LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 121, 13 November 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Summer's coming. The municipal baths earned £8 18s Od last month.

■ _ The receipts of the municipal electric light department last month were £457 5s Id.

The weather improved vastly on Saturday, and cricket, tennis, and croquet were in full swing. Mr. J. A. Kinsella, ex-Dairy Commissioner for New Zealand, is living at Rookwood, near Sydney. He is in "very bad health.

The Education Department has made grants for the erection of a school at Douglas and the alterations to Koru and Tarurutangi school residences. The Rarawa was unable to cross the Manukau bar yesterday, but it is expected that she will get out this morning, arriving at New Plymouth this evening. Her departure for north has been delayed till Tuesday night after the arrival of the express train. What is declared to have been the most spectacular electrical display ever {riven in the country was seen when the great fleet of warships now at Xew York was illuminated on October 31. It is" estimated that 750,000 people were out to witness this unparalleled spectacle.

The committee set up by the Borough Council in regard to the purchase of an Additional water-cart will recommend to the Council tonight that the. quotation of Messrs. Okey, Son and Arnold for a UOO-galion P. and D. Duncan water-cart, fitted with double shafts, be accepted. The price delivered at New Plymouth is to be £95, freight and other charges from Lyttelton to New Plymouth, not exceeding £lO. IV some time past the school at Whangamoniona. has been greatly overcrowded, the result of the influx of population caused by the pushing on of the railway works. The Education Department has now arranged with the Public Works Department to construct and erect adjacent to the school a temporary class-room, which can be moved on to another school in the district .should- the advance of the headworks cause a big move in the. juvenile populalation.

A small mixture of coal in the diet of pigs is stated to have a decided fattening value. In their natural state pigs in search of animal and vegetable food burrow largely in the soil, whereas in a state of domestication, especially where they are kept on paved floors, there is little chance of obtaining this, hence the use of coal as a substitute! It is a matter of common, experience that pigs, when kept in an enclosed space, on paved floors and fed on rich food, cease to thrive unless they are given medicine in the form of coa"l, cinders, earth, or bones dissolved bv means of sulphuric acid. The fact might well receive the attention of some of our farmers.

Mr. W. G. Boonzaier, of Carnarvon, Cape, Colony, has invented a sleeping bunk which, it is claimed, will remain perfectly level whatever the angle of the vessel, and absolutely steady however violent the oscillations caused by pitching or rolling. At the invitation of Messrs Donald Currie and Co., the inventor went to Glasgow to superintend the fitting up of his self-levelling bunk in the cabins of the new liner Guilford Castle, which started on her maiden vovrtge to the Cape about the middle of October. The inventor's idea is to subject the bunk to the conclusive test of the voyage out and home. The chief merits of the invention are its simplicity, its .safety, and the ease with which it can be handled, while the expense is expected to be only a fractional increase on the cost of filling up ordinary bunks. By means of the principle of 'his selflevelling bunk Mr. Boonzaier proposes to make possible-the playing of billiards at .sea, his intention being to make not alone the billiard table, but the entire room in which it is placed, so steady that one will be able to manipulate the one on board ship with the same surencss a.s on land.

No dairyman or larmer can afford to be without a copy of Sykes's Journal for 1911. It is compiled in s very interesting manner, and in addition to its great utility on the farm has much information that must prove invaluable. Tables for recording each day's milking for the year are given, als'o memoranda of stock purchased and sold,, breeding table, herd register, seed sowing table, etc. In fact the Journal is full of information that every dairyman must know to be successful. Copjes can be obtained on I application.—AdTt.

At Stratford on Friday Mr. Kenrick, •S.M., fined a man £5 'for having supplied liquor to a prohibited person. Several of the leading residents of Fitzroy are interesting themselves in the provision of a dressing-room for ladies bathing on the bcßch at Fit/.my. and have purchased a building which (hey will move and erect on the beach by voluntary labor, the seieclcd site being at the end of J'.eacli street. In tiie past the ladies have had to use the. lupins for privacy, and these have not always rieen siillicient. The committee in chars;.' of the movement for improving the ucce-s to the haaeh and prov.Mii: .U' facilities there lets done excellent work, and there has been no organised call on the public purse.

New Plymouth people are getting a sum Her proportion of cow beef now. as will be seen from the report of Mr. T. J. Eeak.es, manager of the Municipal x\battoir, for the month of October:

Slaughtered for local consumption: Cows 30, .bullocks 130, calves (J, sheep (i2l, lambs 115, pigs 111; tripes cleaned 135, and one calf's head. Compared with the corresponding month of last year they show an increase of 20 sheep and 5 tripes, and a decrease of 4 cuttle, 12 lambs, and 18 pigs. Calves are equal. There were two cows and one pig condemned. Tb>re were slaughtered for export 14 cows, one bullock and nine bulls. Fees due for the month amount to £llO 12s, rents £3 5s (id, extraordinary traffic fees- £1 4s Od, total £l2l 2s> an increase of £3 ss.

The Opunake Times reports that on Monday evening a loud report was heard and some residents saw a quantity of smoke issuing from the Kahui "road creamery. Nothing particular was thought of the occurrence, as the sound was attributed to some persons further up the road, and the smoke issuing was attributed to the belief that the manager "had a good fire going." On the creamery managei' going to his work early on Tuesday morning he found that a part of the wall near the hoist was badly damaged. Further enquiry revealed that a dynamite outrage had occurred. Apparently dynamite had been placed where the test-bottles arc kept, and it exploded, shattering all the glassware to atoms, and scattering the pieces some distance away. The persons or person who committed the deed took care that a sufficient charge was required, as a clean sweep beyond recovery was made of the articles. The. concussion was heavy, as it displaced the machinery tools at the further end of the building. There was no stoppage in the working of the creamery, or interference with the machinery, nor is the damage of any extent; simply all tests have°gone up to the one standard.

John George Buchanan and Charles Ernest Meyenberg appeared at the Stratford Magistrate's Court on Friday charged with leaving dead cattle on the banks of a creek, and of cruelty to animals in not having supplied the cattle with sufficient food. They pleaded guilty to the former and not guilty to the other charge. After evidence had been heard, the S.M. (Mr. Kenrick) said that consideration was always expected for dealers in respect of loss of cattle, because they picked up weak animals among their purchases; but if dealers did get weak beasts they were willed upon to make some provision for them. The case was one of gross negligence more than deliberate intention to he cruel to the animals. The case had to be considered from a public point of view. If there had been a typhoid epidemic half a dozen people might have dud as a result, and although they could not be claimed against, defendants would really be responsible for those deaths. If people on the land only looked at the possible serious consequences resulting from cattle being left in creeks, lie was sure they would decide in future to dispose of carcases as soon as possible. He did not like to impose a term of imprisonment on the charge of cruelty, but he saw no reason to impose less than the maximum tine provided. Buchanan would bo fined £•?() for cruelty and £.l for leaving the carcases. Meyenberg had been in a position to do something for the cattle, hut had failed to do so. [Te would be lined £2 10s on the charge of crueltv and £■> 10s on the charge of leaving the cantos Costs totalling £1 4s !)d were allowed against each defendant.— Post.