LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 272, 7 April 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There were three occupants of the police cells last night, all of whom had been imbibing too freely. A party of Syrians from Melbourne arrived at the Bluff last week. They all passed the educational and health tests. The Triad monthly newspaper, which, in the capable hands of Mr. Baeyertz, has become a power in the land, and a scourge and terror to pale students of the harmonies, lias been floated into a limited liability company, with a capital of £7500. Yesterday afternoon a ten-foot shark was disporting itself off Te Henui beach, in close proximity to the shore, evidently on the look-out for some dainty damsel. Captain Fletcher had two or three shots at the finny monster with a rifle, but was unable to secure a hit. A Cromwell farmer stated last week that weasels were very plentiful about the hills and were playing havoc in the poultry yards. No fewer than nineteen were seen together recently, and settlers find it very difficult to rear chickens and also to secure eggs, for unless they gather the eggs at once after being laid the weasels have fJieru. One of the best items at yesterday/s seaside picnic was an impromptu event that had not been scheduled. Two of the most prominent officials, arrayed in their best attire, were tugging at a rope, with a view to pulling a stubborn snag out of the river, when suddenly the rope snapped, and they described a beautiful somersault, amidst great applause, arid fell in the water. About a year ago it was reported that gold had been found at Russell, Bay of Islands. Nothing was done to prove thq value of the find, because the owner of the property would not sell at a reasonable price, nor permit prospecting to be done.• The Luminary now learns that a strong syndicate is likely to treat successfully with the owner for the thorough prospecting of the property. For many years gold has been found around Russell', but nothing like the find of rich specimens made on the property in question, which belongs to Mr. J. C. Martin. At Stratford on Tuesday evening Mr. Ma re bant said it had always appeared n puzzle to him that so many nionied people were opposed to measures introduced by the Government making for the prosperity and development of the country. He referred particularly to the Government's lending operations. ,He could understand a usurer being perturbed, but not the ordinary capitalist or financial concern, for the consequent appreciation of land values more than compensated them for any decrease in the rate of interest caused by the Government lending cheap money. "Area, so far as we know, ne,ver had any influence on Maori land claims," said the Chief Justice, in Wellington, in siving judgment in a native land case. "The aboriginals knew nothing of surface measurement. They had not even the 'oxhide' measurement of Dido. The mode of ascertaining where their land was was by ancestral boundaries, such as streams, patches of bush, hills, ridges, swamps, and so on. They wouldiiave resented a surveyor's area,"which, if settled by measurement, might have given their pas or ancestral burying-places to their rivals."

"It is astonishing ho.w Auckland continues to boom." said a returned Palmerstonian to the Standard. "It is really a marvellously brisk city, though I think it must have a set-back ultimately. When these big jobs now in hand are completed, there must surely be a reaction. Meantime, applications for building permits are coming in at a tremendous rate, and people say the boom will continue for a long time yet. I saw houses in Wellington, as I returned, that had been up for" two years and have never had a tenant. 'Auckland's dull time may yet come." An exciting adventure is reported from the Chatham*. Captain Eastick, of the trawler Nora Niven, states that as two men from the Chatham Island Fishing Company's station, at Ovvenga, were .fishing off shore one day last week an enormous shark, which 'they assert was he< tween 30ft and 40ft long, made its appearance and attacked their boat. The monster bit a big piece out of the port side of the little craft, and it was found necessary to resort to bailing to prevent the boat from sinking. The shark was beaten off with a boathook and an oar, and as soon as it had ceased its unwelcome attentions the fishermen returned to shore with the greatest possible speed. Captain Eastick saw the boat before he left for Wellington, and says that marks of the shark's teeth are plainly visible on the gunwale. Yesterday morning a local firm utilising a pelton wheel for motive power was very much surprised when the machinery stopped owing to the necessary water suddenly failing to materialise. The borough turncock. Mr. T. Smith, was urgently summoned, and quickly appeared. He soon found that the necessary pressure was in the main, and accordingly an examination was made of the pelton wheel. The nozzle was. exposed, and in it was discovered a fine fat eel, two feet long. Its head had been able to get through the nozzle, and had been promptly cut off by the cups of the wheel, hut its body, being toiv large, blocked the water and caused the stoppage. The eel had evidently set out from the Waiwakaiho river to New Plymonth, via the borough water mains, safely negotiating the grating at the head-works and also at the filter station. Tt was possibly quite a youngster when it started.on its perigrinations through the reticulation system, and may have spent months before it found the exit which terminated so fatally. An expert on piscatorial matters stated that he had never seen an eel with such thick skin as was possessed by this specimen. - A special meeting of the local branch of the W.C.T.U. will be held on Monday next, April 10. in the Baptist Church at .'J p.m., to receive statement regarding the recent convention. The executive meets at 2.30 p.m.—Advt.

Mr. W. D. Lysnar addressed about forty settlers yesterday at Masterton on the frozen meat question. A resolution was carried approving the request, of the New Zealand committee for improved facilities for handling and marketing New Zealand produce at the Port of London and at Smithfield.— Press telegram. An East Coast storekeeper recently speculated in a typewriter, and made out his monthly accounts with the machine. During the next few days ho was surprised at the remarkable manner in which a large number of natives came to spttle up. In some instances accounts which had been'owing for a long period, and which the storekeeper was afraid would have to be put down as bad debts, were paid next day. The reason for this haste has its amusing side. By getting their accounts typewritten, the natives took them as lawyer's letters, and consequently lost no time in making their credit good. Writes the Wellington correspondent of the IVtone Chronicle:—A barmaid walked through the streets of Wellington yesterday decked in a harem skirt. She was followed by a bovine multitude, gazing, gazing. A local publican offered free skirts to any of his employees who would choose to wear them. Now he advertises that the harem will be worn in one of his bars 'by the young lady to-night.'* Competition is growing keen. The next enterprising beer-seller will probably advertise that ''Miss So-antlvSo, our most charming Hebe, will appear for the first time to-night in tights and spangles." The tiling is becoming perilously near a public scandal. The story of the old lady who stopped one of the country trains in New Zealand to enquire if any, of the passenger.? could so far oblige her as to give her smaller change for a one-pound note, is a tolerably familiar one, but something just as good occurred last weekdays the Christchurch Press). One of the cars from Sumner stopped at a side street in response to a signal from an old gentleman standing on the roadway. The old man, however, madf no attempt to board the car, and on his wishes becoming known it was found that all he wanted was the correct time. The guard obligingly gave the required information, and the tram resumed its journey to town.