LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 268, 3 April 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tauranga orchardists sent nearly 170 cases of fruit to outside markets last week, including several lots of passion fruit to the South Island. A Poverty Bay farmer, who was proceeded against for failure to take reasonable and diligent steps to destroy rabbits on his property, was lined £5 and costs. Tn the Magistrates' Court on Saturday, before Mr. 11. S. Fitzlierbert, S.M., a first offender, who did not appear, was fined as and costs on a charge of insobriety. : . A telegram from Hawera reports that the subdivision into four sections of a farm of 2+B acres at Kapuni, Waimate Plains, resulted in the land being sold by auction at an average of £43 ?is per acre to local buyers. Owing to the High School pupils holding a relay race in the baths this afternoon, bathing for ladies will be suspended between 3.30 and 4.30 p.m. The usual admission will be charged to the public witnessing the race. During the past month there were 15 marriages, 37.births, and 12 deaths in the district of the New Plvmouth Registrar (Mr. J. S. S, Medley). For the corresponding month of last year the figures were 13, 20 and 1.1 respectively. "I am not a very great believer in imprisonment as a universal medicine for all diseases. > A few lashes of the 'cat' would probably do some men more good than locking them up and imprisoning them."—Judge lientou) at the Old Bailey, London. On Saturday Mr. H. S. Fitzherbert, S.M., made an order for the closing of Downe street, between Outfield road and Morley street, and Tamar street, between Bultcel street and Downe street. This was in accordance with a resolution passed at a meeting ,of electors recently. • In the Magistrates' Court on Saturday, before Mr. 11. S. Fitzherbert. S.M., the evidence of another witness, Eliza Stanley, was taken for the complainant in the case, in which Mary Ross suing her husband. John James Ross, of Opunake, for maintenance, and is also applying for a separation order. The further hearing of thb case is set down for next Court day at Opunake. An advertiser who wants farm work for a youth with some experience has failed to elicit any reply (says the Waimate Times), and pertinently comments that this seems a remarkable state of affairs when it is generallv considered that the country is needing youths for the land so badlv that they have to get out hatches from "towns" in distant England under the "Sedgwick" and other schemes. The very latest divorce comes from Minneapolis. Tn granting a divorce to Mrs. Nettie Weekly, the wife of a member of the fire brigade, the judge laid it down that a man may mend bis own trousers and darn his own socks, but he lias not the right to do this on the front lawn, and call the attention of the neighbors to the fact that his wife had overooked such tasks. Such conduct constitutes cruelty within the meaning of he Act. n In order to regulate the speed of motor ■ars. Cr. Piper suggested at « meeting >f thi! Petone Council that, failing the mccess of the proposed speed by-law, ixnhalt crossings lie laid down at'inter•als on the Hutt road. These, he aid, would by virtue of tho "bump" hey would give to any car travelling at . high rate of speed, successfully• cope vith the excessive speed difficulty.' Cars ravelling at a slow rate of speed, and ithcr vehicles, would be able to negotite the crossings, which would be raised ligbtlv above the road level, with ease n/J witlimif, /)nnw>r ~

Tile subdivision into four sections of a farm of 248 acres at Kapuni, Waimate I'laius, resulted in the wnu being sold by auction on Friday at an average of £43 lis per acre to local buyers. .Scientist* declare that Ngaruhoe is one ol ilur youngest 01 .New /.calami volcanoes, aim lui.s never lieen wlioily inactive. As recently as lull? there was water at the bottom, and llie that there* is now liioiun lava tilde Mdicates a great change. Some fifteen or sixteen years ago lmias were plentiful in tile 'iarurua li.uiges, and gradually disappeared (rfays the Wa i - lurapa Aye). There is pleiuy ot native bush o.i ilie ranges, and it is mysterious that the liuias should '-become extinct. Not being a lurd ol liiglit, it is duiieult to understand what lias oeconie ol mem. At the recent unveiling oi the memorial lo Tamaha iiahupuKU at Papawai ('South Uairarapa) time were provided for the feeding of the guests 15 Bullocks, 400 sheep, Hi) Lolls of potatoes, ten tons of pumpkins, lifteen tons of Hour, eases of cnseijits.by hundreds, and other trifles. The feasting was of an entirely teetotal character. A consignment of 33 English pheasants is expected to reach AucKland shortly. The uirds have been ordered by the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, and will be placed in its pheasantry at Te Papa, near Ukoroire, ior breeding purpose?, with the object of introducing new blood into the pheasant life of the Society's district.

A private in the Hutt Valley Rifles was before a lourt-nutrtiaL on Tuesday night. The case was only a trivial one, of refusing to help to carry ammunition to the Drill Han, but it is the ; first court-martial in the district under the new Defence Act, winch now opens them to the Press, The accused pleaded guilty, but the finding was not made public. On Wednesday a. man named Fletcher died in the isolated cottage at the Auckland hospital of bubonic plague. The authorities at once had the plagueinfected Uody covered with quicklime and hermetically sealed in a metal coffin, so as to preclude any possibility of contagion spreading. The body was im mediately interred at Onehunga. There are two other cases, a man and a woman, whose condition is serious. It is related that a local body in the Wairarapa district decided to re-con-struct bridges over two branches of a stream, which spread wide over u shingly bottom. Someone suggested diverting the waters of the smaller into the larger stream, but the sapient councillors laughed the idea to scorn. A contract was let for the erection of Hhe two bridges. In a few days the Supposedly impossible task of obtaining a dry river-bed in the smaller stream was an accomplished fact, and the bed of the latter is still dry! There is keen interest taken in the operations a£ the Taranaki Petroleum's Company's bores at Moturoa, and every day brings its 3tream of visitors anxious to see for themselves what is going on, and a perusal of the visitors' book shows that no less than 5(l(i visitors attached their signatures thereto during the month of March. They came from England, Scotland, Germany, Fiji, Aus,tralia and every part of the Dominion. Among the latter were the Hons. Jas. Carroll (Acting-Premier) and Thos. Mackenzie (Minister of Agriculture), Messrs. J. H. Young and A. Henderson, managers of oil companies at Gisborne. In addition to the visitors whose names are in the took, it is estimated that more than 400 others were at the bores during the month. Nothing Lb more distinctively American than the use of "chewing gum." Once a pastime of youth, it has now taken possession of every age in the great Republic, and has become a widely-spread habit. Why it is indulged in would puzzle even devotees of the aromatic substance to state. No doubt most of the gum chewers follow their darling vice as inveterate smokers do—just to provide some automatic means of occupying spare time and surplus energy. It is not a pretty habit., but it is apparently extremely engrossing once it has been contracted. The foundation of the masticatory substance is resin. The original gum which was chewed came from the spruce forests of Maine, and a delectable resin it was. Occasionally spruce may he obtained, and it lias ii delightful aromatic llavor. The country passed through a period when a compound made largely of paratlin wax was in vogue, and now has come to the age of the resin derived from the Mexican chicle, which is imported in sufficient quantities to satisfy the United 'State? demand.

For two and a half years tho Hutt Valley Tramways Board has been"trying. to evolve a scheme of quick passcn- | ger transit for Petone and Low«r Hutt. Two proposals, involving the eonstruc- , tiou of electrical tramways with over- , head trolley equipment, at a cost 01 £BO,OO. were submitted to the ratepavers, but both were rejected, and it seemed as though the project would have to be abandoned. The advent, commercially, of the Edison storage battery gave a gleam of hope, and the Chairman, Mr. J. W. McEwan, entered into correspondence with the Federal Car Cornpay, of New York, who has just forwarded a description and a comparative estimate of the cost of an electric tram scheme with ears equipped with the Edison storage battery. The figures show that a saving of .'!■> per cent, on the capital cost can be ell'ected by using the storage battery oars instead of the overhead trolley system. On the operating cost a further saving of over 30 per cent, is claimed for the battery cars. The company was unable to give a definite estimate of the particular requirements of the valley until furnished! with certain particulars as to cost of materials, conditions and grades of roads and other data. Alter deliberating for three hours, the board ultimately resolved to take the necessary steps to take a poll on a proposal to borrow £ 0.5,000 for const meting a tramway system in the Hutt Valley, this sum to include the cost of a special bridge across the Ilutt river. MKLFIOUIvXE CIsOTMING CO. FOREMOST CLOTHIERS SINCE 'O7. On the Stock Exchange they tell us that knowing when to take profits marks the only difference between rich men and the other kind. In other fields the same rule obtains, only we call these profits values. For fifteen years the Melbourne has been tailoring standard Taranaki styles, accepted by tho most discriminating, critical and best-dressed judge of clothes in this, the best-dressed province in the Dominion the Taranaki man. The vfllue*, too, have been just as standard as the quality. But, on aecount of our recent reorganisation, values almost incredible have been and are still being offered. Xow the quality is the same high Melbourne quality—the value is practically doubled—these present reorganisation prices are the highvalue mark of Melbourne Clothing Company history: 80s tailor-made worsted suits for 85s; 2.5s tailor-made worsted trousers for 18s fid; SOs fine tailor-made Indigo worsted suits for 05s; 00 tough English worsted suits, highly finished, 403 Od; youths' taiUr-made suits, 455; men's solid wearing famous Oamaru saddle trousers, 13s Gd; specially fine indigo dyed navv blue suit, made of fine chamois, finish coating, 655, worth five guineas; finest fabric purchasable.—Advt.