LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 126, 18 November 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The police have l>een unable to find any trace of the money stolen from the Mokau pilot station the other week. . .Messrs Wirth Bros, intimate that they will be visiting New Plymouth in the course of a few weeks with their circus and menagerie.

The Agricultural Society only want fine weather next Wednesday and Thursday to put up a record. The entries are simply rolling in and the secretary finds it very difficult to provide room for the numerous side shows that are coming.

It has been decided to celebrate the anniversary of the famous battle of Weraroa, fought near Waitotera, in 1803, by a re-union of the survivors at Wanganiii to-day. Of the sixty men that manned the redoubt during the attack, which lasted from three in the afternoon till after nine at night, scarcely a dozen are now living. The very unseasonable weather that 'we have been having lately culminated in a thunderstorm of unprecedented severity yesterday afternoon. The lightning was very vivid and the thunder claps were very loud, and came simultaneously with the lightning Hashes, showing the proximity of the storm. The rattle that followed the electrical discharges gave the impression that buildings were coming down in all directions. Fortunately, however, no damage has been reported, save that about 170 telephones were temporarily put out of action, mostly close to the sea along the South Road and at Fitzroy. AVith commendable promptitude the postal authorities soon had repairs uhder way, and in a very short time after the passage of the storm all were again in order.

The November issue of Progress is a Motor Number, a considerable portion of this instructive journal being devoted to articles and illustrations of subjects of vital interest to motorists generally. The new system of Thomas Electrical Transmission for petrol driven vehicles is explained for the iirst time in Xuw Zealand. This wonderful invention enable* one to handle a motor-car in the same manner as an electric life, starting, stopping, and reversing at all speeds by the simple pressure of one lever, backward or forward. There is also an able article on the commercial motor, by Mr G. Ham-ilton-Grapes. Improvements in various cars are noted and commented on. There is an interesting illustrated account of the Curtiss Hyrdo-aeroplane, the machine that runs on land and water, and can rise off either and fly in the air. The first aerial post is also illustrated, the aeroplane ready for the journey from Hendon to Windsor being shown with the mail bag attached.

'•Hello! what's the matter?" enquired one of our citizens of another as they stood at Kgmont street corner, watching the constant stream of people going into Bewley's office to make their entries for the Agricultural Show, which close on Saturday.

The .services in the YVhitcley Memorial Church to-morrow morning will be conducted by Rev. P, P. Kellow, and in the evening Rev. J. W. Burton will take as the subject of his Mirnion, "The Discipline of Thought."

The net profit on the Wellington Exhibition was £1225 18s 3d, of which sum £I2OO has, been placed on deposit at 4 per cent. At yesterday's meeting of the Harbor Board it was decided to send the Paritutu to Wellington to go on the patent slip for overhaul early in January. There is on view in Mr. Buttimore's 'window a freak rose which was grown at Fitzroy. The rose is an extraordinary apecimen. It is a small flower of very solid appearance and is growing directly ■out of the end of a branch which is almost half an inch in diameter.

About forty-five years ago a man named John Quale went to the Wakamarina diggings (Marlborough) and started prospecting on what is known as Quale's Terrace, lie is now being enquired tolas the heir to a sum of £320.000, which has been bequeathed to him or his relatives.

Next week will be a very eventful one for Taumarunui. Sir Joseph Ward arrives on the 21st inst, and opens the Otngarue bridge. On the 22nd he turns the first sod of the Stratford railway, at the Te Koura end, and speaks the same evening in the town. Mr. Massey (Leader of the Opposition) is expected on the following day. It has been decided to invite Sir James Carroll to accompany the Prime Minister. The proposal that the Government should buy out the natives' interests in the town will be laid before Sir Joseph Ward. The Ministers .will be entertained at a banquet or social.

Some time next month Maori electors in certain Maori Council districts will have an opportunity-—the first—of recording their vote at a licensing poll, the question to be determined being whether liquor shall be supplied to the natives in those districts or not. The poll will not affect the number of licensed houses. If the bare prohibition is carried, the effect will be that on the expiry of one month from the declaration of the result of the poll any person who, within the district, supplies liquor to a native, will be liable on summary conviction to a fine of £IOO. Licenses and licensed premises are not exempt. At Opunake on Tuesday evening the brethren of Lodge Ikaroa" met for the purpose of their annual installation and investiture of officers. E. W. Bro. T. C. Fookes (Provincial Grand Master) conducted the ceremony of installing W. Bro, W. L. F. Chambers as W.M., and the latter then invested his officers as follows.—l.P.M., W. Bro. C. Sorrensen; S.W., Bro. E. L. Thorpe; J.W., Bro. A. Clarke; treasurer and D.C., W. Bro. G. W. Rogers; secretary and organist, Bro. K. L. Cannell; S.D., Bro. D. Penwarden; J.D., Bro. C. Hurst; 1.G., Bro. T. Par:sons; S., Bro. W. J. Todd; chaplain, Bro. Rev. H. W. Klingender; Tyler, Bro. D. A. Mullen. There were visitors present from New Plymouth, Stratford, Eltham and Stratford. After the ceremony a. repast was partaken of, the usual toas't list and musical programme gone through.

Twenty years ago when the number of permits, to use the totalisator were far more numerous than they are now, the sum of £500,078 was passed through the machine by the public at 300 days' racing during twelve months. Last week, beginning on the Saturday and ending on the Saturday, at seven days' racing the sum of £215,718 was passed through at Riccarton and Addington alone. In 1801 the investments durin* three days' racing at the Canterbury Jockey Club's metropolitan nieetiu<* amounted to £50,321; in 1911 the investments during four days' racing at the corresponding meeting amounted to £137,389. In 1891 the investments during two days' trotting at Plumpton Park and Lancaster Park amounted to £6170; in 1911 the investments during three days' trotting at Addington amounted to

Among the different migratory birds which spend about half the year'in Xew Zealand, perhaps the most'notable are the shining cuckoo and the godwit. The former arrives in the Xprth Island with marked regularity about the mdddle of September and gradually travels southward. On Tuesday a shining cuckoo was observed at Xew Brighton, which seems to indicate (says the Christcluirch Press) that this feathered migrant has now reached these parts. A relative of the shining cuekoo the long-tailed cuckoo—which also visits Xew Zealand in the course of its migrations, is less regular in its dates, and some years appears to journey no further south than Australia. As far back as 1812 it was discovered that the shining cuckoo was migratory, and that it travelled across a thousand miles and more of ocean from Xew Caledonia and the islands of Melanesia in the Pacific. The two cuckoos spread over the Xew Zealand mainland, and continue eastwards in large numbers as far as the Chathams.

. A sensational allegation, according to a wire from Berlin, has been made by sister Henriette Arendt, until recently employed by the Stuttgart police, in looking after waifs and strays. She has been for some months in Berlin investigating, and, declares that she came upon traces of a well-organised traffic in children, who are sold abroad at prices ranging from Cl sto £SOO. These children, it is alleged, are sent in large numbers, notably to Paris foundling hospitals, where they are supported for some time- by the French nation, and then sold for various immoral purposes. Sister Arendt has discovered people in Berlin whose business it is to accept the care of children for these purposes. She complains that although she has made repeated representations to the police she has received no assistance from this quarter. Various societies interested in the protection of children have taken up the matter, and a thorough investigation will be carried out.

SALE OF MEN'S AND BOY'S CLOTHING. The Melbourne Clothing Company's great mill and factory sale offers unparalleled opportunities for buying men's and boy's clothing at prices very much less than ordinary. Since the inception of the sale last week many hundreds of garments, fresh from the leading mills and factories, have poured into our stores, replenishing our already huge stocks, and imparting a bright, crisp freshness to our goods which is unobtainable elsewhere. More important than all this is the remarkable lowness of price, together with the high quality of goods, a combination rarely, if ever, achieved by others. Here are striking instances of the wonderful savings we offer you. Boys' Norfolk washing suits, 3/11; boys' Kaiapoi tweed suits, sizes 7 to 12, 13/!) to 10/0; boys' splendid tweed Varsity suits, all wool. in nice shades of browns, greens and greys, 11/6, sizes 5 to 10 years;'men's dark tweed coats and vests", 17/0, splendidly tailored; men's Kaiapoi tweed suits, 2S/6, worth .35/-; men's natty worsted trousers, 7/11, in neat stripe designs; men's splendid Petone tweed suits, splendid- for knockabout wear, 35/-; men's superb tailor-made suits, special purchase of lovely worsteds and indigo "Bclwnrps." SD/H- stunning values in saddle-tweed trousers, strong and dark grey saddle trousers, 8/0; Eoslyn saddle trousers, fl/0; Petone and Kaiapoi dark grey saddle trousers, 10/0; Oamaru saddle trousers, 13/6, best value in the Dominion.—Advt.

A lucky Waitara railwayman is reported to have drawn £IBOO in a recent Tattersall's sweep. In modern ocean giants the funnel prepares to follow the abandoned mast. The first funnel less ship—a Hamburg-Ameri-can liner of (1500 tons—is already afloat, the second is under war, ami the third is being planned. This new type of vessel is driven, like the motor-boat, by internal combustion engines. Her fuel is petroleum, and it is utilised by spraying it into condensed air and exploding the mixture in heavy cylinders." The spraying, as in the case of an automobile engine, is done automatically, and so there is no need for firemen.

A remarkable story was told at the Criminal Court, Sydney, last week, by •lames lien ton, an elderly man, who pleaded guilty to having committed bigamy at Ccelo'ng on March 24, 1010. Prisoner said that two years ago he was washed out to sea. lie was in the water for sixteen hours, when somebody picked him up. A coroner's cmjuiry was, however, held upon the body; it was believed that the prisoner was dead, and a certificate of death was issued. Prisoner appeared to think that because ho liad, by mistake, been deemed to be dead, the peculiar circumstances gave him the right to marry again, fie now put tliat forward as an excuse for having committed bigamy. Prisoner was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment.