LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 136, 30 November 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

'The whisky trade in Scotland s not w)iat it used to be. The extreme depression now prevailing is evidenced by the recent sale of the Speyside Distillery, Kingussie, for £750. The distillery was "built in IS!)5, at a cost of about £'22,000. Some picnickers on Rangitoto Island, Auckland, who knocked a few oysters oft' the rocks and ate them, were fined £1 and costs. The prosecutor explained that it was well for the public to know that the maximum penalty for this offence was £ TO. .The directors of the Tairanaki Potroletim Company are holding an informal luncheon to-morrow in honor of the return of Mr. C. darter, chairman of directors, and the visit of Mr. Brown, chairman of the British. Empire Oilfield-, who arrive 'in New Plymouth from England to-night. ■Efforts of the Duke of Sutherland to develop gold mining on the banks of SnisgaJl Burn, near Kildonan, Scotland, recalls that back in the twelfth century • gold mining was carried on to some extent in North Britain. It is a matter of history that in liGflt) Queen Elizabeth was presented with a porringer made of the precious metal found in Scotland. In building a new bridge over the Kentucky river, about 112 miles south of Cincinatti, a difficult engineering problem arose. It was necessary to build a new bridge to accommodato the heavy trains of the present day. but no part of the new structure could be supported on the old spans or towers, yet they must occupy the same positions,'be completely erected without disturbing the old bridge, and be ready for service without interrupting the train service. The new spans and towers, although no longer than the old ones, were broader and deeper, so as to entirely enclose the old structure. The new spans carry the railroad trains on top, but are so much deeper that there is room under the new tracks for the trains to run on the old spans. "Uncanny Country" is the very apt [ title given l>v Miss 15. 15. Banghan, (he well-known New Zealand poet, to her second brochure of New Zealand's beauty spots. The booklet, is a gooil companion- to Miss Baughan's previous shilling brochure. "The Finest Walk in the World"; but this lime she goes from the extreme south to the. extreme north—the thermal region--for her subject. She treats a. familiar subject in a very readable style, with the result that when New Zealanders are looking for something essentially and peculiarly Maorilandish to send Home they will welcome "Uncanny- Country" as just the thing. It is bear.til'nll illustraied. in an attractive cover, and is published bv Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs (Cliristcluirch). We recommend Eoslvn suits for style and lasting wear; from 32s 6d. All dothiers.—Advt.

"As slow us molassess" is a saving that apparently does not apply to the New Orleans brand of syrup. A reservoir of molasses recently burst in that city, and before it could be controlled it bad spread to a distance of a third of a mile, involving the loss of a million gallons, valued at 100,000 dol. Men and women, overtaken in tin? streets, were rescued with difficulty from the rapidly (lowing saccharine maw, which at one point was fifteen feet deep.

"New Zealand mutton imported into Britain is so good that it «m b;>. sold as the locally grown article," states a Tara-Twki-ite just returned from a visit to the Old Country. "'But its reputation is spoilt by the inferior .frozen meat of Argentina being palmed off as prime New Zealand. If people could be assured of getting the pure New Zealand article when they ask for it, there should be <in increased demand and an increased sale, but the present methods will need to be altered .first."

Some little time ago the Wairoa (Hawire's Bay) Harbor Board raised the stun of £BO,OOO for harbor improvement works. These works consist of the erection of two long nibble and concrete training-walls for the confinement of the river within limits, the building of which will] alter the location of the entrance, and, it is calculated, will ensure a scour that will keep it navigable at all times for the vessds- trading to the port. The work is of considerable magnitude. On the western side of the .river the wall (18 feet in width) will ,be 1020 feet in length (including 1340 feet of close piling), and on the eastern side 2000 feet (including COO feet of close piling). Tenders for this work close to-day. A Taranaki gentleman who has just returned from a trip to the Old Country records a peculiar incident that happened on the boat. An old sea captain, long ago retired, was relating his experiences in the Australian waters in the fifties, and mentioned how on one occasion when his ship was becalmed the sailors kept leaping overboard, swimming round the ship and climbing up again. The practice became so popular that very soon all hands were more often in the sea in the day time than on the ship, so he issued orders that the swimming would hajve to stop and in case of disobedience of his order he would place the offenders in irons. But there was one dare-devil who took no notice of the instructions, and jumped overboard in defiance of the captain, who accordingly had him placed jn irons. "Do you mean to say that you were so cruel as to iron a man, lor that?" asked one of those gathered round the old salt. "Yes," he said, "I did. That was the only way of keeping discipline m those days." Then from the bade of the little coterie stepped forward an elderly gentleman. He said: "That is right, because I was that very same sailor! It was so, as mutual explanations following showed. They had noti met for more than sixty years. Fact! According to a London paper, all the indications show that this year's epidemic of influenza in England is unusually severe. Although the deaths at latest advices were not above the averago for the season (three m the week ending September 30, nine in the following week, and fourteen the next week), the suddenness with which the victims are assailed and the noticeable tendency of the disease to undermine the heart's action are not encouraging signs. "When heart depression is the outstanding symptom of attacks, as is the case this year," a West End physician said, 'tho public should remember that influenza, even in its mildest form, is a very dangerous disease. The only safe rule is to go to bed at once and give yourself up .wholly to fighting the disease at the outset. When the heart is struggling against a virulent poison like the influenza toxin it must be relieved from all unnecessary fatigue. Therefore, stay in bed. at any rate until every tipiee of fever has passed off. To relieve the sometimes terrifying irregularity of ' the heart-beat five drops of sal volatile I in a little hot milk often act like a charm. But if the patient sets aside all business or other worries, keeps quiet i?i bed, and rests the digestive organs, as well as the heart, by keeping to a light milk diet for forty-e'iglit hours after the onset of the attack, few medicines are needed. It is only when the patient refuses to acknowledge that he is ill and insists on g(iing about his business or down to the office that serious heart trouble need be apprehended in an otherwise healthy adult."