LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 15 September 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

"Tlii' old gentleman can get it oil' his chest in fine style"—Excerpt from a young lady's letter read by the recipient — a speaker at last night's Presbyterian welcome social. The Duncdin Star says:—The bottom is out of the potato market. Potatoes are going to be cheap. They are cheap. Utago has been growing more than she can eat or sell, and, being a -perishable commodity, they must be got rid of. Recent sales in the country have been at the rate of 40s a ton, or 3« 4.d per bag on trucks, and already in some southern districts potatoes are being fed to the pigs. A shocking fatal accident occurred recently at Charleville, in Queensland, the victim 'being a young man who was- in pursuit of wild turkeys. .He. stood his gun against a bush, and in mounting his horse, a restive animal, stooped to lift it up. The weapon exploded, practically blowing his face off, and the horse galloped back riderless to the station. A search party found the unfortunate man sitting on the ground, having sustained terrible injuries. He was removed in a buggy for admittance to the. nearest hospital, 'but expired oil the road.

'■ 1 am afraid your farmers in the North 'lsland, or a good many of them at any rate," said a South Island visitor, to a ralmerston Standard representative in the course of a casual conversation, "are not as much attached to their district as we are in the sooth. I see clearing sales of stock almost everyday in the newspapers, the owner having sold his ifarni. I hear of a great many Taranaki farmers who ha>ve sold out an<l gone to Waikato or the King Country. The Southland farmers often go up north in search of suitable farms, or. more .suitable farms than they already have. Rut in nearly every ease they come back, more than convinced that there is no district like Southland after all. and the most of them also acknowledge that farming in Southland is superior to that in any other district which they had visited. In the 'North Island there is too much 'swapping' of farms for other farms or for town properties. T don't care to see much of that kind of business."

The inward English and American mails, per s.s. Aorangi, via San Francisco, arrived here hj last night's express.

Mr. William Taylor, of Greenhill, has presented Te Awamutu with a town clock for which the Government is providing a tower at a total cost of £IOOO. The letter carriers' delivery for Vogeltown will in future commence at 8.30 a.m. Correspondence posted in the receiving boxes at Vogeltown will in future connect with the outward mails at mid-day, ami with the afternoon town deliveries.

That tlie borough by-laws apply to both sexes was .shown yesterday morning, when the usual bitch of erring cyclists came before the Court. Usually the offenders are men, )>ut yesterday all were members of the opposite sex. AH were caught cycling on the footpath in Wallace Place, anil each was fined 2s fid nnd costs. The defendants were Ethel M. Standish, Nellie Antridge and Jean McCoy. As showing what can be done by thorough dairying and farming methods, Mr. H. Purdie, of the Waitara road, bad a return last year of over £l2 per cow for a herd of 76 cows. His brother, Mr. J. Purdie, in the same district had the splendid return of over £ls from a herd of 30 cows. These records are for milk alone, and do not include receipts from pigs and calves. Messrs. Purdie ha-ve for several years gone in for heavy culling and systematic testing, and the results achieved have paid them handsomely. Both herds are principally composed of Jersey and grade Jersey. A retired military officer who went through the Boer war of 1881, tells the following story of a curious incident which he witnessed during that campaign:—One of the soldiers of a British regiment, having been found asleep at his post, was tried 'by court-martial and condemned to be shot. At the appointed time he was marched to a spot outside the camp, and the troops were drawn up to witness the execution of the unfortunate man. Just as the office* in charge was about to give the order to fire, a bullet flew into the group of officers and men, and l striking the prisoner, he fell dead at their feet. Th« shot came from the rifle of a concealed Boer marksman. Tn "sniping" the British troops, he had unwittingly acted as the executioner of the condemned man, who had thus died a honorable death after all.

During last year forest fires burned over an area of 3,000,000 acres in America, at a rough estimate, at a loss of £5,000,000, and the destruction of over 0,000,000,000 ft of timber. During 1900 the burned area was 302,0W acres, as compared with 115,000 acres in 1000. It is said that a considerable number of fires were caused by incendiarism, which has led the United States Forestry Department to offer a reward for the conviction of the incendiaries. Precautionary means are being employed .by the department to reduce the fires to a minimum, such as the construction of roads and trails and the establishment of fire lines. During the year 5500 miles or road and 10,000 miles of trail were completed. Tt is recommended that the forest be equipped with look-out stations located on high points, with telephonic communication. The principal causes of the fires are given as the severe droughts and railroad locomotives.

An astounding state of corruption has been revealed in the Moscow Supply Department of the Russian Army. Of the members of the Moscow Intendency between 1004 and 1910, two generals, twenty-one colonels, and twenty-eight captains, besides four councillors of the State, are charged with systematic extortion, dishonesty, and bribe-taking. The majority of the accused are in uniform, and wear various orders and decorations. The sums alleged to have illicitly obtained by them range downwards from £27,000, which is said to have ibeen the share of one of the members of the receiving committee of the Intendency. ft is calculated that one firm alone, in the course of twenty-five years, ha« paid C 2,000,000 in bribes to the members of .the Moscow Supply Department. One of the counts of the indictment is that the department accepted from the contractors boots of such wretehed duality that the soldiers could not wear them, and sold them for what; they would fetch. The boots eventually found their way back to the contractors, who delivered them again to the department. The soldiers were obliged to sell their food in order to procure boots for themselves. Tt is declared that clerks in the department deliberately spoiled the samples of any firm which did not give them bribes.

'•For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain the heathen Chinee is peculiar." Dr. Angus Johnson, of Adelaide, has received from a well-known resident of the Northern Territory ar, "exhibit" which makes manifest" tlu trouble which the Chinese miner will take in order to outwit his unsuspecting European brother. The Chinese seem to be the principal .workers in the minin» industry, especially in surface "shows" in the Territory, and they often have to •sell the results of their labor to the banks. Dr. Johnson says: "Thousands of pounds have been obtained from tlit banks by Chinese miners engaged on the alluvial fields in exchange for gold. It has been ascertained, in a great many instances this supposed gold was composed of much baser metals, and the loss to the banks as a consequence has amounted to a. large sum. The Chinese prepare little irYco-ular-fihnped pellets of lead and zinc, which they gild over to represent the granular gold usually washed out of alluvial. This is so cleverly fabricated and disguised that it will deceive the "very elect." Expert miners cannot detect the fraud by either the weight, touch or appearance of the metal. Tt answers the acid tests, and its component parts are discoverable only by analysis. It is worth a'bout Ss an' ounce. As "old is worth about £3 17s (id. it will ,be seen that, the astute Celestial makes a good profit out of his cmniingness."

Time will' tell whether a man is worthy or a machine economical enough to be practical. Some milking machines give themselves away at the start, others manage to Wind the user for a. month or two; but the Ridd Milking Machine is .is reliable after years of service as on the day it was bought. Scores of farmers can testify to the Ridd's excellence, this extract from a letter written bv Mr. I). Buchanan, of Tiakitahuna, being representative of manv others:—"After using the Ridd Milking' Machine for three seasons, J know yon will be interested in my experience of their use. . . .

The machines have done the work well throughout, and from the enclosed letter of the manager of the. cheese factory to which T supply, yon will see that the milk supplied has been the best they have received. Taking the plant right through. T am well pleased with it." The Watt's (til Engine proves itself to be as worthy of praise as the milker. For detailed information kindly apply to Newton King. Business men wanting billheads, letterheads, or any other description of print ing, cannot be better served, in price, quality or despatch, than by the Daily News Printery. Try us- "all. ring up, or write.