusing incident occurred at the Mastertou Show. A visitor was examining with much apparent interest what he took to be rare pot. plants, some of which he so admired that he made enquiries were they could be procured. His surprise may be imagined when he was told that the plants which he was so exceedingly anxious to procure were noxious weeds, and were being exhibited for the special information ot farmers, ft is quite possible that some of the Dominion's noxious weeds might be valued and admired in other countries as rare plants. Probably the most extraordinary case oh record of a man who wished to be executed is that of a Quebec citizen who passed himself oh" as a murderer for whom (the police were searching. When the matter was investigated it was found that the self-accused man had nothing whatever to do with the cHme.', "'No," he said, "you're right. I am not the murderer, but my wife leads me such a miserable life at home Shat I thought I. would escape from matrimonial wretchedness by gettin" the Government to hang me. °

There was a large audience at the second performance at Wirths' circus on Saturday night, and the performance • was thoroughly appreciated—as far as it went. The trouble was that tho items were so curtailed that the audi■ence dispersed before ten o'clock. A good deal of dissatisfaction was evinced as this, especially by the large number who visited the town by special train from Waitara and the stations en route. The only reason that suggested itself to patrons was that the gale was rising, and that the management was anxious to get the tent down in safety. In a speech which he made at Cambridge in connection with the work of organising a system of universal training, Mr. D. H. Caldwell, of the Arm of Mackay, Logan, Caldwell, and Co., spoke of the impressions gained duriiv' his travels, one of the strongest of which was that Germany fully intended to fight England for her colonics; the Germans never disguised the fact There was, he added, a real danger in this direction, and the thing to be earned out wa.s a system of national defence : nothing else would save New Zealand. He deplored the lack of patriotism in these new lands, but thought probably it was due to the fact that we were such a young country. A Sydenham resident has invented an apparatus which he believes will satisfy man's craving to become lord of the air as well as of the land. The invention is a pair of wings which are strapped like a _ knapsack to the back. They have a width at the widest part of 2*'/>ft, and they measure from tip to tip, when outspanned, about I.sft. The apparatus weighs only 1811), and by substituting the lightest plate for wooden blocks, the weight may he reduced to less than 101b. lie intends to move the wings in llieh by means of the feet, leaving the dyer's hands free for the use of a rifle or camera or for sketching or other work. It will be possible to rise from a flat space, and he claims it will be eas\- to alight safely. When (he wings are not in use hey may be folded and lie within "'« ,lwl( 't". <> f lh« shoulders. He has not given his invention a test, but he is confluent that it will prove practicable.

On page 3 of this issue appears an interesting interview with the proprietor of the New Zealand Shipping Gazette regarding New Plymouth, ita prospects and possibilities. At the Stratford Horticultural Society's show on Thursday the public schools' 'banner was won by the Norfolk school for the third year in succession. Stratford was second, and Lepperton third. The arbitrators in connection with the waterside workers' dispute at Patea, have finished taking evidence at Patea, and will meet in Wellington to-morrow (Tuesday), when the matter will be formally decided. The Waitara Mail *ays the present state of the Waitara bar shows the urgent need of dredging or other work being done to increase the depth of water. The s.s. Tainui was anchored outside for a couple of days last week, being unable to get in. The Commissioner of Police has acceded to representations to station a constable at Whangamomona, and notified that Constable Wright, of Te Wera, will be transferred there, another policeman being found for the latter's place. John McCoOi, a Tututawa farmer, was convicted at the Stratford S.M. Court on Friday of being found on licensed premises during the currency of a prohibition order, and lined 20s and costs. Arising out of the same circumstances Bernard McMasters, licensee of the Toko Hotel, was charged with having wittingly permitted a prohibited person to re» main on his premises. He was convicted, and fined £5, with costs 7s.