LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 287, 28 April 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A line of twenty-five weaner pigs were sold in Pahiatua last week for Is a head. Mushrooms were sold at from 10s to 13s per banana case on the Wellington market during last week. It is now reported that the Agricultural Department does not intend to cease, 'publishing its monthly journal.

Tomatoes, which were so cheap a while ago, are bringing from 2s 6<i to 4s 6d a half-case on the Wellington market. The Waitara water-front looked very busy yesterday morning, no less than four small steamers lying at the wharf, viz., the Claymore, Tainui, Manukau and Pitoitoi.

The poll taken in Wellington on Wednesday on the half-holiday question resulted in' Wednesday being returned, the Voting being: Wednesday !)liBB, Saturday 7984.

An army of rats has invaded a couple of business blocks in the heart or Christchurch, and the civic and healtii authorities are urged to take action to cope with the plague. The Rev. Mr. Lillingston, one of the Church of England missioners who recently toured New Zealand, tells his English parishioners that in the Dominion the Church is "nerveless and anaemic." An accused who was fined £8 by the Methwold (Norfolk) Magistrates was said to have sent to the London markets for human consumption eighty dozen larks which he had poisoned with strychnine. Owing to the continuous rough weather having seriously hampered the completion of the Eltham gas works, the opening ceremony and banquet, which were to have been held to-day, have had to be postponed for the present. The New Plymouth Fire Brigade's annual ball will be held in the Theatre Royal on Monday, June 5, King's birthday holiday. Children's practices for the fancy dancing will commence on Saturday afternoon next in the Drill Hall at 2.30 p.m. A meeting of the Waircka Card Club was held in the Town Hall last night, and was well attended. Mr. H. Goldwater was elected eaptain, and the same officers were elected as Inst year. Mr. R. H. Sole is the delegate to the association. The club will enter teams for this year's competition.

On Wednesday evening and yesterday the residents of Buller street were cut off from the borough water supply, through the Eliot street main having burst. The burst occurred under the Eliot street railway bridge, and was caused by the vibration of a train passing under the bridge. Mr. D. J. Hughes sent the following telegram to the Minister of Marine yesterday morning:—"Hon. Minister Marine, Wellington: Farmers' wives, sons,daughters and employees dissastisfled Harbors Act. All disfranchised yesterday. Hope you will amend it.—D. J. Hughes." The position is that in the town districts virtually every adult has a vote, while in the county area the ratepayers' franchise obtains, with the result that in the Wainiate, riding there were 300 town ■ district voters and '32o''county voters.-

Our Tongaporutu correspondent telegraphed yesterday: The mail coach was got over by three o'clock on Tuesday morning, the new road deviation being negotiated without any difficulty. Today the weather is abominable. .A large quantity of storm water is coming down the river, and there is every likelihood that I shall have to record' a flood if the weather doca not moderate. The mail coach would have been delayed for some hours'to-day through a slip coming down, but men were put on and a passage just sufficient for the coach to pass was made just before eleven o'clock to-day.

An American doctor recently visited the Palace at Pekin to examine the baby Emperor, who, it was found, had gorged himself with a meal of swallows' nests (a sort of glutinous material) and thus provoked a raging thirst; the indisposition yielded easily to the doctor's treatment. The Emperor, he says, sleeps in a gigantic bed, big enough for six people. He rises at 0, at once has a meal of rice gruel or rice, and then goes to pay his respects to the Dowager Lungyu, who is on most affectionate terms with him; even his own father and mother have to kneel to him when they visit him.

A meeting of persons interested in the forthcoming visit of the Iri3h delegates to New Plymouth was held in the Rolland Hall last night. Mr. W. T. Jennings, M.P., was in the chair, and calico on Dr. MeCleland to read correspondence from Mr. Kennedy, of Wellington. After discussion, it was decided to hold the meeting in the Theatre Royal on Wednesday evening, May 10th. As this question is occupying so much attention in the Imperial Parliament at the present time, the visit of the delegates, who have reputations as orators, will give an opportunity to many in the district of hearing what Home Rule for Ireland really means. In the Magistrate's Court vesterdav, before Air. H. S. Fitzherbert, 'S.M., two lads, Albert R. Parker and Gershom Hurle, were each fined 5s and costs 7s, for riding without lights.- The borough inspector prosecuted in these cases. Charles Cran was ordered to pay 5s per week towards the support of his father, who is unable to work through illness. Three informations against boys who had ridden cycles through Puk'ekura Park were dismissed without pre- j judice, owing to the proper procedure! not having been followed. As the alleged offenders are under 1(1, they come within the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court. In such cases a report concerning the offence has to be sent to the Magistrate, who then fixes the date for hearing and causes notices to be sent to the parents of the offenders. In the present case no reports had been sent to the Magistrate, and so fresh proceedings will have to be taken. The re-established Labor member for Woolwich (England) has been telling a few interesting stories lately. One afternoon in the House of Commons a new Scotch member had been speaking for an hour, and looked as if he were going on for eternity. The Speaker '(Mr! Gully) bccKonod to Mr. Crooks, and asked. "Can't yon got that dreadful man to sit down?" Mr. Crooks replied: "If T were .Speaker f would rule him out of order." "Yes." said Mr. Gully, "so would I if 1 could understand what he is saying." At a garden party at Buckingham Palace once,. King Edward tapped Mr. Crooks on the and asked if he had been introduced to the King of Siam. who was present. "He is a most interesting man," remarked his Majesty, "and knows a great deal about European politics." "The question is," said Mr. Crooks, "does he know anything about Siamese politics?" "Heaven knows" laughed the King. "I don't."

She bad a tickling in her throat, . A tightness in her chest, A hacking cough, a sneezing fit, At night she cot no rest. She took some Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, Hot water added to it, And when she tried to cough next dav She simply couldn't do it! 10

A pot lamb owned by a well-known local resident, slaughtered at the Uisborne freezing works this week, scaled the remarkable weight of 173)bs. Says the Shannon correspondent of the Levin Chronicle: "Constable Kelly, of Feilding, is doing police duty here until a permanent appointment has been made. Kelly looks a likely looking colt; he appears to be the kind of man to 3uit this part." At a sale at Levin recently a wellframed picture of a New Zealand contingent in the Boer war—the '"New Zealand Hill"—went begging at 2s, and a framed picture of Mr. Seddon started at eighteen pence and found a purchaser at 4s. Such is fame!

The average thrashing tallies for the thrashing mills in the Ashburton County for the season closed are about 43,000 bushels of mixed grain, which is fully 20,000 short of last year's. This repre-' sents a shortage of 800,000 for the Ashburton County, the falling off being mainly represented by wheat. In Tunnan, China, girls arc still sold into slavery. In one year about 300 children from this neighborhood were sold to dealers and earned to the capital in baskets, like poultry. At ordinary times the price for girls is 3s 2d for each year of their age, but in time of famine children become a drug on the market.

There is no disguising, and there can be no good purpose served by trying to disguise, the fact that scarlatina is rife in Hastings. There are dozens and dozens of cases through the borough, and the children of those families are running amongst other children carrying infection with them. So writes'the Hastings correspondent of a Napier paper.

According to the Wyndham Herald an Edendale lady had a rather unlucky experience while proceeding to Invercargill with her young family recently. She placed her purse on the seat while she looked for her ticket. On turning round she noticed that her purse was missing, and on questioning her children if they had seen it, one innocently replied that he had thrown it out of the window.

The Newcastle strike, according to the figures of union officials, cost the men no less than £1,000,000 in wages. What it has cost the employers cannot very well he figured up, but this much is certain (says the Australasian Review), where the weekly export of coal was then 120,000 tons, it is now about 50,000 tons. Further, the extent of the loss over foreign orders may take years to make up. Caruso recently lost £2OOO through a little speck of dust. This insignificant morsel blew into his throat as he was walking along the street, with the result that he had to cancel four operatic performances for which he was to have been paid £SOO each. It is not so very many years, ago 9ince Caruso was receiving only tenpence a day for singing in a church choir. Now he shrugs his shoulders at £60,000 a year. A doctor in Yokohama, Japan, has built himself a novel house with a view to guarding against microbes. The walls of this remarkable edifice are made of blocks of glass. They are built hollow, the interstices being filled up with a solution of salts of soda, which is intended to regulate the temperature of the interior. The windows are hermetically closed, and air is only admitted after passing through filters. The reported find of coal at Retarukc, along the Alain Trunk railway/ near the Wanganui river, has not come up to expectations. The Minister for 1 Public Works informed a Wellington Post reporter the other day that the quality of the coal was inferior, anjl that the site was too far from a railway to work coal of any but the best quality. Accordingly, prospecting operations have been suspended for some time past. A peculiar experience happened to a tradesman at .Murwillumbah, New South Wales, recently. He is in the habit of leaving a jug of water under the house all day to cool, drinking it at night. He was on the verandah talking to his wife, and reaching for the jug, took a drink, and before he knew where he was a frog was half-way down his neck, eventually sliding right down. The sensation made him very ill, but there was no sign of the frog. In explaining the small increase in the population of Palmerston North during the past five years, the Manawatu Standard says:—There is one aspect of the census revelations which is worth noting. That is that the whole of the southern part of the North Island appears to be at a standstill. Since last census the Main Trunk line has opened, and has drawn away a steady stream of settlers and citizens. That Palmerston can still show an increase under such a strain is proof of the town's stability.

Reciprocity means that one good turn deserves another. For instance, suppose we have labored and toiled to make the Bugle the best newspaper in the county, and have sent it year after year to dead-beat subscribers who have never paid us a red cent for same, but have kept on reading the paper and lending it to their neighbors, who ain't subscribers, and run it down when they don't happen to be mentioned as often as they thought they ought to be, that ain't reciprocity—that's a sin and a shame.—Bingville Bugle (U.S.A.) Far, far away in the great Muddy North, says the Auckland Observer, is a little paper called the Mangonui Age, and this is the way it chronicled a wedding the other day: "Mr. Lou Littleproud took unto himself a wife while away last week. The unfortunate lady, we understand, was Miss Thompson, sister of Mr. Vernon F. Thompson, Victoria Alley. Just like Lou to do things quietly. We wish him and his bride all health and happiness." Rather an "unfortunate" slip that. They do distinguish themselves sometimes these country papers.

An effort is being made to have the beautiful Papaitonga Lake, the property of the late Sir Walter Buller, acquired by the Government as a scenic reserve. The lake and its environment is one of the moat charming pieces of scenery in ail New Zealand, and its value and attractiveness are further increased by the rare fauna and flora to be found in the vicinity. Its former owner had the choice of many properties at a time when they had not the value now placed upon them, and he selected the historic Papaitonga Lake as probably the most lovely spot which he had ever seen. It is said that the trustees are willin" to sell the lake to the Government at a reasonable price. The Supreme Court has lately given the trustees power to sell the property.

For Influenza take Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. Never fails. 2/6, 1/C.

A SYDNEY MOTHER'S EXPERIENCE.

"I really cannot let the opportunity pass without telling about the good done my little son by using Chamberlain's Coiiijh Remedy," says Mrs. H. Silks of 2!) Dowling-street, Camperdown, Sydney, "He had a very severe cold. The doctor save me medicine for him, but it did him no good. I was recommended to try Cough Remedy, and before a small bottle was finished he was as well as ever." Sold by all chemists and storekeepers.