LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 261, 25 March 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A giant parsnip, measuring five feet six inches, has been grown this year in the Hawera High School gardens. Papers in connection with the taking of the forthcoming census in the Tara nalci province are at present in the course of distribution by the sub-enu-merators. The East End Reserves Bathing Committee has decided to wind up the season with a picnic and promenade con cert at the beach on Thursday, April Oth. This year the anniversary of Taranaki will be held on Thursday next, March :{(>, instead of cm Friday, the 31st. Business people are asked to observe Thursday as a holiday. The Corimia landed about fourteen hundred boxes of fruit at the breakwater last week. This constitutes it record. Of this lot one New Plymouth firm alone handled about half. As showing the amount of fruit that has been landed at the breakwater during tlie present season, one local firm of auctioneeers handled twelve thousand boxes between December Ist and March Ist. I The Wellington City Council has decided to make provision on next year's estimates for a. baking press, with a view to converting old tins and similar metal refuse into a saleable commodity. At present the material cannot be put through the destructor, and has to be carted into gullies, etc.. where it harbors rats. It wa* explained that a press I would cost ,C4-2n. and a local offer of I I2s fid per ton hart been received for I the output, which would allow a small ■ margin of profit.

Napier bakers have been fined as much as £5 and costs for selling short-weight bread.

The high-power wireless telegraph} station for the North Island will be erected in the vicinity of Doubtless Bay, and not near Auckland.

A.well-known Tapanui man (says the Courier) is said to have dodged his wed-ding-day, (ixed for a fortnight ago, when the fair bride and her friends had everything ready for the wedding feast. It is the opinion of the. Wellington Harbor Board's engineer that if the trade of the port continues to increase it will soon be necessary to consider the construction of another wharf lor oceangoing vessels.

In no previous season have the small birds been so destructive to fruit in Southland as they have proved this year, and apple crops, which promise to be light owing to the drought, will be materially curtailed from this cause.

Settlement is proceeding rapidly in and around Murcliison (says the Nelson Colonist), and bush is being felled in all directions. Along the Buller road there have been quite a number of successful •"burns," and fencing operations are in full swing.

It is probably not generally known that as each successive King ascends the throne the position of the "head" of the Sovereign on the coinage is turned to the left, wncreas the coins of the last reign showed the King's head turned to the right.

It is a remarkable fact that though the cemetery at Whangamomona has been in existence for about ten years there is not a single person buried in it who has died a natural death, so a representative of the Stratford Post has been informed.

Notwithstanding that the lists for contributions to the Maries' gifts to the Queen have closed, subscriptions-still continue to come in to the Mayoress oi Wellington, and she is obliged to return them, as there is no time now to forward the money to England. Mr. L. Lewis, whilst biking on the Carrington road yesterday, was knocked into the kerbing by a cab coming in the opposite direction, the result being' that Mr. Lewis was thrown to the ground and sustained injuries that will incapacitate him for some lime. The nominees of the Progressive Municipal Association arc not going „to be allowed to have a walk-over at the borough council election next month. In the West End, at a meeting of several ratepayers on Thursday, it was decideo to' support the present representatives, Crs. Mannix and Gilbert.

An Order-in-Council has been gazetted extending the boundaries of the borough so as to take in the properties of Messrs. G. Pott, F. M. Grayling, W. J. Penn and Mrs. Crocker, as from April Ist next. These properties were formerly part of the Mangorei Road district, but will now be included in the East Ward.

Enquiries are being made by the Railway Department as to the reason for the New Plymouth express being twenty minutes late in arriving at Wellington on Saturday night (says the Post). It is stated that after leaving Johnsonrillc it was found that the locomotive had run short of water, and it had to back into Johnsonville to replenish its supply. The finances of the borough of Greymouth are so strained that there was not sufficient money on hand to meet the ordinary expenditure until March 31, and as the bank refused tp make any further advance, and rather than see the employees go without their wages, the Mayor gave his own cheque for £IOOO, without interest—a magnanimous act indeed.

As the care of the lost, stolen or strayed bicycles seems likely to be a duty that the police authorities in Christchurch will have to discharge indefinitely, provision has been made at the police station for a proper room in which to •store cycles that come into the possession of the police. For this purpose the room previously used as a dining-room has been fitted up with stands. At present the police have in their keeping about seventy bicycles for which they have not been able to get owners. Sneak thieves have been operating in the Fitzroy Bowling Club's pavilion on two or three occasions lately. A few nights ago the secretary's locker was broken open and 10s or 12s in silver as well as some cigarettes and tobacco were abstracted therefrom. During thi present week the place was again broken into, and a silver-mounted box that had been presented to the club as a trophy was wantonly destroyed. The delinquents then made liberal use of some refreshments belonging to the club ana decamped. The police are, we understand, now investigating the matter. Dr. Truby King, medical superintendent of the Sunnyside Mental Hospital, will give a lecture in the Whiteley Hall commencing at 7.30 this evening on "Health and Fitness." The lecture' will be fully illustrated by limelight views, and in addition to the slides immediately bearing on the lecture, some fine views taken quite recently in the Rna-pehu-Tongariro volcanic region will be screened and described. During the evening a collection will be taken up, the proceeds of which will he devote;! to the funds of the society for promoting the health of women and children. In addition to being a great mimic of the ways of his white brother, the Maori can at times be exceptionally original when lie sets his ''thiii'dng piece" agoing. A News representative, while having a chat with a party of young bloods at Parihaka the other day. was enlightened in quite an interesting manner. The subject under discussion, of course, was "Timi Kara." "T pei you lieil'cr know why Joe Ward lie kone away! I tell you pretty quick. You know ti Japanese ferra? Well he wantal kum tis country and fight ti pakeha. Joe Ward he no koot for ti fight, so he tell Timi Kara stay here and pe ti nan. By korry, Timi ti worry trnng vangitira, time he ket ti pig mere (battleaxc). Joe Ward, he tell inn ti Japanese ferra no koot for to ko New Zealand now Timi Kara looking for ti fight." And the young orator had a gleam of battle in his eve like unto that of a Bed Tndian brave going on a scalping expedition. Our Acting-Premier will need to furbish up his (lux-mat armour and don the tribal war-paint to live up to such a high reputation as a warrior.

YOU SHOULD BEAR IN MIND That, by nsinj the Commercial Eucalyptus Oil, which is now bought up at (id per lb weight and bottle, and, on account of the large profits, pushed, you are exposing yourself to all the dangers to which the use of turpentine will expose you—irritation of kidneys, intestinal tract and mucous membranes. By insisting on the GENUINE SANDER EUCALYPTI EXTRACT you not only avoid these pitfalls, but you have a stimulating, safe and effective medicament, the result of a special and careful manufacture. Remember: SANDER'S EXTRACT embodies tho result of 50 years' experience and of special study, and it docs what is promised: it cures and heals without injuring the constitution, as the oils on the market frequently do. Therefore, protect yourself by rejecting other brands.

In connection with the increased depth on the Wanganui bar, Messrs D. B. Walker and Co., ship brokers, inform the Chronicle that they have been ottered a steamer with a carrying capacity of about 1800 tons for charier from Newcastle with part cargo tor New Plymouth and the balance for Wanganui. Included among the passengers by the Manuka which arrived at Wellington from Sydney this wi-ck were two adult Italians and a bov. lining able to pass the education test, they were permitted to land. The Arawa. from London, also brought six foreigners—three Russians and three Germans.

Target practice regulations for junior cadets have been completely revised, and the new rules arc now being isaiied to officers commanding companies. All shooting by the junior cadet is to be restricted to the .22 cartridge rifles iwid the .177 B.S.A. air rifles, and Government and other challenge shields, trophies, cups, belts, etc., will be competed for with these rifles. Instead of there being teams matches for the futures, shields, etc., will be awarded on the average of the whole cadet unit. This is being done in order to bring about a better average in shooting than in thejtast.

An Australian stock owner, questioned as to how the New Zealanders who took horses over to Australia would fare at the markets, said, "Well, you don't want to sendnis many light horses, but don't bo afraid of sending draughts. I don't mean to say that light horses will not sell well. They may; but the heavies are what are wanted in anything like big numbers over there. The market fluctuates somewhat, and industrial disturbances have a bnd effect on it. The New Zealand draughts are on the whole slightly better than our ordinary draughts, and the pick of New Zealand's heavy horses, f believe, are superior to Australia's best. If a horse offered by auction looks Tather good, and is a New | Zealander, the latter fact is always stated by the auctioneer." The burglary at the premises of Mr. A. Kohn, in Auckland, on Sunday, recalls a good yarn told at the expense of the late Mr. Kohn. He had just installed a complete set of burglar alarms, and one night two men-o'-warsmen were wending', their way towards the wharf. On passing the Kohn premises they were startled to hear bells ringing, and, on peering through the windows they saw a man in the shop on his hands and knees. They went to the rear of the shop, scaled over a fence, obtained access to the premises, and accosted the man. He protested vo-| lubly that he was the proprietor of the shop, but the Jack Tars said they had heard "that tale" before. However, they were at last assured of the supposed burglar's bona fide.*. It is a remarkable, thing how the last burglary was so neatly carried out, taking into consideration the network of alarms and the fact that a policeman passed the shop every ten minutes.

A sad fatality resulting from a baby girl getting hold of a pill box and swallowing several tabloids intended .for an adult, is reported from Orassmere, Invercargill. At the inquest, Agnes Yates Webb, mother of the deceased, .stated that on the 12th inst. she found Doris (who was 12 months old) playing in the boys' bedroom with the pill-box, the pills being missing. She noticed the child looked ill, and witness picked her up, when she twitched. She told her husband she thought tile child was poisoned, and lie left for a nurse and telephoned for a doctor. They then put deceased into a hath and roiled her in a blanket. The doctor arrived in about a quarter of an hour, and in the meantime they had given the child salt and water to'make her vomit, which she did a little. Witness had no idea the pills were poisonous. There were fourteen or fifteen in the box. The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure, no blame being attachable to anybody. A touring party, consisting of an English visitor, his wife, and their daughter, who came out to see the sights of Australia and New Zealand, have had an unenviable experience. When thev arrived in Auckland the other day a" pathetic tale of painful misfortune, and of a trip curtailed, was told to a Herald reporter. Somewhere not far from the sunny outskirts of Sydney madame lost her footing on a flight of steps, and, slipping, seriously injured a limb. That was the first disaster to overtake the tourists, and the second and third followed in quick succession. After dining in a fashionable Commonwealth restaurant the daughter was suddenly taken in,.and a doctor, who was called- in, pronounced her symptoms to be those of ptomaine poisoning. Then on the way across to the Dominion a jagged piece of glass from a bursting bottle flew up and badly cut a portion of the man tourist's face. The result is that the partv will leave (lie .shores of this country for England at a much earner date than was contemplated on setting out.