LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 265, 18 March 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

For milk supplied during February the Ngaere Co. pays out £2083, Lowgarth £1505, Cardiff £1553.

Cyclists find it anything but pleasant travelling down the coast at present. As a result of the fine weather the roads are covered with a coating of dust, in many places inches deep. An inspector has been appointed to inspect all pigs put through bacon factories in Taranaki. The inspector in question, ilr. A. M. Spillman, arrived on Wednesday night (reports the Post), and will make Stratford his headquarters.

A young lady in cnarge of a country store received a shock one day last week. A working-bullock sauntered casually into the shop and wandered behind the counter. The lady hurriedly sheltered behind the other. With some difficulty the bullock was dislodged from his temporary refuge. A Wellington telegram states that at the annual meeting of the Merchants' Association of New Zealand, the principle of Mr. Sidey's Daylight Saving Bill was strongly approved. It was decided to urge on the Government the desirability of passing legislation next session dealing with the subject.

The council of the New Zealand Institute of Architects lias decided to send a strong protest to the Government in regard to the conditions governing the proposed competition for the new Parliamentary buildings. It is felt that the conditions fall far short of what is required to ensure fair competition. A young man named S. Martin met with a painful accident at the Okato sports yesterday. He was jumping a wire fence, when his foot got caught in the top wire and he fell heavily, and, it is feared, injured himself internally. He was removed to Lucas' boarding-house and Dr. Blaeklcy was telephoned for.

A meeting of the Equitable Building Society was held in the Town Hall last night, Mr. S. W. Shaw presiding. Two appropriations in the first group were ballotted for and secured by Mr. F. E. Wilson. In the second group an appropriation of £3OO was sold by tender for £65.

Is the Police Court yesterday morning, before Captain Thomas Wilson, J.P., a first offending inebriate—that is, it is hi 3 first offence within six months past—was fined ss, in default 24 hours' imprisonment. The offender was a prohibited person, against whom a charge of committing a breach of the licensing laws was pending. Employees at the harbor warks have forwarded, through Mr. H. Okey, M.P., a petition to the Hon. J. A. Millar for the erection of workers' cottages on the piece of land known as the prison reserve. Mr. Okey has received a reply to the effect that if suitable land can be obtained the Minister is willing to erect a number of workers' homes.

On Thursday afternoon the Standard Oil Company of New Zealand, Ltd., oil bore and plant on the Carrington Road were seized by the bailiff of the Magistrate's Court, under a warrant for immediate execution, issued in connection with the claims for wsges by the company's, employees. Judgment for these claims, by default, was given in the Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. Mr .Sedgwick addressed a meeting of the Farmers' Union at Hawera on Thursday evening on juvenile immigration. He declared that the boys he had brought out were doing well for themselves, for their employers, and for the country, and spoke earnestly of the desirableness from the Imperial point of view of diverting British immigration from foreign countries to the overseas dominions.

Mr. A. Cliff, secretary of the Agricultural Society, still continues to secure new members, his record to date being nearly 300. At the Inglewood sports meeting on Thursday lie secured 19 new members, and also obtained £ls 15 cash for special prizes at the winter show, in addition to the promise of a 25guinea cup for the jumping competition at the spring show. At Okato yesterday his tally was 19 new members.' The result of a morning canvass of New Plymouth business people was £42 in special prizes for the winter show. The Happy Hours Assembly, held in Brougham street hail last night, was very well attended. The arrangements were made by Mrs. O'Driscoll, and every attention was paid to the comfort of the guests, the floor being in tip-top order, the music supplied by Miss Crozior and Mr. Donovan first-class, and the supper sufficient and tasty. Mr. B. Ballot was M.C. Despite the fact that the temperature was a little elevated for dancing, this opening social was in every way a success. The waltzing competition, for which Mr. Malam was sole judge, was won by Miss Lowe and Mr. B .Bullot, with Miss Clotch and Mr. C. Johnson second. The Taranaki animal regatta, which takes place on the Waitara river on Thursday next, is likely to be a great success. The racing promises to be very exciting, especially the champion race between the Clifton and Tikorangi crews. Botli crews are using their best endeavors, and the public can depend on seeing a ding-dong go. The sports have been timed to start at one o'clock, so that those coming from a distance will be able to witness all the racing. Special and delayed trains have been arranged. The annual regatta dance will lake place in the evening. First-class music will be provided for the dance, and the Waitara Municipal Band will supply the music for the day. The New Plymouth Technical School opens its session for 1911 on Monday next, when the instructors will meet intending students in dressmaking at 2.15, and at 7.15 in arithmetic and photography. On Tuesday, instructors meet students wishing to take Latin, cookery, plane and solid geometry, senior mechanical drawing, joinery and carpentry, cabinet-making. On Wednesday, the instructors meet students for imcchanic.nl engineering, junior mechanical drawing, mathematics, freehand and model drawing, domestic economy. On Thursday, classes meet for shorthand, building construction and drawing, machine drawing and construction; and on Friday classes in English,, elocution and bookkeeping. Students wishing to take up definite courses will meet "their instructors on above nights and arrange books, etc.

Yesterday was, the fifty-first anniversary of the firing of the first shot at Waitara in the Maori war.

An exchange says that there will probably be a considerable -hortagc in wool in ilawke's Bay, and me wool is light and short in the staple. It is estimated that the total shortage will lie about 13,000 bales.

It is not generally known by parents that children on the way to and from school are under lit.- supervision of the headmaster of the school. Consequently, if any pupil should misbehave outside tlu> school grounds during school hours that pupil i- just as likely to receive punishment as if the offence had been committed inside the school grounds. A heated controversy is in progress in Patca in regard to the advisability of school committees claiming a Government subsidy from the Keystone Picture Company, the conditions said to be attached to the latter entertainments being that the money obtained shall be spent in purchasing school apparatus from the company.

The Taumsirunui paper says:—"A Taumarunui man wished to travel by the 7.23 south train the other morning. He just missed it. but he jumped on his bike and rode to Manunui, where he had to wait 20 minutes till the train came up. There was no break-down or any other unusual circumstance."

Singular as it may appear, the rabbit export trade is suffering from want of rain. Gore is a centre from which large numbers of rabbits are despatched. Dunedin and IJlufl' are too distant to permit safe carriage, and consequently they are sent for freezing to Mataura. But the Mataura river is so low at present that there is no water with which to propel the freezer turbine, and no rabbits will be received for freezing till the river rises.

Some time ago Mr. Mark Cohen, editor of the Dunedin Star, had a gold presentation watch stolen from a cabin on the Moeraki, whilst that boat was in Wellington harbor. A description and the number of the watch was given to the police at the time, and last n'eefc Mr. Cohen was pleased to receive advictj to the effect that his watch had been discovered by a Sydney detective in a pawnshop in that city. The time-piece has since been received by its owner after an absence of over two years. A letter received in Wellington on Wednesday contains the following reference to Sydney:—''Sydney is booming with a bang—l never have seen such a difference. Labor is unobtainable and everywhere is congested—the town is like a huge mining camp. Flare-up lumps, open-air auctions, shooting galleries, continuous picture shows by the dozen. There is apparently money to burn. The country is great—you can't open the gate for the grass—in fact, the goose hangj high and everybody is looking avoirdupoisy in the pocket." "When T was a young man I had been reading that a fellow should never marry into a family where there was a taint of insanity. So, for the sake of future generations, I decided that whatever my heart urged me to do, my head should be on guard. When the lady of my choice said 'Yes,' 1 dutifully sought the father. Maybe I was too precipitate. At any rate, this is what I said: 'Your daughter has promised to marry me. May I ask if there is any insanity in your family?' The old man looked a(f me keenly. 'There must be,' was his emphatic answer." t'lcveland Plain Dealer.

"Men who go out duck-shooting and bring home bags of 200 per day are not sportsmen; they are butchers," said Mr. Elliott at the annual meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. Mr. Elliott further suggested that 25 brace was quite a big enough bag for any man to secure in one day. With this view Mr. F. Earl concurred, and he suggested that as the Government stipulated the maximum number of fish which might be caught, it would be a fair thing to ask that some similar restriction should be placed on the duckshooting "gluttons." This yarn comes from Canterbury. A lady and a gentleman who had a quiet and very slow horse decided to dispose of it and get a smarter one. They consulted a horse dealer, who gave them £9 for Tom. After some months the dealer went to them with the news thai he had at last found the very horse they were looking for. They had a trial, and bought it for £l7. It suited admirably. The horse they had sold was one with a long coat and tail, while this one was a smart-looking clipped horse with bang tail and hog mane. In the fullness of time the tail and the mane and the hair on the other parts grew long, and Tom stood revealed.

It is a somewhat booming market for pedigree pigs in America just now. Pork has been at prices which curtail consumption. The public has a right to rebel when a rasher of bacon reaches a prohibitive price, says the Breeders' Gazette. There is room for material expansion in pig-breeding, but, as usual, the country seems rushing headlong towards another era of over-production. The American farmer seems to seek either a feast or a famine. Neither is conducive lo the best digestion. So intent is the farmer in his chase after swine that he is putting the cattle situation on his blind side. That eye will be opened presently, hut the operation will have cost him money that could have been easily made.

The Syd.iey Zoological Hardens have recently added to the specimens a bird of paradise from Herman Xew Guinea. This is the first time the Societv has been possessed of this species, which is very difficult to obtain, and necessarily costs a great deal. The specimen concerned, though its plumage sull'ered to some extent in transit, is verv beautiful. Its color scheme is mostly 'brown and yellow, with a throat of iridescent green. Bird-, of paradise similar to the one at the Zoo, are fairly hardy. The director (Mr. L. Sneuf) regards the specimen as a great: acquisition, and is pleased with the way it has taken to its new home. In a comparatively short time he hopes the bird will be at its best.

Mrs. Nelly (,'rcon, popularly known as "the richest woman in the world," lias iormally abdicated her control over some e2o.onn.Ono in favor of her ,011 Colonel If. K. Creeii. Tt is seventeen' years since Mrs. fJreen banished her only son to Texas, fearing that if she Kent him at Xew York lie would become an idler and learn to squander the millions she fostered so carefully. The story 0 f i,j s experiences was narrated by < olonel fireen, beginning from the day when he left the modest .-04-a-weck Tloboken flat occupied by his wealthy mother. "N seemed hard at the time," he siul, "for T wished to go to Paris. «Nt 1 soon learned how wise mother was 1 took charge in Texas of a foreclosing tir>o,Ooo mortgage against a wretched strekdi of railway. That was my only stake. What have I got to show' for it after seventeen years? Why, properties worth more than £1,000.000 and employing 2500 people. Once, in reorganising my railway property. T telegraphed to my mother for advice regarding- imy eight new locomotives. 'You are on the ground' was the sole answer she vouchsafed to me. I told her later that when I wired for advice I wanted it. 'lf I were dead, whom would you ask advice oil' .she retorted. Since then I have done my own thinking and relied on my-1 self." '